High Performing Teams

Introduction This paper will cover several topics related to high-performing teams and work groups. It will discuss how these two kinds of workplace people sets and how they differ in their pursuit of organizational strategy and compare these differences to virtual teams. It will identify the characteristics of successful leaders of high-performing teams and finally discuss why high-performing teams are important to organizations. High-Performing Teams and Work Groups Before we can define high-performing teams or work groups, we will need to define the term team first. A team can be defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. â€Å"That definition lays down the discipline that teams must share to be effective (Katzenbach, 2005). Organizations utilize teams to perform operational and project based tasks. People working in teams have the capacity to solve complex problems that cannot be solved by individuals working alone. People working in teams bring more resources to a task, including a variety of perspectives, knowledge, skills, and experience (Capella University, 2008). This diversity of perspectives, knowledge, skills, and experience allows a team to outperform the sum of its parts and is a critical component of a team being labeled as a high-performing team. Teams come in many forms, they can be permanent or temporary, they can be leader-led or self-managed, and they can be co-located or virtual. Regardless of their purpose and form, all teams are made up of individuals interacting interdependently to achieve common organizational goal. Furthermore, all teams share the following: clear boundaries, common tasks, differentiated member roles, autonomy, dependence on others, and collective responsibility (Capella University, 2008). Teams definitely are forms of work groups, but not all work groups are teams (Brounstein, 2011). A work group is also a collection of individuals however; they may not have complementary skills, a common purpose or a set of shared goals. In a work group, each member is responsible for only their own individual contributions. He or she achieves outcomes or makes their contribution to the organization in (relative) isolation. Individuals need not have any concern about what other members of the group achieve. Within a work group, there is not the interconnectedness and shared responsibility you see between team members. Each member of a group can say ‘I did my best; it is not my fault that others did not pull their weight (www. leadership-development-coaching. com, 2011). ’ To add more context to the difference between work groups and teams refer to Table 1 (Brounstein, 2011). Work Groups| Teams| Individual accountability| Individual and mutual accountability| Come together to share information and perspectives| Frequently come together for discussion, decision-making, problem solving and planning. | Focus on individual goals| Focus on team goals| Produce individual work products| Produce collective work products| Define individual roles, responsibilities, and tasks| Define individual roles, responsibilities, and tasks to help team do its work; often share and rotate them| Concern with one's own outcome and challenges| Concern with outcomes of everyone and challenges the team faces| Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by manager| Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by team leader with team members| Table 1: Difference between Work Groups and Teams High-Performing teams have deeper characteristics that separate them from any team with the ‘team’ characteristics mentioned previously. Members of high-performing teams tend to develop a collective purpose that goes beyond that which the organization has established for them (Capella University, 2008). According to Harvard researcher Richard Hickman, high-performing teams must meet three effectiveness criteria (Capella University, 2008): * The team must consistently produce high-quality output. * The team must promote the personal growth needs and well-being of team members. The team must grow and learn as a unit. The Pursuit of Organizational Strategy It is not too much of a stretch to see which scenario is preferable when it comes to pursuing alignment with your organization’s strategy. Those in a workgroup, although maybe tied in roles and responsibilities to the organization’s strategic imperatives, is not concerned about others in his group or departm ent, and therefore has no vested interest in another succeeding. High performing teams, on the other hand, consider their team as equally or more important than themselves. A recent study of Fortune 1000 companies conducted by the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California concluded that 68 percent of the organizations in the study use self –managed or high-performing teams†¦but the study also shows only 10 percent of workers were in such teams (Capella University, 2008). Therefore, as much as we can agree there is a benefit from moving those in work groups into high-performing team environments, these environments are difficult to create, lead and maintain. A failed attempt to create a high-performing team could be more detrimental than keeping a group of individuals in the work group mode, and thus making each individual accountable for driving alignment with the organization’s strategy. Virtual teams can play an interesting twist on this strategic alignment anomaly. This author suggests that virtual teams are no different in driving alignment with organizational strategy than co-located teams, with one exception. In the role of operational support, where, for example a help-desk or call-center can take advantage of the â€Å"follow-the-sun† support methodology, you can find significant benefit by tying a virtual team’s performance as a team to an SLA, where individuals are working together to answer phones within a certain amount of rings, meet a certain first call resolution statistic etc. This type of virtual team, if lead properly can be a very high-performing team, as their bonuses and overall performance can be tied to these SLA results of the team. Successful Leadership Characteristics of High-Performing Teams Leadership of high-performing teams have been mentioned twice in this paper; once to summarize how difficult it is to maintain high-performing teams, the second to note how to lead a high-performing virtual team. Managing any team is not an easy task. Managing and maintaining high-performing teams is increasingly difficult. Creating and managing high-performing teams is as much an art as it is a science. There is no magic formula that will uarantee team success, nor is there one best way to lead a team (Capella University, 2008). We can define four team leadership skills that will help drive work groups and teams into high-performing teams: 1. Invest in ongoing personal development 2. Provide team direction, structure and resources 3. Help the team manage boundaries 4. Manage the type and timing of interventions The Importance of High-Performing Teams We have shown the significant benefit of creating and maintaining high- performing teams concerning an organization’s strategy and team accomplishment. High-performing teams tend to require less management since the team assumes a purpose as a whole and not individuals. These teams tend to be self-managed, or slightly managed by a leader, more so in a facilitation role than what we know as a daily manager. The most important task of the team leader is to create a work context that inspires and enables the team to do its work rather than directly intervening in the team’s day-to-day work (Capella University, 2008). This is increasingly important to organizations as the economic outlook continues to force reductions in departmental personnel. References Brounstein, M. (2011). Differences between Work Groups and Teams. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Dummies. com; Making Everything Easier: http://www. dummies. com/how-to/content/differences-between-work-groups-and-teams. html Capella University. (2008). TS5160: Business Foundations (2nd Custom ed. ). Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing. Katzenbach, J. (2005, July 1). The Discipline of Teams. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Capella University: http://web. ebscohost. com. library. capella. edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=3;hid=119;sid=0579d6ae-2d3d-4908-9971-cea2472130f6%40sessionmgr112 www. leadership-development-coaching. com. (2011). Team vs Group: implications for leaders. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Leadership Development Coaching: http://www. leadership-development-coaching. com/team-vs-group. html

