Health Club Essay

Health clubs have sprouted everywhere to offer alternatives to the traditional gym set-up.   Health clubs provide not just exercise equipments but health and fitness programs as well.   In this regard, the manifest functions of a health club include: – providing an exercise venue; – providing a comprehensive health and fitness program; – promoting general well being through exercise and fitness routines. As the name implies, a health club’s most evident function is keeping its members healthy and the club does it through the most natural means of keeping fit; that is, by exercising and following a healthy lifestyle.   Health clubs do not offer artificial means of trimming down and toning the body.   If a fat person wants to lower his weight, he has to train his body instead of drinking diet pills.   Aside from the exercise equipment, a health club has sports facilities and exercise classes to help its members achieve a balanced and monitored fitness program. Meanwhile, a health club also has latent functions that are not readily evident to people.   These include: – providing a venue for a family to spend bonding time; – a potential ground for networking; – promoting good health and healthy living not just among its members but the country as a whole; and – helping the people and the government save on health care costs; A health club is a good place for a family to go.   Becoming fit together is a good way for family to spend time together.   A health club also provides people with new acquaintances that they can possibly have business with in the future.   By promoting healthy living, a health club keeps the people from getting sick.   This means a lot of savings on hospitalization and health care costs.

Education in Barbados Essay

Barbados had one of the oldest and most advanced education systems in the Eastern Caribbean in the late 1980s. Education dated back to 1686, when private funds were used to build the first school. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, education was controlled by the Anglicans, who were later joined by other religious groups. By 1962 education was free for all nationals and administered primarily by the state. This trend continued, so that by 1984 only 4 percent of the primary and secondary schools were managed by churches. Barbados’ longstanding emphasis on education was evident in the values and goals of contemporary society. Education has traditionally been associated with success and upward mobility. In 1970 Barbados officially claimed to have achieved a 99-percent literacy rate, a figure that was questioned by some observers. Despite these doubts, observers generally agreed that in the 1980s literacy in Barbados exceeded the rates of other Caribbean societies. In 1984 Barbados had 126 primary schools, 110 of which were administered by the state. Approximately 1,350 teachers were available to instruct the 35,000 students. There were sixty-four secondary schools, five of which prepared students for technical careers. A total of 6,000 students attended secondary-school programs. Postsecondary education consisted of seven institutions that awarded degrees or certificates. Four schools offered specific vocational training: the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity, the Erdiston Teacher’s Training College, the Tercentenary School of Nursing, and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytecnic. Academic programs at the university level were conducted at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Barbados Community College, which offered vocational and technical classes as well. The UWI also included Codrington College, a local theological seminary. In 1979 the government created the Skills Training Programme to augment existing education programs. It was designed to fulfill the need for short but intensive training in vocational subjects and to prepare students for careers in mechanics, electronics, horticulture, masonry, plumbing, and other technical and vocational occupations. Although the educational infrastructure was designed to meet both the nation’s academic and vocational needs, observers seriously questioned Barbados’ ability to provide quality instruction in fields related to tourism,  agriculture, and manufacturing, the major economic undertakings in the 1980s. Few courses were actually offered in agricultural science and commerce; as a result, an inadequate number of Barbadians were being prepared to take on the responsibilities inherent in a growing economy. The education system was also criticized for being stratified along socioeconomic lines. In general, upper-class Barbadians prepared for university studies at the best primary and secondary schools, received a disproportionate number of scholarships, and had the best records for entering the professional disciplines. On balance, however, most Barbadians felt that the education system still afforded opportunities to achieve at least limited upward mobility. The government appeared to be attempting to address specific criticisms of its educational policy; its goals for Barbadian education in the 1980s included the promotion of equal educational opportunity and enhanced technical and vocational programs in all schools. In spite of its shortcomings, the Barbadian education system remained the best in the Eastern Caribbean in the 1980s.

Teaching Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Teaching Plan - Essay Example On the other hand, bacterial infection is indicated by a purulent discharge (Gigliotti 354). Allergic conjunctivitis in late childhood and adolescence is considered a symptom of eczema, asthma or rhinitis. Treatment of conjunctivitis starts with identification of the root cause of the infection to ensure that effective medication is administered. In addition , treatment of infants depends on the time the child develops the infection. For instance, if the infection develops within the first 24 hours it is considered to have been caused by chemical reaction with the drugs that were used (Gigliotti 356). Teaching goal The long term goal is to develop awareness among parents to be bale to identify the symptoms early enough and seek medical attention to prevent the negative effects of conjunctivitis. The goal will be achieved by: Seeking medical attention To relieve symptoms and ensure treatment of the infection Ensure that the infant is not at risk of more serious infections Preventing s pread of the disease to other people Preventing the complications associated with conjunctivitis Home remedies Compress the eyelids with cool or warm water for 15 minutes Maintain body hygiene through washing hands and avoiding the sharing face cloths and towels Pharmacological interventions Ensure that drugs are administered effectively depending on the age of the child Advise the parents not to use steroid eye drops because they may cause permanent damage of the infant Bacterial conjunctivitis is treated through topical antibiotic ointment Viral conjunctivitis symptoms can be relieved through saline washes Allergic irritating symptoms can be relieved through saline washes and cool compresses If the symptoms are persistent and severe, oral antihistamines can be administered to the infant Population demography A study to compare the prevalence of conjunctivitis between Asian and White patients was carried out from pediatric records from a health center in the city of Bradford. The p atients chosen for the study had symptoms of chronic conjunctivitis to eliminate the possibility of inclusion of patients suffering from allergic irritations. The study considered medical records of 43 patients, 11 Whites and 24 Asians under the age of four years. The study indicated that conjunctivitis affected 59 of every 100, 000 Asians and 12 of every 100,000 Whites. Although the prevalence in sex in both groups was small, male children were two times more likely to be infected. Two Asian children lost their sight upon developing chronic conjunctivitis. According to Spraul and Lang (23), conjunctivitis is more prevalent in the Asian population as compared to the Whites probably because of environmental and genetic factors. The blindness threat indicates that Asians are more likely to require steroid topical treatment as compared to their white counterparts. Primary care setting Anticipated client outcomes 1. Parents should seek advice on the condition upon noticing conjunctiviti s symptoms on their infants 2. Upon the diagnosis, parents should be aware of the period of treatment and expected changes in the course of treatment 3. Caregivers should adhere to physician's advice on dosage and frequency to ensure medication effectiveness 4. Caregivers should maintain hygiene to avoid contamination of medication tubes and bottles 5. There should be no sharing of eye ointments and medications 6. Measures should be put

Analysis of Civil Rights Movement Literature review

Analysis of Civil Rights Movement - Literature review Example Certainly, it is comforting to believe that history progresses in such a manner. Yet, even if one could develop a cogent argument that the civil rights movement was inevitable, how does one account for its timing and shape Why did it take place when it did Why didn't these ideas prove compelling at an earlier or later time Why did "man's unending search for freedom" reach such heights in the early and mid-1960s Why did certain actors emerge as leaders and not others Why were certain goals or demands given priority And to a lesser extent, why did the movement achieve some objectives but not others The modern civil rights movement had both external and internal origins and causes. It came into being when and in the way it did because of both structural and human factors. Forces that were only indirectly related to the movement helped give rise to it and sustained it, as did complex developments within the African American community. Demographic shifts, particularly the great migration, the emergence of the United States as a world power, and the overall process of modernization played key roles. "... It's human nature, I guess. We did our best to control it, but there was a bit of a power struggle from the beginning between Nashville and Atlanta. After Dr. King had come up that spring and given his blessing to ..." 3 So too did several internal factors, most importantly the accumulation of resources by the African American community. These developments were intertwined and reinforced one another. In addition, the success of the civil rights movement depended on human agency. "... Jim Peck, Al Bigelow, and Jim Zwerg stand and suffer with us. 'v/N'e had become brothers and sisters to the struggle. We bled together. We suffered together. How could you look at something like a race after experiences like that ..." 4 (194) With the great migration, African Americans also advanced economically. Even though they continued to work for less pay and under worse conditions than whites, blacks in the industrial North began to enjoy a standard of living heretofore unknown to them or their counterparts in the rural South. Between 1940 and 1970, the mean income for black men, adjusted for inflation, more than tripled.  Ã‚  

American Government Branches Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

American Government Branches - Essay Example The legislature, also directly elected by people from all parts of the nation, is representative of the American people and their diversity and represents electorate’s interest in ‘policymaking’. The judiciary is however composed of a team of legal experts with the mandate of interpreting the constitution to ensure justice, protection of fundamental rights, and to offer checks on the executive and the legislature (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2012). The three arms of government are therefore representative of citizens through offering checks and balances to safeguard people’s interest. Their roles in representing the people are however different. While the legislature makes and amends laws, the judiciary interprets and the executive implements the laws. The branches also differ in their formation and composition with respect to people’s authority and representation (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2012). The legislature is therefore the most representative branch of government. This is because its composition is geographically representative of the nation, and it purely derives its authority from the people, unlike the executive and the

Tax Planning Problem Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Tax Planning Problem - Assignment Example This is because in case of alimony, tax is charged to the party who receives the benefits of income and thus is nondeductible to the party earning that income (Cussen, Investopedia.com). In this regard, Nell’s gross income and thus her taxable income would be increased by that amount as Nell is receiving the benefits of Kirby’s income. 3) Out of $900, only the amount of $600 is considered as alimony. This is because this amount can’t be declared as child support since continuation of this amount is not pertinent to any contingency related to child in terms of his death or attaining the age of maturity (Cussen, Investopedia.com). As a result, being alimony, this will reduce Kirby’s taxable income and increase Nell’s taxable income, each by $600. On the other hand, the remaining $300, to be ceased after any contingency to the child, can be declared as child support and thus, not being alimony, wouldn’t account for any tax-related consequence to any of the party; neither of the party would recognize this amount in his / her taxable income. Works Cited Cussen MP. â€Å"The Fundamentals of Spousal Support Taxation.† Investopedia.com. Investopedia, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2011.

