Leading Clever Perople

HBR Spotlight How to Manage the Most Talented How do you manage people who don’t want to be led and may be smarter than you? CLEVER PEOPLE by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones LEADING F ranz Humer, the CEO and chairman of the Swiss pharma- ceutical giant Roche, knows how dif? cult it is to ? nd good ideas. â€Å"In my business of research, economies of scale don’t exist,† he says. â€Å"Globally today we spend $4 billion on R&D every year. In research there aren’t economies of scale, there are economies of ideas. For a growing number of companies, according to Humer, competitive advantage lies in the ability to create an economy driven not by cost ef? ciencies but by ideas and intellectual know-how. In practice this means that leaders have to create an environment in which what we call â€Å"clever people† can thrive. These people are the handful of employees whose ideas, knowledge, and skills give them the potential to produce disproportionate value fro m the resources their organizations make available to them. Think, for example, of the software Stephen Webster 72 Harvard Business Review | March 2007 | hbr. orgHBR Spotlight How to Manage the Most Talented programmer who creates a new piece of code or the pharmaceutical researcher who formulates a new drug. Their single innovations may bankroll an entire company for a decade. Top executives today nearly all recognize the importance of having extremely smart and highly creative people on staff. But attracting them is only half the battle. As Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services companies, told us recently,â€Å"One of the biggest challenges is that there are diseconomies of scale in creative industries.If you double the number of creative people, it doesn’t mean you will be twice as creative. † You must not only attract talent but also foster an environment in which your clever people are inspired to ach ieve their fullest potential in a way that produces wealth and value for all your stakeholders. That’s tough. If clever people have one de? ning characteristic, it is that they do not want to be led. This clearly creates a problem for you as a leader. The challenge has only become greater with globalization.Clever people are more mobile than ever before; they are as likely to be based in Bangalore or Beijing as in Boston. That means they have more opportunities: They’re not waiting around for their pensions; they know their value, and they expect you to know it too. We have spent the past 20 years studying the issue of leadership–in particular, what followers want from their leaders. Our methods are sociological, and our data come from case studies rather than anonymous random surveys. Our predominant method consists of loosely structured interviews, lever people is very different from the one they have with traditional followers. Clever people want a high degre e of organizational protection and recognition that their ideas are important. They also demand the freedom to explore and fail. They expect their leaders to be intellectually on their plane–but they do not want a leader’s talent and skills to outshine their own. That’s not to say that all clever people are alike, or that they follow a single path. They do, however, share a number of de? ning characteristics. Let’s take a look at some of those now.Understanding Clever People Contrary to what we have been led to believe in recent years, CEOs are not utterly at the mercy of their highly creative and extremely smart people. Of course, some very talented individuals – artists, musicians, and other free agents – can produce remarkable results on their own. In most cases, however, clever people need the organization as much as it needs them. They cannot function effectively without the resources it provides. The classical musician needs an orchest ra; the research scientist needs funding and the facilities of a ? st-class laboratory. They need more than just resources, however; as the head of development for a global accounting ? rm put it, your clever people â€Å"can be sources of great ideas, but unless they have systems and discipline they may deliver very little. † That’s the good news. The bad news is that all the resources and systems in the world are useless unless you have clever If clever people have one de? ning characteristic, it is that they do not want to be led. This clearly creates a problem for you as a leader. and our work draws primarily from ? e contexts: sciencebased businesses, marketing services, professional services, the media, and ? nancial services. For this article, we spoke with more than 100 leaders and their clever people at leading organizations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Electronic Arts, Cisco Systems, Credit Suisse, Novartis, KPMG, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , WPP, and Roche.The more we talked to these people, the clearer it became that the psychological relationship leaders have with their people to make the most of them. Worse, they know very well that you must mploy them to get their knowledge and skills. If an organization could capture the knowledge embedded in clever people’s minds and networks, all it would need is a better knowledge-management system. The failure of such systems to capture tacit knowledge is one of the great disappointments of knowledge-management initiatives to date. The attitudes that clever people display toward their organizations re? ect their sense of self-worth. We’ve found most Rob Goffee ([email  protected] edu) is a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School in England. Gareth Jones ([email  protected] london. du) is a visiting professor at Insead in Fontainebleau, France, and a fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School. Goffee and J ones are also the founding partners of Creative Management Associates, an organizational consulting ? rm in London. Their HBR article â€Å"Managing Authenticity† was published in December 2005. 74 Harvard Business Review | March 2007 | hbr. org Leading Clever People of them to be scornful of the language of hierarchy. Although they are acutely aware of the salaries and bonuses attached to their work, they often treat promotions with indifference or even contempt.So don’t expect to lure or retain them with fancy job titles and new responsibilities. They will want to stay close to the â€Å"real work,† often to the detriment of relationships with the people they are supposed to be managing. This doesn’t mean they don’t care about status–they do, often passionately. The same researcher who affects not to know his job title may insist on being called â€Å"doctor†or â€Å"professor. † The point is that clever people feel they are part of an external professional community that renders the organizational chart meaningless. Not only do they gain career bene? s from networking, but they construct their sense of self from the feedback generated by these extra-organizational connections. This indifference to hierarchy and bureaucracy does not make clever people politically naive or disconnected. The chairman of a major news organization told us about a globally famous journalist – an exemplar of the very clever and skeptical people driving the news business–who in the newsroom appears deeply suspicious of everything the â€Å"suits† are doing. But in reality he is astute about how the company is being led and what strategic direction it is taking.While publicly expressing disdain for the business side, he privately asks penetrating questions about the organization’s growth prospects and relationships with important customers. He is also an outspoken champion of the organization in its dealings with politicians, media colleagues, and customers. You wouldn’t invite him to a strategy meeting with a 60-slide PowerPoint presentation, but you would be wise to keep him informed of key developments in the business. Like the famous journalist, most clever people are quick to recognize insincerity and respond badly to it.David Gardner, the COO of worldwide studios for Electronic Arts (EA), knows this because he oversees a lot of clever people. EA has 7,200 employees worldwide developing interactive entertainment software derived from FIFA Soccer, The Sims, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, among others. â€Å"If I look back at our failures,† Gardner told us,â€Å"they have been when there were too many rah-rahs and not enough content in our dealings with our people. People are not fooled. So when there are issues or things that need to be worked out, straightforward dialogue is important, out of respect for their intellectual capabilities. †Seve n Things You Need to Know About Clever People Leaders should be aware of the characteristics most clever people share, which collectively make them a dif? cult crew to manage. 1. They know their worth. The tacit skills of clever people are closer to those of medieval guilds than to the standardized, codi? able, and communicable skills that characterized the Industrial Revolution. This means you can’t transfer the knowledge without the people. 2. They are organizationally savvy. Clever people will ? nd the company context in which their interests will be most generously funded. If the funding dries up, they have a couple of options:They can move on to a place where resources are plentiful, or they can dig in and engage in elaborate politics to advance their pet projects. 3. They ignore corporate hierarchy. If you seek to motivate clever people with titles or promotions, you will probably be met with cold disdain. But don’t assume this means they don’t care about status; they can be very particular about it, and may insist on being called â€Å"doctor† or â€Å"professor. † 4. They expect instant access. If clever people don’t get access to the CEO, they may think the organization does not take their work seriously. 5. They are well connected.Clever people are usually plugged into highly developed knowledge networks; who they know is often as important as what they know. These networks both increase their value to the organization and make them more of a ? ight risk. 6. They have a low boredom threshold. In an era of employee mobility, if you don’t engage your clever people intellectually and inspire them with organizational purpose, they will walk out the door. 7. They won’t thank you. Even when you’re leading them well, clever people will be unwilling to recognize your leadership. Remember, these creative individuals feel that they don’t need to be led.Measure your success by your ability to remain on the fringes of their radar. Managing Organizational â€Å"Rain† Given their mind-set, clever people see an organization’s administrative machinery as a distraction from their key valueadding activities. So they need to be protected from what we call organizational â€Å"rain† – the rules and politics associated with any big-budget activity. When leaders get this right, they hbr. org | March 2007 | Harvard Business Review 75 HBR Spotlight How to Manage the Most Talented can establish exactly the productive relationship with clever people that they want.In an academic environment, this is the dean freeing her star professor from the burden of departmental administration; at a newspaper, it is the editor allowing the investigative reporter to skip editorial meetings; in a fast-moving multinational consumer goods company, it is the leader ? ltering requests for information from the head of? ce so the consumer pro? ler is free to experiment with a n ew marketing plan. Organizational rain is a big issue in the pharmaceutical business. Drug development is hugely expensive – industrywide, the average cost of bringing a drug to market is about $800 million – and not every drug can go the distance.As a result, the politics surrounding a decision can be ferocious. Unless the CEO provides cover, promising projects may be permanently derailed, and the people involved may lose con? dence in the organization’s ability to support them. The protective role is one that Arthur D. Levinson, Genentech’s CEO and a talented scientist in his own right, knows how to play. When the drug Avastin failed in Phase III clinical trials in 2002, Genentech’s share price dropped by 10% 76 Harvard Business Review | overnight. Faced with that kind of pressure, some leaders would have pulled the plug on Avastin.Not Levinson: He believes in letting his clever people decide. Once or twice a year, research scientists have to def end their work to Genentech’s Research Review Committee, a group of 13 PhDs who decide how to allocate the research budget and whether to terminate projects. This gives rise to a rigorous debate among the clever people over the science and the direction of research. It also insulates Levinson from accusations of favoritism or short-termism. And if the RRC should kill a project, the researchers are not only not ? red, they are asked what they want to work on ext. Roche owns 56% of Genentech, and Franz Humer stands foursquare behind Levinson. Leading clever people, Humer told us, is especially dif? cult in hard times. â€Å"You can look at Genentech now and say what a great company,† he said,â€Å"but for ten years Genentech had no new products and spent between $500 million and $800 million on research every year. The pressure on me to close it down or change the culture was enormous. †Avastin was eventually approved in February 2004; in 2005 it had sales of $1. 