Competitive Intelligence Essay

Introduction Competitive intelligence (CI) refers to a tool used for marketing used by business organizations to study the competing surrounding. The process incorporates a determined information gathering based on the operations and other factors considering the competitor that enables proper decision-making of the organization management. Gower. Moloi and Iyamu, (2013) indicates that CI is significant in making marketing-related decisions and the development of market–oriented companies. Different companies use different methods to gather competitive intelligence. Companies study an array of industry specific and general publications to provide information of the current competitive intelligence. However, the most mentioned source of industry information are monographs. Monographs refer to the grey literature that may not be disseminated through conventional publishing channels. These include academic theses, business schools, technical reports, scholarly papers, case studies, and private and public sector documents. Sometimes the monographs are published that provides the most cost-effective and comprehensive source of CI information. Industry monographs are instrumental in providing information of the industry secular progress and historical background. Profits analysis can be obtained through long-term perspective that is compost of a richer experience variety as opposed to when only recent developments are considered. However, the major downfall is that the company conference proceedings and monographs date speedily. Internet searches, and the British Library form the major sources of grey literature. According to Murphy (2005,) the press reports and features provide the source of current and retrospective understanding of the competitor. The journals such as Financial Times sectoral surveys enable a company to obtain an excellent overview of the competitor of various business lines. Likewise, it outlines the individual players’ profile and the most pressing current issues affecting the competitor. Numerous trade journals provide annual surveys of the major trends and events in their specific business line. Furthermore, Murphy (2005) writes that the regulatory authorities also provide a great quality of information may be availed at a modest cost. The studies and reports provided by the Competition Commission have plenty of significant data and analysis that provides an excellent model on the procedures of undertaking the studies of the competing industry. The public watchdogs charged with the roles of overseeing the public sector forms excellent targets of CI information. Company circulars that they have to send to their shareholders under specific conditions are also significant sources of CI. For example, material acquisition and classified information on the listing rules provides information on the size of the company. Circulars contain FSA that may require the researcher to visit the company headquarters to obtain the corporate documents. Furthermore, Murphy (2005) indicates that shareholder data that has special rules that apply to the reporting of the changes within the entire PLCs. The Companies’ Act provides that PLCs are always documented in the company annual reports. This information provides the holdings of 3 percent of the total voting share capital of the firm. The information provided in such notifications that are subjected to public scrutiny provides CI information. Murphy further writes that company patents provide mechanisms of obtaining competitive advantage and the trademarks that provides the insights that describe the company enrichments. However, some companies believe that human resource intelligence. Company investigators may use direct contact with company human resource intelligence through identifying the subjects and planning of interviews. Human resource provides updated information on the company; however, it may be difficult to secure the potential individual to approach for such CI information. A typical example of CI mentions the stock traders who analyze the data based on the price movements and prices to determine the best investments. They possess similar data to other traders, yet data analysis provides their difference with others. Moreover, Japanese automobile industry that analysed the U.S automobiles of in the 1970s based on the products and the demands of the customer (Wagner &Van 2011). The smaller families and high gasoline prices created a demand in the U.S for fuel efficient and smaller cars. Therefore, the Japanese automobiles applied CI methods to establish a trend and further made the decisions on manufacturing based on the results of CI information. The produced cars defeated the U.S Big Three in the market due to fuel-efficiency and high-quality cars. Despite the entire pool of information sources, the internet and human resource intelligence may be the most effective sources of information in terms of accuracy, ethics and cost-effectiveness. The company websites provide an array of information that can be easily assessed compared to published documents. The website provides comprehensive information on the new developments, business practices, and detailed information on strategies and tactics established by the company. Likewise, as Wagner and Van (2011) establishes, the internet can provide detailed information based on the vision, CEO statements, goals and objectives, and the overall management of the firm. The commitment of the firm to quality, consumer problems, investments and plants, structure are also provided in the web pages of the company. Likewise, human resource can be maintained for a long period once the first interview is secured. Although it is a subject of ethics, human resource intelligence will provide the most updated information on the company plans. References Gower. Moloi, R., & Iyamu, T. (April 01, 2013). Understanding the Deployment of Competitive Intelligence Through Moments of Translation. International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering (ijitwe), 8, 2, 33-45. Murphy, C. (2005). Competitive intelligence: Gathering, analysing and putting it to work. Aldershot, England: Wagner, L., & Van, B. J.-P. (January 01, 2011). Web Mining for Strategic Competitive Intelligence. Â  

