Reaction Paper to Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction Essay

Abstract Dr. Laaser (2004) provides a detailed look into sexual addiction from a Christian viewpoint in Healing Wounds of Sexual Addiction. The focus of this assignment will be to gain knowledge of what sexual addiction is, how family dynamics are affected, treatment of sexual addiction, and lastly addressing sexual addiction in the church. Exploring the different areas of how sexual addiction and how it can affect the life of the addicted individual will be assessed. Sexual addiction is a sin that Dr. Laaser (2004) discusses in his work. Healing Wounds of Sexual Addiction examines the many areas of the addicted person’s life that can be affected but it also provides hope and encouragement. Experts speculate that up to 10 percent of the total Christian population in the United States is sexually addicted (Laaser, 2004). There are so many individuals that are struggling with a sexual addiction and are too ashamed to seek help thus leaving a great number of unreported cases. Several reasons may apply to the sexually addicted person for not seeking help; Laaser (2004) discusses some of those reasons as being shame, guilt, fear of losing a job and their family. Dr. Laaser’s work is clearly articulated and provides great information on healing sexual addiction and the road to recovery. It is through his work that a Christian worldview is established towards the healing process. Synopsis Dr. Laaser’s understanding of sexual addiction is described as sinful behavior that the addict has no control over. The sexual behaviors that become addictive are sinful (Laaser, 2004). Sexual addictions can take many forms which include cybersex, pornography, and fantasies. Dr. Laaser explains that these addictions if left unmanaged can also lead to destruction (p.24). Sexual addiction is classified as a disease and like all  diseases must be treated properly. Both sexual addiction and disease have observable symptoms and a natural progression that, if left untreated, get worse and eventually lead to death (Laaser, 2004). From a biblical standpoint Dr. Laaser makes a clear correlation between sexual addiction as a disease and a sin. Sexual addiction is also seen as a moral sin (Laaser, 2004). Moral sexual sin describes how the addict does not view their behaviors as wrong because they are only having sex with their spouse. However, they have detached from the spiritual and emotional aspect of their relationship. The addict uses sex as a way to escape reality. Dr. Laaser mentions that, â€Å"the question is whether or not sex is an expression of intimacy or an escape from it† (p. 26). There are similar views that I share with Dr. Laaser in regards to sexual addiction. I absolutely agree that sexual addiction is a disease that can be deadly to the addict. As mentioned earlier, diseases that are left untreated can lead to death. The diseased mind of the sexual addict may lead to high risk behaviors as well. My personal understanding of sexual addiction is in line with Dr. Laaser’s in viewing the addiction as a sexual sin for it is. Family Dynamics Dr. Laaser takes a deep look into how family dynamics can contribute the behavior of the sexual addict by explaining four categories of family dynamics; boundaries, rules, roles, and addictions. Addicts that grow up in families in which unhealthy dynamics are present are more apt to believe that their negative behaviors are justified. Dr. Laaser describes in his work how boundaries are broken in families that sexual abuse exists. Boundaries define the ways a person’s invisible space can and can’t be crossed (Laaser, 2004). When these boundaries are broken, it can leave the child feeling confused. The confusion comes into play when a loved one inappropriately touches them or engages in sexual acts. Dr. Laaser mentions that there are different types of boundaries such as loose and rigid. Loose boundaries are when something happens in the family that should not such as fondling, touching inappropriately, and sexual contact. Rigid boundaries are stricter, loving and caring interactions do not take place. Underline issues pertaining to family dynamics can deeply impact the life of the individual that suffers from sexual addictions. Those issues carry into adulthood and can impact the relationships that the addict has. It becomes difficult for the addict to recover when underline issues are not addressed. The cycle will continue if not addressed and the addict may do what was done to them, to their children or others. It is important for sex addicts to recognize that their sexual activity is an attempt to medicate old wounds and to find love (Laaser, 2004). Examining my own family dynamics I recognize that in our household we did not talk about sex, it was almost taboo. My mother was strict and therefore was somewhat rigid in raising me. I was taught very early in age to never let any one touch my private parts and that included other family members. If those boundaries were violated I was to tell my mother or grandmother immediately and not be afraid to tell them. When the time came to discuss the birds and the bees, I almost felt embarrassed because I did not want to have that conversation with my mother. My personal values that were taught to me by mother and grandmother shaped my beliefs about sex. I believe that it may be some challenges in treating an individual with a sexual addiction because I would have to be careful not to be judgmental. Treatment of Sexual Addiction The treatment of sexual addiction is a long one that can take a lifetime. The process of healing from sexual addiction includes answering important questions, creating accountability, and understanding how people change (Laaser, 2004). Dr. Laaser mentions that before treatment with new people he asks three spiritual questions: 1. Do you want to get well? 2. What are you thirst for? 3. Are you willing to die to yourself? (p. 122). Dr. Laaser’s approach to treatment provides a spiritual standpoint that makes the sexual addict dig deeper into themselves and explore their relationship with God. The ten steps of accountability allow an individual to look at the rebuilding process in their road to recovery. One of the biggest challenges that the sex addict will face is changing their behaviors. The healing journey is a process of changing old addictive and destructive behaviors into new and healthy ones (Laaser, 2004). The Sexual Addiction Screening Test and Sexual Addiction Inventory is the most used screening test for sexual addiction as noted by Dr. Laaser. It is important that an effective treatment plan includes five components which are; stopping sexual behaviors, stopping rituals, stopping fantasy, healing despair, and healing shame (Laaser, 2004). Dr. Laaser also recommends that the individual experiencing a sexual addiction work through healing abuse in six stages; 1. Understand the abuse and accept that it has happened. 2. Accept the abuse and express anger. 3. Go through the process of grieving. 4. Confront the abuser. 5. Learn to forgive. 6. Find meaning in the pain. (p.161). At this point in my career, I am continuing to learn about different disorders and what counseling approaches work. I feel that in order for me to effectively counsel an individual with a sexual addiction, I will need to continue to learn and become competent in the area of sexual addiction. It is with my belief that with the appropriate coursework and trainings, I will be able to counsel those that suffer from sexual addiction. As I continue through my graduate program it is imperative that competence is attained because I would not want to cause more hurt to the client. Dr. Laaser’s work has provided a clear cut understanding of what it takes to work with individuals with sexual addictions from a Christian perspective. Sexual Addiction and the Church A Leadership Journal survey revealed that 23 percent of 300 pastors had done something sexually inappropriate with someone other than their spouse (Laaser, 2004). It is becoming more prevalent to hear about sexual misconduct in the church. This misconduct has made people skeptical about the leaders of the church in whom they are suppose to trust. Dr. Laaser outlines characteristics of the sexually addicted pastor or priest in his work. Dr. Laaser’s recommendations regarding addressing sexual addiction in the church, not only looks at healing the pastor or priest but also the congregation and victims. I agree with Dr. Laaser in addressing sexual addiction in the church. His  approaches look at the church as a whole and how everyone in the church as affected. Indeed the pastor or priest that has inflicted sexual abuse onto their members must get the needed help and take accountability for their actions; however, it is also important that those that have been abused be treated and has the opportunity to process what has happened. With instances of sexual indiscretions becoming more frequent, it is imperative that parishioners feel that they have a safe place to worship and a leader that they can confide in and trust. Conclusion Healing from sexual addiction takes time and is a process. The road to recovery is long and ongoing in the sexual addict’s life. The person living with the addiction has to come to a point in which they want to change. Shame and guilt can hinder the sex addict from seeking help. It is important that the individual living with a sexual disorder feel supported and not judged. Dr. Laaser’s work illustrates how there is hope and that through Gods love and forgiveness recovery is possible. Sexual addiction affects not only the addict but their loved ones also. As Dr. Laaser stated, â€Å"ultimately, if all things are possible with God, we can accept that there are sex addicts who may be cured† (p. 223). Reference Laaser, M.R. (2004). Healing the wounds of sexual addiction. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House.