13 billion. March 2007 | hbr. org Leading Clever PeopleHaving a leader who’s prepared to protect his clever people from organizational rain is necessary but not suf? cient. It’s also important to minimize the rain by creating an atmosphere in which rules and norms are simple and universally accepted. These are often called â€Å"representative rules,† from the classic Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy, by the sociologist Alvin Gouldner, who distinguished among environments where rules are ignored by all (mock bureaucracy), environments where rules are imposed by one group on another (punishment-centered bureaucracy), and environments where rules are accepted by all (representative bureaucracy).Representative rules, including risk rules in banks, sabbatical rules in academic institutions, and integrity rules in professional services ? rms, are precisely the ones that clever people respond to best. Savvy leaders take steps to streamline rules and to promote a cul ture that values simplicity. A well-known example is Herb Kelleher, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, who threw the company’s rule book out the window. Another is Greg Dyke, who when he was the director general of the BBC discovered a mass of bureaucratic rules, often contradictory, which produced an infuriating organizational immobilisme.Nothing could be better calculated to discourage the clever people on whom the reputation and future success of the BBC depended. Dyke launched an irreverent â€Å"cut the crap† program, liberating creative energy while exposing those who had been blaming the rules for their own inadequacies. He creatively engaged employees in the campaign–for example, suggesting that they pull out a yellow card (used to caution players in soccer games) whenever they encountered a dysfunctional rule. Recruiting People with the Right Stuff Clever people require a peer group of like-minded individuals. Universities have long understood this.Hire a s tar professor and you can be sure the aspiring young PhDs in that discipline will ? ock to your institution. This happens in business as well. In the investment banking world, everyone watches where the cleverest choose to work. Goldman Sachs, for example, cherishes its reputation as the home of the brightest and best; a bank that seeks to overtake it must be positioned as a place where cleverness thrives. For this reason, the CEOs of companies that rely on clever people keep a close watch on the recruiting of stars. Bill Gates always sought out the cleverest software programmers for Microsoft.From the start, Gates insisted that his company required the very best minds; he understood that they act as a magnet for other clever people. Sometimes he intervened personally in the recruitment process: A particularly talented programmer who needed a little additional persuasion to join the company might receive a personal call from Gates. Very ? attering – and very effective. Althou gh you need to recruit clever stars, you must also make sure that your culture celebrates clever ideas. In an effort to create stars, some media organizations divide their employees into â€Å"creatives† and administrative support staff.That’s a big mistake. It makes about as much sense as recruiting men only – you automatically cut your talent pool in half. The ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty doesn’t make this mistake. Many of its most successful executives started as assistants but were given the space to grow and express their cleverness. Not surprisingly, BBH has long been regarded as one of the most creative ad agencies in the world. At the heart of its corporate culture is the maxim â€Å"Respect ideas, wherever they come from. † Letting a Million Flowers Bloom Companies whose success depends on clever people don’t place all their bets n a single horse. For a large company like Roche, that simple notion drives big decisions about corpor ate control and M&A. That’s why Humer decided to sell off a large stake in Genentech. â€Å"I insisted on selling 40% on the stock market,† he told us. â€Å"Why? Because I wanted to preserve the company’s different culture. I believe in diversity: diversity of culture, diversity of origin, diversity of behavior, and diversity of view. † For similar reasons, Roche limits its ownership of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Chugai to 51%.By keeping the clever people in all three companies at arm’s length, Humer can be con? ent that they will advance different goals: â€Å"My people in the Roche research organization decide on what they think is right and wrong. I hear debates where the Genentech researchers say,‘This program you’re running will never lead to a product. You are on the wrong target. This is the wrong chemical structure–it will prove to be toxic. ’ And my guys say, ‘No, we don’t think so. â€⠄¢ And the two views never meet. So I say to Genentech, ‘You do what you want, and we will do what we want at Roche, and in ? ve years’ time we will know. Sometimes you will be right and sometimes we will be right. † Maintaining that diversity is Humer’s most challenging task; there is always pressure within a large organization to unify and to direct from above. Companies that value diversity are not afraid of failure. Like venture capitalists, they know that for every successful hbr. org | March 2007 | Harvard Business Review 77 HBR Spotlight How to Manage the Most Talented The Traitorous Eight Ineffective leadership of clever people can be costly. Consider the cautionary tale of William Shockley, a London-born research scientist who worked at Bell Labs after World War II.In 1947 Shockley was recognized as a coinventor of the transistor, and in 1956 he was awarded a Nobel Prize. He left Bell Labs in 1955 and founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, in M ountain View, California. His academic reputation attracted some of the cleverest people in electronics, including Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore (of Moore’s Law fame). Shockley was blessed with a brilliant mind. Noyce described him as a â€Å"marvelous intuitive problem solver, and Moore said he had a † â€Å"phenomenal physical intuition. But his leadership † skills fell far short of his intellectual brilliance.On one occasion Shockley asked some of his younger employees how he might stoke their enthusiasm. Several expressed a wish to publish research papers. So Shockley went home, wrote a paper, and the next day offered to let them publish it under their own names. He meant well but led poorly. On another occasion, Shockley instituted a secret â€Å"project within a project. Although only 50 or so peo† ple were employed in his laboratory, the group assigned to work on his new idea (which, according to Shockley, had the potential to rival the transistor) was not allowed to discuss the project with other colleagues.It wasn’t long before rumblings of discontent at Shockley’s leadership style turned mutinous. The situation deteriorated and a disenchanted group – â€Å"the Traitorous Eight† – left to found Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 Fairchild revolutionized computing . through its work on the silicon transistor. It also threw off a slew of clever people who went on to start up or develop some of the best-known companies in the industry: Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore (Intel), Jerry Sanders (Advanced Micro Devices), and Charlie Sporck (National Semiconductor) were all former employees of Fairchild.Through his poor leadership, Shockley inadvertently laid the cornerstone of Silicon Valley. He brought together some of the best scientists in the ? eld of electronics, many of whom might otherwise not have remained in the region. And he created conditions that provoked his brilliant employees to strike out on their own. new pharmaceutical product, dozens have failed; for every hit record, hundreds are duds. The assumption, obviously, is that the successes will more than recover the costs of the failures. Take the case of the drinks giant Diageo.Detailed analysis of customer data indicated an opening in the market for an alcoholic beverage with particular appeal to younger consumers. Diageo experimented with many potential products–beginning with predictable combinations like rum and coke, rum and blackcurrant juice, gin and tonic, vodka and fruit juice. None of them seemed to work. After almost a dozen tries, Diageo’s clever people tried something riskier: citrus-? avored vodka. Smirnoff Ice was born – a product that has contributed to a fundamental change in its market sector.It’s easy to accept the necessity of failure in theory, but each failure represents a setback for the clever people who gambled on it. Smart leaders will help their clever people to l ive with their failures. Some years ago, when three of Glaxo’s high-tech antibiotics all failed in the ? nal stages of clinical trial, Richard Sykes – who went on to become chairman of Glaxo Wellcome and later of GlaxoSmithKline – sent letters of congratulation to the team leaders, thanking them for their hard work but also for killing the drugs, and encouraging them to move on to the next challenge.EA’s David Gardner, too, recognizes that his business is â€Å"hit driven,† but he realizes that not even his most gifted game developers will always produce winners. He sees his job as supporting his successful people – providing them with space and helping them move on from failed projects to new and better work. Smart leaders also recognize that the best ideas don’t always come from company projects. They enable their clever people to pursue private efforts because they know there will be payoffs for the company, some direct (new busine ss opportunities) and some indirect (ideas that can be applied in the workplace).This tradition originated in organizations like 3M and Lockheed, which allowed employees to pursue pet projects on company time. Google is the most recent example: Re? ecting the entrepreneurial spirit of its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, employees may spend one day a week on their own start-up ideas, called Googlettes. This is known as the â€Å"20% time. †(Genentech has a similar policy. ) The result is innovation at a speed that puts large bureaucratic organizations to shame. The Google-af? liated social-networking Web site Orkut is just one project that began as a Googlette.Establishing Credibility Although it’s important to make your clever people feel independent and special, it’s equally important to make sure they recognize their interdependence: You and other people in the organization can do things that they can’t. Laura Tyson, who served in the Clinton admi nistration and has been the dean of London Business School since 2002, says, 78 Harvard Business Review | March 2007 | hbr. org Leading Clever People â€Å"You must help clever people realize that their cleverness doesn’t mean they can do other things.They may overestimate their cleverness in other areas, so you must show that you are competent to help them. †To do this you must clearly demonstrate that you are an expert in your own right. Depending on what industry you are in, your expertise will be either supplementary (in the same ? eld) or complementary (in a different ? eld) to your clever people’s expertise. At a law ? rm, the emphasis is on certi? cation as a prerequisite for practice; at an advertising agency, it’s originality of ideas. It would be hard to lead a law ? rm without credentials.You can lead an advertising agency with complementary skills–handling commercial relationships with clients, for instance, while your clever people wri te great copy. A man we’ll call Tom Nelson, who was the marketing director of a major British brewer, is a good example of a leader Beckham, to practice a particular maneuver. When Beckham couldn’t do it, Hoddle – once a brilliant international player himself – said, â€Å"Here, I’ll show you how. † He performed the maneuver ? awlessly, but in the process he lost the support of his team: The other players saw his move as a public humiliation of Beckham, and they wanted no part of that.The same dynamic has played out many times in business; the experience of William Shockley is perhaps the most dramatic, and tragic, example (see the sidebar â€Å"The Traitorous Eight†). How do you avoid this kind of situation? One highly effective way is to identify and relate to an informed insider among your clever people – someone willing to serve as a sort of anthropologist, interpreting the culture and sympathizing with those who seek to un derstand it. This is especially important for newly recruited leaders. Parachuting in at the top and accurately reading an organization is hard work. One leader weIf you try to push your clever people, you will end up driving them away. As many leaders of highly creative people have learned, you need to be a benevolent guardian rather than a traditional boss. with complementary skills. Nelson was no expert on traditional brewing techniques or real ales. But he was known throughout the organization as â€Å"Numbers Nelson† for his grasp of the ? rm’s sales and marketing performance, and was widely respected. Nelson had an almost uncanny ability to quote, say, how many barrels of the company’s beer had been sold the previous day in a given part of the country.His clear mastery of the business side gave him both authority and credibility, so the brewers took his opinions about product development seriously. For example, Nelson’s reading of market tastes led to the company’s development of low-alcohol beers. Leaders with supplementary expertise are perhaps more commonplace: Microsoft’s Bill Gates emphasizes his abilities as a programmer. Michael Critelli, the CEO of Pitney Bowes, holds a number of patents in his own name. Richard Sykes insisted on being called Dr. Sykes.The title gave him respect within the professional community to which his clever people belonged – in a way that being the chairman of a multinational pharmaceutical company did not. But credentials–especially if they are supplementary–are not enough to win acceptance from clever people. Leaders must exercise great care in displaying them so as not to demotivate their clever employees. A former national soccer coach for England, Glenn Hoddle, asked his star player, David spoke to admitted that he initially found the winks, nudges, and silences of his new employees completely baf? ng. It took an interpreter – someone who had worke d among the clever people for years – to explain the subtle nuances. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Martin Sorrell likes to claim that he uses reverse psychology to lead his â€Å"creatives† at WPP: â€Å"If you want them to turn right, tell them to turn left. † His comment reveals an important truth about managing clever people. If you try to push them, you will end up driving them away. As many leaders of extremely smart and highly creative people have learned, you need to be a benevolent guardian rather than a traditional boss.You need to create a safe environment for your clever employees; encourage them to experiment and play and even fail; and quietly demonstrate your expertise and authority all the while. You may sometimes begrudge the time you have to devote to managing them, but if you learn how to protect them while giving them the space they need to be productive, the reward of watching your clever people ? ourish and your organization accomplish its mission w ill make the effort worthwhile. Reprint R0703D To order, see page 145. hbr. org | March 2007 | Harvard Business Review 79

