Bullying Program Free Essays

The issue of conflict and violence in the school is of considerable importance to students, staff, parents, school administrators, school district administrators and the community at large. By being aware of the behaviors, the communication, and the philosophical perspective a particular school adopts, these stakeholders can appreciate and understand the overall school culture that they create. Within the context of this culture, interactions occur and the potential for conflicts exists. We will write a custom essay sample on Bullying Program or any similar topic only for you Order Now The chosen community can be described in many ways. There are old buildings that look run down and there are new buildings in the neighborhood. There are restaurants around like the big daddy’s restaurant, spiro’s restaurant and baxter’s restaurant. The area has changed because new homes and town houses are being built in the community. The city of Norfolk have changed the names of some of the school who had the name park for example Richard Bowling Elementary school used to be call Bowling park elementary school. The reason behind this name change is that most of the areas around these schools that had the name park in them were populated by lower income people. When the city of Norfolk started rebuilding these neighborhoods with diverse incomes, the names of the schools were changed also to meet the rebuilding of the area. Most of the people in the community have lived in this area for their whole life. This community is a diverse community so there are young, old, homeless, people who are single and people who have a families. Most of the population is African American making up 97% of the community, 2% of the community is Hispanics and Caucasians. 1% of the community is of another origin. In the community there weren’t any mosques and temples. In a three miles radius from Richard Bowling Elementary school there were three Baptist churches like the Unity Lutheran church, Temple of God, and St. Mary Pentecostal. So, the overall theme was that the culture was a positive, caring, and consistent environment. The community generally is a group who were committed to setting up a culture that was a safe, positive environment for the students. III. Subsystems The community around the school looks nice. There are new homes being built. There are still a few building that look run down and but for the most part they are trying to make the area around school look good. Across the street from the school there are mixers of homes being built which include town homes and houses. These same mixers of homes are being built in the back of the school too. There are health and social services available in the community. One shelter where most homeless people go is called the Union Mission. At the Union Mission they can only accept a certain amount of homeless people because they are limited on the amount of space provided to the homeless. The Salvation Army and habitat for humanity helps the homeless by giving them clothes for interviews. In the School there aren’t any homeless children who attend the school. Most of the families in the community go to the hospital id they have any problems with their health. In the community there are three clinics in the area called New Walk and Hunterville community center, and Parkplace community center. These clinics are limited on what they can offer the community and resources. At this clinic they see a variety of people from pregnant women to people with diabetes. Most of the people who are sick go to the emergency room because there are more hospitals in the area then local clinics. Some of the hospitals in the area include Norfolk General Hospital, Sentara Leigh Hospital and Depaul Hospital. The home health agency that is most common in the community is provided by the Sentara hospitals. In the area around the school there is only one nursing home called Norfolk Healthcare. There are resources outside the community such as WIC, Medicaid, and Famis from social services. Most of the resources can be accessible to the community by the health department. The health department makes these resources available but it is up to the community if the take advantage of these resources. Hence, this community seems like more of a thriving community because of the reconstruction they are doing with the neighborhoods and renaming the schools. Also, people in the community shop at the common stores such as Wal-Mart, Farm Fresh, Food Lion and the Spartan Market. Most of the people in the community use a variety of ways to travel such as bus, cabs, Hampton roads transit, walk, and a few ride their bike. 90% of the children in the school ride the bus and the other 10% of the children walk to school because they live close to the school. There are sidewalks that they can use in going to school but there aren’t any bike trails. There are also private transportation that is available to the community like personal vehicles. The public transportation that is available to the community include: buses, taxes and Hampton roads transit. There are also protective services that are available to the community are police, fire department and sanitation. But still there are crimes committed like robbery, thief, murders, stealing, and people doing and selling drugs. But in general, most of the people in the community feel safe because they have lived here so long that they have learn to adapt to the neighborhoods. Various forms of communication, formal and informal is also available like the door to door, email, and cell phones. There are also news papers such as Virginia pilot, apartment guides, trade post, USA today, and magazines. Most people also have TVs and radios. Most of them like to watch cartoons, music videos, sports, and realty shows. During the summer the children play at the park and basketball courts. In the winter time the children go to other recreation activities such at skating or boys and girls club. Their major forms of recreation are basketball, football, and cheer dancing. Parents may sponsor and participate in events their children are in. Other recreations are the boys and girls club, Skating rings, but most of the children in the area participates in school activities. IV. Perceptions Most of the people love this community and refuse to leave it. The only thing they would like is for their community to be more diverse. Most residents find their community`s strength is their older people. They considered the older people as the strength in the community because they have been in the community the longest and seen the way things use to be. They are the people who stand their ground and enforce change. Problems in the community that can be identified are gang violence, violence in general, discipline from parents, and obeying the city of Norfolk curfew regulations. V. Project The researcher is interested in selecting the elementary school in this community as I see that it has a positive reputation. The selected school was suggested through an extensive consultative process involving the principal of various elementary schools who were aware of the reputation of their feeder schools. Also used as criteria for the selection of the school was the responses that were collected from the community dwellers during the community assessment process. Insight and guidance were also sought from specialized personnel in the district`s central office who worked in the elementary school as their major role in their job description. The researcher then visited the school. The school was old, constructed of brick. The student population was approximately 200. It was located in a low to medium socio-economic area, as determined by the perceptions of the respondents. The researcher visited the school principal where she discussed the proposed program, the method of conducting the program. The principal of this school expressed enthusiasm for the proposed program and offered to take this idea to the staff. The response from the staff was overwhelmingly positive and the entire staff agreed verbally to be involved. It is believed, by the researcher, that this particular staff was proud of the school they worked at and subsequently were interested in further insights. The proposed program is a modification of the â€Å"Bully Proofing Your School† program developed by Garrity and her colleagues (1997), which , in turn, was modeled after Olweu`s core intervention program (1978). This program is unique in its emphasis on clinical support to victims and bullies in the form of individual and group counseling, as well as its collaboration with community services. The major goals of this program are to reduce bullying behaviors and create safe and secure school environments. The main components include the following: 1. VI. References Garrity, C. , Jens, K. , Porter, W. , Sager, N. , Short-Camili, C. (1997). Bully proofing your school. Longmont, CO: Sopris West. Olweus, D. (1978). Aggression in the schools: Bullies and whipping boys. Washington, DC: Hemisphere (Wiley). How to cite Bullying Program, Papers

Strategic Organizational Change the Role of Essay Example For Students

