The Corruption of Ambition free essay sample

The Corruption of Ambition The desire for some sort of vigorous achievement: the longing for power, wealth, honor, and fame push many people to do great deeds but can urge others to do murderous acts. Those who strive to do the unthinkable just to satisfy their ambition often create devastating disasters. William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar illustrates how ambition urges people to do atrocious deeds. The ambition Caesar carries lead the conspirators to question whether he is an absolute ruler; they fear that Caesar can potentially become a tyrant, so they plot to overthrow him.During the Lepercal festivities a soothsayer came to Caesar saying, â€Å"‘Beware the ides of March,’ [Caesar replies to all] ‘He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass’† (829). Caesar’s ambition to become the most powerful man he can be leads to him thinking nothing can happen to him because of his high status; making him ignorant. We will write a custom essay sample on The Corruption of Ambition or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Ignoring this warning is an example of how his ambition causes ignorance; his ignorance leads to his death. Later on, when Caesar sees Cassius, he says to Mark Anthony, â€Å"‘Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek headed men and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much; such men are dangerous’† (835). Caesar prefers sluggardly, healthy men that do not think much over those who are lean, hungry men that think too much; in other words Caesar prefers dumb men over smart men Saying that lean people who think too much are dangerous men is an example of how Caesar’s ambition can be tyrannical. After Caesar was offered the crown, Brutus asks Casca â€Å"‘Was the crown offered him thrice? ’ [Casca replies] ‘Ay, marry, was’t, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than the other; and at every putting by mine honest neighbors shouted’† (836).This could be interpreted as being an act of humility. However, the truth is that Caesar’s malicious ambition continues to be demonstrated each and every time he meditates on whether or not to put the crown down. If Caesar would have been offered the crown once more surely he would have acc epted; this would have resulted in a tyrant ruler. Ambition is the primary motivating factor for the conspirators to rise up and plot Caesar’s murder. Brutus has great ambition to do what he believes is just for the people of Rome; realizing Caesar can be a potential threat to this justice, Brutus joined the conspirators in their plot to kill Caesar.Alone, Brutus explains to himself why Caesar must die: â€Å"‘It must be by his death; and for my part I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general good’† (Act 2 Scene 1 Lines 10-12). Brutus will do what he believes is right for the people; even putting Caesar to death. The death of Caesar will bring an end to a possible tyrant and an end to any possible danger to the people. After Caesar’s murder, Brutus tells the people that the reason that he rose against Caesar was, â€Å"‘Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more’â€Å"(Act 3 Scene 2 Line 22).This exemplifies how Brutus’ ambition makes him an untrustworthy man by betraying Caesar. His great love for the people creates ambition in Brutus; urging himsel f to do anything for the good of the people of Rome. Continuing his speech, Brutus says, â€Å"‘As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. ’† (Act 3 Scene 2 lines 23-25) Brutus slays Caesar because he is ambitious without ever realizing he himself is ambitious. He dies believing he did what was right for the people.Although Brutus killed Caesar for the good of the common people, Cassius killed him because of his hatred and jealousy toward Caesar. The hatred and jealousy Cassius has for Caesar grows into ambition for his death. After a talk with Brutus, Cassius explains to himself how he will persuade Brutus to become part of the Conspirators, â€Å"‘I will this night, In several hands, in at his window throw, As if they came from several citizens, Writings, all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely Caesar’s ambition shall be glanced at’† (Act 1 Scene 2 lines 11-16).By persuading Brutus to become part of the conspirators, Cassius would have a very honorable man supporting them. The people of Rome would see that Brutus is on the conspirator’s side and they also would be in favor of Caesar’s death. Speaking on the injustice of what is Caesar, Cassius tells Brutus, â€Å"‘Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves’† (833). The jealousy that possesses Cassius exemplifies his ambition to be equal to Caesar.The ambition within Cassius drives him to expose to Brutus the unrighteous side of Caesar; Cassius does this because he wants Brutus to join the conspirators in their plot to kill Caesar. Cassius continues a speech he hopes will push Brutus in the conspiracy: â€Å"‘Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves, that we are underlings’† (833). Brutus was ultimately swayed into pursuing the murder of Caesar; it was all in the apparent na me of justice. However, the truth again, lay in the evil and self serving ambition exemplified throughout Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Truly the many atrocious deeds demonstrated in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are caused by the corruption of ambition. As ambition grows, the earnest desire for an achievement, honor, wealth, and power becomes a highly motivating factor in oneself. As Rebecca Miller once said â€Å"Ambition can be a disease, and it feeds on itself. †

College-Essay Websites Get a Failing Grade

College-Essay Websites Get a Failing Grade College-Essay Websites Get a Failing Grade College-Essay Websites Get a Failing Grade By Mark Nichol Just for fun, I recently searched online for websites that sell academic essays, with the intention of evaluating the quality of their product. Immediately, however, I found I could judge these providers just by their marketing content and most of them failed the test. College-essay services have been around for decades. I recall that when I was editor of my college newspaper pre-Internet we ran a classified ad for one; to my lasting shame, it never occurred to me to buy an essay and write an investigative article about such services. (They’ve long since migrated from the ghetto of the college-newspaper classifieds to the pleasant, professional-looking facade of the Web.) I examined the sites for the first five college-essay services that came up in my search using the simple term â€Å"essays.† (Most of the returns for this very general search parameter are for college-essay sites.) I was amused to find out that though most providers doth protest too much that they merely provide essays as research material or to model good essay writing, some blatantly admit that they offer essays for plagiaristic purposes to college (and high school) students who don’t have the time or the motivation to, you know, actually fulfill their academic responsibilities. Even more amusing was to find out that most of the sites, in the critical area of introducing themselves to potential customers, chose to hire laughably low-bid writers to craft SEO-friendly home page copy describing their services. Of the five sites I visited, three of them have marketing content obviously written by someone for whom English is not a native language; each of these overtures is awful. A fourth site has competently written content but inspires no more confidence about the quality of the product, and a fifth, which has no home page welcome but does feature a FAQ page, includes thereon inspirational quotes from Albert Einstein and Anis Nin (and â€Å"the Danish proverb† there’s only one Danish proverb?) and displays problematic punctuation and occasional grammatical infelicities: For example, in describing one category of essays (some are available free but are frankly flagged as not being especially well written), the site declared, â€Å"Do not fear errors in this research, there are none.† (But that sentence features a comma splice.) I did, in fact, peek at a couple of essays, including one titled â€Å"Why Would You Want to Watch Sex in the City?† (The site also offered, in a category labeled Miscellaneous, â€Å"Best Man Toasts,† â€Å"Eulogies,† and â€Å"Wedding Speeches† and, oh, yeah, â€Å"College Admissions Essays.†) Let’s just say that free isn’t a good enough deal; these sites should pay me for the pain and suffering endured while reading samples of their inventory. College-essay websites, despite the questionable quality of their products actually, there’s no question will continue to flourish and thrive for as long as students take ethical shortcuts, but there are plenty of other options for those in the target market who might feel the nagging tug of conscience. Most colleges (and many high schools) offer resources for students seeking assistance in essay writing. We have also covered this topic in the past, so search the site to find related posts. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Classes and Types of PhrasesCapitalization Rules for the Names of GamesHow often is "bimonthly"?

