Gerard Egan

An Easy Introduction to Egan’s Skilled Helper Solution Focused Counselling Approach By Patrick JM Nelson Part One What is it? Gerard Egan’s Skilled Helper Model of eclectically based counselling provides a structured and solution focused basis for counsellors, psychotherapists and hypnotherapists. It is a three stage model in which each state consists of specific skills that the therapist uses to help the client move forwards. By mastering the process of using these basic skills in an appropriate manner (often in a cyclical process of stage 1 – 2 – 3 evaluate 1 – 2 – 3 evaluate) the talking therapist may be able to increase their efficiency and structure their work in a more logical way, thus helping clients in a more consistent manner and being less reliant upon their fluctuating ‘therapeutic inspiration’. Theoretical Origins Theoretically the Skilled Helper approach draws on Carkuff's theory of high-level functioning helpers (which explains that helpers with the skills of empathy, respect, concreteness, congruence, self-disclosure, confrontation and immediacy are most effective); Strong's Social influence theory (which explains that helping is a process whereby clients are influenced by others because they perceive therapists as having particular attributes and with this influence being most powerful when the the therapist avoids both laxity and coercion and is instead collaborative, empowering and democratic) and Albert Bandura's Learning theory (in which clients are seen as acquiring skills through coming to understand the processes of learning and developing appropriate self-efficacy expectations – expecting to achieve their goals by learning useful behaviours). Essential Therapeutic Orientations The Egan Skilled Helper approach encourages clients to become active interprete rs of the world, giving meanings to actions, events and situations, facing and overcoming challenges, exploring problem issues, seeking new opportunities and establishing goals. Quite simply, success usually comes when human beings become active in initiating positive behaviours and developing problem-solving strategies. The Skilled Helper aims to help their clients develop the skills and the knowledge necessary to solve both their current problems issues and ones that may arise in the future. To facilitate client development the helper builds a healthy therapeutic alliance with the client based on collaboration, warmth and acceptance. The Skilled Helper facilitates the client by helping them to formulate a plan of action, helping them accept their responsibility for becoming a more effective person and helping them to develop their own inner resources. The Skilled Helper also helps their client to transfer newly acquired skills and knowledge to fresh situations, facilitates them in establishing appropriate and realistic goals (that match their problem-solving skills), encourages them to become selfdirective and develop the skills of problem-solving, helps them to build on their inner strengths and to utilize external resources and support groups, helps them realize their potential and facilitates them in developing goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, ethical and reasonable. Furthermore the Skilled Helper remains in a state of external sensory awareness and retains an awareness of their client's non-verbal communications. Effective Listening – SOLER Effective listening is key to being a Skilled Helper. It consists of various skills, which Egan covers with the acronym : S. If it suits them, face the client Squarely (some prefer up to 45 degrees etc) O. Maintain an Open Posture with the client. L. Lean towards the client (as appropriate). E. Maintain appropriate Eye Contact with the client. R. Be a Relaxed helper as by doing so you greatly improve the quality and comfort of the sessions. Active Listening & Empathy Active Listening is a key skill for the Skilled Helper. It consists in concentrating on the client's non-verbal and verbal communications and relating them to the client's story (non-verbal communication includes body language, expressions, reactions etc). Verbal communication articulates the client's experiences, behaviours and feelings. The Skilled Helper encourages the client to stick to the point (what is relevant), they are non-judgemental and they are Empathic rather than sympathetic. Appropriate Empathy is a state of human interaction in which the helper enters and understands the client's perspective, whilst getting in touch with their thoughts and feelings, however, in this the helper remains rational in their understanding of the client's situation and reality. Unlike in some counselling approaches, although the Skilled Helper communicates Empathy to the client as the basis of counselling, when appropriate they may also use challenging skills with the client when particular and clearly harmful irrational statements or destructive patterns etc keep resurfacing, however any challenging must be congruent with the maintenance of therapeutic Rapport and Empathy because Empathy and Rapport provide the client with the warmth, comfort and safety needed to facilitate effective positive change. Exploring Skills (Egan Stage I Introduction) Exploring the client's Existing Situation The stage one skills of the Egan Helping Model are based upon the exploration of the client’s situation and they basically correlate with the Rogerian counselling skills of the Person Centered Approach. The purpose of Stage I is to build a nonthreatening counselling relationship and help the client explore their situation and then focus on chosen issues. In this stage the Skilled Helper helps the client to identify and clarify problems and opportunities and assess their resources. Clients are often reluctant or resistant at this stage, therefore the therapist helps them to explore new perspectives, challenges negative modes of thinking and constructively challenges the client's excuses, evasiveness, distortions and negative self-statements. This stage is based around helping the client in establishing priorities and developing action plans that put into practice productive strategies. Stage I exploring skills include: Open-ended questions Silence Focusing Empathy Paraphrasing & Reflecting Meaning Paraphrasing & Reflecting Feeling Structuring Summarising Understanding Skills (Egan Stage II Introduction) Helping the Client Establish Aims and Goals The purpose of Stage II is to help facilitate the client in developing a more in-depth and objective understanding of their situation. This stage is enacted as the Skilled Helper assists the client in exploring options and possible goals. The Skilled Helper establishes what the client really wants and needs and the client is encouraged to consider new possibilities and perspectives, choosing ones that are realistic, consistent with their values and for which there are adequate incentives. The Skilled Helper facilitates the client in developing rational decision-making based upon healthy data collection, analysis and action planning. In this state brain-storming, divergent thinking, a balance-sheet approach and force-field analysis may be used with the client in order to facilitate choices between different ways of dealing with situations and achieving goals. These techniques help the client to explore various options and strategies as well understand and work around blocking factors with facilitating factors. Stage II understanding skills include: Recognising Patterns & Themes Alternate Frames of Reference Self-disclosure Immediacy Challenging Timing & Pacing Advanced empathy Acting Skills (Egan Stage III Introduction) Help the Client to Develop Strategies Stage III skills are assist clients to take appropriate action by defining goals, changing ways of relating and working through issues using problem solving or decision making methods, while providing support and encouragement. Stage III skills help the client to cope with current problems and assist in the learning of new skills that will enable them to live more effectively in the future. Action is based on exploration and understanding gained by using stage I & II skills. In stage III the Skilled Helper facilitates the client in finding ways of achieving their goals. After helping the client to come up with as many strategies as they can the Skilled Helper then helps them to focus upon those that are viable in terms of client situati on, needs, aspiration and resources. This process is designed to help the client move from the current situation to one that they would prefer. Transition experiences may make the client feel vulnerable therefore the process may often be built upon the taking of small comfortable steps as the client grows in confidence (but this must be based upon the needs of the client – some like big jumps). Realistic achievable planning and time-tabling are key to success and the Skilled Helper is warm and supportive – helping the client look out and overcome obstacles, turning challenges into opportunities and inspiring the client to mobilise their personal, social and material resources (particularly helpful family members, friends and self-help networks etc). Stage III action skills include: Divergent Thinking Goal Setting Decision Making Problem Solving Programme Choice Evaluate Knowledge of Resources Using Knowledge of How Behaviour is Changed Using Knowledge of How Useful Behaviour is Maintained Teaching skills & Promoting Learning skills Evaluation In addition to Explore, Understand & Act skills evaluation of the therapy process is also important. It can take place at the end of each session as a summarization, whenever appropriate. It helps the client understand what ground they have gone over, helps them perceive progress they have made and inspires them with understanding on how they want to move forwards. To learn about this approach in detail see Part II, III & 4 of An Easy Introduction to the Egan’s Skilled Helper Solution Focused Counselling Approach by Patrick JM Nelson. Gerard Egan’s ‘The Skilled Helper’ is available from the FETT Bookshop Article Copyright Patrick JM Nelson 2007

