Terrorism Towards An Understanding Essay Example For Students

Terrorism Towards An Understanding Essay Terrorism Towards an UnderstandingCriminology 413January 24, 2000AssignmentTerrorism Towards an UnderstandingI am in complete disagreement with Corrado and Cohens theory of political terrorism. I believe that political terrorism is committed by dominant, aggressive males in positions of power, acting with other dominant, aggressive males for more power, money, or status, and without regard to the spiritual nature of human kind. I believe that dividing political terrorism into state or anti state terrorism, does not get to the root cause of terrorism. To uncover the true cause of terrorism, I believe involves identifying motive and personalities of those terrorizing. In most cases it is dominant, aggressive males who hold positions of power in either the political, economic, or military arenas, and who manipulate events to suite themselves, e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and in more recent times, Slobodon Milosovic. Those that fight against dominance and aggression, I believe shou ld be called revolutionaries. For example, the Irish Republican Army. The North of Ireland harboured a protestant streak of dominant, aggressive males, who in attempt to hang on to power, unleashed the horrific events of Bloody Sunday, and many other uncalled for acts of aggression. These acts where sanctioned by politicians, in both the North of Ireland and England, who acted in conjunction with both the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the British Army. On Bloody Sunday, the British soldiers deliberately aimed and killed young men, they believed most likely to be members of the Irish Republican Army, at the peaceful, albeit illegal, demonstration. all the deceased where men, and nine of them were under the age of 25. It was an effort to stop what has almost come to pass. A fair assembly of politicians, who represent all layers and fabrics of the society. The event is still under review.The actions of the Irish Republican Army has eventually destroyed the positions of power that the dominant, aggressive males abused. But I do not believe that we should label those who fought for a better life as terrorists.People who put their lives on the line for true justice, I believe should be referred to as a Revolutionaries. We will write a custom essay on Terrorism Towards An Understanding specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We are exposed to new conflicts now, almost on a daily basis, and no two situations are ever identical. This makes the breakdown of a typology extremely difficult.The typology which defines political terrorism, according to Corrado and Cohen, has eleven different categories, in order to encompass all of the different situations. These typologies may be useful in a security setting, but in order to get to the bottom of the problem, I believe that rather than complicating the issue with many meanings, it should instead be simplified and attributed to one of two choices. Either acts of dominant aggressive personalities, for selfish gain, or for the achievement of human rights. It does seem that most of the state terrorism, would fall into the category of actions by a dominant, aggressive male, whereas the majority of anti state terrorism can be attributed to actions of revolutionaries seeking justice. A good example of this perhaps could be the recent events in E. Timor.Taken one step f urther, we could distinguish all actions as either taken for personal gain or selfish motives, or actions taken from a spiritual base, which concerns itself with the furthering of humanity through acts of genuine, long term initiatives for peace and harmony. And which sometimes requires revolutionary tactics. This discipline, along with history, sociology, psychology, and political science, struggle to structure the chaos in our world, in an attempt to bring understanding and closure to the problems that threaten to destroy us. In history actions of the dominant, aggressive males speak for themselves, for example, WWI and WWII. One would be hard pressed to deny that if you look for a conflict, anywhere in the world, 99.9% of the time, a male leader, along with others males in positions of power, are most likely responsible. This trend extends far into the past. Like Israel for example. Taken over by the Holy Roman Empire, the inhabitants became displaced because they did not follow the teachings of the Holy Roman Empire. Another ethnic group moved into Israel, and we are left with the mess we see today. .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 , .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .postImageUrl , .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 , .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:hover , .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:visited , .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:active { border:0!important; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:active , .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028 .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u71972d1c47e605f99494605e12ed5028:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: F. Scott Fitzgerald Essaythe process of terrorism is in a constant state of changeTypologies may increase our understanding of terrorism, but each terrorist incident must be understood in its specific social, historical, and political circumstances. Under these conditions, Crozier, Bell, Wilkinson, along with Corrado and Cohen, struggle against insurmountable odds, to conclusively define terrorism. Many of these methods for classifying or identifying different forms of terrorism have categorised, and eased understanding. For example, Crozier devised six types of terrorist groups ranging from right-wing fascism, to revolutionary left-wing behaviour and anarchy. It is a much simpler typology than that put forth by Corrado and Cohen.. Corrado and Cohens typology does not, as Crozier does, make reference to a pathological group. I agree with Corrado and Cohen, and believe that there is no room in a terrorist definition or typology, for mental illness. Although I view many dominant, aggressive males as sick people, categorizing them as pathological, is more a reflection of the system that enabled them to get into power in the first place. For example, Hitler wrote and spoke about outrageous acts of racism that should have categorized him as mentally ill, but rather the system failed and he progressed into a dictatorial leader who was partly responsible for WWII.I use Hitler as an example because he typifies the rarity of a dominant, aggressive male acting alone. Hitler was surrounded by dominant aggressive males that helped him to further his ideology. Croziers typology is much simpler than Corrado and Cohens. But Croziers typology has made the work of se curity much easier by hinting at the background and goals of terrorists. For example, a neofascist movement would most likely include some sort of ethnic cleansing such as we witnessed in WWII and the Jews. A minority nationalist group however, would be striving for a different political system or changes to a system that they see as unfair.This understanding can prompt a different kind of security response. The downfall of Croziers typology is that it has become dated, and I find it is too vague in that each of the six categories, could indeed have sub categories, that would be more specific, such as Corrado and Cohens typology. As it is explained in the book the nature of response is determined to some extent by the structure of the group causing the problem. Bell sets out six types of terrorism in an effort to simplify what response would be necessary. In Bells typology he includes acts of the mentally ill, such as the psychotic. And, again I disagree that this category should be included. However, I do find that Bells definition of revolutionary terror, is perhaps is the most descriptive of actions that I would consider taken for just cause. He uses words such as organizational, allegiance, functional, provocative, manipulative, and symbolic gestures to explain the forms of revolutionary terror. But these words do little to arouse a feeling of dominance, and aggression. Instead, it seems to me, they invoke a structure to classify the underlying actions of a revolution. Bell believes that media stories of terrorism, or politicians referring to terrorism, is in fact a reference to revolutionary terror. Bells typology is closer in a sense, to Corrado and Cohen, because it breaks down revolutionary terror into different forms, much as Corrado and Cohen have done. Bell suggests, that much like Corrado and Cohen, these types may overlap. His theory is, as was Croziers, helpful in security situations because it identifies the reasons behind the actions, such as e ndemic terrorism, which he describes as internal struggle. I am not sure if the revolutionary type activity described as behavioural change through fear, represents people becoming revolutionaries due to fearful or oppressive regimes, or that the revolutionaries instigate fear in order to bring change to the society. I also disagree with Bell including a criminal type of terrorism, because I see crime as different from terrorism, and prompting a different response. His forms of revolutionary terror is similar to Corrado and Cohens anti state terrorism. For example, single issue terrorism could also describe functional terrorism, i.e. to accomplish goals and missions of a group. And, provocative, manipulative, and symbolic forms of revolutionary terror are tactics used by ideological and ethnic national forms of anti state terrorism. However, although he strives to identify forms of revolutionary terror he does not confine the definitions to state or anti state, except in the provoca tive definition. Whereas Corrado and Cohen separate the two. .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e , .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .postImageUrl , .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e , .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:hover , .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:visited , .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:active { border:0!important; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:active , .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ue9505fabc5998b8b32ff3136ea60383e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Role Of The Department Of Homeland SecurityIt must be obvious that some revolutions are necessary in order to bring about a, usually long overdue, change. The French Revolution of 1848, which mirrors the conflict in the North of Ireland in some ways, would today be classified as acts of terrorism. But the people who turned to violence against the government, were called revolutionaries, not terrorists, and I feel this in a way bolsters my opinion that there should be a separation of motives, before we can identify a pure political terrorist act. In Paul Wilkinsons typology, I noticed he also included an area of criminal activity linked to terrorism, which I previously ment ioned disagreeing with. Wilkinson agreed however that it is important to distinguish criminal terrorism from their political counterparts.Wilkinson also agrees with Corrado and Cohen that it is important to distinguish between external and internal terrorism. He sees political terrorism in its most common form as internal state power used to frighten citizens into obedience. He sees state sponsored terrorism as a tactic used in international conflict. He also describes nationalist and revolutionary categories, which mean to gain political independence from a colonial power or to change the ethnic composition of an existing government without changing the ideological structure. Or changing the political ideology of a social or political unit. I believe these categories are similar to my theory of revolutionary actions. His typology is not as in-depth or self explanatory as Corrado and Cohens typology. But does point to a revolutionary element, which I believe is important to distingu ish. Of all the typologies I prefer Corrado and Cohens. It attempts to cover all avenues of violence and also attempts to give the reasoning behind it. Although I still disagree with actions of revolutionaries, such as the IRA, being referred to as terrorism. Corrado and Cohens typology does break down areas that have been previously left untouched.Such as formal and informal state terrorism. However, I still believe that all actions of violence today, are generated for the causes set out in my dominant, aggressive male theory. This theory has carried me through many essays, and I still believe, that although it has not been fully developed, it goes a long way in explaining events in our world. The theory is not a feminist theory, in that it does not believe that all men are dominant and aggressive. Quite to the contrary, dominant and aggressive males are responsible for killing many more men, than women as was evidenced in both the slaughterhouses of WWI and WWII. It is dominant aggressi ve males that I speak out against in protection of the world as a whole, and not as a female dominated arena. This theory speaks out against any acts of dominance and aggression, and wishes to identify those responsible for these acts, in an effort to stop them from happening. I do not wish to see the world run by women, but I do wish to see dominant aggressive males removed from power, and replaced with men and women whose values include the preciousness of life, and the importance of a non-violent society. Bibliography1. Corrado, Raymond and Cohen, Irwin. (2000). Terrorism. Simon Fraser University,Spring 2000. 2. Mullan, Don. (1997). Eyewitness Bloody Sunday. Ireland: Wolfhound Press Ltd. 3. White, Jonathan R. (1998). Terrorism. United States of America: Wadsworth Publishing Co. Social Issues