Malware, Spyware And Adware Essay

How do we get Spyware How Spyware operates Spyware effects Man In Middle attack Counter-Measures Anti-Malware Techniques Bibliography Introduction: From the early days of cracking passwords and stealing information from personal computers, to deadly Internet based attacks that can shake entire’s nation security, cyber crimes have evolved from the endeavors of entertainment by cyber kiddies to organized crimes and terrorist activities of cyber mafia. Virus Attacks, hacking, browser hijacks, spam, phishing and so on are various manifestations of malicious activities that have evolved on the internet in last couple of decades. Malware is one such tool that has emerged as a widely preferred choice to consummate criminal activities on the Internet. Malware is new genre of hostile software, written in a high level language. Normally they target technical vulnerabilities in the system. Spyware, adware, Trojans, virus, worms are very common form of Malware prevalent on the Internet. It propagates through emails, IM and other web services. It can be categorized into criminal and business malware. Criminal malware is used in cyber terrorism and vandalism; while business malware is used for business/monetary benefits. Spyware is a software program that collects personal information of the users without their formal consent. Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self replicate, or intrude into the system directly or spread from one system to another; instead, it intrudes into a system by deceiving the user or exploiting software vulnerabilities in a system. Once it gets into the system, its implications can range from disturbing to devastating. It propagates using personalization cookies, tracking cookies, Trojans, drive-by downloads, hacking and piggybacking. Malware: Along with viruses, malware is the biggest threat today to the computer users. It can hijack the browser, redirect search results, serve up pop-ups and many more. Malware stands for â€Å"malicious software† and is used to identify all unwanted and potentially unwanted software. We can get infected by malware in several ways. It often comes bundled with other programs (examples include kazaa and i-mesh). These are usually pop-up ads, that send revenue from the ads to the program’s authors. Others are installed from the website, pretending to be software needed to view the site. Its most destructive feature is that once we are infected with the malware, it tends to multiply!! Earlier, it was mainly written for the destruction of computers and their data but now a days malware development is a big business. It is mostly used as a tool for extorting money out of its victims. In the form of rogue security programs, these are used to convince uneducated computer users to purchase the removal software from the same people who have written it. The types of malware are: Adware- It is the class of software that monitors the internet use for known e-commerce sites. When a user attempts to reach a site, adware pops-up suggesting an alternate site which may or may not be legitimate. Porn Dialers- This software was used heavily during the days when modem was the primary mechanism for connecting to the internet. This used to silently disconnect a modem from its service providers and redial to another premium rate telephone number. The resulting phone number charges, usually that of far-removed countries, would be found by the user only on its next telephone bill. Backdoors- These are the software tools which are mostly used to bypass existing security mechanisms present in either operating system or any application. Exploits- It is a general term used to describe any software code that is specifically designed to take advantage of a known weakness in operating system or application code. When vulnerabilities exist on a system, the exploits can be created to grant attacker administrative privileges, disclose or destroy any data or complete any task. Key loggers- These are the original spyware. It is a type of malware that is mostly used to â€Å"spy† on the user of a system. One way to accomplish this is to log every keystroke typed into that system and then using that data to extract credit card & social security numbers and all other sensitive information. Trojans- It is software that illegitimately performs some action that is different than its stated purpose. It may appear to be a legitimate software package that accomplishes a task desired by the user but at the same time after installing it can also perform some illegitimate tasks like destroying personal data. Examples of malware: GAIN- It is one of the oldest and best known examples of malware, created by Claria company. webHancer- It is a spyware application that is commonly bundled with other programs. Upon installation, it starts a program that runs in the background and collect details of the webpages we visit. ISTBar- It is a combination of toolbar and hijacker. It installs a toolbar with search functions provided by slotch. com. Recent Attacks:- Katrina-themed Malware attack Hits the Net – – This malicious site hosted in Poland harbors a secondary line of attack designed especially to dupe windows users. It cynically offers a â€Å"free scan† for the zotob worm that in reality infects users. It also exploits well known IE vulnerabilities to install a variety of Trojans including Cgab-A, Borobot-Q etc. Most Recent Malware: Stealth Malware Stealth is a program that deliberately tries to conceal its presence in the system. It may try to hide changes it introduced in the system, including dropped files, file changes, running processes, registry settings etc. Malware Development Life Cycle- In recent years, malware has evolved in complexity to rival many decent sized software projects. This indicates an improvement in decent methodologies that enables malware producers to improve their output and capability to achieve maximum gain. Following are the steps generally deployed by the creators of malware to ensure its success: Get the malware onto the target system. Ensure the survival of the malware in the target system. Once establish engage its payload. There are several ways by which malware can be installed on the target machine. Some of these include websites or vulnerabilities in software installed on target machine. There are also actively spreading worms, which propagates via emails, peer to peer network, and IM. A growing trend is not to target vulnerabilities in software but to exploit the users of that software. Malware tricks the users and entice the user to download. One of the major requirement of malware is to remain undetected and viable once installed on the target machine. For this purpose the most common techniques used are compression and encryption. Now a days two more techniques are getting common i. e. code obfuscation and executable injectors. Once establish the main job of malware is to deliver the payload. This payload varies from malware to malware. Spyware- It is a type of malicious software that collects information from a computing system without his/her consent. It can capture keystrokes, screenshots, internet usage habit & other personal information. The data is then delivered to online attackers who sell it to others or use it themselves for marketing or identify theft. How do we get spyware:- The main culprits in spyware transmission are:- Unprotected web browsing – Many advertising companies send tracking files, called â€Å"cookies,† along with their banner, ads or provide â€Å"special offers† that, when clicked, install extra software without our consent. Peer-to-peer applications – Kazza Lite is a notorious carrier of spyware installation packages. Many MP3 sharing sites also cause spyware problems. Opportunistic â€Å"freeware† or â€Å"shareware† programs – Weatherbug is one such program which collects more information than it is authorized. Web browsers using cookies – Any web browser can permit spyware to be installed on clicking the page that installs it. Some legitimate commercial software – Windows Media Player and America Online are considered sources of spyware. Each installation of Windows Media Player includes a uniquely identifying number that is provided to Microsoft, and America Online installs additional software packages that report data usage to advertising companies. How Spyware operates: When keywords of interest like names of banks, online payment systems etc are observed, the spyware starts its data collection process. The most common area of interest for spyware is the data sent using HTTPS i. e. HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. This HTTPS is mainly used for very sensitive data and uses Secure Socket Layers(SSL) & Transport Layer Security(TLS). Encryption using these SSL & TLS makes it difficult to intercept data during transmission but when spyware is running on the end user’s computer, it is collected before encryption. Man-In-Middle Attack Man in Middle Attack or Bucket Brigade Attack can be active as well as passiveform of eavesdropping. It is a type of attack in which the cyber criminal funnels communication between two users and none of the user is aware that the communication is being illegally monitored. The man in middle employ spyware that when loaded on the consumer’s computer redirects the web browser to the fake site. Countermeasures: Users/Organizations can formulate their anti-malware strategy depending upon the type and complexity of Malware attacks that they are exposed to, and the level of risk associated with such attacks. Different organizations use different tools and approaches to counter malware attacks. These tools and approaches are often based on their functionality, suitability and a cost. The two basic approaches are: Reactive Approach Proactive Approach Reactive Approach- It is an incident response process. In this method, once a problem is encountered, the investigation of the problem, analysis and findings remedy, and documenting the resolutions for future is done and that too mostly in same order. The existing anti malware tools available, identify the malware by scanning the computer executable files & check if any know malware have sneaked into the system. This is done by detecting programs that are making changes to the operating system registry. Here, there are only three alternatives for dealing with malware:- Running Malware removable tool to detect and repair malware. If, anti-malware tool fails, Malware can be removed manually by the administrator or formatting the system. Use anti-Malware tool to prevent them from entering the system. Proactive approach- In this approach, the Malware can be deleted even before they get executed. It can be done in following ways:- Apply latest firmware to hardware systems and routers as recommended by vendors. Apply latest security patches to server applications and other applications. Ensure recent anti virus software is running. Maintain a database that keeps track of what patches have been applied. Enable firewalls. Enforce strong password policies. Use Least-privileged user account(LUA). This will do less damage as compared to high privileged processes. Anti-Malware techniques: When a worm or virus starts spreading into the computer networks, one must be able to react quickly to minimize the outbreak and damage it can cause. Traditionally, organizations use firewalls and antivirus scanning tools in order to prevent Malware from entering the system. These tools are used as a protective wall between a node and its network and the internet. The main motive is to prevent malicious code from entering into the system. However, these firewalls & antivirus scanning tools and traffic monitors are not free from technical vulnerabilities, that can still be exploited by new generation Malware. Advanced Anti-Malware techniques: Integrating filters ‘with signatures’ – Having layers of application filter on the network, will increase the efficiency of the security tools. Advanced antivirus tools, firewalls, web and email filters can be clubbed together, with latest updates/patches to prevent Malware from entering the system. This approach reduces the probability of Malware intrusion to minimum possible. Though not zero. For example, Malware that attacks the web-browser normally bypasses the firewalls, but gets identified and deleted by web filters. Similarly, a new Malware whose signature is not there in any of the filters can still sneak into the network unnoticed. ‘Multi-Layered Defense’ without signatures- It is very much similar to the ‘Integrating Filters’ approach but the only differentiating factor is that they can detect any malware even without their definition or signatures. In the integrating filters with signature technique there is a vulnerability i. e. these are amenable to attacks by unidentified or reported Malware. To overcome that vulnerability ‘Malware without signature’ approach must be adopted. It includes following technologies.

