James Madison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

James Madison - Essay Example It is hoped that this will bring to light the relevance of Madison's politics to an understanding of America today. James Madison (1751-1836) served as the 4th President of America and is considered as the "Father of the American Constitution." Like his close friend Thomas Jefferson, James Madison came from a prosperous family of Virginia planters, received an excellent education, and quickly found himself drawn into the debates over independence. Madison emerged as a respected leader of the congress, known for his hard work and careful preparation.2 Dahl's analysis of Madison's political views centered on the latter's propositions relative to the Democrat-Republic that he and his colleagues (Alexander Hamilton and other supporters of the Constitution) advocate. These propositions are as follows: (1) the greatest threat in the American republic comes from a minority, not the majority; (2) to protect their rights from minority factions, members of the majority faction must organize their own political party; (3) the danger that majorities might threaten property rights could be overcome by enabling a majority of citizens to own property, a feasible solution in America; and (4) in a republic, majorities must be allowed to prevail. Dahl asserts that Madison's political views have somewhat developed from a non-democratic view to a more democratic one as his experience in politics broaden as demonstrated in his instigation of the Bill of Rights (10 amendments to the Constitution) in 1814. Nonetheless, Dahl contends that these proposi tions are still inconsistent with the political system that he upholds. He mentioned three inconsistencies, namely: (1) as an empirical proposition, his conjecture that increased size reduces the danger of factionalism is contradicted by subsequent experience; (2) in his conception of basic rights, Madison excluded more than half the adult population: women, African Americans, and American Indians; and (3) he actively supported the provision in the Constitution that gave to slave states an increase in representatives amounting to three-fifths of the slave population.3 According to Dahl, four questions served as Madison's guide in establishing his ideas: 1) What is the new system of government to be called 2) Does a common good exist and, if so, can we know what it is 3) What are the major threats to achieving the common good 4) Can these threats be overcome and, if so, how4 Constitutions or political regimes then were classified based on the number of person/s to whom authority is given. It could be any of these: the rule of [the] one, of the few, or of the many. Each may be considered either 'good or bad' form, depending on whether the rulers sought to achieve the common good or merely their own interests. Political regimes ruled by one are considered a monarchy and its undesirable form, despotism. Rule by the few would be aristocracy or oligarchy. How should one call the rule by the many Should the good form be called a democracy or a republic What about the bad form Dahl points out that these two terms were not yet clearly defined then and claims that "Madison's famous distinction between the terms 'democracy' and 'republic' was somewhat arbitrary and ahistorical" quoting Madison's

Free

Free Will vs Determinism Essay Socrates: â€Å"May it be that there is substantial reason to believe things are what they are because of what they were? † Nathan: â€Å"So, you too would be describing determinism as the way things will be as a result of how things are and work of natural laws? Socrates: â€Å"Would you agree that this means there is no human freedom of choice or action that was ours to make in the first place? † Nathan: â€Å"No, I would like to believe humanity has the freedom of choice, since our choices are ours in the first place, although they must have an explanation. Socrates: â€Å"Is it possible that every choice may not have an explanation for why something led to specific effects? † Nathan: â€Å"Yes, it is possible, but I would like to think that some situations do not hold explanations. † Socrates: â€Å"Nathan, is there room for acceptance that human choices or situations may be events? † Nathan: â€Å"That would be to say that they are mere objects in time or instantiations of properties in objects. † Socrates: â€Å"Possibly, but wouldn’t that mean they would hold an explanatory cause? Nathan: â€Å"If what you’re asking determines whether or not there is an explanation for why something happened that led to a specific effect, then yes. † Socrates: â€Å"Would you agree that every choice or event would have an explanatory cause? † Nathan: â€Å"Yes, I would like to believe that sometimes some choices or events are random leading to free will. † Socrates: â€Å"Are these human choices or events we speak of the same or are they different? † Nathan: â€Å"I would believe them to be different. Choices are instances of free will through periodic randomness as where events are often reflections of these spoken choices. Hence, they are different. Often choices may lead to an event, but events often lead to choices. † Socrates: â€Å"So you would entertain the idea that explanatory cause is not to be free? † Nathan: â€Å"No, to be free is having the ability to act at will; not under compulsion or restraint. Therefore to be free is merely an individual idea. † Socrates: â€Å"Are these two worlds of free will and determinism able to coexist within the same realm? Nathan: â€Å"Yes, I believe it is possible that a person’s free will may lead them to a point of determinism. This being they make a choice and then in turn that choice leads them to a predetermined point in life. It was just their choice in when or how they arrived there. † Socrates: â€Å"Can there be external determinism and internal free will? † Nathan: â€Å"It is possible that we may have a predetermination, however I believe that at the same time, we are capable of making our own decisions and making our own free choices. Even if these choices may lead to a determined place it is still our own decision on how we may arrive there. Summary I would like to state that I believe it is possible for determinism to exist in a world that is decided by free will even if our life is predetermined. However, just because our life has a determined end it does not conclude that the contents of our lives were without free will. Our choices all have an explanatory cause, even if we would like to think that some choices are made at random. This is, however, just another example that we control our own free will.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Essay -- Segregation Rac

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court handed down the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruling. The supreme court’s ruling stated that separate was in fact not equal. The court ordered that all schools desegregate. This ruling had finally and once and for all put a stop to the dejure segregation of our nation’s schools that had existed since the time when African Americans were allowed to attend schools. This ruling was definitely one of the most significant legal victories in the history of the civil rights movement and possibly the entire twentieth century. It is viewed this way because â€Å"This movement rebuked centuries of government-sanctioned black inferiority† (Cohen p. 22) and most importantly it overturned the Plessey v. Ferguson ruling. The Brown decision breathed new life for the hope of America’s future, that all children regardless of race would be able to receive an equal education. In addition, the NAACP had gained momentum and had big plans to continue the civil rights movement in other areas. Their agenda included housing segregation and employment discrimination. Thurgood Marshall and other members of the NAACP’s law team were confident in their success and believed that it would only be a short period of time of five years before school segregation would be totally eliminated. Sadly, desegregation was not achieved as rapidly and as smoothly as anticipated. In fact, many people claim that in many areas today the schools are resegregating. According to Ted Shaw, head of the NAACP’s legal defense fund, â€Å"we are currently resegregating, and no none seems to care† (regression on integration). Since this year marks the fiftieth ann... ... from. However, the thing that disappoints me the most is that after conducting more in depth reading than I previously had done, I still have no answer of how to fix the problem. I realize that it would be foolish of me to realistically think that I could fix the problem with what little I have studied the subject in this class, but out of all the reading I have done, I could not find a single article that actually gave a solution of how to fix the problem other than continuing the battle in the courts. This is the part that this is so disheartening to me. There is a real problem and I want to fix it, but apparently it is going to be a long struggle to get things back on track. Works Cited 1. Holst, B. (2004, July). Resegregation's aftermath. The Atlantic Monthly, 294, 64. 2. Cohen, A. (2004, Jan. 18).The supreme struggle. The New York Times, pp. 22.

United States Men’s National Soccer Team

While rival drug cartels warred in the streets and the country’s murder rate climbed to highest in the world, the Colombian national soccer team set out to blaze a new image for their country. What followed was a mysteriously rapid rise to glory, as the team catapulted out of decades of obscurity to become one of the best teams in the world. Central to this success were two men named Escobar: Andrà ©s, the captain and poster child of the National Team, and Pablo, the infamous drug baron who pioneered the phenomenon known in the underworld as â€Å"Narco-soccer.† But just when Colombia was expected to win the 1994 World Cup and transform its international image, the shocking murder of Andres Escobar dashed the hopes of a nation. Through the glory and the tragedy, The Two Escobars daringly investigates the secret marriage of crime and sport, and uncovers the surprising connections between the murders of Andres and Pablo. Personal Statement Our films tend to focus on disenfranchised communities in the process of rising up and transforming their political and economic circumstances. We choose these stories due to the scale of their historic importance—this is where societies are shaped. By comparison, sports have often felt like mere diversion, games limited to the playing field. At times, we have both drifted from the passion for sports we shared as young athletes and fans, engaging ourselves in other endeavors as seasons of professional competition passed by. Then, invariably, definitive moments in sports history would grab our attention and turn our logic upside down. Like in 1994, when an athlete named Andres Escobar was murdered for accidentally scoring an own goal that cost the Colombian National Team a chance at winning the World Cup and transforming its negative image on the international stage. Here was a country with a national identity so integrally connected to the success of its soccer team that one mistake on a playing field dashed the pride of an entire nation and cost a man his life. Looking into the incident, we learned that the dramatic rise and fall of Colombian soccer was inextricably tied to the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar’s Medellà ­n Drug Cartel, considered by many the ‘ruling party’ of Colombia at the time. Sport in Colombia was not only mirroring the personality and politics of society, but also an inseparable part of that society – the playing field an extension of the streets and offices where influential decisions are made. On our journey through diverse walks of Colombian society during production, it became clear that this was far from a classic â€Å"deal-with-the-devil† narrative. Rather, this was the story of the passions and dreams of a people intrinsically tied to the rise and fall of a team. Stories such as this revive our childhood fascination with sports and confirm the fundamental role they play in shaping our world.