Compassion fatigue in nursing and how it relates to home health nurses Essay

Compassion fatigue in nursing and how it relates to home health nurses Introduction                   Compassion fatigue is the psychological, spiritual, and bodily exhaustion of nurses, especially those that provide care to patients suffering from high levels of physical and emotional pain (Anewalt, 2009). The phenomenon has been reported in many specialized lines of nursing care, including emergency care, cancer care RNs and casualty staffs (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Compassion fatigue has been commonly reported in Care giving nurses, as a unique burnout that limits their ability to show compassion or perform excellently in other spheres of care delivery. The phenomenon of compassion fatigue has been commonly reported among the nurses that provide care at home, especially where the nurse feels that they are not able to stop the pain of their patient (Yoder, 2010). The feelings of being desperate about the inability to manage or halt the suffering of the patient trigger the feelings of distress and guilt among the doctors and patients (Ward-Griffin, St-Am ant & Brown, 2011). This paper will explore the phenomenon of compassion fatigue among the nurses that provide care at home, and the relevance of the subject to nursing practice. Significance and background of Study                   There have been concerns that the nurses that provide home health care to parents, relatives, and friends, especially those providing care to their aging parents are more vulnerable to compassion fatigue. From the Canadian and the US environment, observations include that the years of many nurses have been increasing. The increment of the average nurse’s age further implies advancements in the mean years of their parents. The advancing age of parents and relatives increases their burden of delivering home health care (Aiken, 2007; Newson, 2010). There has also been growing threat that the personal balance between the responsibilities of carrying out their duties at the hospital and caring for their aging parents has been a major issue for healthcare organizations.                   Unfortunately, there are no statistics showing the prevalence of double-duty delivery of care among these nurses. In the current study, the phenomenon of double-duty is conceptualized as working in a healthcare organization or setting, and then offering care at home, to parents or other relatives. However, the studies in the area, give indications that between one-third and half the number of nurses care for their aging relatives and friends (Ward-Griffin et al., 2009). Taking into account that the problem of an aging nursing population and the necessity to provide care to aging relatives correspond with one another. It became apparent that studying the issue of compassion fatigue was necessary (Ward-Griffin et al., 2009; Hsu, 2010). The problem of compassion fatigue in care delivery                   Compassion fatigue is often the effect of finding distinctive constraints in the way of care delivery, whether the limitations are of a psychological, institutional or personal nature (Epstein & Hamric, 2009). These constraints are those that are likely to hinder the process of care delivery, because they inhibit the capacity to do what is considered morally right. One of the individual-based manifestations of the phenomenon includes the feelings of anger, aggravation and guilt/ self-blame, at being unable to deliver maximum care of the sickly or aged patients at home. The root causes of the problem in a nurse’s work and professional life include the self-professed violation of professional or individual-based responsibilities and core values. The problem is usually overtly expressed or manifested, whenever it coincides with the experience of being inhibited from taking the decision and/or action that is thought of, as ethically appropriate.                   From a personal point of view, as a nursing practitioner, the principal values that I feel that I must devote myself to, including my God, family, work, and community. Among the four top focal points that demand my attention emotionally and physically, I have the inherent feeling that is serving the requirements of God and my family are the first priorities, because these social spheres are irreplaceable. The delivery of service to my workplace and the community is different, in that it is a personal choice. For example, it is personal, whether I am satisfied with the work offered by a healthcare facility. The same situation applies to the community of residence because the lack of satisfaction with the social fabric or the values of one society can be solved by moving into another one. One of the unfortunate events that demonstrated the experience of compassion fatigue, was the case that forced me to call in an oncologist friend, so that she could deliv er care to my mother, after I was called in for an emergency at the healthcare centre (McCarthy & Deady, 2008). After being called for the emergency duty, I tried to avoid the task so that I could deliver care to her, but it was unfortunate that the hospital reported having attempted to reach other nurses unsuccessfully.                   At that point, the decision and the emotional turmoil resulted from the feelings that I would be turning away from delivering the best care that I wanted my mother to receive. The home health (personal) responsibility also had to be balanced off with the need to provide care to the at-risk patient facing the risk of death at the hospital. At the end of the ordeal, I had to call the friend, so that she could check on my mother, as I rushed to the hospital to save the patient under emergency care (McCarthy & Deady, 2008). The phenomenon has also been apparent in the cases where I have had to be called in for the facility, while delivering care to the home health clients that have contacted me to offer care outside my official hours of work (Hamric & Blackhall, 2007). Knowledge development around the problem of Compassion fatigue                   In order to continue to develop knowledge for practice improvement in this core area of service delivery, I will explore the fields of nursing that are at higher risks of suffering from compassion fatigue. One of the studies that have been instrumental, and one that will continue to be, is that by Bourassa (2009). The study pointed out that some nursing groups are more vulnerable. The groups that are at a higher risk of suffering from compassion fatigue include social workers, support staff for the victims of domestic violence, oncologists, genetic consultation nurses, and palliative care nurses (Bourassa, 2009). Through the study of the various fields of nursing care delivery, I discovered that they all share some common characteristics, including that they are caregivers for vulnerable groups. The sources of the compassion fatigue are that they all tend to internalize the suffering of the patients suffering from life-threatening conditions and the abus es experienced by the victims of ill-treatment. Other groups that are at high levels of vulnerability to developing compassion fatigue include those that deliver care to helpless patients. These lines of nursing care include those working in the conditions of mental care; end-of-life and pediatrician care (McCarthy & Deady, 2008).                   Towards developing more knowledge and exposure in the professional skills and the discipline needed to deal with the problem of compassion fatigue, I have enrolled in courses on compassion fatigue. Apart from starting a course on compassion fatigue, with the Traumatology Institute, I have joined their professional network, which offers its members with updated information from practice-based research and changing practice dynamics (Traumatologyinstitute, 2014). Further, from a study done by Potter and colleagues (2013), it was found that the training and development delivered through compassion fatigue hardiness courses were effective in increasing a nurse’s knowledge stock. More importantly, the study reported that the programs were effective in improving the nurse’s ability to counter the adverse effects of compassion fatigue. The findings of the study showed that secondary trauma effects reduced drastically, immediately after starting th e resiliency training. Therefore, this will be another important source of education and development, as well as knowledge development for more advanced care delivery. The measures of progress will be the number of training hours accessed, and the scores attained on a variety of scales. This includes the â€Å"IES-R (Impact of Event Scale-Revised) and the ProQOL (professional Quality of Life† levels (Potter et al., 2013). The ProQOL measurement model will be the most critical test, and the analysis tool is included as an appendix at the end of this paper (Baranowsky & Gentry, 2010). Outside resources for knowledge development                   Evaluation of a compassion fatigue resiliency program for oncology nurses. Oncol Nurs Forum, 40 (2), by Potter and colleagues will be an imperative resource for improving my knowledge of compassion fatigue and updated care models. The source will be very helpful because it has reported the effectiveness of resiliency training, which is an important piece of my quality improvement plan.                   The Traumatology Institute, apart from being the provider of the courses I plan to take, on compassion fatigue is paramount. The benefits to be enjoyed from being a member of the institute include that I will get access to their periodic publications, which reported evidence and practice-based findings and information (Traumatologyinstitute, 2014). Potential barriers to knowledge development                   The first primary hindrance is lacking enabling resources and structures. For example, at the health facility I am attached to, there are no resources that can offer useful information on compassion fatigue (Shariff, 2014). The second barrier is monetary, because my finances will limit me from joining more professional institutions and courses like Traumatology Institute. Conclusion                   Compassion fatigue has been defined in many ways, but its key features are psychological and physical exhaustion, due to the provision of care to patients or groups suffering from high levels of pain and suffering. The phenomenon is common among oncologists among other lines of nursing. The issue is crucial to my practice, as a nurse, because I often encounter conflicts between caring for my family and meeting professional demands. Towards the expansion of the knowledge developed around the issue of compassion fatigue, I have joined a learning institution and will be self-administering tests to gauge my levels of compassion fatigue. References Aiken, L. (2007). U.S. Nurse Labor Market Dynamics Are Key to Global Nurse Sufficiency. Health Serv Res, 42 (3 PT 2), 1299-1320. Anewalt, P. (2009). Fired up or burned out? Understanding the importance of professional boundaries in home health care hospice. Home Healthcare Nurse, 27 (10), 591-597. Baranowsky, A.B., & Gentry, E.J. (2010). Trauma Practice, Tools for Stabilization and Recovery (2nd Ed). Oxford: Hogrefe Publishing. Bourassa, D.B. (2009). Compassion fatigue and the adult protective services social worker. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 52, 215-229. Epstein, E., & Hamric, A. (2009). Moral Distress, Moral Residue, and the Crescendo Effect. J Clin Ethics, 20 (4), 330-342. Hamric, A. B., & Blackhall, L. J. (2007). Nurse-Physician Perspectives on the Care of Dying Patients in Intensive Care Units: Collaboration, Moral Distress, and Ethical Climate. Critical Care Medicine, 35 (2), 422-429. Hsu, J. (2010). The relative efficiency of public and private service delivery. World Health Report (2010) Background Paper, 39, 4-9. Lombardo, B., & Eyre, C. (2011). Compassion Fatigue: A Nurse’s Primer. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(1), 1-8. McCarthy, J., & Deady, R. (2008). Moral Distress Reconsidered. Nursing Ethics, 15(2), 254-262. Newson, R. (2010). Compassion fatigue: Nothing left to give. Nursing Management, 41(4), 42-45. Potter, P., Deshields, T., Berger, J. A., Clarke, M., Olsen, S., & Chen, L. (2013). Evaluation of a compassion fatigue resiliency program for oncology nurses. Oncol Nurs Forum, 40(2), 180-7. Shariff, N. (2014). Factors that act as facilitators and barriers to nurse leaders’ participation in health policy development. BMC Nursing, 13, 20. Traumatologyinstitute. (2014). Compassion Fatigue Courses. Traumatology Institute. Retrieved from: http://psychink.com/training-courses/compassion-fatigue-courses/Ward-Griffin, C., St-Amant, O., & Brown, J., (2011). Compassion Fatigue within Double Duty Caregiving: Nurse-Daughters Caring for Elderly Parents. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(1), 1-9. Ward-Griffin, C., Keefe, J., Martin-Matthews, A., Kerr, M., Brown, J.B., & Oudshoorn, A. (2009). Development and validation of the double duty caregiving scale. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 41(3), 108-128. Yoder, E. (2010). Compassion fatigue in nurses. Applied Nursing Research, 23,191-197. Source document

Accounting in Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Accounting in Russia - Essay Example sitated a movement away from the earlier era of accounting standards that were in tune with the centrally planned economy of the USSR but were outdated with the introduction of capitalism. This paper discusses the history of accounting in Russia and the recent developments in formulating accounting standards and governance. Due to the large number of corporate scandals that rocked Russia in the first few years of the 21st century, the Russian government has hastened the move to accounting regulation and corporate governance. Russia matters to the global economy. As a country with significant proven and unproven natural resources, mainly oil among them, it is one of the world’s leading suppliers of oil and commodities. With the spike in Oil prices in the latter parts of 2007 and continuing into 2008, the geo-strategic importance of Russia increased dramatically with the result that the world was dependant on the supply of Russian oil and gas. With regards to the supply of gas to Western Europe, Russia flexed its muscles and ensured that the terms set by it were followed at all times. In some instances, it even threatened to cut off the supply of gas to Europe as a retaliatory measure. Thus, Russia is in a position to dictate terms to the West. It has to be qualified that this is a recent development given the state of affairs in the 1990’s and the first few years of this decade as the West had the upper hand in its dealings with Russia. Further, Russia is an attractive destination for foreign capital and as a captive market among the emerging economies that go by the acronym BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). It is in the interest of the western multinational corporations to have Russia adopt an integrated accounting system in line with their expectations. And the sense of nationalism that characterizes the Russian attitude towards the west has resulted in its own set of priorities for both sides. It is in this context that the move towards