Bullying at Workplace

The use of harmful communication at workplace is of international concern. In various European countries and Australia, legislators have ratified and enforced laws that warn employers against using relationships that causes suffering and discomfort in the workplace (Namie & Namie, 2003). In England and the United States, laws have been propagated in an effort to afford just, safe and secure work conditions. These regulations are enforced through associations and groups responsible for safety and health of employees and agencies liable for defending against intolerance.In the U. S.,  for example regulations have been passed in the majority of states protecting workers from harassment, assault, sexual harassment, discrimination, annoyance and stalking. (Vega & Comer, 2005) At the same time, a number of recent studies suggest that exposure to moral harassment at work is a serious international problem. It is known by different names in different places, bullying in England, murahachib u or ijime in Japan and mobbing in the USA. Differing concepts have been in use in different European countries, such as, ‘moral harassment', ‘psychological terror' and ‘victimisation'.(Einarsen et al. , 2002) Though, they all seem to refer to the same phenomenon, specifically the â€Å"systematic mistreatment of a subordinate, a colleague, or a superior, which, if continued, may cause severe social, psychological and psychosomatic problems in the victim. Exposure to such treatment has been claimed to be a more crippling and devastating problem for employees than all other kinds of work-related stress put together, and is seen by many researchers and targets alike as an extreme type of social stress at work† (Einarsen et al., 2002, p. 3) Nevertheless, workers still complain that they are intimidated, abused verbally, and, on the whole, made to feel inadequate (Daniel, 2002). Circumstances in which workers are subjected to oral assaults and to intimidating an d harassing behaviours take place regularly in organizations (Namie & Namie, 2003). Confrontations that have non-fatal consequences leave workers irritated; some quit their employments or develop foremost problems with health.Scholars who recently began investigating these behaviours at workplace infer that the constant and deliberate verbal violence coupled with scorn or threatening and harassing strategies cause physical and psychological harm which they consider as a complicated phenomenon—workplace bullying (Davenport et al. , 2002). It is estimated that as many as 8-10% of European employees may suffer from exposure to bullying and harassment at work. It prevails in both private and public organisations and finds its victims among men and women alike.Studies also show that exposure to bullying at work is a severe source of stress at work and may be a crippling and devastating problem for those exposed. (Tehrani, 2001) A victim of bullying at work seems to produce severe emotional reactions such as fear, anxiety, helplessness, depression and shock. It appears to alter the victims’ perceptions of their work-environment to one of threat, danger, insecurity, and self-questioning, which may result in pervasive emotional, psychosomatic and psychiatric problems.Moral harassment also has negative effects on the organisation and lowers productivity in the workplace. (Vega & Comer, 2005) Researchers implemented the term â€Å"workplace bullying† from their counterparts in Europe, England, Australia, Canada, and other states worldwide where research has led to legislative and legal intrusions to prevent and highlight workplace bullying. Though, American and Japanese researchers have been slower than their colleagues worldwide to examine the nature of workplace bullying.Although research into psychological and emotional problems at workplace in Japan and America has led to legislative and legal acts to manage aggression, stalking, sexual harassme nt, and discrimination, workplace bullying has not been accepted in America and Japan as a special phenomenon. Consequently, legislative field in these countries concerning workplace abuse issues are underdeveloped. (Vogel, 2002) There are numerous definitions of workplace bullying; the one used at this point is â€Å"unwanted, offensive, humiliating, undermining behaviour towards an individual or groups of employees.Such persistently malicious attacks on personal or professional performance are typically unpredictable, irrational, and unfair. This abuse of power or position can cause such chronic stress and anxiety that people gradually lose belief in themselves, suffering physical ill health and mental distress as a result† (Rayner, et al. , 2002, p. xi). Bullying refers to all situations where one or more people feel subjected to negative behaviour from others at work over a period of time and in situations where, for different reasons, they are unable to defend themselves against these actions.Typically, a victim is constantly teased, pursued, badgered and insulted and perceives that he or she has little recourse to retaliate in kind. (The Mobbing Encyclopaedia, 2006) We may distinguish between work-related bullying such as being exposed to unreasonable deadlines, unmanageable workloads or other kinds of behaviour that make the work situation difficult for the victim, and bullying that is primarily related to the person, such as insulting remarks, excessive teasing, gossip and rumours, social isolation and exclusion. This kind of behaviour is common and has been experienced by most people at work from time to time.As a single episode in a positive social climate, such actions may even be taken to be harmless. However, when behaviour that is perceived as unwanted by the recipient, is systematically and continually aimed at a particular person, and especially in a situation were the victim feels defenceless against the actions or the people performing them, it becomes an act of moral harassment. (The Mobbing Encyclopaedia, 2006) In the recent past three countries in the EU – Sweden, Belgium and France have enacted legislation to counter the incidence of moral harassment and more countries are expected to follow their lead.In this research assignment, the reasons and incidence of moral harassment are examined in different cultures, countries and legal systems to assess the current scenario, measures currently in place as well as those proposed to counter the problem, both within and outside the legal framework and possible solutions and measure, which could help in countering the issue. The countries chosen for the assignment are Britain, Sweden, France and Japan. All of these countries are developed and industrialised nations with democratic political systems, strong legal frameworks, emancipated work cultures and progressive thinking.Two of the chosen countries, namely Sweden and France have decided to introduce legislat ion to check the menace whereas the other two have not, possibly feeling it more appropriate to term it a social issue that can be solved through awareness, dialogue and discussion. Again Japan has a tradition and work culture very different from the other three and this contributes to dissimilarities in both origin and response to the issue of harassment in the workplace. It is hoped that this paper will succeed in examining the issue in detail and throw some fresh and engaging perspectives on this annoying social malaise.Background, Definitions and Legal Overview Background Moral harassment in the workplace is a global problem and exists in some form or other in all workplaces across continents and nationalities. The problem was considered commonplace even in 70’s and it was only at the initiative of Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway, that the matter started receiving international attention. The British call the phenomenon bullying, a rather innocuous term hist orically linked to students in public schools being asked to run errands for their seniors.The problem is however not restricted to schools any longer. (Tehrani, 2001) In the United States it is known as mobbing, again a very unrepresentative and confusing term. Persecutors do join up sometimes to harass in groups or â€Å"mobs†, but harassment also happens in many one to one situations. The ramifications of moral harassment are thus far more extensive and represent a serious and vexing social problem, which needs eradication from civilised society. (Olweus, 2003) Workplace bullying has yet to become a regularly utilized term in the U. S.workplace or as a form of mistreatment from which American statutory law provides worker protection (Yamada, 2000). Unlike sexual harassment, which is defined by statutory and case law (Dougherty & Smythe, 2004), bullying is without a specific, unified vernacular and is often relegated to the schoolyard (Olweus, 2003). The connection to schoo lyard bullying can be stigmatising through association with childishness or weakness. Since people organize, structure, and create their experiences, interactions and realities through language (Spender, 1984), the absence of agreed upon terminology frustrates U.S. workers' efforts to name and make sense of these experiences and may contribute to their reported sense of feeling â€Å"crazy† (Tracy et al. , 2004). Workplace bullying, as a unique phenomenon, is also referred to as mobbing (Davenport et al. , 2002), harassment (Bjorkqvist et al. , 1994), psychological terror (Leymann, 1996), emotional abuse (Keashly, 2001), and victimization (Einarsen & Raknes, 1997). Mobbing, a term originating in Swedish research (Leymann, 1990), initially denoted numerous bullies singling out one person, but this distinction has since fallen away (Davenport et al., 2002). Over time, the two central terms bullying and mobbing have come to indicate virtually the same phenomenon. In actual fact workplace harassment is an omnibus list of unfair and uncalled for persecution in the workplace that can take many forms in its expression and execution. It is not limited to sexual harassment, per se, though sexual harassment is a major component of the harassment that goes on in offices and other establishments, worldwide. It could relate to and be caused because of sex, religion, creed, ethnicity, physical appearance or just plain dislike.It is a form of offensive treatment or behaviour, which to a reasonable person creates an intimidating, hostile or abusive work environment. It may be sexual, racial, based on gender, national origin, age, disability, religion or a person's sexual orientation. It may also encompass other forms of hostile, intimidating, threatening, humiliating or violent behaviour, which are offensive or intimidatory in nature. The central characteristics that differentiate workplace bullying from other negative social interactions at work are persistence (Mikke lsen & Einarsen, 2001), patterned negative acts (Einarsen et al., 2002), widespread harm (Davenport et al. , 2002), and escalation (Lutgen-Sandvik, 2003). Furthermore, bullying is linked to extremely hostile work environments (Salin, 2003); these environments are most likely both the medium and the outcome of bullying. That is, bullying is more likely to emerge in hostile work environments and also contributes to such environments (Crawford, 2001). Many researchers seek to differentiate workplace bullying from sexual and racial harassment (Leymann, 1996).Adams and Crawford (1992) expressly state that â€Å"although some people will insist otherwise, bullying at work is separate from the recognised problems of sexual harassment or racism† (p. 10). Others claim that the key legal issues that â€Å"distinguishes sexual harassment from bullying is that†¦ harassment is somehow based on gender†¦ and that men and women are treated differently† (Pryor & Fitzgerald, 2 003, p. 80). On the other hand, researchers may seek legitimacy for the construct of workplace bullying by closely linking it to racial or sexual harassment (Randall, 2001).For example, Einarsen and colleagues (1994) argue that, â€Å"sexual and racial harassment represent different aspects of the same problem† (Lee, 2001, p. 208). Lee (2001) argues â€Å"however, if sexual harassment and racial harassment are defined as only types of bullying, this might undermine the specificity and visibility of sexual and racial harassment† (p. 209). Interactions exist between sexual harassment, racial harassment, and workplace bullying; nevertheless, it seems important not to conflate types of harassment in a way that obscures the distinctive features of each (Lee, 2001). DefinitionsDefinitions of workplace bullying (or mobbing) vary by author, country and academic discipline, and there is no universally agreed-upon definition. There are, however, more similarities than difference s in present definitions of bullying as a unique phenomenon. This is a partial rendering of researchers who study workplace bullying, but provides the ways in which the foundational scholars and professionals have framed and defined the issue. Other researchers generally adopt one or more elements of following definitions. Consequently providing a more extensive list would potentially be more repetitive than revealing.European Parliament defines bullying as, â€Å"A lack of humanity at the workplace, personal experiences of bullying at work, a feeling of exclusion from the social community there, encountering irreconcilable demands at work and not having the wherewithal to meet these demands. † On the other hand, International Labour Office definition states that bullying is qualified as: â€Å"Offensive behaviour through vindictive, cruel, malicious or humiliating attempts to undermine an individual or groups of employees †¦ It involves ganging up on or ‘mobbingà ¢â‚¬â„¢ a targeted employee and subjecting that person to psychological harassment.It includes constant negative remarks or criticisms, isolating a person from social contacts and gossiping or spreading false information. † Rayner et al. (2002) state that bullying is â€Å"unwanted, offensive, humiliating, undermining behaviour towards an individual or groups of employees. Persistent malicious attacks on personal or professional performance that are typically unpredictable, irrational and often unfair. This abuse of power can cause such chronic stress and anxiety that people gradually lose belief in themselves, suffering physical ill health and mental distress as a result† (Rayner et al., 2002, p. xi) They also argue that bullying is â€Å"a situation where one or several individuals persistently over a period of time perceive themselves to be on the receiving end of negative actions from one or several persons, in a situation where the target of bullying has difficult y defending him or herself against these actions. We will not refer to a one-off incident as bullying† (Rayner et al. , 2002, p. 24) Some researchers find workplace bullying in a huge number of harmful conditions arising out of nonverbal and verbal contact.Ramsey (2002) believe, that workplace bullying is: â€Å"Any behaviour that frightens, threatens or intimidates another person qualifies as bullying. Besides physical force, the most common types of bullying include: verbal abuse, written, spoken or implied threats, name-calling and racial slurs, vandalism, put-downs. † (p. 2) Randall (2001) argues that bullying is â€Å"the aggressive behaviour arising from the deliberate intent to cause physical and psychological distress to others† (p. 9)Australian researchers like, O’Hagan (2002) believe that workplace bullying is â€Å"workplace behaviour that is inappropriate, unreasonable, humiliating, denigrating, that offends and intimidates, and affects health , well-being and undermines productivity. † (p. 1) However, American researchers define workplace bullying as â€Å"emotional assault that begins when an individual becomes a target of disrespectful and harmful behaviours, innuendo, rumours, and public discrediting; a hostile environment is created in which one individual gathers others to willingly, or unwillingly, participate in continuous malevolent actions to force a person out†¦The individual experiences increasing distress, illness and social misery. † (Davenport et al. , 2002, p. 33) Scandinavian researchers argue that bullying lies in â€Å"harassing, offending, socially excluding someone or negatively affecting someone's work tasks. In order for the label bullying (or mobbing) to be applied to a particular activity, interaction or process it has to occur repeatedly and regularly (i. e. , weekly) and over a period of time (i. e. , about six months).Bullying is an escalating process in the course of which t he person confronted ends up in an inferior position and becomes the target of systematic negative social acts. A conflict cannot be called bullying if the incident is an isolated event or if two parties of approximately equal ‘strength' are in conflict’ (Einarsen et al. , 2003, p. 15) British researcher Glendinning (2001) posits that workplace bullying is â€Å"a management style that uses â€Å"repeated aggressive behaviour that deliberately causes physical or psychological torment† (pp. 3-4).He adds that it is also, â€Å"the repeated, less favourable treatment of a person by another in the workplace, which may be considered unreasonable and inappropriate workplace practice. It includes behaviour that intimidates, offends, degrades, or humiliates a worker, possibly in front of co-workers, clients or customers (pp. 3-4). Most literature uses the term bullying to label this extreme, persistent form of workplace abuse. Despite the common terminology in internat ional research, the term workplace bullying has yet to become widely used by American and Japanese academics (Lutgen-Sandvik, 2005).The following definition is a essence of the aforementioned body of work: Workplace bullying is a pattern of persistent, offensive, intimidating, malicious, insulting, or exclusionary discursive and non-discursive behaviours that targets perceive as intentional efforts to harm, control, or drive them from the workplace. Bullying is often escalatory in nature and linked to hostile work environments. The principal effects are damage or impairment to targets and workgroups and obstruction of organizational goals and processes. Legal OverviewWorkplace bullying erodes interpersonal relationships outside of work (Davenport et al. , 2002), and evidence â€Å"points to the potential for damage to those who have witnessed bullying at work† (Rayner et al. , 2002, p. 189). Co-workers are secondary targets of workplace bullying, similar to persons who witnes s and are psychologically marked by acts of workplace violence and murder (Barling, 1996). When co-workers witness others being bullied, they make the quite logical assumption that they could be targeted in a similar fashion and hypervigilance becomes a permanent feature of work life (Lockhart, 1997).Fear, emotional exhaustion, and guilt increase the likelihood of staff turnover. Furthermore, witnesses report higher stress levels and intentions to leave than do non-observers (Vartia, 2001). Given the destructive results of bullying, many find it difficult to believe this behaviour is unintentional. Even the detailed list of examples of harassment is not exhaustive and perpetrators can constantly think up new ways of tormenting their victims.Harassment can occur in numerous ways, some of which will be obvious but there will be others, quite subtle and difficult to explain. Further examples of harassment are the withholding of information which can affect the victim’s performan ce, ignoring views and opinions, setting unreasonable/impossible deadlines, giving unmanageable workloads, humiliating staff in front of others, being shouted at or being the target of spontaneous rage. As such, harassment can take a variety of shapes and forms and can manifest itself in the unlikeliest of situations.(Tehrani, 2001) In the UK, it is important to specify and identify harassment separately as, unlike bullying, many forms of discrimination are outlawed by specific legislation to which a victim can turn for recourse. The Health and Safety Executive of the United Kingdom states that bullying at work is a cause of stress. They state that â€Å"stress at work can be triggered or made worse where ‘there is prolonged conflict between individuals, including †¦ bullying or where staff are treated with contempt or indifference. † (Unison, 2003)Persistent exposure to bullying is also likely to lead to behavioural and attitudinal problems among workers. It can l ead to an increase in accidents, lack of concentration and increased use of alcohol and tobacco consumption. Exposure to persistent and regular bullying may also make it difficult for workers to cope with daily tasks. Other symptoms of bullying include anxiety, headaches, nausea, ulcers, various illnesses of organs such as the kidney, contemplating suicide, sleeplessness, skin rashes, irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, bursting into tears and loss of self-confidence.