Organizational Culture and Performance Essay

The concept of organizational culture has drawn attention to the long-neglected, subjective or ‘soft’ side of organizational life. However, many aspects of organizational culture have not received much attention. Instead, emphasis has been placed primarily on the cultural and symbolic aspects that are relevant in an instrumental/pragmatic context. The technical cognitive interest prevails. Culture then is treated as an object of management action. In this regard, Ouchi and Wilkins (1985: 462) note that ‘the contemporary student of organizational culture often takes the organization not as a natural solution to deep and universal forces but rather as a rational instrument designed by top management to shape the behavior of the employees in purposive ways’. Accordingly, much research on corporate culture and organizational symbolism is dominated by a preoccupation with a limited set of meanings, symbols, values, and ideas presumed to be manageable and directly related to effectiveness and performance. This is in many ways understandable, but there are two major problems following from this emphasis. One is that many aspects of organizational culture are simply disregarded. It seems strange that the (major part of the) literature should generally disregard such values as bureaucratic-‘meritocratic’ hierarchy, unequal distribution of privileges and rewards, a mixture of individualism and conformity, male domination, emphasis on money, economic growth, consumerism, advanced technology, exploitation of nature, and the equation of economic criteria with rationality. Instrumental reason dominates; quantifiable values and the optimization of means for the attainment of pre-given ends define rationality (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1947; Marcuse, 1964). Mainstream organizational culture thinking – in organizations but also in academia – tend to take this for granted. The values and ideas to which organizational culture research pays attention are primarily connected with the means and operations employed to achieve pre-defined and unquestioned goals. A second problem is that subordinating organizational culture thinking to narrowly defined instrumental concerns also reduces the potential of culture to aid managerial action. Organizational culture calls for considerations that break with some of the assumptions characterizing technical thinking, i.e. the idea that a particular input leads to a predictable effect. This chapter thus shows some problems associated with the use of the term culture that does not take the idea of culture seriously enough and presses the concept into a limited version of the technical cognitive interest. It argues for a ‘softer’ version of this interest as well as for thinking following the other two cognitive interests (as sketched in Chapter 1). A basic problem in much management thinking and writing is an impatience in showing the great potential of organizational culture. Associated with this is a bias for a premature distinction between the good and the bad values and ideas, trivialization of culture, overstressing the role of management and the employment of causal thinking. Premature normativity: the idea of good culture Associated with the technical interest of optimizing means for accomplishment of goals is an underdeveloped capacity to reflect upon normative matters. Viewing cultures as means leads to evaluations of them as more or less ‘good’, i.e. as useful, without consideration whether this goodness is the same as usefulness or if usefulness may be very multidimensional. The more popular literature argues that ‘good’ or ‘valuable’ cultures – often equated with ‘strong’ cultures – are characterized by norms beneficial to the company, to customers, and to mankind and by ‘good’ performance in general: Good cultures are characterized by norms and values supportive of excellence, teamwork, profitability, honesty, a customer service orientation, pride in one’s work, and commitment to the organization. Most of all, they are supportive of adaptability – the capacity to thrive over the long run despite new competition, new regulations, new technological developments, and the strains of growth. (Baker, 1980: 10) Good cultures are, according to this author, cultures that incorporate all good things in peaceful co-existence. Also many other authors eager to appeal to practitioners focus on highly positive-sounding virtues, attitudes, and behaviour claimed to be useful to the achievement of corporate goals as defined by management (e.g. Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Trice and Beyer, 1985). They are largely instrumental in character, without considering any ambiguity of the virtue of culture or what it supposedly accomplished in terms of goal realization. The assumption that culture can be simply evaluated in terms of right and wrong come through in embarrassing statements such as that ‘the wrong values make the culture a major liability’ (Wiener, 1988: 536) has already been mentioned. Similarly, Kilmann et al. (1985: 4) argue that ‘a culture has a positive impact on an organization when it points behavior in the right direction†¦. Alternatively, a culture has negative impact when it points behavior in the wrong direction’. According to Wilkins and Patterson (1985: 272): ‘The ideal culture †¦ is characterized by a clear assumption of equity †¦ a clear sense of collective competence †¦ and an ability to continually apply the collective competence to new situations as well as to alter it when necessary.’ Kanter (1983) talks about ‘cultures of pride’, which are good, and ‘cultures of inferiority’, which any sane person will avoid. This type of functionalist, normative, and instrumentally biased thinking is also found in Schein’s (1985) book, in which culture is seen as a pattern of basic assumptions that has ‘proved’ to be valid for a group coping with problems of external adaptation and internal integration. Basically, culture in this literature is instrumental in relation to the formal goals of an organization and to the management objectives or tasks associated with these goals (i.e. external and internal effectiveness). It is assumed to exist because it works – or at least used to work. Of course, changed circumstances can make a culture dysfunctional – calling for planned, intentional change – but the approach assumes that culture is or can be ‘good’ for some worthwhile purpose. As will be shown later ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are not, however, self-evident, especially when it comes to complex phenomena such as culture. A bias towards the ‘positive’ functions of culture and its close relation to issues such as harmony, consensus, clarity, and meaningfulness is also implicit in many of these studies (see Martin and Meyerson, 1988). Symbols and cultural aspects are often seen as functional (or dysfunctional) for the organization in terms of goal attainment, meeting the emotional-expressive needs of members, reducing tension in communication, and so on. Instrumental/functional dimensions are often emphasized, for instance, in studies of rites and ceremonies (e.g. Dandridge, 1986; Trice and Beyer, 1984). The typical research focus is on social integration (Alvesson, 1987). Culture is understood as (usually or potentially) useful – and those aspects of culture that are not easily or directly seen as useful remain out of sight, e.g. on gender and ethics. The most common ideas guiding organizational analysis draw upon such metaphors for culture as tool, social glue, need satisfier, or regulator of social relations. Problems include the premature use of moral judgement, in a way hidden behind technical understanding in which culture is viewed as a tool and presumably as easy to evaluate in terms of its goodness as a hammer. But few issues are simply good or bad, functional or dysfunctional. Some things that may be seen as good may be less positive from another angle. A ‘clear sense of collective competence’ – to connect to the citation above – does in itself sound positive and is good for self-esteem and commitment, but a high level of self-confidence may be a mixed blessing as it easily forms a part of, or leads to, fantasies of omnipotence, and may obstruct openness, reflection, willingness to listen to critique and take new external ideas seriously (Brown and Starkey, 2000). Cultural themes thus call for careful consideration, where normative judgement should be applied with great caution. Normative talk easily prevents more nuanced interpretation. Trivialization of culture As argued above, the consequence of the functionalist/pragmatic approach is that culture tends to be reduced to those limited aspects of this complex phenomenon that are perceived to be directly related to organizational efficiency and competitive advantage (see, e.g. Barney, 1986; Kilmann et al., 1985). This means a rather selected interest in organizational culture. But much worse is a tendency to emphasize mainly the superficial aspects of these selected parts of organizational culture. These superficial aspects have the advantage that they are compatible with technical thinking, presumably accessible to managerial interventions. Culture may even be equated with certain behavioural norms viewed as ‘an excellent vehicle for helping people understand and manage the cultural aspects of organizational life’ (Allen, 1985: 334). In marketing, market-oriented culture is frequently defined as the key to strong performances (Harris and Ogbonna, 1999), culture here implying certain behaviours. The problem, of course, is that norms are not the best vehicle for understanding culture. Whereas norms tell people how to behave, culture has a much broader and more complex influence on thinking, feeling, and sense-making (Schneider, 1976). Again, Barney (1986), Pfeffer (1994) and others argue that to serve as a source of sustained competitive advantage culture must be ‘valuable, rare, and imperfectly imitable’. If this statement is to make any sense at all, culture must be interpreted as highly normative, accessible to evaluation in terms of frequency (i.e. quantifiable), and capable of being copied a t will. This conception deprives culture of the richness that is normally seen as its strength. At the same time, any culture may be seen as vital for competitive advantage (or as disadvantage), as it is arguably, highly significant and not easy to imitate. As Pfeffer (1994), among others, notes, many of the earlier identified sources of competitive advantage, such as economies of scale, products or process technology, access to financial resources and protected or regulated markets, become of diminishing significance as a consequence of more fragmented markets with an increasing need for flexibility in production, shorter product life cycle, internationalizations and de-regulations. A company’s competence and ability to manage people – to a considerable degree overlapping organizational culture – are not easy to imitate. Even to describe and analyse culture is difficult, as indicated by all the management texts providing only superficial and trivial descriptions of culture, such as norms about ‘market-oriented’ behaviour. The trivialization of organizational culture is not, however, solely restricted to writings promising the quick fix. Despite an effort to define organizational culture on a deeper level, emphasizing basic assumptions, Schein (1985) in most of his empirical examples tends to address the more superficial aspects. One example concerns the acquisition of a franchised business: The lack of understanding of the cultural risks of buying a franchised business was brought out even more clearly in another case, where a very stuffy, traditional, moralistic company whose management prided itself on its high ethical standards bought a chain of fast-food restaurants that were locally franchised around the country. The company’s managers discovered, much to their chagrin, that one of the biggest of these restaurants in a nearby state had become the local brothel. The activities of the town were so well integrated around this restaurant that the alternative of closing it down posed the risk of drawing precisely the kind of attention this company wanted at all costs to avoid. The managers asked themselves, after the fact, ‘Should we have known what our acquisition involved on this more subtle level? Should we have understood our own value system better, to ensure compatibility?’ (Schein, 1985: 34–5) Here the problem seems to be lack of knowledge on a very specific point – what the company was buying – rather than lack of understanding of the company’s own value system. Most ordinary, ‘respectable’ corporations, whatever their organizational culture, would probably wish to avoid becoming owners of brothels. Prostitution is broadly seen as illegitimate, not only by those who Schein views as ‘very stuffy, traditional, moralistic’ people. Apart from the moral issue, there is of course the risk that bad publicity would follow and harm the company. Managerialization of culture Another aspect of adapting culture to technical concerns, and the reduction of complexity and depth contingent upon such concerns, is the confusion of organizational culture with the firm’s management ideology. Frequently what is referred to as organizational or corporate culture really stands for the ideals and visions prescribed by top management (Alvesson, 1987; Westley and Jaeger, 1985). It is sometimes held that the best way to investigate ‘corporate culture’ is through interviews with top managers, but the outcome of this approach tends to be a description of the espoused ideology of those managers that ‘only skim the culture that surrounds the top executives’ (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1992: 174). Denison (1984) in a survey claiming to study corporate culture, for example asked one manager per company in a large number of companies to fill in a questionnaire. Organizational culture and managerial ideology are in most cases not the same, partly due to the lack of depth of ideology compared to culture, partly due to variation within organizations and discrepancies between top management and other groups. To differentiate between corporate culture as prescribed and manager-led and organizational culture as ‘real culture’ and more or less emergent from below is one possibility (Anthony, 1994). However, management ideology is not necessarily very different from organizational culture – there are cases where management ideology powerfully impregnates cultural patterns (Alvesson, 1995; Kunda, 1992). But this needs to be empirically investigated and shown, and cannot be assumed. Management ideology is but one of several expressions of organizational culture. In most discussions of the relationship between culture and performance, authors focus on values espoused by senior managers, to a higher or lower degree shared by larger groups, while the complexity and variety of culture is neglected.1 From a management point of view, the managerialization of organizational culture immediately appears appealing; but arguably deeper, less conscious aspects of cultural patterns than those managers are already aware of and promote are more valuable, at least in the long run, to focus on. Rather than smoothing over differences and variations in meanings, ideas and values within organizations, highlighting the latter is significant as a basis of informed management thinking and action. Loosening the grip of premature practicality The three weaknesses of much organizational culture thinking reviewed above are related to the wish to make culture appear as of immediate interest to practitioners, and to fit into a predominantly technical cognitive interest in which culture is reduced to a tool. Cultural studies should be permitted to develop unrestricted by, or at least more loosely connected to, concerns for practicality. It is important here is to recognize the contradiction between sophisticated thinking and easily applicable practical concerns: The more rigorously (anthropologically) the term (culture) is applied, the more the concept of organizational culture gains in theoretical interpretative power and the more it loses in practicality. In the effort to overcome this contradiction the danger is that theoretical rigour will be lost in the interest of practicality. (Westley and Jaeger, 1985: 15) Even if one wants to contribute to practicality, rather than to anthropology, this still calls for another kind of intellectual approach than most of the authors cited above exemplify. Oversimplification and promises of ‘quick fixes’ do not necessarily serve narrow pragmatic interests, neither those of managers nor of others. Making things look clear-cut and simple may mislead. Practitioners might benefit much more from the pro-managerial and pragmatic organizational culture literature if it stopped promising recipes for how to manage and control culture and instead discussed other phenomena which managers might, with luck and skill, be able to influence – for example, specific cultural manifestations, workplace spirit and behavioural norms. Learning to ‘think culturally’ about organizational reality might inspire enlightened managerial everyday action rather than unrealistic programmes for culture change or bending patterns of meaning, ideas and valu es to managerial will. Before assuming that culture is functional or good for organizational or managerial purposes, it makes sense to distinguish among possible consequences and to recognize that they may conflict. Critical reflection and learning may be a good thing, consensus facilitating control and coordinated action another, and reduction of anxiety a third; but not all these good things may be attainable at the same time and they may contradict each other. Perhaps more important, contradictory interests – those of professions, divisions, classes, consumers, environmentalists, the state, owners, top management, etc. – may produce different views on what is good, important, and appropriate. Also within complex organizations, corporate goal-attainment may presuppose considerable variation in cultural orientations. Most aspects of culture are difficult to designate as clearly good or bad. To simplify these relationships runs the risk of producing misleading pictures of cultural manifestati ons. Instead, the focus must become the tensions between the creative and destructive possibilities of culture formation (Jeffcutt, 1993). Approaches to the cultureÂâ€"performance relationship There are different ideas regarding to what extent organizational culture can be used as a managerial tool. I will point at and discuss three versions of how managers can work with culture. These represent the relative significance of management versus culture: can management control culture or must management adapt to culture? Cultural engineering: corporate culture as managerial design In the most instrumentally oriented of these formulations, culture is conceived as a building block in organizational design – a subsystem, well-demarcated from other parts of the organization, which includes norms, values, beliefs, and behavioural styles of employees. Even though it may be difficult to master, it is in principle no different from other parts of the organization in terms of management and control. The term ‘cultural engineering’ captures the spirit of this position, which is sometimes called the ‘corporate-culture school’ (Alvesson and Berg, 1992). Kilmann (1985: 354) recognizes that there is considerable disagreement about what culture is but concludes that ‘it is still important to consider what makes a culture good or bad, adaptive or dysfunctional’. He describes culture almost as a physical force: ‘Culture provides meaning, direction, and mobilization – it is the social energy that moves the corporation into allocation †¦ the energy that flows from shared commitments among group members’ (p. 352) and ‘the force controlling behaviour at every level in the organization’ (p. 358). He believes that every firm has a distinctive culture that can develop and change quickly and must be managed and controlled: ‘If left alone, a culture eventually becomes dysfunctional’ (p. 354). The underlying metaphor then clearly comes from technical science. The crucial dimension of culture, according to Kilmann, is norms; it is here that culture is ‘most easily controlled’. More precisely, it is the norms that guide the behaviour and attitudes of the people in the company that are of greatest interest and significance, because they have a powerful effect on the requirements for its success – quality, efficiency, product reliability, customer service, innovation, hard work, loyalty, etc. This is the core of most (American) texts on corporate culture (e.g. Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Peters and Waterman, 1982; Sathe, 1985; Wiener, 1988). There are many difficulties with this model. Norms refer to a too superficial and behaviour-near aspect to really capture culture, at least as defined in this book. Norms and behaviours are affected by many dimensions other than culture. Within a culture there are a number of norms related to the enormous variety of different behaviours. The point with culture is that it indicates the meaning dimension, i.e. what is behind and informs norms. A related problem with this behaviour-near view on culture is the tendency to see culture as more or less forcefully affecting behaviour. For example, Sathe (1985: 236) argues that ‘the strength of a culture influences the intensity of behavior’, and the ‘strength’ of a culture is determined by ‘how many important shared assumptions there are’, how widely they are shared, and how clearly they are ranked. A ‘strong’ culture is thus characterized by homogeneity, simplicity, and clearly ordered assumptions. In a ‘complex’ culture – by definition any culture – assumptions will probably be very difficult to identify and rank, and it can even be argued that such a measurement approach distorts the phenomena it is supposed to study. As Fitzgerald (1988: 9–10) has put it: Values do not exist as isolated, independent, or incremental entities. Beliefs and assumptions, tastes and inclinations, hopes and purposes, values and principles are not modular packages stored on warehouse shelves, waiting for inventory. They have no separate existence, as do spark plugs in an engine; they cannot be examined one at a time and replaced when burned out†¦. They have their own inner dynamic: Patriotism, dignity, order, progress, equality, security – each implies other values, as well as their opposites. Patriotism implies homeland, duty, and honor, but also takes its strength from its contrast to disloyalty; dignity requires the possibility of humiliation and sham e.