Accountants' Ethics in Shaping the Companys Financial Reality Assignment

Accountants' Ethics in Shaping the Companys Financial Reality - Assignment Example An accountant working for a public company must also abide by the standards set forth by the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 and all other Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. There specific ethical challenges accountants may face that can change the revenues of a company. For instance, if a company switches from LIFO to FIFO depreciation, it can overestimate or underestimate the revenues of the firm.   Whenever a change occurs in depreciation method accountants are supposed to reveal the change in the notes to the financial statements. The accounting profession requires people that have high moral and ethical standards in order to properly serve the best interest of a corporation.The financial services industry has been under heavy scrutiny in the United States ever since the government gave the banks a bailout package worth over $700 billion. There are ethical challenges the industry faces in multiple segments of the industry. Prior to 2008, the banking industry acted unethically in many of its decisions because it gave out home loans to people that did not qualify for loans under normal credit criteria. The risky loans created the housing bubble. The housing bubble was one of the main factors that led to the global recession. The supply for housing exceeded demand. The realtors acted as brokers instead of facilitators and they sold homes to people based on speculative price appreciations. Full compliance with the Sarbanes Oxley Act can help accountants comply with the highest ethical standards possible since SOX covers accountability, internal controls, and prevention of fraud issues. The top executive management teams are subject to prison terms of up to 25 years if the financial statements of public companies have material error or fraud. Overall financial risk can be mitigated in the financial industry by using sound diversification strategies.

What are the major ethical issues associated with conflict in the Research Paper

What are the major ethical issues associated with conflict in the contemporary workplace - Research Paper Example Drug testing is one of the areas that can lead to ethical issues in the workplace. The use of drug testing in the workplace can create an environment where employees are in constant conflicts with the management (Sterba, 2009). For instance, the management of a firm can insist that workers undergo drug testing even when they do not want. This practice can be forced without mutual agreement with employees being threatened by their employers. All these instances present ethical scenarios that undermine relations in the workplace. Falsification of information is also another area that depicts the extent of ethics within a business organization (Chonko, 2000). Conflict can arise between workers and their employees because of falsified information. For instance, an employee can falsify information to receive a promotion or to portray others on the wrong thus leading to conflicts. Sexual harassment represents another area of ethical concern in a work place. According to Allhoff and Vaidya (2008), sexual harassment entails the harassment of people in a sexual manner. This practice is of ethical concern given that it moral permissibility in a workplace is debatable. With sexual harassment, the relationship between perpetrators of this act and their victims can suffer and translate to reduced interactions at work. It can also lead to limited commitment at work. In the workplace, sexual harassment can occur when workers touch their colleagues with approval in a sexual manner. It may also mean compromising with other workers by forcing them into sexual acts for them to receive favors. Lack of fairness can be considered as another area that presents ethical issues. In a business environment, workers expect to be treated fairly like others workers. Unfair treatment can affect the morale of workers and leads to high turnover of workers. As an example, the

Korea Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Korea - Research Paper Example The UN Assembly implemented a fresh resolution demanded elections in regions reachable by the UN Commission (Cumings, p. 56). The first elections in Korea took place in May 1948. A Communist rule was set up in the North under Kim Il-sung, a Stalinist leader with total authority. During the year 1949, both Russia, as well as the United States pulled their troops out, leaving behind them the respective armed forces of the North, an influential North Korean Soviet-trained territorial army, and in the South, a less significant, feeble Republic of Korea (ROK) defense force. Stalin, concerned about the growth of Soviet Communism, notices enormous opportunities within Asia as well as the Pacific, with the arrival of the initial Soviet nuclear test during the year 1949, he observed that he could almost immediately confront the United States. However, he rejected the North Korean leaders’ tries to form an armed forces coalition with Russia. One more blunder, this time on the part of th e Americans was the declarations by the then Secretary of State, Dean Acthinson that the Korean peninsula was inside the security border of the United States. ... However, the North Korea leader gave Stalin the idea that the warfare would not exceed thirty days. In the meantime, General McArthur (Halberstam, p. 341), in Tokyo watching over the reconstruction of Japan, discounted the information that North Korean may attack. He was busy finalizing his points for the forthcoming Japanese peace accord (Halberstam, p. 341). On the other hand, North Korea failed to inform China of its objective and China was getting ready to attack Taiwan at the time. CIA Intelligence news of an approaching assault went unnoticed (Halberstam, p. 341). The Korean War (1950-1953) started when the North Korean Communist military forces attacked non-Communist South Korea. The United States came to South Korea's help. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been supervising the post World War II occupation of Japan, ordered the US military forces, which now started to refrain the North Koreans at Pusan, at the Southernmost point of Korea. Even though Korea was not tactically crucial to the United States, the political atmosphere at this phase of the Cold War was such that politicians did not like to appear flexible about Communism (Richardson & Maurer, p. 83). Supposedly, the US interfered as component of a law enforcement act, run by a UN (United Nations) international peacekeeping force; in reality, the anti-Communist interests of NATO and US influences the UN. The United Nations, mainly the United States, came to the help of South Korea in preventing the raid. A quick UN counter-offensive drove the North Koreans ahead of the 38th Parallel and nearly to the Yalu River, and the People's Republic of China joined the war on the side of the North. The Chinese initiated a counter-offensive that pressed the United Nations military back behind the 38th

Qualities of an Ideal Businessperson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Qualities of an Ideal Businessperson - Essay Example ern business environment requires business people to have certain qualities in order to overcome the stiff competition in the market (Naidu, 2009, p 151). An ideal businessperson must be persistent in exploiting the opportunities in the market, especially new and innovative ideas that present high business growth potential. The person should have good knowledge of all business processes such as procurement, financial management, marketing and customer relations management. In addition, one must be able to foster close working relationships with employees and ensure that individual employee efforts contribute to the overall attainment of the organizational objectives (Naidu, 2009, p 134). Thesis statement: an ideal businessperson must have an entrepreneurial attitude in order to succeed in the competitive business environment. According to Naidu (2009), it is essential for the person to have adequate technical knowledge of the business activities (p 89). The person should be aware of the customer needs, the attributes of the product and surrounding business environment. The ideal person must be able to scan the environment and identify trends in the business segments such as the opportunities that may foster business growth and profitability, and threats that can hinder the long-term survival and competitiveness of the business (Naidu, 2009, p 155). In addition, one must be aware of the internal business processes such as the marketing, manufacturing processes, financial management skills and supply chain management activities in order to ensure business activities are properly coordinated. For instance, businesspeople in the automobile industry must be knowledgeable about the different vehicle models, the manufacturer’s specifications, the current prices and changes in customer attitudes towards l ess fuel consuming vehicles (Naidu, 2009, p 169). Businesses require innovativeness and creativity due to rapid business environment changes such as new technology,