Developments of China and Europe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Developments of China and Europe - Essay Example If we analyse the history of Europe, it will come to our notice that Europe has been defined and redefined from time to time and its identity changed with the overall historical periods. (Hudson 2000). For example, a Europe of Middle Ages is different than the Europe during the industrial revolution similarly, if we assess the rise and fall of China, we will observe the same patterns in its history. Development of China also took place in a very strange and somewhat unusual manner because it flourished along the yellow river and in various city states. This simultaneous development of cities within Chinese civilization provided it necessary uniqueness in terms of its evaluation as one of the most important civilizations of the world. The era during 200-800 A.D. in Europe started with the rise of Roma as the center of world civilization. From 753 BC to AD 337, Roma or Rome dominated the European history and brought up one of the most important civilizations of the world which laid the foundations for later moderation that took place during that period. One of the most important aspects of this period was the development of political institutions in the Europe and as such modern foundations of democracy as the most preferred method of governance was laid down. (Davies 1996). On the other hand, in China, first 100 years i.e. 100 AD were marked with the invention of paper and its mass scale production was started under the direction of Cai Lun. Similarly, Buddhism also started to make inroads into the Chinese culture as missionaries of Buddhism started to gain significant influence within the Chinese society. (Ebrey 1999). If we compare the initial period of the history in these two regions, we will come to a conclusion that the both the regions were parallel to each other in terms of religious development because at one hand, Buddhism was gaining control in Chinese society in the first

Campaign Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Campaign Evaluation - Essay Example It incorporates specialized skills and expertise in the practice to incorporate and navigate through media relations and public relations without infringing on the practices of each continuum. Public relations relies on the critical and practical tools of media release, media conference and media kits. Further, these tools also combine with the management skills in advising bout the most preferable course of practice or action to follow. Thus, there is need to understand the role of media relations and public relations accordingly in facilitating the establishment of a successful campaign (Delahaye, 2011, p 18). A successful campaign meets the evaluation criteria that encompass the residual practices from media and public relations as facilitating continuums to the topic of campaign evaluation. Media has the potential to evolve the practice of public relations accordingly to reflect a global strategy that features interactive and symmetrical dialogue that is socially responsible. In modeling the two fields, various theoretical approaches are key to facilitate the processes of campaign strategy development and execution (Delahaye, 2011, p 23). Notably, the initial models that define public relations in this context entail the following. First, is the press agency, which constitutes the publicity of the campaign in the process. The fundamental element of publicity develops in the context of evaluating campaign since; publicity uses persuasion and manipulation in the pursuit to influence the audience towards behaving according to the organization objectives and desires (De Beer & Merrill, 2004, p 43). Thus, the audience in this sense relies on the ability of the media agency to develop strategic message that persuades and manipulates the audience accordingly to incline toward s the message of the press agency. Thus, public relations possessing this fundamental element, media relations