Strategic Organizational Change: the Role of Essay Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Steven H. Appelbaum Faculty of Commerce and Administration, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Normand St-Pierre Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada William Glavas Pratt and Whitney Canada, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Presents an overview of strategic organizational change (SOC) and its managerial impact on leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. Theoretical and empirical data presented are: the sources and determinants of strategic organizational change; the management implications of SOC; organizational leadership within the context of SOC; learning aspects of SOC; the impact of SOC on organizational and individual productivity; a model that explains the relationships between SOC, leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. Depicts strategic organizational change as an integrative process with all organizational elements such as human resources, systems and technologies being considered for successful change to occur. The proposed model for strategic organizational change is an attempt to link the software and hardware components of organizations. In view of the pressures being expected from the external environment and the critical vision of organizations, research suggests that top management needs to establish a ? exible and adaptive infrastructure that should lead contemporary and complex organizations to optimum levels of performance. The largest barrier to â€Å"change† is not changes to technologies and work processes but changes involving people. Introduction For centuries philosophers have struggled with definitions of â€Å"change†, †¦To the ancient Greeks†¦ tampering with the basic character of things – was, if not actually blasphemy, a sure path to disaster †¦ In modern Western culture, â€Å"change† is a more malleable notion, a means to bend fate to one’s ends†¦ (Kanter et al. , 1992). Critical determinants of organizational success and failure The features of organizations that make for success are not always the same ones that lead to failure. Based on reports generated by professional consultants, it is possible to identify the speci? c factors that contribute ost to success and failure. It is also possible to classify these factors as primarily environmental, structural, or management-oriented (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). Although a successful organization need not possess all of the positive attributes, most successful organizations show more positive than negative attributes. S uccessful organizations tend to focus on customers and their needs. They invest in ways to improve sales and provide superior service to clients, and they do not forget that their customers and their customers’ needs underlie their organization’s existence. Successful organizations also adapt their structures to the needs of their missions. At the department level, controls may be simultaneously loose, in that managers have autonomy, and tight, insofar as speci? c performance goals may be set. Highly successful organizations often maintain a simple but appropriate structure that employs an adequate number of staff; they avoid empire building and padding with surplus staff. Also, entrepreneurship is encouraged within the divisions of the organization by rewarding successful innovation and encouraging risk taking (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). A major management feature that can lead to success is a deliberate bias toward implementing solutions to problems. Management discourages â€Å"paralysis through analysis† of alternatives, and, instead, emphasizes satis? cing action that ensures goal attainment. Another management feature in successful ? rms is a commitment to the organization’s original arena of expertise. This is called â€Å"sticking to one’s knitting†. It involves staying close to what the organization knows how Management Decision 36/5 289–301  © MCB University Press In today’s turbulent environment of organizations, change has become synonymous with standard business practices as longterm organizational ends have to be reformulated on an ongoing basis. With this in mind, this article will present a conceptual framework of the various elements of organizational change in order to obtain a better understanding of the management of organizations. As such, the purpose of this article is to present an overview of strategic organizational change (SOC) and its managerial impact upon leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. The remainder of this article will be divided in six parts: the sources and determinants of strategic organizational change; a discussion of the management implications of SOC will be undertaken; organizational leadership will be addressed within the context of SOC; learning aspects of SOC will be described; the impact of SOC on organizational and individual productivity will be highlighted; finally, an attempt to develop a model that explains the relationships between SOC, leadership, learning, motivation and productivity will be presented. The discussion on strategic organizational change will be concluded by suggesting a need to develop more comprehensive models to study the impact of change on organizations. The following section of the article will identify the critical determinants of organizational success and failure which are significant in understanding how strategic organizational change may be managed more effectively, thus avoiding potential pitfalls. Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 o do best and not being led down different paths in pursuit of attractive but uncertain alternative product lines. Successful organizations also tend to stress a single value, such as delivering a quality product, reducing the cost of services to customers, or concern for each customer’s unique need. By emphasizing a single dominant value in its promotional mater ials and in its training of employees, the organization establishes a useful, distinct reputation for excellence in a speci? c area. Finally managers in successful companies often try to improve performance by achieving the agreement or consensus of employees. Thus, managers and workers may work together to set mutually agreeable performance goals. Employee suggestions are actively sought and a positive work-group spirit, which will serve as a basis for enhanced motivation, is encouraged (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). Different factors in an organization’s environment, structure, and management may also lead to its failure. Among the environmental factors, change in technology are a major cause of organizational failure. Technological innovations by competitors, as well as innovations that cannot be implemented within the organization itself, can lead to lost business. Two forms of dependency – dependency on suppliers and dependency on a single customer – can also create problems. Difficulties in obtaining raw materials and ? nancing from other institutions can prove fatal for an organization in a competitive environment. In addition, a customer who realizes that another organization is highly dependent on its business may use its resulting power to drive down prices or extract greater concessions by threatening to take its business elsewhere. In terms of structure, inadequate control mechanisms may contribute to failure. For example, an organization may lack devices for sensing when changes occur that need to be corrected. As a result, product quality may suffer or change in employee or customer satisfaction levels may be ignored (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). Management factors may also contribute to failure. Courageous and decisive leadership can inspire an organization to overcome difficult situations or take quick action. In contrast, a tendency to overanalyze data or to take a â€Å"wait-and-see† attitude may cause a ? rm to lose ground to competitors and may exacerbate internal problems. The kinds of expertise that enable a young organization to thrive may become outdated as an organization matures. The need for professional managers to aid, or replace, the founding group may go unrecognized, and the importance of hiring new talent to revitalize the innovative process may be ignored. Con? ict can lead to serious dysfunction if it is not well managed. Con? icting groups often suboptimize or set their own goals for political and personal gain ahead of organizational goals. For this reason, con? ict should be managed to ensure that it remains in desired forms and at desired levels. Success and failure factors are not evenly distributed across the three major sources. For example, more environmental factors may contribute to failure than to success. Conversely, more structural factors are potential sources of success than of failure. And an almost equal number of management factors seem to lead to both success and failure. This analysis, albeit simplistic, suggests a useful insight: Environmental factors are more likely to pose potential threats to an organization’s well-being, while structural factors are an organization’s major means of achieving success or, at least, coping with threats. It almost goes without saying that management-related factors are potential sources of both organizational success and organizational failure (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). The origins of strategic organizational change will be the next focus of this article. Conceptual framework of strategic organizational change In order to de? ne organizational change, one has to be able to appreciate the historical antecedents that brought about the current environment with which business ? rms have to negotiate. After the Second World War, there was a drive to improve efficiency Organizational . heorists followed into the footsteps of Frederick Taylor in their attempts to de? ne organizational effectiveness in terms of a scienti? c approach to the management of organizations. â€Å"This closed system approach (where the environment was ignored) resulted in control-oriented organizations with complex structures and simple, routine, monotonous tasks† (Volberda, 1992). This approach to the m anagement of organizations dehumanized the nature of work and subsequently favored the emergence of the human relations approach to the management of organizations. As Adam Smith and Karl Marx pointed out the â€Å"†¦simpli? cation of work processes beyond a certain point could have diminishing returns and produce Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 feelings of alienation of workers† (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). In the 1970s the market place demanded quality in products and services. Organizations had to distinguish themselves from their competition through excellence as markets opened up and competition became ? erce. In today’s environment, the ability of organizations to respond to micromarkets’ demands, where choice to