Critical Analysis of Kant’s Moral Philosophy Essay

The most essential motive of moral philosophy in Kant’s view is to â€Å"seek out† the introductory principle of metaphysics of morals. Kant explains this project through the first two chapters of the Groundwork. He advances by analyzing and explicating commonsense thoughts about morality. The purpose is to come up with a clear-cut statement of the opinion on which all of our regular moral judgements are based. The judgement in a question is supposed to be acceptable by any normal human being. In recent times, Kant is regarded as an overly optimistic with regards to the depth and reach of moral agreement. See more: how to write a critical analysis essay step by step But he is good in drawing moral views which is extensively shared and which contains general judgements that are profound. He does not appear as someone who populates the works of moral philosophers or someone who needs a reason to act morally or someone whose reactions have moral motive because of some rationale. For instance, in the third and final chapter of the Groundwork, Kant takes up his second elementary endeavour, to â€Å"establish† this foundational moral principle as a demand of each person’s own rational will, his conclusion falls short of answering those who want a proof that we really are bound by moral requirements. He bases this second project on the point that we possess self-sufficiency. The argument of this project does not propagate a metaphysical fact about our wills. This has led some readers to a conclusion that he is trying to validate moral requirements by alluring to a fact that even a moral disbeliever would have to identify. The most justifiable points of his dispute to establish the basic belief of morality rest on an assertion that will not stir a true disbeliever, that the self-sufficiency of our wills is a supposition of any realistic point of view. Moral requirements project themselves as being completely essential. But an a posteriori method seems unsuitable in establishing what we must do; it only tells us what we actually do. So an a posteriori method of seeking out the belief that generates such requirements will not carry the appearance of moral ‘oughts’ as necessities. Kant argued that experimental observations could only convey conclusions about the comparative benefits of moral actions in various situations. Such researched would not support the absolute necessity of moral requirements. It would view them as demands for which conformity is not necessary. Thus, Kant argued that if moral philosophy is to protect against deterioration of the necessity of obligation in defence of moral thought, it must be carried out entirely a priori. Although these are the two fundamental aims of moral philosophy, they are not, the only aims. Moral philosophy addresses the question, ‘What ought I to do? ’ and an answer to that question requires much more than delivering the basic belief of morality. A satisfying answer to the question of what one should do would have to take into account any political and religious requirements. Moral philosophy should emphasize on the ultimate end of human endeavour, the Highest Good, and its connection to the moral life. In the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant argued that this Highest Good for Humanity is complete moral virtue together with complete joy. Unfortunately, Kant noted, virtue does not assure well being and may even conflict with it. Further, there is no real possibility of moral excellence in this life and only few of us are lucky enough to experience the happiness. There are certain aims for which some methods need to be employed. These methods of moral philosophy are questioned time and again by Kant. One a fundamental principle is sought, and then the facts drawn from experiences and the conclusions can be considered to determine how best these methods can be applied. The Groundwork appeals repeatedly for pragmatic facts based on practical principles. Kant analyses the commonsense ideas and he says that the only good things any qualification is a ‘good will’. ‘The good will’ is not an ordinary notion and Kant says that the idea of a good will is closer to that of a ‘good person’ or a ‘person of good will’. This idea of ‘good will’ is a vital touchstone that Kant keeps revisiting throughout his work. The basic idea is that what makes a person good. It is his possession of a good will that determines the goodness, or the way he makes decisions on the basis of moral law, and how he holds that decision morally taking into considerations all the moral aspects. This sort of temperament is something that is highly valued. Kant believes that we value it without restraint or any qualification. By this Kant believes that there are two things that matter. First, that unlike anything else, there is no possible circumstance in which we regard our own moral goodness as worth giving up simply in order to obtain some desirable object. There is no hidden limitation to the outcome that a purpose to give moral considerations decisive weight is worth honouring, but only under certain circumstances. Second, maintaining one’s moral integrity is the most important condition under which anything else is worth accessing. Intelligence and pleasure are worth having only if they do not require giving up one’s fundamental moral convictions. The value of a good will cannot secure certain valuable ends. Kant points out that a good will must be good in itself and not in virtue of its relationship to other things. In Kant’s terms, a good will’s decisions are entirely determined by moral demands. Kant has called this as a Moral Law. Human beings view this law as a constraint on their desires. A will in which the Moral Law is crucial is motivated by the thought of duty. It is the existence of desires that makes goodness in human beings a constraint, independent of prevalence of morals. This is an indispensable element of the idea of ‘duty’. So in analyzing unqualified goodness we are investigating the idea of being motivated by the thought that we are constrained to act in certain ways that we might not want to. Kant asserts this by contrasting motivation by duty with other motives, such as motives of self-interest, self-preservation, sympathy and happiness. He argues that a submissive action from any of these motives, does not express a good will. Assuming an action has moral worth only if it expresses a good will, such actions have no genuine ‘moral worth’. The conventionality of one’s action to duty in such cases is only related by accident to content of one’s will. Kant’s views in this regard have understandably been the subject of much controversy. According to Kant, what is remarkable about inspiration by duty is that it consists of respect for lawfulness. What logically comes to mind is that duties are created by rules or laws. City and state laws establish the duties of citizens. Thus, if we do something because it is our ‘civic’ duty, our motivation is respect for the code that makes it our duty. Thinking we are duty bound is respecting certain laws pertaining to us. The difference between being motivated by a sense of duty in the ordinary sense, and being motivated by duty, in Kant’s sense is, that motivation by duty is motivation by our respect for whatever law it is. Our respect for the laws guiding us is qualified, in the sense that the law gives us a duty is compelling only if there is no law we respect more that conflicts with it. The missing line of argument reveals a characteristic of Kant’s approach, his account of the content of moral requirements and the nature of moral analysis. It says that it is based on the unique force moral considerations that have reasons to act. Since they retain their reason-giving force under any situation, they have universal authority. So, whatever else may be said of moral requirements, their substance is universal. Only a universal law could be the content of a requirement that has the reason-giving force of morality. This brings Kant to a introductory formulation, ‘I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law’. This is the principle which motivates a good will, and which Kant holds to be the fundamental principle of all of morality. Works Cited http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/kant-moral/ http://www. press. uchicago. edu/presssite/metadata. epl? mode=synopsis&bookkey=41315

Computers and How They Impact Our Lives

Computers and How They Impact Our Lives Have you ever thought about how much computers have been integrated into our lives? Personally speaking there is not a day that goes by that I don't sit down in front of a computer for something. Computers play a large role in the way that businesses are run, the days of type writers and filing cabinets are a thing of the past. We can access information about almost anything on the internet, such as banking records, insurance information, shopping, technical assistance the possibilities are almost limitless.Looking at the history of computers they really haven't been around that long. Frederic Golden writer for Time magazine tells us this on the history of computersIf you look at most history books, they'll tell you ENIAC (for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first true all-purpose electronic computer. Unveiled in 1946 in a blaze of publicity, it was a monstrous 30-ton machine, as big as two semis and filled with enough vacuum tubes (19,000), switches (6,000) and blinking lights to require an army of attendants.IBM Portable Personal Computer :: Retrocomputing o...Capable of adding 5,000 numbers in a second, a then unheard of feat, it could compute the trajectory of an artillery shell well before it landed.This machine was a remarkable achievement for its time but it doses not even begin to compare to the average personal computer that people have in their homes today. In its short 57 year span of history computer technology has increased at an unprecedented rate.Businesses are very dependant on computers, email, printing, data storage, internet access, data analyst are just a few of the thing that people take for granted in everyday business. Email has revolutionized the way we communicate and has become one of the most critical systems in business today. Servers are the back bone of...

Technical writing in the corporate environment

Technical writing in the corporate environment Free Online Research Papers Technical writing is an essential part of the corporate world, because technology in present day is far to complicated for the average individual. That is were the technical writer is a valuable asset, the skill set they have enables the consumer to use, and understand the technology of the product. Technical writing is supposed to be clear and concise, and straight to the point so that the reader has a clear understanding of the subject. Technical writing is used for user manuals, e-mails, memos, and other documents that are in the corporate world. The technical writer has the knowledge to turn technological specifications or company relations into understandable terminology for consumers and other colleagues. The purpose of technical writing is to take a subject that the average person has no idea about and change the terminology of that subject into something that the average person can understand. The technical writer must use a text that is easy to read, and readers do not like full paragraphs. There is a need to put graphics into the text, and break-up the text in other ways so that the reader does not lose interest. With out the skill set of a technical writer consumers would not be able to use a wide variety of products due to them being far too technical. If engineers were in charge of writing user manuals then they would use their technical lingo to explain how to use their product. Most average consumers would not be able to understand the engineer’s lingo, and this would cause consumers not to buy that product. A technical writer is the medium between the technical side of the corporate world and the consumers of the products that these companies sell. There would also be an interruption of communication in the corporate environment, because all communication must be straight and to the point. If there is any space for reader interpretation then the idea being conveyed could be taken the wrong way. Technology is the reason for the increase in the need for technical writers. With out technical writing the average consumer would not be able to use a wide variety of the products that are out there. User manuals are the way that the consumer is able to use modern technology. Technical writers change the technical lingo into something that the average consumer is able to understand. E-mail is a new technology along with the Internet where people need to use technical writing. The e-mails need to be short and to the point so that the receiver has a clear understanding of the information. However, e-mail might not be the best communication channel to use. If you are discussing a highly sensitive topic such as a pending merger, corporate take over, or layoffs, an e-mail message would be less secure than a letter sent in a sealed envelope. An aid to technical writing is audience recognition and this is where the writer establishes the audience knowledge level on the subject. Audiences can be broken down into four different groups, high tech audience, low tech audience, lay audience, and multiple audiences. A high tech audience has characteristics like extensive knowledge about the subject, shared level of understanding, and a need for little background information. A low tech audience is familiar with the technology, but their job responsibilities are peripheral to the subject matter. Lay audiences are Customers and clients who neither work for your company nor have any knowledge about your field of expertise are your lay audience members. Multiple audiences are a variety of all of the other different audiences rolled into one. Currently I am working in the landscaping business awaiting the end of the current college program that I am involved with. There are a few examples in this business where technical writing is very helpful. One is on the flyers that are handed out door to door. The message on them must be short and sweet, and it must be easy to read while getting the point across. The second is with the company brochures that we send to all of our customers that lines out all of the different treatment packages that we provide. There are also seasonal formal letters that our company sends out to all of our customers conveying that the company also provides other services. These are just a few examples of technical writing in the field that I am currently working in. In conclusion, technical writing is essential in all phases of the business world, and it is essential in order to give the best customer support available. The audience is a big key to understanding the lingo needed and the limit to detail. Once the audience is established then all that is left to choose is which method of conveying the information. There is always a time and place when it comes to the different mediums of communication. The key is to be as short and concise as possible when it comes to technical writing. Research Papers on Technical writing in the corporate environmentOpen Architechture a white paperBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfMind TravelMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductStandardized TestingAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaGenetic EngineeringAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in Capital