Management - Business Simulations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management - Business Simulations - Essay Example The month end bank balance of ?7687 is decent enough to start with and is sufficient to meet the immediate cash needs as compared to the level of business activity. The slightly higher fixed costs of ?826 are indicative of the initial spending in research and networking which is absolutely crucial at this stage to take the business into the future. This is a step in the right direction at this stage. There is a net loss of ?778 and at this stage it is quite expected as the sales effort starts showing results only after some time. Besides, from the Time spent breakup (Appendix 1.2), it seems that the sales effort is greater than the overall marketing effort at this stage, since building cash inflow is a priority at this stage. The idle time shows that here is pressure to build up business and this is translated into sales activity which is more action oriented than the marketing activity. The same trend continues in February and is depicted in March ’13 report. In March’ 13, the bank balance is more or less maintained, indicative of even cash inflows and outflows. However, the expenditure and time on the marketing and product research activities shows an increase. The customer research and competition research is complete and the product redesign based on the research has been completed y this time. The business breaks even in the month of March 13 which is shown in the April 13. The bank balance is maintained and the business shows strong growth signs. The sales are increasing and the bank balance is building up with increase in new orders. The production time is increasing and the idle time is decreasing. The business has made a small profit of ?45. However, this trend is reverted the very next month owing to higher overheads in terms of spending business website. The website though a cost, is the right decision at the right time for the business, since, an online presence with the traditional marketing as well as supply chain management methods was hugely complemented by the same. Since at this time, the number of sales enquiries from traditional marketing methods is too low to sustain the business (Appendix1.3). The sales effort and its effectiveness has been maintained and is evident from the fact that the product stock at the end of the month is zero for a considerable period of time that is from Jan’ 13 to Feb’14. This apart from sales effort is also indicative of good inventory planning. However, by month May 13, due to lack of orders, the production capacity was idle for the most part. The scenario seems to be a result of overemphasis on research and planning at the expense of sales effort in recent past. The management was advised to give some more focus to the core activity of selling. This showed some result in the very next month, when the orders from previous month exceeded an amount of ?2870 and this is where the business starts making profit on a sustainable basis. The production capacity is util ized to a great extent and the idle time minimized. The growth in profit continues and by August, the production targets are being met. The Marketing team was advised to work out the possibilities of a long term business opportunity. The effort showed results in the form of the first customer contract by August 13 (Appendix 1.4). By September

Kant and plato Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Kant and plato - Essay Example These perceptions, in turn, are not just consequences of an examination or analysis of judgments of experience into their inseparable parts. According to Kant, before â€Å"a judgment of perception can become a judgment of experience; it is requisite that the perception should be subsumed under some concept of the understanding.† (41) From this perspective, perceptions would supposedly lead us to make our judgments and that synthesis appears only in so far as the priori conceptions of the understanding enable us to go beyond the particular judgment of perception and to turn them into universal judgment of experience. To prove, according to Kant, the possibility of experience in the context of the a priori concept of understanding, one needs to represent what belongs to judgments in general and the various moments of the understanding in them. (42) Kant explained that understanding provided us with the categories that we could use in order to judge experience. He argued that this is particularly useful in judging ideas, such as the soul, God or freedom – things that are beyond experience. Understanding in his philosophy is not unlike judging, specifically when the act is done to unite representations in a consciousness. Again, the fundamental elements here are the intuition as well as Kant’s concept of the noumena or things in themselves, existing outside our intuitions such as Kant’s metaphysical knowledge which abstracts from all experience. â€Å"Experience,† wrote Kant, â€Å"consists of intuition, which belong to sensibility, and of judgments, which are solely the understanding’s business.† (43) This explanation is one of Kant’s depictions of interrelating and interdependent elements required in order to achieve knowledge. To clarify possible confusion, Kant summed his analogies in this way: â€Å"the business of the senses is to inuit; that of the understanding, to think.† (Kant

Blue Rhinos Business Strategy and Information Systems Essay

Blue Rhinos Business Strategy and Information Systems - Essay Example In fast-growing complex businesses, the uncertainties in employee productivity levels, customer satisfaction levels, operating costs, duplication of work, operations performance, actual revenues, ability to grow, forecasting & hypothecations, etc. increases beyond the comfort levels of the Management and Stake Holders. In light of these uncertainties, an organization may need to implement an effective, integrated & controlled Business Information System (BIS). However, such a system is not just a product which can be purchased, plugged and played. Management commitment and end-user buy-in are critical to implementing the BIS (The ERP Selection process survival guide, Relevant Business Systems Inc, 2005, p.3). In this case-study, Blue Rhino Management did take the wise decision to implement BIS and provide interfacing to employees, suppliers, and customers via an Intranet. The implementation actually became faster and more collaborative & effective because of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation that was implied on the organization. Blue Rhino is a national leader in their business that deals with Propane Cylinder Exchange Services. Their growth soared in a very short time due to aggressive spirit of the organization, macro management by the CEO (empowerment of staff) and a major strategic change in their business – exchanging cylinders rather than refilling cylinders. Employee empowerment works well for this kind of retail business analogous to the Wal-Mart business model (Malone, Thomas W. 1997, Sloan Management Review, Winter97, Vol.38, Issue 2, p.125-125, 1/2p).  

Vishnu-Mythology God Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Vishnu-Mythology God - Research Paper Example Vishnu is responsible for sustaining and maintaining the universe. Shiva is the destroyer who time and again annihilates the old order, so that new life can emerge. Vishnu is the most worshiped god amongst the Hindus, especially amongst the Vaishnavite sect of Hinduism. Even a cursory study of the Hindu philosophy and mythology reveals that it is not that the beliefs of Hindus were not based on logic and rationality evident in the ways of nature. However, to a great extent, like the Egyptians and the ancient Chinese, Hindus preferred to personify their essentials beliefs and faith in the guise of mythological characters, gods and demons. This approach served many purposes. It allowed the commoners to grasp the eternal tussle between the good and the bad in a more visually understandable way (Pattanik 21). Besides, considering the fact that in the times when the essential Hindu theology emerged, it was common to disseminate religious doctrines by word of mouth instead of writing them (Pattanik 21). So, the mythological characters and the stories and myths associated with them made it easier to spread religious beliefs from one person to other, from teacher to disciple and from one generation to other. Vishnu is one major god of the Hindu mythology that accrued the awe and reverence of Hindus, in measures which supersede any other god of Hindu mythology. Iconography Primarily speaking, Hindu religion since times immemorial has been a visual religion. Each and every god of the Hindu mythology is associated with a definite form, character, and the accompanying weapons and accoutrements, which besides being visually appealing connote a specific and deeper meaning (Dimmitt 44). The forms of most of the Hindu gods have not changed since times immemorial, a trend that depicts the timelessness and eternal appeal of this faith. Like many other gods, Vishnu also has a specific form and look, depicted in the ancient and contemporary iconography, and cherished and elaborate d on in the ancient texts. In the ancient icons and texts, Vishnu is presented as being blue colored. Simply speaking, the blue color of Vishnu depicts his all pervasiveness. The blue is the color of the sky. The ocean is also always blue. Also, both the sky and the ocean are endless and immense. Similarly, the blue color of Vishnu connotes that god is all pervasive and is present everywhere. Nothing could be hidden from the eyes of god. Also, Vishnu is a male god who is always shown as having four arms. These four arms of Vishnu again convey the all pervasiveness of god, but albeit in a more elaborate way. The front two arms of Vishnu convey his pervasiveness in the physical world. The two arms at the back of Vishnu uphold him as a master and lord of the spiritual world. Surprisingly, in this way the ancient Hindus it seems to have done away with the dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual existence, or in Western terms, between the mind and the matter. In most of the icon s, Vishnu is shown as wearing a crown that conveys his sovereignty over the entire universe. Also, the earrings in both the ears of Vishnu convey the organization of the universe in terms of opposites that are good and bad, wise and foolish, big and small, beautiful and ugly and so on. Interestingly, while on the one side goodness, wisdom and beauty are shown as the accessories of Vishnu, he is equally adorned by evil, pettiness and ugliness. This in a way conveys the Hindu philosophical belief that the Universe can survive