Financial Management for Young Adults Essay

High credit card debt and student loan repayment have been seen to cause inconveniences to the young adults just because of lack of proper preparedness and awareness, when it comes to dealing with such matters of financial management. (Giuseppe, 2012) tells us that mental health professions perceive money to be corrupting people and that it is not right to have too much of it. With adequate management skills, this statement could be turned around such that the available money is used to help the young adults in managing their finances, however little or much and getting out of the hook of high credit debts and other similar situations. Kapoor, 2011) explains how appropriate knowledge, skills and decision making abilities are key essentials in managing finances. Starting from a tender age, matters of money management can be taught at school and the students will tend to learn more as they proceed to other higher grades. Influence from parents is also seen to be important as it can be a determinant factor in wooing the children to managing their finances correctly. Other innovative activities can also be used to make sure that these young adults know how to go about money issues. We see how awareness can help improve the situation of our young adults as it helps them to be well equipped in dealing with any of such debt issues. Other loan repayment organizations such as America’s Debt Help Organization have played an important role in helping young adults deal with debts and loan repayments. All that one needs to do is to register with such organizations and table your urgency to them. The better part is that, they are available online and anyone can connect to them from any part of the world. Understanding Financial Management  Financial management is the planning, organizing, directing and monitoring the manner in which you use your finances. The elements of financial capability and how it impacts on life successes especially on young adults are based on certain conditions as reported by Soyeon & Joyce (2011) (i) Financial socialization whereby parents are the determinant factor in helping their children to being financially capable adults. The young adults tend to listen to their parents more than even how they pay attention to their teachers at school. Every child believes that their parents are always right and they cannot instill in them something of no value but will strive to give them the best. Once they buy the idea, then they would start looking at financial management positively and this will continue to uplift their awareness regarding finances. (ii) Cumulative education which emphasizes on the ongoing learning education at school. This can impact financial management skills to the young adults who are still at school and enable them to know more about finances. This will also reduce the chances of incurring unnecessary credit card debt, but increase their knowledge in money savings. With this, they will be aware of the benefits of accessing basic necessities like rental housing, savings accounts and other important needs in life. Starting to teach these young students as early as possible will help them grow with the information at heart and even influence how they will manage their finances later on in life and throughout their lives. Starting early also gives them ample time to grow and know more about finances as they develop from stage to stage. Soyeon & Joyce (2011) explains that if young adults are exposed to ongoing financial education, then they gain more financial knowledge and this is found to increase their financial responsibility and behavior when still young, thereby shaping them to be responsible adults later on in life. All these aim to raise self awareness and positive behaviors towards financial management for the young adults. Recent studies have proved that if key financial education concepts are introduced early in school, then that foundation continues to be built consistently (Mansfield & Pinto, 2008). Opportunities where young adults practice how to manage their money could also be done through innovative learning and this could serve as a platform to start financial management skills. With this, they would have learnt physically and be in a position to handle any concepts while still at school. Concepts like simulation would enable students interact with various financial products and services and this in turns sharpens their decision making skills due to effectiveness and improved retention. Parents also play an important role in mentoring these young adults and hence discussion topics on finance management should be encouraged at home, to enable them fully understand these concepts. Parents are more influential as a resent research from Arizona Pathways to Success for University Students found out. The nature of relationship between parents and children are becoming peer-like and that, the value of their relationship continues to grow as a result of this (Serido, 2012). Parents are active in supporting their children in other academic projects and learning in general. This attitude should be extended to help nature these children in matters of financial management such that even as they grow, they know that finances is part of them. Personal financial management is one area that needs planning especially for young adults who are still in school and even for those who have just completed schooling. If personal finances are well planned, it leads to accomplished goals such as settling school loan repayment. Distinguish between the short and long term personal financial goals and know which one to prioritize (Madura, 2010). School loan repayment plan could be categorized as long term as compared to setting an emergency fund. With an estimate of how much you expect to save, you will be getting clearer perception of your financial goals. (Madura, 2010), Financial goals should be realistic. Don’t deceive yourself or be over optimistic as this may lead to disappointment. Or rather, dream of what is within your reach as a young adult and work hard, in order to achieve it. You can even be involved in part time employment where you can get small savings and later plan with it. Determine the type of action you take in setting up your financial goals. Kapoor (2011) says students have many different financial goals, but none are more important than having a basic understanding of financial issues and peace of mind with regard to their decisions. The ultimate goal of Focus on Personal Finance is to get students to this point as a first step to achieving the many financial goals they have set for themselves. Once these goals are set, you will be able to manage yourself such that if you want to reduce credit card debt, you automatically reduce the use of credit and this, will help lessen the burden of unnecessary debts. Everything set within a time frame will also help one achieve his or her goals as planned. Working with time enables one to be on his or her toes and limits prolonged loan repayment, which could accrue more interest as compared to limited time frames. Causes of poor Financial Management Lack of proper financial skills and knowledge are the major causes of poor financial management among the young adults. (Torabi, 2010) guides the young professionals to take control of their money in order to learn how to live independently with more comfort. Schools do not teach young people about personal finance. Therefore, if respective organizations could come out and take this matter into their hands, then the young could have direction about personal finance. As regard to parents, they do not know how to enlighten their young adults about money and managing finances. This has been the major cause of financial management problem because these young adults do not get substantial training and skills concerning money issues. The other problem results from more complex financial marketplace, because most of the young adults do not know where to turn to when looking for savings providers and other financial products and services. As explained by Mansfield & Pinto (2008) that financial literacy of high school students is very low as neither parents nor teachers are showing them the way on how to manage their finances. This puts the young adults at a difficult point when need arises and they have to settle their debts by themselves. More so, when one is starting his or her own life, it turns out that they are not sure of what to do whenever they are faced with challenging budgets. Organizations which deal with issues of money management should work hard towards providing guidelines and enough resources on financial decisions, to help boost their knowledge on financial management. Various lessons can be used to help the young adults be able to utilize their finances in a more effective manner, in order to evade the high degree of debts which at times are not easy to pay off. Solutions As a worrying trend, it is necessary to involve students at school into programs that can help them deal with financial obligations, so that the issue of coupling with high debts is minimized. Mansfield & Pinto (2008) explain credit card knowledge and how many students do not know the concept of their credit cards. Several precautions can be taken to enable these young adults manage their credit cards and avoid unnecessary debts. Keeping a credit card active will help you score numerous points. It is reported that, registering for mobile alerts helps one to monitor his or her credit card transactions and helps one to have the necessary information when need arises. (Madura, 2010). Dealing with debt is not so comfortable especially for the young adults. It would therefore be advisable to always use a debit card if one wants to avoid debts. This will enable one to get used to using a debit card which is the better option, in respect to handling their finances well without getting into unnecessary debts. It is advisable to be involved with debts only if you have clear means and plans of refunding it back without too much strain. Otherwise, it is a wise idea to operate without debts so as to limit the chances of overspending. Savings is another solution which the young adults can opt for, as Torabi (2010) encourages the young to be realistic and prepare for risks which occur from time to time. These savings are crucial in cases of emergencies, especially for young adults who want to start life and live independently. By this, they will have an easy time in managing their finances and taking control of the unexpected. Saving is also regarded as the first step into investments because it gives you the chance to keep some money aside to be used for emergencies, or for other better things other than the usual spending. One can either have the option of operating a savings account or money market account. These enables one to access money whenever he or she needs it and at the same time, earns interest. This is a cheaper option as there are usually no fees if you decide to keep a minimum balance which keeps it in operation. Partnering with certain banks is another solution to curb the rise of financial management illiteracy among the young adults. In here, collaboration of schools with credit unions and banks have seen the young take a positive stand at working out their financial obligations while managing such accounts (Giuseppe, 2012). They learn more from school financial education and become more conversant with financial products and services, as they would have known and learnt financial skills from a more practical point of view. Joining non school based learning also enables these young adults to have ample time for financial discussion, whose norm is taken away from the normal setup of a classroom. These groups have continued to enlighten the young adults and encourage them on matters of managing personal finances (Mansfield & Pinto, 2008). Financial to the youth has now been made possible and understandable, especially through tailored programs and other means of learning which can are easily accessed by students. Financial entertainment through online is the next criteria in dealing with financial management illiteracy. This has provided a chance for the young adults to participate in online training, mobile gaming and other interesting methods through the network. Young adults can also settle for loan repayment programs which will help in eliminating some or all of the student loans. This move could see young adults start their independence lives with less burden and debts. Unfortunately, many graduates are not aware of such schemes as explained by Giuseppe (2012) and this is the point where respective organizations should come in to help elevate the burden of school loan repayments and debts. These programs give additional funds to the young adults, which they can then use to resettle their school loans in good time. Young adults do not have to wait until they are through with school to start looking for employment. There are part time jobs that can help subsidize these loans to avoid having a huge junk when you are through with schooling. Several researchers have explained how there are a rise in students who work part time in order to meet their financial obligations, as compared to the previous years when almost every student was a full time based student. This explains why young adults must quickly develop financial decision making skills to manage other responsibilities that arise from today’s changing economic landscape, as we are told by Serido (2012). Working and studying at the same time may not be easy but what matters is the long term financial gains that result from it. This trend however, can help in clearing your school loan faster enough and get time to start your independent life once you are through with schooling. If everything works out as planned, within the stipulated time frame, then it is worth the effort of studying and working all at the same time. In such a scenario, we find out that time is well utilized and at the same time, one moves on quite quickly as compared to studying, then looking for employment later on. For those who want to start living independently, and are in dire need of various assets, could go for a compensation package at their workplace. It was realized that some companies cannot pay huge salaries but just offer low wages in exchange for your loan repayment (Torabi, 2010). In this way, you as an employee will benefit as your loan will eventually be paid while you get some salary as well. The employer also benefits as he or she spends less in salary payments. This idea works best when brought up during salary negotiations so that, the employer is well informed and knows that you will be committed at the work place for as long as there is an exchange for your student loan payment. Conclusion As reported by Soyeon & Joyce (2011) that today’s youth financial security rests on one’s own shoulder. This implies that it is personal responsibility for the young adults to make sure that their financial practices bring forth better results for tomorrow. This process is gradual and the earlier one starts to organize him or herself, the better. Awareness has been a hidden tool for most of the young adults but with more light on the table, these people are being enlightened on ways to manage their finances and know how to handle tough cases like debts. Parents are not to be left out in the entire process of preparing their children to be good managers of personal finance. Information is the key and the more these young adults keep on searching for information about money matters, the more they learn how to deal with personal finance management and how to avoid unnecessary debts and the like. It is our obligation as policy makers, teachers, parents and the rest to know the value of financial management and how it influences our daily life. A recent study by CFPB office of financial education policy, April 2013, encourages states to consider adding to the list, experiential learning to help equip our young ones with proper management skills, so as to enable them be better managers of their own personal finances. Understanding financial options should be another priority in trying to evade high paying loans. Less expensive loans could give these young adults an easy time in paying back, as compared to private or alternative student loans. A longer duration of payment could also enable these young adults to offset their debts as they will be able to budget with the little they have, instead of paying huge chunks of cash and being left with nothing to support themselves. Literacy to students alone may not bring the kind of impact that is needed. Having to extend financial literacy education to the students’ parents could help the society reach higher grounds, in matters concerning loan schemes and repayment. Campuses may not want to consider financial management education sessions for both incoming students and their parents during orientation. Resources which are available online could serve as a great tool in helping the parents understand and learn what they need to know about financial management and its impact on their children. Both online and class-room based learning have enabled the young from far and near, to learn more about finances and even choose their convenient time. This impact has been felt and even the degree of awareness has started to rise, as many young ones now have a hint on how to manage their finances.