How to Prepare for Retirement While Youre Young

How to Prepare for Retirement While Youre Young I know, you don’t think you need to think about retirement yet. But trust me, it sneaks up on you. You’re probably already behind. Rather than being overwhelmed, focus on a few simple things you can do this year to make sure you have the life you’ve always dreamed of in your sunset years. Eat Right and ExerciseKeeping up your health is half the battle. What good is retirement, after all, if you’re too sick to enjoy it? Fight off obesity, your risk of heart disease, and diabetes. Being healthy and active will improve your quality of life, and it will save you a small fortune in health care costs.Save SmartJust shaving off bits of every paycheck and dumping them into a savings account isn’t going to cut it. Try funding your 401k to the max- this is free money courtesy of your employer! Taking more out of your paycheck will also save you on annual income tax. And, if you have the means, try buying property to generate more income- or even remodeling yo ur house to include a rentable unit for a little extra cash.Know Where You’ll BeHave a home with equity, but very little savings? You won’t have access to your biggest assets to pay your monthly bills. To get greater access, consider selling your house and downsizing to a smaller property, renting out a spare room, or refinancing your loan or mortgage. You might even qualify for a reverse mortgage and be able to convert your home equity into cash.Know Where Your Money IsYou’ve worked so hard for your retirement savings. Make sure you know what your money is doing- and whether it could be doing better. Meet with an advisor for a once-a-year review of your funds, just like you see your doctor for an annual physical.Make a Bucket ListDon’t get all the way to your retirement and then have no idea how to spend your time. Stave off the potential loneliness and boredom by making sure you have a list of things to do with yourself- projects and trips and plans you never had time for in your working years.The 5 Resolutions You Need To Make If You Ever Want To Retire

Presentation of Business Plan for Distance Learning Company Essay

Presentation of Business Plan for Distance Learning Company - Essay Example Moreover, the potential competitors will be identified. As evidenced by the increasing sales of distance learning companies, the steadily growing demand for distance learning products and services in light of the advent of modern technology coupled with the changing lifestyle will be emphasized. The second part will be comprised of the marketing plan. For this section, the strategy pertaining to how to differentiate the products and services the company will be offering to the market will be discussed. More importantly, product samples and service packages will be elaborated on. Differentiation of offerings will be done in terms of adopting a pricing scheme that will suit the budget of targeted clients. It will be highlighted that the company will design and price the said packages competitively. In order to illustrate this point, comparison of the company's packages and corresponding prices to the identified competitors will be shown. To promote the company and its product and service packages, the advertising program will also be discussed. The final section is the discussion of the financial aspect of the company I will be establishing.

Computer Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Computer Market - Essay Example Likewise, there are many other determinants of demand for a computer market such as knowledge and price barriers, social influences, lifestyle changes, and competitor and component prices, and so on. The world's second largest personal computer maker, Dell, launched its latest Inspiron 1525 laptop computer that features 15.4-inch HD definition wide aspect display with 720p resolution, a Blue-ray player disc drive and an HDMI port along with the basic features. Dell has been quoted as an example to guide through the learning of the economics of computer pricing. Recent years have seen fall in prices of personal computers even in the face of increasing demand. To study this further, it should be kept in mind that demand and supply control prices in a free market and increase in the supply of a product over demand causes the price of the product to fall. A free market can be defined as a market where the sellers and the buyers of a product are free to determine the price of the product and this is done by the law of demand and supply. Free markets are in contrast to controlled markets where factors determining prices are influenced by external parties. In a free market, however, the demand and supply for a product determines whether the price of the product increases or decreases. ... Determination of equilibrium price and quantity The determination of price depends on the type of market organization the product belongs to. In a competitive market, the point of intersection of market demand and supply curves determines the price that will prevail in the market. As in other competitive markets, the forces of demand and supply determine computer prices. In the diagram, P* is the point of intersection of the demand and supply curves and is called the equilibrium price. "The word 'equilibrium' denotes a state of rest from which there is no tendency to change" (Maddala and Miller, 2004). Price equilibrium occurs where the price that the buyers wish to buy matches the price that the sellers wish to sell at. The point C in the diagram describes a position of equilibrium in the market. When prices are above or below P*, i.e., P1 or P2, the market is said to be in disequilibrium. As can be seen from the diagram, supporting the price above P* creates an excess supply, whereas, fixing the price below that causes excess demand. Therefore, an excess demand would lead to an increase in prices whereas excess supply would lead to decrease in prices. When the demand for computers is high and there is shortage of supply of the same, then the balance of power shifts towards the seller. This is because of the excess demand in the market for good commodities. Conversely when demand both for computers and complimenting products is weak and when there is excess supply of the same available on the market, then the power switches to potential buyers. This is because there is a wide choice of products available and the buyers can afford to negotiate prices

The Genocide in Bosnia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Genocide in Bosnia - Research Paper Example Sells (1998) suggests that it was the Serbian religious mythology, extreme nationalism, and racist theories, which contributed to the occurrence of the Bosnian genocide. The events which led to this genocide were put into motion with the death of the Yugoslav president Josip Tito in 1980 who had managed to hold the Yugoslav federation together throughout his rule. Now the Croat and Bosnian nationalists started to agitate for their independence and as a response, Serbian nationalism, which had been dormant for many decades, was suddenly given a new lease of life. The Serbians had been the dominant people within the Yugoslav federation and with its collapse they would have lost the power and influence which they had exercised over the other states within it. After Slobodan Milosevic became the Serb leader and by default the leader of the Yugoslav federation in 1987, he encouraged Serb nationalism not only in Serbia but also in the other states in which large Serb communities lived. Cro atia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and these three new states were all recognized internationally. There followed a year’s fierce fighting between the mainly Serb Yugoslavian army and Croatia in Yugoslavia’s attempt to hang on to the Serb communities there and when this was not successful, the Serbs turned their attention to Bosnia. A sign of the increasing tensions in the area occurred in 1992 when the Serb army began shelling the National Library of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo. Over a million books, more than a hundred thousand manuscripts and rare books, and centuries of historical records were destroyed and this can be considered to have been a systematic campaign of cultural eradication. A good case study of the Bosnian genocide would be the one that happened in Srebrenica. In July 1995, Serb troops and paramilitary units descended on the town of Srebrenica and began shelling it after dealing with the Muslim soldiers in the countryside, besieging the town’s thousands of Muslim civilians. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the town which consisted of French and Dutch soldiers, could do little to help the civilian population and had to agree to a vague promise made by Mladic, the Serb commander, that everyone would be allowed to cross out of Serb territory but only after the screening of the men so that ‘war criminals’ could be detected. This promise proved to be false as witnessed when the men were separated from the women and children and the latter were forced into trucks and buses and deported. The men on the other hand were all killed and this process of large scale murder and deportation continued for the next four days. It is estimated that up to 7500 men and boys over thirteen years old were killed after being driven on trucks or marched to their places of death. It is said that up to 3000 were while in the act of escaping by being shot and decapitated in the field s. Thousands of bodies were buried in mass graves although most of these were later exhumed and re-buried in more secret places. According to Ching and Ching (2008) more, than 26000 Muslim civilians were killed during the Bosnian genocide and thousands more died from starvation and a lack of medical care. Furthermore, over 10000 Muslim civilia

Project planning and control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project planning and control - Essay Example It is a very key part in stakeholder management. Its goal is to develop cooperation between the stakeholders and the project team. It is needed to clarify the consequences of expected change or to start anew project by the organization (Mitchell, Agle & Wood 2008). In this case of changing room project the stakeholders are: the members of the group, software developers, suppliers, customers and the government. The software that is developed will provide a platform for the supplier to know the exact measurement of the client without returning the clothes that have been ordered. The entrepreneurs who form the group will be able to receive the image from all side and the exact measurement taken. The software will promote the good relation between the firm and the client and the supplier of the clothing. The online marketing done through the application also give the government the opportunity to get revenue and regulate the number of businesses carried out within a specific location within a particular time (Fletcher et al. 2003). In addition, the software developers will also find the readily available market for their product in the market. On the technological advancement, it will add an input in the use of current technology in sales and mark eting. The product quality and the volume of sales to the business will increase greatly. While the positive effects are felt among the stakeholders, it is also associated the negative effects among the stakeholders. The project is very expensive because it requires additional capital to consult and contract the software companies. It requires regular maintenance and qualified and trained personnel which the company might lack in the long run. It might also take too long to be implemented. To the clients it will take them too long to change with the new system. Change is difficult to adopt some client would