the consumer is preponderant, will depend on their ability to be flexible. â€Å"The transitory nature of †¦ market demands is an important reason that flexibility †¦ ought to be a defining characteristic of organizational effectiveness† (Volberda, 1992). Therefore, from an organizational perspective flexibility can be defined as the ability to react to change. This section will also address conceptual origins and framework of change, internal and external determinants of change and directed/non-directed change. Like the ancient Greek philosophers, contemporary theoreticians do not agree on what â€Å"is† change. Instead of de? ning change as a transformation from one state to another, which would be logically circuitous, this article is intended to depict the characteristics of its manifestations in order to develop a framework for further discussion. Strategic organizational change will be referred to as a ? xible strategic planning process as opposed to a static form of strategic planning. Because organizational change has become an integral part of the planning and formulation of organizational strategies, the classical strategic planning model just presented where planning came before formulation does not apply anymore: In a turbulent environment strategic programs are insufficient and have to be complemented with strategic issu e (or change) management or even contingency planning. (†¦) If these programs and issues have to be revised too often, contingency planning is more suitable (Volberda, 1992). an either originate from the external environment such as changes in competitors’ actions, government regulations, economic conditions and technological advances. Organizations †¦ take inputs from the environment (e. g. suppliers), transforms some of these inputs, and send them back into the environment as outputs ( e. g. products) (Johns, 1983). Change can also originate from within an organization. These changes could be new corporate vision and mission, the purchase of new technology, mergers and acquisitions and the decline in the morale of the company. Consequently, among the most common and in? uential forces of organizational change are the emergence of new competitors, innovations in technology, new company leadership, and evolving attitudes towards work (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). Strategic organizational change could be undertaken in either a reactive or proactive manner. In other words, management could either foresee the necessity for change and undertake the necessary steps to adjust their organization to meet the impending pressures of the environment. Or, management could resist change and be forced into an organizational transformation in order to survive. Directed change is intentional and consciously initiated, managed, and evaluated in relation to (organizations’) current and strategic objectives (Felkins et al. , 1993). Other authors have suggested that organizational change can be a continuous and evolving process encompassing: â€Å"approaches which view organizational change as an emergent phenomenon and the result of the interplay of history, economics, politics, business sector characteristics† (Wilson, 1992). Strategic organizational change and its management implications In light of all the different approaches to organizational change, we would like to point out a common thread that runs across all of them. In doing so, it is necessary to draw a parallel to the work of Frederick Taylor in the early 1900s and the emerging theories being espoused by contemporary theoreticians and practitioners of these SOC efforts: The apparent re-emergence of certainty, and the process of management as a science, reminiscent of Taylor’s (1911) â€Å"one best way† of organizing. Today this certainty has arisen in a different guise from the original studies of scientific management. In place of Taylor’s various It can therefore be suggested that strategic organizational change encompass ongoing initiatives that are directed from the top to the bottom of the organization and has a profound effect on the depth of the change effort. Examples of SOCs could involve organizational transformations from mass production to lean production, the adoption of advance manufacturing technologies and the implementation of total quality management systems. Strategic organizational change can emanate from two different sources: change Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 efficiency-based routines, the â€Å"one best way† now proposed lies along more structural and cultural lines. The favored model propounded by many business schools as practiced in many large companies is that of the decentralized structure coupled with a task or project based culture. This requires managers to work increasingly in multi-disciplinary teams; to become generalists as well as functional specialists; and to develop a set of competencies as skills (Wilson, 1992). The above proposition does provide a serious warning to today’s managers of organizational transformations: There is no â€Å"best† approach to strategic organizational change and effort should be undertaken to develop contingency or adaptive strategic planning models to organizational change. Whether one adopts a proactive or a reactive approach to strategic organizational change, critical managerial variables have to be assessed in order to implement the proposed change. It has been suggested that some key management change variables should include goals and strategies, technologies, job design, organizational structure, and people (Johns, 1983). Other authors have argued that the management variables to be changed fall into so-called intervention strategies that assist the manager to implement the appropriate organizational change (Robbins, 1983). These strategies will be described in the â€Å"strategic organizational change process† section of this article. This section will illuminate vision, design/technology, management practices and organization culture, the SOC process and resistance to SOC. management may impede the change process (Felkins et al. , 1993). Others have proposed that strategic change and goal setting will be influenced by how a decision maker perceives issues related to the change strategy †¦ Through the combined effects of perceived attributes of an issue (magnitude, abstractiveness, simplicity, immediacy) and the political foundation of an issue (personal stake), goal setting will become part of an agenda-building process that will foster organizational change (Dutton, 1988). Leadership will affect how decision makers will pursue this agenda building process as discussed in the leadership section of this article. Organizational design and technology Organizational design consists of the decisions about †¦ formal structures, processes, systems, roles and relationships (Walton and Nadler, 1994). More speci? cally, the characteristics which will be affected by a change in the organization’s mission and strategy will encompass the organizational form (functional, divisional, matrix), the grouping of business units (function, product/service, target market), hierarchical levels (many, few), planning and control systems, job specialization, training and education programs, degree of centralization, delegation and participation (Volberda, 1992). The degree to which the above organizational design variables are responsive to the change of an organization’s strategic objectives will re? ect the ? exibility of the structural design. For the management of organizations, the success of organizational change †¦ depends on the extent to which every aspect of the system (design) – formal structure, information ? ows, rewards, recruitment, etc. – support the new de? nition of what the organization is to be and how it is to operate Organizational vision: goals and strategies Although there is much talk about vision, mission, goals, and so on in most organizations, in too many those issues are not adequately articulated. An organization needs to understand the strength of its internal capabilities to properly communicate a vision and mission to its employees. The evolution of an organization’s leadership skills (e. g. technocratic versus â€Å"intrapreneurial†), training programs and investment capabilities will determine how the latter will set its goals and strategies. The degree to which management sets goals and strategies to change the organization is contingent upon the organization’s historical goal setting process success in implementing changes (i. e. learning from past mistakes). Unrealized past goals, poor communication to lower levels of management, lack of commitment from top (Kanter et al. , 1992). A new organizational design needs to be supported by appropriate technologies. A change readiness assessment should illuminate the factors that affect on an every day basis and how people use the technology in their job (Trahant and Burke, 1996). The change readiness assessment will highlight the extent to which people in the organization are ready to adopt and use the new technology and will determine the magnitude of the change efforts needed. According to other researchers: productivity bene? ts derived from the incorporation of routine tasks into advance manufacturing technologies †¦ effectively intensi? es the complexity in the remaining jobs Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 ecause the production hardware, its software, and their maintenance impose more complex technical requirements than most earlier production technologies†¦ (Zammuto and O’Conner, 1992). Therefore, the change readiness assessment may help identify people who lack necessary skills to evolve in the new organization. By technology we are referring to: (1) hardware (like machinery and equipment) and the software (knowledge, techniques and skills) used in the transformation of material or informational inputs into various outputs (either goods or services) as well as (2) the con? guration of the hardware and software (Volberda, 1992). discipline, socialization, tolerance for ambiguity) and its external orientation (focus, planning attitude – from