Cause and Effect of Humiliation in the Classroom Essay

Cause and Effect of Humiliation in the Classroom - Essay Example Humiliation is one of them. Humiliation is putting someone down and making him/her seem bad in front of people. The person being humiliated feels embarrassed and ashamed in front of everyone and feels uncomfortable facing people in front of whom he has been humiliated. The Psychological reason is the insecurities that one might have about oneself. Such people derive their self-esteem from crushing others’ self-esteem by humiliating them in front of everyone. It fits most of the habitual bullies, who humiliate anyone and everyone they can find anything bad about. The victims are usually the people who are weak or cannot fight back. Another distinct cause is rivalry among students. Students find revenge in humiliating their rivals in front of everyone taking advantage of practically anything that they could find against the opponent. The first and the foremost effect of humiliation is absenteeism. When the victim cannot find a way to avoid humiliation at school, he/she tends to stay at home and not go to school altogether. If this practice extends far too much, the student may drop out of school altogether. Decreased self-confidence and tarnished self-esteem is another consequence of humiliation. The target of this vicious act starts losing friends and feels alone in a cruel world where everyone seems to be against him. His self esteem goes down the drain and he finds it very difficult to believe in himself and stand up for himself in face of problems that might arise in life. He feels like a loser and his whole life gets affected as he cannot take decisions properly and thinks his life is ruined. Emotionally, the person is torn inside and out. He feels everyone is against him and everyone hates him. He stops trusting people and feels encaged in a trap. He feels frustrated annoyed and mentally disturbed all the time,

Working Together to Safeguard Children | Policy Analysis

Working Together to Safeguard Children | Policy Analysis This paper will consider the impact of the â€Å"Working Together To Safeguard Children† child protection policy on the clinical practice of the nursing profession in a general community clinic. The current legislative framework for child protection will be considered with regard to the 1989 Children’s Act, with special reference to the obligations of health professionals working with vulnerable children and their families. Research evidence on the role of nurses in the detection of child abuse will be considered. Furthermore, the paper will discuss the implications of developing existing general practice child protection procedures to include a more active and explicit role for child protection by medical and nursing staff. As Stower (2000) has argued, â€Å"Child protection is the term used by all agencies when there is a suspicion that a child or children (all or some of the children in a family) are at risk of being abused by any adult, family member or non-family member† (p 48). The 1989 Children’s Act was introduced to improve inter-agency cooperation between social services, health and education agencies in the provision of assessment and intervention with vulnerable children. One category of vulnerable children addressed by the legislation were children that have been subject to abuse. The central aim of the 1989 Children’s Act was to emphasis that the welfare of the child is of paramount importance at all times, and that professionals working with vulnerable families should promote cooperation and partnership where-ever possible. It afforded children the right to protection from abuse and the right to have inquiries made about their individual circumstances to safeguard them from harm. The Children’s Act 1989 raised the controversial issue of parental rights, patient confidentiality and a duty of health professionals to protect children and share information with appropriate other agencies with a view to protecting a child. In 1991, Working Together under the Children’s Act was published and it updated guidance on child protection, with an emphasis on different professional groups â€Å"working together† towards the interests of the child. This was replaced by Working Together to Safeguard Children in 1999. This policy document made it very clear that protecting the child was a higher priority than maintaining confidentiality. However, it recommended that parents should be informed when a professional was going to make a referral to social services, unless asking for permission from parents was likely to place the child ‘at risk’ of significant harm. The â€Å"Working Together To Safeguard Children† (WTSC) polic y was based on the legislative framework of the Children’s Act 1989. It outlined the specific roles and responsibilities of community nurses where child protection concerns had been experienced in their clinical practice. It stated that where child abuse was suspected by nursing staff, careful records of parental attitudes and behaviours should be made. This might include reference to the grounds for suspicion, such as a delay in seeking treatment for an injury, unexplained injuries on a child or variation in parental account of how an injury occurred over time, or between parents (Benger and Pearce, 2002). WTSC recommends a non-confrontational, information gathering approach to early investigations of child abuse by community nurses staff, with a strong emphasis on discussing concerns with the child’s GP, who may have detailed knowledge on the circumstances of the child and their family. Where there are concerns that the child maybe at â€Å"at risk of significant ha rm†, nursing and medical staff may contact the social services department to make an official referral. It is standard practice for the GP to make a child protection referral, but â€Å"when there are conflicting opinion, either by medical, managerial or senior colleagues, if the nurse is still convinced that there is a child protection issues, she or he is individually accountable and should refer it to social services† (p 51). However, under the current legislative framework, social services personnel may wish to contact the referral agency for further information on the child’s health and to undertake â€Å"network checks† with all the agencies involved. The GP or nurse maybe invited to an inter-agency strategy meeting attended by social services staff, the police and other relevant staff to discuss their child protection concerns and decide upon a plan of action. Furthermore, the GP or nurse maybe invited to a child protection conference that may lead to the decision to record the child on the Child Protection Register. The Child Protection Register is available to appointed child protection staff within health organisations, to check if a child is known to social services for reasons of emotional, sexual and/ or physical abuse, or neglect (WTSC, 1999). General guidelines on child protection are provided as part of the policy document. It is stated in section 1.13 that â€Å"For those chil dren who are suffering, or at risk of suffering significant harm, joint working is essential, to safeguard the child/ ren and where necessary – to help bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against children† (p 3). It recommends that health professionals should be vigilant to the possibility of child abuse amongst patients and â€Å"be alert† to the potential risk that abusers â€Å"may pose to children†, and â€Å"share and help to analyse information as that an informed assessment can be made of the child’s needs and circumstances† (p 3). The WTSC policy stated that it was important that every organisation that came into contact with children had a child protection policy in place, but gave little guidance on what the child protection policy should be. It can be argued that the child protection policy should be revised regularly to take into consideration new developments within general practice, such as the introduction of electroni c patient record systems, or change of staff or clinical services. Changes to policy should be undertaken collaboratively between GP’s, nurses and administrative staff that have contact with children. The importance of health care systems in the protection of children has been made clear in recent years, and lead to legislative changes that are presently being implemented as part of the 2004 Children’s Bill. Victoria Climbie died in February 2000 as a result of severe and repeated physical abuse and neglect by her caregivers that amounted to 128 separate physical injuries being recorded at the time of her death. The appauling circumstances of her death trigged a public inquiry, led by Lord Laming (2003), who identified 12 opportunities by health, police and social services agencies to protect this eight year old girl from many months of brutal abuse and neglect. One source of criticism in the Climbie report was directed at the health care system, in particular Accident and Emergency departments, that had misdiagnosed her physical injuries of scratches and bruises as being the result of scabies in June 1999. Social services were not notified of any child abuse concerns by do ctors at this time. In July 1999, Victoria Climbie was readmitted to hospital for treatment of burns, but due to poor communication between health professionals, social services and the police no full assessment of the child was ever made (Hall, 2003). The Lord Laming report recommended that agencies work more closely together, with better training and interagency cooperation to prevent child abuse. As Hall (2003) argues, â€Å"Amid the justifiable horror at the death of Victoria Climbià © and the focus on violent physical abuse, we must not neglect the opportunities for prevention. This too is the responsibility of all who work with children, but in the health service it particularly falls on primary care staff, including midwives, health visitors, school nurses, and on those working with mentally ill adults and drug misusers† (p 294). Lord Lamings recommendations were reflected in the 2004 Children’s Bill that aims to set up a central electronic record for every chi ld in the country that would contain sensitive information on professionals who were involved with them. It is believed that such a system would make it easier for appropriate professionals to make ‘informed judgements’ about the safety of children, based on information gathered from other agencies with an interest in the child. However, the new legislation is controversial because of concerns about civil rights, and the Government are currently in consultation with local education authorities with a view to piloting the electronic record system. In the UK, four types of child abuse are currently recognised under the legislative framework. These can be classified as neglect, physical injury, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Physical abuse and neglect maybe the most often encountered type of child protection problem in community practice, but it is easy to mistake physical abuse for accidental injury (Breslin and Evans, 2004). The estimated burden of physical child abuse in the UK population is 2.7 children per 1000 per year, according to the NSPCC (Breslin and Evans, 2004). This means that every general practice in the country could include a sizeable minority of families registered with them where physical child abuse is occurring at home. When children attending Accident and Emergency departments for treatment, it is standard practice to send a notification of attendance and reason for attendance to the GP. When medical staff have suspicion of child abuse, a careful examination of the medical records may show that a child has a history of injury. Shrivasta (1988) found that 22 out of 108 children (20.4%) had one or more admission to hospital for non-accidental injuries over the 5 year period of the study. Furthermore, Fryer and Miyoshi (1994) have shown that abused children are ‘at risk’ of being re-abused over a relatively short period of time. In their study, 69.2% of children that suffered from a reoccurrence of abuse, did so within 360 days of the prior abuse event. Furthermore, in their study 9.34% of children were re-abused in the four year period of the study, and the risk of multiple reoccurrences increased after every abuse event. Therefore, it is not possible for health professionals to discount evidence of child abuse as being a ‘one off’ episode that is unlikely to happen again, without a full investigation of the child’s needs. It is possible to check if a child is registered with social services on the Child Protection Register. However, this is a poor measure of risk because only the most serious cases of child abuse will ever be registered, and children rarely stay on the Child Protection Register for more than two years due to current social services policy. Greenfields and Statham (2004) have shown that the decision of health agencies to act on suspicious injuries is affected by knowledge of whether they are registered on the Child Protection Register or not and social/ circumstantial factors related to the child and their family, as opposed to the clinical characteristics of the case. Indeed, a third of child protection register custodians felt that health professionals gained a false sense of security from knowing a child was on the register, and did not intervene as much as where the child was not already known to social services. Research has shown that abused children who live with the perpetrator are sixteen times less likely to receive medical care for their injuries, as opposed to abused children where the perpetrator is not resident (Ezzell, Swenson and Faldowski, 1999). Furthermore, retrospective studies of adults reporting that they were abused as children are much higher than official statistics would suggest (Cawson et al, 2000). This suggests that a considerable degree of child abuse is ‘hidden from view’ and community nurses may be in a unique position to befriend families through the delivery of standard health care, such as immunisation, and be vigilant to child protection issues at this time. Furthermore, since research has shown that children at risk of abuse and neglect may not be registered with a GP (Taylor, 2004), the provision of general health checks such as the cervical smear clinic or diabetic annual review provide an opportunity for nurses to enquire after any children in the home that may not be registered at the practice. As the WTSC policy emphasises inter-agency partnership, it is possible for community nurses to contact duty social workers, health visitors and youth workers to facilitate information exchange about vulnerable young people in the area. This also provides an opportunity for information and training about the respective professional disciplines. Nurses in community settings have a potentially high level of contact with abused children and the opportunity to form ‘trusting relationships’ with children and families (Nayda, 2002). It is necessary to formulate general practice child protection policies that make best use of nursing expertise, and facilitate ‘working together’ ideals within practice between nurses, GP’s and other professionals as much as ‘working together’ with external organisations. This means that any child protection policy should include time at a weekly practice meeting where staff can exchange information about children thought to be ‘at risk’, and discuss best child protection practice. Opportunities for information exchange and inter-agency cooperation in child protection enquiries are particularly important since nurses, in one study, felt that other professionals were keen to ‘pass the buck’ rather than engaging in equal profession al consultation (Nayda, 2002). Furthermore, the nurses in this study suspected child abuse on a regular basis, but only reported it when there were no repercussions of reporting; â€Å"Their concerns were not only for the children and their families but also for themselves. One nurse stated that if her own safety was uncertain she would not report a situation where a child was at risk. However, most were concerned about the consequences of reporting for the family† (p 172). Furthermore, the decision to report about child abuse was partly informed by past experience of dealing with the child protection welfare system. As such, â€Å"some of the nurses did not report all cases of suspected abuse, knowing that reporting their suspicions did not necessarily result in action† (p 176). The nurses reported that they were reluctant to report families for child abuse because they felt it destroyed the relationship that they had developed with the families, and reporting child a buse was very much identified as a last resort when all other intervention options had failed. Through this study, it is clear that the ‘ideological’ values underpinning the WTSC policy may not be applied in practice due to difficulties contacting other professionals, and personal confidence and sense of security when making a decision about child protection. As Stower (1999) argues, there is some confusion amongst the nursing profession about their responsibilities under the Children’s Act 1989. The area of parental responsibility is not clearly defined in the legislation, and the term ‘at risk of significant harm’ is open to subjective interpretation. However, Stower (1999) suggests â€Å"This will depend on the degree of the type of abuse, the effect on the child and the circumstances surrounding the event. It must be remembered that single bruises in certain circumstances, for example, a disabled child or very young baby, could be significant an d should not be disregarded† (p 49) In conclusion, research has shown that child abuse is a common problem and one that nurses may encounter as part of their clinical practice. Research shows that community nurses are in a good position to build relationships with families, and to detect child abuse as part of their routine health screening duties. Furthermore, the new child protection policies insist that nurses report child protection concerns, and exchange information with other relevant agencies. However, in a Scottish study of training and supervision in child protection for nurses, it was observed that there was a lack of uniform availability of training opportunities; a situation aggravated by a professional resistance to clinical supervision by nurses who ‘avoided it like the plague’ and a resistance to child protection training that was perceived as not relevant to some nurses practice. â€Å"However, it is important to recognise that supervisors of these nurses may have little or no expertise in child protection issues, therefore the ability to access a specialist child protection worker in relation to specific pieces of work may be critical† (Lister and Crisp, 2005, p 67). Therefore, effective training and clinical supervision programmes, that meet nurses’ needs, may be central to their increased involvement in child protection screening and referral in general practice. References Benger J and Pearce A (2002) Quality improvement report: Simple intervention to improve detection of child abuse in emergency departments. BMJ 324, pp 780 – 782 Breslin R and Evans H (2004) Key child protection statistics. Retrived from: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/Statistics/KeyCPstats/1.asp : 16th June 2005 Cawson P, Wattam C, Brooker S and Kelly G (2000) Child maltreatment in the United Kingdom (NSPCC, London) Department of Health (1999) Working Together to Safeguard Children (HMSO, London) Ezzell C, Swenson C, Faldowski R (1999) Child, family and case characteristics. Child and Family Studies 8.3 (pp 271- 284) Fluke J; Yuan Y; Edwards M (2005) Recurrence of maltreatment. Child Abuse Neglect 23.7 (pp 633 – 650) Greenfields M and Statham J (2004) The use of child protection registers (Thomas Coran Research Unit, Institute of Education) Hall D (2003) Child protection. BMJ 326: 293 – 294 Keshavarz R, Kawashima R and Low C (2002) Child abuse and neglect presentations to a pediatric emergency department. Journal of Emergency Medicine 23.4, pp 341-345 Lister P and Crisp B (2005) Clinical supervision in child protection for community nurses. Child Abuse Review 14, pp 57 – 72 Lord Laming (2003). Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbià ©. London: Stationery Office, 2003. Retrieved from: www.victoria-climbie-inquiry.org.uk :18 June 2005 Nayda (2003) Influences on Registered Nurses’ decision making in cases of suspected child abuse. Child abuse review 11, pp 168 – 178 Prescott A, Bank L, Reid J, Knutson J, Burraston B and Eddy J (2000) The veridicality of punitive childhood experiences reported by adolescents and young adults. Child Abuse Neglect 24.3, pp 411-423 Shrivastava R (1988) Non-accidental injuries (Unpublished thesis at University of Liverpool) Stower S (2000) The principles and practice of child protection. Nursing Standard 14, pp 48 55 Taylor (2004) Integrating community child health and hospital information for communication and early warning (Royal Free Hospital Report, London) The Children’s Act 1989 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1989/Ukpga_19890041_en_1.htm