Development and application of a diatom-inferred pH model Research Paper

Development and application of a diatom-inferred pH model - Research Paper Example The RMSE gives a measure of the ‘apparent’ error in the model and thus over-optimistic while the RMSE calculated using bootstrap is a more reliable indicator of the true predictive ability of a transfer function. Analysis of the dataset with both simple weighted averaging (WA) and weighted averaging with tolerance down-weighting (WA(tol)) resulted in the selection of WA for pH reconstructions as it gave lower estimates of the RMSEP (Table 2). After having decided on criteria that maximize the performance of the model, I have applied it to a lake sediment core, Llyn Hir to perform a pH reconstruction. In WA reconstructions, averages are taken twice, once in WA regression and once in WA calibration. The resulting shrinkage of the inferred environmental variable is corrected for using inverse or classical deshrinking regression (Birks et al., 1990). Following analyses using both methods, trends in residuals revealed that inverse deshrinking was more prone to be biased than classical deshrinking technique (Table 3). The resulting WA classical deshrinked transfer function was applied to fossil diatom assemblages enumerated from the Llyn Hir sediment core. WA regression and calibration (both with and without tolerance down-weighting) were performed using C2 Programme. The WA model shows a strong predicted relationship between observed pH and diatom-inferred pH values (r2 = 0.83) (Figure 2). Statistical results for both simple and tolerance down-weighted WA show that the predictive ability of the WA and WA(tol) models, in terms of the predicted r2 and the RMSEP, are comparable (Table 2). Simple WA was chosen as it gives slightly higher predicted correlation between measured and diatom-inferred pH and lower predicted estimates of the error in this model. A total of 124 diatom taxa were observed throughout the Llyn Hir core, 8 of which did not occur in the training dataset. This means that over 90% of the diatoms occurred in training set which makes our

Project planning and control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project planning and control - Essay Example It is a very key part in stakeholder management. Its goal is to develop cooperation between the stakeholders and the project team. It is needed to clarify the consequences of expected change or to start anew project by the organization (Mitchell, Agle & Wood 2008). In this case of changing room project the stakeholders are: the members of the group, software developers, suppliers, customers and the government. The software that is developed will provide a platform for the supplier to know the exact measurement of the client without returning the clothes that have been ordered. The entrepreneurs who form the group will be able to receive the image from all side and the exact measurement taken. The software will promote the good relation between the firm and the client and the supplier of the clothing. The online marketing done through the application also give the government the opportunity to get revenue and regulate the number of businesses carried out within a specific location within a particular time (Fletcher et al. 2003). In addition, the software developers will also find the readily available market for their product in the market. On the technological advancement, it will add an input in the use of current technology in sales and mark eting. The product quality and the volume of sales to the business will increase greatly. While the positive effects are felt among the stakeholders, it is also associated the negative effects among the stakeholders. The project is very expensive because it requires additional capital to consult and contract the software companies. It requires regular maintenance and qualified and trained personnel which the company might lack in the long run. It might also take too long to be implemented. To the clients it will take them too long to change with the new system. Change is difficult to adopt some client would

Criminal Investigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Criminal Investigation - Essay Example Similarly, objects can point in the direction of the fire since objects melt in the direction of the fire. 2. Source of the fire. This clue usually indicated by an area with the worst damage since the fire burns for a longer time at the origin. Structural damage can also help to identify the origin of the fire as structures tend to collapse from the most weakened part due to longer burning (Russell 2009). According to Fire investigations (2013), the most decisive evidence in the case of arson is the presence of accelerants, which act to tamper with the fire triangle, a source of fuel, oxygen, and heat. The presence of accelerants shows that the fire was not unintentional but an act of arson. Where there is evidence as to assess of the place, such as tools used for forced entry, as well as witnesses where their testimonies are also essential since they support the conviction of arson. Evidence regarding the content of the building prior to the fire is also vital as it can indicate motive in the fire. Motive in this case may result from movement of goods out of the building prior to the fire for insurance fraud or starting the fire to conceal a previous

Joseph Stalin Essay Example for Free

Joseph Stalin Essay Joseph Stalin played a very important role in the history of Soviet Russia. He was exposed to Karl Marx’s ideas at a very young age in the Tiflis Theological Seminary school he was enrolled in. He continued with these ideas throughout the early years of his life; modifying them as he went along. Eventually, Stalin came to power in Eastern Europe. In my opinion, Stalin was a harsh and hypocritical leader. He did not have fair policies and he changed them to apply to a particular problem he was facing. Joseph Stalin in Soviet Russia was harsh, hypocritical and forceful. Stalin made a name for himself when he joined the Social Democratic Labor Party in 1901. After the overthrow of Nicholas II, Stalin did not think that the Russian people were ready for a Socialist revolution, apposing what Vladimir Lenin thought. Lenin was the leader of the Socialists at the time. When Lenin heard about this, he made Stalin choose. He could either challenge Lenin for the leadership of the Socialists, or he could change his mind about the revolution and remain loyal to Lenin. Stalin chose to stay loyal to Lenin in an article he wrote. Lenin was pleased with Stalin, and appointed him Commissar of Nationalities. Stalin told people that the new Soviet government promised â€Å"complete freedom for the Finnish people, and for other peoples of Russia, to arrange their own life†. This meant that he supported the idea of self-determination and making a life for yourself. After a while, Stalin found it hard to control the non-Russian people under his power. They were creating many independent states without his agreement. These states were often hostile to Stalin and his government. This made Stalin change his policies so that self-determination was not allowed. In 1939, Stalin made a pact with Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, which divided the two powers. Taking all of this into consideration, my opinion on Joseph Stalin is that he was a harsh, hypocritical ruler who wasn’t fair. His ideas and actions shaped Soviet Russian history to what we know it to be today. Stalin was hypocritical because he told the people that he supported self-determination, but the once the people put it into action, he punished them for it. He was harsh because when he punished people who went against him, he killed them with no questions asked. Also, he was responsible for at least 20 million deaths from forced famines, labor camps, forced migrations, state terrorism and labor camps. He did these things to try to unite his power base into a smaller area; eliminating lesser powers. Next, after World War II, he continued mass murdering entire areas. He did all of this while practicing callous control over the Soviet Union and it’s surrounding states. This makes me believe even more that Stalin was a horrible person and leader in Soviet Russia’s history. Overall, my judgment of Joseph Stalin in Soviet Russian history is that he was a horrible leader who caused the death of many innocent people. He was hypocritical, ruthless and harsh to the people he ruled. I think that many people probably have different opinions about how much of an impact Stalin actually had on Russian history, but I believe that without him, things would have been completely different. Even though Adolf Hitler still would have caused the Holocaust, Stalin would not have been there to increase the number of deaths. This is how I would judge Joseph Stalin’s place in Soviet Russia’s history.

The Differences Between International Financial Reporting Standards Ifrs And Current U S Gaap Accounting Essay