Commentary on ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Essay

In the novel ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, a scene that often catches the attention of readers is the poker scene. It begins when Blanche and Stella return from seeing a show too early, not wanting to have been a distraction or a nuisance while the men played poker. Stanley rudely dismisses the ladies making sure they know they aren’t welcome to join in, the tension escalates as does the banter and Stanley whacks Stella’s thigh to end the discussion. Mitch and Blanche then meet for the first time as he exits the bathroom and they are both immediately taken with each other. The poker games continues to progress and the ladies listen to the radio and gossip about the men, Stanley becomes unnecessarily agitated by the music and insists that they turn it off. Mitch then deals a hand and leaves to talk to Blanche, he offers a cigarette from a silver case, which he then continues on to explain the significance behind it, being from a girl whom he was once involved with that passed away. They continue to talk and Blanche explains how she was an English teacher and enjoyed her job even though the majority of her students didn’t retain much interest in the English curriculum. Then, the real action begins to unfold; Blanche turns the radio back on, not aware of what her actions will lead up to. Stanley was already at his wits end by the first time he ordered the radio turned off and a second provocation would only lead to trouble. The music begins to play ‘Wein, Wein, nur du allein’ which translates to ‘Wine, Wine, and you alone’ giving the reader auditory imagery. I find this ironic, as I believe Blanche is an in denial alcoholic, perhaps the song suggests that the only think she can really rely on for comfort is alcohol. She then begins to dance, waltzing ‘with romantic hand gestures’, this gives proof of her aristocratic and privileged upbringing for few of lower standing would know how to waltz. As for the romantic hand gestures, Blanche is utilizing her means of coquettish seduction on Mitch (who seems all too happy to be at the receiving end to her tryst) as she desperately clings to the idea of a stable and supportive relationship with a husband (as well as a source of income and roof over her head). This course of action has Stanley very riled up, even more so then before. The first time I read this passage I believed his anger to be unwarranted and simply unnecessary, but by putting yourself in his shoes it is possible to visualize where he’s coming from. Stanley sees himself as a ‘manly man’ completely sure of himself and filled to the brim with testosterone. Now combine that with whiskey, more testosterone, a little friendly competition and the fact that he’s losing, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Stanley prides himself on his authority and control of his friends, so when his winnings start to go south and he begins to loose face among them; something he prides himself upon. Its logical to say that his reaction will be harsh to any form of provocation using it as an outlet to his frustration and anger, no matter how unconscionable it was. As Stanley reacts to the radio being played the visual imagery and his disposition becomes wild, animalistic and primal. He ‘stalks fiercely’ to the radio, snatches it up, shouts an oath and then throws it out the window. In my opinion Stanley gives off a strong sense of Neanderthal attitudes because his actions are so primal and savage. In the next line Stella even accuses him of being such stating ‘Drunk – drunk – animal thing, you!’ I think it is this accusation from Stella that makes Stanley snap, taking his anger and need for violence past the point of no return. Stella was the last string in his anger coming to be so severe, because after his friends winning more then he, taking some authority and control away form him, his wife then blatantly insulting him in front of his friends on top of that had to do it. Even in his approach he is like an animal ‘Stanley charges after Stella’ as if he is predator and she is prey (which in this scenario it is safe to say was the case). His friends make feeble attempts at calming Stanley down, trying not to anger him further and at the same time avoiding his wrath being directed towards them. At this point I think Stella knows what’s going to happen and her threats of retaliation are empty as she warns ‘You lay your hands on me and I’ll – ’ as she backs out of the scene with Stanley in pursuit. A cacophony of noises is then heard as Stanley hits Stella and then as if the limelight has been off Blanche for too long she begins to scream and run around. Bringing attention back to herself, it also has to do with the fact that she has never been put in conditions as such and is useless, thus she must find some way to give herself the importance she craves so badly. Stanley’s men finally step up to restrain him in the throes of the crazed mist of rage he has succumbed to. Even in a condition as his ‘he nearly throws them off’ giving the reader a reminder of the brute force and strength that is Stanley. Then as if hit with an epiphany of great importance, realization hits, he surfaces from his delusions ‘all at once he subsides and is limp in their grasp’. Stella, presumably still in shock and fear from what has occurred claims that ‘[in a high, unnatural voice, out of sight] I want to go away, I want to go away!’ what’s interesting about this line is that her tone brings us back to Stanley’s demeanour before he attacked her, inhuman, very much like an animal which brings one to wonder that if Stella can react as such that maybe they aren’t so different from each other in that they can be both very animalistic at times. Mitch is one of the quieter characters in this play, much more reserved and miles more civilised then any of the other male characters. And after all these things have occurred he finally speaks up, simply stating that ‘Poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women’ Now, what I see he’s trying to get across is that all of the previous conflict and violence is solely to blame upon the fact that women were in the same building in which poker was being played, Surely this combination cannot be so dangerous as to inspire domestic abuse? Mitch is wrong on this matter because it is obviously not a dangerous combination; it is Stanley’s overbearing and easily angered personality that makes the situation so volatile. As I said before, Stanley was just a time bomb waiting to go off it was just a matter of someone setting him off (in this case, Stella). After all of this has come to pass, Blanche hastily takes Stella upstairs to the neighbours, Stanley realizes what has happened, that Stella is gone and becomes frantic. Becoming violent and telling his men to ‘Let go of me, you sons of bitches!’ it is unsure whether he is going to become mad with anger once again. His friends see this and hastily make their way out, not forgetting to reclaim their winnings. Tennessee Williams then uses repetition to enforce Mitch’s sexist opinion on the matter by having him state, again, that ‘Poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women’ as if the outcome was unavoidable due to this. Our attention is then taken back to Stanley as he continues through this almost heartfelt and emotional realization that Stella has left him, sobbing and crying out for her, this period is brief though and he soon becomes demanding and stubborn with Eunice (the neighbour) in wanting Stella back. When his plight proves useless, it’s as if he’s relapsed back into the desperate, sobbing man he was a moment before, maybe in thinking that this is the best course of action to manipulate Stella into returning. An animalistic reference is made again to Stanley in the description of his actions in that ‘he throws back his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife’s name: ‘Stella! Stella, sweetheart, Stella!’ This continues along with more banter with the neighbour until with one last attempt, as if he is back to his normal self, he cries out ‘[with heaven-splitting violence]: STELLL – AHHHHH!’ After a moment, Stella emerges and the two come together with an unspoken amount of emotion. This passage is extremely intimate and tender, not something that is often witnessed on stage or in books because it takes on such a personal and real feeling. Even as they come together there is still this animosity in the line ‘they came together with low, animal moans’. Stanley is a strong symbol of virility, manhood and all that is masculine but as he kneels half-naked and exposed on the pavement outside their house desperately crying out for his wife it makes you wonder if there is more to him then what the reader thinks. It is a difficult scene to act out in my opinion because the actor must be enticing and terrifying at the same time. Hence, Stella’s unhealthy attraction towards him, even when shouting her name in desperation on the pavement he still remains a dominating force that pulled her towards him. Their reunion at the bottom of the steps is without words – purely physical with a hint of tenderness as Stanley carries her back into their flat. What I think Tennessee Williams was trying to make the reader/audience feel when writing this passage was fear and curiosity at the same time. Fear from what would happen to the characters, namely Stella from Stanley and curiosity for the same reason. What makes this scene so interesting is the conflicting emotions coming from all of the characters, Blanche’s seduction of Mitch and need to feel useful, Stella’s embarrassment and fear of Stanley’s actions, Mitch’s defensiveness of Stanley’s actions, the other friends wariness if not fear of Stanley and Stanley’s anger and frustration at needing to be in control of the situation at all times. Needless to say, it is an incredibly complex situation, which at the same time remains extremely ironic.