Capital Markets Midterm Questions and Solutions Essay Example for Free

Capital Markets Midterm Questions and Solutions Essay 2 percent for each question 1. Liquidity is the ease with which an asset can be exchanged for money 2. The concept of adverse selection helps to explain why the ï ¬ nancial system is heavily regulated 3. The Fed can inï ¬â€šuence the fed fund interest rate by selling T-bills, which ____reserves, thereby ____the federal fund rate. removes, raising 4. Standard Repos are very low risk loans 5. A 4-year bond pays an annual coupon of 3.5%. If the interest rate equals 2.75% per year, how much do you have to pay to buy the equivalent of a $1,000,000 bond face value? $10 0280 000 6. Unanticipated deï ¬â€šation implies a a decline in net worth, as price levels fall while debt burden remains unchanged. 7. What is the annualized discount rate on a Treasury bill that you purchase for $9,900 and that will mature in 91 days for $10,000? 3.96% 8. Moral hazard is a problem arising from only A and B of the above 9. A discount loan by the Fed to a bank causes a(n) ____ in reserves in the banking system and a(n) ____ in the monetary base. increase; increase 10. The standard deï ¬ nition of the shadow banking systemt includes money market funds, hedge funds, and pools of securitized assets Comprehensive Questions (30 percent) 6 percent for each question 1) The ï ¬ nancial system is important because it channels funds, reduces asymmetric information problems, provides an eï ¬Æ'cient payment system, and helps to manage risk. Explain the remaining functions that the ï ¬ nancial system performs. Besides these functions, the ï ¬ nancial system provides ways for invididuals to pool their resources. For instance, some investment projects generate a positive NPV, but require a large initial down payment. Dividing ownership into many individual shares provides an eï ¬Æ'cient way to pool individual resources in order to ï ¬ nance these investment projects. The ï ¬ nancial system also provides liquidity to market participants. This is important because corporations and individuals do not have the same time-horizon. Therefore, it would be very diï ¬Æ'cult for corporations to get long-term sources of funding without these liquidity services. Finally, the ï ¬ nancial system provides important information to ï ¬ nancial investors, corporate managers, and political leaders. This information is critical to improve the decision-making process. For instance, managers may use the information observed in the ï ¬ nancial system to compute the NPV of investment projects. 2) One of your friend tells you: The main function of the ï ¬ nancial system is to channel funds from lenders to borrowers. This function can be performed interchangeably by capital markets or ï ¬ nancial institutions. Do you agree? Why? It is true that both capital markets and ï ¬ nancial institutions are useful in channeling funds from lenders to borrowers. However, they diï ¬â‚¬er in a fundamental way. Contrary to capital markets, ï ¬ nancial institutions are extremely good at dealing with asymmetric information problems. This is due to the private nature of their activities. By avoiding free-riding, banks can bare the substantial costs of screening and monitoring borrowers. Therefore, corporations for which asymmetric information problems are substantial (e.g., small corporations), rely heavily on banks’ funding. If banks cut lending, as it was the case during the recent crisis, these companies do not have the option of receiving funding from capital makets, and must reduce their activities. Therefore, some of the functions performed by banks cannot be performed interchangeably by capital markets. 3) What is Quantitative Easing and how does it diï ¬â‚¬er from the standard tool used by the Fed to expand the monetary base? What was the stated purpose of Quantitative Easing? Quantitative Easing refers to the central bank’s policy of buying long-term securities, speciï ¬ cally mortgage-backed securities and 10—year Treasury bonds. This is diï ¬â‚¬erent from the standard approach used by the Fed. Traditionally, the Fed expands the monetary base by implementing an open-market purchase of T-bills. The stated purpose of Quantitative Easing was to decrease the yield of these long-term securities. From the viewpoint of borrowers, this decrease would help them get lower reï ¬ nancing conditions, thus easing pressure in these markets. From the viewpoint of lenders, this decrease in yield may render these securities less attractive. Therefore, lenders may be willing to start buying risky assets again, thus improving economic conditions. 4) One student argues: If more customers want to borrow funds at the prevailing interest rate, a ï ¬ nancial institution can easily increase its proï ¬ ts by raising interest rates on its loan. Is this statement true, false, uncertain? Explain your answer. The situation faced by the bank is the following: it has limited resources and sees a lot of clients willing to borrow money, creating excess demand. The statement above is uncertain. A priori, we might believe that if the bank increases the interest rate, it is able to eliminate this excess demand and generate additional proï ¬ ts (there would be an increase in both the proï ¬ t per loan and the quantity of loans). However, this reasoning assumes that the credit quality of the borrowers stays constant. This may not be true because raising the interest rate also increases adverse selection. To illustrate, consider the used-car market. If buyers observe an increase in the number of people interested in selling their cars, they may want to oï ¬â‚¬er a lower price. But a lower price gives incentive to the sellers of good cars to leave the market, leaving only sellers of lemons. As a result, the average quality of the cars purchased by buyers will decrease. A large part of the excess demand observed by the bank is driven by poor credit ï ¬ rms. After increasing the interest rate, the bank observes that these ï ¬ rms still agree to borrow, i.e., their poor credit quality should be charged an even higher interest rate. On the contrary, this higer interest rate may discourage good ï ¬ rms from borrowing from this bank because the loan becomes too expensive. As a result, the relative importance of bad ï ¬ rms over good ones increases, leading to a decrease in the average ï ¬ rm quality. This decrease in quality may lead to higher default rates and to a decrease in the bank’s proï ¬ t. 5) What is meant by a ï ¬â€šight to safety/liquidity? When does it occur? How can it trigger these negative spirals on the value of the banks’ balance sheet? A ï ¬â€šight to safety/liquidity commonly describes the behaviour of investors when they attempt to sell the risky/illiquid assets they hold in their portfolio and move towards safe/liquid assets. This ï ¬â€šight typically occurs in times of crisis when the investors’ willingness to take risks decreases signiï ¬ cantly. Since banks mostly hold risky and illiquid assets, these ï ¬â€šights to safety have a strong impact on their asset value. As their capital gets curtailed, their risk proï ¬ le increases, making investors and depositors more worried about the potential losses they may incur. Because these lenders give money on a short-term basis, they can quickly go to the bank and ask for their money back. Then, banks have to scramble for liquidity and sell their risky/illiquid assets. When many banks try to sell simultaneously, the price of these assets will go further down. For instance, suppose that in normal times, the bank would have to sell 15% of its assets to reimburse lenders. As many institutions sell simultaneously, the bank has to sell more than 15%. Observing these additional losses, investors and depositors may want to further reduce the amount they are willing to lend, aggravating the liquidity issues face by banks. Overall, these eï ¬â‚¬ects reinforce each other, creating a spiraling eï ¬â‚¬ect. Understanding Interest Rates (30 percent) 15 percent for question 1, 10 for question 2, and 5 for question 3 1) In February 2010, a column in the Wall Street Journal warns: Be wary of long-term bonds The risk of higher expected inï ¬â€šation is in due course. Longer-term bonds are the most at risk. Using the supply and demand analysis studied in class, plot a graph that clearly explains the eï ¬â‚¬ect of an increase in expected inï ¬â€šation on the bond price. Why are longer-term bonds more at risk? Explain whether your analysis would be diï ¬â‚¬erent if you were to examine the impact on the price of TIPS. Since the coupon rate paid by US government bonds is ï ¬ xed in nominal terms, news of higher expected inï ¬â€šation leads to a decrease in the real rate of return oï ¬â‚¬ered by these bonds. As a result, the demand curve moves to the left as investors want to invest their money in securities with better return prospects. In addition, the supply curve moves to the right as corporations can borrow at lower costs in real terms. Because of these two shifts, we observe a large excess supply of bonds at the initial interest level. This excess supply will lead to a decrease in the bond price and a increase in the interest rate until the new equilibrium is reached. This eï ¬â‚¬ect, called the Fisher eï ¬â‚¬ect, is shown in the graph below: The eï ¬â‚¬ect is likely to be stronger for long-term bonds because investors are stuck with ï ¬ xed nominal payments for a long-time period. As a result, the only way to be compensated for higher inï ¬â€šation during many years is to buy the bond at a suï ¬Æ'ciently low price today. Intuitively, we can capture this price sensitivity using duration, as we know that the duration of a long-term bond is above that of a short-term bond. The analysis would be completely diï ¬â‚¬erent for TIPS because their coupon payments adjust for changes in inï ¬â€šation. As a result, any news of future inï ¬â€šation simply means that the future coupon payments in nominal terms will be higher. As a result, the price is not sensitive to changes in expected inï ¬â€šation. 2) In the Financial Times in February 2011, Professor Siegel from the Wharton School talks about the decline in the real yield of TIPS: Recently, the yields on these bonds have collapsed to levels that would have been uninimaginable just a few years ago. Last October, the real yield on the US 10-year TIPS plunged to 36 basis points. Professor Siegel argues that an important factor driving this result is the increase in inï ¬â€šation risk. Why do US investors currently perceive that inï ¬â€šation risk is higher than usual? Explain why this increase in inï ¬â€šation risk can lead to (i) an increase in the demand for TIPS relative to bonds; and (ii) a decrease in the TIPS interest rate. There are two sources of concerns regarding future inï ¬â€šation. First, the central bank has greatly expanded its monetary base during the recent ï ¬ nancial crisis—at the end of 2009, its value was close to $2 trillion. For the moment, banks are not aggressively lending, implying that the growth rate of the monetary base is somewhat disconnected from that of the money supply. But failure from the Fed to reduce the monetary base as lending activity resumes may lead to higher inï ¬â€šation. Second, the ï ¬ scal position of the US government has deteriorated substantially over the past few years, leading to a downgrade of the credit rating attached to its bonds. If the future growth rate in the economy is not suï ¬Æ'ciently high and if the US government is not able to reduce deï ¬ cits, it may have no option but inï ¬â€šate the debt away. This will of course lead to higher inï ¬â€šation. Overall, these two issues create important uncertainty about the future path of inï ¬â€šation. Contrary to bonds, TIPS are protected against inï ¬â€šation. If there is higher inï ¬â€šation risk, bonds become riskier relative to TIPS. Using our supply and demand framework, the demand for bonds moves to the left, while the demand for TIPS moves to the right. At the initial price, there is an excess demand for TIPS, driving the TIPS price up and its interest rate down, consistent with Professor Siegel’s arguments. 3) Professor Siegel also argues that: As economic growth recovers and real rates rise, the price of TIPS will fall. Can you ï ¬ nd a simple explanation of this statement based on our supply and demand framework? Economic growth means that the business cycle is in an expanding phase. In this case, we can rely on the relation between business cycle expansions and the interest rate seen in class. First, the demand curve for bonds move to the right because of the wealth eï ¬â‚¬ect, as people have more money to invest in the capital market (bonds, stocks,). On the supply side, business cycle expansions are related to an increase in the ï ¬ rms’ expected proï ¬ tability. As a result, the supply curve moves to the right. Based on empirical evidence, the move of the supply curve tends to be more important than the one observed for the demand. At the initial level of interest rate, there is an excess supply, leading to an decrease in bond price, and an increase in the interest rate. This is consistent with the yield reaction discussed by Professor Siegel. Bond Market (20 percent) 5 percent for each question Consider the following bonds: Annual interest rate Maturity Annual coupon Price Duration Bond X 5% 8 years 3% 87.1 7.2 Bond Y 8% 3 years 3% 87.1 ? 1) One of your friends tells you: the fact that the price of these two bonds is the same is not consistent with theory. Without making any computation, explain whether you agree with your friend. Your friend is not right. These two bonds are both quoted below par value, because their respective yield to maturity is lower than the coupon rate. If these two bonds had the same maturity, the price of bond Y should be lower than the price of bond X because investors require a higher interest rate to hold bond Y. However, the maturity of bond Y is lower. Although the annual diï ¬â‚¬erential between the interest rate and the coupon rate is higher for bond Y, this diï ¬â‚¬erential has to be given during 3 years only. For bond X, the annual diï ¬â‚¬erential between the interest rate and the coupon rate is lower, but it has to be given during 8 years. In our case, these two eï ¬â‚¬ects (diï ¬â‚¬erent ratings and diï ¬â‚¬erent maturities) oï ¬â‚¬set each other and the two prices are exactly the same. The information shown in the table is therefore perfectly consistent with theory. 2) Compute the duration of bond Y and compare it with that of bond X. Is the diï ¬â‚¬erence consistent with theory?