Reducing Juvenile Deliquency Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reducing Juvenile Deliquency - Research Paper Example Therefore, organizations targeted toward youth which involve counseling or mentoring by role models and community involvement should be an element in reducing juvenile delinquency. The thesis question would thus be: Does the involvement of those under eighteen in formalized organizations such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H Club etc. lead to lower juvenile delinquency rates in a community? Book: Shoemaker, D. (2010). Theories of delinquency: an examination of explanations of delinquent behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. This book examines the current theories of delinquency such as explanation of causation, control theories, psychological theories, labeling and female delinquency. This current book gives a comprehensive review of the theoretical underpinnings of delinquency. Academic Peer Reviewed Articles Anderson-Butcher, D. (2002-10-1). Factorial and criterion validity of scores of a measure of belonging in youth development programs. Educational and Psychological Measure ment, 62: 857-876, This article investigates the overall tenet of Boys’ and Girls’ Club that ‘belonging’ can reduce juvenile delinquency. The authors states that there is evidence that this is a cohesive force among juveniles that attend the activities of the Club, but that the linkage to reducing juvenile delinquency is not clear.

Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd Essay

Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd - Essay Example The purchase and installation were conducted and within a few days of ordinary usage and subsequent airing, the flue overheated and ignited some nearby towels starting a fire. Expert evidence (see the annexed report by Robert Brown) that the flue failed to comply with British Standard specifications, and that the defendant was negligent in fitting the flue in the claimant’s cupboard thereby exposing the flue to the accumulation of dangerous temperatures. The defendants basically admit these failures only remarking that they had discharged their responsibility to the plaintiff by warning of the danger of using the flue in close proximity to articles of clothing. By virtue of Rule 24 of the Civil Procedure Code 1998 the claimant’s application for summary judgment is required to show that the defendant’s answer to the claim contains a) no real prospect of success; and b) there is no other substantial or compelling reason why the case should be disposed of in a trial.1 By virtue of Practice Direction 24, summary judgment can be obtained in one of the following three situations:- It is important to note that the court will make its determination based on ‘the evidence which can reasonably be expected to be available at trial or the lack of it’.3 Since the defendant purports to be relying only on the strength of the contract itself in evidence, it will have no evidence capable of contradicting the claimants charge that the flue and its subsequent was negligent. The basis of this claim is founded on the principles enshrined in the tort of negligence rather than any contractual terms and is tantamount to no defense at all.

Base on the report that has written. Continue to write on the parts Assignment

Base on the report that has written. Continue to write on the parts that have been highlighted in green colour. The assessment, - Assignment Example It is therefore recommended for the children to wait until they attain the required age. Although it is quite unknown on the implication of marathon to underage, the experts have recommended them waiting until they attain puberty (Bredemeier, et al. 1986). Most doctors recommend children to avoid long distance because of trauma and can lead to bone doings. When someone trains for a marathon, it is normally tough mentally and physically, exhausting and time consuming. Therefore, underage it is highly possible to affect someone priorities such as education (Bredemeier, et al. 1986). Before someone embarks on the long distance/marathon, it is suggested top run 10kms or even 4kms. Therefore, completing the race would be a major boost. 1.2 The Macro, Micro and Risk management context In the Sydney Marathon, the macro, micro, and risk management context would involve consideration of safety issues from an individual level to the safety of the group taking part in the marathon. The safety a nd well-being of all participants is of great importance if the team has to win. This has to focus on risks affecting individuals in person and those affecting the participants collectively (K. M. Nohr 2009 ). This would happen with respect to the protection of the best interests of the group or organization. A comprehensive risk management plan would be required to achieve the best level in ensuring safety of every participant in the group participants. One of the key factors to consider is working by the fundamental laws of the group. The three basic elements in risk control would be ensured. These elements include risk assessments, control, and financing (Katharine 2009). 2. The Risks Associated with The Trip The trip to the Sydney marathon will be like any other trip faced with uncertainties’ of risks such as injuries that include musculoskeletal injuries, bruises, cuts, fractures, as well as dislocations. There are also cases of accidents, which could result into injurie s, or death of some participants (Nohr 2013). These cases may make most of the participants fail to participate. Dealing with this risk would require that the number of participants in the marathon be more to initiate replacements especially in those sports involving collaborative participation. There should be provisions for first aid and medical care in case of accidents (Nohr 2013). 2.1 Location Analysis The marathon is specifically located in the Sydney International Regatta Center. This center is located in the west, 44 kilometers from the Sydney Olympic park. The risks associated with this location include the additional costs in terms of time and money involved since it is far, about one hour-drive, from the Central business district of Sydney (Office of Communities Sports and Recreation 2013). Other risk involved in this location is the raggedness of land due to the hilly lands. The climate would also be horrible for the group since most of the members are not used to tropic al climatic conditions. 2.2 The People The group selected includes 20 people but there is a risk that not the all members in the group will participate. Four people in the group are elderly, aged between 60 and 70. Two people are above 75 year but they can hardly take part due to their health problem. Four of them are children aged between 4 and 10 but one of them is suffering chronic asthma and another suffers peanut allergy. Six people are aged

Ethical Business Desicion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Business Desicion - Essay Example At other instances it might be a more complex issue that requires a lot of struggle and hard work before coming to a conclusion and making the right choice. Deciding what is "right" is most of the time not all that easy. Ethical decision-making may be elaborated further by the use of a real-world example of a 45-year-old lady named Sheila (Susca, 2006). Sheila is a dedicated and hardworking head of the human resource department of a large company. And just like any other leader, she too was faced with an ethical dilemma in the working environment. A few years back, her company considered hiring a former member of staff. This particular employee had in the past schemed against Sheila and had given her severe pain and suffering. She chose to remain quiet back then and had moved on as he left the company. According to his resume, he was fit for the position and had a number of good qualities and skills needed for expanding the business and the company. Now it was up to Sheila to decide what decision is in the best interest of everyone in the company and herself. Utilitarianism is the act of maximizing utility or happiness of all the concerned people. Act utilitarianism considers the maximum happiness to a maximum number of people. Rule utilitarianism however states that according to the rules, an action that brings about the greatest utility should be taken. The rule utilitarian abides by the truth. (Prevos, 2004) According to act utilitarian, that act... (Prevos, 2004) 3. A persuasive argument based on the theories and fact in the scenario. Sheila may ask herself a question: "Is this a good person to hire" According to the rule utilitarian, the honest answer according to Sheila would be "No". According to act utilitarian, that action must be taken which brings about maximum utility to maximum people. In this case, a "yes" to that question would be a good choice for Sheila as this is in the best interest of the company. Sheila is challenged with this situation. Based on the theories just mentioned, hiring back the former employee would be a good choice according to the act utilitarian theory. This would bring about fruitful results in the future. Sheila must consider the potential benefits that may occur, as she has been trusted with the responsibility of hiring good prospects. Considering otherwise, employees of her company might lose faith in her, which ultimately would result in a breakdown of her confidence. All consequences, therefore, must be evaluated carefully before making an ethical business decision. REFERENCES 1. Debra Susca. (2006). Making Ethical Business Decisions. The Journal of Connecticut Business and Industry Association, Vol. 84, No. 6 2. Peter Prevos. (2004). Rule and Act Utilitarianism. Ethics. Monash University,

