Requiment Essay Example for Free

Requiment Essay Healthcare United aims to be the number one provider of Healthcare professionals in Australia. Healthcare United is an organisation that currently employs 1,500 Healthcare professionals with two sites, in Victoria and NSW and seeks to expand its operations and open another office in Hobart. As an organisation our vision is to provide: The best qualified and trained human resources available for clients. Up-to-date technology in all services for both clients and staffs. Innovative best practices and procedures from both inside and outside the organisation. Best facilities and procedures in a competitive environment. To address the future needs of organisation, Healthcare United aims to recruit a future 500 or the best possible healthcare professionals available, in three stages, over the next five years. 2. Executive Summary Healthcare United is a healthcare provider and currently employs 1,500 Healthcare professionals with two sites, in Victoria and NSW. They recently developed a new strategic plan that involves opening another office at Hobart. Part of their HR plan is to employ 500 workers in three stages. An analysis and review of Healthcare United’s 2000 and newly developed 2010 policies and procedures for recruitment and selection have been conducted in this report. Conclusions have been made from the comparison between the 2000 Healthcare United recruitment and selection guidelines and the newly developed 2010 Healthcare United recruitment and selection policy and relevant legislation. Recommendations have been made for the changes necessary to improve procedures and the overall process of Healthcare United’s recruitment and selection policies and procedures, based on current research. 3. Purpose of Report The purpose of this report is to review analysis and compare Healthcare United recruitment and selection policies and procedures for the year 2000 and 2010 for the following 5 key areas: Timeframes Personnel involved Documentation Training Monitoring and evaluation Conclusions have been made from the comparison between the 2000 and the newly developed 2010 recruitment and selection policies and procedures. Recommendations have been made for changes to the 2010 policies and procedures to improve the newly developed recruitment and selection policies and procedures at Healthcare United. 4. Analysis and Review: Healthcare United 2000 and 2010 Recruitment and Selection Policies and Procedures The following is the analysis and review of 2000 and 2010 recruitment and selection policies and procedures: Key Area 2000 2010 Timeframe The whole selection process from: analyse the vacant position position description lodge an advertisement short-list applicants interview preparation interview applicants reference checks Total: 35 to 51 days The whole selection process from: analyse the vacant position position description lodge an advertisement short-list applicants interview preparation interview applicants reference checks Total: 14 to 21 days maximum. Personnel Involved HR department will assume major responsibility for the recruitment and selection of staff, the training of required personnel and supporting documentation. Managers will support the managers in role. Managers will assume major responsibility for the recruitment and selection of staff, the training of required personnel and supporting documentation. HR department will support the managers in role. Documentation All vacant and new positions will be advertised internally and externally for ten working days unless special exemptions apply and be advertised online and in leading national newspaper. All positions must first be advertised internally for a minimum of ten working days in the HU newsletter before being advertised externally for a period of ten working days. Training HR department will hold the training for all new employees. Manager will hold the training for all new employees. Monitoring and Evaluation HR department will monitor and evaluate each new employee about their work performance. Managers will monitor and evaluate each new employee and report it to HR department about their work performance. It can be noted from both the 2000 and 2010 Healthcare Uniteds recruitment and selection policy and procedures make no reference to all relevant legislation for the recruitment and selection processes. However 2010 policy and procedures briefly mention that Healthcare United is an equal employment opportunity (EEO) employer. 5. Conclusions and Recommendations 5. 1 Conclusions It can be concluded from the analysis and review of 2000 ; 2010 Healthcare United policies and procedures for recruitment and selection processes that 2010 policies and procedures are superior to those of 2000 in all key areas in term of efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment and selection processes. For example, 2010 policy and procedure envisage a timeframe of maximum 3 weeks which is for efficient in selecting the best candidate when compared to the 2000 policy and procedures which specify selection processes requiring 35-51 days. Also, 2000 policy and procedure require participant of a large number of HR personnel when compare to 2010 where only the department managers are principally involved with the HR a support role only at all stages of recruitment and selection processes. 5. 2 Recommendations It is recommended that the newly develop 2010 policies and procedures for recruitment and selection should be adopted by Healthcare United for its recruitment and selection processes for future employment needs. However, the 2010 policies and procedures should include the provisions of legislative Acts, such as Anti- discrimination and the latest individual relation laws and regulations in addition to the EEO laws already included for the recruitment and selection processes.