Bicycle Xing :: essays research papers

Bicycle Xing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Lords Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.† This statement made from government annalist Ralph Reed in the summer of 1993, show just how absurd some government regulations can be. If something is important, we generally tend to just say it. If something is not entirely needed we just fill it full of jargon and become very longwinded. An example of a frivolous regulation is the one in Missouri that all bicycles are to be ridden on the street only. The regulation strictly forbids riding on the sidewalks. This asinine regulation violates personal liberties and should be eliminated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This regulation should be done away with for several reasons: First, the regulation is ineffective. People ride their bicycles on the sidewalks currently and they are not punished for it. This means that there is little to no enforcement for this regulation. So, if the regulation isn’t observed or obeyed by the citizens of the state, and it isn’t enforced, than it does no good to have the regulation in the first place. It is not needed and therefore should be eliminated. Next, the regulation says that bicycles should be rode in the streets, but riding a bicycle in the street can be very dangerous. In today’s society automotive drivers are distracted way too much as it is. Accidents happen because drivers are distracted by things such as cell phones, bad weather, darkness and sometimes because they just aren’t paying attention to the road ahead. Having to worry about a cyclist on the street is just another hassle that drivers should not have to put up with. Finally, little kids learn to ride there bikes between the ages of four and six. It is very dangerous for a little child who is just learning how to handle a bicycle to ride in the street with cars that are much larger and could potentially harm them. Sometimes children swerve on there bikes because they are just getting used to them, and a child swerving into traffic could be deadly. Then this creates a problem because it’s too dangerous for a child to ride in the street, and the sidewalk is off limits, so the child has nowhere to pursue the happiness that a bicycle could bring.