Jose Rizal Essay

Republic Act No. 1425, known as the Rizal Law, mandates all educational institutions in the Philippines to offer courses about Josà © Rizal. The full name of the law is An Act to Include in the Curricula of All Public and Private Schools, Colleges and Universities Courses On the Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, Particularly His Novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Authorizing the Printing and Distribution Thereof, and for Other Purposes. The measure was strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines due to the anti-clerical themes in Noli Me Tà ¡ngere and El Filibusterismo. RIZAL AS A HERO According to Renato Constantino, when the American government conquered the island of the Philippines from the Spanish government in 1896, the American government established a commonwealth government after the Spanish revolutionary government ceased to govern the country. At this time of the Philippine history, Filipinos under the commonwealth government started to frame up Filipino national identities. When the question on who would be the national hero arose, whether Rizal or Bonifacio, the American government â€Å"guided† the Filipino people to choose Rizal. The American rationale was based on Rizal’s peaceful propaganda and diplomatic approaches in attaining Philippine freedom and independence, unlike Bonifacio who chose a bloody revolution. Whether this assessment is accurate or not, Dr. Rizal has been considered a hero of the Philippines from the outset: a public holiday was declared honouring Dr. Rizal in 1898, whereas that for Bonifacio was not declared until 1921. Dr. Rizal was considered to be his inspiration by Bonifacio himself. Even without the assistance of US propaganda, Rizal would have been honoured as a hero in the Philippines. Perhaps the effect of the propaganda was less to boost Rizal and more to denigrate Bonifacio. THE RIZAL LAW AND NATIONALISM Much has been said and written about Dr. Jose P. Rizal, the man whose life we are honoring today. He was dubbed as our national hero, rightly so, as his life and even his morose death has inspired and continues to inspire  generation after generations of Filipinos. In a time where being born a Filipino in the Philippines was a disadvantage, he lived to prove this wrong and in his works that led to his death, he immortalized the true spirit of the Filipino people – the spirit of resilience, of valor, of greatness. His works and philosophies not only sparked a revolution, they were revolutionary. He was even himself a revolution in every sense of the word. Conrado de Quiros, in one of his columns, best described Rizal’s existence as he wrote and I quote, â€Å"Rizal’s greatest act of subversion was not something that he said or did. It was what he was. They probably would have executed him anyway even if he had not written savage satires of the friars and their brethren in government. His very existence was seditious. He was brilliant. That was the most seditious thing of all.† Jose Rizal lived in a time where those who fronted themselves as leaders and evangelizers led by reducing the ruled to nothingness, making them a horde of lazy, uneducated fools who owed the Spaniards a favor for ruling them; and evangelized by feeding them blind faith as they made the Indios believe that they were a bunch of sheep who would be lost without them. Then, suddenly, Rizal emerges from the institutions of Europe, where he turned himself into an arsenal of knowledge, bettering most of them and brimming with the desire to free his people from the brainwashing and the oppression. By virtue of his erudite and the burning passion for his bereaved motherland, he was despised. During those times, Rizal was not the Rizal we know today. Rizal was a traitor, Rizal was a filibuster, Rizal was a heathen, Rizal was even a philanderer, a womanizer, and everything that was no good. Worst of all, he was an excommunicado. In 1956, two world wars and decades after Rizal’s death and the dichotomy between state and church has been pronounced by Law, the Third Congress of the young Republic of the Philippines passed into Law Republic Act No. 1425, â€Å"An Act to include in the curricula of all public and private schools, colleges and universities courses on the life of Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, authorizing the printing and distribution thereof, and for other purposes.† It was called the Rizal Law and it was crafted so that the youth may know Jose Rizal so as to not forget who he was and what he did for our country and during the process of knowing Rizal in the formative and decisive years of a student in school, that they be re-dedicated to the ideals of freedom and   nationalism to which our Rizal and the rest of our heroes fought and died for. The Rizal Law My dear friends, this afternoon, I was given the task of lecturing to this august body how the Rizal Law came to be. Given that this is a historic piece of legislation, I hope its significance to our history will be enough to hold your attention until the end of the lecture. Ladies and gentlemen, please do not fall asleep because that would be very un-nationalistic and unRizal-like. The Rizal Law was principally authored by the Senator Jose P. Laurel and if I may add, not to be boastful but to express how proud I am of his legacy, that my grandfather, the late Senator Lorenzo Taà ±ada, co-authored and defended the Rizal Law in the halls of Senate with Senator Laurel. Senator Laurel was known to have read Rizal’s work extensively and he saw Rizal as our foremost hero and he believed that the only way of knowing him as a national hero was to read his works and to find out what he had done for us all, stating matter-of-factly, that there was simply no other way. For the senators who first proposed and defended the bill, one of the ways of honoring Rizal was to accord him recognition as the symbol of unity, and of our nationalistic sentiment as a people, as he himself showed us. When the Rizal Law was first drafted on April 3, 1956 as Senate Bill No. 438 entitled, â€Å"An act to make the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo compulsory reading matter in all public and private colleges and universities for other purposes,† Senator Laurel, then the chairman of the Senate Committee on Education did not expect to encounter any opposition to the bill. However, mainly because of the fact that despite the established secularization between church and state, the influence of the Catholic Church casted a dark shadow on the proceedings on the passage of the bill, highlighting four major issues that forced the principal author to make serious amendments on the original bill – (a) the compulsory nature of the bill, (b) religion, (c) the de finition of â€Å"basic texts† and â€Å"required readings,† and lastly, (d) the power of the National Board of Education. Compulsory Nature of the Act In the original bill drafted, reading of the unexpurgated versions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo was compulsory among students. This  was the bone of controversy to some of the Senators, the press, and the Catholic Church. The substitute bill sponsored by Senator Laurel corrected this by ordering that the compulsory aspect of reading the unexpurgated versions be applicable only to those in the collegiate level but the two books must be present in the libraries of all schools. Senator Laurel maintained throughout the entire debate that there is no compulsion or compulsory reading of the Noli and Fili in their original and unexpurgated form in schools and institutions below college level. Courses on the life, works and writings of Rizal, however, should be included in the curricula for schools, colleges and universities. He strongly believed that students in the tertiary level should be compelled to read the unexpurgated versions, and that Rizal’s two greatest works should not be disfigured or expurgated, because he believed that by disfiguring them, we disfigure Rizal. Religion The compulsory aspect of the bill was considered scandalous because of one thing, Religion. The Catholic Church has always had its way of making its influence known in matters of legislation. In the mid-1950’s, many Catholic Schools still banned their libraries from having copies of the Noli and Fili because of their subversive nature. Section 4 of the Rizal Law states in part that, â€Å"Nothing in this Act shall be construed as amending or repealing Sec. 927 of the Administrative Code, prohibiting the discussion of religious doctrines by public school teachers and other person engaged in any public school.† It is prohibited by law to discuss any problems affecting dogma and religious creed. In one of the interpellations, the late Senator Roseller T. Lim argued that â€Å"the possibility that in some respects we might divide our people, religious doctrines that might be brought up in the Noli Me Tangere or El Filibusterismo may not be touched upon or discussed.† To this statement, Senator Taà ±ada, asked â€Å"are teachers both in public and private schools not precluded from explaining even matters of religion contained in these two novels?† Senator Laurel defends the bill by stating, â€Å"when you use the novels of Rizal and a question was asked by a pupil and the teacher explains, he is supposed to explain in his own way in accordance to his beliefs, but he is not supposed to engage in religious discussion in favor of any religious sect or domination because there is separation between the Church and the State.† He furthers that, â€Å"if there is some question raised  to the teachers, the teachers must explain.† A scenario was raised by another Senator to deepen the discussion, â€Å"what if a professor is Catholic in a public school or an Aglipayan in a private school and the chapter where Pilosopong Tasyo and Purgatory comes up and a student asks whether or not purgatory exists?† If you remember in Chapter 14 of Noli, Pilosopong Tasyo, the man who was considered a lunatic for knowing too much from books by the Indios who knew nothing, boldly explains how he did not believe in purgatory and goes on about how it is just an imagined construct for Christians to live a good life. Of course, that chapter was a stab to the church so it was highly controversial during those times, apparently it was seen as controversial even until 1956. Senator Laurel answered that, â€Å"if you give freedom to the other teacher denying purgatory or defending purgatory, whatever may be his opinion, you have to grant that to the rest of the teachers. We cannot prohibit in one case what we grant in other cases.† The point of it was that if a student asks, the teacher must explain. The Catholic Church even issued a statement backed by the Archbishop then saying that the reading of the unexpurgated versions of the two novels would be contrary to the precepts of the religion of the church. The problem the senators had to face was the fact that students would be placed in a situation where on the one hand, he or she would like to follow the civil authorities to read the two novels, while on the other hand, he or she has the statement from his church that to read these books would be against the tenets of Catholicism. To these arguments, the senators behind the Rizal Law made it clear that those pronouncements which are lofty, patriotic, nationalistic, instructive, and of great educational value are the principles that should be disseminated and propagated and taught to the Filipino youth. Senator Laurel, being well-versed on the works of Rizal defends the hero by arguing that it was not Rizal’s intention to directly attack the church, but only those individuals who have prostituted and oppressed the Filipinos in the name of the Catholic religion. It was never Rizal’s purpose to impair and destroy the sacred institution of the Roman Catholic Church, he simply wanted to expose the rascals, the criminals, the oppressive elements of the religious institutions then in vogue. At the end of the discussion, Senator Laurel boldly states that the students had to make the decision of whether or not to read the two novels for themselves.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Basic Texts† vs. â€Å"Required Readingà ¢â‚¬  Another issue was based on the technical aspects of the substitute bill. Section 1 of the Rizal Law states in part that, â€Å"in the collegiate courses, the original or unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo or their English translation shall be used as basic texts.† Some of the senators found difficulty in understanding the broadness of the term, â€Å"basic text,† so a good number of time was spent on this issue. Senator Laurel, being the principal author of the bill and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, was asked for a technical definition but was adamant about giving one arguing that this task should be relegated to the Board of National Education, which was composed of technical experts on the field of education. Senator Taà ±ada’s thoughts enlightened everyone on the matter arguing that basic text means something that is required because that is the plain meaning. When a text is basic, it is so considered because of its importance. If there is a basic subject that is required for the obtaining of a degree or the finishing of a course, that means that you cannot graduate unless you have successfully passed the subject because that subject is a requirement, and, therefore, a basic subject which if a student has not finished will not permit him to terminate his course or to graduate. Because of the difficulties the senators faced in the compulsory aspect of the bill, the concept of â€Å"required reading materials† was presented as an alternative. Some senators suggested that instead of being used as basic texts, why not just include the Noli and Fili in the list of required readings along with other books containing the same ideals of patriotism and nationalism so that students would have the choice of reading other required books if they find the Noli and Fili offensive to their respective religions. Senator Laurel would later yield to t his suggestion as a compromise to the detractions of the Catholic Church and the senators belonging to her. Power of the Board of National Education In order to settle some of the contentious issues found in the bill, the senators agreed to one solution – to authorize the Board of National Education to carry out the responsibilities of (a) writing and printing appropriate primers, readers and textbooks for the lower years, (b)  promulgate rules and regulations, including those of a disciplinary nature, to carry out and enforce the provisions of the bill, and (c) promulgate rules and regulations for the exemption of students for reasons of religious beliefs. This authorization was given based on logic that the Board of National Education, which was composed of technical experts on the field of education, will carry out the said responsibilities in the manner that will best insure the objectives of the law and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. This would also save the senators from the detractors on and against the side of the Catholic Church, the BNE would be the target of these hecklers later on. The final Rizal Law underwent several changes, but the 23 senators who voted Yes to the compromise bill on that faithful day of May 17, 1956, considered it as a step forward because of how it reasserted the power of the State to control and regulate the education of the people, while at the same time, it also conserved and preserved the liberty of conscience by leaving the option to the parties concerned that is, to the students themselves. Despite of the compromise that was drawn wherein students were no longer compelled to read the unexpurgated versions of the Noli and Fili, the fact that the courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal were to be included in the curricula of all schools, colleges and universities, private or public, remained. And this has been in effect since then. The Rizal Law is the reason why we all know and remember Jose Rizal, who he was and what he stood for. It is why we know Crisostomo Ibarra, Elias, Maria Clara, Padre Damaso, and Pilosopong Tasyo. It is why we know Simoun, Isagani, Basilio, Kabesang Tales, Tandang Selo, Ben-zayb and Placido Penitente. My dear friends, as I threw out all those names, I was hoping for only one thing†¦that you can still recall who and what those names stood for. That you can still remember, and as you reminisce, that your memory of those characters awaken the emotions – the hurt, the anguish, the sense of betrayal from the oppressors, and the sense of patriotism, of wanting to fight for those who were oppressed, the love for our countrymen, and the love for our country – all these emotions that Rizal awakened within us when we were just students learning of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. If you are feeling these emotions right now, then I can truly say that Rizal’s legacy and the legacy of the Rizal Law lives on with us today. If not, I beg of you to read the Noli and Fili once again for they  have much to tell us and for they have much more to teach us. You may be surprised that the characters in Noli and Fili are very much alive and have taken different names in present day Philippine society. Ladies and gentlemen, the stories of the Noli and Fili, including Rizal’s struggle to publish them, tells us of resilience – that even the worst of times may not be a hurdle in the quest for excellence. Clearly, the late senators had their fair share of resilience in fighting for the passage of the Rizal Law despite the unpopular image it gave them. Not to drive a nail on the wall, but I think the enactment of the Rizal Bill into law was their way of exercising their patriotism. It was a testament of their living up to Rizal’s ideals and they have been quite successful in teaching Rizal to every Filipino. It was the same sense of nationalism and patriotism from Rizal’s teachings, I believe, that encouraged the 12 Senators 35 years later on September 16, 1991, to reject the continued presence of US Military Bases in our country. But most of all, my dear friends, the Noli and Fili tells us of heroism and nationalism. As Conrado de Quiros once again puts it, â€Å"striving becomes all the more luminous when done in the service of one’s own people, one’s own country.† Rizal believed that Filipinos are capable of far greater things and he and others like him were living proof of this, which is why he immortalized the true spirit of the Filipino people in his two great novels. Jose Rizal may remain unrivaled in his brilliance but he never meant to intimidate, he served to show us, to remind us, of who and what we are and of who a nd what we can become. In Rizal’s writings, our culture of resistance to oppressors was perpetuated. This is why we are a nation that resists when we are subjected to the brink. We are not afraid to dissent, to oppose, to fight. From the legacy that Rizal and our great heroes left us, let us ask ourselves, â€Å"What have we done to live up to this?† Today, we have been unfortunate to have lost the best and the brightest to other countries, our fields are being devoured by floods, our waters continue to be polluted by oil spills and our fishing grounds are running empty, our public schools are festering with termites while teachers sell longganiza to the students to augment their delayed salaries, businesses find no mercy in terminating long-time employees to save money, churches find it better to be chauvinistic than to address the poverty that overpopulation has progenized, where factories see neighborhoods as waste  disposal areas, and most of all, where those in power find it routine to squander the money of the people. We know what the cancer of our society is, it is still the same cancer that plagued Rizal’s time. The only difference is that ours has spread. The question now remains, have we, in any way, contributed to the cure? Or are we part of those who let the tumors fester? In Rizal’s work, The Indolence of the Filipinos, Rizal himself said: â€Å"Peoples and governments are correlated and complementary; a fatuous government would be an anomaly among a righteous people, just as a corrupt people cannot exist under just rulers and wise laws.† In other words, progress and prosperity can only be achieved only by a responsible citizenry. No number of measures for reforms and betterment would be enough if the people themselves tolerate abuses, are indifferent to rising issues, and are timid and apathetic to the ills besetting our country. When we are fully conscious of our duties and obligations to our people and country, when nationalism becomes a way of life, triumphant and influencing our daily life, then we can truly say that we have followed the teachings and examples of Rizal. Only then, can we hold our heads high, knowing that we have re-oriented our ways to the dreams and goals that Rizal had envisioned for us. Nationalism today places before us a grand challenge, a great responsibility. More than ever, in our national existence, we need Rizal to enlighten us, to be a symbol of our onward struggle for the realization of our ambition as a nation, unfettered not only politically, but culturally and economically. With nationalism — as demonstrated by Rizal — as our weapon and means, we will triumph.