Pest Swot Analysis of Adidas Essays

Pest Swot Analysis of Adidas Essays Pest Swot Analysis of Adidas Essay Pest Swot Analysis of Adidas Essay Lopito Jan 25, 2008 Addidas- You are consultant of the company. PEST/SWOT etc Introduction Adidas is a company that manufactures shoes and sport apparel. The founder is Adolf Dassler who is German. The name created by combination of the name and surname Adi Dassler, who started producing shoes in 1920s with the help of his brother Rudolf Dassler. That make costumer, to recognize Adidas is three parallel stripes of the same color. Slogan: â€Å"IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING† 1. History 1949-2005 Due to the death of Adolf’s son (Horst Dassler), the Company was bought in 1990 by Bernard Tapie. Back then Tapie was specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies. Next step was to change the place of production to Asia and make a promotion campaign by using a famous person as Madonna (famous singer). In 1992 economical problems lead Tapi to sell Adidas to Lyonnais bank. Lyonnais sold Adidas to Robert Louis-Dreyfus who was also the president of the Olympique de Marseille football team. In 1997, Adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group, and its corporate name was changed to Adidas-Salomon AG. Seven years later, top English fashion designer Stella McCartney launched a joint-venture line with Adidas. This line was a sports performance collection for women called Adidas by Stella McCartney. After 2 years, Adidas introduced the Adidas 1, the first ever production shoe to utilize a microprocessor. In August 2005, Adidas bought rival Reebok. At the same time sales had been closer to those of Nike in North America. The acquisition of Reebok would also allow Adidas to compete with Nike worldwide as the number two athletic shoemaker in the world. Three months later Adidas released a new version of the Adidas 1, make it better, stronger and faster. On April 11 2006, Adidas announced an 11-year deal to become the official NBA apparel provider. 2. Products Adidas manufactures anything related to sport, like shoes, clothes, watches, balls, Sunglasses, Protective Equipment, etc. You can purchase Adidas almost anywhere. Except original stores that placed in every city in every country; you can find them also in super market as perfume shower gel etc, or in jewel store as watches. The pricing for per of shoe fluctuate 60 to 250 Euros, High price for most people; justifiably for High quality materials that company use. PLANING Mission Statement â€Å"Our mission is to become the best sports brand in the world. To that end, we will never equate quantity with quality. Our founder Adi Dassler was passionate about sports. For Adi, the athlete came first. He gave those on the field, the court and the track the unexpected and the little differences that made them more comfortable and improved performance. This is our legacy. This is what the brand stands for. This will never change. † Vision Passion for sport. This is adidas. We consistently bring our passion to every single sport, wherever and whenever it is played. Whether its football in the park or the 100 meters at the Olympics we have been there, we are there now, and we will always be there. Our dream is to bring our passion for sport, the athlete and the product, to anyone who comes into contact with adidas. Objectives We are innovation and design leaders who seek to help athletes of all skill levels achieve peak performance with every product we bring to the market. We are a global organization that is socially and environmentally responsible, creative and financially rewarding for our employees and shareholders. We are committed to continuously strengthening our brands and products to improve our competitive position and financial performance. In the medium term, we will extend our leading market position in Europe, expand our share of the US footwear market and be the fastest growing major sporting goods supplier in Asia and Latin America. The resulting top-line growth, together with strict cost control and working capital improvements, will drive over-proportionate earnings growth. Decision-making style: Centralized / programmed S. W. O. T. Analysis Strengths In many invents is the biggest sponsor Strong management team Brand recognition and reputation Diversity and variety in products offered on the web (footwear, apparel, sporting equipment, etc. ) Strong control over its own distribution channel No bad reputation like child labor or enviro nment pollution In the Soccer industry, Adidas has a stronghold Weaknesses High prices in some products E-commerce is limited to USA The direct sale to consumers is creating conflicts with its own resellers Online customer service not helpful or easy to find Opportunities Increase female participation in athletics â€Å"Adidas by Stella McCartney† Collaborate with other online retailers to offer Adidas products Possibility of outsourcing the web development and e-commerce to a third party developer Threats Nikes strong reputation in the footwear and apparel industry Negative image created by the sponsored athletes (i. e. Kobe Bryant and his sexual assault case) Increase in the Price of Raw materials Continuing challenges in import/export duties PEST Analysis Political Adidas policy is to control and monitor hazardous substance to protect human health and environment one of those is to eliminate PVC making progress in finding substitutes like polyurethane, ethyl vinyl, silicon es thermoplastic rubber. Adidas also provide training sessions on employment standards and HR systems, health and safety is important for the company. Establishing teams to manage and monitor SARS in Asia factory, washing stations, disinfectant units. Finally Adidas protects and supports the rights of its employees by following all the current employment laws. Economical As a multinational company adidas helps countries to decrease unemployment by increasing every year the number of employees. The Industrial Production Growth Rate in Germany was 1% in 2001-3, 2004 become 1. 7%. Adidas is a reason of this increase Because of the big sponsorship in 2004 Olympic Games. As exporting to Europe is not too expensive as it was before, Europe since 2002 has own money (euro) and the borders are not so tight. Labor salary is high in Germany and France but not so expensive in China (Suzhou). This is the reason that most of factories located in Asia. Social Adidas products declare in any raise, age, religion, and lifestyle, always in fashion with special design in any of product. Focus in people who like sports and athletes, almost everybody can purchase adidas products. Technology Adidas join into technology by make up the world’s first â€Å"smart shoe†, adding a microchip inside the shoe and wireless mp3 player. Also using hot melt system of the production that is environmentally safe, using heat-activated adhesives. The packaging that company use, are suitable for transportation over long distances, humid conditions and extreme temperature changes and use recycled paper and other environmentally-friendly packaging materials. As many competitors that Adidas has, the external environment can’t be no other by dynamic. BCG Matrix Apparel Watches Footwear Eyewear Strategy Formulation By created a collection for women called Adidas by Stella McCartney† more women prefer to buy adidas, also the technologies that add in shoe and watches. The price fluctuant lower to higher to declare most of the people. Miss Eliot (famous singer) promotes adidas. Furthermore it lets customers know that adidas care about environment and doesn’t have sweatshops. Life Cycle ORGANIZING Organizational Chart Adidas is a mechanistic organization. As a large, international organization with thousand of employees, oddly has organic elements by giving opportunity to employees to express their thoughts and opinion as explain above. The company puts many targets that need team work; conclude that Adidas has task culture. Communication channels Adidas emphasizes a lot on the communication channels. It supports that creating effective communication channels through the regions at Liaison Office (LO) and factory level is a constant challenge. Adidas internet-based ‘Ask the Management’ forum gives employees throughout the regions an opportunity to raise concerns and post questions to top management. Due to the fact that there is full and open communication at work employees are most highly motivated and make their greatest contribution to the business. The existence of the plenty flow of information and ideas among employees develop productivity and minimize confusion, duplication, and unproductive conflict. Employees The welfare of the employees is significant for Adidas family. Adidas identified that in order to achieving the goal to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry depends on the talents, enthusiasm and dedication of the employees. In order to success their satisfaction Adidas uses various methods. Some of these are: organize transport to our perations centers provide medical insurance for staff located in different cities improve the housing accumulation fund and social retirement fund coverage introduce flexible working hours in the LO provide annual performance bonus for eligible employees Make internal agreements on the use of internet, (mobile) phone and E-mail, on reintegration of employees coming back from parental leave, and on on-call service Support the existence of formal work council, etc. Continuo us training is very important. This is way numerous seminars are continuously organized regarding all the levels of employment. As it is mentioned before, Adidas believes that employees and their talents are critical to the continuing commercial success. For this reason it indentified the need to create HR strategies that could be implemented globally. Adidas created a Global Salary Management System which responsibility is to motivate employees through different ways of remuneration and through offering various attractive compensation systems. Type of employees/ Skills Adidas as a large international company occupies thousand of employees of different ethics, cultures, and race. Due to the existence of the HR department the potential problems are eliminated. As Adidas has to cover many different job positions, the skills that are demanded are various. HR department recruits both low and high skilled employees depending on each job description. Diversity exists in all maters because there are employees of different age, gender, race, nationality and religion. LEADING Board of Directors Adidas has executive and supervisory board. The executive board is composed of four members who reflect the diversity and internationality of the Group. Supervisory board made by six members that representing the shareholders and six members that representing the employees Leadership style As Adidas let to understand, support employees; taking in consideration their opinions, should be Democratic style. On the other hand, a big company like Adidas can’t be only democratic, should use and authoritarian style too. It depends in what situations have to deal with. CONTROLING Adidas strategy emphasized Total Quality Management (TQM), supported by integrated software systems and code-related labor practices as devices used to reduce unit costs. Monthly monitoring of machine usage and waste reduction, machine leasing and sharing across the five components that comprise the group and a more transparent purchasing system also helped to increase recent performance. As consultant of the company I assume that Adidas after so many years is still in the second place in sports sales. The mission statement declares that our goal is to become the best sports brand in the world. Our slogan is â€Å"impossible is nothing†, imagine how effective will be if achieve the first place of sales. Then our slogan will be meaningful, and powerful. Now impossible is nothing, is the microprocessor and a wireless mp3 player in a shoe. The slogan will be general and not specific. To achieve our mission statement should inform people about the actions that we take against pollution and child laboring. How a company like Adidas, which everything works fine; care about labors and with healthy reputation still in second place? In my opinion marketing department should keep more inform the stakeholders and make more sophisticated advertisements to attract customers. It was a good move to be sponsor in Olympics of 2004, but should be always â€Å"up to date† by sponsorship, advertisements TV/streets etc. To let people, understand that Adidas have power and budget. And finally, we have to find what Nikes has that we don’t? Nike should be in third or fourth place, but still in first? Why, with so bad reputation? What is this that makes customers loyal to Nike? Solve these questions and develop it. Then the first place is ours!