Crime and disorder act 1998

Crime and disorder act 1998 The ratio of the case is that within section 28(4) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 those who are not an immigrant of the country, in other words those who are not of a British origin, do represent a racial group. Section 28(4) of the Act defines the term racial group which includes nationality (including citizenship) and national origins along with race, colour and ethnic origin. The addition of nationality in the Race Relations Act 1976 section 1 subsection (1)(b)(ii) established that discrimination against the non-British was no longer allowed and therefore it didnt matter that the offender hadnt referred to the women as Spaniards, the fact that he mentioned foreigners indicate the non-British and demonstrates racially aggravated discrimination under the 1998 Act. The Court of Appeal addressed the central issue by focusing on the language of section 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which includes the two circumstances under which an action would be considered to be racially aggravated, in subsection 1(a), the meanings of certain words in subsection 1(a), the basis of the offence and the meaning of the term racial group. The first key step in reaching the conclusion was mentioned by Baroness Hale, that the basic offence has been committed and that the offence is either racially or religiously aggravated under section 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The next step towards the reasoning mainly concerns subsection 1(a) which states that before, after or at the time of committing the offence, the offender demonstrates conducts hostility towards the victim which is based on the victims membership or presumed membership of a particular racial or religious group. This subsection is based on an outward manifestation of hostility towards racial or religious groups and that is what the House of Lords (HL) interpreted for this case. The HL then accepted that if the offender had referred to the victims as bloody Spaniards instead of bloody foreigners which were the exact words the offended had used. However according to the 1998 Act the hostility must be shown towards a particular group instead of foreigne rs. Then it has been mentioned that the Act requires to be defined by what it is rather than what it is not. Thus the term Spaniards would be covered in the Act but not the term foreigners which refers to all non-British. Then it was established by the HL that the criterion by which the victims are defined, whether it is defined solely by reference to what the group members are not or broadly by reference to what they are, is the same. Finally the last step towards the final decision of the case was to obtain the answer to the question; whether or not non-British people, those who dont come from a British origin, represent a racial group within section 28(4) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, to which the answer given was affirmative as it would be had the question been regarding whether foreigners represented a racial group within section 28(4) of the Act. I find the House of Lords decision to be convincing because of the following reasons: The offender has committed an offence and has demonstrated hostility towards the three Spanish women. The evidence for this lies in the fact he then pursued them in a kebab shop in an aggressive manner. The word aggressive is important in this context as it proves that he has shown hostile behaviour towards the three women. According to the facts of the case, after having said bloody foreigners and go back to your own country he then pursued them in a kebab shop in an aggressive manner. This indicates that the offender has committed a racially aggravated crime under section 28 , subsection 1(a) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which states that one of the circumstances under which an offence will be considered racially aggravated is if the offender demonstrated hostile behaviour towards the victims any time before, after or at the time of the offence, based on their racial backgrounds. Therefore the use of the word then satisfies this subsection of the 1998 Act because it indicates that he demonstrated hostile behaviour after committing the offence. It has already been proved that the act was racially aggravated and such acts lead to the denial of respect and dignity towards those who are considered as the others. They are never looked upon as part of the community and it is more hurtful to the victims as such conduct is likely to make them feel discriminated due to their racial backgrounds. Baroness Hale referred to the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v M [2004] 1 WLR 2758, where the Divisional Court held that the use of the terms bloody foreigners could portray hostile behaviour towards a racial group, depending on the context. The fact that Baroness Hale referred to this example to back up her opinion makes the final decision more convincing. Baroness Hale also mentioned that in Attorney Generals Reference (No 4 of 2004) [2005] 1 WLR 2810 the CA (Court of Appeal) held that someone who is an immigrant to this country and therefore non-British could be a member of a racial group for this purpose. This statement makes the decision really convincing because it actually states that the three Spanish women, being foreigners and therefore non-British, did constitute a separate racial group and hence the offenders appeal was dismissed. Baroness Hales opinion also includes examples which illustrate a clear distinction between words or phrases which demonstrate hostility towards a racial group and words that only demonstrate hostility towards foreigners only. One such example of this is Wogs begin at Calais which demonstrates hostility towards all foreigners and bloody wogs which is considered to have specific racial connotations. According to an article from telegraph.co.uk , the word wog is a vulgar name for a foreigner. So in other words the term bloody wogs which according to Baroness Hales opinion has racial associations, can also be translated to bloody foreigners. Therefore it shows how the expression bloody foreigners, used by the offender in the case, is a vulgar expression that insulted the three Spanish women. This further makes the House of Lords decision convincing.

Business Intelligence Solutions for Organisational Goals

Business Intelligence Solutions for Organisational Goals Information System is becoming an important framework that can assist organizations to manage, develop and communicate their intangible assets such as information and knowledge. Therefore it can be considered as a necessary framework in the current knowledge-based economy arena. In this paper, I will also explain the role of Business Intelligence in providing organizations with a way to plan and obtain their strategic managements objectives. Than others. Theres almost always a prominent firm. In the automotive industry, Toyota is considered an exceptional performer. In pure online retailing, Amazon.com is the leader. In off-line retailing Wal-Mart, the largest retailer on earth, is the also leader. In online music, Apples iTunes is considered the superior with more than 75 percent of the downloaded music markets, and in the related industry of digital music players, the iPod is the best. In Web searching, Google is considered the leader. Firms that do better than others are said to have a competitive advantage over the others: They either have access to specific resources that others do not, or they are able to use generally available resources more efficiently-usually because of superior knowledge and information assets. In any event, they do better in terms of revenue growth, profitability growth, or productivity growth (efficiency), all of which eventually in the long run translate into higher stock market valuations than their competitors. But Why do some firms do better than the others and how do they obtain competitive advantage? How