Personal Development for Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Personal Development for Work - Essay Example Moreover, I have also been able to show some purchasers a three-bedroom flat which was selling for  £295,000 in a block behind the real estate agency. Through this experience, I have also realized the importance of persuasion and influencing in being a convincing salesman. No amount of technical skills can match good interpersonal skills and effective rapport building. There has been another opportunity for me to interact with potential buyers, and this was when I oriented them with Great Portland Street in Fitzrovia to show them a top-floor flat which enjoys outstanding views. During the course of the practicum, I was also given the chance to suggest ideas on developing a site for the agency. Overall, there was not much difficulty with this learning experience. This was facilitated by the fact that everyone was friendly and the atmosphere was conducive to practical learning. I have also seen from their example how valuable teamwork was as well as relationship marketing. It is very important that my each member of my team knows what I expect from him or her in terms of goals. Goals or objectives are statements of intent to achieve specific business results. They are measurable, controllable and are directly related to such results. In setting goals or objectives, they should be specific and significant, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, time-bound, engaging, and reviewed (Miser, 2006, online). Apart from this, my team should be given constant feedback to know how well they are doing their tasks. Feedback giving also increases the effectiveness of goal setting, feedback should be provided to the employee on his progress in reaching his goal (Hartog et al, 1999). Feedback can include verbally telling an employee how he is doing, placing a chart on a wall, or displaying a certain color of light when the employee’s work pace will result in goal attainment and a

The Main Monetary and Fiscal Policy Instruments Available to the Essay

The Main Monetary and Fiscal Policy Instruments Available to the British Government - Essay Example rend of contracting and competitive tendering so that services improve through competition between the private and public sector in such areas as NHS catering, laundry and cleaning services along with infrastructure development and correction services. The government has initiated such schemes as value for money for its departments by setting performance parameters in increased numbers (Riley, â€Å"Fiscal Policy,† par. 7). Demand and Supply-side Policy Demand and supply side policies are government tools that help it to achieve policy aims. The demand side policies of the UK government are: 1. Fiscal policy—it is related to levying of taxes and government outlays. 2. Monetary policy—it governs issues like rate of interest and flow of money. 3. Exchange rate policy—it involves shuffling in the rate of Sterling Pound. Supply-side Policies 1. Help the government in boosting competition and performance in product markets. 2. Help in increasing of competition and production in factor markets, particularly labour markets. 3. Help in boosting the domestic savings by offering incentives. 4. Offer attractive schemes to firms for increased production and investment (Economics Online, â€Å"Fiscal Policy,† par. 6). Fiscal Policy It is the planned attempts to change the government outlay or taxation to gain desired macroeconomic results by manipulation in aggregate demand. There are two classes of fiscal policies, discretionary and automatic. 1. Discretionary policy. It is related to such policies that are formulated and enforced by one-off policy changes. 2. Automatic policy helps in stabilizing the economy by fiscal drag and fiscal boost (Economics Online par. 1). Fiscal Drag It diminishes the effect of increased income for goods as taxes are levied in increased ratios....An active fiscal policy increases the chances of deficit budgeting which is central to Keynesianism; it is still a trend of the British government to boost the morale of the money markets by not indulging in grand scale fiscal surpluses. Under the New Labour government, the fiscal policy plays a passive role in changing the budget deficit position over a business cycle but it should not mean that the New Labour government has terminated the active fiscal policy in principle; it has been ‘coarse-tuning’ the fiscal policy to get positive vibes. The New Labour does not deny a desired rate of unemployment, delinking any correlation between inflation and unemployment, which shows that in macroeconomic policy no setting in aggregate and effective demand is possible. The concept of interplay between supply and demand sides and their relation with unemployment can be clearly seen in the New Labour government. The need for interaction between both microeconomic and macroeconomic policies is needed for growth, stability and employment. Supply-side issues are important but demand jerks are risky. The New Labour government is nearer to Keynesia n in identifying that demand alone cannot ensure stability in employment, a crucial feature of New Labour’s political economy. One thing is clear that policies of the New Labour government have not promoted competitiveness. It is significant to note that the New Labour government has not faced a test of its macroeconomic policies in recession time although Britain’s macroeconomic policies have reduced the tremors felt by France and Germany in 2002-03.

Mandatory Recycling in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mandatory Recycling in the USA - Essay Example Air pollution that coming from the process of burning fossil fuels is one of the common factors that causes acid rain. (U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1999) In other words, electric utility plants are among the major sources of emitted sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that are present in the atmostphere. As explained by Science, global warming and the nitrogen oxide present in the acid rain could cause negative impact on the environment aside from declining the annual crop yields due to the presence of flood caused by typhoon and/or prolonged hot season that often leads to the growth of new pesticides and fungicides. (Hampton, 2008; Union of Concerned Scientists, 2006) For this reason, income from agricultural activities becomes lesser. On the other hand, the thinning of the ozone layer could cause human beings to suffer from skin cancer and other related health detriments. (The Daily Galaxy, 2007) Aside from causing serious damage on agricultural products, acid rain could also severely damage our natural sources of water such as lakes and streams. (U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1999) Given the fact that trees absorb water from the ground, there is a higher chance that trees and other plants would die caused by high amount of acid found in the ocean, lakes, streams, rivers, and water reservoir. For this reason, forest degradation is most likely to occur.

Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Question - Assignment Example A company that uses agile management is likely to have increased growth and expansion because of the increased productivity. It also reduces time wasted building a project using various cycles. This approach uses iterations and breaks down the long cycles into less time. The popularity of the model over the waterfall model is because of its efficiency in increasing the client’s involvement in the process of software development. The end result of agile project management is always a little less predictable as compared to waterfall model. One would take this as a disadvantage, but that is not true. Agile adapts to changes in a much positive manner. It responds to issues as they arise and resolves them. Agile management and the Waterfall management both have advantages and disadvantages. Agile is very fast, quick and a more reliable approach to managing projects that need constant improvements. Unlike waterfall approach, agile is done in iterations. Agile management is oriented on offering quality services while waterfall management deals with construction projects and hardware Installation projects. Agile is suitable for projects that are new and yet to be tried Schmidt (2) This is a systematic and organized approach in your company to enable staff to transition from their current practices to those that the company focusses on. It involves influencing a good number of people to positively accept the changes being made. If there is no change management in a company, it could lead to failure of the business. IT departments need changes especially due to the current changes in the technological information. The critical success of an IT organization is highly dependent on its capability to control the IT changes. It should protect existing services during and after and ensure accurate changes are made. Change management programs help to align and organize the organization when undergoing major

Universal Access to Healthcare in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Universal Access to Healthcare in the USA - Essay Example Typically, investing in telemedicine can enable more people to access healthcare costs while at the same time saving on transportation costs. In this program, people can communicate with healthcare providers without having to physically go to the clinic. The program focuses on establishing a mobile strategy in healthcare companies. Further, it includes digital clinics that can be accessed through mobile phones and computers, which will make this mobile strategy easier. Â  The program looked at costs of implementing a mobile strategy and digital health clinics and weighed this cost against the relevant transport costs that will be saved after transformation of the system. In addition, the benefit of the improvement of health care due to the resultant increase in health care access was added to the advantage of reduced transportation costs (Aspe.hhs.gov, 2015). Â  Telemedicine has not only improved access to health care but has reduced costs and improved the quality of healthcare (Aspe.hhs.gov, 2015). However, there were disparities in access between the access in rural and urban areas which was attributed to the inequalities in information.

US Treasury Yields Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

US Treasury Yields - Essay Example High-interest rates and inflation during Carter regime discouraged investment with US long-term Treasury yield exceeding 15% and short term T-Bills yielding nearly 20%. Reagan regime restored consumer confidence, through the appointment of Paul Volcker the chair of Federal Reserve Board with his tireless effort and determination of defeating a national economic disaster bore fruits. His fruits were putting the nation into an intentional recession where money supply was tightened, which slowed down the pace of economic growth in the economy, reducing the employment. Inflation was completely abated in the year 1982. After inflation Volcker was devoted to rejuvenating the economy, one of the policies was to reduce the interest rates, this increased money in circulation within the economy that encouraged investment reduced the cost of production and cost of living taming demand-pull and cost pull inflations. Reduction in interest rates encouraged investment with long T-Bills yielding 1% and short-term T-bill yielding 4%. Federal Reserve opinion to increase the interest rates will increase the cost of capital in the economy, and a consumer will be compelled to spend extra coins on the food basket. It will also be translated to investment where due to high-interest rates the profit margins of the lenders will be reduced, moneylenders lend with an objective optimizing revenue.

Discuss the impact of globalisation on an African country. (Nigeria) Essay

Discuss the impact of globalisation on an African country. (Nigeria) - Essay Example There is not only economic aspect to globalization, as it also has an impact on the political, cultural and ideological aspects of countries and their relations. In the case of underdeveloped countries it is often viewed that Globalization helps in their development however this tends to vary as there are certain positive and negative effects of globalization in case of underdeveloped countries. In the eighties Globalization came out as a liberating force freeing the world from the military politics. In the nineties, with the advent of information technology it further gave the concept of turning the world into global village. It was with globalization that led to the adoption of western models by the underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria (Bigman). In Nigeria today there is a socio-economic flux that has been aggravated due to the cultural legacy (Bigman). Its economic position is quite weak mainly because of the inadequacy in its economic capacity as well as its infrastructure. This economic weakening is also attributed to the monoculture dependency and the terms of export trade which are quite unfavorable. There is also agonizing burden of debts. Also before 1986 the country had expansion policies for its monetary and fiscal policies due to its regulated economic regimes in order to develop the economy (Obadan). However due to the political instability and rise in corr uption these factors were worsened leading to less investment choices for foreign investors. In view of the globalization, Nigeria has followed a liberalizing trend whereby it has taken measures to facilitate its economy but due to the unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, credit facilities and technology the sectors could not produce accordingly. Also, despite opening its economy Nigeria has depended mainly on its oil exports where its foreign