Improvment of the profit margin and sustainability of an organization Assignment

Improvment of the profit margin and sustainability of an organization - Assignment Example In order to improve the profit margin and sustainability of an organization,operating in this tough competitive age,the most essential requirement is recruitment of an experienced and talented leader A leader is a person who might work as a catalyst, in enhancing and controlling the human resources of the organization in an effective way. This is because; the human resource is the prime requirement of any organization operating in any segment and in any region. As human resource are mainly responsible, for the fulfilment of the future goals and objectives of the organization in the market among others. However, it might be possible only if the leader may act tactfully and motivate the employees towards work in order to improve the productivity and image of the organization in the entire market, in-spite of varied types of changes. Only then, the image and profit margin of the organization might get enhanced in the market among other rival players. Moreover, if the changes might be ha ndled in an effective way then the popularity and equity of the organization may be enhanced thereby amplifying its competitiveness in the market to a certain extent in long run among others. Thus, it might be depicted that, leader act as the backbone of the organization that may not only improve the efficiency and capability of the employees but also cope-up with varied types of changes. This essay is mainly divided into five phases that mainly highlights the significance of leadership within an organization. Along with this, it also highlights the role of leadership within a change management situation with the help of models like Kotters 8 steps, Lewin’s change management model. Discussion Evaluation of Change Management and Leadership with models In order to survive in this competitive era, leadership is the most essential requirement. As it acts as a weapon not only stimulate the profit margin and productivity of an organization but also to mitigate varied types of chall enges or changes in an effective way. Change management is described as a systematic procedure to deal or tackle varied types of changes or alterations in a successful manner. Moreover, it might also described as an approach that might be handled by implementing varied types of technologies, strategies and procedures so as to mitigate it effectively within the organization. Only then, the productivity and efficiency of the organization might get enhanced thereby amplifying the image and reputation in the market among other rival players. Apart from this, if the changes might be adapted successfully within the organization, only then, the inner morale and confidence of the employees might get enhanced with a significant extent as compared to others. This might help in improvement of their level of performance and efficiency within the organization thereby amplifying the level of retention. It is extremely essential for any organization operating in this competitive age among many oth er rival players. This is because, the experienced employees are the gems of the organization and they might offer varied types of ideas and suggestions in order to implement the changes in an effective way. Such a situation is also seen within the organization, Biogen Idec Incorporated, at the time of restructuring or reassessment of the business strategies. As a result of which, maximum extent of the employees had to cope up with the procedure of reallocation of their job responsibilities as well as outplacement. Due to which, the relationship within the higher authorities and the employees is fading day by day resulting in amplification of the chances of conflicts and miss-confusions. Not only this, the motivation and dedication of the employees of Biogen Idec is also reducing as their roles and

Describe the importance of angiogenesis for the development and Essay

Describe the importance of angiogenesis for the development and treatment of cancer - Essay Example More than a dozen dissimilar proteins have been recognized as angiogenic activators and inhibitors as well. The extent of appearance of angiogenic factors reveals the forcefulness of tumor cells fostering the cancer. The detection of angiogenic inhibitors should assist in lowering both morbidity and possible mortality resulting from carcinomas. A significant number of patients have obtained antiangiogenic therapy up to this moment. In spite of their speculative effectiveness, antiangiogeic treatments have not demonstrated advantageous in terms of long-term survival of patient and the mitigation of the carcinoma (Kerbel 2040). There is an imperative necessity for a new all-inclusive treatment approach merging antiangiogenic agents with conservative cytoreductive treatment in the regulation of cancer that poses as worldwide menace. Keywords: Angiogenesis, Prognosis, Immunohistochemistry Introduction Cancer is capable of spreading to bordering or distant organs and the organ systems, wh ich renders it a potential threat to life. The tumor cells can go through blood or lymphatic vessels. Additionally, they can then circulate through the intravascular stream, and then propagate at another site: metastasis. The development of the vascular network is imperative for the metastatic multiplication of cancer tissue. The processes in which new blood and lymphatic vessels result are referred to as angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, in that order (Shih, Lindley and Bevacizumab 1801). In this case both processes have a fundamental function in the generation of a new vascular net to supply nutrients, oxygen and immune cells into the system, as well as facilitating the elimination of waste products. The angiogenic and lymphangiogenic determinants are gradually more receiving consideration, particularly in the area dealing with neoplastic vascularisation (Gotink and Verheul 12). As per the above explanations, this exercise intends to describe the importance of angiogenesis for t he development and treatment of cancer. The description of the essence of the angiogenesis targets the provision of a comprehensive approach on the connection of the angiogenesis with cancer (Siemann 68). Therefore, it is logical to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the angiogenesis. Through this, it would be easier to understand the principles behind the operation and hence its exact means of development and cancer treatment by angiogenesis (Achen 550). Angiogenesis in Cancer Angiogenesis incorporate the formation of new blood vessels in a particular body tissue, tissues or organs (Nishida et al 213). The angiogenesis process entails the migration of endothelial cells, their growth and differentiation into tissues or specialized cells (Andre et al 178). The angiogenesis process is regulated by the bodily chemical signals (Cook p 232). The signals can foster both the repair of the deformed or damaged blood vessels and the creation of new blood vessels (Amioka et al. 416). The ch emical inhibitors are also chemical signals that intervene during the angiogenesis process and hence the formation of the blood vessels. Under the normal functionality of the body systems, the chemical signals are controlled so that the blood vessels are only formed at the required parts of the body organs (Boocock Charnock and Sharkey 512). Cancer only endangers life through the

Critique the quality of the literature review in the study below, does Essay

Critique the quality of the literature review in the study below, does the literature review support the problem statement defend your answer - Essay Example There follows a survey of empirical studies, all of which appear to show how a lack of time, or pressure on financial resources have since prevented nurses from actually making use of past research in their daily practice. This empirical part of the literature review focuses on the negative, and does not cite work which identifies cases where research is successfully implemented in daily practice. Overall the quality of the sources cited in this article is generally good, although it is noticeable that most of them are American or Canadian in origin, with few from Europe or further afield. There is some coverage of theory, including cultural theories, innovation theory and change theory, but this is extremely brief and again heavily focused on the difficulties and failures rather than successes. The author seems intent on pointing out previous negative results in order to justify new research but she does not explain clearly why this is the case, or what alternative proposals have been suggested to improve the situation. In more recent studies there has been a growing emphasis on building on successes in this area. One very recent article (Leeman and Sandelowski, 2012) concurs with McCloskey’s observations about the underuse of interventions that have been demonstrated as successful and proposes that the reason for this may lie in a tendency in the literature to provide quantitative data, whereas more focus on qualitative data would of much greater relevance in the drive to encourage evidence based practice. An interesting recent article on the much more severe barriers to the implementation of new research in China (He and Hu, 2012) advocates the setting up of a website for nurses which offers practical guidance in several languages. In Europe, post-graduate qualifications and the increased professionalization of nurses have improved

