Strategic Fit of It Service Management

IBM Academy of Technology Academy TechNotes ATN Volume 2, Number 9, 2011 Strategic fit of IT Service Management iven the crucial role that IT (Information Technology) plays in businesses today, IT departments have a significant responsibility to ensure that its value is optimized. IT optimization can be obtained through the adoption of the IT Service Management proposition by IT operations. G Pietro Della Peruta However, IT Service Management concepts and tools are complex changes to introduce to an organization. To achieve the right fit of such concepts and tools it is important that the introduction is congruent with the company’s operating mode. The Company Operating Mode concept was introduced in the seminal work of Nolan and McFarlan on the â€Å"IT Strategic Impact Grid† (Harvard Business Review, October 2005, Information Technology and the Board of DirecTurnaround mode is characStrategic Dependence: Current value of IT on tors). According to the IT terized by the business havbusiness Strategic Impact Grid, ing a low strategic dependHigh companies operate in Low ence on IT which has high four possible modes: strategic impact. Firms in Turnaround Strategic High support, turnaround, facturnaround mode expect a IT Governance Focus IT Governance tory, and strategic. These new system to change their on system s and Governance modes determine the on business business. New systems promapplications Strategic Im pact: services Scope of IT current value IT has for ise major process optimizaFuture value of IT on operations the business (i. e. strategic business tion and service transformaSupport Factory Managem ent dependency) and the tion as well as cost reducBusiness Applications Focus future value IT has for the tion. IT operations are charservice and system m anagem ent m anagem ent business (i. e. strategic acterized by a great attenLow impact). To optimize the tion to efficiency, and they Legenda IT Managem ent Mode value of IT, for each are mostly process driven. Business Focus System Focus Com pany Operating Mode Company Operating Mode, The IT operations focus is on Focus of IT a well-defined level of IT the systems with attention to operations service management (IT IT governance processes (i. e. service management mode) needs to be implemented ITIL). y the IT operation. The IT service management mode is Strategic mode is characterized by IT having high stratecharacterized by the focus of IT operation (i. e. system gic dependence and high strategic impact on the busifocus or business focus) and by the scope of IT operations ness. Firms in this mode require dependable systems and (i. e. management focus or governance focus). When a must exploit emerging technologies to hold their comcompanyâ €™s currently adopted IT management mode petitive position. IT operations are seeking effectiveness does not match the operating mode the company is in, and efficiency. IT operations focus is on managing busithe IT department must modify the way IT services are ness service from a business point of view (effectiveness) managed in order to optimize the value of IT. as well as using a process driven approach to manage Support Mode is characterized by IT having low strategic the IT (efficiency). This means IT governance and business impact on the business which has a low strategic deservice focus. endency on IT. Companies in support mode are least dependent on IT. In this mode systems operate mostly in About the Author: Pietro della Peruta is an Executive IT Archimaintenance mode. Service interruption might not protect, IBM Software Group, a member of the IBM Academy of duce serious consequences. For a company in support Technology, and has 20 years of experience in systems mode, systems and applications are monitored and some availability and p erformance management. est practices exist for recovery from performance and availability problems. IT operations are focused on systems and applications resources, and the scope of operations is management.  © Copyright IBM Corporation 2011 Factory mode is characterized by the business having high strategic dependence on IT which has low strategic impact. Companies in factory mode are more dependent on information technology. If systems fail for a minute or more, there is an immediate loss of business. Increased response time has erious consequences for both internal and external users. IT management in the factory mode is characterized by a high level of effectiveness via tailored control of business service quality. KPIs (key performance indicators) are defined at business level more than at IT level. IT operations have a business focus but still a management scope. In factory mode, the focus of IT operations is more on managing the business services than on the systems or the applications as single entities. For more information please visit the Academy web site.