McDonald’s and Its Crisis Essay Example for Free

McDonald’s and Its Crisis Essay What should a company do when its core product is considered â€Å"unhealthy† or even â€Å"harmful† by the public? Is it even possible for such a company survive and thrive; or will it have to shut down its business? McDonald’s fast food has for a long time been considered unhealthy by the public. In recent years, the health conscious trends have become increasingly popular. Moreover, many scientific studies and findings have surfaced and successfully confirmed that children’s increasing intake of fast food, which often contains high sodium content, sugars, saturated fats, and calories, for a long period of time would lead to childhood obesity. Moreover, obese children have a much higher risk of many health problems such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancersall of which are fatal if left untreated. In 2010, a mother from California sued McDonald’s over the company’s marketing practice of Happy Meal. The mother claimed that McDonald’s used alluring toys to lure kids into Happy Meal. This lawsuit, which might be viewed by many as senseless and absurd, was one of McDonald’s biggest cases. In order to come out of the lawsuit ahead, this largest fast food chain had to undergo some major organizational changes. In this paper, we would like to use the knowledge learned in the class to analyze the event (the lawsuit) and its effects on McDonald’s. The paper will have four main parts. In the first part, we provide a brief introduction of the company, McDonald’s, and the lawsuit. In the second part, we will use the concepts learned in class to analyze Happy Meal’s influencing strategies and the organizational changes during and after the suit. We believe that Happy Meal’s influencing strategies deserve our attention as they were the main causes of the crisis. Since its Happy Meal’s influencing tactics were so effectively and successfully executed, McDonald’s became the obvious target of the mentioned legal dispute. In the third part, we will offer our evaluations, pros and cons, of McDonald’s strategies and tactics in handling the crisis. Finally, in the fourth part, depending on our evaluation of how McDonald’s control of the situation, we want to offer our recommendation to parts of the company’s strategies which in our opinions could have been improved. Also, since we overall felt that McDonald’s managed the crisis extremely well, we recommend its strategies to be implemented to Jack in the Box, which faced a similar situation to McDonald’s. However, unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight for the continuation of its using toys to push Happy Meal sales, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the pressure from the public. We believe McDonald’s implementation of strategic changes could have helped Jack in the Box to put toys back to its Happy Meal. I Introduction McDonald’s Corporation is the worlds leading food service organization. The corporation started out as a small drive-through in 1948 by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1961, Raymond Albert Kroc, a salesman, saw a great opportunity in the market at the time and bought the business from the McDonald brothers. By 1967, McDonald’s began its first business expansion to countries outside of the United States. This unyielding expansion resulted in the opening of 23,000 McDonalds restaurants in 110 countries in 1994. Today, McDonalds, the leading fast food chain, had twice the market share of its closest U.S. competitor, Burger King. In fact, McDonald’s market share represented 7 percent of total U.S. eating-out sales (Cohen, 2009, p8-2, p8-3). There are several major influences and factorssuch as government, customers, social trends, and so forthwhich play an important role in shaping organizational behavior.In the recent years, McDonald’s corporate image has been negatively affected by adverse publicity. For example, McDonald’s has been criticized of paying its employees low wages and enforcing an aggressive anti-union policy throughout its fast-food empire. Furthermore, the corporation was heavily condemned by the public for exploiting children market and causing childhood obesity. Indeed, McDonald’s has been using advertising which mainly targeted children. As a result, according to the survey to American school student in 1996, 96 percent of all children could identify Ronald McDonald (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). How was McDonald’s able to achieve the above result? McDonald’s children marketing strategies were very simple but extremely effectiveto give small toys as a treatment to children in order to appeal to their interests. With the repeated uses of this psychological influencing tactic, children would subconsciously make a connection between McDonald’s and toys. Therefore, children, who were under the influences of McDonald’s marketing strategies, could not help to think of McDonald’s whenever thinking of toys. The plaintiff, Monet Parham, a California mother of two, sued McDonald’s overly exploiting children market on Oct 2010 (Dan, 2011).She claimed that McDonald’s gave out alluring toys that come with the meals in order to lure kids into unhealthy diet. The mother also stated that â€Å"McDonald’s make it so much harder to say no to her kids when they are really want those toys† (York, 2010). The CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) confirmed that â€Å"kids do not have the cognitive maturity to understand the persuasive intent of advertising† (York, 2010). Later on, the ban of serving Happy Meals with toys was easily passed by the Board of Supervisors in an 8-3 vote, which would take effect on Dec 1st, 2011 if McDonald’s didn’t meets the nutritional standards of meal in San Francisco till that time (San Francisco Happy Meal Toy Ban Takes Effect,2012). McDonald’s quickly made response to this event. The fast food chain’s spokeswoman, Bridget Coffing, told the LA Times newspaper: We are confident that parents understand and appreciate that Happy Meals are a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet, (York, 2010). McDonalds said that it would defend itself against the lawsuit. Meanwhile, it started offering apple slices and milks in the new Happy Meals. Eventually, the San Francisco judge dismissed the suit since McDonalds was able to meet the required nutritional standards.†¨ In the next part, we will assess this problem relate to the concept of influence and organizational change. II Course Concepts Related To The Event Influence â€Å"Influence is any communication which produces a change in an action and/or an attitude in one or more people.† Influence is one of the most important management strategies in any organization. A strong influence tactic includes role of planning and dialogue, establish credibility, frame goals and common ground, vividly reinforce your position and connect emotionally (Wong, Influence and persuasion, 2012). In this case, although McDonald’s was sued by alluring children, they indeed occupied the children market successfully. In order to establish an influence, one must first establish communicationexchanges of dialogue. McDonald’s did good at emotional influence and ingratiation. The company created a clown character named Ronald and featured it on local TV in early 1960s. Then, people were employed to perform live Ronald McDonald clowns at children’s birthday parties held in restaurants. Ronald McDonald had a magic touch with children giving McDonald’s an important advantage over its competitors in the children market (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). With Ronald McDonald mascot so successful as a communication tool, McDonald’s went one step further to establish its credibility in children’s minds. This was not hard for the leading fast food chain as it is a common notionand quite truethat children are in most cases easy to influence. Then, how did McDonald’s make children trust it? The answer is easymake the children happy. For example, children were happy when gifts such as Ronald dolls and wristwatches were given free with every purchases of Happy Meals. McDonald’s also used toys of characters from popular movies appeal to children. In this aspect, they used influence of ingratiation effectively. Ingratiation means do something what the person likes. For example, a recent and very successful Happy Meal promotion was a tie-in with the popular DreamWorks Animation film Shrek Forever After. The meals included toy watches fashioned after the movies characters Shrek, Donkey, Gingy and Puss in Boots (Dan, 2011). Furthermore, McDonald’s needed to create a common goalas to what it stands forwith children. With free toys and the always smiling Ronald McDonald, McDonald’s convinced children that the company and its restaurants stands for happiness and enjoyment. However, just establishing common goal and credibility is not enough to make an effective influence, the communicating message and/or idea must be vividly reinforced and emotionally connected with the target audience. According to the Fast Food FACTS Report, young people viewed enormous amounts of fast food advertising. Every day, the average preschooler saw 2.8 fast food ads on television, the average child saw 3.5, and the average teen saw 4.7. Teens listened to approximately one radio ad per day. Children were exposed to more than 1,200 traditional fast food ads per year while teens saw and heard more than 2,000. (Harris, Schwartz Brownell, 2010, p132) Thus, with its spending of $900 million in media in 2009, McDonald’s made sure that the company’s image was vividly reinforced and emotionally connected in the minds of many children (Harris, Schwartz Brownell, 2010, p132). In sum, McDonald’s influencing strategies were so successful that 90 percent of the children go to McDonald’s once a month (Fast Food Marketing to Children, 2010). Nevertheless, McDonald’s effective influencing strategies made it a target for one of the biggest lawsuit in the fast food industry. In the next part, we will discuss how McDonald’s applied its strategic changes to overcome the crisis. †¨Organizational Change For years, critics have been criticizing McDonald’s and its role in America’s obesity problemspecifically the franchise’s aggressive marketing strategies toward children. As the lawsuit pointed out, McDonald’s used toys to lure children and in turn set kids up for a lifetime of health problems. The leadership and management of an organization must be prepared for a turbulent environment which demands more complex planning for the future. The phrase â€Å"organizational change† is about a significant change in the organization, such as reorganization or adding a major new product or service. In fact, there are six forces creating the need of change—the changing nature of the work force, technology, economics shocks, changing social trends, the â€Å"new† world politics, and the changing nature of competitions. (Stephen,1992, p.270) From this lawsuit, we could find evidences of a major force, changing social trend. As the health conscious became a more and more popular, people will be looking for healthy food that is low in calories, fat and sodium. In the American, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last 30 years. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control, seventy percent of obese children have higher risk for cardiovascular disease, and are at â€Å"greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem† (Centers for disease, 2012). The publics pointed a finger at McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food company, who use of Happy Meal toys to lure children. This situation made McDonald’s under heavy criticism from public health officials, parents, lawmakers and so on because they are frustrated with rising childhood obesity rates and weak anti-obesity efforts from fast food restaurant operators. Oftentimes, organizations are confronted with problems in the environment or with internal contingencies suggesting that â€Å"current ways of doing things are not effective† (Miller, 2012, p180). When facing the changing forces, organizations often make changes gradually. Of course, the implementation of planned change is neither a simple nor a straight-forward process (Miller, 2012, p181). In fact, it took McDonalds six years (from 1984 to 1990) to react to pressure group tactics and litigation before starting to adapt its service offer to the dietary concerns of its customers. At the very beginning, the company just made some modestly changes, such as using light oil, adding 2% milk into the menu before actually launching new products such as the McVeggie, the McLean, and pizza in the 1990s (Joanne Caroline, 2006). If we consider McDonald’s step-by-step changes, in the above examples, organizational planned change in response to social trend, the fast food franchise’ reactions to the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) lawsuit then can be defined as â€Å"unplanned change†. According to Coombs (1999, p.2), organizational crisis is â€Å"an event that is an unpredictable, major threat that can have a negative effect on the organization, industry, or stakeholders if handled improperly.† In other words, crisis is unplanned change that can rock an organization and all the people associated with it. In response to this lawsuit, on December 15 2010, McDonald’s posted on its website a Response to CSPI Lawsuit: We are proud of our Happy Meals and intend to vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food. We stand on our 30 years track record of providing a fun experience for kids and families at McDonald’s. We listen to our customers, and parents consistently tell us they approve of our Happy Meals. We are confident that parents understand and appreciate that Happy Meals are a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet. (Bridget, 2010) Later on, McDonald’s made it clear that the fast food chain had begun to make changes to the composition of Happy Meals in response to parental and consumer pressure. It also pledged to reduce the sodium content in all of its foods by 15 percent, with the exceptions of soda and desserts. Moreover, it set a deadline of 2015 for limiting salt, and said that it would spend the rest of this decade cutting back on sugars, saturated fats and calories and making adjustments to portion sizes. The new Happy Meals were introduced in September and launched across the company’s 14,000 restaurants on April 2012. They would all include apple slices, but in a smaller amount of three to five slices than the current eight to 10 offered as an alternative (Stephanie, 2011). McDonald’s will also offer a fat-free chocolate milk option, along with the option of low-fat milk or the traditional soda. The price is not expected to change (Andrew,2011). Furthermore, as part of an effort to provide better access to nutritional information about its foods, McDonald’s developed its first mobile application for the public. Additionally, in 2011, McDonald’s executives toured the country to hear directly from consumers about their concerns (Alex, 2011). In the next part, we would like to offer our evaluations, pros and cons, of McDonald’s strategies and tactics in handling the crisis. III Evaluation As we could image, the sales of Happy Meals have been a large contributions to McDonald’s daily revenue. Thus, if McDonald’s had lost the lawsuit, the company would have faced a really huge lost on its total profits and taken serious damage on its reputation. On the side of the organization change, we believe that McDonald’s did quite well in the face of the crisis. Organization crisis could be divided into three stages: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis (Miler, 2012, p187). In the pre-crisis stage, an organization should protect or prevent possible problems. It should make employees have a kind of consciousness of crisis all the time. Indeed, McDonald’s has always been accused of selling unhealthy, greasy food to grownups, and exploiting children through advertising since 1960s (Cohen,2009,p8-6). As a leading company in fast food industry, adverse publicity always be the major problem for McDonald’s. Still, McDonald’s couldn’t find a way to solve this problem at all. It is necessary that a company grow with self-awareness against any problem. After all, McDonald’s had got unfavorable publicity in this event what had happened before. During the crisis stage, it is very important that the company should make correct and wise decisions in order to salvage the damaged reputation. As we said before, on one side, McDonald’s projected itself as a company which was proud of its products and would vigorously defend its reputation in order to calm down concerned customers . On the other side, McDonald’s announced that it would reduce the portion of French fries in every Happy Meal by half and replace them with apple slices. It even promised to start serving healthier food in the new Happy Meal to meet the nutrition standards. Indeed, McDonalds made very quick response to this event, and they also pointed out that parents could always choose not to buy happy meals for their kids instead of criticizing the corporation’s marketing strategies. After making the changes, McDonald’s operation was not impacted too much. Lastly, in the post-crisis stage, company should take lessons from this and establish backup plans for similar crisis which may happen in the future. Apparently, even after the crisis, Happy Meal was not banned. Furthermore, it has become a huge hit for McDonalds and even made the company one of the worlds largest toy distributors. As a result, more and more companies wanted to corporate with McDonalds. For example, many animation film companies wanted to team up with McDonald’s in order to take advantage of this fast food franchise’ huge market influence in promoting their movies. In sum, with its achievements overweight shortcoming, McDonald’s had a good handle on the whole crisis. Nevertheless, even the crisis had passed, this leading fast food chain suffered from public criticism regarding its products. In the future, we believe that McDonald’s should develop an effective strategy to help improve its brand image and a better risk management methodology to help mitigating coming crisis. In the next part of the paper, we want to offer our recommendation to help McDonald’s better handling similar situation. Also, since we overall felt that McDonald’s managed the crisis extremely well, we would like to recommend its strategies to be implemented to Jack in the Box, which faced a similar situation to McDonald’s. However, unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight for the continuation of its using toys to push Happy Meal sales, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the pressure from the public. We believe McDonald’s implementation of strategic changes could have helped Jack in the Box to put toys back to its Happy Meal. IV Recommendation and Implementation Recommendation for McDonald’s Obviously, McDonald’s managed the crisis really well. In fact, the nutrition of Happy Meal was improved as the calories were reduced substantially. Because the lawsuit was dismissed, McDonald’s continued sell Happy Meal with toys. In the end, McDonald’s didn’t have to change its children’s influence strategy. Even though McDonald’s made its Happy Meal healthier, we believe that their changes to the meal could be bigger, such as change the cheeseburger to a healthier burger with vegetable inside and make chicken nuggets with real chicken instead of minced meat. Also, McDonald’s could reduce the attraction to children or change a different way. For example, the fast food chain could design an advertisement to advocate children to eat healthy, such as drink milk and eat fruit. Furthermore, McDonald’s could optimize the influence aspect. For instance, McDonald’s could use influence strategy to encourage more people to do char ity and educate children to eat healthy and exercise frequently. Recommendation for Jack in the Box In 2011, under heavy public’s criticism, Jack in the Box decided to stop giving out free toys with the purchases of Happy Meal. Obviously, the scale of the crisis faced by Jack in the Box was much smaller than that faced by McDonald’s. However, we felt that Jack in the Box could benefit greatly by learning from McDonalds way of handling its crisis. We also have some recommendations for Jack in the Box based on the successful influence strategy of McDonald’s. According to the survey, McDonalds Happy Meal accounted for about 10 percent of the chain’s U.S. sales in 2010. The sales of McDonalds Happy Meals alone were more than Jack in the Box’s total sales (Maureen, 2011). This fact showed us that the influence strategy used by McDonalds was extremely effective. A spokesman of Jack in the Box said that the franchise’s target customers were â€Å"the frequent fast food consumer† or adults from 18 to 34. Therefore, we recommend Jack in the Box to use the same influence strategy to their target customer. The fast food chain could also use emotion and/or ingratiation influence to attract customers. For example, Jack in the Box could design online games for adults who gained access to the games with free codes offered with purchases of Happy Meals. Moreover, the company could design a discount card for the customers who accumulate a certain sum of consumption. Unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight so that it could continue using toys to promote Happy Meal, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the similar pressure from the public. We believed that many of the McDonald’s organizational changes could be copied and apply in Jack in the Box. This would allow Jack in the Box to continue selling its Happy Meal with toys. For example, Jack in the Box could change the composition of Happy Meal toward a more healthier trends—such as reducing the sodium content, sugars, saturated fats, and calories to its foods; including vegetables and fruits in the menu; and offering tea, juice, and milk as alternatives to the traditional soda beverages. Jack in the Box also needed to let its customers know of its commitment in making its products healthier. The reason provided by Jack in the Box regarding its letting go of Happy Meal’s toys was that it waned the Happy Meal to appeal to parents. Brian Luscomb, Jack in the Box’s spokesman, commented: â€Å"Rather than promote a toy weve focused on the quality of products in our Kids Meals, like a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough, grilled or crispy chicken strips, or a hamburger. We believe that providing these kinds of options is more appealing to a parent than packaging a toy with lower-quality fare†(Bernstein, 2011). However, we believed that Jack in the Box could benefit greatly from expanding its Happy Meal’s target market to include children. To achieve this, Jack in the Box would need to facilitate strategic change†the process of formulating, implementing, and evaluating decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives† (Wong, Organizational change, 2012). In this case, the strategic plan would include extensive products innovation. For example, Jack in the Box could use popular toys and online games to attract children to its Happy Meal. The burger franchise chain could also build playgrounds inside its stores. This offered children with fun and healthy exercises. Implementation for Jack in the Box As we discussed above, Jack in the Box could drew on McDonald’s successful tactics to appeal more customers to consume their products. We found McDonald’s influence tactic could be successfully implemented on Jack in the Box due to two main reasons. The first reason is the industry similarity. Jack in the Box is one of the nations largest hamburger chains with more than 2,200 restaurants in 19 states. Also, just like McDonald’s, Jack in the Box is also a member of the fast food hamburger restaurant (FFHR) industry. This is an industry characterized by high competitiveness and risk. Although Jack in the Box is concentrated on the West Coastprimarily in California, the competition is still intensive. In this industry, McDonald’s is the only fast food chain to occupy nearly 13 percent of the US market (McDonald’s Report, 2010). There is no reason that Jack in the Box could not benefit from learning from the market leader, McDonald’s. The second reason is the easy-to-influence target customers. As we mentioned before, Jack in the Box’s target consumer are youth, aged 18 to 34. This group of customer is the most active part. They are independent buyers. This means that they could choose the thing they want without asking their parents’ permission or admission. Another character of this customer group is economic dependent. This group of customer typically has incomes and also can take charge of their money. The situation is much better than McDonald’s children market. Also, this group customer of Jack in the Box likes keeping pace with the trend. We think if Jack in the Box could use the influence tactic cater to its target consumers, they could further expand their market share in the future. However, in implementing aggressive marketing strategies, Jack in the Box would certainly be criticized by the public. Still, we believed that if Jack in the Box continues making its Happy Meal healthier and supporting the surrounding community through various charity activitiessuch as donating part of its Happy Meal’s profit to children hospitals, giving free Happy Meals to the homeless, and so forth, it can enjoy increase profit and at the same time maintain good public image. Reference: Alex, M. (July 26, 2011). McDonalds Happy Meal to include sliced apples, less fries. Retrieved from http://www.christianpost.com/news/mcdonalds-happy-meal-to-include-sliced-apples-52867/#gKDYWvXCIJGSO8g1.99 Andrew, L. (July 28, 2011). McDonalds adds apple slices, reaction to Happy Meal lawsuit?†¨Retrieved from http://chicagopersonalinjurylegalblog.com/2011/07/mcdonalds-adds-apple-slices-reaction-to-happy-meal-lawsuit.html Bernstein, S. (2011, June 20). Jack in the Box stops including toys in kids meals [updated]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/06/jack-in-the-box-toys.html Bridget, C. (December 15, 2010). Response to CSPI Lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/newsroom/mcdonalds_statements_and_alerts/response_to_cpi_lawsuit.html Centers for disease control and prevention: Childhood obesity facts. (2012, June 07). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm Cohen, I. (2009). McDonald’s and its critics, 1973-2009. Dan, L. (2011, April 19). McDonalds grimaces at Happy Meal lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-mcdonalds-lawsuit-idUSTRE73I4P820110419 Harris, J., Schwartz, M., Brownell, K. (2010). Fast food FACTS: evaluating fast food nutrition and marketing to youth. Research report, Yale Rudd Center For Food Policy and Obesity, Retrieved from http://www.fastfoodmarketing.org/media/FastFoodFACTS_Report.pdf Joanne, R., Caroline, B. (2006). Corporate Identity and Strategic Change: The Case of McDonald’s Miller, K. (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth. Molland, J. (2010, December 15). California mom sues McDonalds over Happy Meal. Retrieved from http://www.care2.com/causes/california-mom-sues-mcdonalds-over-happy-meals-video.html Stephanie, S. (July 26, 2011). McDonald’s trims its Happy Meal. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/business/mcdonalds-happy-meal-to-get-healthier.html?_r=0