can we analyze a business and recognize its strategic advantages? How can we build a strategic advantage for our own business? How do information systems cause to strategic advantages? One answer to questions above is Michael Porters competitive forces model. Arguably, the most famously used model for understanding competitive advantage is Michael Porters competitive forces model (See Figure 1).This model provides a common view of the firm, its competitors, and the firms environments. Porters model is all about the firms common business environment. In this model, five competitive forces form the fate of the firm. Figure 1- Porters competitive forces model Customers A profitable company depends in large criterion on its ability to attract and hold customers (while denying them to competitors), and charge more expensive prices. The power of customers becomes larger if they can easily switch to a competitors products and services, or if they can force a business and its competitors to compete on price alone in a clear marketplace where there is slightly product differentiation, and all prices are known immediately (such as on the Internet). For example, in the used college textbook market on the Internet, students (customers) can find various suppliers of just about any current college textbook. In this case, online customers have high power over used-book firms. Suppliers The market power of suppliers can have a important impact on firm profits, particularly, when the firm cannot increase prices as fast as can suppliers. The more different suppliers a firm has, the greater control it can practice over suppliers in terms of price, quality, and delivery timetables. For example, manufacturers of laptop PCs almost always have various competing suppliers of key components, such as keyboards, hard drives, and monitors. Competitors All firms share market space with other competitors who are continuously making new, more efficient ways to produce by introducing new products and services, and attempting to attract customers by developing their brands and compelling switching costs on their customers. New Market Entrants In a free economy with moveable labor and financial resources, new companies are always entering the marketplace. In some industries, there are very low barriers to entry, whereas in other industries, entry is very troublesome. For instance, it is easy to start a pizza business or just about any small retailing business, but it is much more costly and difficult to enter the computer chip business, which has very high capital costs and requires a considerable amount of expertise and knowledge that is hard to achieve. New companies have several possible advantages: They are not locked into former plants and equipment, they often employ younger workers who are less expensive and maybe more innovative, they are not burdened by old, worn-out brand names, and they are more hungry (highly motivated) than traditional occupants of an industry. These benefits are also their weakness: They depend on external financing for new plants and equipment, which can be costly; they have a less experienced manpower; and they have little brand identification. Substitute Products and Services In just about every industry, there are substitutes that the customers might use if our prices become excessively high. New technologies make new substitutes all the time. Even oil has substitutes: Ethanol can substitute for gasoline in automobiles; plant oil for diesel fuel in trucks; and wind, solar, coal, and hydro power for industrial electricity production. Likewise, Internet telephone service can substitute for customary telephone service, and fiber-optic telephone lines to the house can substitute for cable TV lines. And, of course, an Internet music service that permits us to download music tracks to an iPod is a substitute for CDbased Music shops. The more substitute products and services in industry, the less we can control pricing and the lower our net profits. Information System Strategies for Facing up to Competitive Forces How can firms use information systems to neutralize some of the forces outlined in Porters competitive forces model? Four general strategies are outlined in Table-1 Strategy Descriptions Example Low-cost Leadership Use information systems to produce products and services at a lower price than competitors while enhancing quality and level of service. Wall-Mart, Dell Computer Product Differentiation Use information systems to differentiate products, and enable new services and products. Google, eBay, Apple, Lands End Focus on market niche Use information systems to enable a focused strategy on a single market niche; specialize. Hilton Hotels Harrahs Customer and supplier intimacy Use information systems to develop strong ties and loyalty with customers and suppliers. Chrysler Corporation, Amazon.com Table 1-Four basic competitive strategies Low-Cost Leadership Use information systems to obtain the lowest operational costs and the lowest prices. Firms such as Wal-Mart have utilized IT to make an efficient customer response system that directly links customer behavior back to production, distribution and supply chains. Product Differentiation Use information systems to allow new products and services, or greatly change the customer convenience in using our existent products and services. Through mass customization, organizations are capable of to offer individually tailored products or services by using mass production resources. Focus on Market Niche Use information systems to enable a particular market focus, and serve this narrow target market better than competitors. Information systems support this strategy by producing and analyzing data for extremely well tuned sales and marketing techniques. Information systems enable companies to analyze buyer buying patterns, tastes, and preferences closely so that they efficiently establish advertising and marketing campaigns to smaller and smaller target markets. Strengthen Customer and Supplier Intimacy Use information systems to make tight linkages with suppliers and develop intimacy with customers. Amazon and Chrysler Corporation are both excellent instances that are quoted in the text of how these firms used information systems to fortify their customer and supplier relationships. Strong linkages to customers and suppliers raise switching costs (expense a customer or company incurs in lost time and expenditure of resources when changing from one supplier to a competing supplier). The Business Value Chain Model Although the Porter model is very useful for identifying competitive forces and suggesting general strategies, it is not very specific about what accurately to do, and it does not provide a methodology to follow for obtaining competitive advantages. If our aim is to achieve operational excellence, where do we start? Heres where the business value chain model is really helpful. The value chain model highlights specific activities in the business where competitive strategies can best be applied (Porter, 1985) and where information systems are most likely to have a strategic effect. This model recognizes specific, critical-leverage points where a firm can use information technology most effectively to improve its competitive position. The value chain model shows the firm as a series or chain of basic activities that add a margin of value to a firms goods or services. These activities can be classified as either primary activities or support activities (see Figure 2). Figure 2-Business Value Chain Model Now, How can we use information systems to enhance operational efficiency, and improve supplier and customer intimacy? This will encourage us to critically examine how we perform value-adding activities at each phase and how the business processes might be enhanced. We can also begin to ask how information systems can be used to improve the relationship suppliers with customers who locate outside the firm value chain but belong to the firms extended value chain where they