Invitational Leadership Essay

Introduction Leadership, and the study of it, has its commencement in the early civilizations. Ancient rulers, pharaohs, emperors and biblical patriarchs have one thing in common – leadership. Although scholars have been studying this phenomenon for almost two centuries, numerous definitions and theories abound throughout. However, enough similarities exist so as to define â€Å"leadership† as an effort of influence and the power to induce compliance (Wren, 1995). Leadership is a process through which an individual influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. This definition of leadership is relatively similar to that of Northouse’s (2007,p.3) And the definition of a leader stipulated by Peter Drucker is someone who has followers. The capacity to influence others is dependent on the power detained. The leader’s attitudes would definitely determine the level of productivity from his employees. A Task Orientation or Directive Behaviour reflects the concern of a leader for the actual task at hand whereas Employee Orientation or Supportive Behaviours reflects how much a leader is concerned for the people around him, providing support and encouragement for them. Concurrently, different theories have been developed for the field of leadership but we would be showing more attention to the Invitational Leadership theory. The research on the effects of Invitational Education Theory (IET) in the educational administrative process is relatively new as compared to other theories pertaining to leadership. Invitational Leadership has a different dimension from the standard theories of leadership that emphasized the process of influencing others through the use of power to an alternative leadership style that promotes collaboration and show consideration and respect for individuals in the educational system. This study comprises of two parts. Firstly, we would see the theoretical introduction of the Invitational Leadership, followed a brief comparison of the theory with other leadership theories possessing more or less the same characteristics and finally, in what ways the Invitational Leadership is more suitable to the educational community. Secondly, we would focus on what the invitational style provides in response to the demands of the school sector. Besides, we would see to what extent the invitational leadership is applied to my profession through examples drawn from my past experiences. ————————————————- 1. Theoretical part Invitational Theory Purkey (1992, p.5) defines Invitational Leadership asa theory which â€Å"is a collection of assumptions that seek to explain phenomena and provide a means of intentionally summoning people to realise their relatively boundless potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavour† Invitational Theory is a mode of professional practice that summons the environment and all relationships formed in educational and human service organizations. It is a process for communicating caring and appropriate message intended to invite forth the realisation of human potential. It is also a way for identifying and changing those institutional and relational forces that defeat and destroy potential. Communication is vital for all social relationships or integration. Schools, as a social institution, send out complex message systems that continuously inform people of their worth, ability, and power to direct themselves. The concept of â€Å"invitation† derives from the effort provided by those who seek to communicate ideas. This involves shaping, moulding and changing. The word invite is a derivation of the Latin word invite. It probably began as vito, which means to avoid or shun. In early Roman society, vito was used to express fear of encroachment by other tribes, and to forbid their entry into Rome. As Rome became a dominant force, its citizens felt more secure and opened their borders to the world. In time, the prefix in- meaning â€Å"without† or â€Å"not,† was added, and the word invite, meaning â€Å"to receive politely,† became common and developed into invite. So by definition, an invitation is a purposive and generous act by which the invit er seeks to enroll others in the vision set forth in the invitation. From this we derive the term Invitational Leadership (Purkey & Siegel, 2002, p212). From an invitational viewpoint, individuals possess the characteristics of being able, valuable and responsible. As such, they are to be treated accordingly. Conversely, we observe a transformation from the appellations used: from â€Å"motivate,† â€Å"shape,† â€Å"reinforce,† â€Å"make,† â€Å"enhance,† â€Å"build,† and â€Å"empower† people to that of â€Å"offer,† â€Å"propose,† â€Å"present,† â€Å"encourage,† â€Å"consider,† and â€Å"summon cordially.† Similarly, in the school context, the invitational leader is the one who summons associates to higher levels of functioning and presents them with the opportunity to participate in the construction of something of mutual benefit. Ultimately, we find that this â€Å"something† is a procedure to create a better environment and a way to eliminate inequalities. Invitational Leadership offer a new perspective, an involvement for positive social change. It acknowledges our potential, our integrity, our interdependence and our responsibility to do good. Moreover, a central element in many definitions of leadership is that there is a process of influence. Leithwood et al (1999, p.6) say that â€Å"influence †¦ seems to be a necessary part of most conceptions of leadership.† Yulk (2002, p.) explains this influence process: â€Å"Most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that it involves a social influence process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person [or group] over other people [or groups] to structure the activities and relationships in a group or organisation.† Yulk’s use of ‘person’ or ‘group’ indicates that leadership may be exercised by individuals as well as teams. Additionally, this opinion is shared by Harris (2002) and Leithwood (2001) who both advocate distributed leadership as an alternative to traditional top-down leadership models. Invitational leadership as a model of influence It can be agreed that leadership involves influence and that it may be exercised by anyone in an organisation. In addition, Cuban (1988,p.193) points out to leadership as an influence process. â€Å"Leadership then refers to people who bend the motivations and actions of others to achieving certain goals; it implies taking initiatives and risks.† This opinion demonstrates that the process of influence is focused as it is intended to lead to specific outcomes. Furthermore, this notion is reinforced by Fidler (1997, p.25) : â€Å"followers are influenced towards goal achievement.† Eventually, a similar concept is used by Stoll and Fink (1996), that of ‘invitational’ leadership explaining how leaders function in schools. â€Å"Leadership is about communicating invitational messages to individuals and groups with whom leaders interact in order to build and act on a shared and evolving vision of enhanced educational experiences for pupils.† (p.109) At this point, I agree to what Stoll and Fink (1996) said; the role of the leader, in the school, is to work together with his collaborators towards making the institution an inclusive school which provides a good education to all pupils, irrespective of their varying abilities. Further to this, communication should be at the base of all decision making to arrive at a consensus between the different stakeholders. As it is stated in the School Management Manual, the Rector should â€Å"run the school in close collaboration with the Deputy Rector.† The Rector or the Deputy Rector, should be open to new ideas put forward by staff or pupils. The internal communication (morning assembly, form period, meeting with students’ representatives, teaching staff, head of Department etc.) of the school should be an open platform where leaders create a conviviality atmosphere among each individuals, therefore, inviting others to get engaged in the progression of the school. As we have compared the close relationship of Invitational Leadership as being a model of influence, equally, the Invitational Leadership Theory reflects a transformational dimension. Transformational Leadership enhanced the motivation, morale and performance of follower’s through a variety of mechanisms. These comprise connecting the follower’s sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strength and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align them with tasks that optimize their performance. Similarly, the invitational leader invites the followers by communicating to them the mission and goal of the organisation and by accepting the individual personality. As the leader himself is a role model in displaying invitational qualities, he reinforces these qualities among his/her followers. Becoming an Invitational Leader necessitates that a leader become more consciously aware of his or her self and, by so doing, takes responsibility of how he or she defines that self. If we distinguish ourselves to be lacking in some fundamental leadership quality, then assuredly we will fail to influence others to join our cause. Furthermore, the invitational leadership enclose these servant types of values : excellence, caring, justice, and faith. Review of current literature supports the need for a change in leadership in order to adequately meet the needs of current educational institutions. Becoming an invitational leader â€Å"How can I gain the cooperation of those in my environment so that effectiveness and productivity increase and that our group function more smoothly and effectively?† The only way is by inviting, showing trust, understanding and respect (Purkey, Siegel, 2002). Intimidation and coercion, commonly used approaches, are not effective and eventually will prove to be counter-productive. They believe that there is only one motivation inside humans and that is an internal drive and desire to realise one’s own potential. In short we all want to be more, to self-actualise and to put our talents to good use by committing to something beyond ourselves. This can only be achieved by volunteered and not by pressure. Hence, I can affirm the more leaders are viewed as caring, respectful and supportive, the greater their chances of emancipating the talents and energies of their associates. Those in authority must first begin by making others feel valued if they hope to gain respect and cooperation in return. The first stage toward effective leadership is a wise, rooted sense of self. This means a commitment to find one’s own core values. The authors, Purkey & Siegel (2002) put forward that one cannot empower others without first empowering oneself. These two scholars present various ideas for cultivating all aspects of life from physical and psychological to the spiritual and intellectual. Furthermore, the leader has to present a vision of what a successful organization looks like, to set the proper environment in order to move people to embrace the organisation’s vision and to take on the individual and collective responsibility for the successes and failures of the organization. This would result in a group of self-actualizing individuals, each committed to the purpose and to one another in a supporting environment. Likewise, the school’s atmosphere should be conducive enough so as to inspire people connected to the school to be committed among themselves. Like indicated initially, the leader, that is the Rector or headmaster of the school, is the one to establish the point of contact between the administration, teaching and non-teaching staff and the students, to create avenues that the personnel would follow. Consequently, the opportunity given to each individual would unleash the potential that reside in them. Similarly, each one would adopt an invitational approach as they are constantly exposed to it in their everyday situation at school. The ability to challenge the people you lead to perform high quality will only continue over time if the leader has developed his invitational side as well. As stipulated in the School Management Manual of the Ministry of Education, Culture & Human Resources, the Rector, as the leader â€Å"builds and accompanies his teams, providing them with the required support and motivation, listening to their views and their problems and valuing their effort, support and contribution.† Walter Bennis, one of our more dynamic thinkers on leadership, has defined a leader is one who is guided by an â€Å"exciting and specific dream and who enrols others in his or her vision.† (Purkey, Siegel; 2002) thus, by providing support and motivation, school’s leaders enroll others by summoning them cordially to realise their potential. Furthermore, support for the importance of values was provided by Stoll and Fink (1996) in their study of leadership in education. They affirmed that successful leaders rely upon a strong set of values to guide their decision-making. We can contrast the decision-making process to the Participative Leadership which is defined by Leithwood et al. (2002) as a leadership style which â€Å"assumes that the decision-making processes of the group ought to be central focus for leaders† (p.12). Invitational Education Theory (IET) As stated by the author of Fundamentals of Invitational Education, the focus of Invitational Leadership in education is on the message transmitted by people, places, policies, programs, and processes (Purkey, 2008, p.7). Invitational education is based on three fundamental ideas Purkey, W.W., & Novak, J.M. (1996).: the democratic ethos, the perceptual tradition, and self-concept theory. The democratic ethos put emphasize on â€Å"deliberate dialogue and mutual respect as people work together to construct the character, practices and institutions that promote a fulfilling shared life.