Nutrition Final Exam Study Guide Essay Example for Free

Nutrition Final Exam Study Guide Essay Understanding Disease Risk Factors Describe the differences between a chronic disease and infectious disease. What leading causes of death are nutrition-related? A) heart diseases, cancers, strokes, diabetes Describe the concept of a risk factor. A) Factors known to be related to diseases, but have not yet proven to be a cause. We say that a certain factor puts us at increased risk for a disease, but does not cause it. How does one use risk factors? Review the basics of cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. Be ready to identify the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (especially diet-related risk factors!) A) High LDL blood cholesterol, low HDL blood cholesterol, high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, obesity (central obesity), physical inactivity, cigarette smoking, diet: high saturated or trans fats, low veggies, low fruits, low whole grains Describe the dietary strategies to reduce risk of CVD through diet. A) Decrease saturated and trans fat, increase soluble fiber intake, increase fruits and veggies, increase whole grains/ decrease refined grains, increase fish intake (2 servings/week) What is the TLC diet and what does it entail? A) TLC = Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes. From the NIH, designed to help decrease cholesterol through diet and lifestyle changes: the same changes we saw in table 11.6, also recommends 2 grams per day of plant sterols What do plant sterols have to do with high blood cholesterol? A) Plant sterols – the plant form of cholesterol. Slightly chemically different, prevent us from absorbing cholesterol in the intestines, currently only recommended for those with high cholesterol Weight Management What is meant by the concept of ‘energy balance’? A) Intake = output ïÆ'   weight maintenance Intake output ïÆ'   weight loss Intake output ïÆ'   weight gain What is the significance of BMI? See chart on page 3 of (Module 10 Part 1) What is the risk of being overweight or obese? What are the ranges of BMI? (Know the numbers. What is healthy? Underweight? Overweight?) A) Underweight 18.5 Normal = 18.5 – 24.9 Overweight = 25 – 29.9 Obese (class I) = 30 – 34.9 Obese (class II) = 35 – 39.9 Extremely obese (class III) 40 What are the alternatives to BMI for predicting health status? A) Men 12-20% ‘normal’, 5-10% for athletes, 22% 35%