The book Gap Creek Essay Example for Free

The book Gap Creek Essay The main objective of the book Gap Creek is to educate people about the trials and challenges of marriage. The speaker of the book, Julie Harmon tells about her story as a teenager and continues till the time she met Hank and married him. Till then, the story focuses more on their lives as a couple. The story is narrated from the perspective of the main character Julie. It started on her life as a teenager. At an early age she started to help in chores and in some of his father’s work. She lives with her father, mother Delia, baby brother Meseiner, young sister Rosie and baby sister Carolyn. Meseiner, being the only boy, was spoiled by her parents. However, it was not long when he passed away following her father being sick. Since then her mother was not able to do the things she used to and it was up to her and her sister Rosie to do the house works since her sister Carolyn is now the one being spoiled by her mom. She works hard like a man since she knows that if does not take charge and do her father’s work, nobody would get it done. Unfortunately, her father didn’t make it and passed away too. Her family was having a hard time adjusting to her father’s death but later on found a way to still keep the family intact. One day when Julie and her mother were working on a field, a man came by asking for directions. Hank Richards, who came from downtown, went to look for the Willards on the mountains since they are selling sweet taters. Later on, he and Julie took a special interest on each other, and after spending time with each other twice, Hank asked Julie to marry him. Julie agreed, not bothered by her age and current life situation. Her mother did not approve of this for she thinks that Julie is not ready for a married life. Nevertheless, her mother failed on convincing her to back out of the marriage. After Julie and Hank got married, they move to Gap Creek and her sister Rosie took over on the family obligations. The bad news is that the new couple didn’t have a place to live, so they agreed to live with Mr. Pendergast who allowed them to live with him in exchange for household services. Hank works all day and Julie does the chores. When Hank’s mother came to visit, Julie accidently caught fire while preparing dinner for Hank’s mother. When all of them were safe outside the house, Mr. Pendergast rushed inside to get is pension money. Sorry to say, Mr. Pedergast didn’t make it for the fire was to big. When the fire was cleared, they were able to retrieve Mr. Pendergast’s body, burned and lifeless. Julie and Hank, uncertain of their future, with a baby on the way didn’t know how long they could stay in the house before the heirs take it. Hank Richards, though a supporting character, is the one being talked about in this paper. Some of his actions showed defense mechanisms studied by Freud. When he was in the field asking directions from Julie’s mother, he showed displacement for he used Julie’s mother in order to get close to Julie. Displacement is defined as the redirection of an impulse to a substitute target. Another example was when Hank and Julie for fighting on Christmas. Hank who’s originally angry at Julie for constantly asking nonsense question, instead directed his anger to the flood and the storm leaving an angry and sarcastic response to Julie – â€Å"If the creek rises we won’t be able to get out of the house without a boat† – when asked what to do if the flood rises. He also showed projection when he was talking to Julie’s mother like an old man. He also illustrated this when they were in the forest and said that there are a lot of varmints in there, in which he referred the varmints to the Willards. When we say projection, we tend to deny our thoughts and feelings by attributing them to somebody else. Hank however showed isolation a lot of times. First was when he was a Julie’s house for dinner and she invited Julie to go to the spring for he said that drinking cold water is good after hot dinner, isolating the fact that Julie spilled coffee in his pants. It is possible for someone to portray to characters at once. In this case, Hank also showed reaction formation for he â€Å"believed the opposite†, meaning even after Julie spilled hot coffee on his new bought pants, he came to love her more. He also showed reaction formation when during a storm, he said that they never had floods on Christmas even if he knows that that happens because they live on a mountain before. To make it more clear, isolation is defined as stripping or isolating the emotions from a difficult memory or threatening impulse. Reaction formation, as mentioned earlier, â€Å"believing on the opposite†. Most of Hank’s attitude shows intellectualization or rationalization. Some of these were when Hank was asked by Julie about banjos. Hank, having a bad memory with his father when talk about banjos becomes rather more focused on the idea on how the banjo was made out of the skin of a cat. When he and Julie went to the spring to drink, instead of commenting on how refreshing the water was he prefers to compare the idea the water’s taste from rubies and emeralds. When Julie talks about his father using wine for rheumatism, Hank engaged on the conversation that pokeberry is better for its therapeutic on the joints and explains how the wine can warm and soothe the joint. Intellectualization is defined as analyzing instead of feeling and reacting, which Hank showed most of the time when he answers intelligent but unrelated answer. On the situation when Julie asked Hank to sing a Christmas carol, Hank answered him that he can’t remember how to sing depicts denial and at the same time, repression. He was in denial that he can’t sing and at the same unconsciously repressing the idea that he can sing for he is more focused on the flood at that time. Denial is defined as falsifying reality which is somewhat close to repression. Repression however, means not being able to remember things. Gap Creek was truly wonderful and a lot of values can be learned. The trials and challenges that Julie and Hank overcome were really admirable for with each obstacle that would come to them, both of them always want to manage to put their lives back again. Works Cited Cherry, Kendra. ‘Defense Mechanism’. About. com: Psychology. Web. 18 May 2010. http://www. psyhology. about. com