†(p.9) In this democratic style of leadership, it implies that whoever is concerned or affected by decisions should have a say in those decisions. The perceptual tradition states that events are always seen through the individual and cultural filters people use. Thus an important aspect of the inviting approach is to understand and validate the meaningfulness of people’s perceptions and to w ork with these perceptions to construct shared purposes.(p.10) Self-concept is the image people construct of who they are and how they fit in the world. â€Å"This system of personal beliefs is maintained, protected and by the choices the individual makes.† (p.10). Invitational education is a mode of functioning by which people are cordially, creatively and consistently summoned to realise their potential. As mentioned earlier, its focus is on the messages transmitted. However, the messages that are exchanged are never on neutral basis as they carry positive or negative, inviting or disinviting connotation. There are four fundamental values, what we call principles, which give Invitational Leaders direction and purpose. Together, these four principles form a basic set of guiding beliefs. These are respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. Therefore the four principles take the form of propositions that offer a perspective for addressing, evaluation and modifying the total school environment. Purkey, W. W.& Novak, J. M.; (2008) testify that this standpoint allows Rectors or educators to assume an â€Å"inviting stance,† which is a focused frame-work for sustained action. Respect People are valuable, able, and responsible and should be treated accordingly. Respect is an important aspect in Invitational Leadership. It provides a new vision based on the process of summoning people cordially to move in more democratic, creative, and productive directions through non-coercive means. A democratic society emphasizes the inherent worth of all people, believes in their self-directing power, and stressed the importance of personal and social accountability. Invitational schools do the same. Purkey, W. W.& Novak, J. M. (2008) stipulates that responsibilities that are shared based on mutual respect and expectations of positive outcomes results in a cooperative relationship that recognizes each â€Å"person’s ability to accept, reject, negotiate, or hold in abeyance the messages sent to them.† (p.12) Respect is demonstrated in courteous behaviours as civility, politeness and common courtesy. Waterman and Peters (1988), in their book In Search of Excellence, reported that a special characteristic of highly successful companies is the courteous and respectful behaviours of their employees. They are â€Å"good listeners, pay attention to their customers, are courteous and treat people as adults. Respect is one of eight major characteristics that distinguish excellent companies.† Summing up, respect is important in Invitational Leadership because it is the quality that enables leaders to be a beneficial presence that has the ability to take a respectful stance toward colleagues – literally inviting others into a mutually beneficial relationship. Trust Education is a cooperative, collaborative activity. Invitational education is based on the fundamental interdependence of human beings. To establish trustworthy pattern, time and effort are necessary. Trustworthy patterns of interaction depend on people who demonstrate the following quality: reliability, genuineness, truthfulness, intent and competence. Intention The process is the product of making. A decision to purposely act in a certain way, to achieve and carry out a set of goals (Day et.al, 2001, p.34). Is defined as knowing what we intend to bring about as well as how we intend it to happen gives clarity and direction to our work (Stillion and Siegel, 2OO5, p15). Optimism People possess untapped potential in all areas of humans endeavour. Invitational educators are committed to the continuous appreciation and growth of all involved in the educative process (Day et. al, 2001, p. 34). ————————————————- 2. Invitational Leadership in practice in the educational community The focus of this study is to examine the invitational leadership style to verify if it provides the necessary skills needed in today’s educational organisations. In response to the increased need for excellent management and guidance, many leadership models have been planned and implemented to meet the demanding needs of the educational sector. Following this emptiness in the educational community, the invitational leadership was introduced in 2002 by Purkey and Siegel. Stillion and Siegel (2005) summed up the idea behind this new leadership style, â€Å"Purkey †¦ having studied human behaviour for four decades, proposed that leaders must take an invitational stance in dealing with others and in developing themselves† (p.4) According to Purkey and Novak (1996), IET is a model of practice: it adopts a systematic approach in the educational development and it provides policies and strategies for making schools more inviting. Major challenges that the school staff usually face on daily basis are issues pertaining to the students’ welfare such as indiscipline, From my observation at school, lack of guidance and clarified direction has served as a tremendous reduction of energy, time, effort and resource. It would prove difficult to delegate authority to individuals or self-managed groups when â€Å"followers do not trust each other, because they will not share information or cooperate in trying to solve mutual problems† (Yulk, 2002,p.109). The lack of invitational characteristics in a leader would slow the effective pace of work. An effective leader will work to bring about positive and long lasting change, when change is necessary within organisation. By doing so, he would invite staff into collaboration, will work carefully to bring about change in a way that the school’s member will not only be involved but would be pleased with the eventual outcome of the change. Schein (2000) disc ussed, â€Å"change programs fail because they do not take into consideration the underlying culture.† In order for an organisation to survive, it is imperative that strong and healthy relationships are formed. Likewise, these carefully formed relationships can help to formulate a culture of acceptance and desire to achieve excellence. Schein (1996) defined culture as the â€Å"set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, think about, and react to its various environments† (p.236). At the school, the Rector is a vital component in creating the culture. However, the administrators’ role in understanding that culture is equally important. This creates a sense of ownership and a shared leadership. Respect and trust thus serve as a primary component of an organisation’s healthy culture. To illustrate this idea, it is important that the Rector, educators and administrators understand what takes place within the school. Invitational Leadership argued that leader cannot create a climate of empowerment and participation if the underlying belief of culture is that everyone must do whatever the boss says they should do. I firmly agree that leadership through coercion and fear is not effective when attempting to create a productive team. Additionally, as stipulated by Purkey & Siegel (2002), messages communicate to people which inform them that they are able, responsible and worthwhile. These messages should be made accessible to every person in the school, conveying the intention of the leaders, so making everyone part of the institution. These messages are corresponded though â€Å"inter-personal action, but also through institutional policies, programmes, practices and physical environments† (Day et al., 2001, p.34). Furthermore, Purkey and Siegel (2003) postulate a specific framework by which schools can become â€Å"invitational† by concentrating on the five areas contributing to success and failures. Each one of these elements contributes to the creation of a positive school climate and ultimately a healthy and successful organisation. The Starfish Analogy by Purkey Invitational leadership focusses on five areas which contribute to the success or failure of individuals. Purkey refers to it as the Starfish Analogy: The starfish lives to eat oysters. To defend itself, the oyster has two stout shells that fasten tightly together and held in place by a powerful muscle. The starfish finds the oyster and places itself on top of its intended victim. Gradually, gently, and firmly the starfish uses each of its five points in turn to keep pressure on the oyster’s one muscle. While one point works, the other four rest. The single oyster muscle, while incredibly powerful, gets no rest. Inevitably, and irresistibly, the oyster is opened and the starfish has its meal. By constant, steady pressure from a number of points, even the strongest muscle (and the biggest challenge) can be overcome. These five areas â€Å"exist in practically every environment† and serve as a means to invite others professionally (Purkey, 1992, p.7) 1. People – Purkey (1992) affirmed that â€Å"nothing is more important in life than people. It is the people who create a respectful, optimistic5 visibility. 2. Places – refers to physical environment of an organisation. It has been suggested that places are the easiest of the five areas to change due to their visibility. 3. Policies- â€Å"policies refer to the procedures, codes, rules, written or unwritten, used to regulate the on-going functions of individuals and organizations† (Purkey, 1992,p.7) 4. Programs – play an important role in invitational leadership â€Å"because programs often focus on narrow objectives that neglect the wider scope of human needs’ (Purkey, 1002, p.7) 5. Processes – The â€Å"how something is accomplished† (Purkey & Siegel, 2003, p.125). It can be defined as the way that people, places, policies and programs are evident in schools. Purkey and Siegel (2003) refer to these five areas as a means to invite others professionally. They affirmed that â€Å"the combination of these five areas offers an almost limitless number of opportunities for the Invitational Leader, for they address the total culture †¦ of almost any organisation† (p.104) Conclusion This study was to investigate in what ways and to what degree, if any, an invitational leader impacts the overall effectiveness of the school setting. We focused in the first part on leadership qualities and characteristics which lead to success. We arrived at a common consensus that invitational leadership characteristics do influence the development of successful organizations. The invitational leadership model seeks to invite all interested stakeholders to succeed. As noted by Day, Harris, and Hadfield (2001) invitations are â€Å"messages communicated to people which inform then that they are able, responsible and worthwhile† (p.34) To conclude, it is believed that the invitational leadership model should serve as a practice to emulate in order to achieve positive results in effective leadership in schools. The active use of invitational leadership was proven to be a leadership model that should be considered effective when trying to create a healthy, positive and successful organization. ————————————————- References 1. Asbill, K. (1994). Invitational leadership: Teacher perceptions of inviting principal practices. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, School of Educational Management, New Mexico State University. 2. Day, C., Harris, A., & Hadfield, M. (2001). Grounding Knowledge of Schools in Stakeholder Realities: A Multi-Perspective Study of Effective School Leaders. School Leadership & Management, 21(1), 19-42. 3. Peters, Tom J. & Waterman, Robert H. (1988), In Search of Excellence – Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, HarperCollins Publishers, London. 4. Purkey, W. W & Siegel, B.L (2002). Becoming an Invitational Leader. Atlanta, USA. Brumby Holdings, Inc. 5. Purkey, W. W.& Novak, J. M. (2008). Fundamentals of Invitational Education. Kennesaw, Georgia: International Alliance for Invitational Education. 6. Purkey, W. W., & Novak, J. M. (1996). Inviting school success: A self-concept approach to teaching, learning, and democratic practice (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. 7. Purkey, W., & Schmidt, J. (1990). Invitational learning for counseling and development. Ann Arbor, MI: ERIC Counseling and Personnel Services Clearinghouse. 8. School Leadership: Concepts and Evidence; Full Report/Spring 2003. National College for School Leadership: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5119/2/dok217-eng-chool_Leadership_Concepts_and_Evidence.pdf 9. Schein, E. H. (1996). Culture: The missing concept in organization studies. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 229-240. 10. Schein, E. H. (2000). Sense and nonsense about culture and climate. In N. M. Ashkanasy, C. P. M. Wilderom, & M. F. Peterson (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Culture & Climate (pp. xxiii-xxx). Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications 11. Stanley, P.H. A Bibliography For Invitational Theory and Practice. RadfordUniversity; http://www.invitationaleducation.net/journal/v11p52.htm 12. Stillion, J., & Siegel, B. (November, 2005). Expanding Invitational Leadership: Roles for the Decathlon Leader. Retrieved January 31, 2006, from http://www.kennesaw.edu/ilec/Journal/articles/2005/siegel_stillion/expand_leadership/exp†¦ 13. Wren, J. T. (1995). The leaders’ companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press. 14. Yukl, G. A. (2002) Leadership in Organizations, Fifth Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall.