8 Step Process For Leading Change

8 Step Process For Leading Change Kotter notes that many companies often overlook this process when they are in their rush in making plans or take action for the organization to takes place. He stated that close to 50% of the companies that fail to make needed change make their mistakes at the start. Leaders frequently undermine the importance of driving people out from their comfort zone or being complacent with their current success or even being careless in developing an appropriate urgency. According to Kotter (2012), if this step is successfully executed, leaders will obtain an accurate status benchmark that would determine whether the state of the organization is: Complacency- occurs whether the organization is at the top of their market or facing bankruptcy, usually when everyone thinks Everything is fine. False urgency- People are busy with their work but all their efforts produce nothing, in fact may cause burnout instead. True urgency- People are aware of the potential hazards and make use of all the opportunities to be productive and make progress. Guaranteed to fail- It started by the poorly thought out in the initial step. Leaders failed to appeals the peoples heart, only their head. Guaranteed to succeed- Leaders successfully aim for the heart of people and able to connect the deepest values and inspire them to greatness. This leads to the success of the organizational change. 2. Creating the Guiding Coalition This step involves the ability of leaders to assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort and encourage them to work as a team. Placing people together in the right coalition to lead a change initiative is crucial to its success. It is necessary that the coalition to have the correct structure, substantial level of trust, and a shared objective. Complex organizations are forced to make decisions more quickly even though concrete information is not available due to the rapid changing world. It is evident that it is up to leaders and teams to orchestrate the relevant decision that will help the organization to stay sustainable. The development of the level of trust will stick the team together that helps them to be well functioned. Due to the rapid change, team building has to happen quickly. Developing the right team and combining them with the right level of trust with a shared goal in which the team believes can result in a compelling guiding coalition that will take the organization to the right organizational change. Kotter (2012) states that the right team as a whole should reflect the following four qualities: Position Power- the presence of key players will drive the change progress without any obstruction. Expertise- All relevant points of view should be collected to produce informed intelligent decisions. Credibility- People should be aware of the group presence and respect them so that the groups declarations will be taken seriously. Leadership- Qualified leaders must present to be able to drive the change process. 3. Developing a Change Vision This step pushes the leaders to create a vision to set the direction of the change effort and develop strategies for achieving the vision. A vision must be able to offer genuine guidance, flexible yet focused and easy to comprehend. It insires action and guide that action. According to Kotter (2012), effective visions must have these six key characteristics: Imaginable: Able to portray the future state of the organisation Desirable: attract to the long term interest of the organizational stakeholders. Feasible: comprise of realistic and achievable goals. Focused: clear enough to set the direction in decision making. Flexible: permit entities to take initiative and implement alternative responses in changing environment. Communicable: easy to communicate and can be explained quickly. 4. Communicating the Vision for Buy-in This step involves ensuring that everyone in the team understands and accept the vision strategy. Kotter (2012) emphasizes that in communicating the vision for the change, the vision should be: Simple: easy to understand Vivid: able to illustrate to future state Repeatable: easy to be spread by anyone to anyone Invitational: Has the ability to offer two way communication 5. Empowering Broad-based Action In this step, leaders are required to remove obstacles to change, change systems or structures that detrimental to the vision and promote risk taking and non-traditional ideas, actions and activities. The two main barriers are: Structural Barriers In many cases, the internal structures of organisations contradicts the change vision. For example, a customer focused organisations usually lacks of resources and responsibilities for products and services and a low cost organization that claims to aim for high productivity often have large number of staff that is costly to maintain. Therefore, Kotter (2012) states that it is necessary to realigning incentives and performance appraisals to reflect the change vision to obtain the profound effect on the ability to accomplish the change vision. The implementation of Management Information system can help to suppress the problems by keeping the internal stakeholders informed with the competitive information and market analysis in a quick and effective manner. Troublesome Supervisors In many companies, managers will have several interrelated habits that shape the company culture which often limits the ability for the change to takes place. Kotter (2012) explains that this issue can be quite challenging and often in the attempt of removing this barrier, the results can be demeaning. 6. Generating Short- term wins In this step, leaders need plan for achievements that can easily be made visible, follow-through with those achievements and recognize and reward employees who were involved. To obtain desirable results, short term wins must be both visible and not vague. The end achievement must be linked to the change effort. However, short term wins tends to undermine the credibility of cynics and self-serving resistors (Kotter, 2012) 7. Never Letting Up This step includes the use of increased credibility to change systems, structures and policies that do not fit the vision, also comprises hire, promote and develop employees who can implement the vision, and finally strengthen the process with new projects, themes, and change agents. The main challenge for change is resistance and it always present even if the change process runs smoothly from the early stages. People may even celebrate the short term success and suggest taking a break to enjoy the victory before the process finishes. Kotter (2012) mentions several changes must occur by this step: Presence of additional projects. Extra people being brought to assist the change. Leaders focused on giving clarity to an aligned vision and shared purpose. Managers successfully motivated employees at all levels to lead projects. A reduction in interdependencies between sectors. Maintain a high level of urgency Consistently showing the progress of change. 8. Incorporating Change into the Culture The last step requires leaders to articulate the connections between the new behaviors and organizational success and develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession. Leaders must successfully planted the new practice in the culture and ensure that every individuals in the company is indoctrinated into the culture. IKEA Leadership Profile and Kotter 8 Step According to a study done by Ingholt Rasidovilc (2008) Kotters 8 step processes has revealed several errors that occurs in the organization. They conducted a survey that involves the total management team and several most experienced co-workers. They were given the same questionnaires to see how the solidarity between them in regards to the change process. The result of the survey shows the evident of good sign of leadership in one of the departments, as characterized by Kotter (1996). Many respondents asserted that good leaders must be the source of encouragement and engage their co-workers (Ingholt Rasidovilc, 2008). This has shown that this model is a reasonably good model for IKEA due to the 67 points earned from the survey, for one of the departments, in being good at communicating change initiatives in a vivid manner (Ingholt Rasidovilc, 2008). The score for the decisiveness of their leaders however is pretty low, only 49 points. This signifies their inability to handle conflicts, which is one of the key weaknesses that stop changes in management from occurring. Furthermore, they also discovered that the lowest values in the survey are in the main five areas namely: co-worker trust development, implementation of decisions, communication about the future, co workers involvement in planning and the ability to handle conflicts. Th e scores obtained in these areas range from 34 to 46, which are relatively low based on the maximum score. To conclude, this department is proven to have strength in being supportive but weak when it comes to decision making. The presence of indecisiveness explains the origin inability to handle conflict and the character of being supportive leads to the development of trustful relationship between workers (Ingholt Rasidovilc, 2008). The other department however, showed their key strength in their decisiveness and weakness in communication about the future. Another set of criteria showed the key strength in the ability to handle conflicts but weak in the co-workers involvement in planning. In comparison to the general grading result in IKEA, these results are fairly good. Thus the association in this department is that managers in this department are decisive enough to overcome the conflicts but weak in communication about the future which explains the poor involvement of the co workers in the process. In addition, the two departments gave an overall average score of 84.7 in regards to their leadership performance. Ingholt Rasidovilc (2008) states the difference for each department in accordance to Kotters implementation model. The workers in Department 1 felt that the necessity of change was not well communicated which leads to resistance. This is confirmed by Kotters most common error in the first step High level of complacency which undermines urgency, which is often caused by lack of communication. The worker also did not feel the presence of a leader which explains the error in the second step: lack of a powerful, guiding coalition. Furthermore, lack of vision communication has led to error in step three. In Department 2 on the other hand, the co-workers perceived the vision and strategy being communicated to individuals. It is possible that the strong communication among the workers has reduced the presence of resistance. Recommendation Communication is very crucial in conducting change management. Leaders are ought to be able to keep the workers well informed and create an understanding while also create opportunities to get them involved in the process. Leaders must also be able to identify the needs throughout the process. By doing this, the right leader can be identified and will create the best possible opportunity for the department to develop. Lastly, it is also important to make decisions based on what was informed and needed besides ensuring that they are being implemented. Reference Ingholt, L. T. Rasidovic, M., 2008, Change Management-A research at IKEA of Sweden- Power Resistance, Vaxio University. Kotter, J., 1996. Leading change, Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Kotter (2012), J., 2012, The 8-Step Process for Leading Change, Kotter (2012) International, accessed on 9 January 2013: http://www.Kotter (2012)international.com/our-principles/changesteps

A Glimpse into Nineteenth Century Brazil Essay -- Brazil History Histo

Esau and Jacob by Joaquim Machado de Assis portrays the tumultuous relationship between twin brothers, Pedro and Paulo, during the late nineteenth century; the twins symbolize the Brazilian political struggles during the transition from a monarchy to a republic. The brothers are emblematically born in 1870, â€Å"at the end of the Paraguayan War, a time when the Brazilian political elite split between conservatives and reformers† (xiii). The brothers fight; their most contentious arguments regard politics. Paulo is a republican and Pedro is a monarchist. The only commonalities the twins have are their love for their mother, Natividade, and their courtship of Flora. As an allegory, Natividade represents the old nation of Brazil – prior to the end of the monarchy – and Flora represents the new Brazil, which wavers between conservatism and liberalism. Both boys, and both political ideologies, vie for Flora’s affections, yet she, like the bud ding Brazilian nation, cannot choose between the suitors or the two political beliefs. In a pessimistic foreshadowing of the future, Flora dies without deciding between Pedro and Paulo, an ominous message from Machado de Assis regarding Brazil’s indecision to pick a definitive ideology after the fall of the monarchy. Despite Flora’s and Natividade’s dying wishes for the twins to cooperate, Pedro and Paulo are unable to cease their malicious antagonism, another grim reminder from Machado de Assis about the fruitlessness of political bickering and a warning about the future of Brazil. Why Read Esau and Jacob Unlike a conventional history book, the novel Esau and Jacob provides a personal glimpse of Brazilian society as it transitions from monarchy to republic. Joa... ...Empire and Stringing Together a Nation provides an integrated perspective of the complications of a divided Brazil during the fall of the monarchy. De Assis writes about the personal experiences and utilizes characters to convey the feelings and ideas of the time, Da Costa provides historical analysis as to why the monarchy collapses, debunks the myth of racial democracy, and Diacon explains how the two Brazils become one Brazil, a concept de Assis could not imagine. The three books depict a more complete image of Brazil during the fall of the empire. Works Cited Da Costa, Emilia Viotti. The Brazilian Empire. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill; 1985. De Assis, Joaquim Machado. Esau and Jacob. Oxford University Press, Oxford; 2000. Diacon, Todd. Stringing Together a Nation. Duke University Press, Durham; 2004.