short-term to longterm) (Volberda, 1992). The extent to which these organizational cultural elements can assist managers in implementing strategic organizational change will explain their potential to contribute to the organization’s success. It has been suggested that organizations try to establish a link between the above cultural elements and some critical success factors such as continuous improvement, customer service orientation, cost consciousness, quality, teamwork and people oriented (Rogers and Byham, 1994). Effects of the Constitution Bill of Rights and Dec EssayMotivation, productivity and strategic organizational change This ? nal section of the article will discuss vision, performance management systems and technology and the linkage between motivation, performance and culture. To implement a new organizational vision and strategic organizational change, it has been suggested that organizations should Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 undergo transformational change. By transformational (change) we mean areas in which alteration is likely caused by interaction with environmental forces and will require entirely new behavior sets from organizational members (Burke and Litwin, 1992). For senior teams of organizations, it will require the following of decision strategies that will lead to superior organizational performance. Such strategies might involve creating value by introducing new products, penetrating new markets, introducing ? exible manufacturing capabilities and implementing activity-based costing within a new management control system framework. The basic idea behind strategic organizational change is to provide a clear focus and to help establish the gaps in performance and the areas greatest concern and opportunity for change management (Felkins et al. , 1993). The success of strategic organizational change will in turn be measured by improving key strategic organizational variables such as market shares, sales volume, earnings per share, stock price, cost reduction and stakeholders (i. e. suppliers, customers, public at large, etc. ) satisfaction. Motivation, performance and organizational culture The rules and principles governing how people accomplish their jobs in an organization can have profound impact on the latter’s ability to introduce any type of strategic organizational change. As was stated earlier, the biggest challenge for management is to have their change initiatives supported by the employees of the organization. These change initiatives are likely to encounter serious resistance from various levels in the organization, and especially middle management. This has already been addressed in a prior discussion. At the individual level, it has been argued that the organization members’ willingness to buy into a culture of change can be facilitated by applying the principles of behavior modi? cation. These principles, derived from operant conditioning concepts, are not applicable to all behavior modi? cation attempts. In designing jobs, organizations have to assess individuals’ capabilities to adapt to change. For example, it has been advanced that the degree to which individuals will translate organizational change initiatives into higher performance achievement (BM) is related to their â€Å"locus† of control. Since internally oriented individuals (internal â€Å"locus†) believe that their own actions determine outcomes, internals are more likely to take an active posture with respect to their environment. Externals (external locus), in contrast, may adopt a passive role (Kren, 1992). The ability of any organization to motivate individuals, whether they have an external or internal locus of control, to superior levels of performance is closely related to their reward systems. Therefore, strategic organizational change efforts must ascertain that different types of rewards are offered to employees who might have quite a different attitude set towards organizational change. Although it has been suggested that ideal organizational climate would provide opportunities for independence, recognition, and responsibilities (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995), some employees’ performance under an organizational change environment might still be motivated by extrinsic job satisfaction factors (e. g. pay, job security, fringe bene? ts, working conditions, explicit working rules, etc). As pointed out earlier in this section, individuals need control over the job attributes (intrinsic or extrinsic) that will determine how successful they are at reaching their performance objectives. A careful assessment of an individual’s ability to control Performance management system and technology The importance of control systems in organizational design has been highlighted earlier in this article. As such, performance management systems are being introduced in order to monitor the performance of implemented transformational activities in the organization. In a performance management system, strategic initiatives (are) broken into clearly de? ned accountabilities and responsibilities and then integrated into the performance objective of all employees who are responsible for turning them into actions (Rogers and Byham, 1994). For transformational change to occur, every employee in the organization needs to know what his/her responsibilities are, how his/her performance is to be evaluated and how his/her performance will be monitored against a predetermined set of goals. At the organizational level, performance improvement will occur when management provides the entire work force with all the necessary training and technical infrastructure to support the transformational change initiatives . All is needed for (strategic organizational) change is to determine the right training program, technology (requirements) and the appropriate incentives for each situations (Felkins et al. , 1993). Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 hort-versus long-term performance, risk taking versus risk aversion, division performance versus total (organizational) performance, maximizing return on investment versus sales growth, and so on is requested (Lawler, 1994). This article has examined and discussed the following: †¢ sources of strategic organizational change (SOC); †¢ SOC and management implications; à ¢â‚¬ ¢ leadership and SOC; †¢ learning and SOC; †¢ motivation, productivity and SOC. At this juncture, the development of a proposed SOC model will be presented for potential application. Conclusion: a proposed model for strategic organizational change The quest to develop a model of strategic organizational change has resulted in the selection of elements from Burke and Litwin’s (1992) â€Å"Causal model of organizational change† and Robbins’ (1993) â€Å"Model of planned organizational change†. The Robbins’ model depicted the â€Å"how† of organizational change while Burke and Litwin’s causal model presented the â€Å"what† of organizational change elements. An objective is to represent vision and strategy as organizational elements because of the importance that is placed on these in organizational theory and practice. In addition, it was decided not to represent the relationships between organizational elements in a matrixlike causal framework because similar to Burke and Litwin, that reality is much more complex than most, if not all, models can depict (Burke and Litwin, 1992). Furthermore, it was also decided that a model is needed that was relatively easy to understand for people who are required to manage change. On the pages to follow, a description is made of how the external environmental pressures and the vision of top management initiate a change process which affects the goals of the organization, its design, technology, culture, management practices, task skills and resistance to change; all topics covered in this article. Subsequently, the change process interaction with organizational leadership and learning is presented with the ultimate impact on individual and organizational performance. All of this is re? ected in the model presented (Figure 1). The strategic organizational change process was depicted earlier in this article as an organizational development underpinning and outcome. In discussing organizational change and strategies to manage it effectively, the success of organization development (OD) needs to be re-addressed in order to fully comprehend and appreciate the proposed model. A critical question to grapple with is does OD work? Despite difficulty of measuring the effects of OD efforts, it is possible to draw some tentative conclusions about the general value of OD in enhancing organizational effectiveness. In their examination of 35 studies, Porras and Berg (1978) sorted the obtained results into outcome variables and process variables. Outcome variables refer to measures of productivity, efficiency, absenteeism, pro? ts, and so on (relatively â€Å"hard† measures), while process variables refer to measures of trust, perceptions of leadership, motivation, and decision making (relatively â€Å"soft† measures). In addition, they further divided their sample of studies into categories based on whether the OD efforts were directed at groups, organizations, individuals, or leaders. Their analyses of these studies suggested that group outcome variables (e. . group productivity) were most likely to be enhanced following OD interventions. Individual process variables also showed relatively positive improvement (e. g. individual job satisfaction increased in roughly 40 percent of the OD studies in which it was measured) (Porras and Berg, 1978). A further analysis was made of these studies in terms of the impact of various OD procedures. By and large, Porras and Berg (1978) observed that the most common OD techniques, such as team building and survey feedback, were reported to have positive effects, while T-groups were somewhat less effective. Porras and Berg (1978) also observed that OD efforts that used four or more techniques (the eclectic approach) were likely to produce more meaningful change. This suggests that a multifaceted approach to