Organizational change Essay

Organizational change is an ongoing process with important implications for organizational effectiveness. An organization and its members must be constantly on the alert for changes from within the organization and from the outside environment, and they must learn how to adjust to change quickly and effectively. Organizational change is the movement of an organization away from its present state and toward some future state to increase its effectiveness. Forces for organizational change include competitive forces; economic, political, and global forces; demographic and social forces; and ethical forces. Organizations are often reluctant to change because resistance to change at the organization, group, and individual levels has given rise to organizational inertia. Sources of organization-level resistance to change include power and conflict, differences in functional orientation, mechanistic structure, and organizational culture. Sources of group-level resistance to change include group norms, group cohesiveness, and groupthink and escalation of commitment. Sources of individual-level resistance to change include uncertainty and insecurity, selective perception and retention, and habit. According to Lewin’s force-field theory of change, organizations are balanced between forces pushing for change and forces resistant to change. To get an organization to change, managers must find a way to increase the forces for change, reduce resistance to change, or do both simultaneously. Types of change fall into two broad categories: evolutionary and revolutionary. The main instruments of evolutionary change are sociotechnical systems theory, total quality management, and the development of flexible workers and work teams. The main instruments of revolutionary change are reengineering, restructuring, and innovation. Often, the revolutionary types of change that result from restructuring and reengineering are necessary only because an organization and its managers ignored or were unaware of changes in the environment and did not make incremental changes as needed. Action research is a strategy that managers can use to plan the change process. The main steps in action research are (a) diagnosis and analysis of the organization, (b) determining the desired future state, (c) implementing action, (d) evaluating the action, and (e) institutionalizing action research. Organizational development (OD) is a series of techniques and methods to increase the adaptability of organizations. OD techniques can be used to overcome resistance to change and to help the organization to change itself. OD techniques for dealing with resistance to change include education and communication, participation and empowerment, facilitation, bargaining and negotiation, manipulation, and coercion. OD techniques for promoting change include, at the individual level, counseling, sensitivity training, and process consultation; at the group level, team building and intergroup training; and at the organizational level, organizational confrontation meetings. CHAPTER OUTLINE 10. 1 What Is Organizational Change? Organizational change is the process by which organizations move from their current or present state to some desired future state to increase their effectiveness. An organization in decline may need to restructure its competences and resources to improve its fit with a changing environment. Even thriving, high-performing organizations such as Google, Apple, and Facebook need to continuously change the way they operate over time to meet ongoing challenges. Targets of Change Organizational change includes changes in four areas: 1. Human resources are an organization’s most important asset. Because these skills and abilities give an organization a competitive advantage, organizations must continually monitor their structures to find the most effective way of motivating and organizing human resources to acquire and use their skills. Changes made in human resources include investment in training, socializing employees, changing norms to motivate a diverse workforce, monitoring promotion and reward systems, and changing top management. 2. Each organizational function needs to develop procedures that allow it to manage the particular environment it faces. Crucial functions grow in importance while those whose usefulness is declining shrink. Thus, key functions grow in importance. Organizations can change structure, culture, and technology to improve the value created by functions. 3 Organizational change often involves changing the relationships between people and functions to increase their ability to create value. 10. 2 Forces for and Resistance to Organizational Change Forces for Change If managers are slow to respond to the forces of change, the organization will lag behind its competitors and its effectiveness will be compromised. (Refer to Figure 10. 1) Competitive forces spur change, because unless an organization matches or surpasses its competitors it will not survive. Managing change is crucial when competing for customers. To lead on the dimensions of efficiency or quality, an organization must constantly adopt the latest technology as it becomes available. To lead on the dimension of innovation and obtain a technological advantage over competitors, a company must possess skills in managing the process of innovation. Economic, political, and global forces, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or other economic unions, are significant forces of change. The European Union (EU) includes over 27 members eager to take advantage of a large protected market. Global challenges facing organizations include the need to change an organizational structure to allow expansion into foreign markets, the need to adapt to a variety of national cultures, and the need to help expatriate managers adapt to the economic, political, and cultural values of the countries in which they are located. Demographic and social forces include an increasingly diverse workforce. Changes in the demographic characteristics of the workforce require managers to change their styles of managing all employees and to learn how to understand, supervise, and motivate diverse members effectively. Many workers want to balance work and leisure. Managers need to abandon stereotypes and accept the importance of equity in the recruitment and promotion of new hires. Ethical forces such as increasing government, political, and social demands for more responsible and honest corporate behavior are compelling organizations to promote ethical behavior. Many companies have created the position of ethics officer. If organizations operate in countries that pay little attention to human rights or to the well-being of organizational members, they have to learn how to change these standards and to protect their overseas employees. Resistances to Change Resistance to change lowers an organization’s effectiveness and reduces its chances of survival. Resistances or impediments to change that cause inertia are found at the organization, group, and individual levels. (Refer to Figure 10. 1) Organization-Level Resistance to Change Power and conflict: When change causes power struggles and organizational conflict, an organization is likely to resist it. If change benefits one function at the expense of another, conflict impedes the change process. In the old IBM, for example, managers of its mainframe computer division fought off attempts to redirect IBM’s resources to produce the PCs that customers wanted in order to preserve their own power. Differences in functional orientation: This means that different functions and divisions often see the source of a problem differently because they see an issue or problem primarily from their own viewpoint. This tunnel vision increases organizational inertia. Mechanistic structure: Mechanistic structures are more resistant to change. People who work within a mechanistic structure are expected to act in certain ways and do not develop the capacity to adjust their behavior to changing conditions. A mechanistic structure typically develops as an organization grows and is a principal source of inertia, especially in large organizations. The extensive use of mutual adjustment and decentralized authority in an organic structure makes it less resistant to change. Organizational culture: Organizational culture, values, and norms cause resistance to change. If organizational change disrupts taken-for-granted values and norms and forces people to change what they do and how they do it, an organization’s culture will cause resistance to change. Group-Level Resistance to Change Many groups develop strong informal norms that specify appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and govern the interactions between group members. Often, change alters task and role relationships in a group; when it does, it disrupts group norms and the informal expectations that group members have of one another. As a result, members of a group may resist change because a new set of norms must be developed to meet the needs of the new situation. Group cohesiveness, the attractiveness of a group to its members, also affects group performance. A highly cohesive group may resist attempts by management to change what it does or even who is a member of the group. Groupthink and escalation of commitment also make changing a group’s behavior very difficult. Individual-Level Resistance to Change People tend to resist change because they feel uncertain and insecure about what its outcome will be. Selective perception and retention suggest that people perceive information consistent with their views. If change doesn’t benefit them, they do not endorse it. People’s preference for familiar actions and events is a further impediment to change. Lewin’s Force-Field Theory of Change Force-field theory is a theory of organizational change that argues that two sets of opposing forces within an organization determine how change will take place. When the forces are evenly balanced, the organization is in a state of inertia and does not change. To get an organization to change, managers must find a way to increase the forces for change, reduce resistance to change, or do both simultaneously. Any of these strategies will overcome inertia and cause an organization to change. (Refer to Figure 10. 2) Managerial Implications Managers must continuously monitor the environment to identify the forces for change. They must analyze how the change will affect the organization and determine which type of change to pursue. 10. 3 Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change in Organizations Evolutionary change refers to change that is gradual, incremental, and specifically focused. It adds small adjustments to strategy and structure to handle environmental changes. Sociotechnical systems theory, total quality management, and the creation of empowered, flexible work groups are three instruments of evolutionary change that organizations use in their attempt to make incremental improvements in the way work gets done. Revolutionary change refers to change that is sudden, drastic, and organization-wide. It has repercussions at all levels in the organization—corporate, divisional, functional, group, and individual. Three ways to implement revolutionary change are reengineering, restructuring, and innovation. Developments in Evolutionary Change: Sociotechnical Systems Theory Sociotechnical systems theory is a theory that proposes the importance of changing role and task or technical relationships to increase organizational effectiveness. It emerged from a study of changing work practices in the British coal-mining industry. The socio-technical systems theory argues that managers need to fit or jointly optimize the workings of the technical and social systems. A poor fit between an organization’s technology and social system leads to failure, but a close fit leads to success. When managers change task and role relationships, they must recognize the need to adjust the technical and social systems gradually so group norms and cohesiveness are not disrupted. By taking this gradual approach, an organization can avoid the group-level resistance to change. Researchers suggest that a team-oriented system promotes values that enhance efficiency and product quality. Total quality management uses sociotechnical systems theory. Total Quality Management Total quality management (TQM) is a technique developed by W. Edwards Deming to continuously improve the effectiveness of flexible work teams. It was embraced by Japanese companies after World War II. Changes frequently inspired by TQM include altering the design or type of machines used to assemble products and reorganizing the sequence of activities—either within or between functions—necessary to provide a service to a customer. Changing cross-functional relationships to help improve quality is important in TQM. The changes associated with TQM are changes in task, role, and group relationships. Implementing a TQM program is not always easy because it requires workers and managers to adopt new ways of viewing their roles in an organization. Managers must be willing to decentralize control of decision making, empower workers, and assume the role of facilitator rather than supervisor. The â€Å"command and control† model gives way to an â€Å"advise and support† model. Flexible Workers and Flexible Work Teams In implementing socio-technical systems theory and TQM, many organizations are finding it easier to achieve their goals by using flexible workers and teams. Flexible workers can be transferred between departments and functions as demand changes. The advantages of flexible workers include quick response to environmental changes; reduced boredom and increased incentives for quality; better understanding by learning one another’s tasks; and combining tasks to increase efficiency and reduce costs. A flexible work team is a group of workers who assume responsibility for performing all the operations necessary for completing a specified stage in the manufacturing process. A flexible work team is self-managed; members jointly assign tasks and transfer from one task to another. In a flexible work team, separate teams assemble different components and turn those components over to the final-product work team, which assembles the final product. Each team’s activities are driven by demands that have their origins in customer demands for the final product. (Refer to Figure 10. 3) Developments in Revolutionary Change: Reengineering The term â€Å"reengineering† has been used to refer to the process by which managers redesign how tasks are bundled into roles and functions to improve organizational effectiveness. It involves rethinking business processes, activities that cross functional boundaries. Instead of focusing on an organization’s functions in isolation from one another, managers make business processes the focus of attention. A business process is an activity that cuts across functional boundaries and is vital to the quick delivery of goods and services or that promotes high quality or low costs. Because reengineering focuses on business processes and not functions, an organization must rethink the way it approaches organizing its activities. A good example of how to use reengineering to increase functional integration comes from attempts to redesign the materials management function to improve its effectiveness. In the traditional functional design the three main components of materials management—purchasing, production control, and distribution—were typically in separate functions and had little to do with one another. Thus coordinating their activities is difficult. Each function has its own hierarchy, and there are problems in both vertical and horizontal communication. Today, most organizations put all three of the functional activities involved in the materials management process inside one function. Three guidelines for performing reengineering successfully are as follows: Organize around outcomes, not tasks. 2. Have those who use the output of the process perform the process. 3. Decentralize decision making to the point where the decision is made. Reengineering and TQM are highly interrelated and complementary. E-Engineering This is a term used to refer to companies’ attempts to use all kinds of information systems to improve performance. The importance of e-engineering is increasing as it changes the way a company organizes its value-creation functions and links them to improve its performance. Restructuring Restructuring is a process by which managers change task and authority relationships and redesign organizational structure and culture to improve organizational effectiveness. Downsizing is the process by which managers streamline the organizational hierarchy and lay off managers and workers to reduce bureaucratic costs. The drive to decrease bureaucratic costs results from competitive pressures. Mergers and acquisitions in many industries, such as banking, have led to downsizing because fewer managers are needed. Other companies have reduced staff to match competitors. The negative effects of downsizing include overworked managers and lost opportunities. Companies that fail to control growth must downsize to remain competitive. The terms anorexic or hollow are used to refer to organizations that downsized too much and have too few managers to help them grow when conditions change. Restructuring, like other change strategies, generates resistance to change. Often, the decision to downsize requires the establishment of new task and role relationships. Because this change may threaten the jobs of some workers, they resist the changes taking place. Innovation Innovation refers to the process by which organizations use their skills and resources to develop new goods and services or to develop new production and operating systems so they can better respond to the needs of their customers. 10. 4 Managing Change: Action Research In Lewin’s view, implementing change is a three-step process: (1) unfreezing the organization from its present state, (2) making the change, and (3) refreezing the organization in the new, desired state so its members do not revert to their previous work attitudes and role behavior. Action research is a strategy for generating and acquiring knowledge that managers can use to define an organization’s desired future state and to plan a change program that allows the organization to reach that state. Figure 10. 6 highlights the steps in action research. Diagnosis of the Organization The first step in action research requires managers to recognize the existence of a problem that needs to be solved and acknowledge that some type of change is needed to solve it. In general, recognition of the need for change arises because somebody in the organization perceives a gap between desired performance and actual performance. Determining the Desired Future State This step also involves a difficult planning process as managers work out various alternative courses of action that could move the organization to where they would like it to be and determine what type of change to implement. Implementing Action 1. First, managers identify possible impediments to change at all levels. The second step is deciding who will be responsible for actually making the changes and controlling the change process. The choices are to employ either external change agents or internal change agents or use some combination of both. 3. The third step is deciding which specific change strategy will most effectively unfreeze, change, and refreeze the organization. The types of change that these techniques give rise to fall into two categories: Top-down change is implemented by managers at a high level in the organization, knowing that the change will reverberate at all organizational levels. Bottom-up change is implemented by employees at low levels in the organization that gradually rises until it is felt throughout the organization. Evaluating the Action The fourth step in action research is evaluating the action that has been taken and assessing the degree to which the changes have accomplished the desired objectives. The best way to evaluate the change process is to develop measures or criteria that allow managers to assess whether the organization has reached its desired objectives. Institutionalizing Action Research Organizations need to institutionalize action research—that is, make it a required habit or a norm adopted by every member of an organization. The institutionalization of action research is as necessary at the top of the organization as it is on the shop floor. Managerial Implications Managers must develop criteria to evaluate whether a change is necessary, and carefully design a plan that minimizes resistance. 10. 5 Organizational Development Organizational development (OD) is a series of techniques and methods that managers can use in their action research program to increase the adaptability of their organization. The goal of OD is to improve organizational effectiveness and to help people in organizations reach their potential and realize their goals and objectives. OD Techniques to Deal with Resistance to Change Education and Communication: One impediment to change is that participants are uncertain about what is going to happen. Through education and communication, internal and external agents of change can provide organizational members with information about the change and how it will affect them. Participation and Empowerment: Inviting workers to participate in the change process is a popular method of reducing resistance to change. Participation complements empowerment, increases workers’ involvement in decision making, and gives them greater autonomy to change work procedures to improve organizational performance. These are key elements of most TQM programs. People that are involved in the change and decision-making process are more likely to embrace rather than resist. Facilitation: Both managers and workers find change stressful. There are several ways in which organizations can help their members to manage stress: providing them with training to help them learn how to perform new tasks, providing them with time off from work to recuperate from the stressful effects of change, or even giving senior members sabbaticals. Bargaining and Negotiation: Bargaining and negotiation are important tools that help managers manage conflict. Because change causes conflict, bargaining is an important tool in overcoming resistance to change. Manipulation: Sometimes senior managers need to intervene, as politics shows that powerful managers have considerable ability to resist change. Coercion: The ultimate way to eliminate resistance to change is to coerce the key players into accepting change and threaten dire consequences if they choose to resist. The disadvantage is that it can leave people angry and disenchanted and can make the refreezing process difficult. OD Techniques to Promote Change Counseling, Sensitivity Training, and Process Consultation: Recognizing that each individual is different also requires them to be treated or managed differently. Sometimes, counseling will help individuals understand that their own perceptions of a situation may be incorrect. Sensitivity training is an OD technique that consists of intense counseling in which group members, aided by a facilitator, learn how others perceive them and may learn how to deal more sensitively with others. Process consultation is an OD technique in which a facilitator works closely with a manager on the job to help the manager improve his or her interactions with other group members. Team building is an OD technique in which a facilitator first observes the interactions of group members and then helps them become aware of ways to improve their work interactions. The goal of team building is to improve group processes to achieve process gains and reduce process losses that are occurring because of shirking and freeriding. Intergroup training is an OD technique that uses team building to improve the work interactions of different functions or divisions. Its goal is to improve organizational performance by focusing on a function’s or division’s joint activities and output. Organizational mirroring is an OD technique in which a facilitator helps two interdependent groups explore their perceptions and relations in order to improve their work interactions. This technique is designed to get both interdependent groups to see the perspective of the other side. Appreciating others’ perspectives allows the groups to work together more effectively. Total Organizational Interventions: A variety of OD techniques can be used at the organization level to promote organization-wide change. Organizational confrontation meeting is an OD technique that brings together all of the managers of an organization at a meeting to confront the issue of whether the organization is meeting its goals effectively.