are absolutely crucial to our success. Here, supply chain management (SCM) systems that arrange the flow of resources into our firm in proper order, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems that coordinate our sales and support employees with customers are two of the most common system applications that derive from a business value chain analysis. Using the business value chain model will also bring about us to consider benchmarking our business operation versus our competitors or others in related industries, and recognizing industry best practices. Benchmarking involves comparing the effectiveness of business processes against severe standards and then measuring performan ce versus those standards. Industry best practices are usually recognized by consulting companies, government agencies, industry associations and research organizations as the most successful solutions for consistently and effectively achieving a business goal. Once we have analyzed the several stages in the value chain at our business, we can come up with proper applications of information systems. Then, once we have a list of proper applications, we can decide which to build first. By making enhancements in our own business value chain that our competitors might miss, we can obtain competitive advantage by attaining lowering costs, operational excellence, enhancing profit margins, and forging a closer relationship with suppliers and customers. If our competitors are making similar enhancements, then we will not be at a competitive disadvantage-the worst of all cases Synergies and Core Competencies A large firm is typically a collection of businesses. Often, the firm is managed financially as a collection of strategic business units, and the returns to the corporation are directly tied to the performance of all the strategic business units. Information systems can enhance the overall performance of these business units by promoting core competencies and synergies. Synergies The aim of synergies is that when the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units, or two organizations pool markets and expertise, these relationships reduce costs and make profits. Recent bank and financial firm mergers, such as the mergers of JPMorgan Chase and Bank One Corporation, FleetBoston Financial Corporation and Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust, occurred exactly for this intention, One use of information technology in these synergy situations is to fasten together the operations of dissimilar business units so that they can work as a whole. For instance, merging with Bank One provided JPMorgan Chase with a enormous network of retail branches in the Southwest and Midwest. Information systems assist the merged banks lower retailing costs and increase cross marketing of financial goods. Enhancing Core Competencies Another way to use information systems for competitive advantages is to think about ways that systems can improve core competencies. The argument is that the performance of all business units will rise insofar as these business units improve, or make, a central core of competencies. Core competencies may include being the, the best packaged delivery service, worlds best miniature parts designer or the best thin-film manufacturer. In general, a core competency leans on knowledge that is gained over many years of experience and a first-class research organization or simply key people who pursue the literature and stay side by side of new external knowledge. Any information system that supports the sharing of knowledge across business units enhances competency. Such systems might encourage or improve existing competencies and help employees become conscious, of new external knowledge; such systems might also facilitate a business leverage existing competencies to related markets. The Impact of Business Intelligence on Competitive Advantage Business Intelligence is becoming crucial for many organizations, particularly those have extremely large amount of data. Decision makers depend on detailed and exact information when they have to make decisions. Business Intelligence can provide decision makers with such precise information, and with the suitable tools for data analysis. Business Intelligence is an umbrella term that combines tools, architectures, applications, data bases, practices, and methodologies [20, 6]. Gartner Group (1996) (the first company used Business Intelligence in marker in the mid-1990) defined Business Intelligence as information and applications available broadly to employees, consultants, customers, suppliers, and the public. The key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business users dig in the mine of data to extract and/or synthesize valuable information from it today these tools collectively fall into category called Business Intelligence [9]. Many organizations who built successful Business Intelligence solutions, such as Continental Airlines, have seen investment in Business Intelligence create increases in revenue and cost saving corr esponding to 1000% return on investment (ROI) [22]. A critical question that was raised by many researchers [16, 18] as to what were the main reason pushing companies to seek for business intelligence solutions, and what distinguishes Business Intelligence from Decision Support System (DSS) systems? Actually, over the last decades, organizations built a lot of Operational Information Systems (OIS), resulting in an enormous amount of dissimilar data that are located in different geographic locations, on different storage platforms, with not the same forms. This situation impedes organization from building a general, correlated, integrated, and instantaneous access to information at its global level. DSS developed during the 1970s, with the objective of providing organizations decision makers with the demanded data to sustain decision-making process. In the 1980s, Executive Information System (EIS) developed to supply executive officers with the information needed to support strategic decision-making process. Business Intelligence developed during the 1990s as data-driven DSS, sharing some of the tools and objectives of DSS and EIS systems. Business Intelligence architectures comprise: business analytics, data warehousing, business performance management, and data mining. Most of Business Intelligence solutions are facing up to structured data [1]. However, many application domains need the use of unstructured data or at lowest semi-structured data e.g. customer e-mails, web pages, sales reports, competitor information research paper repositories, and so on [4, 21]. Any Business Intelligence solution can be divided into the following three layers [1]: data layer, which is accountable for storing structured and unstructured data for decision support objectives. Structured data is usually collected in Data Warehouses (DW), Operational Data Stores (ODS), and Data Marts (DM). Unstructured data are managed by using Content and Document Management Systems. Data are extracted from operational data sources, e.g. SCM, CRM, and ERP or from exterior data sources, e.g. market research data. Data are taken out from data sources that are transformed and loaded into DW by ETL (Extract, Transfer, and Load) tools. Logic layer prepares functionality to examine data and provid e knowledge. This obtains OLAP, data mining. And finally access layer, realized by some type of software portals (Business Intelligence portal). My main focus in this paper is to explain the function of Business Intelligence solution that facilitates organizations in formulating, implementing, and obtaining their strategies. Many researchers [5, 17, 10, 12] were emphasizing the IT alignment in general, with businesses, without clearly describing what are the technologies, and tools that can assist organizations in achieving their strategy. The next section will describe the role of Business Intelligence is taking as an IT-enabler to obtain organizations strategy; such role will be emphasized