achieving organizational change is most appropriate. In addition, they noted that interventions lasting at least six days had superior results, with maximum bene? ts being reported when the duration was between ten and twenty days. This suggests that OD efforts should be neither too brief nor too extended. Despite the methodological shortcomings of many of the studies that Porras and Berg examined and the tendency of OD specialists to report their results in the most positive light (OD failures are less frequently written up), these results suggest that the efforts are usually effective. As Porras and Berg’s (1978) Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 Figure 1 Strategic organizational change model Feedback External Environment Organization Vision Strategy Determinants of Change Feedback SOC Initiative Change Agents *Directed undirected Change agent(s) SOC initiatior Change Process *Unfreeze/Change/Refreeze *Organizational Behavior Process (Behavior Modification) Change Process *Organization Goals *Organizational Design *Technology *Organizational Culture *Management Practices *Resistance to Change *Training, Tasks Skills Leadership Top and Middle Management Motivation Learning Inter-Networked Organizational Elements Affected Feedback Individual Organizational Performance Source: Adapted From Burke Litwin (1992), Robbins (1993). analysis suggests, the precise nature of OD’s impact will depend on the type of technique, its duration, and the measure chosen to evaluate the intervention (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). Although Porras and Berg’s review points to many positive conclusions, the value of OD as commonly conducted is often questioned by both managers and behavioral scientists. Some of this criticism derives from a healthy skepticism on the part of managers and behavioral scientists. However, other factors can partially account for this criticism. First of all, OD is not a panacea for every difficulty an organization may face. Its successful use requires skill and expertise, and it is most applicable to interpersonal problems. When used by nonexperts and applied to inappropriate situations, OD cannot be expected to succeed. Users may also be disappointed to find that OD often does not live up to its stated ideal as described in articles and texts, but the flaw may be traceable to the users’ approach. For example, OD is often performed at the lower levels of an organization, following top management’s endorsement. The attitude that OD is a task to be delegated to lower-level managers is likely to minimize the impact of most such programs. Yet high levels of participation, support and concern for OD efforts from top-level management are fairly rare. As discussed earlier, resistance to change is a signi? cant obstacle to OD efforts. While resistance on the individual level may be Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 anageable, more difficult challenges arise when resistance stems from the total organizational system and its need to cope with its external environment. The external environment, of course, cannot be meaningfully changed by most OD efforts – and OD efforts are rarely intended to make such changes. Therefore, this larger constraint limits the progress that is possible within the organization (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). In the future, organizations may need to rely more heavily on the services of OD specialists as they are forced to undergo planned change. This need for managed change will result from a variety of emerging forces. Rapid changes in technology, for example, will require organizations to adjust their structure and processes. Also, the environment for many organizations will become more turbulent and uncertain. Contributing to this pressure will be an increasingly global business environment and a shrinking qualified labor pool (caused by both a â€Å"baby bust† and a struggling educational system). All of these forces will require organizations to be more flexible and responsive. The ability to effectively implement planned change will be of great importance in the years to come (Vecchio and Appelbaum, 1995). In conclusion, it is critical to depict strategic organizational change as an integrative process, and all organizational elements, the soft (human resources) and the hard (systems and technologies), need to be considered for successful change to occur. The proposed model for strategic organizational change is an attempt to link the software and hardware components of organizations. In view of the pressures being expected from the external environment and the critical vision of organizations, top management needs to establish a ? exible and adaptive infrastructure that should lead tomorrow’s organizations to higher levels of performance. The largest barrier to â€Å"change† is not changes to technologies, and work processes but changes involving people. To reach such level of performance, links between the environment, the vision of the organization, its leadership and learning processes are essential. Further research is needed to identify systematic integrative models of strategic organizational change with predictive capabilities. These models could be utilized both by management and organizational researchers in order to facilitate the implementation of adaptive strategic change initiatives. This is the challenge. References Argyris, C. (1991), â€Å"Teaching smart people how to learn†, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 99-109. Beatty, C. , Lee, A. and Gloria, L. (1992), â€Å"Leadership among middle managers – an exploration in the context of technological change†, Human Relations, Vol. 45 No. 9, pp. 957-90. Beekin, R. I. (1989), â€Å"Assessing the effectiveness of sociotechnical interventions: antidote or fad†, Human Relations, Vol. 42, pp. 877-97. Beer, M. and Eisenstat, R. A. (1996), â€Å"Developing an organization capable of implementing strategy and learning†, Human Relations, Vol. 49 No. 5, pp. 97-617. Burke, W. and Litwin, G. H. (1992), â€Å"A causal model of organizational performance and change†, Journal of Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 523-45. Dutton, J. E. (1988), â€Å"Understanding strategic agenda building and its implications for managing change†, in Pondy, L. R. , Boland, R. J. Jr and Thomas, H. (Eds), Managing Ambiguit y and Change, John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, pp. 127-44. Felkins, P. K. , Chakiris, B. J. and Chakiris, K. N. (1993), Change Management: A Model for Effective Organizational Performance, Quality Resources, Chapters 1,3,8,10, White Plains, New York, NY. French, W. L. and Bell, C. H. (1978), Organizational Development: Behavioral Science Interventions for Organizational Improvement, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, p. 14. Hitt, M. , Keats, B. A. and Nixon, R. D. (1996), â€Å"Rightsizing: building and maintaining strategic leadership and long-term competitiveness†, Organizational Dynamics, pp. 18-32. Johns, G. (1983), Organizational Behavior: Understanding Life at Work, Scott, Foresman and Company, Glenview, IL, Chapter 17. Kanter, R. M. , Stein, B. A. and Jick, T. D. 1992), The Challenge of Organizational Change, The Free Press, New York, NY, Chapter 6, 10. Katzenbach, J. R. (1996), â€Å"Real change management†, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 1, pp. 148-63. Kren, L. (1992), â€Å"The monitoring effects of locus of control on performance incentives and participation†, Human Relations, Vol. 45 No. 9, pp. 991-1012. Lawler, E. (1994), â€Å"Effective rewards systems: strategy diagnosis and designâ₠¬ , in Howard and Associates (Eds), Diagnosis for Organizational Change, The Guilford Press, New York, NY, pp. 210-38. Porras, J. I. and Berg, P. O. 1978), â€Å"The impact of organization development†, Academy of Management Review, No. 3, pp. 249-66. Robbins, S. P. (1983), Organizational Theory, The Structure Design of Organizations, PrenticeHall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Chapter 15. Steven H. Appelbaum, Normand St-Pierre and William Glavas Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity Management Decision 36/5 289–301 Rogers, W. R. and Byham, W. C. (1994), â€Å"Diagnosing organizational cultures for realignment†, in Howard and Associates (Eds), Diagnosis for Organizational Change, The Guilford Press, New York, pp. 179-209. Rummler, G. (1996), â€Å"In search of the holy†, Training Development, pp. 26-32. Sleeth, R. , Johnston, G. and Wallace, R. (1996), â€Å"The effective leader as a link between tasks and people†, SAM Advanced Management Journal, pp. 16-21. Trahant, W. and Burke, W. (1996), â€Å"Creating a change reaction: how understanding organizational dynamics can ease re-engineering†, National Productivity Review, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 37-46. Van Buren, M. E. and Werner, J. M. (1996), â€Å"High performance work systems†, Business and Economic Review, Vol. 43 No. , pp. 15-23. Vecchio, R. P. and Appelbaum, S. H. (1995), Managing Organizational Behaviour Dryden, , Toronto, Chapters 10, 19. Volberda, H. W. (1992), Organizational Flexibility Change and Preservation: A Flexibility Audit Redesign Model, Wolters Noordhoff, Chapter 3, 4, 6. Walton, E. and Nadler, D. (1994), â€Å"Diagnosis for organization design†, in Howard and Associates (Eds), Diagnosis for Organizational Change, The Guilford Press, New York, NY, pp. 85-105. Wiggenhorn, W. (1990), â€Å"Motorola U: when training becomes an education†, Harvard Business Review, No. 4, pp. 71-83. Wilson, D. (1992), A Strategy of Change: Concepts and Controversies in the Management of Change, Routledge, New York, NY, Chapters 1-4. Zammuto, R. and O’Conner, E. J. (1992), â€Å"Gaining advanced manufacturing technologies’ bene? ts: the role of organizational design and culture†, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 701-28. Application questions 1 Would you agree with the author that the largest barrier to change is people, not technology and work processes? 2 If planned change is the key to organization success, should people hold a de? ned change planning role?