Thorn Queen Chapter Twenty

Tim surfaced the next morning after some liaison or another, and I decided not to mention that our wards had been broken. He handled my array of paranormal activities fairly good-naturedly, but that was largely because they usually didn't follow me home. So, I called the witch who'd originally laid the wards and asked her to come back and discreetly redo them, scheduling a time when I knew Tim would be out. After that it was off to the first shamanic job I'd had in a while, fighting a nixie who'd taken up residence in some poor family's swimming pool. The ease with which I dispatched her was a bit alarming. Earlier in the year, Dorian and I had fought off a group of them that Jasmine had sent. Dorian had done the fighting, and at the time, they'd seemed overwhelming. Now, with my magic becoming more and more instinctual, fighting a water creature like this was ridiculously simple. Admittedly, I still banished her the old-fashioned way, not wanting to rely on magic more than I had to. I didn't agree with Roland about its use-though my fight with him still stung-but it was exhilarating recalling how easily I'd fought the water elemental. If I could only summon water creatures like Jasmine could, my life would be easier still. And speaking of Jasmine, I summoned Volusian away from her later that evening. I was going to the Thorn Land shortly and felt confident that she wouldn't get knocked up before then. Well, I hoped so, at least. Volusian appeared in the darkest corner of my bedroom, scaring off one of the cats that had been sleeping on my bed. â€Å"My mistress calls,† he said in his monotone. â€Å"I have a job for you.† â€Å"Of course.† â€Å"I need you to go to Yellow River and check out the house of a shaman there. Do not let him see you-or sense you, if you can help it.† My vibe from Art was that while he could fight Otherworldly creatures, he didn't possess the same sensitivity I did. â€Å"And what would my mistress like me to do once I am there?† â€Å"Look around. Tell me if there's anything suspicious going on-particularly in regard to any gentry girls. Make sense?† Volusian's look was scathing. â€Å"Certainly it makes sense. Do not confuse me with the other underlings who serve you.† Once he had the address, he disappeared in that way of his, and I sighed. It might be worth enslaving another minion destined for the Underworld. It was easy enough for me, particularly if I got one who wasn't too strong. I didn't have a huge amount of respect for Volusian, but he'd been right about one thing. He was so powerful that his skills were better suited to protection and battle. A lesser spirit would suffice for all these errands I seemed to be sending him on lately. That was a thought for another day. For now, it was back to the Thorn Land. I planned on spending the night there since I wanted to get an early start on our demon hunting. Kiyo had said he'd come at sunrise, and I didn't want to miss a moment of being with him. When I arrived at my castle, I was a bit surprised to see a party going on. Well, not a true party, but Shaya, Rurik, and a few of the other head servants were hanging out in one of the parlors, drinking wine and laughing. Girard was still around and had joined them. Even Ysabel was there, looking happy for a change. None of them seemed to have expected me that night and most leapt up like naughty children. Shaya started to stammer something like an apology, but I silenced her with a gesture. â€Å"No, no. Keep having fun.† I somehow always thought of them as utilitarian fixtures around here, but of course, they were only human-well, figuratively speaking-and entitled to their downtime. After a few uneasy moments, they settled back down, and Rurik offered me a glass of wine. I shook my head. â€Å"You know,† he said, â€Å"that your minion disappeared.† â€Å"Yeah, I know. I sent him on a task.† â€Å"I doubled the guards on her when I heard.† â€Å"Good. Let's hope she's managed to keep her clothes on in this short of time.† â€Å"You should have killed her,† Ysabel noted darkly. I ignored that and turned away, leaving them to their party. â€Å"I'm going to check on her myself.† The bedroom Shaya had assigned Jasmine was one floor up and very cleverly chosen-not that I'd expect any less from Shaya. It was spacious and furnished but not so large that the guards within couldn't see her most of the time-the bathroom excluded. The room's one window was only a tiny slit, too small for anyone to get out of. Four guards stood on duty outside and four within. To my relief, Jasmine simply lay on her bed, reading one of the books I'd sent. Girard's new cuffs had a longer, thinner chain that gave her much more range of motion but was packed with iron. Those blue-gray eyes looked up at my approach, but the rest of her didn't move. â€Å"Oh. You.† I sat down on a narrow wicker bench and sent the guards outside with a curt nod. â€Å"I came to check on you.† â€Å"Right. Because you care so much.† â€Å"I do. Well, kind of.† â€Å"The only things you care about are having the heir yourself and forcing me to get rid of your monsters.† â€Å"Demons,† I corrected. â€Å"And believe me, the last thing I want is to have the heir.† â€Å"I heard the guards talking. They said you've been hanging out with Dorian a lot. Why else would you do that? No one else would rather have our father's grandson. Well, except Aeson.† A grimace fell over her face at the mention of her old lover. â€Å"Dorian's just my friend, something you'll understand when you're older.† Oh, Eugenie, you are such a hypocrite. â€Å"And you're better off without Aeson.† Her eyes returned to her book. â€Å"I loved Aeson. You have no idea what love is.† â€Å"Oh, I do. I know that it's the best high and the worst hurt all at the same time-not to mention confusing as hell.† Jasmine looked back at me, still sullen but with a new sort of consideration. â€Å"What do you want? Are you just here to babysit me until that fucking imp comes back? God, I hate him.† I started to tell her to watch her language and then decided there was no point. â€Å"I came to tell you we're going to take out those demons tomorrow.† â€Å"At gunpoint.† â€Å"I don't have a choice. They're terrorizing people. How can you not understand how serious that is?† She shrugged with her typical apathy and pushed some of that long blond hair out of her face. â€Å"Your problem. Not mine.† Self-centered brat. She frowned for a moment, though. â€Å"Are they still taking girls?† She sounded almost concerned. Almost. â€Å"I don't know,† I admitted. â€Å"I don't know if this group's connected or not. I actually think there are humans involved.† The book slipped to her lap, forgotten. â€Å"Why would they do that? That doesn't make any sense.† â€Å"I'll tell you when you're older,† I said dryly, which was silly considering all that she'd been through. â€Å"And you're certain†¦you're certain the group chasing you wasn't human?† â€Å"Yes, for like the hundredth time. They were shining ones.† â€Å"You said they were soldiers†¦.† A startling thought came to me. â€Å"Leather armor? Red shirts?† â€Å"That's how soldiers dress, isn't it? Well, maybe not the red shirt. Depends on who they work for, I guess. I don't remember the color.† â€Å"Does it happen a lot?† I asked, recalling past thoughts about the similarities between the two of us. â€Å"Are guys coming after you a lot to†¦you know†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Get me pregnant? Yeah, sometimes.† There was a sad look in her eyes, a very vulnerable one. â€Å"But†¦you don't always give in†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Jesus Christ, Eugenie. I won't sleep with anyone. What kind of a slut do you think I am?† A considerable one, actually. But I didn't say so, and I wondered if she'd ever been raped. â€Å"Sorry. You just seem so anxious to have that baby.† â€Å"Yeah, well, not with just anyone. And certainly not through rape.† She held her head up, a fierce look in her eyes. â€Å"No one does that to Storm King's daughter. It's an insult to our father's awesomeness.† Try as she might to deny her heritage, only the human part of her could have pulled up â€Å"awesomeness† to refer to a tyrannical fairy warlord. â€Å"You know I don't quite share the same regard for him that you do.† â€Å"I know,† she said. â€Å"Which is why you have such bad taste in men. You wouldn't catch me sleeping with a kitsune. I need someone worthy†¦like Aeson.† I started to argue again that Aeson had been a despotic asshole but knew logic and love rarely worked together-particularly if my own life was any indication. I was saved from further commentary when a coldness settled into the room and Volusian appeared. â€Å"Fuck,† said Jasmine. Man, did she have a mouth on her. I stood up, crossing my arms and trying to look imposing. It was a common attitude I kept around Volusian so there would be no question of my control. â€Å"Did you go to Art's house?† â€Å"Yes, mistress.† â€Å"And? Did you find anything?† â€Å"No, mistress. I could not enter.† â€Å"What do you mean? Did he invite you out back for beer too?† Volusian didn't blink. â€Å"The house was warded.† â€Å"The house was warded,† I repeatedly flatly. â€Å"And you couldn't cross it?† â€Å"They'd have to be some serious wards if he couldn't,† said Jasmine. â€Å"Thanks, Little Miss Stating the Obvious.† I racked my brain, thinking of the local witch network. I didn't know them well enough, not like I knew the shamans. â€Å"Where the hell would he find someone that strong?† â€Å"The wards were not the usual type found in the human world. They were laced with magic from this world as well,† continued Volusian. â€Å"What? How would Art get gentry help to lay wards-especially if he's abducting them?† â€Å"Maybe he put a gun to their head,† said Jasmine, in a fair imitation of my own dry tone. Another family trait, perhaps. â€Å"I've got to get into that house,† I muttered. â€Å"I guess that's gotta wait like everything else, though. Well, thanks for trying, Volusian.† â€Å"I neither require nor desire your gratitude, mistress. I want nothing in these worlds save your death.† Jasmine laughed. â€Å"Well, I'm sure you guys'll have a great time together.† I opened the door and beckoned the guards back in. With Volusian back, only two needed to be inside. â€Å"I'll see you both in the morning for demon hunting.† After that, I considered joining the others for their impromptu party but decided that would be the same as a boss crashing her employees' happy hour. Instead, I made my way to my own room but was intercepted by Girard. â€Å"Your majesty.† He swept me a bow in that flourish-filled way of his, making his cloak flare out dramatically. â€Å"I've made considerable progress on the project you requested.† â€Å"Already?† I knew he had magic for this kind of thing, but still. He smiled. â€Å"The queen asks, and I obey.† From within the folds of his cloak, he produced a rolled-up piece of parchment, which he opened up for me. On it was a detailed diagram of a sword, and scrawled all around it were assorted technical notes about weight and composition. Those meant little to me. Mostly I noticed the sword's beauty, particularly its hilt. â€Å"This is lovely,† I said. â€Å"I should hope so. Fit for a king.† In spite of myself, I smiled back. Dorian had left me in a miasma of emotions, but I'd been trying hard not to let that interfere with the honest favors he'd done me. And when he'd mentioned needing a new sword, I'd gotten the idea yesterday to have Girard make one. By all accounts, there were few more skilled, and his ability to touch iron made him particularly gifted. Girard traced the line of the sword's blade and tapped the end. â€Å"I can work iron into the tip here, and it shouldn't harm the Oak King so long as he's holding the hilt. It also shouldn't affect his ability to control the rest of the blade.† As a master of the earth and its contents, Dorian could infuse copper and sometimes bronze blades with magical heat. â€Å"But the tip will be deadly to his enemies,† I said. The idea to work iron into it had been mine. â€Å"Considerably. I can begin production right away, but I'll need to get an understanding of his current sword's balance before I can finalize this one.† â€Å"He'll be here tomorrow. You can talk to him then.† Dorian too had offered to help oust my demons. â€Å"Excellent. And Mistress Shaya tells me you have the materials here that I could use, if I have your permission to do so. Otherwise, I can return to my workshop in the Rowan Land.† I shook my head. â€Å"No, no. Use whatever you need here.† His lips twitched in a wry smile. â€Å"That's probably just as well. Were I to return home†¦well, I suspect my lord prince would spend days asking me about you.† I sighed. â€Å"Is he still upset about that?† â€Å"He was, forgive me, quite heartbroken over your rejection of the gift and of him.† â€Å"I didn't want that. I liked him-still do. I just wanted us to be friends.† â€Å"In my experience, your majesty, men and women often have difficulty with that. It's not impossible-but not always easy.† I thought about Dorian. â€Å"That's for damned sure. Well, thank you for this, and let me know if there's anything I can do to help with it. But seriously-don't go work on it now. Go back to that party. Drink up. Flirt with Shaya. She could use a good guy.† Girard erupted into laughter. It was a rich, honey-filled sound. â€Å"I treasure my neck too much to risk the captain of your guards wringing it.† It took me a moment to catch on. â€Å"Who, Rurik? He doesn't like Shaya†¦not that way, at least. She's too, I don't know, refined. He only goes after trashy kitchen girls.† Girard merely shrugged. â€Å"I'm serious!† I wasn't sure why this astounded me so much. â€Å"They might seem close, but it's because they work together. They're just friends.† Girard flashed another grin. â€Å"Didn't you just hear what I said about men and women being friends?† He dared a wink and bowed again. â€Å"Until tomorrow, your majesty.† I watched him go, that flamboyant red cape swirling around him. I was still in disbelief. Shaya and Rurik? No, it was ridiculous. I was certain she had no interest in him, and if he did want her, it was only for the same cheap reasons he wanted any woman. She was too smart for that. â€Å"You give my lord gifts yet still claim no interest.† I turned and saw Ysabel standing near a corner in the hall. She'd apparently overheard my conversation with Girard. Did this woman have nothing to do except lurk in halls and wait for me? â€Å"He's done a lot of favors for me lately. It's the only way I can really repay him.† â€Å"No doubt there are other ways you could repay him,† she said snidely. I started to give the â€Å"friends† line but had already had enough of that with Girard. â€Å"Please, I don't want to go through this same old song and dance. And you know, we both fulfilled our side of the deal with Dorian. I let you teach me. You're free. He's coming here tomorrow to help with the demon problem. Go home with him afterward.† Those big blue eyes widened in surprise. â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Why what?† â€Å"Why would you let me go?† â€Å"Because you don't want to be here. You gave me the foundation of what I need to know, and I've been building on it pretty quickly.† With a shiver, I recalled how I'd nearly suffocated that gentry in my yard. That had been intentional. I had no accident excuses as I'd had with her. It was probably something I shouldn't mention to her quite yet. As it was, she looked troubled enough. â€Å"Yes†¦you have learned quickly. The magic burns so strongly in you, I don't think it needs much of an excuse to burst out. You really are like Storm King.† â€Å"Did you know him?† I asked curiously. I was always conflicted on hearing about him. Part of me wanted nothing to do with him, yet the other part longed to know more. â€Å"I wouldn't say ‘know,'† she mused. â€Å"My father was one of his bodyguards, so I saw Storm King a few times. He was†¦terrifying. Terrifying and awe-inspiring.† She tried to hide her fear but shuddered anyway. â€Å"From what I hear, that's the reaction most people have.† Kiyo too had seen Storm King in his youth, and I'd once had a flashback of my own brief meeting with my father. â€Å"The power you try to summon†¦he was able to bring it about in a heartbeat. He had only to think about a storm and the world would tremble with its force.† â€Å"Well, I guess everyone can rest easy. I'm a long ways from that.† â€Å"Do you know why?† she asked. â€Å"Practice?† She shook her head and pursed her lips. â€Å"Because for all your titles and regard and impressive use of magic so far†¦you are still human in your heart.† Human, by her tone, was a very ugly thing to be. â€Å"Not according to my stepfather.† It didn't seem like I'd ever fit anyone's expectations. â€Å"You think like one. You want to divide everything up logically. The way you approach magic, it's very†¦scientific.† Not a word gentry used very often. â€Å"You treat it coldly. You parcel up each fragment of air and categorize it. Magic requires control, yes, but at its heart, it is tied to your emotions. You said you'd summoned lightning accidentally. What was going on?† â€Å"I was scared.† It had also happened, I realized, when I was aroused. â€Å"And, um, excited.† â€Å"You were lost in your emotions, and the power seized you. But you'll never be able to do that regularly, never by choice. You repress your emotions. You don't give in to them.† Her smile turned triumphant. â€Å"And that is why my lord will never love you like he does me.† Of course. I should have known there was a barb waiting at the end of this lesson. I wondered what she'd think if she knew her lord had been pretty willing to love me up yesterday. â€Å"Well, thanks for the pep talk, but I'm going to my room now. I meant what I said. Go with Dorian tomorrow and love him as much as you want. I'll carry on without you somehow.† No point in hiding the sarcasm I felt. Ysabel gave me a sickeningly sweet smile. â€Å"You're presuming you'll come back.† I jerked around and gave her a sharp look. â€Å"Are you threatening me?† â€Å"Certainly not. I have nothing to do with your adventure tomorrow. But you're going to face demons. Anything can happen. And if you don't return, I won't weep.† Great. Nothing like a good omen to go into battle with.