Sex and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sex and Religion - Essay Example The materials provide substantial opportunity to consider the Bible as a great source of authority in maintaining the value or quality of human life. It speaks absolutely of the truth that if everyone and everything would have the foundation of God’s love, the world would suppose to live in perfect unity and harmony. In response to the materials I have read, I can say that to be objective with Biblical interpretation, which is an act that should have a high level of divine guidance, humans should have significant discerning of things around them that would ultimately guide them towards the right and necessary actions to do in life. Applying this principle in working with clients in the area of sexuality or sexual diversity would show us a remarkable advantage due to the following reasons that I believe essential or vital in ensuring a good working relationship. First, the use of the Bible as objective source of authority in dealing with clients in the area of sexuality or sexu al diversity provides wisdom that has proven to provide the appropriate act to ensure good moral values. The Bible and the words written in it could provide the appropriate standard on what to do, which the bottom line is to maximise the presence of love and its power to change lives. For this matter, I believe that when counseling couples for instance, who have been having troubles in ensuring to make their relationship stand amidst troubles and perfect misunderstandings, the Biblical contexts and principles would make a good opportunity to guarantee support for harmony, respect and love. The Bible connects itself to the current issues of the human life, not only in the past, it also continues at present and in the future. Reading the materials, provides me a considerable thought that every issue of the human life is demonstrated in the Bible for us to learn in advance of many things about life. Thus, this convinces me that the Bible should be the human’s ultimate source or guide for daily living. Issues like homosexuality, marriage and any related topics like these are discussed in the Bible. However, it is also important that there is divine guidance from the ultimate source of absolutely right and correct wisdom, God, who is capable us providing us the right interpretation of the Biblical text. Thus, the idea of holiness is I belief would make sense concerning this point. Truly, I believe that there should be absolute standard of what is universally correct or right, even if we are living in diversity because we are all human beings, having the same ability to feel the same and react to our environment in the same pattern or trend. This convinces me that the idea of Jesus for the good of the humanity is applicable to all people coming from different nations and tribes because its main point is for the good of everyone, not to harm. That is why the idea of Jack Roger to consider Jesus Christ as the center of the Scripture would make sense, implying f urther that the Bible and Christ teachings and He Himself should be one. This therefore would allow us to place higher authority in the Scripture, allowing us to use it in all occupations, particularly in the prevailing diversity in the area of sexuality. Second, based on my first point of view, I noticed that religion using the Bible with perfect and great authority has important implication in every lifestyle, because based on the articles; the Scripture is capable of instructing us concerning the varying views and experiences of life. Religious doctrines according to the article of Thomas Armiger provide essential connection to the human faith. It is

Total Quality Management in Hospital Pharmacy Term Paper

Total Quality Management in Hospital Pharmacy - Term Paper Example Despite these many different functions being discharged by the pharmacists, hospitals find it difficult to recruit pharmacists (Smith). At the same time many of the hospitals take initiatives like staff reductions due to lower patient concentration, reorganization of the hospital facilities, carrying out recommendations of external consultants, implementing automation in drug distribution and mergers and acquisitions of hospitals. In this context, a methodological review of the operations of a hospital becomes necessary for improving the efficiency and functioning of the healthcare settings. One of the recommendations is to apply Total Quality Management (TQM) for improving the performance of pharmacies in the hospitals. Although TQM has been practiced in manufacturing industries for quite some time, it is relatively a newer concept in the healthcare industry. Interest in the idea of TQM in healthcare settings started to take off during late 1980s. Even though all the hospitals that introduced the system of TQM have not proved successful many of the institutions could streamline their functions applying the concept (Zablocki). In this context this paper describes the application of Total Quality Management in the hospital pharmacies to improve the performance of the pharmacies as well as the overall performance of the hospitals. No other sector than the healthcare is best suited for the a... Another issue that healthcare industry is facing is the deterioration in the service quality with numerous complaints from the patients and other stakeholders. In addition employee turnover and shortage of nurses and pharmacists is a major concern at most large and medium sized hospitals. This situation leads to more number of deaths which otherwise could have been avoided with proper systems and procedures in place to deliver quality medical service to the patients (Institute of Medicine). This makes the healthcare industry to respond with an appropriate mechanism to ensure an all round improvement in the efficiency of operations and to provide better and efficient healthcare service to the patients. Since hospital pharmacy happens to be an important constituent of any healthcare setting, revamping the department with the introduction of newer systems and procedures has become imminent. One of the suggested techniques to improve the performance of hospital pharmacies is the Total Qu ality Management that is applied to meet/exceed customer satisfaction. Most of the hospitals have established quality improvement programs and departments, in order to implement and follow up the quality initiatives not only in the hospital pharmacies but in every department of the hospitals. The quality initiatives taken by these specialized departments have been found to be successful in increasing the awareness of the employees about the customers and patients of the hospital, and the initiatives also helped in error reduction and improving patient satisfaction (Herzlinger). Even though the methods employed focused generally on improving the care, they do not address the issue of improving the organizational systems in total and therefore are not responsive to the needs of the

Different types of Intermodal movement by Air Essay

Different types of Intermodal movement by Air - Essay Example Rockets are mainly used for launching satellites, spacecraft, space shuttles and space research stations. A rocket is always misunderstood to be a spaceship by the laymen. Spacecraft, satellites and space shuttles are meant for space and planetary exploration in particular. Though aircraft, spacecraft and rockets share a common feature that they are airborne, they differ totally from each other in their looks and use. A rocket is a multipurpose instrument used in air, water and space with necessary modifications but the use of aircraft is sensibly limited to the earth atmosphere as they can not fly in the outer space with their wings and wing-shaped propellers where there is no gravitation. But the technology of rockets has become so simple that it has spread like a computer virus and is mostly misused by terror groups which have acquired the expertise. It is true that the rockets are playing the lead role in the space exploration at present but the day may not be far off when they would be replaced by the aircraft made up of air breathing rocket engines. The movement by air, for both people and cargo, is bound to take new vistas. Use of different types of airborne vehicles for different purposes would undoubtedly pick up by leaps and bounds in this space age. Basically, airborne vehicles can broadly be divided into two classes such as atmospheric vehicles comprising airplanes and helicopters which move with in the earth’s atmosphere and non-atmospheric vehicles comprising space craft, space shuttles, deep space probes, satellites and rockets which move in earth’s outer atmosphere (Anderson, 2004). Each of them is totally different among themselves serving a different purpose and having its own advantages and disadvantages in relation to its use. For decades now, we have been extensively using aero planes and helicopters for airborne movement as other vehicles have not come in to use for common purposes. The use of spacecraft and rockets for the general

Ancient egyptian music Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ancient egyptian music - Research Paper Example Music in ancient Egypt was known for thousands of years and evidence for its existence has been found in the pre-dynastic period. It is mainly because of the massive influence of this art that if came to be found in many aspects of Egyptian life ranging from the palaces of the royal family and nobility, to the workshops of artisans and all the way to the tombs of the wealthy. It is a fact that music was a basic part of the religious services of this ancient state and it was associated with a number of gods to whom it was dedicated. Music was used by the priests to set the mood for the people to worship the gods and the fact that these gods were worshiped using music meant that the temple musicians held an esteemed place in the society. The ability of the priests to make use of music in religious ceremonies ensured that the music of worship was completely improved by the temple musicians so that it was not only used for religious purposes, but temple music also developed into an art f orm. Such gods as Hathor and Bes tended to be associated with music and this was despite the fact that they were also associated with childbirth, fertility, and dance and this made them extremely important to musicians. All of the major known classifications of musical instruments were well represented in ancient Egypt and these were used in diverse occasions, depending on the event as well as the people who used them. Among the percussion instruments that were used by the ancient Egyptians included hand-held drums, rattles, castanets, bells, and the sistrum (Lawergren 101). The last was a very significant rattle that was used in religious worship and it is because of this that in most cases, the sistrum was found in the possession of temple musicians (Krogh and Brooke 167). It is for this reason that the sistrum was mostly represented as being in the possession of temple musicians in the illustrations that

What are the benefits of globalizing processes How the international Essay

What are the benefits of globalizing processes How the international relations are affected by this - Essay Example The concept is oversimplified and exaggerated (Scholte, 1). This is because the term globalization has diverse concepts of which five can be distinguished. As the first one, globalization can be defined from the internationalization perspective. It indicates economic and trade relations between different countries. It refers to flow of capital investments as well as movement of people and ideas between countries. The second concept of globalization which is liberalization refers to removal of trade and border restrictions in order to promote free trade among countries. With this concept, amalgamation of international trade relations is generated. This kind of globalization can be actually seen in reduction and in many cases abolition of trade obstructions, visas and capital controls. Then there is the third concept that relates globalization with universalization. It can be defined as spreading of ideas and cultural experiences to people in every country to promote a common perspecti ve of culture in global humanism. This concept is becoming more common with globalization of automobiles, Chinese restaurants, cattle rearing and so on. The fourth concept of globalization is modernization; it is a radical concept that spreads the notions of modernism like capitalism, industrialism, individualism all over the world. This process essentially destroys the prevalent cultures and regional concepts. This concept of globalization is evident in the imperialism of McDonalds, Hollywood and CNN. A fifth approach that has defined globalization is respatialization. It includes restructure of social borders with a growing transplanetary relation with people. Under the fifth concept, social space can no longer by defined by territorial borders and distances (Scholte, 16-17). The benefit of globalization is very often a debatable issue wherein the major concern is the conditions of the developing third world countries. With the advent of globalization, some argue