Discuss paul gilroy quote (youth cultural practice) Essay

Discuss paul gilroy quote (youth cultural practice) - Essay Example taken distinguishing local factors as well as histories into account, they hope that they can concur that different youth cultures are by now hosting an influential commitment between these thoughts and the hesitant - micro-political instead of pre-political - appearances that resist them either by asserting difference as well as diversity or by rejoicing the transcendence of different racial and ethnic differences. More new music enlightens how these impacts are reduced into the same gesticulations, the identical delighted moment. For this rationale alone, it seems suitable to look into those cultures for the purpose of plan how rejoinders regarding the new racism as well as its minority complements have developed and also to observe what energies different youth cultures can give way for future resists against the ethnic absolutism, racism as well as nationalism (Gilroy, 1993). According to Gilroy 1993), these above mentioned aspects related to youth cultural practices are leading to the effect where these cultures are emerging as the essential hybrid of different social as well as political forms (Gilroy, 1993). Gilroy’s idea of youth culture, in this context, is closely associated with the observation that different social and political aspects are interrelated with these practices. Different social aspects, such as the degree of social integration between one community and the other and the associated transformation of various social and communal aspects and ideas are regarded as the most important guiding force behind the development of youth cultural practices. In most of the cases, youth cultural practices are guided by the associated norms or rules and regulations of the society under consideration. For instance, the situation where large number of people across the community are taking drugs or are creating significant amount of social nuisance in the locality are most likely to be seen affecting the youth cultural practices within that community.

To answer questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

To answer questions - Essay Example s of courage (Detmer 76).For both of Sartre’s existential concepts, I both agree that the level of courage that one has also determines his or her ability to experience freedom and authenticity. This is exemplified through various ways, and can be as simple as disagreeing to what other people say and standing up for what one believes or just agreeing even if the inner self experiences conflicts such as resentment or disbelief to what others say. Visualization and visioning may have similar principles such as forming ideas or mental images inside one’s mind, but what sets the two apart is the purpose of creating these ideas or images. In the visualization process for example, people would just generally create a mental image without any other purpose other than its creation, and after sometime this mental image is allowed to disappear without any emotional attachments to it. However, with regards to visioning, the creation of mental images or ideas is built with a purpose, and that these mental images are much more deeply-connected to what a person aspires or wants (Bennet 274). Further differences can be explained through examples: for visualization, more often than not the mental images are created at random or as deemed necessary by other people through suggestions, and a person’s feelings may or may not in effect helped create it in any way. However, if this same person tries to create a vision for the self , this mental image gains associations to a person’s emotions, in such a way that these thoughts can describe what one likes or does not like based on what emotions that these mental images can evoke (â€Å"The Secret†). In a way, visioning is a much stronger mental exercise than visualization since aside from the mind, the emotions also become involved in creating mental images, further engaging a person to this activity and

Stories told by Homer and Herodotous abiut women Essay

Stories told by Homer and Herodotous abiut women - Essay Example Even though a number of his stories were imaginary and others imprecise, he claims he was reporting only what was narrated to him and was yet frequently very near to right. Little is well-known of his private history (Peissel 2005, 40-56).The purpose of this essay is to discuss whether the stories narrated by Homer as well as Herodotus concerning women, their acts, and their kidnapping are supported by any proof that may make those tales amount to history Discussion: Reliability Whilst The Histories were sporadically criticized in relic, contemporary historians and philosophers usually take an optimistic outlook. Regardless of the controversy, Herodotus still acts as the key and regularly only, cause for proceedings in the Greek planet, Persian territory, and the area usually in the three centuries leading up until his own moment. Herodotus, similar to numerous ancient historians, favored a component of show to merely investigative history, targeting to give enjoyment with â€Å"thrilling events, huge dramas, and strange exotica.†As such, definite passages have been the topic of disagreement and even some distrust, both in ancient times and at present. The correctness of the writings of Herodotus has been contentious since his own period. Normally, although, he was at that time, and especially is currently, considered as reliable. Numerous philosophers (Aruban, Davidson, Poe, Wesley, Zelenko, Volley and Bernal) antique and current regularly cite Herodotus.

Homebase Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Homebase - Coursework Example The drivers include financials, customer service, internal business, learning, and development. The analysis aims to make the coming results for 2015 better according to the vision as well as the strategies of Homebase Retail Company. The report also presents the strategy map for the company to show the connection between the four drivers (perspectives) of the scores and the company’s strategy (Kaplan & Norton 2004, p. 7). It maps all the objectives to the major performance indicators to produce a complete outcome. The board of directors also gets the recommended actions from the scorecard and the strategy maps ensure that Homebase Retail Company operates according to the analysis. Additionally, the board will be able to set smart and realistic goals so that it can make systematic decisions to improve the key financial and strategic indicators of performance. Homebase Retail Company operates as one of the biggest and the leading home improvement company, retailer and a gardening centre in the UK. Its close competitors in the industry include Argos and Financial Services. Home Retail Group made revenues amounting to  £18.9 Million in the year that ended in March 2014, which is a slight improvement from the previous year 2013 by approximately 3.6% in revenue (Bourne & Bourne 2002, p. 54). Home Retail Group started operating in the business began in the UK in 1979, under the name Sainsbury Homebase. As one of the largest retail companies in the UK, Homebase Retail Company has a value of between  £2.7 billion and  £3 billion (Kennerley & Neely 2000, p. 47). Homebase Retail Company is currently running its business in a number of subsidiaries in about the UK and the US, such as Bell’s Stores Homebase and Texas Homecare. It has employed more than 17000 workers in all the stores and subsidiaries. Its slogan â€Å"Make a house a ho me† draws many customers to its business, which has grown its client

Families Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Families - Essay Example t would be fundamental for a day care provider to dedicate his efforts towards developing positive and productive relation to both children and parents. It is necessary for parents to develop comfortable zones with instructors and personnel who will be caring for their children. In other words, unless the families feel apprehension, the children will easily mirror the same emotion; thus, resulting in tearful good-byes every time the parents leave their children in a day care. If there are scenarios of discomfort, it would be extremely difficult for parents to leave their children in a day care (Cornish 86). Therefore, as a care provider it would be necessary to create a comfortable environment directed towards the parents and their children. One way of establishing and developing quick comfort zones for the children is by allowing or requesting the families to visit the facility frequently at any time during the working hours. This makes the bond between the child and the parent hold, which results to children feeling comfortable. Furthermore, the liberty of visiting the institution will make the parent feel free and not to feel that there is anything hidden from her. Additionally, visiting the day care will ensure that the families fully understands the open door policies of the institution before they get the chance of admitting their children into the facility (Cornish 86). This will be a fabulous opportunity for families to understand and apprehend a care provider’s experience and qualifications. These qualifications should sappers the minimum qualification of the care provider, so that the parent can develop confidence in a care provider. The confidence goes further to reaffirm the families that their childr en are in the position of developing positive childhood skills. Apart from qualifications, as a daycare manager, the families should also be exposed to the qualification and experience of other staff members (Cornish 87). As a daycare manager, it is