Eco Assignment Essays - Costs, Public Economics, Microeconomics

Eco Assignment Essays - Costs, Public Economics, Microeconomics 6) From economic point of view, what are the main causes of market failure ? From economic point of view, the main causes of market failure are Incomplete markets, Indivisibilities, Common property resources, Imperfect markets, Asymmetric Information, Externalities, Positive Externalities of Production, Negative externalities of production, Public Goods and Public Bads. In this present reality, there is non-achievement of Pareto optimality because of various requirements in the working of immaculate rivalry. A vital reason for ecological corruption is business sector disappointment. It implies poor working of business sectors for ecological merchandise and administrations. It reflects disappointment of government arrangement in uprooting business sector twists made by value controls and endowments. Based on Incomplete markets statement, Markets for certain things are incomplete or missing under perfect competition. The absence of markets for such things as public goods and common property resources is a cause of market failure. There is no way to equate their social and private benefits and costs either in the present or in the future because their markets are incomplete or missing. Based on Indivisibilities statement, the Paretian optimality is based on the assumption of complete divisibility of products and factors used in consumption and production. In reality, goods and factors are not infinitely divisible. Rather, they are indivisible. The problem of divisibility arises in the production of those goods and services that are used jointly by more than one person. An important example is of road in a locality. It is used by a number of persons in the locality. But the problem is how to share the costs of repairs and maintenance of the road. In fact, very few persons will be interested in its maintenance. Thus marginal social costs and marginal social benefits will diverge from each other and Pareto optimality will not be achieved. Based on Common property resources, Another cause of market failure is a common property resource. Common ownership when coupled with open access, would also lead to wasteful exploitation in which a user ignores the effects of his action on others. Open access to the commonly owned resources is a crucial ingredient of waste and inefficiency. Its most common example is fish in a lake. Anyone can catch and eat it but no one has an exclusive property right over it. It means that a common property resource is non-excludable (anyone can use it) and non-rivalrous (no one has an exclusive right over it). The lake is a common property for all fishermen. When a fisherman catches more fish, he reduces the catch of other fishermen. But he does count this as a cost, yet it is a cost to society. Because the lake is a common property resource where there is no mechanism to restrict entry and to catch fish. The fisherman who catches more fish imposes a negative externality on other fishermen so tha t the lake is overexploited. This is called the tragedy of the commons which leads to the elimination of social gains due to the overuse of common property. Thus when property rights are common, indefinite or non-existent, social costs will be more than private costs and there will not be Pareto Optimality. Based on imperfect markets statement, Pareto efficiency increases under perfect competition. But it declines under market distortions or imperfections. Let us consider a case of monopoly. Initially, monopoly equilibrium is at point E where the private marginal cost curve, PMC, cuts the marginal revenue curve, MR, from below. The monopolist produces OQ1 output at OP1 price. But the production process generates smoke in the air. Therefore, the pollution board levies a tax equal to on the monopoly firm. The imposition of a pollution tax is, in fact, a fixed cost to the monopoly firm. Now the social marginal cost curve cuts the marginal revenue curve at point e. The monopolist increases the price of his product from OP1 to OP2 and restricts output to OQ2 and thereby reduces consumers surplus to Q2 MLQ1 (= OQ1 LP1 OQ2 MP2). In fact, Q2 MLQ1 is the social cost of OQ2 output. But the net loss to society is Q2 MLQ1 TE= eMLT, the shaded area in the figure. Based on Asymmetric Information statement, Pareto optimality assumes that producers and consumers have perfect

1.5 Formal Writing Essay Animal Farm Essays - British Films

1.5 Formal Writing Essay Animal Farm Essays - British Films 1.5 Formal Writing Essay Animal Farm The novel, Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is a satire of the Russian Revolution in 1917. This novel takes place in England, on a farm called Manor Farm. The animals on this farm go on a rebellion against Mr Jones, bringing the farm to which the animals renamed it as Animal Farm. However, years later, the farm evolves back to its original name, Manor Farm. Many characters are shown throughout the novel. However, one major character who changed in the novel is Napoleon. Changes in Napoleon help us understand that if an individual is given too much power, they will abuse that power and become greedy and self-centered. At the very start of the novel, we can see Napoleon as a fair and equal member of the farm, who believed in animalism but soon changes into a selfish and lazy character. This can be shown through Napoleon stealing the milk, chasing Snowball away and killing Boxer. The first change we see in Napoleon is when he steals the milk. This is when the animals go out to work in the fields without Napoleon. Before the animals leave, they worry about the milk they have just collected. Napoleon tells the animals to not worry about the milk so the animals leave. However, When they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared. This implies that Napoleon has drunk the milk. This shows a change as we can see Napoleon is not working and does not share the milk equally with the farm animals. This change helps us understand the character Napoleon, as he is starting to become greedy and betray the spirits of animalism for his own personal gains. George Orwell uses this example to show how humans can be greedy and betray other people for their own personal gains too. This emphasises that, in the society we live in today, equality can never work out. This is an allusion to the 1917 Russian Revolution, where Stalin, who believed in communism craved for power and became dictator of Russia. Therefore, by stealing the milk we can understand Napoleon slowly changing from the good to bad. The second change we see in Napoleon is when he chases Snowball away from the farm. This happens when Snowball holds a meeting deciding whether they should start building the windmill or not. Napoleon disagrees and says it is nonsense. However, Snowball explains that life can be much easier with the windmill when, nine enormous dogs came bounding into the barndashing straight for Snowball. From here, we know that Napoleon is trying to get rid of Snowball. This shows a change as we can see Napoleon, who was equal and fair, suddenly gets rid of Snowball. This change in Napoleon helps us understand that Napoleon does not allow any opposition and that he is willing to betray others to maintain his control, which soon leads to dictatorship happening in the farm. George Orwell uses this example to show how humans can change, betray and get rid of others in order to gain power, by using force. This is an allusion of Stalin sending Trotsky into exile in 1929, because he had a large amount of supporters, including the Bolsheviks. Therefore by Napoleon using force against his opposition, we can understand that Napoleon is changing. The final change we see in Napoleon is when he chooses to kill Boxer. Animals on the farm are required to retire when they reach the age of about 12, so they can die naturally. Boxer, who is a hard-working horse, soon falls ill and reaches to the point where he cannot work anymore. However, instead of dying naturally, Napoleon and Squealer arrange plans to send Boxer over to the slaughterhouse. We can see that Napoleon is mistreating the animals to satisfy his own personal gains. This is shown when the animals say, from somewhere or other the pigs had acquired the money to buy themselves another case of whiskey. From here, we can tell that Napoleon had sent Boxer away for money. This shows a change, as Napoleon who was a fair and equal believer in animalism to a selfish and greedy animal soon

About the US Inspectors General

About the US Inspectors General A U.S. federal inspector general (IG) is the head of an independent, non-partisan organization established within each executive branch agency assigned to audit the agency’s operation in order to discover and investigate cases of misconduct, waste, fraud and other abuse of government procedures occurring within the agency. Within the federal agencies are politically independent individuals called Inspectors General who are responsible for ensuring that the agencies operate efficiently, effectively and legally. When it was reported in October 2006 that Department of Interior employees wasted $2,027,887.68 worth of taxpayer time annually surfing sexually explicit, gambling, and auction websites while at work, it was the Interior Departments own Office of Inspector General that conducted the investigation and issued the report. The Mission of the Office of Inspector General Established by the Inspector General Act of 1978, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) examines all actions of a government agency or military organization. Conducting audits and investigations, either independently or in response to reports of wrongdoing, the OIG ensures that the agencys operations are in compliance with the law and general established policies of the government. Audits conducted by the OIG are intended to ensure the effectiveness of security procedures or to discover the possibility of misconduct, waste, fraud, theft, or certain types of criminal activity by individuals or groups related to the agencys operation. Misuse of agency funds or equipment is often revealed by OIG audits. There are currently 73 offices of US inspectors general, far more than the initial 12 offices created by the Inspector General Act of 1978. Along with administrative staff and several financial and procedural auditors, each office employs special agents- criminal investigators who are often armed. The work of the IG offices involves detecting and preventing fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of the government programs and operations within their parent agencies or organizations. Investigations conducted by the IG offices may target internal government employees or external government contractors, grant recipients, or recipients of loans and subsidies offered through federal assistance programs.   To help them carry out their investigative role, Inspectors General have the authority to issue subpoenas for information and documents, administer oaths for taking testimony, and can hire and control their own staff and contract personnel. The investigative authority of Inspectors General is limited only by certain national security and law enforcement considerations. How Inspectors General Are Appointed and Removed For the Cabinet-level agencies, Inspectors General are appointed, without regard to their political affiliation, by the President of the United States and must be approved by the Senate. Inspectors General of the Cabinet-level agencies can be removed only by the President. In other agencies, known as designated federal entities, like Amtrak, the U.S. Postal Service, and the Federal Reserve, the agency heads appoint and remove Inspectors General. Inspectors General are appointed based on their integrity and experience in: Accounting, auditing, financial analysisLaw, management analysis, public administrationInvestigations Who Oversees Inspectors General? While by law, Inspectors General are under the general supervision of the agency head or deputy, neither the agency head nor the deputy can prevent or prohibit an Inspector General from conducting an audit or investigation. The conduct of the Inspectors General is overseen by the Integrity Committee of the Presidents Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE). How Do Inspectors General Report Their Findings? When an agencys Office of Inspector General (OIG) identifies cases of egregious and flagrant problems or abuses within the agency, the OIG immediately notifies the agency head of the findings. The agency head is then required to forward the OIGs report, along with any comments, explanations, and corrective plans, to Congress within seven days. The Inspectors General also send semiannual reports of all their activities for the past six months to Congress. All cases involving suspected violations of federal laws are reported to the Department of Justice, via the Attorney General.