Crtical response to Duane's Caught Inside Essay

Crtical response to Duane's Caught Inside - Essay Example In this way, bits and pieces of the aforementioned points are revealed in an almost imperceptible way so that the reader gains a more full and complete understanding of the lifestyle and world-view of the individuals involved in the actions of this book. As a means of understanding this unique approach, this author will focus upon Chapter 13 of Duane’s book and enumerate on some of the pertinent themes, sub-themes, and topics that are discussed as a means to outline and understand the level of approach and detail that the author gives to the reader. The material within this particular chapter is organized and presented by means of a journey. As the story teller meets with a friend and ventures to the house of a third party, a general discussion on the life of a surfer, what is important, what matters, traveling, relationships, danger, and the ever present worries over where the funding for the next adventure will come from are all discussed. In this way, the storyteller finds himself perennially comparing his own financial and personal situation to that of those that the story introduces. This is carried out by means of actual physical comparisons to the type and quality of the vehicles that are driven, and the niceties that present themselves within the house of the individual who is being visited. However, all of this description, discussion, and analysis serves as but a type of lead up to the action that is going to take place as the three men join together and embark on a rapid trip to the ocean side to engage in an afternoon full of surfing. The almost religious overtones, the writer describes the awe inspiring spiritual elements that surfing provides to the practitioner (Lanagan 283). Whereas doing this without the background story would not engage the reader and would prove to be nothing more than a very long winded soliloquy of the benefits of a particular type of lifestyle, by interweaving the information regarding this type of lifestyle and rel ying on other means of conveyance (rather than the speaker himself), the author is able to present a clear and well explicated set of reasons for why the particular lifestyle advocated and described is perhaps far superior to almost any other model that is currently in existence. Although this particular life is not for everyone, as the author notes, the benefits that it offers those who engage with it can never truly be understood or explained. Using the wife of the gentleman that is visited as an example, the author works to show the means by which even those that do not understand the lifestyle can at least appreciate the significance that it engenders within the lives of those that they love and respect. The approach that the author takes towards revealing the subject matter and discussing it within this particular chapter is necessarily experiential. Although no model of research can attempt to capture the attention of an individual in the same way that a firsthand account of a dventure and excitement can, the author works to bring out the experiential factors that have encouraged countless others in the past to pursue their dreams at the expense of some semblance of

Germans Reaction to the British and American’s Occupation Essay Example for Free

Germans Reaction to the British and American’s Occupation Essay What was the reaction of the Germans to the British and American’s occupation in the West Germany region? The reasons for their occupation of the allied forces could be traced to the causes of the Second World War. After the Second World war was over conflict arose between the soviet union and the united states of America an its allies such as Britain and France and this led to the division of Germany into two regions that is, West Germany and East Germany. The allied forces occupied West Germany while the other part was for the Soviet Union. The bone of contention was about the future structure of Germany, the United States wanted a stable Germany that would grow economically and even help its ailing western European nations but the soviet union wanted Germany to be completely weakened so as it would never be able to cause another world war. This disagreement led to the eventual division that made the West German’s to protest against this occupation. They saw this as an aggression act for during the war the allied forces bombed the towns and cities in Germany. My main focus on this essay will be to discuss how the West Germans viewed the occupation of the Allied forces. According to the opinion polls that were done in Germany after the world war two showed that most West Germans were very pre-occupied with health, security and even physical survival and because of that they were much worried with the fate of their constitution. Drawing up a new constitution did not prove to be a very hard task as it was thought to be as there were a lot of constitutional drafts that had been drawn by the Germans who were in opposition to the Hitler’s ruling style. Most of those proposals were against dictatorship that the regime of Hitler was using and thus they were advocating for democratic model. The United States and the allied forces, which supported the free trade system of economy, were much worried about the communism spread after the Second World War. These forces were ready to do anything in their capacity to check its spread. Both USA and USSR had different interests that is, the US and its allied wanted to advance the capitalization mode of economy while the eastern European countries spearheaded by the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism. (Lammerder F. R 1999, 7) Most Germans were bitter because their friends who were in other countries were killed on suspicion that they supported the Vichy government. For example in France, more than two thousand five hundred people were killed in France. Women who were believed to have been cooperating with German soldiers were clean shaved and those who had a sign of Swatistika on their head were stripped naked in public. This did not go along well with Germans at home to see their fellow Germans in Diaspora being humiliated. (Nelson D. J. 1987: 48-57) Starting from May 7th 1995 more than eighty million members of the Nazi Party who were ardent supporters of the Nazi regime were greatly surprised to hear that their party had surrendered. They thought that all would be well little did they know the magnitude of difficulties that were awaiting them. Over the period of the four years that followed they were humiliated and frustrated by the western governments that occupied this region, which was created in 1945 at the Yalta Conference in 1945. The three forces after agreeing to demarcate this region set an allied control collectively pursued their goals such as demilitarization so as to pave way for democracy but as time went by, the Soviet Union distanced itself from the Western nations in terms of its economy. Soviet tried to disassemble Germany ruthlessly as a way of getting its reparations. It grabbed the state owned industries and everything that was alleged to be owned by the criminals and those who supported Hitler’s government were taken and confisticated. The allied control government also carried out some agrarian reforms that saw all tracts of land that belonged to the members of Nazi as well as those that were owned by the war criminals being taken away from them. This government reduced the size of land that one individual was supposed to possess to 1km2. About five hundred Junker estates were turned into settlement farms and over thirty thousand kilometer squared (30,000km2) of land was given to five hundred thousand landless peasants, casual laborers in the agricultural sector and to the refugees who were in the country. (Nelson D. J. 1987: 48-57)