How the simple search engine became a leader in the technology Term Paper

How the simple search engine became a leader in the technology industry - Term Paper Example Google has reported big increases in sales and profits for the first quarter ended 31 March, 2005 as web advertising and sponsored search revenues continue to grow. The search engine company reported net profits of $369.2m (?205.1m) on sales of $1.26bn for the quarter. This compares with a net profit of $64m on sales of $651.6m for the same quarter last year (Savaas, 2005) In 2005, Google joined the list of 100 most powerful companies in the world. Google’s revenues increased steadily over the last few years. Even though Google started as a search engine company, they have many other product or service portfolios such as social networking, operating systems, online books, mobile phones, healthcare etc at present. In this project I will discuss and elaborate on the changes Google has made from being a user service for search to an internet giant in terms of many different aspects of technology. These aspects range from their original search, to email, to videos, to retail, to m obile industry to much more. Analyzing the changes in the past 15 years will produce the how and why Google is one of the kings of marketing and advertising. Google’s journey towards an industry leader During the initial periods of 2000, Google realised that search engine business alone may not help them to sustain their position as an industry leader in IT industry. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo like IT business companies raised stiff challenges to Google’s business interests during this period. Amazon was the leader in online book business. In order to seize leadership in online book industry, Google has established an online book store in 2004. In December 2010, Google expanded its online book store in the name of Google eBooks (Google Editions) and it is now became the biggest online book store, in the world. As of now Google’s book collection have already crossed the 20 million mark. Social networking is another area in which Google made its mark. Google plus is the social network introduced by Google to counter the challenges from arch rival Facebook. â€Å"Google CEO Larry Page trotted out an impressive statistic during January 2012 quarterly earnings call: Google+ now has 90 million users, double what it had three months ago. Even better, 60 percent of those users are engaged daily, and 80 percent weekly† (Brodkin, 2012). Even though Google Plus membership is extremely small compared to that of facebook, many people believe that it has the potential to beat facebook in near future itself. Operating system market is another area in which Google established themselves in the recent past. Apple was the industry leader in touchscreen phone and tablet markets until recent times. In fact Apple’s ‘I† series products such as iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc brought enormous success to them. Today apple is the second largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization. Moreover they are the most va luable technology company in the world at present. In order to expel apple from the top spot, Google established business tie ups with Samsung like mobile phone and tablet manufacturers. Google devised a special operating system; android for the modern smartphones and tablets. Current android operating system is believed to be the best in the industry. Its latest version jelly bean is causing all problems to apple’

Financing Health Care In The US Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financing Health Care In The US - Term Paper Example Health insurance can actually be availed through an employed individual’s employer or through the employers of either the spouse or parents’, as applicable. Health insurance can also be purchased individually depending on one’s capacity or financial status, and the required scope and contents of health insurance coverage. The problem is eminently evident for those Americans who are unemployed and could not afford to purchase health insurance coverages. Further, those who are employed also opt to drop insurance coverages because of two reasons as proffered by Siegel, Mead and Burke (2008), to wit: (1) the number of employers offering health insurance benefits to their personnel (including beneficiaries) have significantly declined; and (2) those employers who offer health insurance benefits have opted to require increasing amounts of employee participation in premium payments, which are deemed by employees as virtually unaffordable. With increasing number of peopl e who opt to waive availment of health insurance coverages, more unemployed and employed people without health coverages opt to tap the government’s health packages for Medicare and Medicaid, thereby increasing the need for more financial resources to support and sustain the expenditures for this sector. Components of Health Care Sector Expenditures The paper written by Seshamani, Lambrew and Antos (2008), one of the most significant revelations was that the increasing cost in health care expenditure is accounted for by tax subsidies shouldered by the federal government from the health insurance premiums and related costs declared by employers. As indicated, the cost of tax exemptions from contributions made by employers and employees are... A more structured and plausible approach was recommended by Flier, who suggested that accurate and effective reforms could only provide the needed solution to the health care dilemma when the root causes are truly identified. In his article, the root causes were identified as: the unjust employer-based tax advantaged system, restrictions and overregulated health insurance market, and the presence of both Medicare and Medicaid programs. In this regard, Flier recommended the following: a restructuring of the tax shelter system; to encourage increased players in the delivery of both health care and insurance to decrease the exorbitant health care costs; and to evaluate and closely review the possibility of reforming both Medicare and Medicaid programs in terms of the kind and quality of expenditures, as well as closer screening of the beneficiaries to determine alternative options for cost reduction and the use of cost effective interventions, in the long run. The objective of the essay to proffer relevant and critical issues pertinent to financing and the delivery of health care services in the U.S. was hereby accomplished through provision of the current status of health care in the U.S. prior and by determining the significant components in health care expenditures that are the real culprits of the health care dilemma.  The proposed measures to reform the health care system in the US using strategies and plans should encompass policies and regulations that have the ultimate welfare of the population in mind.

The Problem of Evil Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Problem of Evil - Term Paper Example The â€Å"all-good,† the â€Å"all-powerful,† etc., are claims to justifying the creator who made the world of all possible worlds. Theodicy involves these traditional arguments and weighs these arguments against the scale of the problem of evil. G.W. Leibniz is a case in point. According to Leibniz, this world, no matter how imperfect, is actually the best of all possible worlds that God would have created in any way. More so, Leibniz’s optimistic theodicy does not see the existence of evil in the world as fundamentally counting against God’s existence. Therefore, evil, as it were, becomes a non-issue when seen from the purview of God’s grand plan of the universe. â€Å"Further, we realize that there is a perpetual and almost free progress of the whole universe in fulfillment of the universal beauty and perfection of the works of God, so that it is always advancing towards a greater development.† (1967, 421). Theodicy as the rational study o f God necessarily has to come to grips with evil, where the question is about justifying God’s goodness in the presence of evil. ... Does belief in God contribute to man’s pursuit of happiness, notwithstanding the other equally issue called evil? Or, is it something superfluous let alone erroneous? The presence of evil in the world is real, no doubt. But it has a purpose. The process of evolution forces us to admit to ourselves that we are not at the center of this cosmic process, and that what we need to do is to align ourselves to the ultimate end of the process. Teilhard de Chardin sees evil as part of the whole process of evolution from which man must learn to find his rightful place. De Chardin explains: â€Å"Statistically, at every degree of evolution, we find evil always and everywhere, forming and reforming implacably in us and around us.† (1975, 312). Similarly, an uncritical belief in an objectivist divine providence needs to give way to the reality of evil which God uses to teach man of his existence in the world. Divine providence is not magic. Evil is a privation of man’s suppose d end of goodness. In the end, human affairs need to be addressed by man, not God. â€Å"The evil in the world is very great and we see little or no reliable evidence of a benevolent providence,† (Cupitt 2001, 106). Leave God alone! Atheism easily dismisses God’s existence on account of the reality of evil, as if to falsify altogether God’s existence because of the perceived presence of something that goes against God’s attributes. For atheism God’s existence is nothing but man’s projection of his desire to get the help of some superpower to take away the problem of evil which he cannot do. From a theistic perspective, the objections of atheism can be adequately addressed - not apologetically, but

HUman CApital Management Essay Example for Free

HUman CApital Management Essay However, only since two decades ago, he whole culture of human resource management changed drastically due to extensive influence of internet, wireless connection and Steve Job. This paradigm shift of HRM was mooted by most of the present Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Google and Bloomberg. These companies which was formed about two decades ago changed the landmark of Human Resource Management. Human Resource Department changed role from hiring and administrating workforce for the company to engaging and managing talent and human capital to add value to the organizations performance and success. The trend was established that human apital or the people of the organization are the core which shall be well capitalised requirement changed drastically. One of it is the performance management of this human capital. This literature analysed on what are the problem faced in measuring performance management or appraisal of staffs, the factors prompting organization to reconsider or overhaul their performance management system and on how organization could improve the performance management system to suit current SHRM environment which the workforce demands. The problems with the appraisal system were found to be standard of performance measurement, more Judgemental n appraising, poor skills of appraiser and the frequency of performance appraisal. These shortcomings are due to the evolving nature of business environment which are caused by globalization, new approach of people management, knowledge economy, generational expectations, technology advancement etc. Discussion to improve performance appraisal leads to aspect of new philosophy of HRM, improved appraisal model, Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), and defined roles of managers.