The Negative Effects of Climate Change on Food Security in the Essay - 2

The Negative Effects of Climate Change on Food Security in the Caribbean - Essay Example Acid rain can take away important minerals from trees, plants, and soil (Smith et al., 2002). Without the presence of minerals in the soil, the plants and trees will not be able to grow properly. Based on this context, food security is being threatened because of insufficient supply of foods. Acid rain can cause serious harm to the plants and trees in the forest. In the absence of plants and trees in the forest, climate change such as the increase in the frequency and strength of extreme weather events like droughts, El Niňos, cyclones, heat waves, floods and king tides will become unavoidable (Choi, 2012). Similar to the negative impact of acid rain in the food security of the Caribbean, the presence of droughts, El Niňos, cyclones, heat waves, floods and king tides will also trigger a significant decrease in the country’s available food supply. Climate change is something that is uncontrollable by the humankind. For this reason, the only way to protect the food security of the Caribbean is to encourage its government to import and stock up at least three (3) to six (6) months supply of non-perishable food items. By doing so, the government of the Caribbean can ensure that there will always be food security for its people.

Why are there different perspectives on change within organizations Essay

Why are there different perspectives on change within organizations - Essay Example Bateman and Zaithaml (1990) assert that organizations must change because the environment within which they operate is constantly changing. They need to incorporate and implement change not only survive but also to maintain a competitive advantage within the industry. The various internal and external drivers of changes are intrinsically linked to performance outcome of the firm. They also influence the perspectives of people in the organization and therefore, directly or indirectly impact the performance of the organization. Therefore, they become vital factors to be evaluated and analysed for efficient exploitation by the managerial leadership. But at the same time, it is equally true that changes are perceived differently by different people and therefore, there is always an element of resistance within a group of people in the organization. Indeed, the different views on change within the organization can be explained because organizations have different goals, structures and org anizational culture that may necessitate different response to the defined change. The perception to change therefore is often influenced by multitude of issues which can be defined by individual ideologies and beliefs; group representation; individual and organizational competencies; power dynamics within the organizations; inter-cultural compulsions etc. ... The organizations, in totem, also have wide ranging reaction to the environmental changes. They adapt and exploit them to improve and improvise productivity. The people therefore become major factors within the organizations whose perceived value of the changes can have considerable impact on the outcome. The organizational perception to change needs to be evaluated and analyzed for gaining leverage in the highly competitive business environment. Thus, the diversity of issues and factors that promote different outlook to changes within the organizations would be discussed for developing more effective strategy of change management in the organization. Many social scientists have proposed four major determinants of change: the structural-functional, multiple constituencies, organizational development, and creativity and volition perspective (Jackson, 2003; Cyert & March, 1963; Shafritz and Ott, 1991; Pfeffer, 1981). The various propellants are primarily focused on optimal performance by changing inputs into desired output by the organizations. The structural-functional paradigm promotes changes that increase the productivity through increase in functional efficiency and structural modification. The Fordism highlights the increase of productivity through standardization of process. Change intervention becomes essential part of business strategy. Thus, businesses constantly look out for processes and means that would enhance their productivity and financial benefits. Multiple constituencies primarily focus on various stakeholders of the business which can have significant influence on the performance of the organization. The various linkages within and outside the organizational purview

Critical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Critical Analysis - Essay Example disharmonious because in a democracy individual citizens have to make difficult political choices, with no guarantees that the choice is the correct solution. It is also disharmonious because the end results of public deliberations in any community on a controversial subject will differ, because of the autonomy that each individual enjoys in a democratic society. It is the perception of the author that disharmony in a democratic society will ebb only when there is mutual respect in the political choices made by the different individuals that make up the society. Quoting from Schumpeter 1943 p. 269, the author presents the understanding of democracy from the perspective of Schumpeter as â€Å"that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for peoples vote†. The author argues against this understanding of democracy. While pointing out to the strength of this understanding of democracy through its recognition of the basis of democracy in the competition for the votes of the people, the author derides its lack of projecting any value for the process of competing for the vote of the people. The author uses the example of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the rule of the Communist dictator Stalin to reinforce this argument. The author finds further support from Robert Dahl, 1989, who argues that such an understanding of democracy does not differentiate from autocracy. The author proposes that populist democracy as an understanding of is founded on the basis of â€Å"people ruling themselves as free and equal beings rather than being ruled by an external power or by a self-elected minority among themselves.† In other words the stress in populist democracy is on the will of the people. To this end then there are built in constraints to ensure that decisions in the democratic society reflect popular will. An example of this is in the rule of law, as against the

Business Memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business Memo - Essay Example ittee believes that, thought we have already passes the deadlines for certain construction works due to unexpected circumstances, we should move forward with engineering and customization of the equipment to be installed in the new facility, as well as with the development of sales and marketing strategies for the new drug. This will enable us to work in full and introduce the new drug to the market immediately after the facility is launched. Secondly, since we consider the delay in environmental assessment to be the major, and critical, problem as for now, and taking into account the fact that ET had 3 months for solving it, but has presented no conclusive reports, we strongly recommend taking immediate measures for eliminating this problem. In particular, since ET shows not to perform its immediate responsibilities in the scope and within deadlines critical for our company, we recommend replacing the firm with another environmental consulting company. In such a way we can speed up the environmental assessment process in order to move on to the next stages of construction or clean up, if

Challenges that Walmart and M&S Face Term Paper

Challenges that Walmart and M&S Face - Term Paper Example Walmart is a multinational corporation of the US that operates a large chain of discounted departmental stores. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart opened its first store in 1962 with a discounting model of retailing. Walmart has expanded and has its presence globally (Walmart, 2011). Michael Mark and Thomas Spencer jointly opened the Marks and Spencer store in the UK, popularly known as M&S, in 1894. M&S operates several retail shops in the UK and is present in other nations as well (Marks & Spencer plc, 2011). Walmart has been able to grow internationally and operate in several countries. There were various challenges present from the diverse forces of the business environment. However, they have been successful in establishing its brand and its presence all over the world. Similarly, M&S grew big with a lot of challenges and created its brand image globally. Both companies operate globally and are also well-known to be the largest retail chains in the world (North Dakota State Univ ersity, 2003). The success of Walmart was its strategy of business operations. They based the operations on web-based application to support their motto of ‘everyday low pricing’ and enhance the satisfaction level of customers (North Dakota State University, 2003). The low pricing strategy and satisfaction level of customers were the major guiding principles of Walmart for their success. They are still following this concept with their existing products and new innovative ideas as well (North Dakota State University, 2003). The success of M&S was because of the innovative development of their knitwear in the UK market. It led to a significant change in the textile industry of the market. During the nineteenth century the market was dominated by the wholesalers, but in the twentieth century, the retail industry started to rule the market. M&S’s innovative idea of product development made the brand international (Riello, 2003). Both Walmart and M&S have been succes sful in their host country first and then as they grew, they became international by opening different stores at several locations of the world. M&S and Walmart are in a similar industry and operate in the international market. Their global presence has made them face global challenges in recent times. The pressures of the international market upon the two are similar in nature as the overall retail industry faces similar challenges. The chief challenge that both M&S and Walmart are facing is that of customer retention. Retention of the customers both in the domestic and the international market has been the biggest challenge. In recent times, the intense competition for retaining and acquiring customers has become the chief challenge and an important objective of the retailers.

Cognitive biases and decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cognitive biases and decision making - Essay Example ob applicant, an interviewer may give a high rating to another applicant who is average at best because they appear more qualified than the previous applicant. Adjustment and anchoring biases may also influence decision making, especially in cases where the individual tends to make judgments on the basis of their initial assessments as anchor, while failing to make sufficient later adjustments (Das & Teng, 1999: p760). For example, an interviewer who has a high-caliber anchor or descriptions of the perfect job candidate may give average applicants substantially higher scores than the interviewer who has anchors of a lower caliber. In this case, evaluation and judgment is not dependent on competence but, rather, on anchors (Das & Teng, 1999: p760). Availability bias also influences the process of decision making, specifically as a result of inaccurate evaluation of event frequency based on the ease of memory recall. The aspects of a specific issue that are unusual and, as a result, more memorable, are more easily recalled and occur more frequently, which negatively influences the process of decision making in most cases. For instance, an interviewer may be influenced more by unfavorable and negative information as compared to more positive information. In such a scenario, availability biases is referent to a condition in which imaginations and beliefs of what could or should happen leads to the ind ividual making the decision remembering similar past situations and applying them to the current situation (Das & Teng, 1999: p760). Confirmation biases also have a unique impact on the decision making process and outcomes. In this case, there is a tendency for the decision-maker to look for evidence in order to confirm pre-conceptions, while ignoring any information that contradicts these pre-conceptions. One scenario that is especially liable to cognitive bias but can be improved through using the right decision making process is an evaluation of appropriate climate

Challenges that Walmart and M&S Face Term Paper

Challenges that Walmart and M&S Face - Term Paper Example Walmart is a multinational corporation of the US that operates a large chain of discounted departmental stores. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart opened its first store in 1962 with a discounting model of retailing. Walmart has expanded and has its presence globally (Walmart, 2011). Michael Mark and Thomas Spencer jointly opened the Marks and Spencer store in the UK, popularly known as M&S, in 1894. M&S operates several retail shops in the UK and is present in other nations as well (Marks & Spencer plc, 2011). Walmart has been able to grow internationally and operate in several countries. There were various challenges present from the diverse forces of the business environment. However, they have been successful in establishing its brand and its presence all over the world. Similarly, M&S grew big with a lot of challenges and created its brand image globally. Both companies operate globally and are also well-known to be the largest retail chains in the world (North Dakota State Univ ersity, 2003). The success of Walmart was its strategy of business operations. They based the operations on web-based application to support their motto of ‘everyday low pricing’ and enhance the satisfaction level of customers (North Dakota State University, 2003). The low pricing strategy and satisfaction level of customers were the major guiding principles of Walmart for their success. They are still following this concept with their existing products and new innovative ideas as well (North Dakota State University, 2003). The success of M&S was because of the innovative development of their knitwear in the UK market. It led to a significant change in the textile industry of the market. During the nineteenth century the market was dominated by the wholesalers, but in the twentieth century, the retail industry started to rule the market. M&S’s innovative idea of product development made the brand international (Riello, 2003). Both Walmart and M&S have been succes sful in their host country first and then as they grew, they became international by opening different stores at several locations of the world. M&S and Walmart are in a similar industry and operate in the international market. Their global presence has made them face global challenges in recent times. The pressures of the international market upon the two are similar in nature as the overall retail industry faces similar challenges. The chief challenge that both M&S and Walmart are facing is that of customer retention. Retention of the customers both in the domestic and the international market has been the biggest challenge. In recent times, the intense competition for retaining and acquiring customers has become the chief challenge and an important objective of the retailers.

Social Inequality 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social Inequality 2 - Essay Example They see employment opportunities in connection with the social network they have. If they don’t have connections, they have a slim chance of getting a job. Also, they view higher level jobs that are prominent in the present time as unreachable since they do not fulfill the requirements needed for them to be eligible to apply, like a clean background and a high school diploma. In contrast, the aspirations and expectations of the Brothers indicate a more optimistic view of a future life. Since they are in school and are exposed to a different part of the neighborhood, living near middle-class and even white families, they see society’s standards as a guide for their own aspirations and expectations. They value education and work compared to masculinity, violence and peer group (or subculture) solidarity as an important aspect of life for the Hallway Hangers. With that, they aspire to reach middle and higher level jobs and expect that with a diploma and perseverance, they will be able to reach their goals in life. Employment opportunities, they believe, are open for them as they have a better family and social background than that of the Hallway Hangers. Looking at these scenarios, we can also expect that the Brothers will be able to reach their aspirations and expectations, however, they ended up the same as the Hallway Hangers in the job market, as the unemployed or underemployed. This can be credited to the fact that since they have lived in lower-class neighborhood, born in lower-class families, they tend to be accepted in jobs that are more manual than professional. Also, the changing structure of the economy, from manufacturing (needing hard labor) to a more service-oriented one gave them lesser opportunities. This increases the validity of how the social background and job opportunities are triggered by social factors.