Women in the Renaissance Era

Women in the Renaissance Era Renaissance Humanism: The Feminine Voice The Renaissance Humanism, albeit a movement headed by males who agreed with the misogynist insights in ancient texts opened the door to the review of the misogynist tradition making it possible for the female humanists like Isotta Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele, Laura Cereta, and Olimpia Morata et al to write about the woman question, and thus changing the notion of Humanism from it earlier misogynist approach to re-evaluation of womens nature by putting household issues at the heart of academic concern and regenerating the relevant classical texts (Cereta, 1997). The triumph of women in Western Europe and the United States originates from a movement about six hundred years ago in the era of Renaissance. This was the time when the other voice, meaning the feminine voice, was first heard against the background of a three-thousand-year history of misogyny rooted in western culture, whether Hebrew, Greek, Roman or Christian. The hatred against women in these traditions suffused the intellec tual, medical, legal, religious and social systems that grew during the European Middle Ages. Concurrent with a general reformation of European culture in this early modern or Renaissance days (roughly during 1300 to 1700) issues related to female equality and opening emerged out that still echo and are still unanswered. This paper deals with the misogynistic tradition defeated by early modern Europeans and the new institution that suppressed the other voice called to defy the ruling theories and conjectures about women as lesser to the male in mind and body. The long-established Misogyny in European culture broke down to take to pieces when the modern period began hard task, no doubt. The progress started as part of a huge cultural movement involving a serious review of ideas received from the antiquated and medieval past—an attempt initiated by the humanists. The Renaissance, as the name suggests, was something new, according to some. The contenders hold that it fundamentally pursued medieval models revising them — an idea that gets more confused with the added fact that the Renaissance in Italy was at variance from the Renaissance in other places. The Renaissance started in Italy around 1300. The first and foremost name associated with this movement was Dante Alighieri, the deeply religious author of spiritual parables, a dedicated catholic who used academic philosophy and was often adverse to the political set-up of the Italian church. One can easily sense from his Divine Comedy that he basically belonged to the Middle Ages except that, as distinct most lofty intellectuals, he wrote mostly in Italian rather than Latin. After him comes the named of Giovanni Boccaccio in the fourteenth century, who wrote the extremely sensational Decameron, written in Italian too. Goeffrey Chaucer in England also wrote the lewd The Canterbury Tales , most likely, which like the Decameron, was a true account of how medieval people acted. But the classic successor of Dante was Francesco Petrarch who wrote both in Italian and Latin about secular themes, even though he was deeply religious often bothering that his secular writings were a diversion from mans only right goal, that is, deliverance (Stearns, 1977). Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch put very much in to the unearthing and safeguarding of classical works. Humanist values were powerfully articulate by another Italian scholar, Pico della Mirandola, in his Oration on the dignity of man. Hamlet’s well-known speech: â€Å"What a piece of work is a man? How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!†is directly influenced Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man. The humanist movement was supplemented by the entry of Byzantine scholars to Italy after the collapse of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 and also by the founding of the Platonic Academy in Florence. The academy established by the 15th-century Florentine statesman and sponsor of the arts Cosimo de Medici, revitalized Platonism and changing the literature, painting, and architecture of the period. The compilation and translation of classical texts among the higher clergy and nobles, the invention of printing with variable types around the mid-15th century gave fuelled humanism to progress more through the distribution of editions of the classics in Italy though literature and art, in central Europe through theology and education—a primary basis of the Reformation. One of the most significant scholars in humanism in France was the Dutch cleric Desiderius Erasmus, who also played crucial role to spread the movement into England, firstly at the University. By the middle of the 16th century humanism had won wide acceptance as an educational system. Oxford by classical scholars like William Grocyn (1446-1519) and Thomas Linacre, and at the University of Cambridge by Erasmus and the English prelate John Fisher (1459-1535) to ultimately all through English society thus making the way for the thriving of Elizabethan literature and culture (Witt, 1978). The Humanists reverence for the academic philosophy of medieval universities effected a literary flare-up consisting of works by both men and women, in Latin and in lingua francaworks detailing the attainments of prominent women, works confuting the main allegations made against women, works contending for the equal education of men and women, works labeling and reclassifying womens appropriate role in the family, at court, and in public and works depicting womens lives and experiences. The proto-feminism of these other voices represents an important aspect of the literary effects of the Renaissance. Around 1365, Boccaccio whose Corbaccio made the typical attacks against female nature wrote Concerning Famous Women, a humanist discourse based on classical texts eulogizing distinguished women from pagan Greek, Roman ancient times, and from the religious and cultural tradition since the olden times making all readers conscious of a sex usually damned or forgot ten. However, in it, Bocca ccios position was typically misogynist. The book only honored those women who maintained the conventional female â€Å"qualities† like virginity, quiet, and compliance. Socially active women, for example, sovereigns and fighters, were portrayed as enduring appalling penalties for infringing into male-domain. Even if Boccacio chose women as his theme, he maintained his male chauvinistic attitude although in the book. Christine de Pizans Book of the City of Ladies contains a second catalogue of famous women, as a reaction to Boccaccios. Where Boccaccio’s book shows feminine virtue as extraordinary, her book describes it as common. Many women in history were leaders, visionaries and valiant sufferers for a cause or stayed pure in spite of the lecherous advances from men. The work of Boccaccio enthused a run of such catalogues of famous women of the biblical, classical, Christian, and indigenous past: works by Alvaro de Luna, Jacopo Filippo Foresti , Brantà ´me, Pierre Le Moyne, PietroPaolo de Ribera (who recorded 845 names), and many others. Whatever prejudices these catalogues contained, these catalogues illustrated the public the prospect of female superiority. Yet simultaneously, questions surfaced: Could a woman be moral? Could she act strikingly? Could she be as equal as a man? These questions were argued over four centuries, in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and English, by male and female authors, among Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, in tedious volumes and gusty booklets, the debate being referre d as the querelle des femmes, the Woman Question. The opening torrent of this war took place in the first years of the fifteenth century, in a literary debate generated by Christine de Pizan. Humanism provided the materials for a positive counter concept to the misogyny embedded in scholastic philosophy and law, and inherited from the Greek, Roman, and Christian pasts. A series of humanist treatises on marriage and family, on education and deportment, and on the nature of women helped construct these new perspectives. There were, of course, views opinions by women that went against women’s emerging new roles, the works by Francesco Barbaro and Leon Battista Alberti, respectively On Marriage ( 1415) and On the Family ( 1434-37), reaffirmed womens duties to look after children and supervise house hold maintenance while being submissive, virtuous, and quiet. Even then, that served the purpose of pondering over the â€Å"question women† by placing household matters at the focus of academia and reviving the relevant classical texts. In addition, Barbaro stressed the importance of a wifes religious and rational virtues for the happiness of the family, topics that came back in later humanist works on marriage and the education of women by Juan Luis Vives and Erasmus who were fairly sensitive to the condition of women, without taking it too far. A more constructive stance towards women was seen in the virtually unknown work In Praise of Women (ca. 1487), a catalogue of famous women, by the Italian humanist Bartolommeo Goggio where he contended that male and female are essentially the same, and that women are in fact better. Almost similarly, the Italian humanist Mario Equicola stressed the sacred equality of men and women in On Women. An outlook more favorable to women characterizes the nearly unknown work In Praise of Women (ca. 1487) by the Italian humanist Bartolommeo Goggio. In addition to providing a catalogue of illustrious women, Goggio contended hat male and female are essentially the same and that women are in fact better. Similarly, the Italian humanist Mario Equicola stressed the divine equality of men and women in On Women ( 1501). In 1525, Galeazzo Flavio Capra (or Capella) published his work On the Excellence and Dignity of Women. This humanist tradition of discourses guarding the value of women ended in the wo rk of Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, On the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex, an incomparable attempt by a male humanist to concisely or openly present the case for female self-respect. Works written on the womens question had an extra point in the sense that volumes of them were written by women. A woman writing was in herself a declaration of womens assertion to self-respect. Only a handful of women wrote anything before the the early modern era, for three reasonsfirst, they hardly ever had the culture that facilitated them to write, second, they were not let in to have public roles-as officer, civil servant, lawyer or attorney, university professor where they might attain information about matters worth writing about and lastly , the male-dominated culture suppressed the voice of women with the hidden social dictate that considered speaking her mind as a unchaste. Under such condition it was amazing for those who did write before the fourteenth century. Women writes mostly were nuns or spiritual women whose secluded life made their assertion more tolerable. From the fourteenth century on, the number increased rapidly, women went on writing devotional literature, even though not always as secluded nuns. They also wrote journals, often having it in mind as mementos for their children; guides to their children; letters to family members and friends; and family memoirs that could as well be considered as histories of some sorts. A few women wrote works directly related to the woman question, and some of these, were well trained. While women’s rights were a novel idea, educated women concentrated on another aspect of women, which is witch-hunting. There was a distinctive hostility against witches and a number of booklets and pamphlets on instructions to protect them against witches, who were considered essentially women. The most notorious witch-hunting manual was The Hammer of Witches ( 1486), by two Dominican inquisitors, Heinrich Krà ¤mer and Jacob Sprenger. Witches were often accused of exaggerated deeds as well as deceitful and lust-ridden. Hence, women were equated with the devil who held unholy powers. Of course, rational men, protested such opinion but the most believed in these. For example, the German Ulrich Molitur, the Frenchman Nicolas Rà ©my, the Italian Stefano Guazzo described sinister orgies with the devil and the celebrated French jurist, historian, and political philosopher Jean Bodin often suspended regular legal routine in order to try women charged with exceptional crime. Thus, the early Renaissance involved misogynists. Even when they followed new norms in all matters of society and philosophy, these did not include women. It was up to the women themselves to make their new rules. They formed their own literature and culture whiles the men, even rational otherwise, had distinctive hostility. But the women slowly broke down the barriers gradually as women who were otherwise cocooned within the arena of women began to write and express themselves. Yet, the Renaissance did help women to find their own voice. Even as they have faced new challenges over the years, they have continued to struggle to make their own place up to now. Bibliography Primary sources: Cereta, Laura. Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist. edited by Diana Robin. University Of Chicago Press. Chicago, 1997. dePizan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies. trans. Earl Jeffrey Richards; Foreword Marina Warner. New York. 1982 Thomson, Melissa (2005). Women of the Renaissance. Lucent Books. San Diego. Zophy, Jonathon W. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water. Prentice Hall; 2 edition., 1998 Secondary sources: Elton, G. R. (1963). Renaissance and Reformation. 1300-1648. Hale, J.R. (1993-1995). The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. Simon andm Shuster. New York. Letts, Rosa Maria (1981). The Renaissance. Cambridge University Press. New York. Stearns , Peter N. The Face of Europe. Forum Press: St. Louis, MO, 1977. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: edited by David Bevington: Bantam, 1988.