The Differences Between International Financial Reporting Standards Ifrs And Current U S Gaap Accounting Essay The differences between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and current U.S. GAAP are numerous. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are principles-based Standards, Interpretations and the Framework (1989) adopted by the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB). Many of the standards forming part of IFRS are known by the older name of International Accounting Standards (IAS). IAS was issued between 1973 and 2001 by the Board of the International Accounting Standard Committee (IASC). On 1 April 2001, the new IASB took over from the IASC the responsibility for setting International Accounting Standards. During its first meeting the new Board adopted existing IAS and SICs. The IASB has continued to develop standards calling the new standards IFRS. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is a term used to refer to the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting used in any given jurisdiction which are generally known as Accounting Standards. GAAP includes the standards, conventions, and rules accountants follow in recording and summarizing transactions, and in the preparation of financial statement. U.S. GAAP and IFRS differ in key ways, including their fundamental premise. At the highest level, U.S. GAAP is more of a rules-based system, whereas IFRS is more principles-based. This distinction may prove more difficulty than it initially appears, because most accounting and finance professionals in the U.S. have been schooled in the rules of U.S. GAAP. The overriding lesson from their years of study and work is this: If you have an issue, look it up. Under U.S. GAAP, voluminous guidance attempts to address nearly every conceivable accounting problem that might arise. And if that guidance doesnt exist, it generally is created. On the other hand, IFRS is a far shorter volume of principles-based standards, and consequently requires more judgment than American accountants are accustomed to. Companies involved in the exploration and development of crude oil and natural gas have the option of choosing between two accounting approaches: the successful efforts (SE) method and the full cost (FC) method. These differ in the treatment of specific operating expenses relating to the exploration of new oil and natural gas reserves. The balance sheet includes items that differ between International Financial Reporting Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles will be addressed first. Balance sheet items include assets (inventory, property, plant and equipment), liabilities (accounts payable and other amounts owed) and equity (ownership interest, usually in the form of stock). Inventory is any item available for sale or used in the production of an item that will be sold. In valuing this inventory, GAAP allows for First-In-First-Out, Last-In-First-Out, Moving Average and Weighted Average. These are the four main methods used. IFRS does not allow the LIFO method. In times of increasing prices and costs, inventory profits may result from using and inventory valuation method other than LIFO. These inventory profits result in improved reported earnings, but because the inventory profits are taxed, they reduce a companys net cash flow. Depending on the system used, inventory values, profits and taxes can be affected. To give you some examples, the financial statements of a company using the LIFO approach as opposed to FIFO generally reflect: * Conservation profits, because LIFO buffers the effects of inflation. * Better matching of current costs with current revenue. * Lower liquidity, that is, a lower current ratio. * Lower equity position, that is, a higher debt-to-worth ratio. (Gibson) IFRS takes this one option away. In addition to this, IFRS required that the same formula be applied to all inventory of a similar nature. GAAP allows for different methods to be used. Asset retirement during the production of inventory is accounted for as a cost of the inventory using IFRS rules. Whereas, GAAP allows for it to be added to the carrying amount of the property, plant or equipment used to produce the inventory. With IFRS this cost will stay with the balance sheet. GAAP would move it to depreciation which lowers earnings but increases free cash flow. A write-down of an asset is reducing the book value if it is overstated compared to current market values. If a need arises to reverse a write-down, IFRS allows it and GAAP does not. GAAP does not allow the revaluation of property, plant and equipment. It uses historical cost. IFRS, on the other hand, allows either historical cost or revalued amount (fair value at date of revaluation less subsequent accumulated depreciation and impairment losses). The rules concerning residual value have some differences too. Residual value is the amount you expect to be able to sell a fixed asset for at the end of its useful life. IFRS calculates it as the current net selling price and it may be adjusted upwards or downwards. GAAP calculates it as the discounted present value and it may only be adjusted downward. Next, items such as depreciation and leases will be addressed. Since these items are expenses, they will affect the income statement. Depreciation is an expense that reduces the value of an asset as a result of wear and tear, age or obsolescence. IFRS requires more work when depreciating items. Depreciation of assets with differing patterns must be depreciated separately. This means that each item would have to be accounted for separately. GAAP allows this but it is not required. With GAAP, all the depreciation would be able to be grouped together and listed as a total requiring fewer entries. When capitalizing an asset, GAAP only allows interest. IFRS includes interest, certain ancillary costs and exchange differences that are regarded as an adjustment of interest. Being able to include these costs will increase the value of the asset and provide for more depreciation. Land and building leases is another topic where differences occur. IFRS considers land and building separately and GAAP considers them as a single unit unless land represents more than 25% of the total fair value. A couple of other items worth mentioning are contingent assets and extraordinary items. Contingent assets are assets in which the possibility of an economic benefit depends solely upon future events that cant be controlled by the company. Due to the uncertainty of the future events, these assets are not placed on the balance sheet. However, they can be found in the companys financial statement notes. These assets, which are often simply rights to a future potential claim, are based on past events. An example might be a potential settlement from a lawsuit. The company does not have enough certainty to place the settlement value on the balance sheet, so it can only talk about the potential in the notes. IFRS does not recognize contingent assets, GAAP does. Extraordinary items include the sale of the subsidiary or the payment of a lawsuit. Extraordinary items are a liability that is unusual or infrequent in its occurrence. IFRS prohibits extraordinary items and GAAP allows them. Although rare and infrequent, extraordinary items can be substantial and being able to include them can have an impact on your financial statements. As you may be able to tell, both have their advantages and disadvantages where compared to the other. There are some items in which benefits are drawn from IFRS and others that GAAP provides. There is an ongoing effort to address the differences and come to a consensus. At some point, the two different set of rules may be combined into one universal system. Works Cited Deloitte. IFRS and US GAAP: A Pocket Comparison. July 2008. IASplus.com. Gibson, S.C. LIFO vs FIFO: A Return to the Basics. Oct. 2008. The RMA Journal. Hughes, S.B. and Sander, J.F. A U.S. Managers Guide to Differences Between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. 2007. Management Accounting Quarterly. Kumar, S. Differences Between IFRSs and US GAAP. 26 July 2006. Caclubindia. PriceWaterhouseCoopers. IFRS and US GAAP: Similarities and Differences. Sept 2008. PWC.com. Inventory IFRS information on inventory can be found in IAS 2 and in Chapter 8 of the Wiley IFRS 2010 book. GAAP information on inventory can be found in ASC 330 and in Chapter 9 of the Wiley GAAP 2010 book. GAAP Definition (ASC 330-10-20): The aggregate of those items of tangible personal property that have any of the following characteristics: a.) held for sale in the ordinary course of business; b.) in process of production for such sale; c.) to be currently consumed in the production of goods or services to be available for sale. IFRS Definition (IAS 2): Items that are held for sale in the ordinary course of business; in the process of production for such sale; or in the form of materials or supplies to be consumed in the production process or in the rendering of services. GAAP IFRS |Allowable costing methods include FIFO, average cost, and LIFO |Allowable costing methods include FIFO and the weighted-average | | |cost. LIFO costing is prohibited | |Presentation at lower of cost or market required |Presentation at lower of cost or net realizable required | |Only in rare instances (mining of gold, etc.) are presentation |Certain defined situations, including agricultural products, | |at fair value in excess of cost permitted |permit reporting at fair value in excess of actual cost | |Lower of cost or market adjustments cannot be reversed |Lower of cost or market adjustments must be reversed under | | |defined conditions | |Recognition in interim periods of inventory losses from market |Recognition in interim periods of inventory losses from market | |declines that reasonably can be expected to be restored in the |declines that reasonably can be expected to be restored in the | |fiscal year is not required |fiscal year is required | Net realizable value is the estimated selling price in the ordinary course of business less the estimated costs of completion and the estimated costs necessary to make the sale (IAS 2). Presently, there are two sets of accounting standards accepted for international use U.S. GAAP and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). US GAAP or simply GAAP are accounting rules used to prepare, present, and report financial statements for a wide variety of entities, including publicly-traded and privately-held companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private, not-for-profit organization whose primary purpose is to develop GAAP within the United States in the publics interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. On the other hand, the second set of accounting standard is IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), which is issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), based in London. Nearly 100 countries use it or coordinate their financial instruments. These countries or groups of countries include the European Union, Australia, and South Africa. While some countries require all companies to adhere to IFRS, others merely allow it, or try to coordinate its own countrys standards to be similar. The IASB is working toward this goal in a partnership with some of the most influential accounting standard-setters across the globe. The globalization of business and finance has led more than 12,000 companies in more than 100 countries to adopt IFRS. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been taking steps to set a date to allow U.S. public companies to use IFRS, and perhaps make its adoption mandatory. In fact, on November 14, 2008, the SEC released for public comment a proposed roadmap with a timeline and key milestones for adopting IFRS, beginning in 2014. IFRS website states that the convergence between IFRS and US GAAP brings some benefits. Growing interest in the global acceptance of a single set of robust accounting standards comes from all participants in the capital markets. Many multinational companies and national regulators and users support it because they believe that the use of common standards, in the preparation of public company financial statements, will make it easier to compare the financial results of reporting entities from different countries. They believe it will help investors better understand opportunities. Large public companies with subsidiaries in multiple jurisdictions would be able to use one accounting language company-wide and present their financial statements in the same language as their competitors. Another benefit some believe is that in a truly global economy, financial professionals, including CPAs, will be more mobile, and companies will be able to easily respond to the human capital needs of their subsidiaries around the world. According to aicpa.com, the most important specific differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ IFRS does not permit Last In, First Out (LIFO) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ IFRS uses a single-step method for impairment write-downs rather than the two-step method used in U.S. GAAP, making write-downs more likely à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ IFRS has a different probability threshold and measurement objective for contingencies à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ IFRS does not permit debt for which a covenant violation has occurred to be classified as non-current unless a lender waiver is obtained before the balance sheet date Based on my research, I have read from some SEC and AICPA critics and also individuals in favor of the introduction of IFRS in U.S. Most of common critics against the adoption of IFRS focus on similar areas. Remi Forgeas, a CPA states in article published in AICPA website his critics: The usual difference noted between GAAP and IFRS is that the former is rule-based whereas the latter is principle-based. This principle-based concept generates concerns that it will be more difficult for a preparer to defend its position in case of litigation. Another point for discussion is the risk to see the standard setter becoming less independent and/or that the U.S. having less control on their accounting standards. The cost and the duration of the transition are often presented as a major hurdle, especially in this difficult economic environment. The complexity of the transition and then its cost will depend for the most part upon the completion of the convergence. The convergence process is expected be completed in 2011. Assuming the SEC decides on 2015 for the year of transition, changes for companies should be less complex, since both standards will be converged. Finally, the last issue is the human factor: are the preparers, users, auditors à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ experienced enough in IFRS? There is no doubt that specific training will be required to ensure IFRS are known by various categories of people dealing with IFRS. Focusing on the situation today is probably not the right approach: true there is today a lack in knowledge, but the situation is evolving rapidly. People favoring the introduction of IFRS in the U.S. states that the harmonization of financial reporting around the world will help raise the confidence of investors, generally, in the information they are using to make their decisions and assess their risks. The opposite is perhaps the clearer case. If accounting for the same events and information produces radically different reported numbers, depending on the system of standards that are being used, then it is self-evident that accounting will be increasingly discredited in the eyes of those using the numbers. For those companies with joint listings in both America and another country, there should be substantial savings, particularly in terms of preparation costs. Avoiding the burdensome U.S. GAAP reconciliation statement, required at present, would be a worthwhile prize. The good reasons why convergence with the U.S. should be pursued has been noted. There is, however, a downside to all of this for IFRS many people also believe that U.S. GAAP is the gold standard, and something will be lost with the full acceptance of IFRS. Other disadvantages are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Extra costs in the preparation of financial statements by all IFRS companies implementing new requirements and restating previously reported numbers. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Changes have to be communicated and understood by all of those involved in preparing the accounts, auditing them and using them. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Translations of the amended standards are required for the many languages in which IFRS are applicable. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The changes have to be approved by the various national endorsement authorities and often incorporated into their legal systems. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Continuous piecemeal changes undermine the reputation of IFRS. Some might justifiably ask why high quality standards need such frequent amendments. WORKS CITED AICPA IFRS Resources ifrs.com December 11, 2010. Web Accounting Standard Codification fasb.org December 11, 2010. Web Epstein, Barry. Nach, Ralph and Bragg, Steven GAAP 2010. New Jersey: Wiley, 2009. Print. United States Accounting Standards vs International Accounting Standards June 21, 2009 Introduction This research project will inform the reader of the difference between the United States accounting standards and International accounting standards. The United States uses the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to issue financial reporting procedures. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). There are proposals for the United States to adopt the International standards. Financial reporting procedures are debated about the United States using the Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP) or following the global procedures. This project will also examine, compare, and contrast this debate. Discussion of Topic In an article by Heidi Tribunella (2009), U.S. GAAP is considered rules based. Rules-based accounting standards, on the other hand, give strict rules that must be adhered to in order to properly account for particular transactions. For example, lease accounting in the United States gives four criteria for determining if a lease is a capital lease. If a lease contains any of the following, then it is considered a capital lease and must be accounted for as such: 1 ) a bargain purchase option; 2) ownership transfers at the end of the lease; 3) minimum lease payments with a present value of at least 90% of the FMV of the asset; or 4) a lease length of at least 75% of the economic life of the asset. This is an example of very specific rules for accounting for leases (Tribunella, 2009). Tribunella (2009) goes on to explain International accounting standards, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which was created in 200l. Previously, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), founded in 1973, issued International Accounting Standards (IAS). When the IASB was created, it adopted the IAS and continued the work of the IASC (Tribunella, 2009). Gary K. Meek and Wayne B. Thomas (2004) explain the influence of the IASB on the global reporting standards including the U.S. GAAP. In 2000, the International Organization of Securities Commissioners (IOSCO), of which the SEC is a member, recommended to member countries that IASC standards be used in cross-border offerings and listings. The enforcement of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by exchange regulators will be crucial to the eventual acceptance of the IFRS around the worldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦In October2002, the IASB and the Financial Standards Accounting Board (FASB) issued a memorandum of understanding, which formally stated their commitment to the convergence of IFRS and U.S. GAAP (Meek and Wayne, 2004). Jose Marrero and Thomas Brinker (2007) explain the efforts of the IASB and the FASB to merge their practices. Over the last two decades, research indicates that developing a framework of global accounting standards favors the recognition of culture. Cultural differences will impact a nations final consensus regarding accounting standards. However, after years of discussion, a solution to the dilemma of merging culture or international cultures and accounting standards has yet to be found. Currently, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the FASB are working on a principle-based framework for global financial reporting standards the cooperation of both the IASB and FASB will yield a uniform body of accounting standards allowing financial and investment advisers to view global investment opportunities on a more level playing fieldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Marrero and Brinker, 2007). They also point out why certain business owners may not want to follow global practices, Further, business owners are unwilling to abandon their localized business practices to appease the accounting standards imposed on the multinational companies, much less their bookkeeping and financi al reporting standards to the jurisdiction of a U.S.-dominated accounting standard board (Marrero Brinker, 2009). David Bogoslaw (2008) talks about the convergence in further detail, The uproar over fair value accounting practices, which some critics have blamed for the depths of the global financial crisis, threatens to sink a long-sought move by countries around the world toward a single set of international financial reporting standards (IFRS). The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been working with Londons International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) since 2002 toward what accounting professionals call convergence. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to announce its road map for conversion sometime this month, which will probably include early adoption in 2010 for about 110 of the largest U.S. companies with business operations throughout the world. The key difference between U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and IFRS is that U.S. standards are based on explicit rules while the international standards reliance on principles gives companies more room to use their judgment in deciding how to recognize r evenue and other key metrics. Adoption of IFRS would also probably trigger a big tax hike for U.S. companies, which would no longer be able to use the last-in-first-out [LIFO] inventory accounting method, which doesnt exist under the international standards. The LIFO method assumes that goods purchased most recently are sold first and that the remaining items have been purchased at earlier periods, yielding a lower gross profit during high-inflation periods than the first-in-first-out accounting method (Bogoslaw, 2008). The main debate over switching accounting practices is further explained by Bogoslaw (2008) by stating, The debate over switching to accounting standards based on something less explicit than rules comes down to questions about whether the less explicit standard will provide adequate protection against lawsuits, says James Leisenring, director of technical activities in research at the FASB. You cant understand the debate about gratuitous vs. obligatory guidance (within IFRS) until you understand the litigation system in the U.S., where companies are more concerned about getting sued than in other parts of the world, he says. What its really about is safe harbors. What (IFRS skeptics) really want to know is if I do it in a particular way, am I home free or not? The explicit rules under GAAP may appear to offer safety, but the downside is there are so many of them that the odds of missing one or two are greater, he says. From Leisenrings perspective, the big accounting firms that are drawn to IFRS believe theyll get sued less since it will be harder to point to their mistakes. White agr ees that some companies like the freedom allowed under IFRS to interpret standards to suit their convenience, which undercuts auditors ability to prohibit certain accounting choices (Bogoslaw, 2008). Bogoslaw (2008) explains two sides of the criticism this switch has been receiving. Many are for it, but some are against it. The most strident critics of migration to IFRS argue that the primary goal of the SEC and U.S. Treasury Dept. is attracting capital to U.S. markets, rather than ensuring that the highest quality accounting standards prevail. While attracting more capital to the U.S. is a valid business objective, its not clear we can do that by going to international financial reporting standards, says Ashwinpaul Sondhi, president of A.C. Sondhi Associates in Maplewood, N.J., who has served on CFA Institute committees. Paul Miller, a professor of accounting at the University of Colorado, would prefer to have competing standards, since the only standards all countries would be able to agree on would be very weak ones. He also believes a unified set of standards, rather than being helpful, would stifle much-needed innovation given that most of the existing accounting standards are more than 60 years old (Bogoslaw, 2008). Adam Pieniazek (2007) wrote in a research paper about the comparison and contrast of U.S. GAAP and International Accounting standards, Due to the uncertainty of what the future American accounting standard will be, individuals and organizations in the US, would rather have the FASB pick one of the options and declare that it will stick with it, rather than debate for eons over the positive and negative aspects of the principles and rules based approach. As many prominent countries are already using the International Financial Reporting Standards, the representatives of American accounting must act now to align us with the IFRS; otherwise we face potentially being shut out from the formation process of these standards which will affect all international companies. The FASBs cooperative work with the IASC will result in a true Global GAAP; once the IFRS is aligned with the U.S. GAAP system, the American companies will issue statements according to the IFRS, as the SEC has declared that it will remove the reconciliation requirement once it is satisfied that IFRS are of a sufficient standard. The completion of convergen ce will be a boost to the global economy, and inherently, all underlying economies, as it will standardize the practice of accounting, allowing more work to go into principles and theory research, and increase the pool of available and applicable accountants. No longer will investors have to reconcile financial statements to an accounting style they are familiar with and neither will accountants have to prepare statements differently in various countries (Pieniazek, 2007). Conclusion United States Accounting Standards and International Accounting Standards are two different practices in financial reporting, that come from different bases. These two practices are being worked on to converge and use a Global accounting standard. This convergence is creating much criticism. There are many countries that are currently using the International standards, and many more are starting to join. The FASB and IASC are working together to converge by 2010. This convergence will also make it easier for accounts to prepare financial statements reporting United States and International transactions.