Towards A Self Sufficient Prison Model Criminology Essay

Towards A Self Sufficient Prison Model Criminology Essay The cost of arresting and sentencing an offender has been calculated at $150,000, with every year spent in prison costing an additional $90,000 (Prison Fellowship New Zealand, 2012). In New Zealand there are over 8,000 prisoners incarcerated, the cost of housing inmates therefore totalling up to a substantial bill for the Government and taxpayers alike. Despite the millions of dollars being infiltrated into the correctional system, recidivism rates are still relatively high, with 44 % of people being released from prison, reoffending and being re-imprisoned within a three year period (Department of Corrections, 2009). Such figures are not unique to New Zealand, with the likes of the United States and United Kingdom facing larger overheads with similarly dissatisfying results in reducing reoffending. Quite contrastingly, in Nordic countries even an imperfect comparison suggests reoffending appears far less of a problem, with the overall reoffending rate over a two year period varying from the lowest in Norway at 20% to the highest in Sweden with 30% (Kristofferson, 2010). Due to variation in measuring methods between countries, caution must be taken in comparing these figures, but that aside one other possible explanation for lower reoffending rates in Nordic countries is the progressive and unique correctional methods which have been implemented there. Centred on openness, personal growth and ecology, the common aim is not to overtly punish but to focus on the rehabilitative needs of prisoners. Inspired by the particular success of Norways self-sufficing prison Bastoy and with the goal of uncovering an alternative to the traditional closed and costly prison regimes, this paper will examine the concept of self-sufficient prisons. An investigation will be made into the history of prisons which have done or still do operate under a self-sufficient ethos and an analysis of the consequential benefits and/or potential disadvantages will be carried out. Throughout the paper in-depth consideration will also be given to any relationship which research has found to exist between a prison based on self-sufficient ideals and rehabilitation. Furthermore, in weighing up the findings reached from this investigation, the viability of self-sufficient prisons realistically operating in New Zealand will be explored and any possible limitations which could hinder their success will be acknowledged. Self-sufficient prison model When confronted with the phrase self-sufficient prison, several different interpretations can be drawn as to what exactly this entails. Firstly, from an economic perspective the term self-sufficient prison represents a prison which operates with the primary goal of counteracting its running costs and even generating profits through inmate labour and production. A prison encapsulating this understanding often runs similarly to a traditional closed prison but inmates participate in working during their sentences, rather than simply idly passing the time away in cells. An example of this type of self-sufficiency can be seen at Louisiana State Penitentiary(Angola). Formed in 1835, this prison was based around the concept of inmates working and in 1880 an 8,000 acre plantation was bought to fulfil this ideal. Today, it is the biggest maximum security prison in the United States, it also has been designed on self-sufficient principles, being said to function as a small community with a can ning factory, a dairy, a mail system, a small ranch, repair shops, and a sugar mill. Colloquially known as the farm, it is situated on 18,000 acres, with approximately 5000 inmates whom work to produce enough food to support over 11,000 people throughout five different prisons in the State. The resources which come from the land are used for the benefit of inmates and benefit the community. Prison warden Bruce Cain describes the prison today by stating we all work together. Were all one. Our resources are their resources. (Auzenne Williams, 2010, p.1). Another way to interpret prison self-sufficiency is to understand it as an environment where prisoners have the opportunity provide for themselves, within the compound of a supportive correctional facility. Although still attempting to offset financial costs, the focus of such a prison is on achieving a community like existence where inmates have an element of independence, enabling them to cook, clean, work and essentially be self-sufficient. In unison with the prisoners self-sufficiency the prison would operate sustainably through adopting environmentally friendly practices which are in harmony with nature, impacting as little possible on its surrounds. This would involve energy efficient strategies being implemented such as the use of solar panels to provide hot water and heating, water conservation, reductions in transportation fuel use and high efficiency lightning and appliances. As well as that, recycling, composting and waste reduction would be of focus. Ultimately this under standing of the phrase self-sufficient prison, can be defined as a correctional facility which seeks to reduce the human, environmental and economic costs of prison. Currently, there is only one real example of a prison operating completely in line with this understanding of prison self-sufficiency. Located in Norway, on an island in the Oslo Fiord is Bastoy prison. Designed to operate as a small self-sufficient community this prison encompasses the spirit and meaning of self-sufficiency to the fullest. It not only has one of the lowest reoffending rates in the world at 16%, but is also the most cost efficient prison in the whole of Norway (Sutter, 2012). Housing up to 115 inmates, numerous buildings spread over a rural landscape and just as in any other community there is shop, library, information office, health services, church, school, NAV (government social services), dock and ferry service all located within the prison, for the inmates use. Each day inmates at Bastoy work between the hours of 8.30 am and 3.00 pm in one of various different work units, including ; the agricultural sector, the greenhouses, the forestry unit , seed and grass p roduction, the kitchen, the shop, the maintenance unit, on the fishing boat or running the ferry. (Bastoy Prison, 2012). The work they do not only allows the prison to run self-sufficiently and earn the inmates a small wage, but it also fulfils their daily existence. Bastoy instils a sense of community, reality and independence, three aspects which are key to the rehabilitation of inmates. Other aspects which separate Bastoy from traditionally run prisons and contribute to its self-sufficient existence include an absence of intimidation and scare mongering from guards, whom are unarmed and do not wear uniforms. Instead, guards are thoroughly trained to safely and purposefully interact with prisoners and just as the prisoners do, they become part of the Bastoy community. The prison is also committed to being environmentally sustainable. It is run under human-ecological values, farming is ecological, the prison handles most of its own rubbish, there is a constant focus on minimizing CO2-emissions and the buildings are heated from solar panels or the wood they grow and process themselves (Bastoy Prison, 2012). The current Governor of the prison is extremely dedicated to the self-sufficient methods instilled on the island, even living there himself. His passion is demonstrated in this quote where he states; The prison is self-sustaining and as green as possible in terms of recycling, solar panels and using horses instead of cars. It means that the inmates have plenty to do and plenty of contact with nature the farm animals, wildlife, the fresh air and sea. We try to teach inmates that they are part of their environment and that if you harm nature or your fellow man it comes back to you (Prison Governor, Arne Kvernvik Nilsen quoted in Hernu, 2011). Some would say these are words of a man completely deranged. His views and methods of running a prison are the polar opposite to the traditional closed, harsh and costly regimes so commonly seen throughout westernised society. Regardless of opinion, one significant factor remains, this prison is working, in all sense of the meaning. History of self-sufficiency and prisons In 1787 Jeremy Bentham called for prisons to become mills for grinding rogues honest and idle men industrious (Reynolds, 1996). He was not alone in this way of thinking and across the United States incarceration came to be more and more industrious as prisons realised the value of the workforce they had at their disposal. In 1797, Newgate prison opened in New York City and successfully it recouped nearly all of its expenses during the first five years of the operation through prisoner production. The Auburn system named after another New York prison producing superior economic results, dominated U.S. prison culture from 1823. The basis of the Auburn system was to confine prisoners at night but have them come together and work during the day (Reynolds, 1996). For centuries the American prison system sought to function self-sufficiently and according to research conducted by Lyons (2012) the existence of prison farms acted not only as an economically viable way of sufficing prison popu lations, but also functioned as a disciplinary and rehabilitative work program crucial to the 19th century penitentiary. With the successes of working prisons also came criticism, primarily in the form of complaints about unfair competition from prison-made products being created in the public market. Allegations of abuse were also made, accusing prisons of exploiting inmates and concerns were raised over the security of the public. All three criticisms increased political pressure and worked in creating legislative changes. Self-sufficiency as a key element of the penitentiary system was being challenged and continued to be phased out. During the last two decades incarceration in the United States has become increasingly privatised, commercialised and run in favour of corporate profit. Companies such as Aramark and many other suppliers have made substantial profits, through providing prisons with food and other products. Between 1993 and 2000 alone, the US food service industry gen erated 36 billion dollars in profit through contracts with correctional facilities (Lyons, 2012). For over 100 years Canada has had six successfully operating prison farms (Frontenac, Pittsburgh, Westmorland, Riverbend, Rockwood, and Bowden). However, in 2009, the Canadian Corrections Department began taking action towards phasing out the farms, claiming deficits of around four million per annum and suggesting money used to run the farms could be better put into public safety. There has been no proof provided to support such claims of ineffectiveness and those involved with the farms argue this is not the case, with the farms in fact being extremely positive correctional operations. In response to the news of closing the farm community members, correctional officers and ex inmates themselves came together in the national Save Our Prison Farms campaign. The campaign seeks to stall the closure of the prison farms in order to provide non-governmental experts time to collect evidence of the farms viability and benefits (Lyons, 2012). In the United Kingdom prison farm closures began t aking place several years ago. Between 2002 and 2005 the prison service significantly reduced its farming regime from having twenty-three farms, to only the current five. Those currently in operation include; North Sea Camp, Prescoed, Hewell, East Sutton Park and Kirkham but between them only provide a mere 92 inmate work opportunities. They are run on a small scale with no real emphasis of self-sufficiency and have become more about training than anything else (Ministry of Justice, 2010). Although it would appear self-sufficiency in prison is becoming a redundant concept, there are places which are embracing it and achieving successful results. As mentioned above, Bastoy prison in Norway is the quintessential example of an operational self-sufficient prison which is demonstrating the immense value such a prison can have. The origins of Bastoy stem from a Scandinavian ethos of open and active prisons which have throughout time been based on the principle that prisons should be no more arduous than a loss of liberty and be as normal to daily life on the outside as possible. The idea of prison farms began in Finland in the 1930s, with a new type of labour colony being introduced to the Finnish prison system in 1946. Inmates have always been and still are paid according to the normal wage, it would also not be uncommon for prisoners to be paying taxes, buying food, giving money to their family, to their victims and saving for their release. Open prisons hold between 20 % (Sweden) to 40 % (Denmark) of the Scandinavian prison population and in nearly all cases when a prisoner is reaching the end of their sentence they will be moved to an open prison. Communal style living is largely adopted in these facilities, with some prisons being entirely self-catering and for the most part those at an open prison will be working during the day (Pratt, 2008). Most recently, the environmental sustainability of prisons has drawn attention, with concerns being raised about the ecological footprint of corrections and also because of the rehabilitative value green initiatives can have. Just in 2011, the US Department of Justice released the publication The Greening of Corrections: Creating a Sustainable System, a document which outlines sustainable practices, principles and identifies examples of programs and management strategies which can be implemented to create self-sustaining correctional facilities. The focus throughout the document is on the long term goal of limiting the financial and human costs of prisons. Methods outlined to achieve this goal are the reduction of energy and resource use, engaging inmates with beneficial work experiences as well as giving education and training (US Department of Justice, 2011). An organisation going forth and putting these ideals into practice is the Sustainability in Prisons Project. Operating as a partnership between Washington State Corrections and Evergreen College they seek to make prisons more environmentally sustainable and in turn economically efficient. Currently four Washington State correctional centres are operating in unison with the project; Cedar Creek, Stafford Creek, Mission Creek and Washington Corrections Centre for Women. Each are participating in varying programs which include; endangered animal protection, insects and plants, water and energy conservation, motorless lawn mowing, a dog rescue initiative, butterfly rehabilitation program, recycling, composting, organic gardening, a horticulture greenhouse, beekeeping, water catchment basins, low-flush toilets, tree planting and wild land fire fighting. Advantages/Disadvantages When analysing the concept of self-sufficient prisons, there are both advantageous and disadvantageous aspects which need to be acknowledged to gain a complete understanding of the viability of such a prison model. In firstly examining the potential benefits to come from a self-sufficient environment, one of primary significance is the possibility of self-sufficient practices being able to reduce prison expenditure. A change as simple as removing state issued clothing and uniforms could save millions of dollars. Building on this, if prisoners are taking care of themselves, there is consequently less of a need to employ staff to do things such as cooking, cleaning, farming, gardening and maintenance jobs. Having inmates produce and harvest their own food could allow for even greater savings. According to Breslin (2012), if the United States were to enact a policy which required prisons to utilise their own food sources through the operation of self-sufficient farms, prison spending co uld be reduced by $1.7 