Discussing Neumans System Model and its Application

Discussing Neumans System Model and its Application One of the most important contributions in the field of nursing is the publication of the Neumans System Model. Betty Neuman, a nursing theorist believes on a comprehensive wholistic and systematic perspective on learning. She aims to develop a system that will help introductory nursing students to learn the course and develop their over-all being. She assumes the existence of certain stressors where in certain preventions must also be formulated. This paper will present a brief background on the life and published works of Neuman. This will also include a detailed discussion on her systems model and the factors to consider when applying the model to certain situations. Lastly, given this model, how would a nursing student apply this to her current practice. 1. Introduction/Background a. Life/ school Betty Neuman, born in Ohio US has obtained her diploma as Registered Nurse in People Hospital School of Nursing (Ohio) in the year 1947. She worked in California as a head nurse and hospital staff, industrial nurse and school nurse. She has also engaged in clinical teaching in the following areas: communicable disease, medical- surgical and critical care. b. work/academic achievement/experiences She finished her baccalaureate degree with distinction in nursing in the year 1957. And in the year 1966, she received her masters degree in Mental Health, Public Health Consultation, from UCLA. In the year 1985, he received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology ffrom Pacific Western University. With this she started to incorporate and become pioneer in incorporating nursing involvement in mental health. She developed a model from in response to the needs of graduate nursing students who wished to have a course or a program that will expose them to an in-depth breadth of nursing problems. With this, she created a conceptual framework or model for nursing that has been initially published in the year 1972 entitled: Model for Teaching Total Person Approach to Patient Problems in Nursing Research. Along with this model, she refined and reviewed some aspects in for her published book entitled: The Neuman Systems Model: Application to Nursing Education and Practice. Neumans model has been reviewed as holistic, comprehensive, flexible and system based perspective for nursing. It primary attention has been focused on client response system towards the potential and actual environmental stressors. And she used all steps from primary to tertiary nursing prevention, intervention for retention, maintenance and attainment for a holistic wellness of clients. c. List of few works that is published. The Neuman Systems Model This work was published in the Nursing Research in 1872. She developed this model as a way to teach introductory nursing course to beginning nursing students. This aims to provide wholistic overview to the four aspects of a person. These four aspects are psychological, physiological, developmental and sociocultural. DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL The Neuman Systems Model presents a systems-based framework for viewing individuals, families or communities. It is based on general systems theory with the client viewed as an open system, which reacts and adapts to both internal and external stressors.   NSM is based on numerous concepts and sub concepts, some of which are: stress, adaptation, homeostasis, levels of prevention, intra, inter and extra personal factors, optimal wellness and basic structure. The following description of the model is a brief summary of the description found in the original publication (Neuman Young 1972) with examples added by the authors. In this explanation of the model the client will be considered to be an individual. The client system is represented by a series of solid and broken circles. The central circle is the basic structure or energy source, which includes basic survival factors common to the species. Some examples are genetic response patterns, strengths or weaknesses of body organs and normal temperature range. The basic structure also consists of characteristics which are unique   to a given individual or client such as innate musical talent. The outer most solid circle is referred to as the   normal line of defense and represents the individuals normal state of wellness or the usual state of adaptation, which the person has maintained over time.   The broken line outside the normal line of defense is the flexible line of defense. It acts as a buffer or protection to the normal line of defense. Ideally it will prevent stressors from invading the client system by blocking or defusing stressors before they are able to attack the normal line of defense. The flexible line of defense is accordion like in its function. When it is expanded greater protection is provided. When it is narrowed and therefore closer to the normal line of defense, its ability to protect is diminished. The NSM also includes the concept of prevention at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. This concept is of particular importance to those who work in the helping professions. Interventions can occur at a primary level to strengthen the flexible line of defense, at a secondary level to help restore the client system to equilibrium by treating symptoms that occur after penetration of the line of defense by a stressor or a at the tertiary level to prevent farther damage and maintain stability after reconstitution has occurred. INTERDISCIPLINARY FIT Although use of interdisciplinary teams is not new to health care industries, it has gained increasing favor in the environment   of health care reform as evidenced by governmental recommendations and guidelines (U S Bureau of Health Professions, 1995) and position statements from professional organizations (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 1995). The trend in nursing is to collaborate with other health care disciplines as well as with clients. Use of   interdisciplinary health care (IHC) teams can facilitate the emergence of holistic client care goals from teams of diverse health care specialists. Upheaval in the health care industry is affecting   all health professions. In the movement for health care reform, emphasis is being placed on such things as the need for health promotion, coordinated care, and reduction in cost. Some of the watchwords are prevention, wellness and healthy lifestyles. Concepts in the NSM are parallels to those watch words. Therefore, it is not surprising that use of the N.S.M. as a framework for interdisciplinary health care practice is increasing, not only in the United States but also around the world. In Neuman (1995), Lowry, Walker and Mirenda state the following:   The Neuman Systems Model is clearly poised and ready for the challenges of the future. Sometimes characterized in the past as too broad, complex and comprehensive, the model is coming in to its own with the challenges of the 21st century. The complexities of the global society, of crises in health care delivery, and of changing patterns and dangers from the environment provide stimulus for new applications of the Neuman Systems Model. The model is not   only broad and comprehensive enough to provide structure for nursing interventions, but also for other disciplines interested in focusing on wellness and holistic care for patients and clients . . . . The ongoing use and scholarly development of the Neuman Systems Model in practice, education, FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN INCORPORATING THE NSM Understanding the Model Understanding the model is the first step to incorporation of the NSM in any   practice setting. There is much   flexibility in how this can take place, such as providing classes with an expert lecturing on the model, sending staff to NSM symposiums, holding a series of classes in which lecture and discussion focus on various aspects of the N.S.M. or taking the approach used by the authors   in which team members used the model to develop treatment protocols for actual cases. During the practice sessions, cases from team members lived experience quickly and effectively brought the NSM from the level of theory to that of application and allowed the team to experience the fit of the model to their institution and individual philosophies. Learning the Language of the Model Learning the language of the model is not a significant problem for most health   care professionals. As stated earlier, the model promotes synthesis of knowledge from areas of study which form the matrix for nursing education. That matrix has elements common to the educational foundations of other health care professions. Each of the five variables, i.e. physiological, psychological, socio-cultural, developmental and spiritual, is associated with a field of knowledge that forms the base for practice in some health care related profession. For example, medicine, psychology, physical therapy, social work, and marriage and family counseling, share portions of the educational matrix associated with nursing. Thus they are able, for the most part, to speak the language of the NSM, and make major contributions to an interdisciplinary health care team which uses the model. However, because of the breadth of   the NSM, other theories, some of which are profession specific, can and must b e related to the assessment and intervention processes. All team members must be sensitive to the particular language of their discipline (Morrissey, 1989) and must clarify to other members where appropriate. A common language will assist in development of unity among team participants.   It is helpful to establish as a group norm the expectation that each member is responsible to ask for and expect to receive clarification of all unfamiliar terminology used by any other team member. It is not unusual for clergy to have an educational background dissimilar to that of the health care professions. The spiritual expert on our team, a professor of religion who is also a lay minister, was the team member least familiar with terminology used in the NSM. Conversely, other members of the team were at times unfamiliar with certain religious terminology. In those instances when team members have dissimilar backgrounds, extra time and effort may be required for the team to learn to speak a common language. In summary, the primary reason the NSM adapts well to interdisciplinary use is because it was developed on the premise that the practice of holistic health care must be built on a foundation   of synthesized knowledge and interdisciplinary cooperation based in a common language and dynamic systems concepts (Neuman Young 1972). APPLICATION IN EDUCATION The team member, who represented expertise in human development, has developed and taught an interdisciplinary undergraduate course in general systems theory using the NSM as the main example for application of general systems theory in the clinical setting. Using the NSM, a case study and the Interdisciplinary Assessment Form, students assess the clients needs and determine which member of an interdisciplinary health care team would be the most appropriate care coordinator for the client. The team has developed a proposal for an honors course which would be open to any honors student interested in the health care professions or behavioral sciences. The course will be built on the   NSM and emphasize use of an interdisciplinary team for assessing and intervening in   client problems. A case study approach will be used. All members on the team will   participate in teaching with each member presenting information related to his/her major area of expertise. At the administrative and faculty level, interest in this course is generated by a desire for increased interdisciplinary activity on the Brigham Young University campus. INCORPORATING THE MODEL WITH MY DAILY PRACTICE Given this Neuman Systems Model and as a sub-acute practice nurse, I can apply this by following these steps: 1. Understand that my patients are unique and different from one another. One may respond to one stressor in a heavy manner and another may not. 2. Since I am a sub-acute nurse, and I am dealing with patients that are recovering from previous illnesses, I will assume that all stressors, light or heavy will contribute   a big factor on the recovery of my patient. This conjecture will help me not to be complacent with handling my patient. 3. Improve my communication with my patient by asking him or her about the stressor he or she experiences. Identify and evaluate the situations or events that contributes to this stressor. 4. Make an effort in researching and working on the proper preventions for the stressors my patient is exposed to. 5. Bear in mind that every little thing I do affect the wellness or illness of my patient. The theory emphases the wholistic care for better welfare and wellness to the patient as well to the health provider (doctors, nurse and sabacute nurse), just like other interventions it would brings enrichment to the patient and to its provider leading to areas that would increase the specialization. In this case as a sabacute nurse it is a better opportunity to enhance my daily work because it will support and develop my skills. SUMMARY This interdisciplinary health care team experience has enhanced the level of our professional expertise and has enriched both our professional and personal lives. The experience of coming together for the good of the client has its own intrinsic value. We believe that, with a history of increasing health care specialization and compartmentalization, the work of interdisciplinary health care teams using a wholistic model of care is one of the few health care options leading toward increased levels of wellness for all people in all countries.