A history of social policy changes

A history of social policy changes With reference to changes in government policy and ideologies of welfare, debate the significance of the shift from Victorian Pauper to 21st century service user and its impact on social work practice and values. This assignment has used a timeline of government changes and policies as a background to debate the shift from Victorian pauper to the 21st century service user. The divide between poor and rich has always been an issue that all governments have tried to diminish using different policies and laws. However there is still that divide that seems to be increasing. Has much changed since the Poor Law was implemented? Are individuals given more choice and rights now? Will there always be stigma attached and social exclusion that comes from using these words, do they still have the same meaning? This assignment will attempt to answer these questions using references to policy and ideologies of welfare. The definition of a Pauper according to the Collins dictionary is someone who is extremely poor or historically eligible for public charity. The definition of a service user is someone who uses or receives health or social care services. (General social care council) According to Sen, 1999 the term service user was introduced because of gained strength of powerless people during the 1980s. This term indicates an acknowledgement of the government and public, understanding that service users have a positive role. They still have capabilities and can realise their potential, they are not just individuals who are entitled to help via the services we offer. Although this term was produced by the individuals who use the services it still highlights that they work with professionals and that the power still resides with them. (Adams, Dominelli and Payne, 2009) The National network of service users: Shaping our lives believe that the term service user is positive, its an individual who uses the services, they confer power creating a stronger voice and having a greater ability to shape services. (Levin 2004) The changes in policy from Pauper to service user have been vast. British social policys foundation is from the Poor Laws, the first one passed in 1598 the last 1948. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 provided a compulsory poor rate and helped set the poor onto work. However as the Parish was the basic area of administration laws were enforced differently in that area, meaning the operation of the Poor Law was inconsistent between areas, the beginning of the postcode lottery. The Poor Law amendment act of 1834 modified the existing system that was in place, it was implemented at a higher stage not just at Parish level ,Poor Law unions were introduced the development of the workhouses was encouraged, one workhouse in each union to give poor relief. This act stated that no able bodied person was to receive any other help other than in the workhouse. This laws primary problem was to make life inside as bad as outside of the workhouse, this was difficult as some would have had to be starved to meet what they met outside. There was a stigma attached though and it was that reputation that stopped everyone from using a workhouse, they produced jail style segregation men and women and even families had to be separated. As the government thought this was the best way to help the neediest families they saw no problems with this Act. In fact the neediest families still werent using the help and going into a workhouse because they didnt want to be separated. Not unlike families today that still dont ask for help because of the stigma or because they dont know or understand the system implemented to help them as much as possible. It was in 1869 that The Charitable Organisation Society was formed to make charities more effective, they understood that charitable assistance was needed but believed that their aim was to reach all families, they were also unsure of how the money from charities had previously been spent. They set out financial help introducing local committees, these then raised funds and distributed to families in need. Also very similar to many charities today, there are still many families who dont ask for help because of religion, language, pride or just werent told. (Family action) COS found that it wasnt just financial help that people needed, so they started to offer emotional and practical help too. When they had many families needing help they knew there volunteers would need training, this became the pioneer in the profession of social work, something that our foundations are based on today. The main foundation of COS was to change policy to help the people suffering the effects of poverty, something that social workers do now, the general council of social workers are still working to help those suffering the most and work towards giving help to those who have unable to find help elsewhere and give social work support as well as signpost to other services that may help them further. From this time more acts were introduced including the Public health act of 1872. During this time poverty was never really defined they understood what brought it about like unemployment or illness, if they had defined poverty it may have helped introduced different acts to prevent it. In the 1900s poverty was ever increasing, the settlement movement started its idea was to establish settlement houses in poor areas with the idea that the middle class would volunteer to live with them, sharing their knowledge and help alleviate the poverty of their poor neighbours. From this movement many initiatives emerged and helped to improve conditions of all poor areas of society and help all individuals. This movement focused on the causes of poverty providing a number of services including education and health services. This settlement movement is another foundation of social work practice today, no we dont live with the individuals in need, but the whole reason of social work is to use our education and knowledge to alleviate the problems they have and help them emotionally, practically and financially, which is just what these volunteers did. Although some argued that this was normative because some wanted the divide between the poor and higher classes. (Laybourn, 1995) Al though this movement was important the more powerful COS submerged as the controversial nature of social work, there was individuals that were not eligible for help these were still at the workhouse, and most of these individuals were women who bore children out of wedlock. Although the settlement movement was also necessary in society in focusing on poverty, it focused on a more structured analyses of poverty and its impact on human behaviour by practising interventions at a community level, which is needed now to help small communities help each other as well as individually. The nature of social work practice then focused on individuals and a significant element of this time is the elimination of hearing clients voices and the incomparable knowledge of the professionals working with them. Only now is the service users voice being recognised again. (Adams et al, 2009) The Poor Law was the basis of the development of services for the 20th century, including the national insurance act, these new services were introduced to avoid having to rely on the Poor Laws. (Alcock, 2003) The government laid the basis of the future social services, the major concern was that all areas should be given the same services, these new services were provided away from The Poor Law to evade the association. Even though these new ideologies were introduced to provide services to all individuals there was still a stigma attached, even now there is still a stigma attached to the term service user, although governments have changed their policies to use different terms some still have the same meaning. A major report produced regarding the welfare of individuals was the Beveridge report. This report focused on how Britain could be rebuilt after the war. In 1945 labour was elected and promised to introduce a welfare state. The welfare state involved introducing new services these included family allowances, the national health services and housing acts to name a few. The welfare state was produced to encourage the provision of services for the public not as a response to poverty. (Laybourn, 1995) this is where a major criticism lies within debates regarding the welfare state within current governments. In the 1950s the provision of welfare state services became problematic, government interventions at the time didnt help and caused further problems so the Conservative government took over and cut the help given to the poor and sick. This then made the distribution of income more imbalanced and although attempted to make the poor more hardworking and self sufficient it didnt work. One report that impacted policy and practice during the 1960s was the Seabohm report 1968, this report re-introduced poverty. This paper was tasked to review the organisation and responsibilities of the local authority personal social services in England and to consider what changes are desirable to secure an effective family service. (Seebohm, 1968, pg11.) Prior to this report social work was spread across various local authorities and different government sections, because of this the report found that there was inadequacies in the quality of provision and access was very difficult. The report recommended a new local authority department providing a community based and family orientated service, which will be available for all When this recommendation was brought into action new social services department were formed. Seebohm did foresee problems which were highlighted in the report, it stated that having separate departments for children and adults would make it difficult to treat the familys needs as a whole. Another important Report was the Barclay Report, 1982 that looked into the role of a social worker, in its opening line it states that too much is expected of social workers. It found that it was a profession that was confused about its role and because of intense media scrutiny was struggling with its work load. It found that there was an ongoing need for social workers to fulfil many functions including promoting community networks, working with other services and acting on clients behalf and to act as resources for all individual who need help. The report did criticise social work departments for taking a reactive stance towards social problems, dealing with those needs which are forced upon their attention but failing to develop overall plans which link the voluntary, volunteer, statutory and private services in an area into a coherent plan (p.38) which is still a problem today. Although these reports have all highlighted how good social work is and how much its needed there are so many problems involved in the profession. Firstly because every government have changed the way the work as soon as they get used to it, it changes again, yes the changes could be for the better but are these just changes for changes sake? The labour government have imposed new policies and directives for social work but after 8 years there are still problems within social work some which could be easily acted upon. We will only know if these new policies and new social work task force works over time. As its been highlighted earlier in this assignment there is still an implication involved in being a service user just as there was being a pauper. Whilst researching the different acts and welfare ideologies that have been introduced throughout the timeline Ive used Ive realised that there are more similarities than comparisons between a services user and pauper. They still have problems accessing help and there are many families who still dont ask for help because of the stigma. However new approaches have introduced service user involvement by defining what help they want and defining the quality of help they receive. A recent report by Beresford, Shamash, Forrest and Turner, 2007 research service users vision for adult service they found that the process of accessing social care was frequently negative for service users, the assessments were very dependent on the quality of the staff carrying it out, which shouldnt be happening all social workers should work to one high standard it shouldnt be a lottery of if you get a good one or not. Access to communicating with the social worker was low and that many of the service users questioned had gaps in their services making them feel insecure. A major problem through history has been a struggle to get good support for these individuals. Whilst researching this topic I realised that service users know what they want and can easily highlight the problems at the minute one report found while welfare bureaucracy has been condemned by governments for a long while service users still identify problems. One individual said that we shouldnt have to fill out forms to be made to feel like beggars, not unlike The Poor Law and paupers opinions. There is still social exclusion, the poor will stay poor because they have just enough to get by so they wont stop, think and revolt. But do social workers maintain this, because they help them just enough, finding the quickest thing they can do to help them not necessarily the best way in the long run. New Labour has had so much time to make improvements and rectify social exclusion but child poverty is getting worst. How much have rights helped service users, many reports have found that they feel more responsible and confident about the help they are receiving when they have been more involved in the decision processes. Although some still feel like they are hidden away from society and when they have more experience of their disability they need to be acknowledged. The report by Beresford et al, 2007 also found that service users would like a watchdog with service users and professionals and they should be the judges of quality. One dilemma that social workers face is working towards anti discriminatory practice, equality should be the core of provisions of service, and it needs to take into account religion and backgrounds. Yes some progress has been made involving diversity for example the race equality act, still lots of progress needs to be made. There are many barriers when considering the major historical events that brought about social work and the values it has now. We see that welfare state is a necessary condition of social work flourishing and to defend it or is it temporary in which internationally social work will then erupt from something else. One barrier when understanding which major events affected what social work is today is our understanding of the history of social work, the history isnt concrete it changes daily. Most of the history of social work comes from COS as its origin and its methods are still used today. However Laybourn, 1997 has found other methods that were used that have yet to be examined this may have been because COS was used in London and this would have an effect on the history, power will always influence history. To conclude social work has changed significantly and is still very important and we will progress to help all individuals, we need a larger voice though to talk about the problems we face as a profession to ensure that service users and pauper have fewer similarities. I believe that service users have shifted from paupers as they have much more freedom and rights now, yes there are still similarities which need to be focused on to improve our system and we could probably be a better service if problems hadnt occurred along the way to affect how we work, we also need to refuse to let policies be imposed on us when they dont improve on what were already doing. Rights are now benefiting service users but we need to ensure it stays like this. Whilst working towards anti discriminatory practice and equality for all we need to ensure our values are the same that we contribute to a fairer society by reducing disadvantage and exclusion and promoting fair access to resources. Many policies a nd acts have been the bedrock of what social work is today and without them social work would be very different.