by using strategic alignment model proposed by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993), explaining how this alignment can assist organizations in becoming flexible organizations, concluding how could Business Intelligence solution prepare organizations with sustainable competitive advantages. Business Intelligence as an IT-Enabler to Achieve Organizations Strategy Nowadays, Information System in general, and Business Intelligence as a strategic framework, is becoming increasingly significant in strategic management, supporting business strategies. IT-enabled strategic management addresses the IT role in strategy formulation and implementation processes [19]. Drucker, the pioneer of management by objectives, was one of the first who recognized the surprising changes IT presented to management. Strategic management theories were widely geared towards gaining competitive advantages. Porter (1979) proposed a number of very influential strategic analysis models, such as the five-force model of competition, the value chain and generic competitive strategies that I mentioned above. Porter (1979) said The essence of strategy formulation is coping with competition [14]. Many researchers have indicated the importance of IT alignment with business strategy in order to enhance corporate strategy [5, 17], (Figure3). Figure 3-IT alignment with Business Strategy [5]. Strategic Alignment Model was developed by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) was one of the first models that explained in a clear way the interrelationships between business strategies and IT strategies [10]. This model is based on two principal concepts (Figure 4): strategic fit that identifies the necessity to position the firm in an external marketplace where growth can take place, and functional integration which addresses how to best structure internal systems to carry out the business strategy of the firm [12]. IT alignment is not only formulating IT strategy to fit business strategy. It has to consider exterior forces and the environment uncertainty. Such alignment facilitates organizations becoming flexible organizations. Due to accelerations in the rates of innovation and technological changes, markets develop rapidly, products life cycles get shorter and innovation becomes the principle source of competitive advantage. And so, organizations look for flexibility to meet market demands. Drnevich and other; (2006) illustrated that flexibility-based perspectives evolved from Schumpeters concept of creative destruction [8]. Operationalization of these perspectives in strategic management is done by way of dynamic capabilities and real options views. Dynamic capabilities view refers to the firms abilities to maintain and fit its internal resources to environment changes to maintain sustainability of competitive advantages. It applies to the capability of obtaining new ways of competitive advantage. It causes to be concerned with continuous search, innovation and adaptation of firm resources and capabilities to reveal and tape new sources of competitive advantages. Real options outlook is effective in dealing with issues of uncertainty. It allows the firm to postpone investment decisions until uncertainties are resolved. New IT organizational adoption expedites the transition into flexible organizations. Business Intelligence is one of these new IT frameworks that can assist such transition. Business Intelligence technologies become a source of competitive advantages and differentiation [13, 11]. Tang and Walters (2006) hint that competitive advantage became a hot strategic management topic [19]. They also view that making new knowledge in a continued way is the single way to achieve competitive advantage. There are many reasons for organization to adopt business intelligence systems in order that achieve organizations strategy: Business Intelligence is considered as an expansion to corporate strategy activities. Herring (1988) considered that Strategy can be no better than the information from which it is derived [11]. Data analytics can be used efficiently to create future business strategy. Data analytics and data mining could disclose hidden reasons for some deficiencies as well as possible high-yielding new investments. Corporations require to be sure that they are receiving the right information related to their long-term strategy. Herring (1988) considered that business intelligence can facilitate organizations in [11]: Supporting the strategic decision making process of the firm. Supporting SWOT analysis Supporting strategic planning and processes. All the mentioned advantage should provide organizations with sustainable competitive advantages. Conclusion In this paper, I explained the use of one aspect of Information System (Business Intelligence) in formulating, implementing, and achieving organizations strategy. I also demonstrated how Business Intelligence solution could provide organizations with sustainable competitive advantages. This survey can be extended by integrating knowledge management (KM) with Business Intelligence (IB) solutions, as it can assist deriving more value (knowledge) from the explosion of textual information(tacit to implicit), which can add more inputs for strategic decision makers. Another important factor is the take advantage of agile methodologies in order to manage the high-change high-speed current environment. Such complicated and dynamic environments highly affect organizations strategies.

Young Goodman Brown Essay -- Literary Analysis, Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"†Young Goodman Brown† is an allegorical piece that cautions against the potential of human evil. Hawthorne believed the most evil thing a person could do was deliberately harden his heart, to disregard others’ emotions entirely and therefore their humanity. In the story, young goodman Brown commits this unpardonable sin. He through on many separate occasions decided to continue a wicked journey, when it did not end exactly the way he wanted, he ended his relationship with Faith. Hawthorne uses symbols to demonstrate and hopefully prevent people from turning into young goodman Brown. Hawthorne chronicles Brown’s departure, his journey through the woods, and his arrival at the ceremony. The story begins â€Å"Young goodman Brown came forth, at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife.† (Hawthorne 605). Brown has already begun the journey that will lead to his demise in this very first line. The act of crossing the threshold is just the beginning. Although leaving faith is not technically a sin, it is definitely not a step in the right direction. As Brown is leaving, Faith calls out to him. She asks him to wait until the morning. She pleads, â€Å"†¦put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she’s afeared of herself, sometimes. Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year!† (Hawthorne 605). Brown replies that this â€Å"journey† can only be done this night. In fact, the repititon of, â€Å"of all nights in the yea r,† may well refer to it being All Hallow’s Eve, although never explicitly stated. (Hawthorne 606).... ...among them that partook of the devil’s communion albeit somewhat hypocritical. Although Brown had a multitude of chances to cling to faith, he disregarded each one until it was too late. His clumsiness, and sheer lack of responsibility to preserve his faith, ultimately cost him his life. Hawthorne proved that human unquenchable thirst for knowledge and understanding proves to be their downfall. For Brown this is especially true. His curiosity is what started him on his journey that fateful night. He is also unable to discern the validity of the night itself. Was it all a dream? Neither does he know that Faith remained pure or was corrupted. And if she were corrupted, could she now things about goodman Brown that he did not know himself. His confusion forces him to isolate himself emotionally and harden his heart, which is, after all, the worst sin of them all.