Marketing Plans for Schools

Marketing Plans for Schools Many private institutions are finding that they need to engage in strong marketing tactics to thrive in todays increasingly competitive market. That means more schools than ever are developing marketing plans to guide them, and for schools who dont already have strong strategies in place, it can be overwhelming to get started. Here are some tips to help you get on the right track.   Why Do I Need a Marketing Plan? Marketing plans are the roadmap to success for your office. They keep you on track so you can navigate your way through the year, and ideally next several years, without getting side-tracked. It helps remind you, and your community, of your end goals and how you’re going to get there, reducing the number of detours along the way. This is especially important for your admission office in recruiting students and for your development office in building alumni relationships and soliciting donations.   These guides help you set a plan by streamlining what you do and why you’re doing it. The why is a crucial part of your marketing, as it explains the reasoning for your actions. Validating important decisions with this â€Å"why† component is important for gaining support for the plan and ensuring that you continue to move forward with positive progress.   It’s so easy to find great inspiration at any time. But, even the greatest of ideas can derail your progress if they dont align with the messaging, goals and themes that you have for the year. Your marketing plan is what helps you reason with individuals who get excited about new ideas and remind them of the clear plan that was agreed upon going into the year. However, it’s important to still keep track of this great inspiration for future projects and plans! What Should My Marketing Plan Look Like? Do a quick Google search for marketing plan examples  and you get around 12 million results. Try another search, this time for marketing plans for schools  and you will find about 30 million results. Good luck sorting through all of those! It can be daunting to even consider creating a marketing plan, especially if you’re not sure what to do. They can be time-consuming and confusing. Jump down a bit to see recommendations for a shorter version of a marketing plan, but first, a formal marketing plan tends to be outlined as follows: Executive SummaryThe MissionDifferentiators/Value PropositionInstitutional VisionTarget AudienceSituation AnalysisInstitution, Customer, Competitor, Collaborator, ClimateSWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) AnalysisMarketing SegmentationSegment 1: Descriptions, sales reports, goals and outcomes, product usage, resource requirements, outreach plan, pricingSegment 2: Descriptions, sales reports, goals and outcomes, product usage, resource requirements, outreach plan, pricingSelected Marketing Strategies (Action Items)Why these strategies were chosen, including product, price, place, promotion, and  how they will be completed. Discuss decision variables: brand, quality, scope, warranty, packaging, price, discounts, bundling, payment terms, distribution challenges, logistics, motivating the channel, advertising, PR, budget, projected results.Alternative Marketing StrategiesThe strategies you aren’t planning to use, but were consideredShort Long Term ProjectionsG oals outcomes: The immediate effects of the proposed strategies, expected long-term results, and special actions required to achieve them. Analysis Strategies (How will you assess success)AppendixCalculations and data used to support the information above, reports from previous yearsIndustry reports and marketplace projections Its exhausted just reading that. It’s a lot of work to complete all these steps, and it often feels like the more time you spend on a marketing plan, the less you use it. You might try to get around this by finding another plan to work off of, but surprisingly, you probably never can find one that fits your needs. Why is that?   That’s because no two companies are the same, no two schools are the same; they all have different goals and needs. That’s why  the same marketing plan structure will not work for every school or company. Every organization needs something that works best for them, whatever it may be. Some experts believe that a marketing plan doesn’t have to follow an exact template or structure. So, you might want to change your perception of a marketing plan: forget about what you think it should be, and think about what you need it to be. What you  DO NOT need  out of your marketing plan: A long, complex, formal plan that addresses every problem that has ever surfaced at your school.A document that takes so long to create that you never finish it.A document that is so complex that its not a useful tool.Analysis for the sake of analysis What you  DO need  out of your marketing plan: Specific and realistic problems to solve.Achievable goals.An easily executable roadmap.Potential challenges and solutions.A way to track success. How do you develop a marketing plan? The first thing is to determine the institutional goals that are tasked to the marketing department. You can pull from a strategic plan or a marketing analysis to give you guidance.   Lets say your school needs to Improve Marketplace Position. How would you do this? Chances are, youll want to ensure that you have cohesive branding and messaging, and make sure that the entire school is in support of that messaging. Then, you will create focused publications and digital presence in support of that branding and messaging. You might find a more specific goal of increasing annual fund dollars for the development office, which is one way that the marketing office can be called upon to assist. Using these institutional goals, you can outline the various projects, goals, and action items for each department. It looks something like this for a fundraising example: CLIENT: Development OfficePROJECT: Annual FundGOALS: (3-4 main objectives for the year)Increase participation overall (# of donors)Increase donations (dollars raised)Increase online donations (dollars raised via online giving forms)Reconnect with alumniACTION ITEMS: (2-4 marketing methods to achieve the goals)Create a branded annual fund marketing programOverall MessagingDigital Strategy: Email marketing, giving form improvements, and social media outreachPrint Strategy: annual appeals, postcards, brochuresTalking Points: language that development officers can use to promote continuity of messaging. Lets look at an admission example now: CLIENT: Admission OfficePROJECT: Recruiting - increase inquiriesGOALS:Improve online user experience (make things easier to find)Increase the  number of new qualified leadsGenerate a new, expanded target audience (long-range goal)ACTION ITEMS:Redesign WebsiteEmail marketing strategySEO campaignInbound marketing strategy   Developing these mini-outlines helps you prioritize your goals and objectives for the year. It helps you keep your focus on the things that you can realistically accomplish in a given time period, and, as you saw in the admission goals, look at those goals that need more time to complete but need to get started now. You might actually have seven or eight goals for each department, but youll never get anything accomplished if you try to tackle everything at once. Pick the two-to-four things that either need the most urgent attention or will have the greatest impact on your outcomes. Just make sure you can realistically address the items in your given timeframe, which is often one academic year. Making these priorities is also helpful when you get those requests for small projects from departments other than your top clients. It gives you validity when you say, we cant accommodate this project right now, and explain why. It doesnt mean everyone will be happy with your response, but it helps you make it possible for them to understand your reasoning.   How will you carry out your marketing plan? The next step is to start thinking about the tools you have at your disposal and how youll use them. Think about marketing like giving someone a gift. The gift is the outcome of the marketing strategy: achieving your goals is the gift.The box is the tools youll use to carry out your strategy: email, social media, print, etc.The wrapping paper and bow is the concept youll use: the message and design Annual Fund Marketing Plan Case Study This is where you get to start having some fun. Brainstorm some ideas for how to tell your story. Check out this article on the Annual Fund Marketing Program created at Cheshire Academy that we called, One Word. One Gift. The strategy involved reconnecting with alumni by asking them to pick one word to describe their Cheshire Academy experience and then make one gift to the annual fund in honor of that word. It was such a success that the program helped us not only reach our goals  but also exceed them. The One Word. One Gift.  program even won two awards: the silver award for Annual Giving Programs in the CASE Excellence Awards for District I and another silver award in the 2016 CASE Circle of Excellence for Annual Giving Programs. For each of your clients (as we outlined above), you want to clearly illustrate your timeline, concept, and tools that you will use. The more you can explain why youre doing what youre doing, the better. Lets look at what this might look like for the Academys Development Annual Fund project: CONCEPT:  This branded Annual Fund endeavor combines print marketing with email, digital, and social media marketing, as well as development outreach to reconnect with current and past constituents. Designed to engage constituents in a two-part interaction with the school, this endeavor asks donors to remember what they love about Cheshire Academy by choosing one word to represent their experiences and to then make one gift to the annual fund in honor of that word. A particular emphasis will be made on encouraging online donations. A lot of hard work goes into developing these plans, which are unique to each institution. Guidelines are awesome to share, but your details are yours. That said, let me share a little more of my details than most ... The first thing I do is make sure I understand the institutional goals tasked to marketingI also make sure that I clearly outline and understand the institutional goals related to marketing. Meaning, I may not be the department directly charged with these, but my team and I will support them and work closely with them.I make sure I know which departments and goals are the highest marketing priorities for the year. Its helpful to have support from your head of school and other departments to agree with these determinations of priorities. Ive seen some schools go so far as to have signed contracts with key stakeholders to guarantee adherence to the priorities and directions.Then I work to outline  my timeline, concept, and tools for each of my top department priorities. This is important to avoid scope creep, getting off track from your intended projects. This is your reality check when people start getting lots of great ideas that may not align with the overall strategies. Not every great idea can be used at once, and its ok to say no to even the most amazing idea; just make sure you save it for later use. This is where you break down what youre doing, when, and through which channels.   I always make sure that I clearly explain why Ive developed the timeline and concept. Heres a glimpse into the print marketing strategy for my annual fund.  Share the complementary efforts youre planning to do, also. Some of these marketing initiatives dont need to be spelled out step by step, but a quick explanation of why can go a long way.Share your indicators of success for the aspects of your project. We knew we would assess the Annual Fund using these four quantitative factors.  Evaluate your success. After the first year of our annual fund marketing program, we assessed what worked well and what did not. It helped us look at our work and celebrate the things we nailed and figure out how to improve in other areas.