Television Overexposure and ADHD: Is there a connection? :: Essays Papers

Television Overexposure and ADHD: Is there a connection? It is an urban myth that an overexposure to watching television may cause people to develop Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). My purpose is to study this theory to discover if it is accurate. I am also interested in discovering how ADHD plays a role in education. Before I can begin I have to start by researching what ADHD is. ADHD is a disorder among people that is associated with three main symptoms which are poor sustained attention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. Along with these three main topics, three subtypes have also been identified in the forms of being predominately inattentive, predominately hyperactive-impulsive, and combined types (Barkley). Where does ADHD occur? Out of the childhood population 4-12% have ADHD (Clayton). Along with that percentage boys can be found outweighing girls in a ratio of 3:1. ADHD can continue on into a person’s adolescence stage in 50-80% of clinically diagnosed case and into adulthood in 30-50% of these same cases (Barkley). How can someone determine if their child or children have ADHD? ADHD is most likely evaluated through diagnostic interviews with the child, their parents, and the child’s tearcher(s). Other evaluations are behavior rating scales completed by both the parents and the teacher(s), direct observations of the students’ school behavior, and clinic based testing (Anastopoulos). There are many different methods as to how ADHD is treated. Some examples are couneling and behavior management training for the parents, family, and teacher. The are also special education resources available in order to help children with ADHD. Another alternative for parents is to have a professional prescribe psychoactive medications for their child or children to improve their behavior (Barkley). The most effective type of medication found for ADHD are stimulants. Different medications work differently on many people and it is important to work with a professional to decide which prescription is right for you. In some cases the use of stimulant psychoactive medication dramatically reduces hyperactive and impulsive behaviors, im proves focus, and has even improved physical coordination (Attention).

Comparing the Daily Lives of African American Women in the 1940s and To

Comparing the Daily Lives of African American Women in the 1940s and Today For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in America, Black women were an after-thought in our nation's history. They were the mammies and maids, the cooks and caregivers, the universal shoulder to cry on in times of trouble. Often overlooked and undervalued, Black women were just ... there. African American women have come a long way. In the 1940s, women were treated as second-class citizens and Blacks faced discrimination everywhere they looked. They were not taught to be proud of being Black (Dressier, 1985). They had a hard time going to school. Black children were not taught Black history. African Americans were not able to have a sense of pride about themselves or their culture (Farley & Allen, 1987). In this paper, I will try to describe and compare the lives of African American women around the time of World War II, a period of great change in the U.S., with their lives today. Due to the enormity of this subject, I am limiting my scope to the discrimination and the resulting economic hardships African American women in particular have endured. Discrimination in Daily Life In 1940, it was very difficult for Blacks to get a job due to discrimination. Naomi Craig, an African American and former World War II defense plant worker, describes that when she graduated from high school, she could not get a job. ?I went to the offices of the different insurance companies. I was a crackerjack stenographer, and I was smart, but I was colored. When I would go down for a job, the girl in the office would look at me and then call for the employer. He?d come out; he?d say, ?Uh, uh Miss Jennings, um, yes, well the job is filled.? I?d go hom... ...own.edu/projects/WWII_Women/ McLoyd, V. C., & Wilson, L. (1992). Telling them like it is: The role of economic and environmental factors in single mothers? discussions with their children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 20, 419-444. Mitchell, L., (November 5, 2000). Personal interview via telephone. Schaefer, R.T. (2000). Racial and ethnic groups, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Sokoloff, N. J. (1999). Black women and white women in the professions. New York: Routledge. Taylor, R. D., & Roberts, D. (1995). Kinship support and maternal adolescent well being in economically disadvantaged African American Families. Child Development, 66, 15851597. Ulbrich, P. M., Warheit, G. J., & Zimmerman, R. S. (1989). Race, socioeconomic status, and psychological distress: An examination of differential vulnerability. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 30, 131-146.