Ex-Convict Discrimination in Singapore

Ex-Convict Discrimination in Singapore After leaving the physical incarceration, ex-offenders find themselves entering into the second prison, where they have to tear down the invisible walls formed by the social stigma, the fear and distrust from the society (Youth Reloaded, 2005). Because mindset and attitudes are difficult to change, they often find difficulties in integrating back to the society. If the situation does not improve, inequality will continue to exist in the society. We should then implement pragmatic solutions to alleviate the discrimination against them. The Issues and Who Are Involved Ex-offenders are those who have finished serving their prison term or those with a criminal record or history (Guralnik, 1970). Every year in Singapore, around 11,000 ex-convicts are released back to the society (Singapore Prison Service). The employment statistics is one of the key indicators on the ability of these ex-offenders to reintegrate successfully in the society. Industrial Services Co-Operative Society (ISCOS) has helped 3,000 ex-offenders to find jobs so far (938Live, 2010). 81 percent of those who got a job stayed on for 3 months (Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises, 2008). In this essay, I seek to discuss on the causes, implications, and propose solutions on discrimination against ex-offenders. Support programmes such as the Yellow Ribbon Project (YRP) and organisations such as SCORE exist and it is important that we evaluate the effectiveness of these organisations in helping ex-offenders to reintegrate into the society. In my opinion, isolating other effects, the re-integration rate will therefore serves as an indication of the level of discrimination against these ex-offenders. The little interaction between the public and ex-inmates is a result of feeling of unequal treatments and stereotyping. The public treats ex-offenders unfairly as they feel that they should compensate for their wrongdoing. Ex-offenders themselves are also aware of the prejudice against them. Some resigned this to their fate and ended up avoid opening up to the society. It is therefore important that we recognize the existence of such issues and raise awareness to reduce the degree of discrimination and to assist these ex-offenders. Firstly, most of the offenders have tattoos on their body, which signifies status, power and belonging to a certain group. Because of stereotyping, we tend to group those who have tattoos as those who have committed crimes. Out of fear and concerns of being associated with these people, we reacted by standing far away. What we failed to recognise is that how we interpret the information we obtained affects our judgement. These tattoos could have been due to a moment of folly during their adolescent stage. On an organisational level, some employers are still unwilling to hire ex-offenders, because they believe that leopards can never change its spots. It is heartening to see the number of ex-offenders being employed have increased with the years but we cannot guarantee that they have been given equal rights as the others. For example, at least 30 employees at the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa had to leave their job because all of them failed the Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA)s background checks. Failure to disclose was taken to assess the applicants integrity, honesty and character (Lim Lim, 2010). There is no difference on whether if those with criminal records declared or not, they still had their contracts terminated anyway. Does the criminal history necessarily the best and only predictors for future performance? Do we judge those have continuously erred and condemn that they do not deserve the chance to repent? In addition, job applicants are required to declare that if they have been convicted in a court in any country before. Because this is usually a one-liner question, ex-offenders applications can be filtered out without considering the seriousness of the offences or even the recidivism rate of the offender (Youth Reloaded, 2005). This may provide an opportunity for employers to screen out ex-offenders and justify if there any inappropriate acts in the company in future (Coble-Krings,2007).Being desperate, these applicants may lie about their background and will be marked down further for dishonesty. Moving up to legislation, the Registration to Criminals Act was amended in 2005, to allow the ex-offenders to mark their records as spent, meaning that there is no need to discuss the existence of the records in most cases, if the offences committed are minor and they were crime-free for five years (Attorney-Generals Chambers, 2005). This means that those with serious offences such as sentences imposed include imprisonment term of more than 3 months or a fine exceeding $200,000, are not allowed to do so, thus, the implementation of the policy is unfair as it deprives those with a serious offence a chance to start anew. Comparing with United States, the treatments of ex-offenders in Singapore are, in my opinion, much better. In the United States, the ex-offenders were not allowed to apply for employment licenses or work in organisations dealing with those that needs more attention, such as elderly and children (Love, 2006). Why is it important for us to talk about it? The society plays a significant role in the reintegration of the ex-offenders. Ex-offenders, no matter what mistakes they made, are still part of us and are assets to the society. However, despite their willingness to start to from ground zero, we shun away and discriminate them. High unemployment is linked to increase in rate of recidivism (Finn, 1998).Therefore, when they are unable to secure a job, the path of recidivism seems easier and they will revert back to their old ways to survive. This remains risky although the recidivism rate in Singapore has remained at 25 % since 2006 (Singapore Prison Service, 2009). Where can we start to fix the problem? No steady source of income means ex-offenders and their families may not be able to afford basic necessities for survival and cannot move away from their social class. Those families that grew desperate may resort to crimes to get what they wanted. Thus, it is difficult for ex-offenders to live a better life when they are not given the same opportunities. The vicious cycle continues as their future generations may follow the footsteps of the older generations. To reduce and even eliminate the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against these ex-offenders, it is important that we find out the root causes of this issue and implement various programmes and activities to encourage active participation as increased interaction may improve the perspective of the public towards ex-offenders. To begin with, organizations should organize more activities to provide both the public and ex-offenders an opportunity to interact. Such activities may be visit to the prisons and / or halfway houses, outdoor and indoor activities, community service projects or even, encourage ex-offenders to participate in existing events such as Yellow Ribbon Prison Run. Through interaction, we develop bonds and trust and these may change the perspective of the public towards them and therefore reduce the extent of discrimination. Many ex-offenders have low self-esteem and are afraid of rejection. Therefore, we should involve the ex-offenders in the planning and executing of events in the community. These events provide an opportunity for the ex- inmates to showcase their talents in various areas. Also, besides the technical skills acquired from the support programmes, the programmes should also focus on soft skills such as interpersonal skills. These ex-convicts should also learn more about resume writing and interview skills, as these will help them to market themselves well. As mentioned above, employers often do not want to give ex-offenders a second chance. Non-acceptance has killed the only hope that these ex-offenders have to reintegrate into the society. Currently, we have campaigns such as Help To Unlock The Second Prison (Yellow Ribbon Project), which focuses on the role that society plays. However, I feel that the campaigns should also focus on the ability and skills that these ex-offenders have to contribute. We have job seminars from SCORE and ISCOS, but to enhance the public confidence in them, we can consider cooperating with companies to provide these ex-offenders transitional jobs as probationers (Fahey, Roberts Engel, 2006) to start them off for several years so that they have relevant working experience, instead of merely skills acquiring in the rehabilitative programmes. After the transition period, these organizations can also help to recommend the employees to other companies. We should further improve on the interview question so that it allows the ex-offender to declare that they have convicted for which offences and also the year of conviction. Company can now decide if these offences are detrimental to the interests of the stakeholders. The company will suffer the heaviest losses if the ex-offenders cause any troubles. Also, the job applicants gain from this as the employers are practising selective screening rather than a total elimination. There are also calls to ban the declaration box so that past criminal record will not affect employment. (Henry Jacobs, 2007). However, I feel that the employers are right to protect their interests and the ex-offenders should be honest and convince the employers on their efforts to stay out of crime. I acknowledge that the amendment to the Registration of Criminals Act is a good move to redress discrimination. However, I feel that this should be made applicable to all ex-offenders, retaining the five years crime-free period, but instead of disqualifying serious offenders, their time-frame could be extended up to 10 years. If the solutions proposed above are being implemented on a long-term basis, the mindset of the public may change and be more accepting towards ex-offenders and the Singapore will move towards as a progressive society as a whole.

Human Development Late Adulthood and End of Life

Human Development Late Adulthood and End of Life Right from conception to the day of death, a humans life is constantly developing and changing. However, most of these changes and developments are solely caused by the diverse stages we go through as human beings. The development stages are purely determined by biological and sociological heritage encountered by human beings. There are various developmental stages in the life of a human being which need to be addressed with great care so as to mitigate the negative effects associated with aging. As we age, there are various advancements that occur in us. For instance, we are able to properly use our bodies, develop relationships, communicate and work as well as experience love. The importance of possessing adequate knowledge on ageism and stereotypes associated with it cannot be overemphasized. This is due to the fact that the unfolding of human development lifespan is the base of our problems in life. There have been widespread views on death of human beings during various points o f development. As such, religious and cultural perspectives have had different views about human development and death. Nevertheless, human life can be likened to journey where one moves from one point to another, facing various challenges and moments of joy distinct from others. Promoting health and wellness in old age Promoting health and wellness during late adulthood can be very helpful in the mitigation against negative impacts of aging. It is considered that late adulthood starts at the age of 65 years. According to experts, this stage of life can be made a lively one if individuals obtain satisfaction and meaning in life rather than disillusionment and bitterness (Miller, 2008). Similarly, people within this age bracket are advised to develop a resolution between integrity versus despair which is always in conflicts throughout ones life. Statistics has shown that about 20% of the American population is composed of people aged 65 years and above. Moreover, further studies have demonstrated that with the improved modern medical technology, there is likelihood that longer lives can be attained artificially. Furthermore, it has been proved that longevity of life is not always associated with physical and mental deterioration. Psychologists have developed various ways through which individuals can eliminate the negative consequences of aging. For example, there are two theories that have been associated with successful aging: activity theory and disengagement theory. The former relates to the fact that as people age, their involvement in the normal societal activities is advisable due to the relief from difficult responsibilities. Consequently, opportunities are opened up for the younger people leading to better benefits to the society (Miller, 2008). The latter theory contradicts the former. It emphasizes that for better adjustment to aging, earlier activities of life should be maintained. Moreover, the proponents of the theory argue that being active ensures maintenance of the normal quality of life. In addition, maintenance of activity of a complete whole: physical, mental and social, prevents negative impacts of aging. Ageism and old age stereotypes Ageism is discrimination based on age. This form of discrimination is apparent in all ages but mostly applies towards the older people. Due to this kind of prejudice, older people are compelled to retire even though they still feel fit to continue working. Ageism is associated with various stereotypes about older people. There is no particular truth associated with stereotypes and ageism. For instance, when a person makes a remark such as, He drives like a little old lady, they are making a stereotype that may not have reasonable truth. While it may be true for an elderly lady to do most of her things slowly, there are others that do not have issues with speed. In fact, they may be faster than most of people several years younger (Nelson, 2004). Scientists have proved that the peak of ones physical strength as well as endurance is attained during the twenties. Thereafter, a decline ensues though at different rates depending on individuals. When one attains the late adulthood age, diverse physiological alterations may occur. Additionally, some level of brain atrophy may occur coupled with decreased neural process rates. Other numerous body changes such as decreased efficiency of the circulatory and respiratory rates and change of the gastrointestinal system occur during old age and they have profound impacts. Similarly, diminish of the bone mass particularly on women may lead to complications like osteoporosis. Other myths and stereotypes on aging include the believe that older people are senile, that the five senses are repressed during old age, that older people have no capacity and interest in sex, that most older people have a feeling of misery most often, that about 10% of aged live in long-stay institutions, that there is tendency towards being religious during old age, that old people are poor learners and during old age illnesses are bound to increase. The number of myths and stereotypes is somewhat inexhaustible. However, the fact is that these myths do not apply on all old people (Nelson, 2004). The concept of death dying Death and dying during different levels of human development have diverse views. Immense interest has always been associated with death and dying (Corr Nabe, 2005). Innumerable views have been given by different people on the concept of death and dying. However, the society has played a central role in shaping the perceptions of the people towards death and dying during different stages of human development. From time to time, there have been changing attitudes about death. Besides the usual attitude of fear concerning death, other attitudes have emerged in the recent times. During the process of human development, changes occur on the view of death and dying. For instance, during birth, one does not have an idea of what death is. However, this changes as one advance in age. Similarly, views concerning death are varied during different stages of human development. For instance, death of a child may be regarded very inappropriate due to the loss of an unexploited human being (Corr N abe, 2005). Similarly, if one dies during the Middle Ages, it may be regarded as an intense loss due to the resources used on the person who does not benefit the society. Finally, when a person dies during old age, it may not be regarded as intense as the society has derived some benefits from them. Different cultures have varied views about death and dying. According to philosophers, understanding the reality of death and the impacts on mans life; comprehension of the fears associated with death, enables people to live their lives fully. However, the American society does not believe in the reality of death; leading to confusion among people on issues of death. During the medieval days, people are said to have had a natural approach on death. This is contrary to the todays technology age where the western people have been separated from the reality of their biology. Consequently, there has been an obscurity of death realities. Different cultural perspectives about death and dying relate to care accorded to the dead, the life after and body disposal (Corr Nabe, 2005). There are rituals performed during these times depending on culture such as cremation as in Hindu, sky burial as in Tibet and mummification in other cultures. Conclusion Humans go through various stages during their lifetime. Various developments are attained before old age. Old age can be made more interesting though maintenance of proper focus on health and wellness. Myths and stereotypes about old age lead to prejudice on the old. Cultural variability has led to diversity on concepts of death and dying.

Vietnam :: essays research papers

The United States of America prides itself as the self proclaimed leader of the free world. Since the end of World War II the United States has chosen to use force in order to insure this so called "freedom" of other less fortunate nations who do not have the ability to defend themselves. According to the United States these infieor nations "freedom," has been in jeopardy since the beging of the cold war. Webster’s dictionary defines a democracy as a government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Since the start of the cold war, the United States has undertaken the policy that if you are not a democracy than you are not truly free. *~The government wants use to think that a democracy is pure and good where as a communist society is corrupt and harmful. The fact remains both a forms governments to control the inhabitants and to lead them so that their life might become better.~* The United States gives its citizens the right to periodicly elect their leaders. When the United States entered Vietnam after the French lost the war in 1954, why did it feel, it was necessary to choose to fight the Ho Chi Men lead communists, without even allowing the Vietnamese people a chance to elect their own leader under a free parlimentory electoral system. The Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 Robert McNamara saw the Vietnam conflict escalate from 100 American advisors in 1961 to over 275,000 troops during the time of his departure. Vietnam was caught in a revolution, not unlike the civil war, split in two, north versus south. The battle lines where drawn, the 17th parellel the boundry, the communist state split to the north and a democratic state to the south. However, Southeast Asia was considored one of the most sensitive places at this time durning the cold war. Therfore North Vietnam’s communist neighb ors’ China and Russia, both supplied Ho Chi Men forces. While the south was backed by the United States(which had been funding the war effort since the French conflict). McNamara’s memoirs In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam describes his powerful position in the Cabinet under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. According to McNamara, the United States policy towards Southeast Asia was defined when President Eisenhower delivered his now famous, and "widely publized" 1956 speech.