Ethical Issue in the Health Sector in Australia Free Sample

Question: Identify and Described all the Relevant Ethical Principal and Statements from the Codes relating to the Scenario. Answer: Introduction Ethical issue in the health sector in Australia is very important. Ethics refers to moral principles that govern the conduct and behavior of individuals in the society. This ethics result from practices that have existed in the society for a period of time or laws that are made to govern behavior of individuals (Koutoukidis, StaintonHughson, Tabbner, 2013). On a professional point of view, ethics are the rules and regulations that govern the conduct, behavior and activities carried out by individuals when undertaking their professional duties. In the health sector, ethics are particularly important given the sensitive nature of the profession and the need to sanitize and achieve uniformity in health service provision. Due to this reason, the government and regulatory bodies have come up with laws and by laws which guides and governs professional in the health professional on how to act and the procedures to follow when making decisions related to the profession (Kerridge,Lowe Stewar t, 2013). This report analyzes the case study of Hai`s medical situation and the way in which the existing legislation will affect the steps and decision that Mark is going to take in trying to help his patient. Identifying relevant issues The problem that Dr. Mark is faced with in this particular case study is the need to identify the real and exact cause of the patients injury. This will help Mark to identify the root cause of the problem and treat it rather than the symptoms. Since there are conflicting episodes on what caused Hai to jump from the roof of his house, it is important for Mark to gather all the necessary and sufficient information concerning the patient. Mark needs to make sure that he adheres to all the laws and regulations governing provision of medical care to patient with psychological problems. Mark is also expected to act ethically when making decisions on the best way to help Hai recover from his situation. Who is involved in the problem? Hai is the patient who needs medical help. He is received by Mark who evaluates hi condition and determines that the patient has some mental problem. Dr Chin and Hai`s brother are involved in this case. Ethical principles The ethical principles that will be considered by Mark and his team when helping Hai include: Autonomy-Under the 2016 act, health professionals are required to respect a patient right to make choices about what he/she believes to be in his best interest. In this instances that require the consent of the patient include; informed consent, communication, confidentiality, truthfulness and keeping of promises made to the patient (Mark Taylor, 2010). Mark shared information of the patient with a fellow doctor but that does not amount to violation of the autonomous principle because, he was doing so with the patients best interests at heart. Mark also acted ethically according to this principle by ensuring proper and effective communication between him and the patient. Mark informed Hai of his mental health situation even though the patient did not want to hear that. Mark was also truthful to the patient as required under this principle. Therefore, Mark acted ethically according to the principle of autonomy. Another ethical principle which is relevant in this case study is that of no-maleficence- this principle highlights the duty of the health officer to do no harm and to protect the patients from harm (Benjamin Curtis, 2010). Mark is obliged to provide care of the highest level quality, to act ethically. Not to exploit the patient. The doctor is also required to notify the patient, colleagues and authorities in case he/she feels that serious harm might occur. Mark fulfilled the obligation of protecting the patient from harm by insisting that the patient should be subjected to mental check up in order to establish the state of his mental health. The decision of Dr Choi that patient should be treated for his mental problem before being treated for the physical injuries suffered means that the patient will be experiencing pain for a long period of time. This will be in violation of the principle of non-maleficence since the doctor has failed at protecting the patient from harm. The principle of Beneficence Is also vital in the evaluation of the case study involving Mark and Hai. This principle states that the health official has the duty and obligation to benefit others. This means that the medical officer must act in the best interests of his/her patients (Kerridge, Lowe Stewart, 2013). They should also undertake professional training and development. Mark acted in the best interest of the patient because he decided to seek help to solve the mental health issues being experienced by the patient rather than treat him for physical injuries and leave the rest. The forth principle according to the 2016 Act and which will be relevant to this case study analysis is the principle of Justice. This principle states that the medical officers should; ensure fair distribution of resources(distributive justice), respect the right of the patients as well as respect the morally accepted laws and being accountable for their actions and inaction(legal justice) (Staunton Chiarella, 2016). Mark should bear in mind and follow all this principle as he tries to help Hai in his situation. He will be responsible for all the decisions makes on behalf of the patient. Mark will also be responsible if he fails to take actions that would salvage the life of his patient or if he fails to take action and the condition of the patient worsens due to his ignorance. Code of ethics There are several provisions in the code of ethics of nurses that apply perfectly to the situation that Mark is facing. These codes of ethics provisions are discussed as follows: Value statement(1) Respect for people- this code require nurses and medical professionals to respect the capacity of people to make decisions concerning their health but after adequate and all the necessary information has been provided to them. The nurses are also required to show kindness and care towards to the patients (Staunton Chiarella, 2016). Mark violated this code since he did not allow Hai to make a decision regarding his health. This is despite the fact that the patient insisted that he had no problem and did not want to be subjected to any kind of anti-psychotic medication. The nurse did not allow the patient to make a decision by him despite the fact that he had provide the patient with all the information that was required for decision making. Value statement(2) This code states that nurses value the moral and legal authority of patients to participate whenever possible in decision making concerning their nursing and treatment. The nurse should help the patient to make informed decisions and at the same time should recognize the role of family members in decision making in case the patient is incapacitated, because of disability or other factors that may affect their decision making (Pozgar, 2012). Mark followed this code strictly since he allowed Tim to make a decision on behalf of his brother who was not mentally fit to make such crucial decisions for himself. Value statement(3) This code requires nurses to develop a culture and knowledge to help them communicate with members of a community with different cultures and traditions (Then McDonald, 2014). Mark acted in accordance to this code because he was able to convince Hai to reveal to him some information which was crucial in diagnosing his problem. Mark was able to make his character fit with that of Hai and they develop warm relations. Legal issues In the case of Mark and Hai, the legal question in this case will be that of consent. Consent refers to the capacity of a person to decide. This decision should be made freely and voluntarily. The consent of an individual should also relate to the intervention or treatment in question (Aitken, 2015). The law on consent of patients requires that; The right to decide on one`s own fete presupposes the capacity to act. Every person who is an adult is presumed to have the capacity to make decisions involving themselves. This is irrespective of the level of knowledge or education of the patient.This right can be rebutted according to the Mental Health Act of 2016 9(Qld) s4). A person who is established not to be in good mental health cannot be allowed to make decisions concerning his/her health by themselves. Decisions can be made by close family members and relatives who understand the patient well (Townsend Luck, 2013). In the case of Mark and Hai, he was mentally ill. This means that legally speaking, he could not be able to make informed decisions concerning his health. Therefore, Mark was right to allow Tim to make discussions on behalf of his brother. Mark therefore cannot be held liable for violating the law on consent of a patient. Implementation Mark acted ethically and legally in the way he handled Hai from the beginning to the very end. He did not violate any legal or ethical requirement for nurses. Therefore, Mark cannot be prosecuted by Hai for violating the law of consent for a patient. Reflection Mark acted ethically and legally throughout and he acted in the best interests of the patient and therefore cannot be held liable for any wrongdoing in a court of law. Conclusion Ethical and legal principles are very vital in the medical profession as well as other professions. In the case of Mark and his patient Hai, Mark acted ethically and in the best interest of the patient. Mark also protected the patient from harm when he wanted to be allowed to leave the hospital something which could have caused him further injuries and harm. Therefore, denying Hai the right to make a decision regarding his health by himself was the legal and ethical thing to do. References Benjamin, M., Curtis, J. (2010). Ethics in nursing: Cases, principles, and reasoning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hamlin, L., Richardson-Tench, M., Davies, M. (2011). Perioperative nursing: An introductory text. Chatswood, N.S.W: Mosby Australia. Fry, S. T., Veatch, R. M., Taylor, C. (2011). Case studies in nursing ethics. Sudbury, MA: Jones Bartlett Learning. Daly, J., Speedy, S., Jackson, D. (2010). Contexts of nursing: An introduction. Sydney: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier Australia. Elder, R., Evans, K., Nizette, D. (2009). Psychiatric and mental health nursing. Sydney: Mosby Elsevier. Koutoukidis, G., Stainton, K., Hughson, J., Tabbner, A. R. (2013). Tabbner's nursing care: Theory and practice. Chatswood, N.S.W: Churchill Livingstone. Kerridge, I., Lowe, M., Stewart, C. (2013). Ethics and law for the health professions. Staunton, P. J., Chiarella, M. (2016). Law for nurses and midwives. Pozgar, G. D. (2012). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Sudbury: Jones Bartlett Learning. In Aitken, L. M., In Marshall, A., In Chaboyer, W., Australian College of Critical Care Nurses,. (2015). ACCCN's critical care nursing. Townsend, R., Luck, M. (2013). Applied paramedic law and ethics Australia and New Zealand. Chatswood, N.S.W: Elsevier Australia. Then, S.-N., McDonald, F. J. (2014). Ethics, law, and health care: A guide for nurses and midwives.