Consumption in Wall-E Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Consumption in Wall-E - Essay Example Consumption is often thought of in regard to food; the act of hoarding food to the point of becoming overweight. Though this holds true in Wall-E and plays an essential role in the story, consumption can also mean the obtaining of consumer goods. Similar to hoarding food, this definition of consumption means to hoard consumer items, such as electronics or other material possessions, until there is simply too much of these items. In Wall-E, consumption is seen in both of these ways. The humans displayed in the film are overweight due to food consumption and are in the position of not being able to live on Earth because of mass consumption of consumer goods while they were living on the planet. Wall-E uses the conditions of the people and the Earth to show the message of how serious consumption can be and how close we are to following some of the actions seen in the movie. The film opens up to reveal an empty, trash-filled Earth. Due to mass consumption, which essentially took over the Earth, the extensive litter left behind made the air toxic, therefore making the Earth uninhabitable to people. Until the Earth is cleaned and habitable once again, the humans live on a spaceship hovering above the Earth. Far from being concerned about the state of their home, the humans lounge happily away in chairs that take them to whatever part of the craft they want to go to. They have all of the food that they could want, making it easy for them to gorge themselves to an unhealthy weight. These people let consumption get the better of them, resulting in a decline in health and control over their lives. Instead of learning their lesson about what took place on Earth, they continued to consume now that they had a new place to do it. The people in Wall-E, as well as the condition of the Earth, reveal how important we allow products to be in our lives. People have been known to throw away all of their money just so that they can have the newest top-of-the-line cell phone. A month later, when a newer model comes out, that first model goes in the trash and the new one is bought. The cycle continues, gradually covering our world with garbage, which is all due to our need of having stuff. More products are being created and thrown out than we can keep up with. We begin to think less of ourselves, less of our surroundings, and more about the wonderful toys and gadgets that we can get our hands on. People would rather risk being unhealthy and living in a dirty world than giving up even a single material possession. We no longer allow ourselves and our world to define us; our products and our need to have as much stuff as possible is what defines who we are. The world may be polluted, but we do not mind that as long as we have our cell phones. We have become both masters and slaves to material possessions. We are masters in the sense that we create products to do what we want them to do, which usually includes having them be capable of completing a task that makes our lives easier and less busy. We control what these products can do. On the other hand, we have become so consumed by material possessions that we are also slaves to them. We have allowed them to take over our lives to the point where many of us are willing to admit to it, yet refuse to do anything about it. We may be slaves to them, but they seem to be doing us so much good. This is where it tends to get confusing; we believe these products are

Philosophy--Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Philosophy--Aristotle - Essay Example The simple answer to what human good is that its end is happiness. Happiness is, however, much more complicated, as Aristotle argues, â€Å"there are various views as to what happiness is.† (Book I, Chap. IV). This happiness should not be mistaken, as it is defined in contemporary usage as a relative state characterized by the amount of pleasure received from something or liking to something. Happiness and pleasure are not synonymous terms, though obtaining happiness will probably lead to pleasure. Happiness instead is what Aristotle characterized as â€Å"activity of the soul according to virtue.† (Book I, Chapter VII)1. Virtue, like happiness, should not be conceptualized in its contemporary vernacular, as pertaining to be highly moralistic. Aristotle’s definition of virtue in the Ethics is derived from the ancient Greek term â€Å"arà ªte† that holds the connotations of excellence or mastery. For example, the virtue of a knife is its ability to slice or the virtue of exercise is how well it improves one’s fitness. What are required to determine the virtue of any of these aforesaid objects are the ends these objects and actions hope to obtain. We exercise to improve our health, we want to improve our health to feel better, be more energetic or simply look more attractive to others, and the ends may continue to progress until some final aim, for example with exercise, to live better lives. Man too has a certain arà ªte or virtue, and since man is his or her own individualistic entity, their final ends may perhaps be different from other men and women. This is a major reason why the Ethics does not set out to determine what a person should or should not do. If man has excellence, then what constitutes that excellence and how is it obtained? There must be must some action or series of actions man can do and perform with excellence that separates