Modernism Essay -- Comparative Literature Essays Papers

Modernism Modernism is defined in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary as "a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression." While this explanation does relate what modernism means, the intricacies of the term go much deeper. Modernism began around 1890 and waned around 1922. Virginia Wolf once wrote, "In or about December, 1910, human character changed." (Hurt and Wilkie 1443). D.H. Lawrence wrote a similar statement about 1915: "It was 1915 the old world ended." (Hurt and Wilkie 1444). The importance of the exact dates of the Modernist period are not so relevant as the fact that new ideas were implemented in the era. Ideas that had never before been approached in the world of literature suddenly began emerging in the works of many great authors. Two of the pioneer Modernist writers were Joseph Conrad and T.S. Eliot. The tendencies to question the incontestable beliefs embedded in all thinking and to focus on the inner self dominated. Old viewpoints were tossed aside to make way for the discovery of modern man's personal spirituality. Two works that are considered important forbears in the Modern period are T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. One attribute of Modernist writing is Experimentation. This called for using new techniques and disregarding the old. Previous writing was often even considered "stereotyped and inadequate" (Holcombe and Torres). Modern writers thrived on originality and honesty to themselves and their tenets. They wrote of things that had never been advanced before and their subjects were far from those of the past eras. It could be observed that the Modernist writing completely contradicted its predecessors. The past was rejected with vigor and... ...hing, 1971. 37-66. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Cox, C.B. Joseph Conrad: The Modern Imagination. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1974. Eliot, T.S. Collected Poems. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1936. Holcomb, John, and Patricia Torres. "Modernism in Literature". 2002. LitLangs. 6 September 2003 . Hurt, James, and Brian Wilkie. Literature of the Western World Volume II Neoclassicism Through the Modern Period. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Monroe, Harriet. "A Contrast". Poetry A Magazine of Verse XXI (1923): 325-330. Rpt. in Studies in A Waste Land. Ed. Matthew Bruccoli and Joseph Katz. Columbus: Merrill Publishing, 1971. 19-22. Smith, Grover JR. T.S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1956.

Descriptive Essay - The Local Golf Course -- Observation Essays, Descri

Our town is notable for having several interesting golf courses. For those residents whose interests lie in other pursuits, those courses are a waste of large quantities of otherwise useful space that could be better used to construct another mall or store. For the golf enthusiasts among us, however, the preponderance of courses is a delightful benefit of living in this otherwise uninteresting locale, where the only saving grace is the plentiful supply of interesting people. The golf course is an oasis of artificiality in a desert of flat land and unnatural colors. While the surrounding landscape is endlessly flat, with only the trees and buildings obstructing the planar geography, the golf course is a diverse landscape with hills, valleys, lakes and pits of sand flowing from one to an...

Deutche Bank

9-205-059 REV: APRIL 26, 2005 GEORGE CHACKO PETER HECHT VINCENT DESSAIN ANDERS SJOMAN Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades It was the third week of August 2003, and Jamil Baz, head of Deutsche Bank’s Fixed Income Research Group, gathered his research group for a morning meeting. â€Å"So, what are the markets telling us today? † he asked the group. â€Å"Are there any trends or news for new trade ideas? † The Fixed Income Research Group that Baz led was Deutsche Bank’s internal research and development (R&D) department for fixed income instruments.Their mandate was to look for untapped value across bond markets and interest rate derivatives. Long-term-oriented research findings were presented to clients, whereas immediate opportunities were suggested as trades to internal traders as well as clients. The success of the group was in part measured by how many of their trade suggestions actually turned into successful trades. So far, they had achieved an impressive 75% success rate. A natural place to start looking for new trades was the latest prices on various U.S. Treasury bonds (see Exhibit 1 for data from August 15, 2003). The group’s members consistently went through that data set, looking for possible trades to recommend. Typically relative-value trades took both long and short positions across different parts of the yield curve. Baz’s standard weekly question just emphasized what they all knew: that it was time to scour through the numbers one more time to see if any such positions were available. The Deutsche Bank Fixed Income Research GroupHeadquartered in Deutsche Bank’s London office, the company’s Fixed Income Research Group consisted of about 50 analysts and strategists. (An additional 10 were located in the bank’s New York offices. ) Global head of Fixed Income Research and in charge of the group was Baz, a managing director with Deutsche Bank since 2001. Previously at Lehman Brot hers in London, Baz also held an M. S. in management from MIT and a Ph. D. in business economics from Harvard University. As a part of a large financial institution, the research group was under constant pressure to monetize the ideas that they generated.The group presented its findings both internally to the ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professors George Chacko and Peter Hecht, Executive Director of the HBS Europe Research Center Vincent Dessain, and Research Associate Anders Sjoman prepared this case. This case deals with trade-specific advice activities of a research department and draws heavily from â€Å"Deutsche Bank: Discussing the Equity Risk Premium,â€Å" HBS Case No. 205-040, by the same authors. Case No. 205-040 deals with macro-level advice from the same research department.Some names and data have been disguised for confidentiality. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for clas s discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. This case is not intended as financial advice, and it should not be used as the basis for any investment decision, in whole or in part. Copyright  © 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. bsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 205-059 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades Deutsche Bank traders, as well as externally to Deutsche Bank clients at the CEO, CFO, and Treasury level. Baz explained how the ideas were pitched: The final goal is to create a franchise with fixed income clients.So, for clients on the asset side, such as mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance companies, and pension plans, we help them generate high returns on their assets. We give specific ideas to be executed by the clients—hopefully with us, although that is never certain. However, even if we don’t get a trade out of our recommendation, it is important enough that we maintain Deutsche Bank’s presence at the client. Sometimes we also do bespoke—or customized—work, where we analyze their balance sheet and asset-liability mismatches for them, almost like technical financial consulting.In general, research alone will not give us clients, but research combined with pricing are the keys to building long-lasting relationships with external clients. Overall, we strive to push the frontiers of analytical finance when it comes to modeling interest rates, volatilities, and spreads. Owing to data avail ability and an intimate exposure to institutional market realities, we are often pushed to reach results ahead of academic finance journals. On a group level, Deutsche Bank organized its fixed income activities in the global markets around three main pillars: investor coverage, issuer coverage, and research.The trading desks dealing in these areas were in turn divided into two groups: credit (with credit trading/credit derivatives, new issue syndicate, asset securitization, and emerging markets) and rates (with foreign exchange, money markets, fixed income, and interest rate derivatives). The research efforts of the group were set up to match these organizational divisions. The Fixed Income Research Group was one of several research groups (as shown in Exhibit 2). All these groups were run under the banner of Global Markets Research.Research as a whole was headed by David Folkerts-Landau. Demand for direct meetings with Deutsche Bank’s research groups had grown over the past few years, taken internally as a sign of increased respect for the bank’s research output. In the last year, Baz’s group alone had logged over 1,500 client meetings. All clients had access to the Deutsche Bank research in papers and newsletters that were available online. Internal traders also benefited from the research, which was a major influence behind much of the bank’s proprietary—or â€Å"prop†Ã¢â‚¬â€trading.Most members of the research group shared their time between external clients and traders, with more senior staff members working more with external clients and less with the trading floor. In the end, measuring the research group’s value to the organization was still difficult. Said Baz: Putting a value on the work we do, and the effect we have on the bank, is very hard. In fact, if you were to really measure it by attributing sales and trades back to us, the trading floor would be more reluctant to work with us. Instead, we are mostly evaluated by top management on three other factors.Firstly, overall market direction, which is how much of rate and spread moves did we catch in our advice. Secondly, the relative-value trades we originated. Thirdly, any customized business we have brought in from our client meetings. Compensation to the members of the group was tied to the evaluation of the group as a whole. Individual bonuses were then given at the discretion of Baz as the group’s manager, based on his qualitative impression of each member’s contribution. 2 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades 205-059 Strategic Advice and Relative-Value ActivitiesThe group’s activities were normally broken down into strategic advice on macro trends and relative value. The strategic advice activities built on long-term discussions with clients, where the group presented Deutsche Bank’s view on macroeconomic trends to external clients. In these discussions, George Cooper, the group’ s global fixed income strategist, typically did not expect a quick monetary return. Cooper, a Ph. D. graduate in engineering at Durham University with experience from both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, explained: This type of activity does not generate a lot of money from a trade perspective.It generates brand value, though, and is especially appealing to insurance companies or asset-liability people, who appreciate the long-term view. We believe it serves more of an educational purpose. It gets the fund managers thinking. They are not looking for prescriptive research, where we tell them to â€Å"do this trade,† but they look for interesting ideas. Of course, they then weigh our ideas against whatever Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley are saying. Our role is to come up with hopefully insightful but also informative new ways to look at things.By contrast, the relative-value activities looked for more immediate opportunities by comparing different instruments and then recommendin g various trading strategies to clients and internal traders. Head of Relative Value Research for Europe was Jean Dumas, an engineer from ESME SUDRIA in France with a specialization in finance, who had worked with Relative Value Research for Deutsche Bank in Paris, Frankfurt, and Sydney before moving to London. Dumas explained his work: We come up with different types of trades all the time.The trade opportunities may be there for a week or two, sometimes longer. I look at different spreadsheets, listen to what traders are saying, watch the news, study different models. . . . Then I try to put everything together—and suddenly there is a trade opportunity. Our job is really grabbing things that don’t seem to be related at first and see if there is a trade to be done. The trade opportunities that the research group identified were published weekly in the newsletter â€Å"Deutsche Bank Fixed Income Weekly,† which was distributed to Deutsche Bank traders as well as to clients.A frequent contributor to the newsletter was Dr. Nikan B. Firoozye, head of Global Quantitative Strategies and a Ph. D. graduate in mathematics from Courant Institute at New York University with experience from Alliance Capital, Sanford C. Bernstein, and Lehman Brothers. Firoozye explained: I write a piece on Euroland strategy every week where we suggest trades. Some of these are big trades that we don’t change very often, such as curve-steepening trades. We can have the same trade off and on for a full year. We also summarize economic data as it impacts the bond markets.For instance, how structured trades could be influenced by the move in dollar versus yen, and how you should position for that. In his role as head of Euroland Strategy, Firoozye also oversaw all strategic investments in Euroland bond markets. He was also involved in all modeling issues and wrote stand-alone papers on quantitative strategy. Looking for a Relative-Value Trade For the research group, one way to find relative-value trades was to compare the prices of traded securities against the prices that the group thought the securities should trade at. This subjective view 205-059 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades was based on a proprietary model developed at Deutsche Bank. (Most banks used proprietary models as a base from which to evaluate the prices of traded securities. ) The models were built on the fact that the returns offered by fixed income instruments could be characterized by the yields that they offered. The yield was roughly seen as compensation for the risk borne by the holder of that security. There were many sources of risk in fixed income securities, such as interest rate risk, credit risk, and prepayment risk.Also, the yield of an instrument could be broken down into components. The components could be thought of as compensation for the different sources of risk. So, for example, the yield on a corporate bond could be thought of as being compose d of a risk-free yield plus a credit spread. The risk-free yield represented compensation for interest rate risk in the bond, while the credit spread represented compensation for default risk in the bond. 1 To understand the compensation for the interest rate risk alone, banks typically constructed â€Å"yield-curve models. These were models for the yields on zero-coupon Treasury securities, since Treasury instruments typically contained only interest rate risk. Models for the yield curve could be then used to compare the current and expected prices of U. S. Treasury instruments. 2 The research group at Deutsche Bank had developed their own proprietary yield-curve model, a so-called three-factor affine model (see Exhibit 3 for a conceptual description of the model). Firoozye explained the fundaments of the model: We have three factors driving the yield curve that we see as analogous to the economy.In an economy, there is inflation, output gaps, and short rates. So first among our f actors is a long rate, which is analogous to inflation. It is the slowest mean reverting of our three factors. In the fifties inflation was low, in the seventies it was extremely high, and now it is back down again. It takes 20 years to go through its cycle. It is very slow, very persistent, whereas the business cycle is much, much faster. You go through a business cycle in about seven years. So slope, our second factor, is then the measure of output gap. Slope mean reverts much more quickly than inflation.The third factor is the short rate, which mean reverts the fastest. After estimating the variables of the three-factor model, the team calibrated the model to price the one-month, two-year, and 10-year zero-coupon bond. After Baz’s request at the weekly meeting, the analysts now used the latest numbers on various U. S. Treasury bonds to update and calibrate the model (see Exhibit 4 for the resulting output from Deutsche Bank’s model). The idea was to then compare the actual zero-coupon yield curve against the predicted ones coming out of the model and see if any trade ideas presented themselves.In fact, several trades seemed to come out of that comparison. Baz and the team now had to pick the trades with the highest profit potential. 1 It should be noted that the notion of compensation here is approximate. The yield on a zero-coupon corporate bond is not the expected return of that bond. It is simply the promised return of that bond, or the return an investor would get if the bond did not default. Starting with this promised return and then factoring in the probability of default and a default risk premium leads to the expected return for that bond. More generally, yield-curve models could be used to price any interest rate-sensitive security. For example, the pricing of interest rate options starts with a yield-curve model. 4 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades 205-059 Exhibit 1 Prices and Coupon Rates of Various U. S. Treasury Bonds on August 15, 2003 Coupon Rate (%) 3 2. 125 1. 5 6. 5 5. 625 2. 375 6. 25 3. 25 3 3. 25 5. 5 6 6. 5 5. 75 5 5 4. 875 4. 375 3. 875 4. 25 13. 25 12. 5 11. 25 10. 625 9. 25 7. 5 8. 75 8. 875 9. 125 9 8. 875 8. 125 8. 5 8. 75 7. 875 8. 25 8 7. 25 7. 125 6. 25 7. 5 7. 5 7. 625 6. 875 6 6. 75 6. 625 6. 375 6. 125 5. 5 5. 25 6. 125 Maturity Date 2/15/2004 8/15/2004 2/15/2005 8/15/2005 2/15/2006 8/15/2006 2/15/2007 8/15/2007 2/15/2008 8/15/2008 2/15/2009 8/15/2009 2/15/2010 8/15/2010 2/15/2011 8/15/2011 2/15/2012 8/15/2012 2/15/2013 8/15/2013 2/15/2014 8/15/2014 2/15/2015 8/15/2015 2/15/2016 8/15/2016 2/15/2017 8/15/2017 2/15/2018 8/15/2018 2/15/2019 8/15/2019 2/15/2020 8/15/2020 2/15/2021 8/15/2021 2/15/2022 8/15/2022 2/15/2023 8/15/2023 2/15/2024 8/15/2024 2/15/2025 /15/2025 2/15/2026 8/15/2026 2/15/2027 8/15/2027 2/15/2028 8/15/2028 2/15/2029 8/15/2029 Current Price 101. 0544 100. 9254 99. 8942 109. 0934 108. 438 99. 7848 111. 7184 101. 0841 99. 1692 99. 271 109. 7707 112. 145 114. 9084 110. 3894 105. 2934 104. 7607 103. 4391 99. 2806 95. 0288 97. 7693 174. 3251 168. 9389 157. 0552 152. 4222 140. 0135 123. 3044 136. 0598 137. 504 140. 792 139. 9079 138. 7431 130. 7162 135. 2938 138. 3466 128. 4995 131. 7341 130. 4736 121. 58 120. 1744 109. 4538 125. 46 125. 4466 127. 1477 117. 5509 106. 3626 116. 1986 114. 7086 111. 036 108. 0391 99. 633 96. 2876 108. 4062 Source: Adapted by casewriter from Datastream. 5 205-059 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades Exhibit 2 Deutsche Bank Global Markets Research Organization Global Head COO and Co-Head Global Economics Global Strategist Foreign Exchange Securitization Index Development Regional Heads – Asia/ Pacific – Germany Strategy – Fixed Income/ Relative Value Research – Emerging Markets – Credit Credit (High Grade Credit Research) Economics – Global – US – Europe – Emerging Markets Source: Deutsche Bank. Exhibit 3 †¢ †¢ †¢Deutsche Bank†™s Zero-Coupon Yield Model Key variables: Short rate, slope, and long rate (or short rate, output gap, and inflation) Model specified by a system of equations (in Q measure) Long rate mean reverts slowly (possibly to nonzero mean) dX t= (  µ X ? k X X t) dt + ? X dWt X †¢ Slope mean reverts faster (to zero) dYt = ? kY Yt dt + ? Y dWt Y †¢ X t + Yt ? rt = 0 †¢ In equilibrium short rate, rt, follows the target Xt+Yt (an analogue of the Taylor rule) Short rate mean reverts fast in order to restore the equilibrium drt = k r ( X t + Yt ? rt ) dt + ? r dWt rSource: Adapted by casewriter from â€Å"Quantitative Models for Fixed Income,† Deutsche Bank presentation, October 2003. 6 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades 205-059 Exhibit 4 Output from Deutsche Bank’s Zero-Coupon Yield Model Model Prediction (BEY) 1. 2443% 1. 8727% 2. 4110% 2. 9665% 3. 4454% 3. 8557% 4. 1996% 4. 4677% 4. 6528% 4. 7107% 5. 7160% 5. 9517% 5. 9315% Maturity (years) 1y 2y 3y 4 y 5y 6y 7y 8y 9y 10y 15y 20y 25y Source: Note: Adapted by casewriters from Deutsche Bank information. The yields in this table are bond equivalent yields (BEY), that is, the semiannual yield multiplied by two. 7