Linking the Balanced Scorecard to Strategy Essay Example for Free

Linking the Balanced Scorecard to Strategy Essay â€Å"Balanced Scorecard† is the tool for motivating and measuring business unit performance with four perspectives financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth. These days, it becomes so complicated and complex to navigate competitive environment, thus some people figured out that balanced scorecard could be used as the tool for linking multiple strategies. It contains both financial and non-financial measures. It was revealed that the measure should include both outcome measures and the performance drivers of those outcomes. It turns out that there are strategic measures for the four perspectives each. First of all, Financial performance measures define the long-run objectives of the business unit. Business units can be categorized into three different stages simply rapid growth, sustain, and harvest. During rapid growth stage, businesses make rational amount of investments to develop and enhance new products and services. During sustain stage, they still attract investment and reinvestment, furthermore they are demanded to earn magnificent returns on their invested capital. During harvest stage, they only focus on maximizing cash flow back to the corporation rather than investment. Moreover, there are financial themes that can be linked to the strategies – revenue growth and mix, cost reduction/productivity improvement, and asset utilization/investment strategy. Secondly, in the Customer perspective, managers identify the customer and market segments. It includes customer satisfaction, customer retention, new customer acquisition, customer profitability, and market and account share in targeted segments. Customer retention defines that retaining existing customers in the segment is the way for maintaining or increasing market share in targeted segments. Customer acquisition identifies acquiring new customers as the way. Customer satisfaction is the matter of meeting customers’ needs and it is the measurement of the feedback. Customer profitability means that businesses want to measure not only the satisfaction of the customer, but also the profitability that customers can evoke. Thirdly, in Internal Business Process perspective, executives identify the critical internal processes in which the organization must excel. It enables business unit to deliver on the value propositions of customers in targeted market segments, and to satisfy shareholder expectations of excellent financial returns. On the other hand, it means there are the process that customer need turned into customer need satisfaction through innovation cycle, operations cycle, and post-sale service cycle. Fourthly, in Learning Growth perspective, it identifies the infra-structure that the organization has to build to create long-term growth and improvement. It comes from three sources that people, systems, and organizational procedures. As I mentioned above, it has been the trend to link and mix multiple scorecard measures into a single strategy. The multiple measures on a properly constructed balanced scorecard should consist of a linked series of objectives and measures that are both consistent and mutually reinforcing. The scorecard should incorporate the complex set of cause-and-effect relationships, outcomes performance drivers and linked to financial. Cause and effect relationships can be expressed by a sequence of if-then statements and pervade all four perspectives of balanced scoreboard. It can be described as the process â€Å"employee skills(learning growth)→process quality/process cycle time(internal) →on-time delivery→customer loyalty(customer) →ROCE(financial)†. Outcomes and performance drivers reflect the common goals of many strategies, as well as similar structures across industries and companies. Therefore, a good balanced scoreboard should have a mix of core outcome measures and performance drivers, that’s why businesses care both outcomes and performance drivers. Even though the strategy should have to emphasize both financial and non-financial measures, in the sense of improving business unit performance, we have to consider financial measures little bit more. Ultimately, causal paths from all the measures on a scorecard should be linked to financial objectives. In conclusion, the balanced scorecard is more than a collection of financial and non-financial measurements. It is the translation of the business unit’s strategy into a linked set of measures that identify both the long-term strategic objectives, as well as the mechanisms for achieving and obtaining feedback on those objectives. This thesis could be applied on the Metro Bank case and National Insurance Company case.

Recruitment Selection Process Methods

Recruitment Selection Process Methods In this report the topic that will be discussed is the Recruitment Selection process and some of the more innovative approaches being taken by companies in 2013 towards filling vacancies. Recruitment can be defined as the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organisation and selection the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements. (Bratton Gold, 2007) In simper terms recruitment deals with attracting a group of potential candidates to apply for a vacancy; Selection is a process of choosing the most suitable candidate from the pool identified through recruitment. People are a companys most important asset. Your employees are the face of your business and in todays competitive environment making the right recruitment and selection choices is crucial to the success of your business. Choosing the best most suitable applicant to join the organisation is a key stage in developing an effective workforce. Recruitment and selection helps ensure that your company is a strong and successful one, by attracting, screening, and securing the best candidates for the position. Recruitment has many important functions some of these include attracting a pool of suitable applicants for the vacancy, to deter unsuitable candidates from applying and to create a positive image of the company by choosing a suitable applicant, one that will represent the company appropriately. The methods of recruitment open to a business are often categorised into internal and external recruitment. Internal recruitment is when the business tries to fill the positionfrom within its existing workforce. External recruitment is when the business looks to fill the position from a suitable applicant external to the business. Both internal and external recruitment methods possess advantages and disadvantage to the company. Internal recruitment is cheaper and quicker to recruit also the people applying are already familiar with the business and how it operates. It can also be seen to be motivating for the current staff if they are competing with each other for a new and often superior position. A negative reaction is also found from internal recruitment as it can sometimes cause resentment amongst candidates not appointed to the new position. Also no new ideas are introduced from outside which can have a damaging effect on the business. If the company carries out external recruitment procedures, it is opening the business to new ideas and people who have a wider range of experience, skills and ideas. Even though the process may be longer and more expensive there is a larger pool of workers from which to find the best candidate. (Riley, 2012) Some Internal recruitment methods include promoting existing employees to a higher role, a supervisor or manager may make a recommendation of an employee they see suitable for the role. Other methods include succession planning which is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill a new role. Transfers have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in the hotel industry, transferring department heads from different locations and departments help save the business both time and money also. Previous applicants or previous employees may also be eligible for the role needing to be filled. Using existing employee contacts can be seen to work also but sometimes a bias opinion may render the recommendation. Some of the most popular and classic methods of recruitment include Job advertisements which are the most common form of external recruitment. They can be found in many different places and use many different mediums. Some examples include local and national newspapers, notice boards, and recruitment fairs. Advertisement should include some important information relating to the job, job title like pay package, location, job description, how to apply-either by CV or application form. Companies sometimes use employment and recruitment agencies if they have limited resources themselves. These companies can save a business a huge amount of time and money and general hassle involved with the recruitment and selection of a candidate. These companies normal charge a fee and can be expensive. They also sometimes specialise in a certain areas or industries e.g. www.Hoteljobs.ie have a bank of positions and cvs available in the hospitality industry. Career fairs can also be a useful tool of recruitment. A career fair can be held independently or sometime sponsored by a college. This can be a great way of recruiting well educated and new graduate to a company. Once a pool of applicants is created the Selection methods or screening devices which include application blanks, employment interviews, aptitude tests, and personality test are used to narrow down the applicants to find a suitable candidate. The interview is the most commonly used method of the selection. This method is the exchange of information between an applicant and an interviewer regarding their suitability and interest in a job the employer seeks to fill. the interview give the employer an opportunity to probed more deeply into any information the applicant has already give through the means of a cv or application form. Since interviews can be rather flexible, any missing pieces of information about an applicant can be collected at this time. Even though interview have shown to be a useful tool of selection in the past this method has posed some problems such as pre-existing criteria of what the ideal candidate should be and the comparison of an applicant to this. Also some interviewer may hold a bias opinion on what they are looking for and what they are not. Theyre are many different forms an interview can take these include Selection interview this procedure is designed to predict future job performance on the basis of applicants oral responses to oral inquiries, a Non-structured interviewer asks questions as they come to mind and there is no set format to follow, a Structured questions interview id when there are specific question drawn up in advance and the responses may be rated. Another method of selection which proves quite successful is the Psychometric tests. These tests include the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes,  personality  traits, and  educational measurement. These test use measurement instruments such as  questionnaires,  tests, and personality assessments to determine the above attributes. An assessment centre is an important tool in the method of selection. It is normally used to see how a candidate will act in a typical situation they will face in their new position. Different test and simulations are carries out in assessment centres; the candidates are observed and evaluated by psychologists and experienced managers. The candidates are also interviewed during the tests. Then an evaluation report is prepared for each candidate. This evaluation report is given to the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee uses this report to select a right person for right post. This method can last from 1-5 days. It is usually in the final stage of assessment. This is a good form of selection because it gives employers the opportunity to observe candidates over a longer period of time in formal and informal situations, (Gunnigle, Heraty, Morley, 2006) Despite the rapid pace of change in HR methods, many of the classic recruiting methods still have roles to play in todays world. Recruitment strategies vary. In the past, a company with job openings placed a classified help wanted ad in the newspaper or stuck a help wanted sign on the door. The world is growing and changing, and so is the world of recruiting. New technologies like the internet and smart phones have made information available to job seekers and employers any time and anywhere. With the increase in technology, it has become easier to approach candidates all over the world. One of the biggest movements in the recruitment and selection process is the introduction of social networking. Companies are now using social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook to both recruit new applicant and in the selection of a new employer. Employers and third-party recruiters can now search these social networking platforms using specific key words to find groups of individuals who meet their pre-defined job criteria, regardless of whether they are currently on the job market. They can also use these sites to advertise any job opportunities they may have available in their businesses. This gives companies a much larger pool of candidates to choose from but also lets them choose the candidate they see as suitable. Social networking sites can also prove quite useful in the screening of new candidates.   Doing a basic search of their  public  activity in cyberspace can be conducted to reveal any potential risks they may create for the employer. There are many other social networking trends which are set to make huge influences on the future of the recruitment and selection process these include Klout. Klout is the biggest player in the growing world of digital influence at present. Klout measures your influence and ability to drive action on social networks. This site gives an insight into how influential someone is and what they are influential about. It is said that this rating scheme will find a prominent place on your resume. (Meister, 2013) Although the use of social networks prove an advantage to many companies a recent study in which HR professionals from 20 science companies across the country were interviewed showed, while 70% said that social media is very important for the future of recruitment, only 25% are actively using social media to promote jobs. The reasons for the low use are: Most are not using social media because they find it hard to measure the return on investment for the amount of time they spend on it and havent so far been able to justify the time investment. Also from the companies that tried using social media the result was a bigger response from hopeful job candidates but of much lower overall quality. (Gormely, 2013) Dr. John J. Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University and critic of traditional hiring practices states that The first rule of recruiting is that the best people already have jobs they like, So you have to find them; theyre not going to find you. Its amazing that so many companies still use job fairs to recruit talent. Who goes to job fairs? People without jobs!   . A successful recruitment strategy which has been seen to be doing quite well in the US is road rally in which teams of recruiters travelled around different companies and shops looking for suitable candidates. The recruiters spent hours inside stores like  Best Buy  and Circuit City and restaurants like T.G.I. Fridays. They walked the aisles, bought merchandise, ordered meals and hunted for employees and managers who stood out by virtue of their energy, enthusiasm and rapport with customers. Too many companies focus on industry experience when they recruit, Dr. John J. Sullivan said. Were after certain kinds of people, not people from a certain business. Weve turned waiters and waitresses into great mortgage bankers. Weve hired soap-opera actors and electricians. We can teach people about finance. We cant teach passion, urgency and a willingness to go the extra mile. (Sullivan, 2013) Company websites have grown and developed hugely in recent years. Many business are only contactable and only also recruitment through their website. These businesses recruit simply by posting jobs on their website and waiting for applicants to find the job posting and apply. They find dont need to do anything else as there is such a large volume of people searching for employment.   For example, Southwest Airlines had a 4349 job opening in 2011, the company received a staggering 193,636 resumes. Southwest Airlines has a  Careers section  on the companys website where it has information on jobs, benefits, the company culture, internships. Applicants can apply here by uploading, copying and pasting, or using the resume wizard to get their resume into Southwests applicant systems. An new style of recruitment which is seeing to become more popular with the recruitment and selection. Rather than a formal interview, candidates will be asked to apply for the jobs with a personal sales pitch, in the style of the Apprentice TV show. This style is in play in A newly formed software company in Belfast. They are using the unusual job application process in a bid to recruit a 20-strong sales team. Mr McCaul a spokesperson for the company said: This is a unique way of hiring staff but this is a chance for those people who may have a lack of experience in their CV, struggled in interviews, or for one reason or another, find themselves unemployed at the minute. Applicants were asked to submit their CV to Dealtronic and a selection of successful candidates that they feel suitable for the position will be invited to pitch their own credentials as a potential sales representative in front of a panel of three judges that will include Mr McCaul. PricewaterhouseCoopers which a firm in Ireland that provides integrated Audit, Tax and Advisory services across all industries in Ireland has taken a lead from Google in unconvential and innovative ways in which they recruit and select their employees. PwC has been known to use Lego when recruiting at British universities. The company asks it potential recruits build a tower using the smallest number of bricks.   In South Korea a company has been noted that it gets recruits to climb a hill, in order to identify potential leaders and see how  people will react in given situations. The British hardware company BQ was criticised in early 2007 when potential recruits were asked to dance to a Jackson  Five song.  While the union said the practice was demeaning and irrelevant, the company said it was to make sure candidates were relaxed before the interview process. Nicola Monson, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), in London, supported  the company on this occasion, saying, Companies are beginning to look further than just the skills and competencies to do the job.