Papaya :: Health, Food Safety

Our results of PRSV CP digestibility in gastro-intestinal fluids as well as bioinformatic analysis have shown that the transgene CP protein expressed in Rainbow and SunUp papaya is not allergenic. The PRSV CP is the major protein expressed in Rainbow papaya along with widely used nptII and GUS plant transformation markers. Here we will discuss about CP protein only as food safety of NPTII and GUS have been addressed elsewhere (24-26). The prediction of allergenicity of novel proteins are based on either bioinformatic and/or experimental approaches (6, 7). Following the bioinformatics analysis, PRSV CP did not show significant similarity to known allergenic proteins based on the criterion of an eight amino acid identical match (27). However, we performed more stringent similarity search criterion of a six amino acid identity match to the query CP sequences which identified only five entries in the SDAP database. Although we identified very small number of matches to known allergens based on a six amino acid similarity search, numerous reports indicate that the high percentage of allergenic proteins identified using this criterion are false positives (31, 32) and thus in practice does not accurately predict allergenic proteins. A computer based allergenicity prediction report by Kleter and Peijnenburg (28) identified a peptide of six amino acids (EKQKEK) shared by PRSV CP and a proposed allergen ABA-1, a protein of the human parasite Ascaris lumbricoides or the pig parasite Ascaris suum. However, as noted previously by Suzuki et al.(29), the PRSV CP match to ABA-1 is not relevant with regards to allergenicity for several reasons: 1) the amino acid sequence is not repeated in the coat protein sequence, therefore it will not trigger the IgE response associated with allergens, 2) the ABA-1 proposed allergenic peptide was found to be not inherently allergenic outside the context of other Ascaris proteins (30), and 3) it is not among the officially recognized allergens found in the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) allergen database (http://www.allergen.org). An important aspect of assessing potential allergenicity is experimental testing for properties common to allergenic proteins such as stability in simulated gastro-intestinal fluids which include SGF and SIF. SGF was developed to represent the conditions in the human stomach (20) and basically consists of the main gastric protease pepsin in low pH medium. Some data suggests that proteins that are susceptible to gastrointestinal digestion are inherently safer than those that are stable especially in terms of allergenicity (5).

Cultural Awareness in Counselling Practices Essay

I have chosen to focus this assignment on the Aboriginal and Vietnamese cultures. I hope to be working in an area which will have these two cultures as the dominant groups. The reason I have focussed on Vietnamese refugees instead of the culture of Vietnam as a whole is that the facility I hope to work in has refugees as its main client group. I will give an overview of my research into how best to work in a counselling relationship with people from Aboriginal and Vietnamese cultures, ensuring that I am as culturally sensitive and aware as possible. Aboriginal culture and counselling: Most research indicates that cultural barriers are the major reason why Aboriginal people are discouraged or dissuaded from using the mental health service. As practitioners, counsellors have often failed to identify, acknowledge and recognise the central role of Indigenous culture. Historically, there has been a long period of mistrust among the Aboriginal people and white Australians. Federal governments for much of the twentieth century developed paternalistic policies and practices that regarded the removal of children from Aboriginal families as essential for their welfare. Continuing statutory responsibilities for the protection of children have made many Aboriginal women fear approaching the Department of Family and Community Services for assistance, especially in domestic violence and child abuse issues. It is a fact that Aboriginal people have and continue to experience being discriminated against by white Australians. A large socio-economic gap exists between white Australians and Aboriginal people. Despite there having been recorded experiences of both Aboriginal counsellors and non-Aboriginal counsellors attempting to keep Aboriginal clients engaged in the mental health service, it is evident that some Aboriginal clients may only turn up for one or two sessions but drop out of the system. The possible factors behind their lack of motivation to keep engaging in counselling service may lie in the means of assistance they are looking for. The problems of engaging Aboriginal clients in mental health services exist mainly because mainstream services have not provided relevant responses to their crisis situation. Aboriginal clients would first seek practical assistance such as refugee accommodation and food, and they would also seek assistance from their families, extended families or their own communities. Aboriginal people have retained strong kinship ties and extended family commitments. As in traditional times, Aboriginal people feel a great obligation to their kinship ties. The extended family will always be first in helping if there is a crisis or even a slight problem. Only when they cannot get enough or suitable help from their extended family or their own community, will they turn to outside help or support. There are particular issues to be aware of when working in a counselling role with Aboriginal clients. For example, it is not suitable to refer to a dead person by name and Aboriginal people view hallucination or delusion as spiritual experience not necessarily as symptoms of mental illness. Eye contact is considered offensive to Aboriginal people. Making eye contact (particularly with some one of the opposite sex) is shaming. Gender rules within Aboriginal cultures are important and must be respected whenever possible regarding intervention. Ideally, women staff should work with women and male staff should work with men. Women may feel embarrassed talking to male staff and men may feel shame if helped by female staff. In building a trust with Aboriginal people, most Aboriginal people would prefer to work with an Aboriginal worker regarding their problems. However situations may arise where clients may know or be related to an Aboriginal worker. They may feel shame or be restricted through kinship rules in discussing personal problems with them. Fear that the worker will breach confidentiality with the local community may be another concern. Where possible, clients should be given the choice of both Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal workers. Aboriginal clients will usually take the initiative in seeking assistance when a crisis emerges, such as domestic violence or services being disconnected, or having no money to buy food and other essentials for their children. Aboriginal people would first consider practical forms of assistance, such crisis care, financial assistance, medical services, accommodation, food when a domestic problem arises. This sort of assistance is what they really need and want, not just â€Å"talk therapy†. Before they can sort out their basic living problems, they may not have the capacity or attention to deal with other psychological issues. Once Aboriginal clients have settled down and can take a calmer approach to their predicament, it still does not guarantee they will stay with the mental health service. It is not uncommon that once they have solved a problem, they will feel it not necessary to remain a part of the service but may come back a few months later for help when another issue arises. If mental health service workers, for example, have patiently developed a good relationship or rapport with them, counsellors can take advantage of this by reminding their clients of the good they can do when relationships