Managing Change in Small Organisations

Managing Change in Small Organisations 1.0 Introduction The phenomenon of resistance to change is the bane of all Algerian bakeries that convey ideas for change. For the same one who proposed the change, the resistances are usually synonymous with hostility, intrigue deadlines, polarization, conflict, and impatience, many problems which are likely to frustrate and undermine the success of his bakery. Basically, resistance to change is built up from many sources; internal and external. Overcoming resistance to change requires first the identification of those sources. Therefore, the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is looking for an expert or professional advice in the field to help managing change effectively. Hence, as this topic is part of the international business and management studies, the owner asked me to do some research on this matter. Ultimately, this research is divided into two major chapters, first; the literature part that discusses the main topic theoretically, it starts off by mentioning the general sources that fuels the resistance to change, then it goes on with hofdstedes point of view on resistance of change based on cultural differences and it concludes by describing the steps of managing change effectively and it concludes with. The second major chapter is the analysis of the findings from the primary data that have been collected through interviews with owners and employees from the bakery El-Bahdja and owners from other bakeries. Finally this paper is closed by recommendations for the owner of the bakery El-Bahdja on how to overcome resistance to change and how to manage change. 1.1 Research objective Many companies in North Africa particularly in Algeria are making loss and could not improve the quality of their business due to the habit of following common procedures and the high consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo and fear of new ideas. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. This fear creates resistance to change in the Algerian bakery industry Therefore, this research focuses on finding the elements that fuel the resistance to change in the Algerian bakeries and specifically the bakery â€Å"El Bahdja† that produces and delivers all kind of bread and pastries. The owner of the Algerian Bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is an old man and has been in the business since 1967. The owner is facing the closing down due to lack of managing change skills in the bakery and the high resistance from the employees to change. The main objective of this research is to provide the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† with guidance to effectively managing change when it is in the process of the implementation. 1.2 Research questions To provide guidance on how to manage changes for the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† it is essential first to find answers to the following research questions. â€Å"Does Algerian culture welcome changes† â€Å"Why most Algerian employers and employees resist changing?† â€Å"What are the external factors that prevent Algerian employers and employees from changing?† â€Å"How do Algerian employers and employees manage change when applying the new ideas?† 1.3 Methodology This study is based on both primary and secondary data that help in understanding the causes of resistance to change from both the Algerian owners and their employees: Secondary data collection: this method studies the previous cases that have already been written about and find the similarities between the cases. This method is very helpful in collection data from different cultures that share the same fact which is fear of new ideas that have direct effect on their traditional way of doing business. Therefore, the resources of the secondary data collection are mainly from books, journals, and internet. Primary data: a very crucial data and plays a big role in making final decision. The primary data which is better called direct communication or field research, on other word; facing people and have them interviewed. The objective of this method is to collect factual data that helps in answering the research questions of this study and this after interviewing people from the same field on the main topic. Reflection on the research methodology: the methods followed for collecting data are linked together. The secondary data helps understand the theoretical concepts that have been concluded from previous cases and compare them to the new facts. In this method; the 7s model of McKinsey, the theory versus the real world by Jeff Hiatt and Arab identity by Halim Barakat are used as starting point for facing organizational change in Algeria. The primary data is basically the tangible evidence for decision makers, observing and interviewing people are the major tools to be used in collecting data for this study. Reliability and validity of data are the essential axes of this method. Therefore, the interviews take place specifically with owners of bakeries and their employees in Algeria and in the Netherlands for comparison to see whether culture differences is a matter for resisting changing. 2.1 Why managing change? â€Å"Change is believed to happen Changes are fact and every person is subject to these changes. People faces changes regularly in their life or in their workplace, part of them deal with these changes successfully and the other part fail to adjust to change. In the life, for instance a family with children; parents believe that children are subject to changes and may change to better or to the opposite that parents plan for them, however these changes would not affect the family as a whole but the person himself. Nevertheless, in a business changes there are two ways and no third, successfully manage change or failure. In organization whether you are an executive, supervisor, coach, consultant, project team leader or manager of any type where your job is to manage people, you likely have experienced resistance to change from employees. However you may not recognize the role that you can play in preventing that resistance and leading change. Many managers do not make this connection until they have personally experience failure in an important change project (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) When asking people after this failure what would you do differently if you had the chance to do it again? The common response would be using an effective and planned change management program. The question to be risen here is whether this program is sufficient enough to prevent resistance to change from happening in the first place and deal with people emotions and pursue them to change. The real barrier to success is a lack of change management and not management program. Some people do not lack of vision or an understanding of the marketplace but they feel simply short when managing the people side of change. In other words, things did not go exactly as planned. The unexpected happened. Not managing the people side of change impacts the success and introduces risk into the business (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) Change management skills have shown that is not only mitigates these business risks, but also can avoid them entirely. Business leaders have change management skills to not only manage resistance once it appears, but to prevent it from occurring. 2.2 Change and the manager â€Å"Change needs to be portrayed in positive terms, a necessity to ensure long term survival (Robert A Poton, James McCalman, 2008)† Organizations and their managers must recognize change, in itself, is not necessarily a problem. The problem more often than not is a less than competent management o the change situation (Rob Paton, James McCalman, 2008). Managers must realize that one cannot separate strategic change management from organizational strategy; both must work in tandem. The importance of the human side of change cannot be underestimated, one must identify and manage the potential sources and causes of potential resistance and ensure that motivators are built into new processes and structures (Forlaron, 2005). i) Change competency: â€Å"Change is part of the businesss philosophy† â€Å"The successful organization is the organization that understand change will occur, expect it and support the change during implementation (Jeff Hiat, 2003) An organization that faces constant demands to change and uses effective management over and over with each new initiative may experience a fundamental shift in its operations and the behavior of its employees. Sponsors begin to repeat activities that made last change successful. Managers develop skills to support employees through the change. Employees see part of their job as navigating these new changes. Each level in the organization will have internalized its role in change and developed the skills and knowledge necessary to react to constant change. The organization has become ready and able to embrace change; it has developed change competency (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003). However, building change competency is not paved with flowers; it requires a belief that change is now an ever-present feature of organizational life (Burnes, 2004). Change competency is similar to change management, but there are several key distinction. First, change management is ultimately the use of specific activities like communication, coaching, sponsorship and training; to realize successful outcomes with business changes. Change competency is not a specific activity; it is an organizations ability to react to change over and over again Second, while change management can be taught and learned, change competency requires a fundamental shift in culture and values. It must be simply part of day-to-day operations and cannot be simply demonstrated in training or instructional material. Third, change competency must penetrate every facet and level of the organization. This distinction especially relates to the front-line employee. An organization may have expertise in change management in its sponsors, consultants and change management. However, the front-line employees are the ones whose day-to-day activities are changing. To build change competency into the organization, you can take the first step by ensuring that solid change management practices are applied consistently for each change initiative. The second step is to begin building the following competencies into your organization (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003) ii) Change and Human Resource Technology has played a major role in ensuring that a coherent business approach and managerial performance can be maintained from a reduce resource base. The key success in such moves has been the mobilization of the human resource (Pettigrew and Whipp, 1993). 2.3 Managing resistance once it appears â€Å"Believing in changes to be happening is a key principle to reducing resistance to change† People are often afraid of new ideas. They may feel threatened by new ideas and fear that they will not be able to cope with a change in working patterns that is demanded of them or that they will not understand how to use a new technology; example of that many older people are afraid of materials that they are not able to handle and may make them calling the technician every moment (Tony proctor 2005). The fear of new ideas is a natural feeling; people live with this fear and it not a bad manner. Fear of new ideas becomes negative when is surrounded with sources that increase the tension of fear that leads to high level of resistance and consequently aggravation of the failure of any project. Change more often than not produces suspicions and resistance. To many it implies a move from familiar ways-mastered over long periods of time- to an unknown and threatening environment. In order to deal effectively with resistance to change, people must understand its causes (Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer, 1988). Lawrence and Greiner 1970, identify the main sources that feed the resistance of change. Fear of the unknown, lack of information, threats of status, fear of failure, and lack of perceived benefits. Regarding the first group of sources of resistance, change starts with the perception of its need, so a wrong initial perception is the first barrier to change. This first group is called ‘distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities (Pardo del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes). It includes: (a) Inability of the company to look into the future with clarity (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995); (b) Denial or refusal to accept any information that is not expected or desired (Barr et al., 1992; Rumelt, 1995; Starbuck et al., 1978); (c) Perpetuation of ideas, meaning the tendency to go on with the present thoughts although the situation has changed (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995; Zeffane, 1996); (d) Implicit assumptions, which are not discussed due to its implicit character and therefore distort reality (Starbuck, Greve and Hedberg, 1978); (e) Communication barriers, that leads to information distortion or misinterpretations (Hutt et al., 1995); (f) Organizational silence, which limits the information flow with individuals who do not express their thoughts, meaning that decisions are made without all the necessary information (Morrison and Milliken, 2000; Nemeth, 1997). The second main group of sources of resistance deals with a low motivation for change. Five fundamental sources: (a) Direct costs of change (Rumelt, 1995); (b) cannibalization costs, that is to say, change that brings success to a product but at the same time brings losses to others, so it requires some sort of sacrifice (Rumelt, 1995); (c) Cross subsidy comforts, because the need for a change is compensated through the high rents obtained without change with another different factor, so that there is no real motivation for change (Rumelt, 1995); (d) Past failures, which leave a pessimistic image for future changes (Lorenzo, 2000); and (e) Different interests among employees and management, or lack of motivation of employees who value change results less than managers value them (Waddell and Sohal, 1998). The lack of a creative response is the third set of sources of resistance. There are three main reasons that diminish the creativeness in the search for appropriate change strategies: (a) Fast and complex environmental changes, which do not allow a proper situation analysis (Ansoff, 1990; Rumelt, 1995); b) Reactive mind-set, resignation, or tendency to believe that obstacles are inevitable (Rumelt, 1995); and (c) Inadequate strategic vision or lack of clear commitment of top management to changes (Rumelt, 1995; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Taking into consideration all those sources of resistance mentioned above can reverse the situation into preventing resistance in the first place. Cultural web: Cultures differ from each other in their resistance to change. The strongest resistance to change characterizes of high power distance, low individualism, and high uncertainty avoidance. Among these cultures are most Latin American countries, Portugal and Korea, followed by Japan, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Arab countries. Cultures with low levels of resistance to change are low on power distance, high on individualism, and low on uncertainty avoidance. This category includes the Anglo countries, Nordic