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer †Tribulations :: Adventures Tom Sawyer Essays

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer – Tribulations Mark Twain uses "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer" to reveal his own childhood. In the preface Mark Twain states "Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from real life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual - he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture." This is Mark Twain's "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer". From this point we begin our tour through the Adventures Of Tom Sawyer's life, accompanied by his friends. It is the story about life in a boys' world and it discloses feelings of Mark Twain concerning his boyhood, his town and the people there. Tom Sawyer was a boy but not a genus that would describe good children as the protagonists. Tom Sawyer was a fiend yet he was never malicious, but always up to a trick or a practical joke of some kind. During the years that we view Tom Sawyer, a multitude of events had occurred. All of which are recorded in Mark Twain's style. Mark Twain composes in a picaresque style, Tom Sawyer's adventures being set out in an episodic journalistic report by Mark Twain. In "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer," Tom Sawyer, the lead character is seen as the protagonist, the hero of the story. "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer," also fits into the genres of satire, frontier literature, folk narrative and comedy. Every adventure is new and more stimulating than the prior episode. These adventures are from an adult who views the adult world critically and looks back on the sentiments and past times of childhood in a somewhat idealized manner, with wit and also in a nostalgic way. Critics have suggested several other sources for the novel, including South Western humorist, George W. Harris. This is an example of "escapism" from a society that Mark Twain had felt alienated from. Set in the old South West, in an almost poverty stricken shabby town, called St. Petersburg.