billion each year. Lyons (2012) similarly supports this notion and she uses the Florida Department of Corrections as a case example. In 2001 they ended a history of prison farming and contracted Aramark to provide all the food needed to Floridas prisons. This was in an attempt to save money, but six years later costs were only increasing by millions of dollars. Costs could only be reduced through a change in prisoners lifestyles, but also through sustainably modifying prison facilities. Buildings can be constructed or altered to be environmentally sustainable. This would include among other things, installing solar panels, composting and recycling plants and farming ecologically. Putnamville medium security facility in Indiana has recently implemented several green initiatives, such as; using a wood chipper that fuels a wood-burning furnace (saving $1.25 million per year), recycling cans, bottles, paper, and other material which in turn saves them around $150, 000 each month (Couch, 2012). An equally valuable advantage of the self-sufficient prison regime is the potential benefit to inmate health, both mentally and physically. Lyons (2012) noted that through being able to exercise, to breath in fresh air, and to simply get outside the confines of cement and barbed wire inmates would be healthier and emotional pressures associated with the harsh prison environment would be abridged. More specifically the mental health of prisoners could be aided through having the intellectual stimulation of actually taking part in meaningful activity, such as harvesting food for their own tables or chopping wood to keep them warm. Successfully completing jobs could also increase the sense of self pride in inmates, seeing they can achieve and successfully live independently. Physical advantages are just as evident, working is obviously a form of exercise and through growing their own organic produce dietary needs would be likely to be met in turn reducing the risk of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, all conditions stemming from unhealthy eating patterns. Additionally, with an increase in the overall health of inmates, money would be saved on prison medical services (Breslin, 2012). Correlations have been drawn between a better quality of living and the improved behaviour and conduct of inmates. When interviewed about life inside Bastoy, an inmate tractor driver said in closed prison I was locked up for 23 hours a day, so Im really happy with this job. I am treated very well here and in return I will treat them very well also (Hernu, 2011).   A US post-release employment project study found prison conduct among inmates who had taken part in work, vocational or apprenticeship programs was better than that of otherwise similar prisoners (Reynolds, 1996). Related to having the opportunity to work and live self-sufficiently in prison is the education and vocational skills prisoners could learn. As suggested by Lyons(2012), the job and life skills that inmates learn through farming, teamwork, time management and having responsibility can be applicable to any type of future work. In now turning to the potential downfalls of the self-sufficient model, the most notable disadvantage is the safety risk an open style of prison poses. Internally there is an increased risk of danger to both inmates and officers safety and externally there is a greater risk of endangerment of the public due to more opportunities for escape. Firstly, if inmates are openly living and working with each other there are going to be vast opportunities for violence and abuse to take place, especially when tools which could be used as weapons are involved. Constant movement would make it harder for guards to keep track of inmates, whereas when in a cell all day constant monitoring can occur. Secondly, guards would be more susceptible to harm in an environment where there is frequent close interaction between themselves and inmates. Trust is so heavily relied upon in a community based self-sufficient model that if this was abused there could be dire consequences. The possibility of threats to public safety could also be said to increase, as with more freedom come more chances to escape and be at large in general society. A risk associated directly with working in prison is the exploitation of inmates. Frequently outlined in prison research as a significant disadvantage of prison farms; this concern lies in the possibility of production becoming more important than any other factor, including the welfare of the prisoners who can become subject to hard labour and little else. There have been numerous situations where agricultural work in prison has been the catalyst of degrading and unhealthy working conditions exposing inmates to disease, physical violence and abusive practices (Lucko, 2007). For some, the idea of prisoners living in a community like environment, which includes recreational time and the opportunity to live a life based on normality, would fall short in serving the retributive role prisons are traditionally expected to provide. Victims and their families may feel this alternative model of prison does not adequately punish perpetrators for the crimes they have committed against them. Monetary exploitation can also occur through inmates being extremely under paid for their labour when working on farms, building furniture or assembling products for giant multi-national corporations who can make additional profits at the expense of prisoners. Resulting from this is the possibility of large corporations like Microsoft or McDonalds engaging in the practice of utilising prison labour and gaining an unfair advantage over their competitors (Smith and Hattery, 2006). Rehabilitation and self-sufficient prisons If we have created a holiday camp for criminals here, so what? We should reduce the risk of reoffending, because if we dont, whats the point of punishment, except for leaning toward the primitive side of humanity? (Arne Kvernvik Nilsen, quoted in Sutter, 2012). This quote demonstrates the strong rehabilitative views of Bastoys prison director, who currently heads the prison with lowest reoffending rate in Europe. He strongly believes in the theory that if inmates are eventually going to end up being somebodys neighbour, everything possible should be done to enhance rehabilitation and ultimately prevent future crime. The proof of his beliefs becoming a reality are evident in the correlations which can be drawn between the self-sufficient and open environment at Bastoy and the mere 16% reoffending rate. In attempting to ascertain whether any particular element of the self-sufficient regime is more effective than another in reducing reoffending, each of the main facets of the concept will be examined below. A vast amount of support has been given for the effectiveness of farming and/or working in prisons. Lyons (2012) suggests that there are two main steps which need to be taken for the cycle of criminality to be broken. The first, individual empowerment and the second, being able to find work upon release. Farming she believes is a proven success in helping prisoners to achieve both. To get a real perspective on farming as a rehabilitative tool Lyons (2012) interviewed a former correctional officer from a Canadian prison farm. In their opinion prison farming is the single-most successful rehabilitation program they have seen to exist, and that in their thirty years working with the program they did not see one case of violent reoffending amongst prisoners who had been involved. Another aspect of the self-sufficient philosophy being explored here is the openness this type of prison has. In contrast to the more traditional closed ideal where prisoners spend a vast majority of their time behind bars, in an open style prison inmates are faced with everyday decisions on constant basis. Bastoy governor Nilsen suggests that at Bastoy the openness of the prison allows for inmates to learn and be taught how to make the right decisions and essentially become better people. He compares this to in a closed prison where prisoners are mostly removed from interactive encounters and situations requiring cognitive thinking. This he refers to as treating prisoners like animals or robots (Sutter, 2012). In a conventional prison in which inmates have no freedom and are not involved with work or farming, it is too often the case that the system literally closes the door in the face of the inmate. It is surely absurd to really believe that this will be beneficial, especially in terms of rehabilitation. Being given the personal responsibility of a job in prison and becoming a part of a working environment has the potential for prisoners to increase self-respect, as well as respect for others such as the system which would be supporting instead of disregarding them. When describing the effect Bastoys open prison has had on inmates, Nilsen refers to opportunities inmates have here to do more than just sit in a cell all day. They look at themselves in the mirror, and they think, I am s***. I dont care. I am nothing,' he said. This prison, he says, gives them a chance to see they have worth, to discover, Im not such a bad guy (Nilsen quoted in Sutton, 2012). The ecological focus of a self-sufficient prison model not only contributes to a sustainable environment, but has also been linked having to rehabilitative qualities. When daily life is spent in a safe, healthy and humane environment, on release the positive and green initiatives experienced inside can surely only be of benefit to the community on release . Research has been carried out to support such assumptions and uncover any relationships existent between living sustainably, having exposure to nature and consequential prisoner rehabilitation. Wener et al (cited in US Department of Justice, 2011) found that the effect of interaction with nature on human behaviour is improved emotional wellbeing. Similarly in a separate study conducted by Ulrich (cited in US Department of Justice, 2011) it was established that through being involved with nature aggressive tendencies and stress can both be reduced. In evaluating the value of the Sustainable Prison Project currently already action i n Washington, the Department of Justice (2011) believes that benefits of these projects are wide-ranging and encompass far more than just learning new skills. Their review of the project found improvements in; inmate self-esteem, interactions with others and the sense of purpose they had. All of which are congruent with the goal rehabilitation. With a vast amount of studies and research highlighting increases in recidivism and re-offending figures, we are faced with a significant correctional challenge. It is no longer plausible to simply argue that prison acts as a place of deterrence to those released, the statistics alone have continuously portrayed the reality that this is not working. Self-sufficient prisons in a New Zealand environment After considering the concept of self-sufficient prisons in their entirety , the viability of this alternative prison model successfully working in a New Zealand context will now be addressed. In comparing New Zealand to Norway, where a self-sufficient prison is already proving achievable, there are numerous similarities between the countries which could arguably suggest a New Zealand environment could too be compatible with this correctional method. Both countries are sparsely inhabited with populations of around four million, many of whom in both countries live as part of small rural communities of towns, rather than large sprawling cities. Norway in terms of a social and human development index is the number one ranked country, but then New Zealand is also within the top five out of 187 countries (Human Development Report, 2011). Other factors relative to this assessment include New Zealands small number of maximum security inmates, just 2.5%. The majority, or 53.8 % are in fact minimum security (Newbold, 2005). It would seem with such a large number of prisoners being of low security, the risks associated with adopting a more open and interactive model of prison to house this category of prisoners would be relatively low. We also already have the beginnings of a self-sufficient prison mentality in place. Currently in operation are various income generating ventures providing employment opportunities for prisoners, this includes; two dairy farms, three dry stock farms, one piggery, two sheep farms, three organic gardens, six nurseries, five joinery workshops, three furniture assembly workshops, a forest, three timber processing workshops, six textile workshops, three light engineering workshops, three vehicle repair garages, one compost bagging operation and central kitchens in each of New Zealands   prison s (Department of Corrections, 2012). The progression towards a model similar to Bastoy is not completely unthinkable. As outlined, New Zealand has the potential to follow the same path as Norway in adopting more sustainable practices. However, the possible limitations of New Zealands capability to introduce self-sufficient prisons cannot be ignored. One major aspect which not only differentiates New Zealand from Norway, but could also limit the success of self-sufficient prisons in this context, is culture. Negative historical relations between Maori and the State are still today at the centre of much racism, mistrust and social division and this plays a role in crime and prison culture, especially when Maori are so significantly overrepresented in our prisons. Due to the nature of the traditional system, which places blatant divides between prisoners and correctional staff, both parties can fall into viewing each other as the enemy. These attitudes would have to change and mutual trust and respect increased before any community style prison could work. The Gang culture in New Zealand and incidentally in prison creates even more division and an open style of prison may only serve to instigate fighting, allow for gang conflicts and gang domination of inmates. In Norway these types of divisions are relatively absent, primarily due to the fact Norwegians are extremely socially responsible, uniting members of society together as equals. This can especially be seen in the understanding the state, public and even the media display to those in prison, those being released and the rehabilitative purpose prison serves. Associated with this social care mentality is the time and effort that the state puts into training prison officers. In Norway they receive two years training while on full salary and once qualified their role is seen as professional (Pratt, 2007). Contrastingly, in New Zealand, officers are given a mere six weeks training and are often publically disregarded being labelled thugs or key turners far from the professionalism of Norway. Scandinavian prisons are completely run by the state, where as in New Zealand the Government has begun to contract prisons to private companies. Paying for another party to run the prison would defeat the principles behind the self-sufficient ideal. Mass unawareness can be the burden of initiative, even of something which to those informed is so obviously for the common good of society. This is arguably the case in New Zealand, where people simply havent been informed or are only given negative one-eyed images of crime as portrayed through the media. This consequently making the public as a whole more likely to be opposed to an action as liberal and forward thinking as the self-sufficient prison ideal. Another more physical consideration which could pose problems is the pure and simple fact that more crime is committed in New Zealand and the prison population is therefore larger. In New Zealand there are around 8000 inmates whilst in Norway there are only 3000. Geographically there could also be obstacles to overcome. Bastoy is uniquely located on its own island, which restricts escapes and allows for the open environment which inmates experience. Suggesting to the New Zealand public that Rangitoto for example was to be used