countries, and the Netherlands, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa (Harzig and Hofdestede, 1996 2.4 Making sense of change management â€Å"7S model of McKinsey†: The Mckinsey 7S model defines the seven components that encompass an organization and that by changing any one of the S components there is impact on the other S components. This model is such a conceptual aid by acting as good checklist for those setting out to make organizational change, laying out which parts of the system need to adapt, and the effects of these changes in other parts of the system (Mike Green, 2007) The 7s categories are: Staff important categories of people within the organization, the mix, the diversity, retention, the development and the maximizing of their potential. This component helps to determine how committed resources to make it all work? Skills distinctive capabilities, knowledge and experience of key people. The role of this component is to identify how ready and competent are the staff based on where the organization is heading? Systems processes, IT systems, HR systems, knowledge management systems. In other words, what are the suitable systems to be used to support the transition? Style management style and culture. How we are getting from here to there? Shared values guiding principles that make the organization what it is. Strategy organizational goals and plan, use of resources. Briefly is where are we transitioning to? Structure the organization chart and how roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are distributed in furtherance of the strategy. â€Å"The Mckinsey 7S model provides an effective framework for analyzing an organization and its activities that determine whether an organization is strong enough to adjust to any changes. Furthermore, this model helps in avoiding some of the sources that feed resistance to change in the first place† 2.5 Five steps for effective change process (Thomas and Christopher, 2008) Step 1:Motivating change: â€Å"Moving from the known to the unknown† Organizational change involves moving from the known to the unknown. The future is uncertain and may adversely affect peoples competencies, worth, and coping abilities. Organization members generally do not support change unless compelling reasons convince them to do so. A key issue in planning for action is how to motivate commitment to organizational change. This requires attention to two related tasks: creating readiness for change and overcoming resistance to change. Creating Readiness for change: peoples readiness for change depends on creating a felt need for change. This involves making people so dissatisfied with the status quo that they are motivated to try new work processes, technologies, or ways of behaving. Generally people and organization need to experience deep levels of hurt before they will seriously undertake meaningful change. The following three methods can help generate sufficient dissatisfaction to produce change: Sensitize organizations to pressures for change. Modern organizations face unprecedented environmental pressures to change themselves, including heavy foreign competition, rapidly changing technology, and the draw of global markets. Internal pressures to change include new leadership, poor product quality, high production costs, and excessive employee absenteeism and turnover. Organizations can make themselves more sensitive to pressures for change by encouraging leadership to surround themselves with devils advocate; for instance by cultivating external networks that comprise people or organizations with different perspectives and views; by visiting other organizations to gain exposure to new ideas and methods. Reveal discrepancies between current and desired states. Significant discrepancies between actual and ideal states can motivate organization members to initiate corrective changes, particularly when members are committed to achieving those ideas. A major diagnosis is to provide members with feedback about current organizational functioning so that the information can be compared with goals or desired future states. Convey credible positive expectations for the change. When organization members expect success, they are likely to develop greater commitment to the change process and to direct more energy into the constructive behaviors needed to implement it. The key success to achieving these positive effects if to communicate realistic, positive expectations about the organizational changes*. Research suggests that information about why the change is occurring, how it will benefit the organization, and how people will be involved in the design and implementation of the change was most helpful.* Overcoming Resistance to change: At the organization level, resistance to change can come from three sources. Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common procedures and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo. Political resistance can arise when organizational changes threaten powerful stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personnel, or call into question the past decisions of leaders. Finally, culture resistance takes the form of systems and procedures that reinforce the status quo, promoting conformity to existing values, norms, and assumptions about how things should operate. Empathy and support. A first step in overcoming resistance is learning how people are experiencing change. This strategy identifies people who are having trouble accepting the changes, the nature of their resistance, and possible ways to overcome it. Communication. People resist change when they are uncertain about its consequences. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. Effective communication about changes and their likely results can reduce this speculation and allay unfounded fears. Participation and innovation. Involvement in planning the change increases the likelihood that members interests and needs will be accounted for during the intervention. Consequently, participants will be committed to implementing the changes. They also can identify pitfalls and barriers to implementations. STEP 2: CREATING A VISION The second activity in leading and managing change involves creating a vision of what members want the organization to look like or become. Generally, a vision describes the core values and purpose that guide the organization as well as an envisioned future toward which change is directed. It provides a valued direction for designing, implementing, and assessing organizational changes. The vision also can energize commitment to change by providing members with a common goal and a compelling rationale for why change is necessary and worth the effort. Research suggests that compelling visions are composed of two parts: (1) a relatively stable core ideology that describes the organizations core values and purpose, and (2) an envisioned future with bold goals and a vivid description of the desired future state that reflects the specific change under consideration Step 3: DEVELOPING POLITICAL SUPPORT Managing the political dynamics of change includes the following activities: Assessing Change Agent Power. Greiner and Schein 1988, indentified three key sources of personal power in organizations (in addition to ones formal position); knowledge, personality, and others support. Knowledge bases of power include having expertise that is valued by others and controlling important information. For example, leaders in organizational units undergoing change can call on their informal networks for resources and support, and encourage subordinates to exercise power in support of the change. Identifying Key Stakeholders. This can start with simple question. †who stands to gain or to lose from the changes? Once stakeholders are identified, creating a map of their influence may be useful. Consequently, provides change agents with information about which people groups need to be influenced to accept and support the changes. Influencing Stakeholders. There are three major strategies for using power to influence others in organization development; First strategy is playing straight; this strategy involves determining of particular stakeholders and presenting information about how the changes can benefit them. The success of this strategy relies heavily on the change agents knowledge base. He or she must have the expertise and information to persuade stakeholders that the changes are a logical way to meet their needs. The second strategy is using social network; in this strategy change agents attempt to use their social relationships to gain support for changes. This social networking might include, for example, meeting with other powerful groups and forming alliances to support specific changes. This strategy also might include using informal contacts to discover key roadblocks to change and to gain access to major decision makers who need to sanction the changes. The third strategy is going around the formal system; the change agents charisma, reputations, or professional credibility lend legitimacy to going around the system and can reduce the likelihood of negative reprisals. For example, managers with reputations as winners often can bend the rules to implement organizational changes. However, this power strategy is relatively easy to abuse. Therefore; the OD practitioners should consider carefully the ethical issues and possible unintended consequences of circumventing formal policies and practices. Step 4: MANAGING THE TRANSITION Implementing organizational change involves moving from the existing organization state to the desired future state. There are three major activities and structure to facilitate organizational transition: activity planning, commitment planning, and change-management structures. Activity Planning This involves making a road map for change, citing specific activities and events that must occur if the transition is to be successful. Activity planning should clearly identify, temporally orient, and integrate discrete change tasks and should link these tasks to the organizations change goals and priorities. Commitment planning this activity involves identifying key people and groups whose commitment is needed for change to occur and formulating a strategy for gaining their support. Change-Management Structures Because organizational transitions tend to be ambiguous and to need direction, special structures for managing the change process need to be created. These management structures should include people who have the power to mobilize resources to promote change, the respect of the existing leadership and change advocates, and the interpersonal and political skills to guide the change process. Step 5: SUSTAINING MOMENTUM Once organization changes are under way, explicit attention must be directed to sustaining energy and commitment for implementing them. A strong tendency exists always among organization members to return to old behaviors and well-known processes unless they receive sustained support and reinforcement for carrying the changes through to completion. The following five activities can help to sustain momentum for carrying change through to completion: Providing resources for change. Additional financial and human resources are required for implementing organization change, particularly if the organization continues day-to-day operations while trying to change itself. Extra sources are always helpful to provide a buffer as performance drops during the transition period. Building a support system for change agents. Organization change can be difficult and filled with tension, not only for participants but for change agents as well. A support system typically consists of a network of people with whom the change agent has close personal relationships people who can give emotional support, serve as sounding board for ideas and problems, and challenge untested assumptions. Developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviors, and staying the course. In organizations people generally do things that bring them rewards. Consequently, one of the most effective ways to sustain momentum for change is to reinforce the kinds of behaviors needed to implement the changes through for instance informal recognition, encouragement, and praise. Staying the course. If the organization changes again too quickly or abandons the changes before it is fully implemented, the desired results may never materialize. There are two primary reasons that managers do not keep a steady focus on change implementation. First, many managers fail to anticipate the decline in performance, productivity, or satisfaction as change is implemented. Organization members need time to practice, develop, and learn new behaviors; they do not abandon old ways of doing things and adopt a new set of behaviors overnight. Second, many managers do not keep focused on a change because they want to implement the next big idea that comes along. Successful organizational change requires persistent leadership that does not waver unnecessarily. References Books and articles Ansoff, I.H. (1990), â€Å"Implanting Strategic Management† Prentice Hall International, Ltd. London Cynthia D. Scott, Dennis T. Jaffe. (2003), â€Å"Managing change at work: leading people through organizational transitions†, edit 3 Greiner, L.E. (1972), â€Å"Evolution and revolution as organizations grow† Harvard Business Review, pp. 37-46. Greiner, L E and Schein, V E. (1988), â€Å"Power and Organization Development: Mobilizing power to change†, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Halim Barakat. (1993), â€Å"The Arab world: society, culture, and state† Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, Hutt, M.D., Walker, B.A. and Frankwick, G.L. (1995) â€Å"Hurdle the Cross-Functional Barriers to Strategic Change† Sloan Management Review, 36 (3), pp. 22-30. Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer. (1988), â€Å"Handbook on human services administration† Public Administration and Public Policy/34, pp. 305 Krà ¼ger, W. (1996), â€Å"Implementation: The Core Task of Change Management† CEMS Business Review, 1, pp. 77-96. Lawrence, P.R. (1954), â€Å"How to Deal with Resistance to Change† Harvard Business Review, (May/June), pp. 49-57. Mike Green. (2007), â€Å"Change management masterclass: a step by step guide to successful change†. Tony Proctor. (2005), â€Å"Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making†. Edition 2, pp. 241 Pardo Del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes â€Å"RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL†, p. 5-7 Rob Paton, James McCalman. (2008), â€Å"Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation†, edition 3, pp. 39-54 Rumelt, R.P. (1995), â€Å"Inertia and transformation†, in Montgomery, C.A., Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Massachusetts, pp. 101-132. Rusell Tobin. (1999), â€Å"Overcoming resistance to change†, Second Edition, pp. 142 Starbuck, W., Greve, A. and Hedberg, B.L.T. (1978) â€Å"Responding to crisis†, Journal of Business Administration, 9 (2), pp. 111-137. Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley. (2008), â€Å"Organization development change†, Edition 9, pp. 165-182 Waddell, D. and Sohal, A.S. (1998), â€Å"Resistance: a constructive tool for change management†, Management Decision, 36 (8), pp. 543-548. Zeffane, R. (1996), â€Å"Dynamics of strategic change: critical issues in fostering positive organizational change†, Leadership Organization Development Journal, 17, pp. 36-43. Websites: http://www.explorehr.org/articles/Orga Managing Change in Small Organisations Managing Change in Small Organisations 1.0 Introduction The phenomenon of resistance to change is the bane of all Algerian bakeries that convey ideas for change. For the same one who proposed the change, the resistances are usually synonymous with hostility, intrigue deadlines, polarization, conflict, and impatience, many problems which are likely to frustrate and undermine the success of his bakery. Basically, resistance to change is built up from many sources; internal and external. Overcoming resistance to change requires first the identification of those sources. Therefore, the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is looking for an expert or professional advice in the field to help managing change effectively. Hence, as this topic is part of the international business and management studies, the owner asked me to do some research on this matter. Ultimately, this research is divided into two major chapters, first; the literature part that discusses the main topic theoretically, it starts off by mentioning the general sources that fuels the resistance to change, then it goes on with hofdstedes point of view on resistance of change based on cultural differences and it concludes by describing the steps of managing change effectively and it concludes with. The second major chapter is the analysis of the findings from the primary data that have been collected through interviews with owners and employees from the bakery El-Bahdja and owners from other bakeries. Finally this paper is closed by recommendations for the owner of the bakery El-Bahdja on how to overcome resistance to change and how to manage change. 1.1 Research objective Many companies in North Africa particularly in Algeria are making loss and could not improve the quality of their business due to the habit of following common procedures and the high consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo and fear of new ideas. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. This fear creates resistance to change in the Algerian bakery industry Therefore, this research focuses on finding the elements that fuel the resistance to change in the Algerian bakeries and specifically the bakery â€Å"El Bahdja† that produces and delivers all kind of bread and pastries. The owner of the Algerian Bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is an old man and has been in the business since 1967. The owner is facing the closing down due to lack of managing change skills in the bakery and the high resistance from the employees to change. The main objective of this research is to provide the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† with guidance to effectively managing change when it is in the process of the implementation. 1.2 Research questions To provide guidance on how to manage changes for the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† it is essential first to find answers to the following research questions. â€Å"Does Algerian culture welcome changes† â€Å"Why most Algerian employers and employees resist changing?† â€Å"What are the external factors that prevent Algerian employers and employees from changing?† â€Å"How do Algerian employers and employees manage change when applying the new ideas?† 1.3 Methodology This study is based on both primary and secondary data that help in understanding the causes of resistance to change from both the Algerian owners and their employees: Secondary data collection: this method studies the previous cases that have already been written about and find the similarities between the cases. This method is very helpful in collection data from different cultures that share the same fact which is fear of new ideas that have direct effect on their traditional way of doing business. Therefore, the resources of the secondary data collection are mainly from books, journals, and internet. Primary data: a very crucial data and plays a big role in making final decision. The primary data which is better called direct communication or field research, on other word; facing people and have them interviewed. The objective of this method is to collect factual data that helps in answering the research questions of this study and this after interviewing people from the same field on the main topic. Reflection on the research methodology: the methods followed for collecting data are linked together. The secondary data helps understand the theoretical concepts that have been concluded from previous cases and compare them to the new facts. In this method; the 7s model of McKinsey, the theory versus the real world by Jeff Hiatt and Arab identity by Halim Barakat are used as starting point for facing organizational change in Algeria. The primary data is basically the tangible evidence for decision makers, observing and interviewing people are the major tools to be used in collecting data for this study. Reliability and validity of data are the essential axes of this method. Therefore, the interviews take place specifically with owners of bakeries and their employees in Algeria and in the Netherlands for comparison to see whether culture differences is a matter for resisting changing. 2.1 Why managing change? â€Å"Change is believed to happen Changes are fact and every person is subject to these changes. People faces changes regularly in their life or in their workplace, part of them deal with these changes successfully and the other part fail to adjust to change. In the life, for instance a family with children; parents believe that children are subject to changes and may change to better or to the opposite that parents plan for them, however these changes would not affect the family as a whole but the person himself. Nevertheless, in a business changes there are two ways and no third, successfully manage change or failure. In organization whether you are an executive, supervisor, coach, consultant, project team leader or manager of any type where your job is to manage people, you likely have experienced resistance to change from employees. However you may not recognize the role that you can play in preventing that resistance and leading change. Many managers do not make this connection until they have personally experience failure in an important change project (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) When asking people after this failure what would you do differently if you had the chance to do it again? The common response would be using an effective and planned change management program. The question to be risen here is whether this program is sufficient enough to prevent resistance to change from happening in the first place and deal with people emotions and pursue them to change. The real barrier to success is a lack of change management and not management program. Some people do not lack of vision or an understanding of the marketplace but they feel simply short when managing the people side of change. In other words, things did not go exactly as planned. The unexpected happened. Not managing the people side of change impacts the success and introduces risk into the business (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) Change management skills have shown that is not only mitigates these business risks, but also can avoid them entirely. Business leaders have change management skills to not only manage resistance once it appears, but to prevent it from occurring. 2.2 Change and the manager â€Å"Change needs to be portrayed in positive terms, a necessity to ensure long term survival (Robert A Poton, James McCalman, 2008)† Organizations and their managers must recognize change, in itself, is not necessarily a problem. The problem more often than not is a less than competent management o the change situation (Rob Paton, James McCalman, 2008). Managers must realize that one cannot separate strategic change management from organizational strategy; both must work in tandem. The importance of the human side of change cannot be underestimated, one must identify and manage the potential sources and causes of potential resistance and ensure that motivators are built into new processes and structures (Forlaron, 2005). i) Change competency: â€Å"Change is part of the businesss philosophy† â€Å"The successful organization is the organization that understand change will occur, expect it and support the change during implementation (Jeff Hiat, 2003) An organization that faces constant demands to change and uses effective management over and over with each new initiative may experience a fundamental shift in its operations and the behavior of its employees. Sponsors begin to repeat activities that made last change successful. Managers develop skills to support employees through the change. Employees see part of their job as navigating these new changes. Each level in the organization will have internalized its role in change and developed the skills and knowledge necessary to react to constant change. The organization has become ready and able to embrace change; it has developed change competency (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003). However, building change competency is not paved with flowers; it requires a belief that change is now an ever-present feature of organizational life (Burnes, 2004). Change competency is similar to change management, but there are several key distinction. First, change management is ultimately the use of specific activities like communication, coaching, sponsorship and training; to realize successful outcomes with business changes. Change competency is not a specific activity; it is an organizations ability to react to change over and over again Second, while change management can be taught and learned, change competency requires a fundamental shift in culture and values. It must be simply part of day-to-day operations and cannot be simply demonstrated in training or instructional material. Third, change competency must penetrate every facet and level of the organization. This distinction especially relates to the front-line employee. An organization may have expertise in change management in its sponsors, consultants and change management. However, the front-line employees are the ones whose day-to-day activities are changing. To build change competency into the organization, you can take the first step by ensuring that solid change management practices are applied consistently for each change initiative. The second step is to begin building the following competencies into your organization (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003) ii) Change and Human Resource Technology has played a major role in ensuring that a coherent business approach and managerial performance can be maintained from a reduce resource base. The key success in such moves has been the mobilization of the human resource (Pettigrew and Whipp, 1993). 2.3 Managing resistance once it appears â€Å"Believing in changes to be happening is a key principle to reducing resistance to change† People are often afraid of new ideas. They may feel threatened by new ideas and fear that they will not be able to cope with a change in working patterns that is demanded of them or that they will not understand how to use a new technology; example of that many older people are afraid of materials that they are not able to handle and may make them calling the technician every moment (Tony proctor 2005). The fear of new ideas is a natural feeling; people live with this fear and it not a bad manner. Fear of new ideas becomes negative when is surrounded with sources that increase the tension of fear that leads to high level of resistance and consequently aggravation of the failure of any project. Change more often than not produces suspicions and resistance. To many it implies a move from familiar ways-mastered over long periods of time- to an unknown and threatening environment. In order to deal effectively with resistance to change, people must understand its causes (Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer, 1988). Lawrence and Greiner 1970, identify the main sources that feed the resistance of change. Fear of the unknown, lack of information, threats of status, fear of failure, and lack of perceived benefits. Regarding the first group of sources of resistance, change starts with the perception of its need, so a wrong initial perception is the first barrier to change. This first group is called ‘distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities (Pardo del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes). It includes: (a) Inability of the company to look into the future with clarity (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995); (b) Denial or refusal to accept any information that is not expected or desired (Barr et al., 1992; Rumelt, 1995; Starbuck et al., 1978); (c) Perpetuation of ideas, meaning the tendency to go on with the present thoughts although the situation has changed (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995; Zeffane, 1996); (d) Implicit assumptions, which are not discussed due to its implicit character and therefore distort reality (Starbuck, Greve and Hedberg, 1978); (e) Communication barriers, that leads to information distortion or misinterpretations (Hutt et al., 1995); (f) Organizational silence, which limits the information flow with individuals who do not express their thoughts, meaning that decisions are made without all the necessary information (Morrison and Milliken, 2000; Nemeth, 1997). The second main group of sources of resistance deals with a low motivation for change. Five fundamental sources: (a) Direct costs of change (Rumelt, 1995); (b) cannibalization costs, that is to say, change that brings success to a product but at the same time brings losses to others, so it requires some sort of sacrifice (Rumelt, 1995); (c) Cross subsidy comforts, because the need for a change is compensated through the high rents obtained without change with another different factor, so that there is no real motivation for change (Rumelt, 1995); (d) Past failures, which leave a pessimistic image for future changes (Lorenzo, 2000); and (e) Different interests among employees and management, or lack of motivation of employees who value change results less than managers value them (Waddell and Sohal, 1998). The lack of a creative response is the third set of sources of resistance. There are three main reasons that diminish the creativeness in the search for appropriate change strategies: (a) Fast and complex environmental changes, which do not allow a proper situation analysis (Ansoff, 1990; Rumelt, 1995); b) Reactive mind-set, resignation, or tendency to believe that obstacles are inevitable (Rumelt, 1995); and (c) Inadequate strategic vision or lack of clear commitment of top management to changes (Rumelt, 1995; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Taking into consideration all those sources of resistance mentioned above can reverse the situation into preventing resistance in the first place. Cultural web: Cultures differ from each other in their resistance to change. The strongest resistance to change characterizes of high power distance, low individualism, and high uncertainty avoidance. Among these cultures are most Latin American countries, Portugal and Korea, followed by Japan, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Arab countries. Cultures with low levels of resistance to change are low on power distance, high on individualism, and low on uncertainty avoidance. This category includes the Anglo countries, Nordic