or domestic situations are at risk. The ability of counsellors to invite clients to talk about their problems may make it possible to explore other problems. Aboriginal clients’ particular issues or crises may be linked to other problems, such as child abuse, alcoholism, mental health, unemployment and parenting problems. It is crucial for counsellors to build a trusting relationship with the Aboriginal community. A relationship that is simply based on â€Å"talk therapy† will not work for Aboriginal clients. Counsellors need to know where to get practical assistance for Aboriginal clients. Otherwise, Aboriginal clients may only turn to those services that they feel can really assist them. A counselling service that provides support and practical assistance can become a meaningful referral point within the Aboriginal community. Vietnamese refugees and counselling: My research found that there are three recommended points of entry for developing trust and rapport with Vietnamese refugees. These are: Self- presentation of the Counsellor; Approaching the problem and Working through an Issue. Self Presentation of the Counsellor: The style and presentation of the counsellor could be described as ‘being a friend’ to the traumatised client. ‘Being a friend’ does not at all mean shedding the professional counselling role with boundaries and ethics, but rather means that counsellors dealing with these clients should be caring, sharing and acting as a true friend would normally be. Communicating caring to Vietnamese clients is being friendly, warm, interested in family, attentive to concerns raised, being an empathic listener, trying to understand and respond to non-verbal communications, and being ready to assist with practical matters. Presenting ‘as a friend’ also means that counsellors may initially have to share, or disclose, a little more about themselves than usual. This is often necessary to put Vietnamese clients at ease and win their trust. Another dimension of being a ‘friendly’ counsellor is being a ‘friend in need’. Many counsellors of Indochinese refugee clients have found it vital to assume multiple helping roles and to be actively involved in providing them with practical assistance or concrete services that provide immediate results, before engaging them in dealing with past trauma or in making important self-disclosures. Approaching a problem: The success of establishing trust and rapport with Vietnamese clients is not only dependent upon the way that counsellors present themselves as described above, but also upon the way they approach a problem. Within Vietnamese culture there are distinct ways of dealing with problems. Prominent features of the Vietnamese style include indirect expression of feelings, reluctance to confront conflictual situations, preference for allowing time to work out seemingly insoluble problems, and reliance on personal inner strength in facing difficulties. Given the quite different ways of dealing with problems in Vietnamese culture, we would like to suggest that non-Vietnamese counsellors have to move slowly and gently and approach with the right timing. Following a respectful, slow pace suitable to the client is important, especially during the rapport building stage, to avoid jarring or offending the client. The timing of approaching the problem is important for maintaining the relationship and for resolving the problem. If the counsellor takes the initiative to bring up an issue, it is important to do this gently, keeping in mind the cultural norm of ‘saving face’ and the risk of confrontation. Working through an Issue: As issues begin to be worked through, there are three suggested ways of continuing to build rapport and trust with Vietnamese clients: working with somatisation, working from here and now and working through the family. A great number of Vietnamese refugees express their experience of emotional distress under the guise of physical symptoms such as headache, fatigue, insomnia. As somatisation is a culturally acceptable way of presenting mental problems, counsellors can work with these problems first, before moving onto deeper levels. Most Vietnamese refugees are concerned with day-to-day survival. Offering them practical assistance is seen as offering much needed help and assisting to set up a trusting relationship and also an external environment in which emotional issues can be more safely worked through. For Vietnamese, the family plays an important role, in a resettlement country as well as in their country of origin. It appears to be present and influential in many issues, which the Vietnamese client discusses in the session. The family can support or sabotage the relationship between the therapist and the patient. Therefore, in post-trauma counselling with Vietnamese clients, dealing with the family dimension is crucial for the building of trust and understanding and for the success of the intervention. As in all counselling interventions, it is essential to build trust between Vietnamese-born clients and their counsellors. Points of entry rather than barriers have been referred to in the three aspects of counselling refugees. Credibility and giving are seen as being crucial in this process. Counselling can be of great benefit to helping Vietnamese refugees on the road to recovery from trauma. Vietnamese refugees have a great need for company, because they have suffered multiple losses, including faith in the goodness of humanity. Through a counsellor establishing a trusting relationship with them, they could regain this faith, so as to enable them to live the life that they have made huge sacrifices for. Prior to undertaking this assignment I had felt that my cultural awareness of both the Aboriginal and Vietnamese communities was very high. I have travelled extensively in Vietnam and had the opportunity to teach English there. My research into trauma and Vietnamese refugee status in Australia has certainly changed a lot of my views. I could almost say that with my basic Vietnamese language and extensive travels I had been feeling almost complacency about dealing with Vietnamese clients. I have learned that there are many parallels between the Aboriginal and Vietnamese refugee cultures. Both are in trauma; both need to have their immediate needs met before effective counselling can take place. My research into Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs has certainly given the actual practice of counselling clients in trauma an effective framework to work within. As does Erikson’s Stages of Development. Traumatised clients will have interrupted stages of development. These will need to be addressed after the initial and immediate needs are met. I had also felt that I had a particularly good understanding of the Aboriginal culture, having worked in Indigenous education. My research for this assignment highlighted that there are many gaps to my understanding. I had not taken into account that many Aboriginal people are actually in severe crisis when they do seek help. Similar to the Vietnamese people in trauma, they would first try to find support within their kin, tribe or immediate family. When a breakdown of this occurs, outside help is sought but this is fraught with fear, shame and often misunderstanding. This has been a vital assignment for me to undertake and I will continue to seek current research and counselling developments in the areas of Aboriginal mental health and refugee trauma counselling. References Armstrong, T. (2002). Counselling Interventions and Indigenous mental health. Medicine Australia,http://www.medicineau.net.au/clinical/abhealth/abhealt1345.html. Blagg, H. (2000). Crisis Intervention in Aboriginal Family Violence, Summary report. Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia. Chambers, A. (1990). Responding to Domestic Violence: Spouse Abuse. Guidelines to Practice. Department for Community Services, Western Australia, September 1990. Nguyen & Robin Bowles authors, published in the Journal of Australian Social Work, June 1998.