Attachment - Psychology Essay Example for Free

Attachment Psychology Essay Developmental Psychology Early Social Development: Attachment Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ An emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way  process that endures over time. It leads to certain  behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking and  serves the function of protecting the infant. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Primary attachment figure ï  ® The person who has formed the closest bond with a child,demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship. Usually  the biological mother, but other people can fulfil the role. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Learning theory ï  ® A group of explanations which explain behaviour in terms  of learning rather than any innate or higher order  tendencies. Mainly used by behaviourists who rather focus  their explanations purely on what behaviour they observe. Learning Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯Classical Conditioning (Pavlov) Unconditioned Stimulus (US) food ↓ Unconditioned Response (UR) pleasure ↓ Neutral Stimulus (NS) – the feeder ↓ Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – food from a feeder ↓ Conditioned Response (CR) – pleasure/attachment Learning Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Operant Conditioning ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Reinforcement ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ When doing something results in a pleasant  consequence, the behaviour is more likely to be produced. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Punishment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ When doing something results in an unpleasant  consequence, the behaviour is unlikely to be produced. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Dollard and Miller (1950) explain attachment using operant conditioning: ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ When an infant is fed it reduces discomfort and increases pleasure, this serves as a reward and is the primary reinforcer. The person supplying the food is associated  with avoiding discomfort and is the source of reward which  becomes the secondary reinforcer. Attachment occurs  because the child seeks the person who supplies the  reward. Evaluating the Learning Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Strengths It can provide adequate explanations of how attachments form. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Behaviourists argue that since we are made up of the same building blocks of stimulus/response environments experiments done on animals are safe to generalize to human behaviour. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Weakness ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ It may be attention and responsiveness from the caregiver that is the primary reinforcer, not food. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Learning theory is largely based on studies with non-human animals. Human behaviour may be similar in many ways but learning theory does not consider higher order thinking and emotions that can influence behaviour. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Harlow (1959) demonstrated that it is not food but the level of contact and comfort the infant receives that increases attachment levels. The use of young rhesus monkeys were used to demonstrate this. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ 60 babies were studied in Glasgow and found that attachment was higher to the person who was most responsive and who interacted with them more (Schaffer and Emerson,1964). ï  ® ï  ® Cant explain the importance of sensitivity in attachment. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory (1969) ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ ELEMENTS OF BOWLBY’S ATTACHMENT THEORY: ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Attachment is adaptive and innate ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Bowlby’s theory is an evolutionary theory because it sees attachment as a behaviour that adds to its survival and  ultimately its reproductive value. Having attachment  capabilities is an innate drive, similar to imprinting, that has long term benefits ensuring it stays close to its caregiver. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Background on the Theory of Evolution ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Adaptive behaviours are behaviours that increase the  likelihood of survival and reproduction. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Natural selection is the continuation of these adaptive traits within the animal to increase chances of survival. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Sexual selection is the ability to reproduce, not just survive. Adaptive genes that lead to possessing traits to assist in  reproduction increases sexual selection. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Sensitive Period ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ A biologically determined period of time during the second quarter of the first year is the most crucial period in which attachments can be made. Once missed then it is more difficult for a child to make attachments and demonstrate social difficulties. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Caregiving is adaptive ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Not only attachment but also caregiving is adaptively innate. Social releasers from the infant give signals to the caregiver (smiling, crying, etc) to take care of it. Attachment is the innate system in babies and caregiving is the innate system in adults. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Secure base ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Having a secure attachment provides a child with a secure base in which to explore the world from. It fosters independence, not dependence. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Monotropy and hierarchy ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Infants form a number of different attachments but has one particular bias towards a very special one called the primary attachment, this is called monotropy. Even with secondary attachments, this hierarchy of attachments recognizes the importance of a primary attachment figure (PAF). The PAF is one that responds most sensitively to the childs social releasers. Secondary attachments are important, without them, children tend to lack social skills. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Internal working model ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ A mental model of the world that enables individuals to predict and control their environment. The internal  working model based on attachment has several  consequences: ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ In the short-term it gives the child insight into the caregivers behaviour and enables the child to influence  the caregivers behaviour so that a true partnership can be formed. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ In the long-term it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about  how people behave. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The continuity hypothesis ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be  emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults. Evaluating Attachment Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Strengths ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Lorenz (1952) supports that imprinting is innate as the goslings imprinted on the first thing they saw moving, which was Lorenz. Research shows that once the sensitive period has passed and no attachments are formed, children display social difficulties with peers. If attachment and caregiving are an important biological function as Bowlby suggests then they would be found universally. Tronick et al (1992) studied an African tribe in Zaire and found despite tribal responsibility for raising kids a PAF is present. This is also evidence of monotropy. Schaffer and Emerson found that the more quickly a caregiver responded to a childs needs and the more interaction they had led to a stronger level of attachment. This interaction is important as it is not enough to have something to cuddle but to actually be cuddled back builds a stronger attachment. The Minnesota longitudinal study (2005) found that continuity between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour. Infants classified as secure were later rated highest for social competence, less isolated, more empathetic and more popular. Evaluating Attachment Theory ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Weaknesses ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Multiple attachments, according to psychologists, are as equally important. There are no primary or secondary  attachments, all attachments are integrated into one single  working model. However, a review the research points to the  hierarchical model as being predominant (Prior and Glaser, ï  ® 2006). An alternative explanation to the continuity hypothesis exists, known as the temperament hypothesis. This is the belief that children form secure attachments simply because they have a more ‘easy’ temperament from birth, whereas more innately difficult children a more likely to form insecure attachments. The infants temperamental characteristics shapes a mothers level of responsiveness. Thomas and Chess (1977) identified infant personality types as easy, difficult and slow-to-warm-up. Belsky and Rovine (1987) found a link between physiological behaviours and later attachments types. The more calm and less anxious (aspects of temperament) an infant was the more likely they were to develop secure attachments. Types of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The Strange Situation (Ainsworth and Wittig, 1969) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU Aim: to see how infants behave under situations of stress  with the introduction of a stranger and the separation of  the parent. This tests stranger anxiety and separation  anxiety and also the infants willingness to explore with its secure base. Procedure: a 99 research room marked off into 16 squares  was used. The procedure consists of 8 episodes†¦ MEMORISE THEM!!! Data is collected by a group of observers that recorded  what the infant was doing every 15 seconds. Observer  noted the type of behaviour and level of intensity on a  scale of 1-7. Types of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The Strange Situation Findings: ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Ainsworth  combined data from several studies to  make 106 middle-class infants observed. Similarities and differences were found in the way  the infants behaved. In terms of similarities, it was  noted that episode 2 onwards exploratory  behaviour decreased while crying increased. Proximity-seeking and contact-maintaining  increased during separation and when stranger  appeared. Finally, contact-resisting and proximityavoiding behaviours rarely occurred towards the caregiver prior to separation. Types of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The Strange Situation Findings: ï  ® Ainsworth found differences in three main types of children. ï  ® ï  ® Insecure-avoidant: this is a style of attachment characterising those children that tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others. ï  ® ï  ® Secure attachment: this is a strong and contented attachment of an infant to his or her caregiver which develops as a result of sensitive responding by the caregiver to the infants needs. Insecure-resistant: this is a style of ambivalent attachment characterising  children who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction. Main and Solomon (1986) re-analysed the strange situation video tapes and created a fourth attachment type: ï  ® Insecure-disorganised: these infants lack a coherent and consistent strategy for dealing with the stress of separation. Secure % of infants (Ainsworth, 1978) % of infants (Van Ijzendoorn et , 1999) Insecure avoidant Insecure resistant Insecure disorganised 66% 22% 12% XXX 62% 15% 9% 15% Evaluating Types of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Strengths ï  ® Ainsworth’s Strange Situation technique has given psychologists a means to understand and study attachment which can lead to new future findings. ï  ® Intervention strategies have been developed to strengthen caregiving behaviour and attachments types. The Circle of Security Project (Cooper et al, 2005) which teaches caregivers to recognise signs of distress showed a decrease in disordered caregiving and an increase in secure attachment types. It has proven to be experimentally valid as its construct validity has been demonstrated by other studies supporting the four types of attachments and its predictive validity has been demonstrated in correlations between early attachment types and later behaviours. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Its findings are also consistent which makes them reliable. Using interobserver reliablity methods, Ainsworth found almost perfect agreement at . 94 between the raters (1.0 is perfect). ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Weakness ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Or does it lack validity, because it is intended to measure the attachment type of an infant, BUT does it really simply measure the quality of a particular relationship? Main and Weston (1981) claim it is measuring one relationship instead of something innate within an individual. ï  ® Evaluating Types of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Effects of attachment types ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Bowlby’s continuity hypothesis would predict that a child’s behaviour later in life would be effected by specific attachment types they develop. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Prior and Glaser (2006) found that in later childhood, if as infants they developed a secure attachment type, they would  be less emotionally dependent and possess more  interpersonal harmony. Infants with the other three types  would be more aggressive, negative withdrawn in later  childhood. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ It would also effect you in your adult romantic lives as well. Hazen and Shaver (1987) conducted the ‘Love Quiz’ which  asked questions about early experiences and current love  experiences and found that there were characteristic  patterns of later romantic behaviour associated with each  early attachment type. Evaluating Types of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Factors that influence attachment type ï  ® Sensitivity ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Ainsworth developed the Maternal Sensitivity Scale to rate mothers’ behaviour such as sensitivity and insensitivity to infants signals. The scale found: Securely  attached infant Observed  Mothers bx ï  ® ï  ® Insecurely attached infant Avoidant infant Resistant infant  more sensitive,  cooperating Unresponsive to  crying less  affectionate More rejecting and  less attention  giving Preoccupied with  routine activities when  holding infant Maternal reflective functioning ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Some studies have shown low correlations between measures of sensitivity and strength of attachment. Slade et al (2005) found the ability to understand what someone else is thinking or feeling may be more important. Temperament ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ May play a role as previous research indicates, but it is unclear. Cultural Variations in Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ KNOW the definitions of culture, cultural variations and the difference between individualistic and collectivistic cultures (pg.45) ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Cross-cultural Similarities ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Ainsworth’s Uganda study (1967) ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Tronick et al (1992) study on the African tribe in Zaire ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Fox (1977) infants in Isreali kibbutz raised by  nurses when tested in the Strange Situation  appeared equally attached to both caregivers,  except in the reunion behaviour where they  showed greater attachment to their mothers. Cultural Variations in Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Cross-cultural Differences ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Grossman and Grossman (1991) found that German infants appear more insecurely attached rather than secure. This may be due to the different childrearing practices as German culture involves keeping some interpersonal distance from the parent and infant. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Takahashi (1990) used the Strange Situation on a group of 60 middle-class infants in Japan and found similar rates of secure attachment. However, the infants showed no evidence of insecure-avoidant and high rates of insecureresistance (32%). Different childrearing practices can explain the difference for in Japan the infants are rarely ever separated from their parents which is why they would be more distressed than their American counterparts. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Conclusions ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ These studies suggest that the strongest attachments are still formed with their mothers and that there are differences in attachment that can be related to differences in cultural attitudes. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Meta-analysis study by Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) examined over 2000 Strange Situation classification studies in 8 countries. They found the variation between countries and culture were small with secure attachment being the most common in all countries followed by insecure-avoidant except in Japan and Israel. Variations within cultures however were greater. In conclusion the findings appear to be similar to that found in the US and this supports the view that attachment is an innate and biological process. Also data collected on different subcultures should not be generalised to be representative of a particular culture. Criticisms of Research on Cultural Variations ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Culture bias ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Rothbaum et al (2000) argued that attachment theory and  research is not relevant to other countries because it is rooted in American culture. For example, the sensitivity hypothesis reflects western ideas of autonomy whereas in Japan sensitivity is about promoting dependence. The continuity hypothesis states that  secure infant attachments create more competent adults, however, this ‘competence’ is defined in terms of individuation. The secure base hypothesis in the west explains secure attached infants as independent and confident exploring whereas in Japan they  promote dependence and the concept of amae and so this can  explain why insecure-resistant behaviours are more typical. Rothbaum concludes that psychologists should produce a set of indigenous theories that are explanations of attachment that are rooted in individual cultures with a small group of universal principles (infant need for protection) but mostly with childcare practices relating to cultural values. Rothbaum was challenged by Posada and Jacobs (2001) which shows that attachment theory does apply to most cultures. Criticisms of Research on Cultural Variations ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Criticisms of cross-cultural research ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Tests  of procedures used may not be equally valid  in the country and may make the culture appear  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœinferior’ or ‘abnormal’. This is an example of  imposed etic. This is when a research method is  used in one culture even thought it was designed to  be used in another (intelligence tests or observations). ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The group that was tested may not be  representative of the culture and yet researchers  might make generalisations about the whole culture  or even the whole country. Disruption of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Effects of Separation ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Spitz and Wolf (1946) observed 100 children in an institution became severely depressed after a few months. Skeels and Dye (1939) found similar children scored lower on intelligence tests. Bifulo et al (1992) found that negative effects of deprivation may occur later in life. When 249 women who had lost their mothers before they were 17 were studied, it was found that they were twice as likely to develop depressive/anxiety disorders later in life. Robertsons (1967-73) made films observing the effects of separation in children: ï  ® ï  ® When given a high level of emotional care and similar structures to that of their home life, the children exhibited some signs of distress, however, slept well and did not reject their PAF when they were reunited. Some were even reluctant to part with the foster mother which is a sign of a good emotional bond. John, however, was in a nursery and not given such attention. He became withdrawn and gave up on proximity seeking bx. When he was reunited with his mother he rejected her for months and demonstrated outbursts of anger towards her. Disruption of Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Physical and Emotional Disruption ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ As the research evidence shows differences in the way physical and emotional attention is given can produce  negative effects in children. However, there are studies  that show these ill effects can be reversed. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Sigvardsson (1979) studied over 600 adopted children in Sweden and at the age of eleven, 26% of them were  classified as ‘problem children’. However in a follow up study, ten years later they were no worse off than the  average population. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ So when alternative emotional care is provided, ill effects of separation can be reversed. However, for some  children disruption of attachment leads to permanent  difficulties. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ To criticise the validity of the research consider that they are based on case studies. Weakness of case studies are  that they are based on generalisations and they depend on  objectivity of the observers and are prone to observer bias. Failure to Form Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Isolated children ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Privation is the lack of having any attachments due to the failure to develop such attachments early in life. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Genie ï  ® ï  ® The Czech twins ï  ® ï  ® Locked in a room by her father until she was 13. When discovered she could not stand erect or speak. She was disinterested in people and never recovered socially. Locked away by their step-mother until the age of 7. Were looked after by their sisters and by 14 had normal social and intellectual capabilities. By 20 they had above average intelligence and excellent social skills. Evaluation ï  ® Was unclear whether or not Genie was retarded at birth or if she ever formed an attachment with her mother. The Czech twins may have formed attachments to each other to compensate for complete lack of care. It is difficult to reach firm conclusions based on only these cases. Failure to Form Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Institutional Care ï  ® ï  ® Multiple studies show that the effects of institutionalisation within children is acute distress. Longitudinal studies have been conducted to see what long term effects are caused by institutionalisation. ï  ® ï  ® Hodges and Tizard (1989) followed a group of 65 British children from early life to adolescence. Children have been place in an institution from before they were 4 months old. Children have not yet formed attachments at this age. An early study found that 70% of the children were not able to care deeply for anyone. The children were assessed regularly up to the age of 16. Some children remained while most were adopted or restored with their original families. The restored children were less likely to develop an attachment with their mothers but the adopted ones were as closely attached to their adopted parents as the control group. However, both groups had problems with peers and showed signs of disinhibited attachment. These findings suggest that early privation had negative effects on the ability to form relationships even when given good subsequent emotional care. If failure to develop attachments after the sensitive period occur it can have an irreversible effect on emotional development. Failure to Form Attachment ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Effects of Privation and Institutionalisation ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Attachment disorder ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ This has been recognised as a psychiatric condition and has been included in the DSMIV. There are two kinds of attachment disorder, inhibited and disinhibited. Children with an attachment disorder have no PAF, cant interact or relate to others before the age of 5 and have experienced severe neglect or frequent changes in caregivers. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Poor parenting skills ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Harlow’s monkeys that were raised with surrogate mothers went on to become poor parents. Also, Quinton et al (1984) found similar findings when he compared 50 women who had been raised in institutions. When the women were in their 20’s the ex-institutionalised mothers were experiencing extreme difficulties acting as parents. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Deprivation dwarfism ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Physical evidence by Gardner (1972) that institutionalised children are physically underdeveloped, potentially caused by stress hormones. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Evaluation ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ In the study of Romanian children, one-third recovered well despite not establishing a PAF prior to the sensitive period. Therefore, privation alone cannot explain negative outcomes. This suggests that damage occurs when there are multiple risk factors (Turner and Lloyd, 1995). ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Not sure if the children failed to form attachments early in life. Maybe they did and the problems they experienced later were more related to rejection. Impact of Day Care ï  ® ï  ® Day Care – the form of temporary care not given by the family or someone well known to the child and usually outside of the home. Social development – the aspect of a child’s growth concerned with the development of sociability, where the child learns to relate to others and with the process of socialisation, the child learns social skills appropriate to the society. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Negative effects on social development ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Meta-analysis from findings of 88 studies supports Bowlby’s research that prolonged separation from the PAF leads to maladjustment. Violata and Russell (1994) concluded that regular day care for more than 20 hrs a week had an unmistakable negative effect on socio-emotional development, behaviour and attachment of young children. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ NICHD in USA conducted a longitudinal study of over 1000 children. Parents were interviewed regarding the effects of regular day care. The study showed  that the more time a child spent in day care, regardless of quality, the adults rated them as more disobedient and aggressive (NICHD, 2003). The children in day care were 3 times more likely to demonstrate behavioural problems than children that were cared by their mothers. Melhuish (2004) found evidence that children with high levels of day care in the first two years of development had elevated risks of developing anti-social behaviours. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ The Minnesota longitudinal study demonstrated the more securely attached infants are the more popular with peers they become. So therefore, the more insecure an infant, more peer related problems could be expected. Belsky and Rovine (1988) assessed attachment in children in day care and found that were more likely to be insecurely attached compared to children at home. Impact of Day Care ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Positive effects on social development ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Good day care provides plenty of social stimulation, whereas, children living at home may lack social interactions. Brown and Harris (1978) found depressed mothers contributed  their low moods to being isolated at home with children. Depressed mothers are likely to form insecure attachments with their children which would have a negative effect on their children. Therefore, the independence gained with having a child in day care is a way to prevent this. Clarke-Stewart et al (1994) studied 150 children and found they were consistently more compliant and independent. The EPPE followed 3000 children in pre-schools and found increased sociability (Sylvia et al, 2003). Day care exposes children to their peers thus enabling them to develop social strategies (negotiate and make friends). Field (1991) found a positive correlation between the amount of time in day care and the number of friends children have once they enter school. Also, those that started day care before 6 months were more sociable than those that started later. Evaluating Research on Day Care ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Weaknesses of research on day care ï  ® When evaluating the research, one must consider the circumstances under which one can find positive or negative outcomes. ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® ï  ® Prodromidis (1995) found no correlation between Swedish children in day care and aggression. Freidman from NICHD explains the aggression study actually shows that day care children may be more aggressive than non-day care, but still 83% of children in day care between 10 -30 hours a week show no signs of aggression. Second important finding from the NICHD research is that the mothers sensitivity to the child, higher maternal education and income all play a more important role in decreased behavioural problems than the amount of time in day care. Finally, the findings are not causal. The data cannot show that day care caused aggression only that there is a link between the two. Therefore, the data suggests that childrens development is more strongly affected by factors at home than those in day care (Belsky et al, 2007). Evaluating Research on Day Care ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Weaknesses of Research on Day Care ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Cannot apply a cause relating to peer relations as  well, only a link. For example, shy and unsociable children have mothers that are shy and  unsociable, therefore, its possible that more  outgoing parents/children that go to day care. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ A lot of research supports the idea that day care  alone has no direct effect on development and  that there are other factors involved. Gregg et al  (2005) analysed findings from the Children of the  90’s study and concluded that for the majority of  children, maternal employment in their first 3  years of life had no adverse effects on behaviour. Evaluating Research on Day Care ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Mediating Factors ï  ® Quality of Care ï  ® ï  ® Individual Differences ï  ® ï  ® As the quality of care decreases it is expected that the attachment type will become poorer. NICHD study (1997) found that low-quality care was associated with poor social development. As parents have different interests in their child, day care staff are less invested and therefore provide a different kind of attention. This is reflected in Howes and Hamilton (1992) findings  that secure attachments  occurred in only 50% of day care staff but 70% in mothers. The NICHD study found the more secure a child’s attachment level is the better they cope with time spent in day care. However, another study showed that insecure children coped better than secure children (showed more aggressive bx) in day care. Child’s age and number of hours ï  ® ï  ® Gregg et al (2005) found that negative effects were more likely to be found in children starting day care before 18 months of age. However, the magnitude of these effects was small. Clarke-Stewart et al (1994) found no difference in attachment between spending a lot of time in day care (more than 30 hours) with those that spend a little time (less than 10 hours). Implications of Research into Attachment and Day care ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Attachment Research ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Attachment research has shown that when separation occurs, negative effects of this separation can be avoided if substitute emotional care can be provided and links to the PAF are made available. This research has changed the way hospitals handle visiting arrangements and the way institutional care is provided. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ A second implication is the way the adoptions process is managed allowing babies to be adopted earlier strengthening child/parent attachments (Singer, 1985). ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Another implication is the improvement of parenting skills, ie, Circle of Security, which improves infant/mother relationships. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Finally, attachment research has been used to improve day care quality focusing on the importance of secondary attachment figures. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Day Care Research ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ As research shows, high quality care leads to positive outcomes. What is highquality care? ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Low child-staff ratios – 3:1 is ideal for sensitive care to be given ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Minimal staff turnover – allows for consistent care and decreases anxiety ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Sensitive emotional care – only 23% of carers demonstrated highly sensitive care, 50% was moderate care and 20% were emotionally detached. ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ Qualified staff – qualified managers lead to better social development ï  ®Ã¢â‚¬ ¯ To ensure high-quality care, legal standards are implemented relating to staff ratio to age of the child, minimum qualifications of staff, Ofsted inspections and finally the sure Start programme.