Balanced Scorecard

Since the Market downturn in October 2007, a challenging set of economic events has been rocking the financial services industry and AXA equitable has since experienced major changes to keep the company competitive. A well-developed balanced scorecard is what AXA Equitable needs in order to remain a worldwide leader in the financial services industry. In the past, management have believed that the factors critical to the success of a company were based solely upon financial measures; this is why the Balanced scorecard was developed. The BSC has gained increasing popularity as an effective management tool that aligns employee actions and goals with corporate strategy since first being introduced in 1992 (Davis Albright, 2004). Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton proposed the balanced scorecard (BSC). The Balanced scorecard is a widely recognized tool to support decision making at the strategic management level which improves the satisfaction of the strategic objectives (Kaplan Norton, 1992). The BSC provides feedback on internal business processes, performance, and market conditions in order to review the trategy and future plans and  Large U. S. companies, such as General Electric and Federal Express, and non-profit and public organizations have implemented the BSC approach (Creamer Freun, 2010). According to the module, â€Å"financial measures are inadequate, however, for guiding and evaluating the journey that information age companies must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation (Baltzan, Phillips, Haag 2010). The balanced scorecard deals with a proposed model that embraces both financial and non-financial aspects to measure performance of an organization in the financial services industry (Wu, Tzeng, Chen, 2009). The  balanced scorecard[pic](BSC) is a multi-criteria evaluation concept that highlights the importance of performance measurement, and it recognizes that performance measurement should be incorporated in both of financial and non-financial measures; it captures not only a firm’s current performance but also the drivers of its future performance (Tseng, 2010). The balanced scorecard would be a positive force for AXA Equitable as it is a vital part of an overall strategy to become and remain an industry leader. Since times can be unsettling and while no company is immune from the challenges of a volatile market, management should strive to identify the factors that are critical to the success of the company. AXA Equitable needs to implement the measures listed on the balanced scorecard to achieve the company’s critical success factors. This will strengthen the company and continually improve AXA Equitable’s ability to manage through turbulent market conditions when necessary. The Balanced scorecard has four main parts. The balanced scorecard is developed along the four well-known perspectives of Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process, and Learning and Growth Performance, which, at any point in time of measurement, characterize the current status and future potential of organizations (Craig Moores, 2010). The financial perspective includes the measure of an organizations financial performance. For instance, it measures revenue growth, shareholder’s value, assets under management, and cash flow. This perspective links the company to its shareholders with main attention to the question: â€Å"How do we look to our shareholders and those with a financial interest in the organization? † Financial goals include achieving profitability, maintaining liquidity and solvency both short term as well as long-term, growth in sales turnover and maximizing wealth of shareholders (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The customer perspective includes the measure of an organizations market share, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer referrals and value added activities. This is the second external oriented perspective that takes a look at the organization’s customers, who are the crucial factor for financial success generating revenue by buying products and services. The question is: â€Å"How do our customers perceive us in term of products, services, relationships and value-added? † (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The internal process perspective includes the measure of an organizations productivity, research and development, customer complaints and returns, and operational speed. This Measure focuses on the internal processes that will have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction and achieving an organization’s financial objectives. Firms should decide what processes and competencies they must excel at and specify measures for each of them (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The learning and growth perspective includes the measure of an organizations turnover ratio, hiring goals, education and training of new and existing employees, and number of new and improved products or services. This perspective identifies the infrastructure that the organization must build to create long-term growth and improvement. Intense global competition requires that organizations continually improve their capabilities for delivering value to customers and shareholders. Thus the question remains: â€Å"To achieve our future vision, how will we continue to improve and create future value for our stakeholders? † (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). The best way to measure AXA Equitable’s financial performance is the shareholders value. This shows the value that the shareholders perceive AXA Equitable to be worth. There is strong evidence that the balanced scorecard is an effective strategic management tool that leads to improved shareholder returns (Crabtree DeBusk, 2008). The primary objective of management should be maximizing its shareholder’s value. Since the turbulent economy, AXA Equitable shareholder value is back on the up rise again. This can be seen with the stock price. AXA Equitable stocks, just like most other companies, were not immune to the highly volatile market conditions; However with the market getting back together, the stock price is gradually rising again. The management decisions at AXA should be geared towards maximizing the wealth of AXA Equitable shareholders, which means increasing the value of shares owned by existing shareholders. A good measure of AXA Equitable’s superiority over its competition would be the ability to generate consistent and high total returns that it gives to its shareholders over time. Major company issues will exist with AXA Equitable if management interests are not aligned with those of shareholders. When managers pursue self-serving behavior rather than the maximization of shareholder wealth, several symptoms may become apparent: low stock returns, below-average operating performance, and suboptimal investment decisions. The likelihood of company problems is higher when managerial incentive systems do not coincide with shareholder wealth maximization (Manry Stangeland 2003). It is very important that AXA Equitable management put the interest of the shareholders first. Research suggests that firms with management that pursues its own interests at the expense of shareholders will perform comparatively worse than firms with management whose interests are aligned with shareholders (Manry Stangeland 2003). When a company like AXA Equitable is able to generate wealth for its shareholders year after year, it is able to differentiate itself from the competition and creates better value for its shareholders. Investors who purchase AXA Equitable shares hope that the returns they get on their investments would be higher than what they could get from putting those funds in a risk-free savings account. This shows that the investors are definitely willing to tolerate more risk of ownership in AXA Equitable because of the chance of making higher returns. Assets under management are a measure of the total market value of client assets with the company. AXA as a whole has 1. 46 trillion dollars in assets under management, making it the 13th largest company in the world. One of the biggest advantages of having assets under management as a critical success factor on the balanced scorecard is that focus on increasing the total value of assets under AXA demands continuous efforts and improvement by the management and employees of AXA. This financial measure is not only obvious to AXA management and employees but also those outside the company, i. e. the public. Ranking organization like Fortune 500, use the figures for assets under management as a financial success measure to rank companies against their competition and industries. Constantly increasing the sale of financial products or services is a very important aspect of a company especially one in the financial services industry. AXA Equitable offers a wide range of financial products and services like fixed income investments, equity investments, individual retirement accounts, education planning accounts, life disability insurance and annuities to its clients. The products or services is used to address their needs and help shape their financial futures. The sale of AXA Equitable’s financial products or services is crucial in measuring the financial success of the company. The product or services sale is exactly how the company makes money and becomes profitable. Employees of AXA Equitable earn production credits after each sale of its products or services. Production Credits are the total amount of compensation that AXA Equitable pays to its employees in form of commission for the sale of its products or services. The total amount of production credits earned by each employee is the best way AXA uses to measure employee performance. The Production credits can also serve as a measure of financial performance that AXA Equitable uses as a requirement for other benefits other than commission for its employees. Benefits such as medical plan eligibility, stock options, stocks appreciation rights, AXA Share plan and AXA Equitable Advantage. AXA Equitable should strive for consistent and positive investment results for its investment portfolios. This is very important to a company that deals with attracting new prospects and retaining existing clients. An AXA Equitable client, for example, with a portfolio with poor investment results will not remain with the company if that client can get better results with other financial companies outside of AXA Equitable. AXA Equitable financial advisors manage the managers. Portfolio managers manage the investment portfolios and financial products inside AXA Equitable. Those managers are in turn, managed by the financial advisors that make these investment portfolios available to the clients. The portfolio managers are responsible for picking the equities and bonds available in each portfolio, making changes and the investment results for the portfolios they handle. Clients can benefit from a professional allocated portfolio of AXA Equitable funds that delivers automatic diversification, risk management benefits, quarterly rebalancing, and consistent investment results. The customer perspective section of he balanced scorecard cannot be effective if customer satisfaction is not the number one focus. The first and most important rule for any company in the financial services industry is that the client is of the utmost priority. Financial advisors should learn to put the interest of their clients first before any other interests. Companies in a service industry should understand that customer satisfaction is a great measure of performance. Banks and other companies that deal with providing financial services to the public must first put more emphasis on customer satisfaction, and then on financial return. These companies must ensure that their customers remain loyal to them and develop new markets to attract new customers (Wu, Tzeng, Chen, 2009). A crucial part of maintaining client satisfaction is understanding the clients and their needs. AXA Equitable and its advisors are responsible for making financial recommendations and providing its clients with financial products and services, and financial education to address their needs and help the clients create the retirement of their dreams. AXA Equitable should take sending out client satisfaction surveys to every client on the anniversary date of purchasing a financial product or service very seriously. This Client Satisfaction Index survey is a true measure of customer satisfaction and has helped the company identify the key drivers of client satisfaction. AXA Equitable uses this survey to get client feedback on their financial products and the level of service that their advisors showed the client throughout the year. Value added activity is an important way a company can separate itself from the competition. Companies in the financial services industry primarily offer financial products or services to their clients. Why would a client want to use AXA Equitable’s products and service versus another financial company like American International Group (AIG)? What can AXA Equitable offer that client that no other company can? For example, every financial advisor is required to provide the clients with a contract after every sale of a financial product or service. This contract usually contains copies of signed forms and prospectus. It is better to hand deliver these contracts instead of mailing it to the clients. AIG, a major competition for AXA Equitable, usually sends out thank you cards and client referral forms after every new sale of the company’s financial product or service. This is very effective because it showed that AIG appreciates the client and their business. Value added activities can be as simple as remembering a customers’ favorite drink. Whatever the activity is, managers must find a way to capitalize upon it, as doing so will enable them to gain a competitive advantage. AIG uses this service-oriented strategy to get additional referrals and establish relationships with their clients. BSC is an effective performance measurement tool in performance improvement, which positively affects service quality (Ghani, Said, Laswad, 2010). Exceeding client expectations is another critical success factor on the balanced scorecard that AXA Equitable and its employees should incorporate. When this strategy is taken seriously and done correctly, the clients are satisfied; they stay with the company longer, purchase additional financial products or services and most importantly, refer others to the company. Customer satisfaction offers an immediate, meaningful and objective feedback about clients’ preferences and expectations (Mihelis, Grigoroudis, Siskos, Politis, Malandrakis, 2001). AXA Equitable has provided several tools like eRelationship ® for its financial advisors for client contact. The eRelationship ® platform is a good way for the advisors to have continuous contact and build strong relationships with their clients all year long. For example, doing the simple things like remembering and sending out birthday cards, wedding anniversary cards, seminars invitations, could go a long way in building and maintaining credibility, trust and satisfaction with the clients. When the financial advisor is compassionate and is always willing to help, the clients can now see the true value of the advisors. AXA Equitable needs to generate clients constantly to be successful in the financial service industry. To be successful in this business, the financial advisors have to constantly be in front of their clients. Activities that drive the success of AXA Equitable financial advisors include prospecting and meeting new clients, number of appointments set, running appointments and appointments closed. AXA Equitable uses to 5-3-1 weekly matrix to guide our advisor activities They will be successful every week if they can have five prospecting visits, run three client appointments and sign up one new client†. Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING), another major competition in the financial services industry uses a performance management strategy to keep track of employee activities. The financial advisors are required to submit their performance goals, development plans, and action plans at the beginning of every quarter to their managers. At the end of the quarter, performance reviews are conducted by the managers to measure the activities and production of the financial advisor. The balanced scorecard will help enhance communication between the client and the organization to ensure favorable organization performance (Wong, Lam, Chan, 2009). The internal business process perspective measures efficiency and productivity level within the company. During the client appointments, after the recommendations have been presented to the client, how quickly and efficiently can AXA Equitable provide the financial products or services needed to the client? This can be done with a software called eDox ®. eDox ® is an online database software that the financial advisor carries with him to every appointment with clients. eDox ® contains information about every product that AXA Equitable offers to its clients as well as links to products from other companies that AXA Equitable advisors can also offer to its client. Intra-industry trade (IIT) has been central to increasing the variety of products available to consumers (Moshirian, Li, and Sim. 2005). eDox ® also serves as a tool that top management uses to send out memos, journals, sales ideas, and information on new product launches to every employee of the company. When the client agrees to go ahead with the advisors recommendation and get the financial products; all the applications and forms necessary to make the sale can also be found on eDox ®. A continual review and constant improvement of eDox ® would be very important to keep productivity levels high to become an industry leader. AXA Compliance department is faced with the task of keeping AXA Equitable and its financial advisors compliant with the governing rules made by the Security and Exchange Commission. The Security and Exchange Commission set rules, regulations and guidelines that govern all the companies in the financial services industry. The SEC draws up new regulations periodically that sometimes make business very difficult in the financial services industry, for example, the 90-24 transfer rule, which involves more documentation for transfers of funds between one financial companies. Meeting these guidelines and standards set by the Securities and Exchange Commission is important to eliminate client complaints, trading malpractice, and negative internal and external audit for AXA Equitable Growth within a company like AXA Equitable does not always have to mean more profits because it is in the financial services industry. To become a leader in this industry, the financial company would have to hire more financial advisors to acquire more clients, which in turn leads to more productivity within the company. AXA Equitable should set hiring goals for its managers each year that the company expects to be met because an increase in the number of financial advisors every year will cause an increase in the amount of business written in that year. AXA Equitable and other companies in the financial service industry are constantly rolling out new financial products or services to keep pace with market volatility and unlimited client needs. The companies equip these products with better features and benefits to make them more attractive to the clients and stand out from the competition. AXA Equitable should be committed to providing its financial advisors with the resources necessary to build a lifelong career. Companies facing intensive competition also have a greater impetus to find ways to differentiate their products and services from those provided by competitors, this frequently results in a greater number of product and service lines and differentiation sought through increased customization of products and services in order to meet specific customer desires. (Guilding and McManus, 2002). The Learning center at AXA Equitable is set up to train and support new and experienced financial advisors. For example, when a new financial advisor is hired, the advisor is required to take some necessary courses on AXA Advisors Virtual University (AAVU) to learn everything about the company, its policies and financial product or services. American International Group (AIG) is another company that has a similar new employee development strategy. AIG developed a New Branch Employee Orientation Program where new employees receive online orientation sessions that include information about AIG, as well as company policies and benefits. AXA Equitable should require additional sessions for training and development for their financial advisors. These sessions should include experiences and accomplishments of experienced licensed financial advisors to keep the all other financial advisors motivated and knowledgeable about everything going on with the company and the industry as a whole. Introducing a balanced scorecard in an organization and implementing the critical success factors identified on it will not be an easy task. When firms develop a  scorecard they often start with a strategic performance measurement system which includes a set of financial and non-financial measures. Afterwards, the cause and effect relationships between the different (sets of) measures are developed further to translate the firm strategy to operational activities (Wiersma, 2009). AXA Equitable’s Management and employees will have to cultivate a change initiative. The increasing use of balanced scorecards is changing the way top managers run their companies. When envisioning a firm’s future development, they no longer focus chiefly on monetary success indicators in the financial area, Instead balanced scorecard is designed to complement financial measures of past performance with their measures of the drivers of future performance (Asosheh, Nalchigar, Jamporazmey, 2010). Companies need to address issues to help assess competition in their industry. The Balanced Scorecard is generally implemented at the corporate, business unit, and individual level, and also becomes a powerful tool for the directors to monitor the implementation of the corporate strategy.

Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in our Schools Essay

Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in our Schools - Essay Example Class and culture from which the students come to this school are important role players in the academic life of the students. Integrity among them is never possible without establishing the harmony among them and this has to be done in the academic results, too. This is why taking care of the students varying from one individual to another is an important task for the faculties associated with the institution. Academic achievement is the reason why the students come to Berkeley High School from all the nooks and crannies of the world, and a background of hard and patient work is obviously related to the unparalleled success of this institution. The most important thing about this research work is that Noguera and Wing have talked to everyone connected with the business. Apart from the members of the school authority and its staffs, the editors have worked with guardians of the students, too. This operation has made them successful in portraying a wholesome picture in the book. Identifying the main factors that differentiate from one student from another has been successfully deduced by Noguera and Wing in their edited work. The work shows that history has played a vital role in the formation of ideas regarding racism in USA: "the cause of such pronounced differences in academic outcomes is not some form of inherent racial difference or racism." (Page 5) The biological differences have been prominent through the traditional processes of education that are active in different academic establishments throughout the country. Apart from the Afro-American students Noguera and Wing have also taken the Asian students into consideration. Maintaining a perfect harmony among... This essay stresses that class and culture from which the students come to this school are important role players in the academic life of the students. Integrity among them is never possible without establishing the harmony among them and this has to be done in the academic results, too. This is why taking care of the students varying from one individual to another is an important task for the faculties associated with the institution. Academic achievement is the reason why the students come to Berkeley High School from all the nooks and crannies of the world, and a background of hard and patient work is obviously related to the unparalleled success of this institution. The most important thing about this research work is that Noguera and Wing have talked to everyone connected with the business. Apart from the members of the school authority and its staffs, the editors have worked with guardians of the students, too. This operation has made them successful in portraying a wholesome p icture in the book. This paper explores that the biological differences have been prominent through the traditional processes of education that are active in different academic establishments throughout the country. Apart from the Afro-American students Noguera and Wing have also taken the Asian students into consideration. Maintaining a perfect harmony among the students from almost the opposite sides of the world is a real challenge for any institution.