countries, and the Netherlands, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa (Harzig and Hofdestede, 1996 2.4 Making sense of change management â€Å"7S model of McKinsey†: The Mckinsey 7S model defines the seven components that encompass an organization and that by changing any one of the S components there is impact on the other S components. This model is such a conceptual aid by acting as good checklist for those setting out to make organizational change, laying out which parts of the system need to adapt, and the effects of these changes in other parts of the system (Mike Green, 2007) The 7s categories are: Staff important categories of people within the organization, the mix, the diversity, retention, the development and the maximizing of their potential. This component helps to determine how committed resources to make it all work? Skills distinctive capabilities, knowledge and experience of key people. The role of this component is to identify how ready and competent are the staff based on where the organization is heading? Systems processes, IT systems, HR systems, knowledge management systems. In other words, what are the suitable systems to be used to support the transition? Style management style and culture. How we are getting from here to there? Shared values guiding principles that make the organization what it is. Strategy organizational goals and plan, use of resources. Briefly is where are we transitioning to? Structure the organization chart and how roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are distributed in furtherance of the strategy. â€Å"The Mckinsey 7S model provides an effective framework for analyzing an organization and its activities that determine whether an organization is strong enough to adjust to any changes. Furthermore, this model helps in avoiding some of the sources that feed resistance to change in the first place† 2.5 Five steps for effective change process (Thomas and Christopher, 2008) Step 1:Motivating change: â€Å"Moving from the known to the unknown† Organizational change involves moving from the known to the unknown. The future is uncertain and may adversely affect peoples competencies, worth, and coping abilities. Organization members generally do not support change unless compelling reasons convince them to do so. A key issue in planning for action is how to motivate commitment to organizational change. This requires attention to two related tasks: creating readiness for change and overcoming resistance to change. Creating Readiness for change: peoples readiness for change depends on creating a felt need for change. This involves making people so dissatisfied with the status quo that they are motivated to try new work processes, technologies, or ways of behaving. Generally people and organization need to experience deep levels of hurt before they will seriously undertake meaningful change. The following three methods can help generate sufficient dissatisfaction to produce change: Sensitize organizations to pressures for change. Modern organizations face unprecedented environmental pressures to change themselves, including heavy foreign competition, rapidly changing technology, and the draw of global markets. Internal pressures to change include new leadership, poor product quality, high production costs, and excessive employee absenteeism and turnover. Organizations can make themselves more sensitive to pressures for change by encouraging leadership to surround themselves with devils advocate; for instance by cultivating external networks that comprise people or organizations with different perspectives and views; by visiting other organizations to gain exposure to new ideas and methods. Reveal discrepancies between current and desired states. Significant discrepancies between actual and ideal states can motivate organization members to initiate corrective changes, particularly when members are committed to achieving those ideas. A major diagnosis is to provide members with feedback about current organizational functioning so that the information can be compared with goals or desired future states. Convey credible positive expectations for the change. When organization members expect success, they are likely to develop greater commitment to the change process and to direct more energy into the constructive behaviors needed to implement it. The key success to achieving these positive effects if to communicate realistic, positive expectations about the organizational changes*. Research suggests that information about why the change is occurring, how it will benefit the organization, and how people will be involved in the design and implementation of the change was most helpful.* Overcoming Resistance to change: At the organization level, resistance to change can come from three sources. Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common procedures and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo. Political resistance can arise when organizational changes threaten powerful stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personnel, or call into question the past decisions of leaders. Finally, culture resistance takes the form of systems and procedures that reinforce the status quo, promoting conformity to existing values, norms, and assumptions about how things should operate. Empathy and support. A first step in overcoming resistance is learning how people are experiencing change. This strategy identifies people who are having trouble accepting the changes, the nature of their resistance, and possible ways to overcome it. Communication. People resist change when they are uncertain about its consequences. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. Effective communication about changes and their likely results can reduce this speculation and allay unfounded fears. Participation and innovation. Involvement in planning the change increases the likelihood that members interests and needs will be accounted for during the intervention. Consequently, participants will be committed to implementing the changes. They also can identify pitfalls and barriers to implementations. STEP 2: CREATING A VISION The second activity in leading and managing change involves creating a vision of what members want the organization to look like or become. Generally, a vision describes the core values and purpose that guide the organization as well as an envisioned future toward which change is directed. It provides a valued direction for designing, implementing, and assessing organizational changes. The vision also can energize commitment to change by providing members with a common goal and a compelling rationale for why change is necessary and worth the effort. Research suggests that compelling visions are composed of two parts: (1) a relatively stable core ideology that describes the organizations core values and purpose, and (2) an envisioned future with bold goals and a vivid description of the desired future state that reflects the specific change under consideration Step 3: DEVELOPING POLITICAL SUPPORT Managing the political dynamics of change includes the following activities: Assessing Change Agent Power. Greiner and Schein 1988, indentified three key sources of personal power in organizations (in addition to ones formal position); knowledge, personality, and others support. Knowledge bases of power include having expertise that is valued by others and controlling important information. For example, leaders in organizational units undergoing change can call on their informal networks for resources and support, and encourage subordinates to exercise power in support of the change. Identifying Key Stakeholders. This can start with simple question. †who stands to gain or to lose from the changes? Once stakeholders are identified, creating a map of their influence may be useful. Consequently, provides change agents with information about which people groups need to be influenced to accept and support the changes. Influencing Stakeholders. There are three major strategies for using power to influence others in organization development; First strategy is playing straight; this strategy involves determining of particular stakeholders and presenting information about how the changes can benefit them. The success of this strategy relies heavily on the change agents knowledge base. He or she must have the expertise and information to persuade stakeholders that the changes are a logical way to meet their needs. The second strategy is using social network; in this strategy change agents attempt to use their social relationships to gain support for changes. This social networking might include, for example, meeting with other powerful groups and forming alliances to support specific changes. This strategy also might include using informal contacts to discover key roadblocks to change and to gain access to major decision makers who need to sanction the changes. The third strategy is going around the formal system; the change agents charisma, reputations, or professional credibility lend legitimacy to going around the system and can reduce the likelihood of negative reprisals. For example, managers with reputations as winners often can bend the rules to implement organizational changes. However, this power strategy is relatively easy to abuse. Therefore; the OD practitioners should consider carefully the ethical issues and possible unintended consequences of circumventing formal policies and practices. Step 4: MANAGING THE TRANSITION Implementing organizational change involves moving from the existing organization state to the desired future state. There are three major activities and structure to facilitate organizational transition: activity planning, commitment planning, and change-management structures. Activity Planning This involves making a road map for change, citing specific activities and events that must occur if the transition is to be successful. Activity planning should clearly identify, temporally orient, and integrate discrete change tasks and should link these tasks to the organizations change goals and priorities. Commitment planning this activity involves identifying key people and groups whose commitment is needed for change to occur and formulating a strategy for gaining their support. Change-Management Structures Because organizational transitions tend to be ambiguous and to need direction, special structures for managing the change process need to be created. These management structures should include people who have the power to mobilize resources to promote change, the respect of the existing leadership and change advocates, and the interpersonal and political skills to guide the change process. Step 5: SUSTAINING MOMENTUM Once organization changes are under way, explicit attention must be directed to sustaining energy and commitment for implementing them. A strong tendency exists always among organization members to return to old behaviors and well-known processes unless they receive sustained support and reinforcement for carrying the changes through to completion. The following five activities can help to sustain momentum for carrying change through to completion: Providing resources for change. Additional financial and human resources are required for implementing organization change, particularly if the organization continues day-to-day operations while trying to change itself. Extra sources are always helpful to provide a buffer as performance drops during the transition period. Building a support system for change agents. Organization change can be difficult and filled with tension, not only for participants but for change agents as well. A support system typically consists of a network of people with whom the change agent has close personal relationships people who can give emotional support, serve as sounding board for ideas and problems, and challenge untested assumptions. Developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviors, and staying the course. In organizations people generally do things that bring them rewards. Consequently, one of the most effective ways to sustain momentum for change is to reinforce the kinds of behaviors needed to implement the changes through for instance informal recognition, encouragement, and praise. Staying the course. If the organization changes again too quickly or abandons the changes before it is fully implemented, the desired results may never materialize. There are two primary reasons that managers do not keep a steady focus on change implementation. First, many managers fail to anticipate the decline in performance, productivity, or satisfaction as change is implemented. Organization members need time to practice, develop, and learn new behaviors; they do not abandon old ways of doing things and adopt a new set of behaviors overnight. Second, many managers do not keep focused on a change because they want to implement the next big idea that comes along. Successful organizational change requires persistent leadership that does not waver unnecessarily. References Books and articles Ansoff, I.H. (1990), â€Å"Implanting Strategic Management† Prentice Hall International, Ltd. London Cynthia D. Scott, Dennis T. Jaffe. (2003), â€Å"Managing change at work: leading people through organizational transitions†, edit 3 Greiner, L.E. (1972), â€Å"Evolution and revolution as organizations grow† Harvard Business Review, pp. 37-46. Greiner, L E and Schein, V E. (1988), â€Å"Power and Organization Development: Mobilizing power to change†, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Halim Barakat. (1993), â€Å"The Arab world: society, culture, and state† Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, Hutt, M.D., Walker, B.A. and Frankwick, G.L. (1995) â€Å"Hurdle the Cross-Functional Barriers to Strategic Change† Sloan Management Review, 36 (3), pp. 22-30. Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer. (1988), â€Å"Handbook on human services administration† Public Administration and Public Policy/34, pp. 305 Krà ¼ger, W. (1996), â€Å"Implementation: The Core Task of Change Management† CEMS Business Review, 1, pp. 77-96. Lawrence, P.R. (1954), â€Å"How to Deal with Resistance to Change† Harvard Business Review, (May/June), pp. 49-57. Mike Green. (2007), â€Å"Change management masterclass: a step by step guide to successful change†. Tony Proctor. (2005), â€Å"Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making†. Edition 2, pp. 241 Pardo Del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes â€Å"RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL†, p. 5-7 Rob Paton, James McCalman. (2008), â€Å"Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation†, edition 3, pp. 39-54 Rumelt, R.P. (1995), â€Å"Inertia and transformation†, in Montgomery, C.A., Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Massachusetts, pp. 101-132. Rusell Tobin. (1999), â€Å"Overcoming resistance to change†, Second Edition, pp. 142 Starbuck, W., Greve, A. and Hedberg, B.L.T. (1978) â€Å"Responding to crisis†, Journal of Business Administration, 9 (2), pp. 111-137. Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley. (2008), â€Å"Organization development change†, Edition 9, pp. 165-182 Waddell, D. and Sohal, A.S. (1998), â€Å"Resistance: a constructive tool for change management†, Management Decision, 36 (8), pp. 543-548. Zeffane, R. (1996), â€Å"Dynamics of strategic change: critical issues in fostering positive organizational change†, Leadership Organization Development Journal, 17, pp. 36-43. Websites: http://www.explorehr.org/articles/Orga