Gambling among Adolescents in North America Essay

Lottery, card games, sports betting and money wagers. These are a few kinds of gambling that adults engage in; however, the youth of today are also found to be gambling more than adults (Derevensky & Gupta, 2002; Huang & Boyer, 2007). According to Derevensky & Gupta (2002), there is an alarmingly high percentage of children and adolescents engaged in gambling activities. In a long-term analysis between 1984 to 1999, it was found that the prevalence of youth gambling in North America increased from 45% to 66% and that the proportion of the youth who have serious gambling-related problems have increased as well from 10% to 15% in the same time period (Huang & Boyer, 2007). In the past 25 years in the United States and Canada, it has been found that the youth is significantly associated with gambling-related problems; the percentage of youth classified under the Sub-clinical or problem gambling (Level 2) and the pathological gambling (Level 3) were at 14. 6% and 4. 8% respectively in 2006, which is more than twice of the adults who only have a percentage of 2. 5% and 1. 5% each (ibid). Among the youth, it has also been found that more young men gamble more than women and they are also identified to be problem gamblers than young women and even among adults (Huang & Boyer, 2007). In North America today, approximately 80% of adolescents have participated in some form of gambling for money within in their lifetime (Felsher, Derevensky & Gupta, 2003; Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). This is an alarming rate. The number of youth who are engaged in adolescent gambling is higher today more than ever before and it is starting to become a serious public health issue that many nations, especially the United States and Canada, are trying to address (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). Considerable research by psychologist and sociologists are being conducted regarding this problem. This paper will identify the causes of adolescent gambling, its consequences and what psychologists and the government are doing to treat this issue. Causes of Adolescent Gambling The availability and accessibility of gambling increased progressively in the United States and Canada from 1984-1999, which was also the time that an increase in youth gambling also occurred (Derevensky & Gupta, 2002). This increase in youth gambling has been attributed to the support of the two governments in the lucrative gambling industry. Political economy theories of Sauer maintain that this is due to the need for revenue generation of the large governments (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). The youth have become exposed to numerous gambling establishments, directly and indirectly (Felsher et al, 2003). The widespread legalization of the different kinds of gambling in North America has greatly exposed the youth to the addictive game (ibid; Huang & Boyer, 2007). Gambling has already become a â€Å"well-established recreational form of entertainment† (Felsher et al, 2003) and there is already an estimated 15. 3million adolescents in North America who have engaged in gambling activities and 2. 2 million of these are problem or pathological gamblers (Huang & Boyer, 2007). Among 12-17 year old Americans, 4%–8% of them are already pathological gamblers and another 10%–15% of the youth are at risk of developing a serious problem (Felsher et al. , 2003; Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). Adolescents gamble because they are tempted by the â€Å"lure of excitement, entertainment, and potential financial gain associated with gambling† (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). Increased exposure to gambling will teach the kids to gamble, and the social learning theory of Albert Bandura points out the role of observation and imitation in the acquisition and maintenance of socially desirable and undesirable characteristics (Felsher et al. , 2003). The increased exposure they have in gambling influences them to do the same. Family and friends are the primary reference groups, but it is the parents who have a stronger influence since they occur earlier than the peer group (ibid). The parents are observed to be having fun and adolescents surveyed said they gamble because their parents play for enjoyment and excitement, and it is the parents who play their children and engage them in gambling (ibid). In the social learning theory, there are six mechanisms identified that is involved in the development of gambling and these are: 1) affective states such as anxiety or depression; 2) cognitive distortions about gambling; 3) behavioral reinforcement schedules; 4) social and institutional determinants such as opportunity to gamble; 5) sub-cultural conditions like prevailing attitude towards gambling and values of the adolescent’s social context and reference groups (as seen in the preceding paragraph); and 6) internal fantasy relationships with personifications like the parents or â€Å"lady luck† (Upfold, 2007). Lottery is the most favored form of gambling by adolescents because of its ease of accessibility and the minimal amount of money required to participate in the draw (Felsher et al. , 2003). Parents purchase the lottery tickets and they include their children in their gambling activity by asking for their advice, such as what number/s they should pick, let them carry the money, fill in the lottery stubs, scratching the numbers, etc. (ibid). This observation and direct participation of gambling from significant reference groups, such as the parents, influences the youth’s participation in gambling activities (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). The parental acceptance of gambling as a recreational activity further encourages the youth to partake in it (Felsher et al. , 2003). Adolescents who gamble say that they have learned it from their parents. 15% of children made first bet with their parents and another 20% with other family members (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). Parents gamble in close proximity to their children and they have a poor understanding of the negative consequences that this will have on their child (ibid). The Cognitive-Behavioral Model, which is part of the social-learning theory, may explain this cause. The model is based on the principles of learning from imitation, observation, schedules of enforcement and cognition or how the youth would interpret and draw conclusions about the events around him or her (Upfold, 2007). They are enforced to gamble since the adolescents report that their parents are aware of their gambling and that they do not object to it; 50% of parents are aware and are not worried, disregarding the age of the child (Felsher et al. , 2003). 58. 5% of children in the study of Felsher et al. (2003) also say that they wager money with their parents, hence they are taught to gamble; some parents even purchase lottery tickets for their child’s behalf and it has been found that the more severe gambling a child is doing, the more tickets there are purchased by parents. Also, adolescents who were found to be regularly gambling report that they gamble with their family members and 40% say they do it with their parents (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). â€Å"Problem gambling is governed by a complex set of interrelating factors, causes, and determinants: biological, familial, behavioral, social, and environmental† (ibid). Under environmental, ease of access of online-gambling sites on the Internet is a new problem since the youth can easily access it and can be enticed by the visual appeals of Internet gambling (ibid). Another important reference point and part of the environmental factor which indirectly teaches gambling to children and reinforces it is the school. There are schools who promote gambling through fundraising activities including lottery, raffle draws, bingo, casino nights, and by permitting card playing within schools (ibid). Another explanation for causes of gambling is the Psychodynamic Model, which proposes that personal problems â€Å"lie within the psyche and are an attempt at self-healing or a strategy of resolving unconscious psychic conflicts†¦beyond voluntary control,† (Upfold, 2007), hence the individual continues to engage in gambling. There are three main components in this model and they are: 1) Gambling is an unconscious substitute for aggressive outlets; 2) Gambling involves an unconscious desire to lose- a wish to be punished in reaction to guilt; and 3) Gambling is a medium for continued enactment of psychological conflict (ibid). Adolescents do not engage in gambling for money but for excitement and enjoyment; through video lottery terminals, sports betting, cards, lotteries, bingo and other forms of gambling, adolescents with a gambling problem exhibit a number of dissociative behaviors such as escape into another world where they have altered egos (Derevensky & Gupta, 2002). Their personality traits that are correlated with risk-taking behavior such as excitable, extroverted, anxious and lower self-discipline show that they have poor coping and adaptive skills, so when they cannot cope with many hardships in their life or the stress of being a teenager, they gamble to â€Å"escape from the realities of daily life† (ibid). Gambling has been a way for adolescents who experience negative life events and use emotional-coping strategies to escape their problems, even if they have claimed to have social support from their peers (ibid; Bergevin, Gupta & Derevensky, 2006). The Trait Theory of Gambling is also part of the psychodynamic model and it show that there are certain personalities that is related to the problem of gambling such as depression, anti-social personality disorder- particularly for pathological gamblers, and narcissism- as seen in the compulsive gamblers (Upfold, 2007). Other identified risk factors that may lead to adolescent gambling include male gender, alcohol and drug use, deviant peers, family history of gambling, and impulsive behavior (Pietrzak, Ladd & Petry, 2003). Consequences of Adolescent Gambling The consequences of adolescent gambling are somewhat similar to that of adult gamblers; they not only affect themselves but society as a whole. Adolescent gambling does not only affect the individual adolescent but their families, peers, communities and health services (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). The consequences the adolescent gamblers face are widespread and affects their psychological, behavioral, legal, academic, family and interpersonal domains- they become delinquent, have poor academic performance, impair their academic performance or even drop out from school, disrupt their relationship with family and friends, and display criminal behavior (ibid). They face negative health, psychological, social, personal and financial consequences that is why gambling is becoming a public health issue (ibid). It has been found that there is a strong correlation between adolescent gambling and the increased likelihood to drink alcohol, smoke tobacco and use drugs (Hardoon, Gupta & Derevensky, 2004). Huang & Boyer (2007) also says that adolescent gamblers are more likely to experience psychiatric problems, especially substance use disorders. The common factors that lead to this among adolescents are low self-esteem, depression, suicidal thoughts, victim of abuse, poor school performance, history of delinquency, poor impulse control, being male, early onset of gambling, parental history of gambling, and community/family acceptance of gambling (ibid). This will greatly affect the future of the youth since all that they indulge in is gambling. They become dissociated from the real world and spend much of their time gambling that they do not get to develop themselves as individuals anymore. They become more susceptible to suicide ideation and attempts, they replace their old friends with their gambling associates and they have a higher risk to develop an addiction or poly addictions (Gupta & Derevensky, 2002). In the study of Felsher et al. (2003), they found that 94% of young male gamblers and 93% of young female gamblers are not afraid to get caught. This shows their lack of concern on what may happen to them if they are caught and this may also show the acceptance of their parents. Since parents and most institutions fail to recognize gambling as a serious problem or certain activities to be gambling (Derevensky and Gupta, 2002), the adolescents are at a higher risk to further develop their gambling addiction. The course of gambling varies from one individual to another; however, the social learning theory shows that since gambling behavior is acquired it can be thought of as a continuum or stages from problem-free gambling all the way to pathological gambling (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005; Upfold, 2007). Messerlian & Derevensky (2005) states that â€Å"as gambling escalates and one moves along the continuum of gambling risk, the negative outcomes begin to outweigh any potential benefits† and this is when they would start experiencing different kinds of impaired personal, health, financial and social consequences. Treatments to Adolescent Gambling The numerous psychosocial costs of gambling to the individual, his/her family and to the community shows that this is a problem that must be addressed and treated (Derevensky and Gupta, 2002). Some adolescents do not know that they have a gambling addiction or disorder and this prevents them from getting proper treatment (ibid) however, with the intervention of family, friends or event the school, the adolescent may get treated. There are several kinds of treatment for adolescents who are already problem or pathological gamblers. Before these are discussed, prevention models for gambling will be discussed first since prevention is better than cure. Government policies should be stricter regarding gambling, particularly On-line gambling since that is readily accessible to the youth. Public policies that can influence the social environment and minimize unhealthy gambling behavior such as â€Å"legislation on advertising and promotion, laws regulating minimum age-requirements and their enforcement, provision of programs for harm minimization, fiscal measures, and regulation of the availability of products† should be balanced with the economic gains of the gambling industry (Messerlian & Derevensky 2005). Other prevention models suggested by Derevensky & Gupta (2002) include the need for awareness of the problem; activities that increase knowledge on adolescent gambling; programs to help modify and change attitude that gambling is not harmless; teaching of effective coping and adaptive skills to prevent problematic gambling; changing inappropriate conceptions about skill and luck, the illusion of control and independence in gambling activities; and identification, assessment and referral of students who are indicative of being at risk to gambling problems. Psychosocial approaches are one of the methods used to treat pathological gambling and this for adults this includes Gamblers Anonymous (Pietrzak et al. , 2006). For the adolescents several youth groups have been formed such as youthbet. net in Canada and wannabet. org in the United States; these website are managed by youths and non-governmental organizations to offer assistance and collaboration to adolescents (Messerlian & Derevensky, 2005). Piertzak et al. (2006) found that cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and eclectic therapy have been helpful in reducing problematic gambling behaviors. CBT involves altering the inaccurate perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of adolescents about gambling. The eclectic therapy is the individual approach to treating gambling problems and consists of: detailed assessment, acceptance of the problem, development of effective coping skills, restructuring of free time, involvement of family and social supports, cognitive restructuring, establishment of debt payment plans and relapse prevention (ibid). The motivational enhancement therapy (MET) is also used and is based on the concept that behavior change occurs through identifiable stages: pre-contemplation, contemplation, action and maintenance (ibid). In this approach, the therapist is non-confrontational and elicits the adolescent’s understanding of the consequences of gambling and strengthens the commitment to change the ways of the individual; since it has a shorter duration that CBT and other therapies, MET is recommended for onset problems (ibid). A disease model is also sometimes used to treat gambling problems. In this approach, the compulsive gambler is made to embrace abstinence from gambling, to participate in self-help groups and to maintain abstinence by going through therapy to deal with previous or latent psychological problems (Upfold, 2007). There is also the Ecological Approach wherein gambling behavior is viewed from multiple perspectives and addresses the behavior from an individual and socio-environmental level where interventions are made at five levels that affects an individual to gamble: biological, familial, behavioral, social and environmental (Messerlian & Derevesnky, 2005). Internal and external factors cause an adolescent to gamble. Occasional gambling is harmless but once exposed to gambling especially at a young age, gambling problems may occur and develop into an addiction, which may affect the social, academic and personal life of the adolescent. Treatments vary such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, eclectic therapy, motivational-enhancement therapy and ecological approach; however, prevention of adolescent gambling is still the best and this can be done through increased awareness about the public health problem and stricter government policies regarding access of adolescents to gambling venues, especially online gambling. Bibliography Bergevin, T. , Gupta, R. and Derevensky, J. (2006). Adolescent gambling: Understanding the role of stress and coping. Journal of Gambling Studies, (22), 195-208. Derevensky, J. L. and Gupta, R. (2002). Youth gambling: A clinical and research perspective. The Electronic Journal of Gambling Issues. Retrieved April 9, 2008 from http://www. camh. net/egambling/issue2/feature/index. html Felsher, J. R. , Derevensky, J. L. , Gupta, R. (2003). Parental influences and social modelling of youth lottery participation. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 13: 361-377. Hardoon, K. K. , Gupta, R. and Derevensky, J. L. (2004). Psychosocial variables associated with adolescent gambling. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18 (2), 170 – 179. Huang, J. H. and Boyer, R.. (2007). Epidemiology of youth gambling problems in Canada: A national prevalence study. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 52 (10). Messerlian, C. and Derevensky, M. (2005). Youth gambling: A public health perspective. Journal of Gambling Issues (14). Pietrzak, R. H. , Ladd, G. T. and Petry, N. M. (2003). Disordered gambling in adolescents: Epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment. Pediatr Drugs, 5 (9), 583 – 592. Upfold, Darryl. (2007). An introduction to conceptual models of problem gambling. Center for Addiction and Mental Health. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www. problemgambling. ca/EN/ResourcesForProfessionals/Pages/AnIntroductiontoConceptualModelsofProblemGambling. aspx