Goldeneye and computer

American cinema has changed as American culture has changed. This can be observed by focusing on genre movies produced during different time periods. A fantastic example is to analyze different James Bond movies. The James Bond franchise began with Sean Connery starring in the movie Dr. No in 1962 and is currently still very popular with Daniel Craig starring as James Bond, most recently in Casino Royale. There are some things that never change with James Bond, he always drives stylish cars, uses gadgets and gets the girl or girls.But stylistically the movies have changed as American culture has changed. An excellent example of this is by comparing From Russia with Love (1963) and Golden Eye (1995). Both plot lines deal with Russia and Soviet agents and involve travel to exotic locations. Many plot points are actually almost identical, Sean Connery seduces a Soviet defector and Pierce Brosnan has relations with a Soviet government worker. Both movies deal with finding or stopping an important device, the Lektor and the Golden Eye. Both films also contain unknown evil organizations, S.P. E. C. T. R. E. and Janus. (Broccoli, A. , 1963, Broccoli, B. , 1995) One of the largest differences is the roll of women. The females in Goldeneye are very active in the story line not only as love interests. Xenia Onatopp is the main assassin and second in command to Alec Trevelyan. Nataylia is a Russian computer programmer working with Goldeneye who first appears to be passive as she is the only innocent survivor from the massacre at her work. From Russia with love also has females but their actions are not on par with the men.Tatiana is a Soviet spy that eventually defects because she has fallen in love with Bond, but she doesn’t actually save Bond, her image is much more of the perception of woman from the mid 1900s. The woman was just beginning to become independent and self-reliant. During Goldeneye and the future modern Bond films woman can take care of themselves and they even save Bond! During the Bond era of For Russia with Love women were still very much eye-candy and caused trouble, they haven’t gotten to the point of saving Bond. (Broccoli, A. , 1963, Broccoli, B. , 1995)Do to the advancement of cinematography the stunts are bigger and louder and the gadgets are even more complex and cool. In For Russia with Love James Bond is looking for Lektor a cipher machine used by the Soviet’s. In Goldeneye Bond is trying to find the Goldeneye, a satellite system with killer capabilities. Pierce Brosnan manages to take out Russian buildings with a tank and a Russian armored train. This really is an example of how technology has developed and been incorporated into films.Computers play a large part of Goldeneye and computer usage had not become popular yet during the 1960s and is not featured in From Russia with Love. At the time of From Russia with Love a cipher machine would be very important, where as during Goldeneye space technol ogy has advanced and weapons threat has become very advanced. Bond and Tatiana do travel by train but it is a passenger train, no secret armored vehicle. The clothes, cars and music of the times are incorporated into the films.Despite the fact that Golden is supposed to take place in the mid 1980s the clothes, except for the uniforms are very modern from ten years or so in the future. During From Russia with Love the clothes are very mush from the 1960s and traditional of what one thinks of when they picture Russia. Large thick coats with fur collars, very Dr. Zhivago. (Broccoli, A. , 1963, Broccoli, B. , 1995) Even the quality of the picture and influence of new cameras has an effect on the style of film. Both films are good quality but the more modern films are sharper, you can almost see the influence and advances made using digital images.It is a fascinating time to watch the James Bond films in succession as you see how American culture influences almost all parts of the film e ven down to the costumes. The basic plot lines contain some very similar scenarios but the role of women, influence of technology and advancement of weapons make it possible to place the time period in which each movie was produced. References; Broccoli, A. , (producer), Young, T. , (director), From Russia with Love, USA, MGM, 1963 Broccoli, B. , (producer), Campbell, M. , (director), Goldeneye, USA, MGM, 1995