Money Growth and Inflation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Money Growth and Inflation - Essay Example Several economists have repeatedly observed that continuous increase in prices of goods is directly attributed to the nominal quantity of money. This essay will major on the subject of money growth and inflation. For instance, it will analyze economic news reports like the News Release by the Bank of England (The Financial Express, 20) which sought to establish the role played by monetary policy regarding Inflation and Growth. Discussion Monetary inflation is an economic terminology that refers to sustained rise in the supply of money in an economy of any given country. It normally leads to price inflation, that is, general increase in price levels of products. Economists generally agree that there exists a causal relationship between the demand and supply of money, as well as prices of services and goods often quantified in monetary terms. However, there is no overall consensus pertaining the exact relationship and mechanism between monetary inflation and price inflation. There is a sophisticated system and various arguments put forward towards the issues that are involved, for instance how accurately determine monetary base, and or how other factors like money velocity impact the relationship and the most appropriate monetary policy. Review of previous literature shows that price levels and nominal money quantity variations are closely interwoven. Although the debate has been going on for long with substantial evidence being given, there still remains some dispute between the predicted link between inflation and money. One of the possible explanations given towards this is that the said relationship holds only over periods of time which are so long thus making the relationship uninformative for policymakers and practitioners, who concern themselves with inflation in the future, say like the next five months or a year ( «Business Report: U.S. hyperinflation? The markets know better.†23). However, the said relationship can not be overlooked because it h as been backed with substantial evidence. Economists have to make monetary policies bearing in mind this consideration. Monetary policies have to play significant roles in enhancing economic growth and development in any economy. Spenser Dale, when addressing the Chinese Business Association and Asian Business Association of London Chamber of Commerce and industry, gave out his opinions regarding the monetary policy objectives. Particularly, Dale considered the monetary policy’s flexibility to support employment and growth and also control inflation. He also considered the possibilities of presently having scope for additional growth without creating extra price inflation. Spencer welcomed the present interest in such crucial issues, and noted that the financial crisis was partly associated with failure of the monetary policies. In many nations like the UK, monetary policies failed to activate the growth people longed to have. Some players have often asked if the UK’s regime that targets inflation does force the MPC to emphasize too much on inflation, instead of supporting growth recovery. In tackling this, Spenser noted that from its generation the core mission of MPC was to hit a target of 2% inflation, but in manner that it will support employment and growth. The MPS, he explained, has always done achieved that and brought recovery after the economic financial crisis aftermath. According to his report, Consumer

National Office Machines Case Essay Example for Free

National Office Machines Case Essay 1. What factors contributed to Euro Disney’s poor performance during its first year of operation? What factors contributed to Hong Kong Disney’s poor performance during its first year?  The factors that led to Euro Disney’s poor performance were the lack of understanding of the French culture, mistaken assumptions, and ethnocentrism by the American management. Since the prices of the hotels and entrances were different and much higher in Europe, the park attendance was low. It was actually cheaper for European families to travel to Disney World in Orlando, FL than to EuroDisney. Eisner was a little arrogant when he assumed people from all over Europe would come to Paris, when there are many different cultures in Europe, each one expecting adaptation. It isn’t like the U.S. where the culture is much the same throughout. Each country has its own culture. The guest expectations weren’t up to par, and the customer service wasn’t as expected. There was a ban on alcohol when the French are the biggest wine drinking country and the poor and underestimated arrangement of breakfast didn’t settle well with the French. It failed in Hong Kong because its service standpoint was below standards. The cultural factors also added to the failure of the theme park they did not adapt to the Chinese culture. They have improved however culture isn’t everything the rides weren’t the quality that guests expected it to be. 2. To what degree do you consider that these two factors were (a) foreseeable and (b) controllable by EuroDisney, Hong Kong Disney, or the parent company, Disney? In terms of the foreseeable factors, they should have taken into consideration cross cultural differences, the Gulf War of 1991, 1980’s European recession, high interest rates and devaluation of several currencies, World Fair in Seville and the Olympics in Barcelona, and the ban on alcohol consumption. Controllable factors were mistaken assumptions, initial pricing, design and marketing policies, early advertising that was more expensive, poor and underestimated arrangement of breakfast, and arrogance of Disney’s management. 3. What role does ethnocentrism play in the story of EuroDisney’s launch? Ethnocentrism is the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own culture, and all other cultures are measured in relation to it. This happened when the Disney management did not try and understand the French expectations or wishes, and went ahead and implemented the Disney Park as per their wishes. The French, of course did not accept this since they never wanted the Americanized entertainment. Disney management had the resources available to get a marketing opinion from European sources that would have saved them from failure. However, since they were profitable with the other Disney parks, the management did not see as this park being any different. If only they had consulted with European marketers, they could have avoided pricing mistakes, food and drink mistakes, and entertainment mistakes. 4. How do you assess the cross-cultural marketing skills of Disney? In the beginning Disney’s cross-cultural marketing skills were far below par. Simply put, they did not do their homework, but when failure crept up they realized their mistakes. Now they have hired European management, who has a better idea of what they are doing. They not only changed their marketing and pricing strategies, but they also changed the food and drink as well. Therefore, in the end, Disney’s cross-cultural skills have improved significantly. 5. Why did success in Tokyo predispose Disney management to be too optimistic in their expectations of success in France? Discuss. In Japan Disney park was a huge success due to the fact that the Japanese had a sentimental attachment to American cartoon characters. The Japanese tourists enjoyed themselves at the park because they could automatically relate to these characters. This resulted in a profit not only in the first year, but in the second year as well. There were 14 million people that visited Tokyo Disney Park the second year and 3/4th of them were repeat customers. With these high figures and profits, Disney management had high hopes while constructing the park in Paris. They didn’t feel the need to do any research since the Japanese adapted so well to the American customs and Disney management figured the French would be no different. However, this was completely the opposite of what happened. The French did not accept the American customers and a failure resulted in Paris. 6. Why do you think the experience in France didn’t help Disney avoid some of the problems in Hong Kong? First are the cultural differences. In Hong Kong, they only considered Chinese style in the park design. Also, they still overpriced the park. They didn’t take into consideration the actual price level of the country and blindly set prices high so that visitors could not afford, and moved on to other amusement parks. Last is the marketing. Disney management did not market its entertainment concept. Like France, Hong Kong has their own cartoon image and was not familiar with Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. 7. Now that Hong Kong Disney is up and running, will the Shanghai development benefit from the Hong Kong experience? Disney management will know exceptionally well that doing research is the first step. Familiarize the customer base with the characters first and foremost so that way when you â€Å"open the gates† it is a warm, relaxing feeling seeing familiar faces. They should also make sure and set prices at a fair level. Look into the income level of the population and make an educated decision. 8. Now that Disney has begun work on the new Hong Kong and Shanghai locations, where and when should it go next? Assume you are a consultant hired to give Disney advice on the issue of where and when to go next. Pick three locations and select the one you think will be the best new locations and select the one you think will be the best new location for Disneyland X, and discuss. India, Australia, and Brazil are three locations that I would advise Disney to consider next. I think the best location would be India. India is coming up as next big market is almost every field due to strong presence of customer base and more disposable income. American culture is already so popular in India. Hollywood became so popular that India created its own Bollywood. India also has the second largest population in the world, so financially Disney would excel with that customer base. Again Disney would have to be careful with the food choices and pricing. Australia would also be a great choice for obvious reasons. There location from other countries would be ideal since it would not cannibalize other locations’ attendance. Also, since they are an English speaking country there would not be a language barrier. Australia is such a compact nation that no matter where you placed the Disney park people would be able to easily access it. The third country I think would be ideal is Brazil. It is a powerful and emerging nature, and although they have a strong culture, with a lot of research could be very prosperous. They also have a very large population that would financially be beneficial to Disney. It would also be a good location to service Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. 9. Given your choice of locale X for the newest Disneyland, what are the operational implications of the history of EuroDisney and Disney Hong Kong for the new park? After the failed attempt at Disney Paris, Disney should have a lot of experience now in opening theme parks. I think with extensive research and a culturally intelligent management, Disney will excel in Disney India. This time the management will do their homework and find out the cultural differences, customs, traditions, food, drink, etc. Since there is a language barrier, they will also have a team of leaders who are fluent in the language to help the American team.