Partner Selection for International Joint Ventures (IJV)

Partner Selection for International Joint Ventures (IJV) INTERNATIONAL JOINT VENTURES Partner selection is recognized as being very important to the success of any collaboration. Taking into consideration the lessons from the Collaboration Exercise, the course material and any publicly available information available to you, critically discuss the relevant issues concerned with partner selection for collaboration, specifically in the context of an International Joint Venture company. The questions provided below provide some guidance on the issues you could cover: What are the main characteristics to look for in a good collaborative partner? What would your selection criteria include? Consider also the strategic, political and tactical implications of your choice (30%) What factors are important in determining whether or not you and your partner are a good match, i.e., compatibility of culture? Again, what would your selection criteria include? (30%) What could you and your partner do to create good conditions for a partnership? (40%) Length: All scripts are subject to a maximum word count of 4000 +/- 10%, excluding references, tables of contents and appendices. The final word count should be included at the end of the script. COMPLETION DATE: To be submitted electronically using the appropriate web-form available from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/ftmsc/postmodulework/submissions/ and following the guidelines provided in your handbook BEFORE 09:00 on 17/01/11 PLEASE NOTE PMW received after 09:00 will be stamped as having arrived on the next working day. Post Module Work which does not reach WMG by the due date will be considered to be late. Penalties for lateness may be applied at the rate of 3 percentage points per University working day after the due date, up to a maximum of 14 days late. After this period the work may be counted as a non-submission. Complete your assignment from here (heading styles have been set up to assist you in this work) (Delete the instructions in this font before you save and submit your work): MODULE TITLE Table of Contents International Join Venture 2 Environmental characteristics 3 Partner Compatibility Evaluation 5 Creating good condition for partnership 13 Conclusion 16 References 17 Enter a page break here and between each question Partner selection is recognized as being very important to the success of any collaboration. Taking into consideration the lessons from the Collaboration Exercise, the course material and any publicly available information available to you, critically discuss the relevant issues concerned with partner selection for collaboration, specifically in the context of an International Joint Venture company. The questions provided below provide some guidance on the issues you could cover: What are the main characteristics to look for in a good collaborative partner? What would your selection criteria include? Consider also the strategic, political and tactical implications of your choice (30%) What factors are important in determining whether or not you and your partner are a good match, i.e., compatibility of culture? Again, what would your selection criteria include? (30%) What could you and your partner do to create good conditions for a partnership? (40%) International Join Venture International joint venture between two or more companies has benefits of more resources and knowledge share as well as reward and risk share. Reasons that companies create joint venture could be initiated by new product development, opportunity to access wider marketing or expanding the company with at least one company headquartered outside country of operation (host country). The immediate benefits of joint ventures partnerships are access to a wider range of resources with complimentary set of skillsets and expertise, access to extensive market domain and ability to utilise a broader range of technologies. International joint venture partnership is one of the integral factors to grow and develop economics and the most beneficial approach is by engaging with and utilising local business with strong market connections and existing established business networks. Environmental characteristics Government and Politics One of the most important criteria in choosing an international joint venture partner is the environment where joint venture will operate in, as this can have direct effect on the performance of both parties. Host countrys political atmosphere and government policies are key factors to consider when verifying the suitability of the environment; any pressure could directly or indirectly restrict the foreign partners involvement and activities (Blodgett, 1991). According to Ozorhon et al. (2007) host governments unstable policies and regulations, regular changes in laws and restrictions on repatriations and imports, jeopardise the effectiveness of joint venture partnership. In authors opinion host countrys political procedures that disable effective IJV partnership needs to be identified prior to any attempt to start a joint venture. An example of a political issue effecting IJV is political mismatch and disagreements between foreign partners government and the host partners government. This will hugely impact business agreements from taking place even if partners skillsets, organizational policies and objectives match and work very well together. Stable economic situation, government policies and political relationships are crucial to a successful business partnership; the foreign partner needs to find an adequate environment before deciding on finding a matching partner, evaluating economic, political and financial aspects of the environment. Case study This case study will look at current situation of Irans International joint ventures and influence of Western countries political relationship with Iran on business partnership with other countries. The Current UN and European sanctions on Iran over claims that Iran is building nuclear weapons have affected new joint ventures as well as the ones that have been in place for many years. One example is Rhum North sea gas field in Scotland owned by BP (50%) and the Iranian Oil Company (50%), the joint venture started since 1970s. New European sanctions have forced BP to suspend this engagement and stop production in Rhum North Sea (BP, 2010). This demonstrates politics contention between countries, affecting joint ventures and ending related agreements with immediate effect, causing financial loss for both partners. Other countries that are in agreement with the United Nations regulations and countries with good political and economic relation and dependencies with the USA and the West could also consider limiting and ending their joint ventures with Iranian companies. This is to avoid any breaking the United Nation regulation as well as avoidance to jeopardising their relationship and dependency to western countries. A stable host government creates a suitable environment for IJV partners; this has long term positive impact on the courtiers economic and immediate positive effect on the partner companies, allowing the parties to concentrate on the inside organisational progress and improvements. Economic Environment A partners country economic situation can affect the business environment and performance, having stable economic elements provides the foreign partner a constant and secure investment climate (Ozorhon et al. (2007). In authors opinion economic climate could affect IJV partnership viability, economic fluctuation, foreign exchange rates and inflation, with direct impact on the partner selection process. Businesses start joint ventures in other countries considering economic perspectives that fit their needs. The host countrys currency compared to foreign countrys currency, gives an opportunity to investors from foreign countries to benefit from cheap investments (Low cost of capitals) and increased wealth position. Currency appreciation makes higher material and manufacturing cost in foreign country hence foreign partner moves the production to host country to benefit from lower costs and gain more opportunity to compete and be a leader in the related market. Market Power The market power is focused on how businesses can get stronger and develop their market domain through international partnership (Child Faulkner, 1998). In authors opinion, successful companies with high position in the existing local market could take advantages of other countries market, enter international sale and extend their marketplace by starting partnership with other successful company in different countries. Also companies with advanced technologies and skillsets could start a joint venture partnership with small companies in other developing country to benefit from the raw market and extend their domain. Dominant market network, using partnership advantageous creates an International joint venture with mutual benefits to partners, increases growth opportunities and market power for both parties. Business market power is an essential deciding factor in selecting a partner. It is also critical to review the business and economic history of the environment, current climate and future predictions. The regional and national business performance, quality of life and people expenditure on similar product and services help to indicate the partners economic environment suitability. Development and management of international joint ventures in different environments creates their own challenges, above all cultural differences between two partners from different nations adds additional complexity. Other related issues and challenges are language barriers and consequence communication issues, management relationship conflicts, unclear objectives, different objectives, incompatible expertise / facilities, lack of partner support and involvement. Partner Compatibility Evaluation Before making any decision on selecting a joint venture partner, extensive research and detailed study are required to be carried out to identify the partners business prospects, objectives and the environmental and organisational characteristics. SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is very beneficial and could be utilised to identify the potential partners weaknesses and strength and how they match the companys requirements. This would help to establish if two businesses complement each other (Barnes, 2010). During the International join venture module and the team exercises, author gathered a list of important criteria that are crucial in the partner selection process: Past reputation and positive track record of collaboration, good brand, culture (national and corporate culture), Organisation size, mutual benefit potentials, compatibility of CEOs and the senior management team, ability to work together in operation levels, government laws and regulations, strategic clarity and compatibility, management style, subject matter knowledge and skills, experience in the related market and assets (Barnes, 2010). In this assignment author is going to analyse and explore Cultural differences between partners and Compatible management style. Culture Why culture is an important factor? There should be a cultural fit between companies, for example it is difficult to match a bureaucratic culture to non-bureaucratic culture, as resources are not used to obey rigid rules (e.g. managers stamp or signature to process tasks). International joint venture partnership cannot avoid cultural differences; there will always be a case of hybrid structures. According to Swierczek (1994) majority of joint ventures partnership failures are caused by cultural related issues and mismatches. A study of 110 joint ventures between America and Asia shows 50% of failure is mostly affected by non-complementary cultures and incompatibilities. Partners culture influences commonly known assumptions, unrecorded rules and regulations and common understandings. It is important to evaluate the potential impact of the partnerships effects on the general skills, quality, resources and the company systems and organisational structure. Due to the cultural differences and the need of cooperation, there would be a need to compromise; however the effect of this needs to be analysed and the impact carefully evaluated (Swierczek, 1994). One important factor that determines the success rate of an international joint venture partnership is culture compatibility; without this partners cannot work together and conflict can occur. Compatible cultures can create same understanding and harmony between the partners. To understand cultures and the factors that could impact the possibility of their compatibility, author has evaluated different angles and viewpoints of culture. According to Hofstede (1984) core aspects of culture are: High power distance: Communication with higher positioned members and senior managers has formal process with hierarchy organisational system. Low power distance: Members feel equal, included in decision-makings and communication with senior members and environment is more relaxed and informal. Individualism: Contributor is focused on self-success, own benefits and objectives. Collectivism: Contributor has more interest in team success and group interest High uncertainty avoidance: Keeping away from risk and getting out of conflicts Low uncertainty avoidance: Comfortable with approaching risks and dealing with disagreement Femininity: In Feminine cultures values and approaches are modest, emotional and considerate. Masculinity: This culture is oriented by Competiveness, assertiveness and achievements In authors opinion it is evident that cultures with different values can face conflicts and disagreements, different nations can have different understandings and interpretations and culture as a foundation affects the conflict management style. In multicultural joint ventures, partners communication style will differ and could clash with each other; this could be very frustrating and create unsuccessful results. Different culture means different languages, different outlook, beliefs and problem solving approaches. According to Swierczek (1994) Asian culture generally avoids conflicts and when it occurs they seek help from senior members to suggest solutions but in European cultures there is less respect for hierarchy and when confrontation occurs, the negatives would be pointed out directly. In authors personal experience from Asian and European cultures, people with different cultures have dissimilar attitudes in business, partly because of the educational and discipline methods, that differs in cultural backgrounds. Partnership between two firms could be successful if cultural differences are realised and analysed in early stages. This would be by identifying the potential problems and conflicts with proposed solutions enabling partners to benefit from constructive aspects of multicultural approach. According to Swierczek (1994) building a correct and effective organisational culture and considering the involved cultures could reduce the possible conflicts. To make conflict management more effective two methods are introduced: 1. Compromise style To prevent any win-lose outcome, participants would negotiate and agree to give up their benefits partly so their partner would gain mutual benefits as well. Also when same objectives cannot be reached or more than one agreement is on the table, compromising needs to take place. 