ADD essays

ADD essays Blau, Melinda, "ADD: The Scariest Letters In The Alphabet," New York Magazine, December, 13, 1993, p. ______________"Hyperactivity and Glucose Metabolism," Nutrition Research Newsletter, Dec. 1990, Vol. 9, p. Rief, Sandra F., "How to Reach and Teach ADD/ADHD Children, Practical Techniques, Strategies and Interventions For Helping Children with Attention Problems and Hyperactivity," (West Nyack, NY: The Center For Applied Research in Education, 1993, pp. 71, 70 Silver, Larry B., M.D. "ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Learning Disabilities, Booklet For the Classroom Teacher, pp. 6-8 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are increasingly being discussed, at least to some extent, interchangeably. It has captured the attention of educators everywhere, and victims are most frequently referred to the case worker within the respective educational institution. Throughout this paper, there will be a reflection of that understanding which we have come to know regarding this somewhat enigmatic disorder. Similarly, causes, treatments, and strategies shall also be approached. For the most part, there is an ongoing conjoinment of both drugs as well as intervention. Similarly, and as indicated throughout this research paper, ADD/ADHD ranks as arguably the most often and pervasive subject of study. The Diagnosis and Statistic Manual Of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) offers a definition for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, it should also be noted that this definition is merely tentative, and, as in the past, shall continue to undergo increased revision. For discussionary purpose, however, this author shall elaborate upon both disorders as well as their symptoms, i.e. hyperactivity, distractibility, and impulsivity, to name three. Similarly, this research paper has inducted insight from stu...

How to Manage a Social Media Crisis Without Losing Your Mind

How to Manage a Social Media Crisis Without Losing Your Mind A social media crisis is something most brands will encounter at some point in time. Some will be more serious than others, but a solid social media crisis plan can help you better manage the situation and mitigate damages. Maybe an intern accidentally posted on the company account (instead of a personal profile). Or, a major mistake (understandable or not) might spark online outrage amongst your audience. Whatever the case, marketers and social media managers need to be prepared, which is why every company should have a social media crisis management plan in place. Equipped with your crisis survival guide, you’ll be prepared for even the worst situations. How to Manage a Social Media Crisis Without Losing Your Mind via @Document Your Social Media Crisis Plan Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of crisis planning, snag your free template to put together a complete crisis communication strategy. Use this post as a guide to complete it. Then, keep it somewhere easily accessible for your team, and youll be ready for the worst. Awesome news! Youre invited to a 1on1 marketing demo of ! In 30 mins or less, you can see howtoGet your free social media crisis management plan template from @What Qualifies As a Social Media Crisis? First, we need to be clear about what is (and isn’t) a crisis. Linking to the wrong blog post on a social message – a minor mistake, but definitely not of crisis proportions. Using a national disaster to promote your products and receiving backlash for it – definitely something that falls into the crisis category. The first scenario happens from time to time. Humans make mistakes. We're all busy and sometimes minor things slip through the cracks. The second situation, however, is obviously urgent. A strategic choice has led to some major issues and could do the brand major damage. So, you get the idea. But, how do you actually separate day-to-day hiccups from genuine catastrophes? When it comes to social media problems, how do you actually separate day-to-day hiccups from...Create a Social Media Crisis Scale Convince and Convert  devised a great solution to this problem. They built a customer response flowchart that matches the severity of an issue, to the right course of action. Here’s what theirs looks like: You can create something similar by establishing five levels of issue severity: Customer service question: Routine inquiries that your customer support team can answer. Here's an example from Delta: This customer reached out on Twitter with a question regarding frequent flyer upgrades. An angry customer: More than just a question, this person is actively upset. Allow customer service or PR to respond, with a manager’s guidance. Here's an example from United: Several angry customers: If you have several (let’s say ten or more) customers complaining about the same issue in the space of an hour, get a customer service manager or PR specialist directly on the appropriate social channel. Here's an example from Instagram when the platform experienced an outage. Something terrible just happened: In the event of a major news catastrophe, shut down all scheduled social media posts. If there’s a serious defect with a product, your service is down, or something similar, consider creating content answering common questions. Get senior-level managers, PR, or marketing and the C-Suite involved. Issue statements, apologies, etc. Here's an example of how Samsung handled a terrible incident when its Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones were recalled due to safety issues. Your brand is serious jeopardy: There's been a misstep in communication and something was handled poorly resulting in lawsuits, public backlash, and boycotting.   Consider getting a statement from your CEO, or reissuing an apology and admitting your mistakes. Involve your senior-level managers, customer service, PR, and marketing staff and monitor the situation closely. Here's an example from an incident where United handled the removal of a passenger poorly resulting in broken bones and unnecessary force. Following the incident, an internal statement from the CEO went public after reaffirming his support for employees while describing the passenger as "disruptive and belligerent." After, the public was outraged and resulted in the CEO issuing an apology, new regulations and nearly $1 billion axed from its market value on the stock market. Here are some examples of situations that would fit each level: Crisis Level 1: Isolated customer complaints and questions. Crisis Level 2: Angry customers, broken links, posts directing to the wrong page, factual inaccuracies, major misspellings on social posts. Crisis Level 3: High volume of angry customers, service outages, lack of product availability. Crisis Level 4: Product recalls, defective services or products, widespread negative press coverage, layoffs. Crisis Level 5: Lawsuits, serious accidents resulting in injury, illegal employee conduct. This isn’t a scientific scale, but it should give you some idea of how to prioritize. Unless it’s above Level 2, it’s really not a crisis at all. If it’s less than a Level 3, it most likely does not need to be escalated past your customer service team, or routine PR messaging. Here's how to identify a social media crisis using a five-point scaleIdentifying a Crisis Using Social Listening Now you know what a crisis looks like. Next, let’s walk through how to spot them as they happen. One of the worst things you can say in a crisis is nothing. So, make sure you’re monitoring what’s being said about your brand is essential for responding promptly. The best way to do this is with social listening. The good news is, you can do this with . You no longer have to have your social message scheduling separate from your social media conversations. Here's how it works: Why should brands use 's new social listening feature to spot a crisis before it spreads?How Can I Tell My Brand Has a Problem? Follow these two steps: Keep an eye on your brand mentions. Check in periodically and use email alerts to stay on top of discussions as they happen. Use your crisis scale to assess problems. Then, respond accordingly. To determine how many negative messages constitutes a crisis, Hootsuite recommends setting crisis thresholds. Here’s an example they outline for a hypothetical sports clothing company: Less than five negative mentions per hour: Continue monitoring closely. Compile a report for senior management to review at the end of the day. More than five negative mentions per hour: Begin assigning messages to the public relations manager in Hootsuite. More than 10 negative mentions per hour, for more than three consecutive hours: Contact the CMO on her cell phone, and begin officially rolling out the social media crisis management plan. You can establish your own thresholds similarly, based on what you might think is reasonable. Recommended Reading: How to Create a Social Media Strategy With 3 Steps and a Template Develop a Plan Before a Crisis Happens Prevention is the best medicine. Short of that, having a plan in place before things go haywire is the next best option. Here are four things to prepare and keep on hand in case of emergency. Establish a Crisis Chain of Command Using your crisis scale, establish who is responsible for managing the response at each level. It might look something like this: Develop an Internal Response Protocol Your employees likely have their own social media accounts. When disaster strikes, they may not know what they can (and can’t) say about the issue publically. So, it’s important to make sure they don’t go rogue or leak information you don’t want to be released. This could make a bad situation worse. Get in front of this with a documented response plan. If a crisis reaches a level 4 or higher, do the following: Send an internal email alerting everyone about the situation. When a problem reaches this stage, people need to know. They should hear about it from their own company before family, friends, or strangers start asking. Provide messaging they can share. They might get asked questions. Either create copy-and-paste messaging they can share or a link to a page they can direct people toward. This will help keep your message consistent and take the pressure off team members to respond (who might not know what to say otherwise). Keep your company up to date. Continue to keep the flow of information open. Let everyone internally know when the issue is resolved. Recommended Reading: How to Complete a Social Media Audit in 9 Steps (Free Template) Secure Social Media Login Credentials This is important for two reasons: If your crisis is the result of a hack, you’ll want to change your passwords. You may want to consider changing login email addresses and usernames, too. If you need to remove something or stop automated posts, it’s important that all authorized staff know where to find the login info. The last thing you need is to have your PR and social teams scrambling to find the Twitter password because the manager is on vacation. The best way to do this is with a shared and secure password repository. Some options include: 1Password Dashlane LastPass KeePass Roboform 8 You can learn more about each of these services via Lifehacker. They all achieve more or less the same goal (and can be used for securing a lot more than just social media credentials). Plus, they make it possible for each member of your team (or at least those who need social account access) to store and secure passwords in one place. Social media crisis management tip: Keep passwords secured and stored somewhere team members can...Craft Emergency Response Messaging Templates When a mistake happens, you may not have time to issue a detailed response right away. However, you’ll need to say something to acknowledge you’re aware of the issue before things get out of hand. Plus, for routine inquiries, it can save time to have messaging ready to help you respond promptly. You don’t need to be beholden to your templates, either. Keep them flexible enough that they can be edited to fit the given situation (and make sure they actually make sense before posting). Here are some copy-and-paste examples you can use. Example 1: Hi [USERNAME], We’re sorry to hear you’ve been experiencing [INSERT PROBLEM]. Our customers expect and deserve better from us. Could you send us a DM with more details? Example 2: This sounds frustrating! Please accept our apologies, we should have resolved [INSERT PROBLEM] before it disrupted your day. Please call us at [INSERT NUMBER] and we’ll take care of this right away. Example 3: We’re extremely sorry to learn [INSERT PROBLEM] has been happening. Fortunately, we do have a solution that should help. Check out [INSERT URL] to find the next steps you should take. If there’s anything else we can do, let us know! Templates like this can help resolve routine inquiries fast. However, be cautious of overusing the same messaging too frequently. It can come across impersonal (though, really, most people will be okay with that as long as their problem gets fixed). If your problem is more than just a customer complaint, though, you’ll need to go into full-on crisis mode.