AT&T Business Analysis Essay -- Business Management Essays

AT&T Business Analysis Executive Summary The world is experiencing a communications revolution. The Internet, e-Commerce and other developments (including the convergence of communication technologies) are profoundly reshaping economic and social life. AT&T must position itself to meet the challenge of this revolution. The strategic development of information-based industries is a key to the future social and economic development of the world. The telecommunications industry is of vital importance to the development of the information-based economy. AT&T need to supply access to cost efficient, timely and innovative telecommunications services. AT&T had developed a reputation for providing high-quality long distance telephone services. It moved rapidly to exploit this reputation in the newly competitive long distance market by aggressively marketing its services against MCI, Sprint, and other carriers. Also, AT&T had traditional strengths in research and development with its Bell Labs subsidiary. To exploit these strengths in its new global competitive context, AT&T shifted Bell Labs' mission from basic research to applied research, and then leveraged those skills by forming numerous joint ventures, acquiring NCR, and other actions. Through this process, AT&T has been able to use some of its historically important capabilities to try to position itself as a major actor in the global telecommunications and computing industry. Effective competition is widely seen as a key to the development of telecommunications services. The ability of new telecommunications networks to interconnect fairly and efficiently with existing networks is critical to the development of competition. AT&T has undergone numerous changes since its inception in the late 19th century. The McKinsey 7 S framework as applied by Pascale is recommended to manage the changes they are facing to adopt a greater competitive presence in the global economy. In conjunction with this framework, numerous other models were applied to analyse the global competitive position of AT&T. Recommendations for a revised strategy and direction for AT&T have been made throughout this document including two scenarios of how the telecommunications industry might develop towards 2000, while outlining the impact on AT&T. 1.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Introduction AT&T Corp., incorporated in 1885, is engaged in providin... ...ide whether it should be getting better at what it is already good at or whether it should be looking toward higher order capabilities that are beyond the old. The strategic vision of AT&T must be adjusted to reflect their intent of being ‘boundaryless’ and to become the leader in the infocom industry. It must become the companies culture. Appendix 13 – Mapping AT&T’s Strategy The soft factors can make or break a successful change process, since new structures and strategies are difficult to build upon inappropriate cultures and values. These problems often come up in the dissatisfying results of spectacular mega-mergers. The lack of success and synergies in such mergers is often based in a clash of completely different cultures, values, and styles, which make it difficult to establish effective common systems and structuresBased on the case study, extensive research and annual reports of AT&T the writer has mapped AT&T in the different domains. AT&T should strive to attain a perfect circle as close to the centre as possible, which indicates total synergy, order and equilibrium. Where the circle is skewed drastic change is needed as it moves closer to the outer ring of chaos:

Performance of Bshrm Graduates as Employees of the Different Establishment in Calbayog City Essay

Background of the Study The Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BSHRM) program is geared towards equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to provide quality service in the hospitality industry. The program contains subjects that will address the needs of different sectors in the hospitality industry, such as culinary, front office, tourism, resort and hotel operations. Its primary concentration is on the development of practical and management skills which are achieved through the combination of theoretical classes, practicum exercises and experiential learning. Graduates of this course will possess business management and accounting skills to be able to compute daily sales, recipe costing/cost control and inventory management. The program also helps students to develop effective communication and interpersonal skills which are very essential in establishing positive employer/employee/customer relations. Today, this program at present has been given focus among enrollees in tertiary education being their future career. Every organization needs to be aware about organization performance and retention within doing activity in the business field. High performance and retention is a very importance concern by the company that should be given attention because with the high performance and retention, the organization can survive in the globalization era. Challenging for organization existence which facing in organization is not only from inside organization itself but therefore can be from external organization or companies. There are no specific skills required for BSHRM because everything can be learned. However, you need to possess certain attitudes and qualities for you to succeed in this course: First, you have to be comfortable giving service to others. This means that you enjoy and take pride in your work; Secondly, you must be approachable and friendly while maintaining professionalism; most importantly, you have to be an  effective communicator, both in written and oral English. You will meet and provide service to different people of different nationalities, to eliminate the language barrier; you have to speak English well enough to be understood. BSHRM graduates are one of the most sought after employees in terms of work abroad. Career opportunities are more or less the same with the above mentioned job positions. The salary levels can be 3 to 6 times higher than in the Philippines. But, how far does BSHRM graduates become successful contributor of the success of the organization they belonged with. How they perform based on the theory and practice they have acquired. This is the reason of conducting this study on the identification of the â€Å"Performance of the Bachelor of Science in Hotel and restaurant Management (BSHRM) Graduates as employee in the different Establishments in Calabayog City. The main purpose of this query is to find out the level of performance of the graduates in BSHRM on the employment aspect. Statement of the Problem Generally, the study will be conducted in order to know the performance of the Graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BKSHRM) as employee in the establishment in Calabayog City. Specifically, it sought to answer the following problems of the study: 1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of their: a. Age? b. Sex? 2. What is the level of performance of the respondents in terms of their; c. Age? d. Sex? 3. What are the kinds of Jobs that the respondents are performing? 4. What is the relationship between the kind of job of and the profile of the respondents? Objectives of the Study The study will aimed to know the performance of the Graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BSHRM) as employee in the establishment in Calabayog City. Specifically, it aimed to: 1. Determine the profile of the respondents in terms of their: a. Age; b. Sex; 2. Assess the performance of the respondents in terms of their; c. Age; d. Sex; 3. Identify the kinds of Jobs that the respondents are performing; 4. Discuss the relationship between the kind of job of and the profile of the respondents. Significance of the Study The findings of this study will be beneficial to the following: Graduates. They will be given an idea of their performance as graduates in BSHRM and the relationship of the kind of their job and their profession.  NWSSU Administration. This will be significant to the Administration of the Northwest Samar State University in their assessment of the curricular offering of the course for further development. Employer. This will help them identify the level of performance of their employee as to the fitness of the Job the employee is connected to and their profession. Students. This will help the student in their proper selection of their course in college to be able to find a job after graduation. Future Related Studies. This might be an additional reference to the future research that might be conducted related to this topic. Scope and Limitation of the Study The respondents of the Study will cover the Graduates in NWSSU with the degree on BSHRM who are presently connected to the different establishment in Calbayog City as Employee. They will be the subject of the study, their profile and their performance in their kind of job. This will be conducted in Calbayog City where the respondents are presently working. The study will be limited to only to the graduates of BSHRM in NWSSU. The researcher will assume that not all graduates covered considering time, and financial aspects. The conduct of the study will only focused on determining the performance of the graduates in BSHRM in NWSSU who are currently working in the different establishment in Calbayog City. Theoretical Framework In this type of study, the following theories were considered in order to understand the level of performance of the employees in the different fields. We examine compensation contracts for managers in imperfectly competitive product markets. We show that strategic interactions among firms can explain the lack of relative performance-based incentives in which compensation decreases with rival firm performance. The need to soften product market competition generates an optimal compensation contract that places a positive weight on both own and rival performance. Firms in more competitive industries place greater weight on rival firm performance relative to own firm performance. We find empirical evidence of a positive sensitivity of compensation to rival firm performance that is increasing in the degree of competition in the industry. The high relevance of individual performance is also reï ¬â€šected in work and organizational psychological research. To get a clearer picture about the importance of individual performance in empirical research we conducted a literature search in the twelve of the major work and organizational psychology journals. Conceptual Framework Individual work performance is an issue that has not only grasped companies all over the world but also fueled a great deal of research in ï ¬ elds of management, occupational health, and work and organizational psychology. Numerous studies on individual work performance have been conducted. However, different approaches of studying individual work performance circulate in today’s literature. Whereas the ï ¬ eld of management has primarily occupied itself with how one can make an employee as productive as possible, the ï ¬ eld of occupational health has focused on how to prevent productivity loss due to a certain disease or health impairment. Work and  organizational psychologists, on the other hand, have an interest in the inï ¬â€šuence of determinants, such as work engagement, satisfaction, and personality, on individual work performance. ——————————————– [ 2 ]. http://pinoyhotelier.com/bshrm–ched–suggested–practicum–program.html) [ 3 ]. C. E. Bachelor of Hotel and Restaurant Management: Undergraduate Thesis at West Visayas State University , Iloilo City ; 2012 [ 4 ]. Article first published online: 17 DEC 2002, DOI: 10.1111/0022-1082.00180: The American Finance Association 1999 [ 5 ]. Michael Frese, et. Al., Performance Concepts and Performance Theory., University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany [ 6 ]. Linda Koopmans, et. Al., Conceptual Frameworks of Individual Work Performance A Systematic Review