2. Collaborative style All the participants need to get involved and identify roots of conflicts and assess the possible outcomes and damages then introduce solutions agreed by everyone (Swierczek, 1994) According to Al-Khalifa and Peterson (1999) in many failed international joint venture (IJV) cases, manufacturing process doesnt last very long and this is caused by the lack of understanding of the local cultural, political and economic environment. Cultures need to fit between the organisations, a lot of international joint ventures collapse because of cultural misunderstanding and differences; it is useful to research the local market first before entering the collaboration. An example of cultural difference is looked at by Lynn (2002) between Japanese and American companies, where Americans had the impression that Japanese are efficient and hardworking but were disappointed when saw different results after starting the international joint venture in America. In Japaneses view deadlines werent as important as it was for Americans, Japanese were more concentrated on what they want to achieve regardless of time but Americans aimed to finish the work by the deadline however possible. This was a big problem for Americans when they used one of Japanese suppliers and received the order six months late. In authors opinion the definition of hardworking and efficiency in different cultures differs where Japanese seem to be aiming for the best result and improving the quality and less concerned about the deadlines. This could be very frustrating to opposite partner with different attitude. It is important that companies find a partner that are compatible and have the same perspective and understanding. Culture awareness and a full initial analysis phase, to gather the required information, helps partners to evaluate the possibility of working together successfully and provide the bases so that parties design a framework and set a realistic plan that would work for both cultures. Partner complementary skill According to Zahra and Elhagrasey, (1994) majority of International joint venture failures are caused by selecting a wrong partner. Partner selection by their brand popularity or reputation is not enough and further research is needed to determine if the partners are compatible If Partners skills and strength matches or compliments the business requirements, the partnership objectives could be successfully met; these requirements could be market, skills or resource access related. The range of skills that each partner can contribute to a partnership varies. A purpose of a partnership would be to fulfill the business requirements where the necessary skillsets such as technical skills, market knowledge skills, production skills, management skills or resource access skills are not at a sufficient level. This could also be due to the associated costs or time limitations challenges with producing these skills locally / internally. When two partners skill sets complement each other, partnership can work well together, however if two partners have similar or identical skill, disagreements and competition could occur. Organisations can often learn from the skills and experiences offered by the partner in an international joint venture to enhance their offerings and abilities. This could reduce the needs of future partnerships. Management Style It is challenging to manage International joint venture (IJV) companies that have been created by two or more parent companies. These companies have different structures, goals, management style and organisational cultures. People management conflicts become evident when partners discuss how the organisation will be managed and who will be in charge. According to Matthews (1999) the problems with international joint venture that require control and structured management are: Different background and cultures Business geographical locations Inevitable IJV short lifetime Joint business political issues The opportunities where management style could have a critical impact include: Combination of technical and business skills Access to IJV parents staff Organizational learning According to Matthews (1999), developing ethnocentric mindset in organisations tends to concentrate on parent companys management methods, be narrow-minded and inflexible. Traditional IJVs used to concentrate on parent companys management procedures and problem solving process which mostly ended up unsuccessful but some chose to approach global mindset and try to understand different cultures, agree to diversity and apply different management approaches where needed. Multiple IJVs management style Within multiple IJVs it is gathered that decentralised approach is more successful than centralised approach. After forming IJVs in different locations and setting up the operations successfully each overseas IJV would plan and react to local market demand. This would improve efficiency and make them able to respond to local customers immediately. According to (Yan and Duan, 2004) matching partners need to have compatible management culture and strategy, consensus on strategies, control and operations management. In authors opinion compatible management style is about managers with efficient communication and skills in creating a balanced relationship between partners. Management control and strategy is the key to be agreed by both parties to prevent any conflicts during the IJV and management control to prevent problems such as rush growth, ineffective use of resources and autonomous goals. Within this process partners need to have a structured management system and build an independent organisational culture. According to Gil and Butler (2003) it is easier to work with an international partner when managers have international business experience and cultural knowledge, this awareness enables them to adapt to environment, have positive attitude, respect multicultural environment and identify business partners capabilities Therefore having multicultural market knowledge can create an opportunity for both partners to understand and respect cultures, agreeing on what is best for joint partnership. According to Gil and Butler (2003) the stability of the relationship depends on trust, conflict and dependenceÂÂ  influenced by management skills affecting IJV performance. Some of the important skills in managing IJV are: Negotiation skills: Compromise, exchange ideas and make decisions at different levels e.g. Engineers and Stakeholders Management Political skills: Negotiate and communicate with government members involved in IJV Diplomacy: Dealing with conflicts and resistance within the partner relationship Inter-partner skills: Managing partnership, communication, expectations and setting objectives Influential skills: Influence and motivate team members Managing ambiguity: Bringing objectives and vision as close as possible. In authors opinion in hybrid IJV organisations, it is difficult to avoid conflicts and control system with openness management style. First steps in IJV early stages are: To identify problems and related solutions agreed by everyone To plan and ensure that the management strategy matches the IJV environment Flexible management approach to adopt as changes happen Balanced relationship creates harmony and trust, successfulÂÂ  managementÂÂ  of an international joint venture mainly depends on a balanced partnership which is based on trust and shared ownership, where parties communicate effectively and clearly to help efficient move towards common goals and clear objectives. At the same time extra cautious needs to be taken when dealing with sensitiveÂÂ  culturalÂÂ  andÂÂ  regionalÂÂ  issues, withÂÂ  a certainÂÂ  degreeÂÂ  ofÂÂ  diplomacy, people andÂÂ  languageÂÂ  skills. Creating good condition for partnership Prior to start of any engagement when forming a joint venture partnership, it is essential for both parties to setup an agreement clearly defining expectations and scope. This will form a clear understanding between partners and helps with effectiveness of communications between parties (Barnes, 2010). In authors opinion to increase the chances of relationship survivor it is important to be open about every aspect of the business from beginning in particularly about financial matters to gain the partners trust. Agreements on goals, responsibilities and performance measurements (KPI) in early stages could indicate any problems and warnings, which could be resolved and prevented in early stages. In the meantime flexible relationship and atmosphere is essential to allow freedom of speech and involvement in suggesting improvements or even change of original objectives. Any partnership would encounter problems and disagreements, however looking at problems positively and promoting an attitude to create situations where win-win approach (Barnes, 2010) is applied is the key for creating a good condition for a successful partnership. There are a number of elements that would significantly impact the condition of an international joint venture experience and environments: Invest time and effort to get to know the partner In an international joint venture partnership it is important for the parties to take the time to get to know each others organisational structure, cultural habits and methods of work. Clear objectives Setting clear objectives and goals prior to any engagements is essential to prevent any ambiguity and conflicts. Management style IJV complex environment could create conflict and ambiguity between partners, compatible management skills could create balanced relationship. Roles and responsibility definition and assignment In a complex joint venture partnership with a large number of unknowns and a mixture of cultures, habits, structures and skillsets, roles and responsibilities ought to be defined clearly to avoid disappointment and ensure effective partnership condition. Expectation management Open and honest communications from start of the business to the end is essential, people involved need to understand what will be achieved and when this will be achieved. Everyone needs to understand the objectives and progress of them. Misunderstood or unrealistic expectations can make a successful process ending as a failure. Create Trust When an environment is stabilised and partners have agreed on compatible goals with set mutual benefits, both parties need to work on gaining each others trust to enable smooth process avoiding unnecessary red tapes to maximise efficiency and workforce effectiveness. Risk forecast, evaluation and prevention It is important for companies in a joint venture partnership, to identify and evaluate the risks related to the partnership program and the associated impacts. Identifying problems and risk evaluation in early stages would prevent any unexpected surprises during the process. Also this would give an opportunity toÂÂ  analyse issues and find solutions. Following are examples of potential risks with IJV partnership: Language barriers Multinational partnership involves different languages; a solution needs to be applied to overcome language barriers. Full reliance on interpreters and translators could introduce additional risks where individuals do not have the required technical and related business experiences. It is highly advantageous if the employee involved with the business strategy, have related knowledge, background as well as being bilingual. Culture Different cultures represent unknowns and risks. Respecting multicultural environment and having awareness could prevent future conflicts, create opportunities to utilise multinational benefits and minimize the level of disagreements between parties. Politics Government laws and regulations vary in different countries. Time need to be invested to fully understand the local policies where the venture is based. Organisational strategies Organisational strategies mismatch between companies could directly or indirectly affect the objectives. These inconsistencies are required to be identified and highlighted to be considered during the planning phase to avoid potential future issues. Geographic consideration Local and related market condition as well as work ethic should be considered and matching business environment appropriately applied. Communication Clear communication is crucial in IJV environment where a lot of conflicts and confusion could occur because of cultural differences. Setting an open networks and freedom where employees can approach management levels easily could create an opportunity for everyone to get involved. Conclusion For countries to develop, create new technologies, use new facilities market and products, joint venture is very beneficial. Joint venture is an opportunity to boost businesses and continues to occur in more countries. Every international joint venture starts with different cultures and because of its multicultural nature it is unavoidable to experience disagreements. Creating mutual benefits and harmonious environments with common objectives and agreed values can overcome the cultural differences and create common culture which benefits partners and uses the positive side of multicultural partnership. It might be more effective to invest in countries that have similar cultures because it would be easier to understand the business networks, market needs and to resolve problems. With countries developing to be multicultural and expanded communication network reaching further distances, it is getting easier to approach new opportunities. People are interested to know other cultures and learn about others. The challenges and complexity in different cultures is unavoidable but nations awareness is very high hence their approach to each other is very positive and relaxed. While achieving strategic fit is more fundemental to the viability of a partnership,a good cultural fit optimises the potential of the partnership and helps to avoid the threats to its continuation which arise from misunderstanding and antipathy. While it is important for partners in an IJV to establish a strategic fit to help improve feasibility of a partnership, an effective cultural match between the companies creates opportunities for a stronger relationship. This helps to avoid misunderstanding, risks and potential issues that could cause damage the partnership. Partners need to establish trust, honesty and priorities to understand elements of successful IJV, structuring relative management style, which is independent from parents company strategy and assigning partners management responsibilities according to their expertise promises positive outcome at the end of the partnership. Partners require creating a relationship based on honesty trust. It is vital for the parties to invest time and resource to understand fundamentals of a successful IJV partnership. Reforming and creating a relative management strategy, which is independent from partner companies are key to a successful joint venture partnership.