For Rousseau, man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Do you Essay

For Rousseau, man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Do you agree with this assessment Discuss with reference to - Essay Example The first man who accustomed himself as an owner of a land had first brought the idea of tyranny and oppression in society. Prior to the idea, that society had succumbed to ownership; there have been less crime and hardship, and sorrow was out of sight. However, when man succeeded in the act of ownership with it began the invisible chain attached to every human being born. Furthermore, man emerged when he was first to think of himself, provide for his own needs, and was ignorant of his ability to own properties and be above with others. Nonetheless, the time came that he felt the difficulty to do things all by himself and do against the natural circumstances. The differing tides of the time, the changes of the environmental conditions, and other natural and unexpected circumstances had brought man to a point where he considered these as no longer natural. It became a significant source of hardship for him. In order to survive the hindrances, man needed to learn to be above other spec ies. He needed to eat; therefore, he hunted down other species, which had brought him to think that he is above them. This superiority brought man to boast and take pride of himself. As a result, the solitary man had evolved into seeing his likeness to other human beings. His ability to incorporate himself with others and his ability to be part of the lives of others came to being naturally, and at first, language was not needed in order to interact. Jean Jacques Rousseau added that, in line with man’s ability to interact and be above other species, he was able to evolve into a person who has learned the usage of tools. These primitive tools brought man to build huts. In these huts were families, considered as the smallest part of a society, which begun to hold property on where their huts stood. The families, which composed of a man and a woman, lived under one roof and were able to bear children. After the establishment of the first society, man became more convenient on hi s way of living. However, his needs accumulated and losing these needs and not sufficiently having these needs made him unhappy. Moreover, language emerged during the time when man experienced natural catastrophes. This had caused man to be able to communicate in order to combat and surpass these instances. Furthermore, in the emergence of language, man became more civilized and eventually formed nations. Along with this, the love within families heightened in the light of ideas and preferences of the nations. Negative ideologies also came about which also brought walls between the differences of the different group of people. People were grouped in accordance to the songs they were singing and to the steps they were dancing. A wall between people was established by identifying one as different from the others. This then caused inequality, and vices became real in the realm of societies. This had brought man to believe that, by nature, he is unjust, disrespectful and that politics m ust emerge to be able to maintain peace and order. However, this has been wrongly inferred because man, at its natural state is gentle. Moreover, the earliest society depicted happiness among its people; however, progress eventually brought inequality. Freedom was felt by every individual; however, the inevitable chains of slavery and captivity were brought to existence

Choose a character from The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and explain how Essay

Choose a character from The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and explain how the character faces oppression and overcomes it to become - Essay Example The punishment meted out for going against these rules was unthinkable. Such women, who faltered, were arrested, stoned or beaten to death in public. Kamila Siddiqi, an average Afghan woman, confronts life with great hope and determination as she sets out to carve out a successful business in order to support her family, and in doing so, she successfully overcomes brutal oppression at the hands of the Talibans. ‘The Dressmaker of Khair Khana’ by Gayle Lemmon, gives us a bird’s eye view of Afghanistan that is quite different from what we know of it so far. According to archaeological evidence, Alexander the Great had defeated the Achaemenian Dynasty between 330 – 327 B.C. during the Pre-Islamic Period and, thus, ushered in an era of Greek culture. However, by 637 B.C. the Arab Muslims started conquering the tribes in Afghanistan in a long drawn out process and introduced them to the Islam religion. By the 10th century, the Arab Abbasid Dynasty and the Samani ds, who were the successors of the aforementioned dynasty in Central Asia, were torn down. Therefore, the Ghaznavid Dynasty, which was the offshoot of the Samanids, was established and became the first major Islamic dynasty to rule Afghanistan. Once again, Genghis Khan who was the leader of the Mongol forces, defeated them in Central Asia in 1220, and left Afghanistan fragmented, till Timur succeeded and took over the country during the 1380’s. The Mongol Empire that was already there was further expanded by Timur during his rule (Nations Online Project, n.p.). Till the early 16th century, the descendants of Timur ruled Afghanistan. In 1919, after the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi, that brought to a close the Third Anglo- Afghan War, Afghanistan got its independence and became an independent country. However, the Guerrilla Wars that occurred between 1979 and 1989, killed thousands of people, devastated the land and left about 5 to 6 million homeless. Once again in 1992, a Civil War broke out because the government could not settle their differences with the Mujahideen and this further served to drag down the economy and make it even worse. This resulted in a struggle between the various armed groups and finally, one of the Islamic fundamentalist groups, the Taliban emerged victorious and took control of the country in 1996 and it was the Taliban that gave permission to the Al Qaeda, an Arab terrorist Organization to make use of Afghanistan as their base. The Taliban made use of an extremist interpretation of Islam to suppress and control the country and hence terrorist activities were rampant. The Taliban ruled with an iron fist and the people were not free to do as they wished. Especially for women, the depth of female deprivation and torture knew no bounds because the Talibans treated women even worse than animals. Their rules put endless restriction on women and the foremost of them was the ban on women working outside the house. Women were als o not allowed to carry out outside the home activities without a male chaperon. They were not allowed education in any school or university and were forced to wear a burqa that covered them from head to toe. They were banned from dealing with male shopkeepers and were not to be treated by male doctors. Women were not allowed to use cosmetics or paint their nails. Women found going against the Taliban rules, were stoned, whipped and beaten in public. Sometimes they were shot in public at point blank range. In such a dangerous