Advanced Counselling Skills Essay

1. Understand the process of a series of counselling sessions. 1.1 Identify the stages of a series of counselling sessions. A well-structured counselling session provides an essential framework for both counsellor and client. Many authors describe the structure of a counselling work in terms of a beginning, middle phase and end Jacobs (2004). Gray (2004) likens the structure to an artist’s frame encapsulating a picture stating â€Å"Just as the frame around a picture serves to enhance and contain the material within it, so the structure erected around a counselling arrangement supports the work the participants are engaged in†. The beginning session is crucial for establishing trust, initial rapport and boundary settings. This is described in more detail in 1.2. The middle phase of the session is the working part where the exploration and the work takes place. It involves some or all of the key counselling skills. The main aims are ensuring using skills that support the client to feel secure enabling them to recognise their emotions, thought processes and behaviours and reflect on these. It gives space enabling clients to establish their own change. The ending is the third stage and is an action phase. It is result of the enhancement of the client’s self-acceptance and the associated internalising of his locus of evaluation. It contains elements of review and importantly effective closure for both client and counsellor. 1.2 Evaluate the importance of an appropriate opening of a series of sessions. The beginning of a session is important to establish trust, rapport and set boundaries. The contract occurs to help establish a  professional relationship. It includes confidentiality, time, money, complaints and client expectations of the counselling environment. Day and Sparacio (1988) describe this as â€Å"a joint understanding between the counsellor and client regarding the characteristics, conditions, procedures and parameters of counselling†. Establishing a solid professional relationship which is clearly boundaries reduces the chance of conflict in the future sessions. It empowers the client to feel secure and valued and protects the counsellor from possible issues such as over money or time keeping. Opening sessions allow for the first positive and professional impression to be made. The client may feel unsure of the process and the opening session(s) allows for trust to develop alongside the client’s willingness to open up. At the beginning the power is on the side of the counsellor due to knowledge this shifts towards the client through explanation of the process as there are no hidden agendas. 1.5 Explain the importance of working towards the ending of a series of sessions. In person centred counselling the client generally dictates the end point although a counsellor may still initiate an ‘endings’ discussion inviting the clients opinion on this. There are three areas that can be defined in preparing for an ending of sessions. Reviews and restarts and preparation for ending This is to explain to the client that although the current counselling process counselling is coming to an end it is not necessarily a cure all one-time event. It may be entered into again later in life or the client may not feel the need for future intervention. Reviewing the counselling process This is to develop and check a client’s cognitive understanding of what has transpired. Practical questions posed by Bayne (2008) could take the form of How does the client feel about the ending? What has this counselling relationship been like? What has been achieved? What has the client learned to help in the future? What might happen in the future? Unfinished business This is a chance for a client to voice questions or uncertainties that may have gone unsaid and focus on short work that still needs to be achieved. Both client and counsellor need to be able reflect on the ending for themselves, on what has been achieved, and what are their own reactions to an ending. In counselling endings may not go to plan and some clients may end sessions without notice. This could leave the counsellor feeling unsettled that the relationship has not been ended well for either of them. Clients may decide in the middle of a series of sessions the counselling is not for them because it’s not working or what it brings up is too difficult at that time. Financial or life demands may also stop the client from coming. Some clients may not realise they are ready for the ending and feel rejected by the suggestion this could come from rejections in previous life events and needs careful handling. This is similar to Egan’s (1986) model the â€Å"Three stage f ramework† which lists exploration, understanding and action in sessions. 1.3 Explain the purpose and importance of a working agreement for a series of sessions. A working agreement is important as the counselling relationship is a contract either as a private personal therapist or as part of an agency. There are guidelines and procedures from the British Association of Counselors and Physcotherapists (BACP) and the agency that need to be followed in order to protect the agency, client and counsellor. It is important that a contract is agreed and this includes practical considerations such as (money, time, location and frequency of sessions). It can also include the model and style of work that the counsellor and client wish to work within. Within the contract confidentiality is essential to help secure the client and build a sense of trust and professional relationship. This can be explaining how records are kept, supervision and permission to share certain information with G.P with or without prior consent from the client. Other practical arrangements may be such as what procedure to follow if the client or counsellor cannot make a session or how they can contact each other or holidays. It is useful to set out what will and won’t happen in counselling is so there is a baseline of understanding. This may include issues such as physical proximity and touching. It may  relate to chance meetings outside of the room and how they could be handled. It can include other sign posting and emergencies contacts if the counsellor is not available. The counsellor can explain his or her role and the expectations of this alongside the role and expectation of the clients such as time keeping and commitment to the process. It can involve the difficulty of endings and developing an agreement with the client if they chose to end the sessions early calls the c ounsellor for closure on both sides. In conclusion the counselling relationship is based on the counsellor’s ability to identify the client’s expectations and anxiety about the service. To be able to clarify the clients and counsellors ability and limitations of the relationship. Laying the foundations of the contact protects the counsellor and client physically and emotionally and reduces the chances of conflict that could derail the therapeutic relationship. For example payments could affect the power relationship between counsellor and client. Without an agreement the client is less likely to feel secure and valued by the counsellor and be more likely to not commit fully to the therapeutic process. 1.4 Explain the purpose and importance of reviewing progress with the client (assessment). Traditionally assessment is not generally emphasised in the person centred counselling approach as it disrupts the clients from focusing on themselves and working with their feelings, shifting the focus of attention from the client to the counsellor. However, given the nature of the counselling work and contract based work counsellor’s work within it is often necessary and required by an agency. I personally see assessment as key to gaining insight in to the client and building a plan of work. Counselling is a contractual relationship as part of this there needs to be regular review of the work being undertaken to ensure the goals or conditions established are being met and progress is being made. Assessment according to Gladding (2009) entails â€Å"the collection of information in order to identify, analyse, evaluate and address the problems, issues and circumstances of clients in the counselling relationship†. This is then used to identify potential work needed, planning interventions and evaluation clients. Assessment is a process in counselling not just a beginning and end event. Brammer (1989) writes on assessment saying â€Å"the integration of assessment information  requires a process of developing a description and explanation of the client’s problems that will be used as a basis for a therapeutic plan. The therapist is interested in linking the client presenting problems to the client personalised meaning of the problem, unique developmental history, family system interactions and formulate explanations that hypothesise about why the client has become symptomatic at this particular time† At the beginning of a series of sessions time needs to be given over to an initial assessment it can use a number or practical tools such as assessment questionnaires. This, as stated above, can help identify possible areas of work. It can inform to the counsellor that their client requires more specialist help such as complex trauma work and a referral needed. Alongside this an initial assessment may take the following structure and can look for information on: Current problems Previous counselling experience Occupation, relationship and children Medical and health Why choosing counselling now What to gain form counselling Historical information school, upbringing, memories and diversity issues Support networks Discussion on if counselling is suitable or referral made. Some counsellors add a review into the end of every session this is particularly relevant with short focused based counselling. Evaluation sheets may be used every week as part of NHS contracted work to establish progress or value added for the organisation to justify funding. Reviewing of work may be just once in the middle of a series of sessions for less focus based work as around 8 to 10 sessions. With longer open ended contract whole sessions maybe given over to reviewing. These may use formal evaluation forms such as Clinical Outcome Routine Evaluation forms (CORE) or other methods such as Primary Health Evaluation of Mental Disorders Patient Questionnaire (PHQ-9). It may simply be a session dedicated to discussion over the clients progress overall. Evaluation or assessment, as a process, can be useful to show the client the progress they are making. It is essential to relate back to the initial question as although counselling may  have been useful, and the client feel better, but has it redressed the clients presenting problem? 