Edward Saids Orientalism Essay -- History Colonialism Orientalism Es

Edward Said's Orientalism Western civilization, generally speaking, is extremely egotistical and has the view that Western culture is superior to all others. They believe they are more civilized and more educated than the rest of the world and because of this, stems the idea that it is the duty of Western civilization to take other, less developed societies under their wing. These concepts of supremacy and domination are closely related to Said's ideas of Orientalism. In his book, Orientalism, Edward Said explains in detail exactly what he believes the word Orientalism means. He tries to prove his concepts through the words of statesmen, including Britain's Evelyn Baring Cromer. Cromer's words reflect the concepts introduced by Said. According to Said, one definition of Orientalism is that it is a "style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and the 'Occident'." This is connected to the idea that Western society, or Europe in this case, is superior in comparison to cultures that are non-European, or the Orient. This means that Orientalism is a kind of racism held toward anyone not European. Said wrote that Orientalism was "a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient." This Western idea of the Orient explains why so many European countries occupied lands they believed to be Oriental. This first concept of Orientalism is blatantly reflected in the words of Evelyn Baring Cromer. Cromer was England's representative in Egypt between 1882 and 1907. He believed in European supremacy and called Egyptians, and all other people he considered Oriental, subject races. He justified European occupation in Egypt with this idea of superio... ...e. This idea is shown through Cromer's words as well. Two quotes perfectly show what Said is trying to get across to the reader. Cromer states: I content myself with noting the fact that somehow or another the Oriental generally acts speaks and thinks in a matter exactly opposite to the European. From this quote he concludes: Europe is always in a position of strength, The Oriental is irrational, depraved, childlike, "different", thus the European is rational, virtuous, mature, "normal". Cromer believes that the Orient would be nothing without Western Civilization. He embodies everything Said means by the term Orientalism including having a superiority complex and over generalizing a large group of people into one category. Cromer clearly is the epitome of what it is to be an Orientalist since he obviously agrees with what Said means by Orientalism.

Is the death penalty racist against blacks? Essay

I. Introduction There are several queries which came up in my inquisitive mind and try to discover and comprehend what are the possible grounds that judiciaries are basing his/her verdict and judgment in sentencing death penalty to a defendant or the accused himself. Death penalty is the heaviest and most depressing sentence for the accused; thus, it ends his chances to change. Come to think of it, the accused will not be given a chance to renew himself and become a better citizen in our country. Several countries around the globe are in favor to such act and even legalized it. But do we really have the right to execute death penalty to an accused? Is this act not a violation of human rights? Where did death penalty start? Does it really help lessen the growing crimes? Or can’t we just find another alternative to lessen crimes? These are some of my queries and up to now, I am trying to understand both arguments of pro and anti. I do understand why there are group of people support this kind of penalty or sentence. These are the group of people who want justice for those who are badly treated, abused and harmed; and most of these people also undergone such mistreatments or maybe their love ones. But how about if the accused is not really the one who commit the crime, is just frame up and does not have enough evidences to prove he is not guilty of it? And in practicing such law, does death penalty will not show biases, racism, and prejudices of whom the judiciaries will give such sentence? Furthermore, according to others that death penalty is the best way to control and lessen crimes. It has been an argument not only in the United States of America but as well as around the globe. The death penalty is well-thought-out by most cultured and enlightened nation-states as an inhumane and callous sentence or chastisement. In addition, death penalty has been de facto by 106 countries and since 1990, there were about 30 nation-states which have put an end to it. Moreover, the death penalty has continuously put into practice in some nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States of America, Iran and China which are the most profuse executioners in the globe. However, international official papers have constrained and in several circumstances even banned the death penalty, its function and relevance does not contradict customary international law. Ample debates have continued in the United States of America as to whether it comprises a suitable chastisement at least to the most dreadful crimes (see â€Å"Human Rights: Death Penalty†. Derechos Human Rights). Moreover, this issue has been continually debated in United States of America due to its fact that racism is almost present every time a judge makes a sentence for the defendant or accused. The illustration below shows the racial breakdown of district Attorneys* in United States Death Penalty States and was taken from the website http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? scid=45&did=539. The focal points of this study are to: (1) understand what death penalty is; (2) figure out how death penalty arises or starts; (3) be aware of the different methods used to execute people; (4) recognize the religious views on death penalty; (5) find out if there is any racism involve in performing death penalty; and (2) acquaint us the number of executions performed and the race who faced death penalty due to racism in different states of United States of America; (6) know the public opinion polls on the death penalty issue; (7) learn the death penalty statistics and; (8) recommend possible remedies or alternatives to abolish death penalty. II. Background A. What is death penalty? Death penalty is considered as a capital punishment and is an execution of a convicted offender by the State which serves as chastisement for crimes committed which is recognized and called as capital offenses or capital crimes. Death penalty is the most discussed issue in penalizing or sentencing the convicted criminal. The term â€Å"capital† was taken from a Latin word â€Å"capitalis† that refers to â€Å"concerning the head†; thus, to be susceptible to capital punishment would simply refers to metaphorically lose one’s head. Moreover, the United States of America, majority of the Caribbean, Guatemala and other democracies in Africa and China continue to have its approval on death penalty but amongst of those democratic nations globally, majority of the European and Latin American states have put an end with the capital punishment. While on countries that are not democratic by nature, the death penalty execution is not unusual yet not practiced by all. There are certain crimes that are specified by laws that need to be sentenced with death penalty depending on countries where the crime committed. Nowadays, most countries that practiced and applied death penalty used it as a punishment for crimes such as treason, part of the military justice, murder and espionage. But for Muslim countries, death penalty is used as punishment for offenses such as sexual crimes (which include sodomy and adultery) and religious crimes like apostasy (abandonment of one’s faith and belief). There are countries too that considered drug trafficking as a capital offense and in China, serious cases of graft and corruption and human trafficking are sentenced by death penalty. But in the military world, death penalty is practiced for offenses like desertion, mutiny; insubordination and cowardice (Bailey, Harris, & Jones, 2005).