Which factors contribute to young people committing crime?

Which factors contribute to young people committing crime? Which factors contribute to young people committing crime? Introduction I chose this topic for my literature review as I feel that if we understand the root of the problem of the crime, in this case the risk factors that lead to criminal activity, then juvenile delinquency could be understoodand possibly prevented. A risk factor is ‘some specific characteristic displayed by a person or their circumstances that bears some statistically significant correlative position in relation to their behaviour† (Brown, 2005). Home Office statistics for 2009/10 show that young people age 10-17 were responsible for 20% of all the crime recorded by the police. (Cooper and Roe, 2012). Due to the high number of crime committed by youth, even though they are mostly minor crimes, is it important to understand what leads them to committing criminal acts. Numerous researchers have come up with theories and reasons which try to explain why young people choose to commit deviant acts. The following studies found in this literature review will attempt to explain some of the factors that contribute to young people committing crime. Methodology For this literature review I have used a variety of sources which will provide me with both qualitative and quantitate data. I researched studies from journal articles, government reports and afters going to the library I managed to find many books on the topic of factors contributing to juvenile delinquency. I also managed to find a few websites that provided me with background information and statistics. Findings A number of researchers categorise ‘risk’ factors in many different ways. In this essay however I will mostly talk about individual, social/family and environmental factors. Each of this category has its own subcategories. For example, under the category of social factors it can be included family risks, peer-related risks, etc. Environmental Risk Factors Several research articles I looked at suggests that one of the reasons why youth choose to commit criminal acts is because of poverty. A study was conducted at the Kamiti Youth Corrective Training centre (Y.C.T.C) where the sample were 55 inmates selected by random sampling from a total of 120 inmates. It was found that over 70% of the sample were poor or came from families with poor background. This was based on where they lived, whether or not they owned properties and the types of crimes they committed, For example, some of the inmates stated that because they lacked their basic needs, they run from home into the streets to beg for survival. They stated that they also became involved in petty offences like stealing good or properties values that were not too expensive. This finding showing that poverty is a cause of crime among youth, supports the theory of Thomas R. Forstenzer, in one of his articles called â€Å"Tomorrow in North America: Youth between the American dream and re ality†, in The Twentieth Session UNESCO General Conference Report titled â€Å"Youth in the 1980S â€Å" on poverty as a main reason of deviant acts. He states that economic stress and believing in personal failure is â€Å"†¦the chronic culprit for the symptoms of social decay: drugs, alcohol and sex related problems that will affect the young as long as the family itself difficulty facing the strains of inflation and unemployment†. (Omboto et al., 2013) As poverty is linked with social class, more than 80% of the sample from the Y.C.T.C. study belonged to lower social class. Before their arrests a majority of them lived in poor areas around Nairobi city such as Kibera and Mathare. The researcher stated that some of these offences were bare footed. This finding on social class and delinquency confirms the opinion of Wright and Younts (2009) that delinquency rate increased while social class decreased. Social Risk Factors Other researchers believe that some youth get into crime as a form of rebellion against parental authority and due to peer pressure. Youth people may choose to commit crimes as a way to show their independence of the ‘adult’ word and its rules, as a way of getting attention and respect from peers, as well as trying to compensate for their restricted opportunities at school or in their community. By having good relationships with parents during childhood might help in a fortunate transition to adolescence, but it does not guarantee it, as risk factors are linked together. For instance, even though one might have an outstanding relationship with the parents, they might come from a low social status, and therefore it might led them to commit crimes. Hirschi (1969) argues that â€Å"delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken. He states that conformity starts from four types of social control which then these create social bonds. The weaker those bonds are the most likely it is for someone to commit a deviant act. For example attachment is one type of social control. Strong social attachments leads to conformity, and by having a fragile family/peer/school relationship, can make people to commit crimes more easily. (Hirschi 1969 cited in Carrabine E. et al.) Ojo (2012) states that broken homes and low education attainment as some of the causes for youth committing deviant acts. In the Y.C.T.C. study, most of boys from the sample came from dysfunctional families. Some of the boys were orphans and had no guardian to look after them before their arrest, other boys has divorced parents or a single parents and others’ parents were alcoholics or were not able to give a ‘good’ parenthood. For instance, in the sample7 boys had divorced parents, 6 youths mothers died, 14 has no father (either died or unknown), while 8 had no parents at all. When it comes to education, 78% did not go beyond class six primary with their schooling. (Omboto et al., 2013) West Farmington (1973) stated that just like low income family income, large family members is also an important factor of youth offending. This is due to the presence of several siblings that leads to faulty upbringing by parents/guardians at critical stages of the child’s development. Individual Risk Factors Other studies have found that individual risk factors also play a role in the behaviour of the youth. Individual factors include factors such as impulsivity, attention problems, low intelligence and low school attainment. For instance. LeMarquand and Tremblay (2001) cited in OJJDP’s argued that â€Å"the best social behaviour characteristic to predict delinquent behaviour before age 13 appears to be aggression†. Hawkins at al. (1998) cited in OJJDP’s also found ‘a positive relationship between hyperactivity, concentration and attention problems, impulsivity and risk taking ad later violent behaviour’ Herrenkohl et al (2001) cited in OJJDP’s stated that â€Å"children with low academic performance, low commitment to school, and low educational aspirations during elementary and middle school grades are at higher risk for child delinquency than are other children† Otherl Risk Factors Other risk factors found in the literature which might influence a young person’s behaviour can be community and neighbourhood. Young people who live in a neighbourhood with a high level of poverty and crimes, is likely to increase the risk of young people being involved in a serious type of offence.( McCord, Widom and Crowell 2001 cited in OJJDP’s). Prevention strategies which can help to lessen the risk factors Richards (2011) believes that taking away the youth form their areas and putting them behind the bars, does not deal with the underlying problem. Therefore some measure should be put in place to help reduce young people involvement in crime. For example the government and private agencies should creaser employment opportunities for youth of employable ages. Parents must also be responsible for their own children (providing moral guidance and material needs). But also learning institutions for youth must put in place sport and extra-curriculum activities, as this will leave them less time, if no time at all to be preoccupied with other things like offences Conclusion From summarising the studies, I have identified 3 main risk factors that can have an impact on young people’s involvement in crime: Social, individual and environmental risk factors. I have also identifies other risk factors which are not too important but it does have some relevance to young people’s behaviour. I have also identified some prevention strategies which might help to young people to stop getting involved in criminal activities. Overall, whether is down to individual, social or environmental factors, young people’s involvement in crimes sees to decrease since 1995. But we cannot say crimes declined due to the improvement of one factor (i.e. social factors) because as I discussed earlier, risk factors are connected with one another. Even though risk factors give us an understanding to why young people might choose to commit crimes, risk factor approach has its limitations. One of them being the risk of being labelled, young people being generalised and it also fails to distinguish correlation form causation. Preventing the delinquents is a big problem with no easy and quick solutions. Risk factors only offers the possibility to establish which youth is more likely to commit deviant acts. If I was to do further research on this topic, I would try to find more research based in the United Kingdom as most of the research I found was from America, however the short time prevented me from doing so. Reference Brown, S. (2005). Understanding youth and crime. 2nd ed. London: Open University Press, p.100. Carrabine, E., Cox, P., Lee, M., Plummer, K. and South, N. (2009). Criminology. A Sociological intrdouction. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, p.83. Cooper, C. and Roe, S. (2012). An estimate of youth crime in England and Wales: Police recorded crime committed by young people in 2009/10. 1st ed. [ebook] London: Crown. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/167982/horr64.pdf [Accessed 2 Nov. 2014]. Ojo, M.O.D. (2012) A Sociological Review of Issues on Juvenile Delinquency The Journal of International Social Research Volume: 5 Issue: 22 465-482 Omboto, J., Ondiek, G., Odera, O. and Ayugi, M. (2013). Factors influencing youth crimes and juvenile delinquency. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, [online] 1(2), pp.18-20. Available at: http://www.ijsk.org/uploads/3/1/1/7/3117743/sociology_2.pdf [Accessed 3 Nov. 2014]. Richards, K. (2011). What makes juvenile offenders different from adult offenders?. [online] www.aic.gov.au. Available at: http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi409.pdf [Accessed 3 Nov. 2014]. West D.J. and Farmington D.P. (1973) â€Å"Who becomes Delinquents† Second report of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent. London: Heinemann Wright, B.R.E. Younts, C.W. (2009) Reconstructing the Relationship between Race and Crime: Positive and Negative Predictors of Crime among African American Youth Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2009 46:327 The iPremier Co.: Denial of Service Attack The iPremier Co.: Denial of Service Attack Wk3AssgnCannadyE The iPremier Co.: Denial of Service Attack. On January 12, 2007, iPremier Web servers were brought to a halt after a denial-of-service (DoS) attack had occurred. (https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/services/proxy/content/55482727/55482733/bc0bf879de2a3b14574a611f54ec52c6). (ADOS attack) is where a multiple of compromised systems, which maybe infected with a Trojan virus, are used to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Victims of a DDoS attack consist of both the end targeted system and all systems maliciously used and controlled by the hacker in the distributed attack. (http://www.ddosprotection.com/about/ddos-information/) How well did the iPremier Company perform during the 75-minute attack? In what ways were the companys operating procedures deficient in responding to this attack? In what ways were they adequate? What additional procedures might have been in place to better handle the attack? In my opinion, Qdata and iPremier really dropped the ball on this by not thinking steps ahead. They did not have a contingency plan or any plan of sort for this worst case scenario. iPremeir had placed too much faith into Qdata`s ability to handle the situation or threat. The first thing I noticed the company did was panic, since there was no crisis strategy/disaster plan. The attack couldnt have happened at the worse time since the attack happened during a high traffic period. If this attack was done by competitors than they got what they were looking for by hurting the reputation of the company. If I was Bob Turley, I may be worried if Im still going to have a position still, since I was not prepared for this infrastructure break. Bob did not go over all known threats to the infrastructure risk matrix and develop procedures to immediately identify the type and risk. These threats would need to be continually assessed as new ones emerge and the identification would have helped deter mined the right procedures for defending against them. My first move I wouldve of made is open a line of communication with Qdata to discuss any risk measure we may have to take. I would not have let the attack go on for so long without pulling the plug to our servers so the customer information cannot be stolen. I would also increase my security against attackers. Having system and users use stronger encryption passwords. Have better real-time monitoring, with a backup plan that has went through testing. Train my employees to better understand the type of attacks and train them on how to handle emergency situations. Even after that make another business continuity plan and test it end to end than repeat. Keep all the software up to date that will better protect from viruses and attacks. You may want to hire an outside audit team to keep a check and balance. The biggest problem is the host provider. If I was Bob, I may want to build a much better relationship with my provider, showing the importance of this never happening again. Since in sense its my companys reputation which is on the line. If that dont work, I would go get a more reliable/reputable host provider. With a high class support and infrastructure, with better security measures. Besides of the updating I would do to the software, Firewalls would also need to up dated. This will protect my company from viruses and also protect from the whatever employee. Again training my employees on what not to do is really important. Train them on emails and what type of emails are at risk. Tell them to always inform somebody on any obscene gestures they computer may be exhibiting. Especially any ha emails. In the aftermath of the attack, what actions would you recommend? My biggest concerns are Legal, Public Relations, Stock Prices, Customer Information and Network Security as least important after the attack. The attack just proved to any competition that my firewalls can be hacked. In looking who could be the one responsible. I would be looking at my competition and what would they have to gain in my attack. Since in sense if I pulled the plug than it would take at least 24 hours to get back running. Even if I did not pull the plug and I rode the attack out than I would still have to shut down business because of then security breach. No matter which route taken, I would still be at lost once my firewalls proved to be vulnerable. There a lot of equations to look at. This is the main reason I would have an outside Network Operations Center (NOC). They will provide all the monitoring I may need for any issue that may arrive even the increase of bandwidth References: http://www.ddosprotection.com/about/ddos-information/ https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/services/proxy/content/55482727/55482733/bc0bf879de2a3b14574a611f54ec52c6