1.6 Explain the importance of ensuring the environment is suitable and safe. The space in which the session takes place is important; it should be quiet, safe and above all confidential. All distractions such as mobile phones or interruptions should be minimised. It should remain consistent, comfortable and neutral in design. Both client and counsellor safety in terms of health and safety and lone working arrangements should be catered for. Green (2010) describes the importance of the room and lack of personal or religious aspects saying â€Å"the room is a kind of metaphor for what will take place between you. You the counsellor are going to be fully present, warm and available to the client but you are not going to being other aspects of yourself into the equation†. 2. be able to conduct a counselling session with a client in an ethical, effective and safe way. 2.1 Open the session, explaining the working agreement including 2.2 Develop the session using the following skills and interventions appropriate for the session and the model used. 2.3 End a session appropriately, usually the following where applicable See recording 3. Be able to reflect on the counselling session 3.1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the opening of the session This session was a continuation of previous sessions the need to open the session effectively and invite the client in still remains. In this session the contract was reviewed including the essentials of time boundaries, confidentiality, student status and ethical framework. In addition to this contract permission was sought to record the session. The contract was shorter than normal and on reflection could have been delivered slower and given invitation for the client throughout to ask questions. In the opening of the session I invited the client in and to do this briefly reflected and offered a summary of work that had taken place in the previous sessions. This was to show my attentiveness and show the client they had been heard previously and my attention was firmly on them from the outset of the session. 3.2 Justify the use of skills used during the session Attentiveness and rapport building The rapport with the client had been set in previous sessions and continued through this one. This was shown by a short summary at the beginning reflecting on topics from these previous sessions. The client was given an opportunity to bring one of these prior topics or something new to the session with the question â€Å"I was wondering which avenue you would like to go down today?† [3.45] Active listening Active listening is to show the client they are being heard. This is not only through verbal ques and reflecting but also in non-verbal ways. Throughout the session there were nonverbal examples of my attentiveness with nodding and smiling where appropriate and also the â€Å"Um† and â€Å"Okay† comments to encourage the client to continue with their story. Examples of this are at [10.52] after the client â€Å"I feel like I have to step in and get **** to see it from his perspective†. I use them â€Å"Um† instead of questioning as I sensed there was more to come from the client about this point. They start to question themselves so the nonverbal action was affective. Empathic listening Empathy is a way of being not just a professional role or communication skill it is attending to both the physical and psychological and listens to the clients view point. Empathy builds self-confidence and positive regard alongside promotes professionalism. Listening to the client and them feeling held in the session is crucial to allow them the space and security to open up. In this session there were several examples where I show the client they are being heard. This is around [13.30] minutes into the session where I ask the client â€Å"I wonder what you are left feeling?† At [16.10] I ask â€Å"Where do you see yourself?† The client throughout is focusing on their partner and their children but not on their own feelings. Effective questioning Open ended questions allow for the free flow of information, understanding the problem better and allows for rapport building. Closed questions that only elicit a yes or no elicit the opposite response of closing down the conversation. In the session there are a few open questions such as â€Å"I wonder what you mean by you know† [5.25]. This is to try and elicit what the client means in the context. Another example is â€Å"What does it feel like for you when the tensions going on?† The aim is to open up the clients feelings more at that point in their life and gain better understanding. Summarising My summary occurs 4 minutes from the end of the session. The client is made aware of this by the statement â€Å"If I could summarise†. The idea being to check the client felt heard and that there was no bits that I had missed from the session as the client should leave feeling heard and valued. The summary went over the salient points of the session allowing chance for reflection on the positives that came out of the conversation. The aim being to leave the client with a positive feeling relating to the work that have done. The client then reflects themselves back about something they have discovered about their relationship and how they may look at it differently. At the end the client is thanked and given an invitation to continue this exploration next session. Thus allowing the client time to think before the next session on what they would like to bring. This is to leave the session’s client centred. Focusing and challenging At [25.29] the client begins to bring in another aspect to the topic. Although potentially relevant there is little time to explore this topic. Focusing allowed for this session to stay on the track it I said â€Å"We only have a few minutes left of the session. Your Mum has been mentioned in several sessions but I’m wondering if we can stay focused on that moment†. By focusing the aim was to explore the feeling in more detail and not allow avoidance alongside not bringing a new topic when there was no time to fully explore this being so close to the end of a session. Immediacy There is a good example of immediacy in the session. It is important as a counsellor to not only hear what the client is saying but also be aware of their body language. At [10.42] I say to the client â€Å"You gestured with your hands that sense of balance† then I reflect on the balance between the children and partner that the client has been talking about. Working at an appropriate pace Pacing in this session was good. As a counsellor mine matched that of the clients throughout. This had already been established in the previous sessions although the contract could have been slowed down. The idea is to match the clients pace, pitch, tone and speed. A counsellor can use their own tone of pitch to slow the client down if they are running away with their story rather than taking the time to pause and think. Checking understanding with the client There were several examples of checking understanding with the client. The first occurred at [3.00] where I asked â€Å"Would you mind briefly going through†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.† This was seeking clarity of a historical event. The second occurred at [9.00] with the question â€Å"Remind me how long †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..† Although covered in a previous session it was important that the time frames being worked with were accurate. The aim being to also focus the client on the actual length of time they have been with their new partner. 3.3 Explain why other skills were not used during the session Managing silence There was no silence in the session this was due to my need to develop this skill. The spaces still feel unnatural and there were several chances where it could have been used. At [23.15] after the client responds they pose their own question â€Å"What will happen if I don’t?† I respond â€Å"Good question what will happen if you don’t†. At this moment the client should have been given time to think. Instead of this I looked to direct the conversation instead of holding the client in that moment and giving them the space. A second example was when the client comments â€Å"Why am I doing it†. I jumped in instead of leaving the space. If the silence had continued beyond the client’s reflection then I could have paraphrased this back to them to  highlight their thinking at that time. These interruptions potentially could cause the client to get nervous, stop the flow of information or feel intimidated. They could lose confidence in the proce ss and by not feeling heard could prevent communication in the future. Challenging During this session there was a very poor example of challenging where I asked the client â€Å"You’ve spoken about protecting the teenagers I was wondering if it was about protecting your relationship as well†. This was about my addenda to find out if there was a link and did not add value to the conversation at that point instead it detracted from the clients work. An example of missed challenging occurred at [6.39] the client uses the word â€Å"worried† four times in a minute. I could have challenged them on what the word worried meant to them as each of us carries our own perception. Working with diversity as it impacts on the session Within this session I sis not bring in diversity. Although working with this client there is normally an element as they are not British born and moved to the UK as an adult. So culturally in terms of relationships and family dynamics there is a possibility of needing to understand the difference. Language has in previous sessions been a barrier with needing to clarify my understanding of how Evaluate the effectiveness of closing the session This session was closed well the client was given a warning that was near the end of time with me saying â€Å"We only have a few minutes left†. They were then offered â€Å"If I could summarise†. The summary covered the main points from the session and allowed the client to affirm these. It gave opportunity to leave a positive point for the client to think upon to leave them secure after the session. It also opened up the possibility for the topic for the next session allowing them homework of reflection. The client by responding and affirming the summary gave rise to the fact they felt heard in the session. The session was within the time boundaries and the client was thanked for the session. Recognition was given to the next meeting with the client. Bibliography Brammer, L. Shostrom E and Abrego, P. (1989) Therapeutic Psychology Fundamentals in Counselling and Psychotherapy. 5th Ed. New Jersey: Prenice Hall. Bayne, R. (2008). The counsellor’s handbook. Cheltenham, U.K.: Nelson Thornes. Day, R.W and Sparacio (1988) Structuring the counselling process in Dryden (2008) Key Issues for Counselling in Action. London: SAGE Egan, G (1986) The skilled helper. Pacific Grove, Calif: Brooks/Cole Gray, A (2004) An introduction to the Therapeutic frame, London: Routledge Green, J and Claringbull, N. 2010 Creating the therapeutic relationship in counselling and psychotherapy. Exeter: Learning Matters Gladding, S.T (2009) Counselling: A Comprehensive profession (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Jacobs M (2004) Psychodynamic Counselling in Action (3rd Edition) London: Sage