Critique of Alexander Pope by Carole Fabricante Essay

â€Å"Defining Self and Others: Pope and Eighteenth Century Gender Ideology† – Carole Fabricante. This is an in depth critique by Carole Fabricante of eighteenth century gender ideologies in which Fabricante uses the poet Alexander Pope’s poetry as an example of changing thoughts towards gender roles. In particular, or as a specific argument, Fabricante warns about the use of ‘active voices’ to relate the situations, circumstances and feelings of the ‘passive’. Herein she discusses the dangers of allowing others who attempt to empathise with the voiceless, to become the main petition for the said people. The eighteenth century being a time in which women were largely relegated to the ‘seen and not heard’ caste, Fabricante examines Pope’s position not only as a protagonist for the ‘unspoken’, but also as devils advocate. She describes Pope’s own history as a crippled and deformed individual whose own identity is compromised by his inability to conform to the socialized standards of masculinity. This would naturally grant Pope a greater ability to empathize with the underdog. â€Å"Deformed, dwarfish, sickly, and probably impotent as a result of having contracted spinal tuberculosis in infancy, Pope was someone whose â€Å"manhood† was continually being called into question both by his enemies in print and by the women in his life, not to mention by his own ironic perceptions of himself. † (Fabricante). As a result of his own deformity, Fabricante asserts that his own idea of patriarchal power hierarchy and that this may at some level give him a greater lease to speak for those who ‘cannot’. Pope is by no means a passive voice, although speaking as a women in poems such as â€Å"Eloisa to Abelard† and â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount†, Fabricante does question whether Pope uses a form of political satire to direct is ideas. However Fabricante does admit the following: â€Å"Pope’s ambiguous and contradictory position in society affords us the opportunity to explore the dialectical interaction between the voices of marginality and dominance as these vye, not only among different groups in society, but also within a single personality and consciousness. †(Fabricante). The paper as a whole questions the usage over time of writers, artists and activists in order to speak for others, believing that this is not a clear or authentic view of those individuals. She compares Pope’s representation of women to that of Swift, another eighteenth century poet. In this comparison she examines the subtlety with which Pope describes women as a victim of choice-less marriages and breeding stock as opposed to Swifts considerably less authentic identification. She also explores the use of objectification of women as an entity for which the primary necessity it fulfils, are men. As an exploratory paper, Fabricante does touch on a great deal of the effects of subjugation of women as the ‘other’ over time. This is particularly important in an era such as the eighteenth century where the socialized acceptance by women of their fate, was beginning to disintegrate. Following the Renaissance, reading the likes of Shakespeares Othello and Romeo and Juliet, the discomfort faced by women was already rearing its head. However, it took centuries for this transformation to come into fruition. I feel that at times Fabricante attacks the wrong people though. In the beginning her main focus is on the Foucauldian perception of the voiceless being incarcerated by those intent on speaking for them. In many ways this practice does rob the recipient even further of their own right to be heard, however, those who can identify say for instance with abortion, may not be able to speak for themselves. This leads in the end, to no one getting anywhere. The point, I believe of people speaking for others, is not to precipitate further oppression, but to give them the strength to speak for themselves. Foucault, as Fabricante uses for an example, was himself a minority, being outwardly gay and questioning the idea of transgression as perceived by society, makes a good representation of those previously voiceless speaking out. As a sociological argument, Fabricante is eloquent and aggressive and may strike the reader as being decidedly feminist, although this may be a misconception on the part of the reader. Fabricante makes many interesting and pertinent points although she is not easy to read. For this reason it necessary to remember that the paper is not a poetic analysis, but a personality one. In the greater scheme of social theory, Fabricante displays all the downfalls and assets of social study particularly that of the need to label people as ‘other’. Describing another group or individual as ‘other’ is a social truth, as all things that can be defined, must by all intents and purposes possess an opposite. I believe Fabricante’s dissertation to be insightful, if at times a little aggressive. The paper sometimes appeared a little confused, perhaps because she uses a number of external which are placed within her own ideas.