Control cycles-a general model Essay

A general model of organizational control includes four components that can operate in a continuous cycle and can be represented as a wheel. These elements are: 1. Setting a goal. Project goal setting goes beyond overall scope development to include setting the project baseline plan. The project baseline is predicated on an accurate. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) process. Remember that WBS establishes all the deliverables and work packages associated with the project, assigns the personnel responsible for them, and creates a visual chart of the project from highest level down through the basic task and subtask levels. The project baseline is created as each task is laid out on a network diagram and resources and time durations are assigned to it. 2. Measuring progress. Effective control systems require accurate project measurement mechanisms. Project managers must have a system in place that will allow them to measure the ongoing status of various project activities in real time. We need a measurement system that can provide information as quickly as possible. What to measure also needs to be clearly defined. Any number of devices allow us to measure one aspect of the project or another; however, the larger question is whether or not we are getting the type of information we can really use. 3. Comparing actual with planned performance. When we have some sense of the original baseline (plan) and a method for accurately measuring progress, the next step is to compare the two pieces of information. A gap analysis can be used as a basis for testing the project’s status. Gap analysis refers to any measurement process that first determines the goals and then the degree to which the actual performance lives up to those goals. The smaller the gaps between planned and actual performance, the better the outcome. In cases whe re we see obvious differences between what was planned an what was realized, we have a clear-cut warning signal. 4. Taking action. Once we detect significant deviations from the project plan, it becomes necessary to engage in some form of corrective action to minimize or remove the deviation. The process of taking corrective action is generally straightforward. Corrective action can either be relatively minor or may involve significant remedial steps. At its most extreme, corrective action may even involve scuttling a nonperforming project. After corrective action, the monitoring and control cycle begins again. The control cycle is continuous. As we create a plan, we begin measurement efforts to chart progress and compare stages against the baseline plan. Any indications of significant deviations from the plan should immediately trigger an appropriate response, leading to a reconfiguration of the plan, reassessment of progress, and so on. Project monitoring is continuous, full-time cycle of target setting, measuring, correcting, improving, and remeasuring. MONITORING PROJECT PERFORMANCE As we discovered in the chapters on project budgeting and resource management, once we have established a project baseline budget, one of the most important methods for indicating the ongoing status of the project is to evaluate it against the original budget projections. For project monitoring and control, both individual task budgets and the cumulative project budget are relevant. The cumulative budget can be broken down by time over the project’s projected duration. The Project S-Curve: A Basic Tool As a basis for evaluating project control techniques, let us consider a simple example. Assume a project (Project Sierra) with four work packages (Design, Engineering, Installation, and Testing), a budget to complete of $80,000, and an anticipated duration of 45 weeks. To determine project performance and status, a straightforward time/cost analysis is often our first choice. Here the project’s status is evaluated as a function of the accumulated costs and labor hours or quantities plotted against time for both budgeted and actual amounts. We can see that time (shown on the x, or horizontal, axis) is compared with money expended (shown on the y, or vertical, axis). The classic project S-curve represents the typical form of such a relationship. Budget expenditures are initially low and ramp up rapidly during the major project execution stage, before starting to level off again as the project gets nearer to its completion. Cumulative budget projections for Project Sierra have been plotted against the project’s schedule. The S-curve figure represents the project budget baseline against which budget expenditures are evaluated. Monitoring the status of a project using S-curves becomes a simple tracking problem. At the conclusion of each given time period (week, month, or quarter), we simply total the cumulative project budget expenditures to date and compare them with the anticipated spending patterns. Any significant deviations between actual and planned budget spent reveal a potential problem area. Simplicity is the key benefit of S-curve analysis. Because the projected project baseline is established in advance, the only additional data shown are the actual project budget expenditures. The S-curve also provides real-time tracking information in that budget expenditures can be constantly updated and the new values plotted on the graph. Project information can be visualized immediately and updated continuously, so S-curves offer an easy-to-read evaluation of the project’s status in a timely manner. (The information is not necessarily easily interpreted, however, as we shall see later.) Our Project Sierra example can also be used to illustrate how S-curve analysis is employed. Suppose that by week 21 in the project, the original budget projected expenditures of $50,000. However, our actual project expenditures totaled only $40,000. In effect, there is a $10,000 budget shortfall, or negative variance between the cumulative budgeted cost of the project and its cumulative actual cost. In the table it shows the track of budgeted expenditures with actual project costs, including identifying the negative variance shown at week 21. In this illustration, we see the value of S-curve analysis as a good visual method for linking project costs (both budgeted and actual) over the project’s schedule. S-CURVE DRAWBACKS When project teams consider using S-curves, they need to take the curve’s significant drawbacks into consideration as well as their strengths. S-curves can identify positive and negative variance (budget expenditures above or below projections), but they do not allow us to make reasonable interpretations as to the cause of variance. Consider the S-curve shown. The actual budget expenditures have been plotted to suggest that the project team has not spent the total planned budget money to date (there is negative   variance). However, the question is how to interpret this finding. The link between accumulated project costs and time is not always easily resolved. Is the project team behind schedule (given that they have not spent sufficient budget to date) or might there be alternative reasons for the negative variance? Assume that your organization tracks project costs employing an S-curve approach and uses that information to assess the status of an ongoing project. Also assume that the project is to be completed in 12 months and has a budget of $150,000. At the six-month checkup, you discover that the project S-curve shows significant shortfall; you have spent far less on the project to date than was originally budgeted. Is this good or bad news? On the surface, we might suppose that this is a sign of poor performance; we are lagging far behind in bringing the project along and the smaller the amount we have spent to date is evidence that our project is behind schedule. On the other hand, there are any number of reasons why this circumstance actually might be positive. For example, suppose that in running the project, you found a cost-effective method for doing some component of the work or came across a new technology that significantly cut down on expenses. In that case, the time/cost metric may not only be misused, but might lead to dramatically inaccurate conclusions. Likewise, positive variance is not always a sign of project progress. In fact, a team may have a serious problem with overexpenditures that could be interpreted as strong progress on the project when in reality it signals nothing more than their inefficient use of project capital resources. The bottom line is this: Simply evaluating a project’s status according to its performance on time versus budget expenditures may easily lead us into making inaccurate assumptions about project performance. Milestone Analysis Another method for monitoring project progress is milestone analysis. A milestone is an event or stage of the project that represents a significant accomplishment on the road to the project’s completion. Completion of a deliverable (a combination of multiple project tasks), an important activity on the project’s critical path, or even a calendar date can all be milestones. In effect, milestones are road markers that we observe on our travels along the project’s life cycle. There are several benefits to using milestones as a form of project control. 1. Milestones signal the completion of important project steps. A project’s milestones are an important indicator of the current status of the project under development. They give the project team a common language to use in discussing the ongoing status of the project. 2. Milestones can motivate the project team. In large projects lasting several years, motivation can flag as team members begin to have difficul ty seeing how the project is proceeding overall, what their specific contribution has been and continues to be, and how much longer the project is likely to take. Focusing attention on milestones helps team members become more aware of the project’s successes as well as its status, and they can begin to develop greater task identity regarding their work on the project. 3. Milestones offer points at which to reevaluate client needs and any potential change requests. A common problem with many types of projects is the nature of repetitive and constant change requests from clients. Using project review milestones as formal â€Å"stop points,† both the project team and the clients are clear on when they will take midcourse reviews of the project and how change requests will be handled. When clients are aware of these formal project review points, they are better able to present reasonable and well-considered feedback (and specification change requests) to the team. 4. Milestones help coordinate schedules with vendors and suppliers. Creating delivery dates that do not delay project activities is a common challenge in scheduling delivery of key project components. From a resource perspective, the project team needs to receive supplies before they are needed but not so far in advance that space limitations, holding and inventory costs, and in some cases spoilage are problems. Hence, to balance delays of late shipments against the costs associated with holding early deliveries, a well-considered system of milestones creates a scheduling and coordinating mechanism that identifies the key dates when supplies will be needed. 5. Milestones identify key project review gates. For many complex projects, a series of midterm project reviews are mandatory. For example, many proj ects that are developed for the U.S. government require periodic evaluation as a precondition to the project firm receiving some percentage of the contract award. Milestones allow for appropriate points for these review. Sometimes the logic behind when to hold such reviews is based on nothing more than the passage of time (â€Å"It is time for July 1 review†). For other projects, the review gates are determined based on completion of a series of key project steps (such as the evaluation of software results from the beta sites). 6. Milestones signal other team members when their participation is expected to begin. Many times projects require contributions from personnel who are not part of the project team. For example, a quality assurance individual may be needed to conduct systems tests or quality inspection and evaluations of work done to date. The quality supervisor needs to know when to assign a person to our project, or we may find when we reach that milestone that no on e’s available to help us. Because the QA person is not part of the project team, we need to coordinate his or her involvement in order to minimize disruption to the project schedule. 7. Milestones can delineate the various deliverables developed in the work breakdown structure and therefore enable the project team to develop a better overall view of the project. You then are able to refocus efforts and function-specific resources toward the deliverables that show signs of trouble, rather than simply allocating resources in a general manner. For example, indications that the initial project software programming milestone has been missed allows the project manager to specifically request additional programmers downstream, in order to make up time later in the project’s development. Problems with Milestones Milestones, in one form or another, are probably the simplest and most widely used of all project control devices. Their benefits lie in their clarity; it is usually easy for all project team members to relate to the idea of milestones as a project performance metric. The problem with them is that they are a reactive control system. You must first engage in project activities and then evaluate them relative to your goal. If you significantly underperform your work to that point, you are faced with having to correct what has already transpired. Imagine, for example, that a project team misses a milestone by a large margin. Not having received any progress reports up until the point that the bad news becomes public, the project manager is probably not in a position to craft an immediate remedy for the shortfall. Now, the problems compound. Due to delays in receiving the bad news, remedial steps are themselves delayed, pushing the project farther behind. EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT An increasingly popular method used in project monitoring and control consists of a mechanism that has become known as Earned Value Management (EVM). The origins of EVM date to the late 1960s when U.S. government contracting agencies began to question the ability of contractors to accurately track their costs across the like of various projects. As a result, after 1967, the Department of Defense imposed 35 Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria that suggested, in effect, that any future projects procured by the U.S. government in which the risk of cost growth was to be retained by the government must satisfy these 35 criteria. In the more than 30 years since its origin, EVM has been practiced in multiple settings, by agencies from governments as diverse as Australia, Canada, and Sweden, as well as a host of project-based firms in numerous industries. Unlike previous project tracking approaches, EVM recognize that it is necessary to jointly consider the impact of time, cost, and project performance on any analysis of current project status. Put another way: Any monitoring system that only compares actual against budgeted cost numbers ignores the fact that the client is spending that money to accomplish something-create a project. Therefore, EVM reintroduces and stresses the importance of analyzing the time element in project status updates. Time is important because it becomes the basis for determining how much work should be accomplished at certain milestone points. EVM also allows the project team to make future projections of project status based on its current state. At any point in the project’s development we are able to calculate both schedule and budget efficiency factors (the efficiency with which budget is being used relative to the value that is being created) and use those values to make future projections about the estimated cost and schedule to project completion. We can illustrate the advance in the project control process that Earned Value represents by comparing it to the other project tracking mechanisms. If we consider the key metrics of project performance as those success criteria discussed in Chapter 1 (scheduling, budget, and performance), most project evaluation approaches tend to isolate some subset of the overall success measure. For example, project S-curve analysis directly links budget expenditures with the project schedule. Again, the obvious disadvantage to this approach is that it ignores the project performance linkage. Project control charts such as tracking Gantt charts link project performance with schedule but may give budget expenditures short shrift. The essence of a tracking approach to project status us to emphasize project performance over time. While the argument could be made that budget is implicitly assumed to be spent in some preconceived fashion, this metric does not directly apply a link between the use of time and performance factors with project cost. Earned value, on the other hand, directly links all three primary project success metrics (cost, schedule, and performance). This methodology is extremely valuable because it allows for regular updating of a time-phased budget to determine schedule and cost variances, as identified by the regular measurement of project performance. Terminology for Earned Value Following are some key concepts that allow us to calculate Earned Value and use its figures to make future project performance projections. PVPlanned value. A cost estimate of the budgeted resources scheduled across the project’s life cycle (cumulative baseline). EVEarned value. This is the real budgeted cost, or â€Å"value,† of the work that has actually been performed to date. ACActual cost of work performed. The cumulative total costs incurred in accomplishing the various project work packages. SPISchedule Performance Index. The earned value to date divided by the planned value of work scheduled to be performed (EV/PV). This value allows us to calculate the projected schedule of the project to completion. CPICost Performance Index. The earned value divided by the actual, cumulative cost of the work performed to date (EV/AC). This value allows us to calculate the projected budget to completion. BACBudgeted cost at completion. This represents the total budget for a project. Creating Project Baselines The first step in developing an accurate control process is to create the project baselines against which progress can be measured. Baseline information is critical regardless of the control process we employ, but baselines are elemental when performing EVM. The first piece of information necessary for performing earned value is the planned value; that is, the project baseline. The PV should comprise all relevant project costs, the most important of which are personnel costs, equipment and materials, and project overhead, sometimes referred to as level of effort. Overhead costs (level of effort) can include a variety of fixed costs that must be included in the project budget, including administrative or technical support, computer work, and other staff expertise use (such as legal advice or marketing). The actual steps in establishing the project baseline are fairly straightforward and require two pieces of data: the Work Breakdown Structure and a time-phased project budget. 1. The W ork Breakdown Structure identified the individual work packages and tasks necessary to accomplish the project. As such, the WBS allowed us to first identify the individual tasks that would need to be performed. It also gave us some understanding of the hierarchy of tasks needed to set up work packages and identify personnel needs (human resources) in order to match the task requirements to the correct individuals capable of performing them. 2. The time-phased budget takes the WBS one step further: It allows us to identify the correct sequencing of tasks, but more importantly, it enables the project team to determine the points in the project when budget money is likely to be spent in pursuit of those tasks. Say, for example, that our project team determines that one project activity, Data Entry, will require a budget of $20,000 to be completed, and further, that the task is estimated to require 2 months to completion, with the majority of the work being done in the first month. A ti me-phased budget for this activity might resemble the following: Activity| Jan| Feb| †¦| Dec| Total| Data Entry| $14,000| $6,000| | -0-| $20,000| Once we have collected the WBS and applied a time-phased budget breakdown, we can create the project baseline. The result is an important component of earned value because it represents the standard against which we are going to compare all project performance, cost, and schedule data as we attempt to assess the viability of an ongoing project. This baseline, then, represents our best understanding of how the project should progress. How the project is actually doing, however, is, of course, another matter. Why Use Earned Value? Assume that it is now week 30 of the project and we are attempting to assess the project’s status. Also assume that there is no difference between the projected project costs and actual expenditures; that is, the project budget is being spent within the correct time frame. However, upon examination, suppose we were to discover that Installation was only half-completed and Project Testing had not yet begun. This example illustrates both a problem with S-curve analysis and the strength of EVM. Project status assessment is only relevant when some measure of performance is considered in addition to budget and elapsed schedule. Consider the revised data for Project Sierra. Note that as of week 30, work packages related to Design and Engineering have been totally completed, whereas the Installation is only 50% done, and Testing has not yet begun. These percentage values are given based on the project team or key individual’s assessment of the current status of work package completion. The question now is: What is the earned value of the project work done to date? As of week 30, what is the status of this project in terms of budget, schedule, and performance? Calculating the earned value for these work packages is a relatively straightforward process. We can modify the previous table to focus exclusively on the relevant information for determining earned value. The planned budget for each work package is multiplied by the percentage completed in order to determine the earned value to date for the work packages, as well as for the overall project. In this case, the earned value at the 30-week point is $51,000. We can compare the planned budget against the actual earned value using the original project budget baseline. This process allows us to assess a more realistic determination of the status of the project when the earned value is plotted against the budget baseline. Compare this figure with the alternative method, in which negative variance is calculated, with no supporting explanation as to the cause or any indication about whether this figure is meaningful or not. Recall that by the end of week 30, our original budget projections suggested that $68,000 should have been spent. Instead, we are projecting a shortfall of $17,000. In other words, we are not only showing a negative variance in terms of money spent on the project, but also in terms of value created (performance) of the project to date. Unlike the standard S-curve evaluation, EVM variance is meaningful because it is based not simply on budget spent, but value earned. A negative variance of $10,000 in budget expenditures may or may not signal cause for concern; however, a $17,000 shortfall in value earned on the project to date represents a variance of serious consequences. Steps in Earned Value Management There are five steps in Earned Value Management (EVM): 1. Clearly define each activity or task that will be performed on the project, including its resource needs as well as a detailed budget.As we demonstrated earlier, the Work Breakdown Structure allows project teams to identify all necessary project tasks. It further allows for each task to be assigned its own project resources, including equipment and materials costs, as well as personnel assignments. Finally, coupled with the task breakdown and resource assignments, it is possible to create the budget figure or cost estimate for each project task. 2. Create the activity and resource usage schedules. These will identify the proportion of the total budget allocated to each task across a project calendar. Determine how much of an activity’s budget is to be spent each month (or other appropriate time period) across the project’s projected development cycle. Coupled with the development of a project budget should be its direct linkage to the project schedule. The determination of how much budget money is to be allocated to project tasks is important. Equally important is the understanding of when the resources are to be employed across the project’s development cycle. 3. Develop a â€Å"time-phased† budget that shows expenditures across the projects life.The total (cumulative) amount of the budget becomes the project baseline and is referred to as the planned value (PV). In real terms, PV just means that we can identify the cumulative budget expenditures planned at any stage in the project’s life. The PV, as a cumulative value, is derived from addin g the planned budget expenditures for each preceding time period. 4. Total the actual costs of doing each task to arrive at the actual cost of work performed (AC).We can also compute the budgeted values for the tasks on which work is being performed. This is referred to as the earned value (EV) and is the origin of the term for this control process. 5. Calculate both a project’s budget variance and schedule variance while it is still in process.Once we have collected the three key pieces of data (PV, EV, and AC), it is possible to make these calculations. The schedule variance is calculated by the simple equation: SV = EV – PV, or the difference between the earned value to date minus the planned value of the work scheduled to be performed to date. The budget, or cost, variance is calculated as: CV = EV – AC, or the earned value minus the actual cost of work performed. USING EARNED VALUE TO MANAGE A PORTFOLIO OF PROJECTS Earned Value Management can work at the portfolio level as well as with individual projects. The process simply involves the aggregation of all earned value measures across the firm’s entire project portfolio in order to give an indication as to the efficiency with which a company is managing its projects. Other useful information contained in the Portfolio Earned Value Management table includes the total positive variances for both budget and schedule, as well as determination of the relative schedule and cost variances as a percentage of the total project portfolio. The use of Earned Value Management for portfolio tracking and control offers top management an excellent window into the firm’s ability to efficiently run projects, allows for comparisons across all projects currently in development, and isolates both the positive and negative variances as they occur. All of this is useful information for top-level management of multiple projects.