Julia Alvarez, Famous Poet and Novelist Essay Example

Julia Alvarez, Famous Poet and Novelist Essay Example Julia Alvarez, Famous Poet and Novelist Paper Julia Alvarez, Famous Poet and Novelist Paper Julia Alvarez is a famous world-wide poet and novelist. She was raised in the Dominican Republic, which is why most of her poems and novels are written in Spanish. One of her most famous novels is called In the time of the Butterflies, which is based on her flee to the United States, from the underground, where the three Mirabel sisters were murdered. The hardships of coming into the country, and without knowing the language is what is said to be the main reason of why she began to start writing. Julia Alvarez is more of a famous author than a poet. Therefore, she doesn’t have very many poetry books, or poems put on the internet. I did find five poems that stuck out to me more than her other ones, though. The first poem is called â€Å"Household Riddle†. I despise poetry, but this poem actually got my attention as I was reading it, unlike many other poems. I think this poem is funny because it is mostly talking about the riddle, â€Å"Which came first, the chicken or the egg? † which is a funny little riddle that everyone knows. The second poem that I found is called â€Å"Hairwashing†. This poem is about how her mother used to wash her hair when ever she misbehaved, to rinse out all of the bad. I picked to do this poem because I could really picture this happening, and it reminded me of how some mothers would wash their kids’ mouths out with soap. Another poem that I’ve chosen, which is my personal favorite, is called â€Å"Against Cinderella†. This poem kind of analyzes the story of Cinderella, and it asks questions that it knows we’ve all been thinking all of these years. One line in the poem says, â€Å"I can’t believe only one woman in that town had that size foot, could fit into that shoe. † We all know we’ve wondered this too, but we just always went along with it. I like this poem; it’s cute and funny, and in a way sarcastic. The last two poems I chose are called â€Å"Dusting† and â€Å"Storm Windows†. The main reason I chose to do these poems is because they were short, and they were one of the very few poems I could find written by Julia Alvarez. I do kind of like the poem â€Å"Dusting† because the main character says she likes to write her name on the dusty cabinet every morning, and I remember I used to like to write my name in the dust when I was little, too. On the other hand, I have no idea what the poem â€Å"Storm Windows† is about. The only reason I chose it was because it was short. Overall, I regret picking Julia Alvarez as my poet. I, personally, don’t really like her poetry, and she must have not even have written that many poems because I can barely find anything on her. Also, I don’t understand why a lot of her poems are about housekeeping and chores. But, since I have to make the best out of this, I chose five poems that I thought were the best. I like to read something that will grab my interest, keep my attention, and maybe make me think a little bit, and I believe that the five poems that I have chosen do so. Alvarez, Julia.. â€Å"Dusting. † Homecoming: new and collected poems. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc. , 1996. Alvarez, Julia.. â€Å"Dusting. † Homecoming: new and collected poems. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc. , 1996. Alvarez, Julia.. â€Å"Dusting. † Homecoming: new and collected poems. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc. , 1996. Alvarez, Julia.. â€Å"Dusting. † Homecoming: new and collected poems. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc. , 1996. Alvarez, Julia.. â€Å"Dusting. † Homecoming: new and collected poems. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc. , 1996.

How Litigation and Court System Affect Immigration Research Paper

How Litigation and Court System Affect Immigration - Research Paper Example The Centre for Public Studies also reported that the United Nations in 2005 found that there were at least 191 million migrants of international descent across the globe. This represents about 3% of the total world populations and is mostly from the developing nations. The numbers of people living in their countries of birth are expected to dwindle in the near future since there is an increasing influx of individuals who seek residence outside their countries of origin mainly for financial reasons. In the current day of world economic recession, influxes of immigrants are posing financial/economic, safety and population challenges in the countries that host immigrants. The increases in population are rising faster than economic growth. Given that most countries are putting down strict laws where immigrants and refugees are concerned, most immigrants are finding â€Å"underhand ways of becoming citizens of the countries† that they desire thereby raising diplomatic and legal con cerns in the countries affected (Romero and Hing 230). The problems that have accompanied the influx of immigrants are not limited to logistical issues on housing and economy, but also on fraud and security issues. Among the most significant questions that have been raised are the employment of non-immigrant citizens, government provision of infrastructure and the longtime change of culture and ways of life of the people; which adversely affects the citizens. For the stated reasons, many governments have developed different policies and laws that govern the acceptance and handling of immigrants. Wexler widely studied that the laws vary from one country to another and the judicial involvement in cases pertaining to such topics also varies from one country to another (1). The politics of immigration in the present day is however increasingly revolving around issues like terrorism and national security. For example, the Australian public policy debates on immigration have been based on the burdens that result from populations surges may have on the infrastructure, public services and the natural environment. There is increasingly a high level of political sensitivity on uncontrolled entry of migrants and the risk of ethnic and racial tensions that might result from such associations. Wexler stated that judicial power has been invoked in the concern for immigration issues and parliament has over time tried to confine the area of operation of the judicial review and the jurisdiction of courts (1). In the United States, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 forms the basic body of immigration law in the country. This Act is also contained in the United States Code (U.S.C.) which contains all the laws of the United States of America. This Act has undergone several amendments so as to reach several current requirements in immigration. In the 1990 Immigration and Nationality Act, an amendment was done to change the preference and level of admission of immigrants into the United States. It was also meant to provide administrative naturalization among other functions.  

Article Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Article - Assignment Example s of hair coloring entail the chemicals and their composition that are normally employed in the process, which are associated with human cancer risk (Scali-Sheahan, pp7-10). The risks mainly appear to be affected by duration of use accompanied by precise genetic polymorphisms. There is also risk of allergic reactions to the populace since it is unattainable to evade contact with the skin when undertaking hair color process. There are no vegetable-based rinses that are utilized for covering the hair shaft. Lack of the hair shaft with botanical components makes the strategy to be weak (Scali-Sheahan, pp7-10).Vegetable-based substances do not penetrate the hair shaft thus eliminating the risks of human cancer and allergic reaction. Moreover, rinses contain minimal quantity of synthetic chemicals of the hair dyes. The competencies of the hair coloring main demand experienced stylists. Experienced stylists and underlying quality products will enhance competencies in application of hair coloring. Competency will also be enhanced via utilizing of vegetable-based rinses in covering of the hair shaft thus eliminating human cancer and allergic reactions on the