Social Work Management and Its Relevance to the Social Work Profession

SOCIAL WORK MANAGEMENT AND ITS RELEVANCE TO THE SOCIAL WORK PROFFESSION LAUREN DA SILVA Introduction. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 The social work profession †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Definition of management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. {text:list-item} What is social work management?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Case Study: Management in One Way Community Services†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 13 {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 9 Appendix 1†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 20 List of Sources†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 21 INTRODUCTION: Management and the study and refinement of management sciences are by no means a recent field of study. Basically, as long as human beings have been organizing themselves in groups to fulfil a common purpose or goal, some form of management has been employed to keep things under control, running smoothly and more effectively. In fact, one of the earliest recordings of a management technique can be found in the Christian Bible in chapter 18 (verse 25) of the book of Exodus where after encountering numerous problems resulting from being the only direct report to millions of Israelite people, Moses decides to â€Å"choose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens† (Exodus 18:25 New International Version). Considering management has been used by human civilization since the beginning of its existence (even if it is done completely unwittingly), I find it rather surprising that management as a field of study has only been in existence since around 1890, when Frederick Taylor developed the â€Å"Scientific Management Theory†, which characterized the emphasis on scientific measurement of tasks and use of highly mechanized, assembly line and routine activities by workers (Very Brief History of Management Theories). From between 1930 and 1950; Taylor’s management theory began to give way to Max Webber’s â€Å"Bureaucratic Management Theory†. He â€Å"focused on dividing organizations into hierarchies, establishing strong lines of authority and control† (Very Brief History of Management Theories) and emphasized detailed, standardized operational structures with very little room for flexibility (Very brief history of management theories). From then on human rights groups like trade unions began to heavily influence governments which in turn began creating legislation which reacted to these inhuman management structures. Human resource divisions were added to companies and it became common to relate the prosperity of the organization to the wellbeing of its employees. Added to this, breakthroughs made in the human sciences fields of study played a strong role in helping management to understand and take into consideration the needs of workers (Very brief history of management theories). So, with the momentum that management as a field of study has gained over the past century and the mark that it has left on organizational functioning (hopefully for the better) as it has developed, it’s relevance to the social work profession is an important topic of discussion. Over the course of this assignment I will be critically discussing social work management and its relevance to the social work profession. I will also use a case study to explain how management influences the effectiveness and efficiency within One Way Community Services (the non profit organization with which I have been placed for my practical work for this year). I will start off by introducing the social work profession as it will be discussed in this essay, specifically within the context of non-profit organizations. I will then define management as it is applied to both for and non -profit organizations and how these practices influence the success of non profit organizations. Then, I will define social work management specifically and its relevance to the social work profession. Finally I will discuss the influence of social work management on social welfare service effectiveness within the non-profit organization with whom I have been placed for my practical work (One Way Community Services) before I conclude with some final thoughts on social work management. THE SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION In order to understand the relevance of social work management to the social work profession, I feel that it is of importance to have a clear understanding of the history of the social work profession, how it is currently defined and the context it operates in. {text:list-item} {text:list-item} When Christianity was legalized by Emperor Constantine the first, the church started setting up poor houses, orphanages and homes for the aged and these were funded in part with grants from the Roman Empire. By 590, the early church had an established system of circulating food and consumables to the poor. In the Middle Ages, giving to the poor was considered part of one’s religious duty and although it was common to give items like food and clothing, the root causes of poverty however, were never addressed (History of Social work – Wikipedia). {text:list-item} As a profession, social work began in the 19th century in America and the United Kingdom – mainly because the poor were seen as threatening to the social order. When the industrial revolution began, the leap in technology and science also led to increased migration to urban areas which in turn lead to increased social problems which naturally lead to an increase in social activism. The settlement movement, during this time focused on the causes of poverty – Research, reform and residence. They provided educational, legal and health services that advocated reforms in social policy. Workers in the settlement movement pioneered the immersement of workers in the culture of those they were helping. Two pioneers in the establishment of social work as a profession were Mary Richmond (Mary Richmond's Charity Organization Society) and Jane Addams (Jane Addams's Settlement House Movement). They debated whether or not problems should be taken from a scientific method (Richmond) or immersion into the problem which blurred the boundary between professional and client (History of Social Work – Wikipedia). The first social work class was offered at the University of Columbia in 1898 and in 1947 Lindeman â€Å"affirmed criteria† by which it could be seen as an actual profession. In 1957, Lindeman described social work as being a profession but on the lower end of the development continuum. Encyclopaedia of Social Work(in SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:3). After a few decades of the increased formalisation of social work, and an increased understanding of the skill it requires to understand people fully and to assist them in helping themselves (SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:4), Spiro et al (in SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:4) describes social work as having achieved a â€Å"full-fledged professional status†. Since then social workers have taken the lead in developing programmes and organizations that have made a difference in the lives of people in need (NASW –History of Social Work). 2. 2 CURRENT DEFINITION OF SOCIAL WORK The social work profession is described by the International Federation of Social Workers as a profession that; â€Å"†¦ promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. † (International Federation of Social workers – definition of social work) It is further defined by the National association of social workers as; â€Å"the professional activity of helping individuals, groups or communities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and to create societal conditions favourable to their goals. Zastrow (in SCK 102-X Study guide 1:57) Basically, social work profession definitions all point to people’s relationship between themselves and their social environments, a concern for social functioning, problems, needs, policy, institutions and wellbeing and ongoing interaction between individuals, groups and communities (SCK 102-X Study Guide 1:59). {text:list-item} The social work profession needs to und erstand the contexts within which it works (SCK 407-G Study guide 1:4), and for the purposes of this assignment, one of those contexts is the organization. Social workers hardly ever operate by themselves, in isolation of some sort of organization – most of the time the organization is a non-profit but it not unheard of to find a social worker being employed by a for-profit organization for the sake of the wellbeing of its employees. Organizations exist to meet the needs of people and as history has evolved, people have realized that human needs are better met with collective efforts (SCK 407-G Study guide 1:5) and social needs are no exception, thus social work is also practiced in organizations, particularly welfare or non-profit organizations (SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:5). In addition to this, social worker’s actions are sanctioned and accountable to these organizations (SCK 408-H Study Guide 1:3). A non-profit organization is characterized most importantly by the fact that the people involved for a reason other than benefitting financially (they are actually banned from doing so) and that a non-profit organization usually meets a need or goal of the public or a subsection of the public that supports its existence (SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:7). As mentioned earlier, one type of non-profit organization in which the social work operates in, is the welfare organization (and for the purposes of this assignment will be used inter-changeably with the term non-profit organization). Dealing with people directly The core activities are interactions between the public (customers) and the staff of the organization The results of the rendered service are difficult to predict There are many interested partied involved The organization is staffed by professional people all belonging to organized professions Organizations are highly dependent on their environments. Organizational factors influence how social work services are organized, delivered and evaluated (SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:24) and so it makes sense that the management of this organizational context would play a big role in the quality of social work services that are rendered, the next section we will introduce the concept of management and how effective management of a non-profit organization can improve its services before exploring how a specific type of management (Social work management), is specifically needed for the special challenges facing the social work profession within the non-profit organizational context. DEFINITION OF MANAGEMENT: Management is defined by dictionary. com as being: â€Å"The act, manner, or practice of managing; handling, supervision, or control: management of a crisis; management of factory workers; the person or persons who control or direct a business or other enterprise; skill in managing; executive ability. † (Dictionary. com: Management) It is also defined by Kroontz & Weihrich (in SCK 408-H Study Guide 1:6) as: â€Å"the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals working together in groups, accomplish efficiently selected aims. From this definition we can infer a number of things: Management helps to facilitate & guide the actions of people and the use of resources towards accomplishing a specific goal. Management is responsible for creating an environment in which people can perform optimally – thus increasing productivity. Management can be utilized in any type of organization Management also consists of 4 or so (de pending on the source) basic management tasks which are perfomed in order for every task that is carried out. These basic management tasks are: planning, organization, activation & control. text:list-item} Management has a number of benefits when used correctly in any organization, adapted from Weinbach (in SCK 408-H Study guide1:28) a number of which are listed below: Management provides a structure for employee accountability. Management provides a structure for employee discipline. Management provides a structure for the co-ordination of a number of activities by a number of people all resulting in the accomplishment of the desired goal. Management provides the structures and means for evaluation of employee and organizational performance. Management provides an indication of where the organization stands within the greater environmental context Management structures provide guidelines for employee behaviour Management provides a vehicle for the improvement and expansion of employee knowledge and skills. Aside from the many benefits management has for the organization as a whole, good management is also associated with a number of benefits experienced by employees. Here are a few as listed by Brian Amble (Benefits all round from good talent management): Employees feel more engaged by their work Employees feel more satisfied with their jobs overall Employees feel more satisfied with their companies overall Employees are more likely to have confidence in the future of the organizations at which they are employed Employees have a positive impression of the people in management positions – they believe that the work load is managed effectively and that people in senior positions value the input of all employees and see it as an important contribution to the success of the organization. Employees feel a strong sense of job security Employees feel that their performance is evaluated fairly Employees experience more feelings of personal accomplishment In summary, when employees are satisfied, productivity increases and when productivity is high in any given organization, it can be said with great certainty that the management of that organization is fulfilling its role in making sure that the organization is running as effectively and efficiently as possible, resulting not only in a more competitive organization but an organization that is a better place for its employees to work. WHAT IS SOCIAL WORK MANAGEMENT? Social work management is defined by Trecker (1971, in SCK 408-H Study Guide 1:6) as the following: â€Å"Social work administration (management) is the process of working with people in ways that release and relate their energies so that they use all available resources to accomplish the purpose of providing needed community services and programs. Here one can see that this definition that relates specifically to social work management but that the definition is exceptionally similar to those of management as stated in the previous section in the following ways: Both refer to the co-ordination of people and resources to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific goal. Both refer to the creation of an environment in which an organization and the people in the organization can function optimally (ensuring maximum productivity). On first glance it would appear that management and social work management are two terms which refer to the same thing, but that is not really the case. Although the functions of management and social work management are essentially the same, the difference is that in the case of a non-profit or welfare organization, although effective management is most definitely required, social work management is the ideal. This is because success for this type of organization requires more than just management, it â€Å"requires a breadth of view, rooted in social work knowledge and values† Teichman in Slavin (in SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:33). An article by Mind tools called â€Å"Managing in non-profit organizations†, states that managers need more than just management skills to succeed and that they need a clear understanding of the very specific nature of non-profit organizations (Managing in non-profit organizations). Teichman goes further to state that employing a manager instead of a social worker could actually have a negative impact on this type of organization. Teichman in Slavin (in SCK 407-H Study Guide 1:33). The purposes of a non-profit or welfare organization are best accomplished when someone has a professional social work education and some experience. This in combination with a strong identification with social work values and ethics AND training in management is ideal and exactly what a welfare organization needs to fully accomplish its goals in the most productive way possible (SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:33). {text:list-item} The relevance of social work management can be found when the unique challenges facing non-profit and welfare organizations and the wider context in which these operate are considered. text:list-item} A challenge facing social work management which does not exist in other organizations is the absence of the profit motive. In for-profit organizations the motivation for the existence as well as personal involvement in the organization is financial gain (profit), this motive does not usually exist in non-profit organizations as the organization exists to provide a s ervice to others and if workers are paid employees, remuneration is generally not as high as with for-profit organizations. For this reason it is fair to say that people choose to work in non-profit organizations because they identify with the mission and/ or vision of the organization or because they have other personal reasons for joining the organization (it is important to note however that this is not always the case and there are some exceptions). It is thus important for social work management to understand what motivates their paid team and to use this motivation to increase worker effectiveness and efficiency. Providing incentive that links the worker personally to the organizational mission rather than career orientated incentives like promotion might be more effective (Managing in non-profit organizations). A social worker in management is more qualified for this type of thing because social workers are especially trained in the art of understanding people in their totality and these skills can easily be used in different contexts including management contexts. text:list-item} In for-profit organizations, profit gives an overall measure of effectiveness and efficiency of the organization as it is concrete and easy to measure(SCK 407-G study guide 1:29). In non-profit organization it is not as easy to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization as firstly, each organization decides for itself (depending on its vision and mission) what the criterion are. Social workers have an advantage in that their understanding of human condition and the root causes of poverty and this might help them to quantify a way that would enable them to notice if the services of the non-profit organization in question have actually improved it. For this reason I believe that social work management is relevant to the social work profession. {text:list-item} In a non-profit organization income is not really proportional to how many people make use of your product or services in comparison to for-profit organizations where this relationship is directly proportional (SCK 407-G study guide 1:30). Non-profit organizations need to rely on grants from government and donations from other organizations and individuals in the public for the means to continue its existence (as adequate finances are indispensible for the increased frequency of service provision as well as the improvement in quality of these services). An added dynamic is that non-profit organizations normally cooperate with other organizations (discussed later), but have to compete for limited finances. This means that social work managers need to be very careful when using their resources responsibly, in a sustainable way and at the same time balance donor expectations (which usually involve wanting to see money go directly to the beneficiaries when a lot of money also needs to go into operating expenses)(Managing in non profit organizations). In addition to this social workers also need to master another skill which a manager in a for-profit organization would probably never need. I do not believe that a social work manager would necessarily be better at this task as in my opinion it would not really require skills specific to the social work profession but rather skills specific to financial management, public relations and marketing. {text:list-item} Non-profit organizations are also different to for-profit organizations in that instead of competing with other organizations that render similar services, it actually pays to cooperate with them. This is because a non-profit organization’s situation improves if ts clients are made independent of its services or if it has less customers than its capacity limit. It also ensures better service to the client. Cooperation with similar organizations is a good way to achieve this (SCK 407-G Study Guide 1:31). A special skill required for the social work manager is that of the ability to network and form partnerships with other organizations. This includes the ability to influence these relationships for the org anization’s and clients’ benefits (Management in non-profit organizations). text:list-item} Social work management also has the unique task of managing unpaid staff as in a non-profit organization, volunteers could sometimes out number paid staff. Volunteers need to be managed like any other human resource – staffing planning, job descriptions, performance management and evaluation as well providing appropriate awards and actions that could lead to the termination of services (non-profit specific management skills). In addition to this, a manager needs to manage volunteers and paid staff in such a way that ensures that all feel valued and motivated equally. Social work management is also more effective in terms of this challenge as in addition to management skills which they possess which allow them to create suitable job descriptions, planning the roles of volunteers into the organizational structure and managing them with the same professionalism as other volunteers, they possess skills needed to understand human behaviour and what motivates people, and then using this understanding to ensure motivation of volunteers as discussed in section 4. . 1. {text:list-item} In most cases, there is a vast difference in the availability of technology to assist in the accomplishment of organizational goals when one compares non-profit and for-profit organizations. In for-profit organizations, the application of technology is precise in its application and in non-profit organizations there is a wide range of responses to a limited number of techniques (case, group and community work). The technology used in social work is therefore very vague and imprecise in comparison, making it difficult to predict results and link cause and effect in relation to technology used in social work (SCK 407-G study guide 1:32). The social work manager’s task is to understand the technology used in the profession and also develop means to use it the most effective and efficient ways possible – minimizing its disadvantages and maximizing its benefits. The social work manager is also better suited to handle this challenge as the social work manager spends most of his or her time in professional training mastering the techniques mentioned above and so he or she is in the best position to understand them the most and thus use them most effectively. {text:list-item} Non-profit organizations possess another unique trait in that the climate in which it operates is very often emotionally charged and draining. Employees and volunteers very often become personally involved in what they do and their clients and although this sometimes does mean that they are highly motivated and committed to what the organization does, it also leaves them drained and sometimes traumatized by the situations that they encounter. This becomes a risk factor as it leaves employees demoralized and sometimes even desensitized by their experiences and their productivity decreases. Although workers at for-profit organizations experience some form of emotional distress at their place of work, it is the nature of this distress (usually stress related to the pace at which the organization moves and not the emotionally content of the work done) which makes it different to what is experienced at non-profit organizations It takes a wise and highly competent manager to negotiate this challenge in such a way that does not create a sterile and uncaring environment which at the same time does not create a space which leaves employees emotionally drained and exhausted. This, according to Jean Roberts requires an organizational commitment to reducing the possibility of risk by allocating resources to the identification, analysis and prevention of risk and monitoring the cause and effects of this risk and managing it effectively (Added Human risk for non profit organizations). Social work managers are once again better equipped at navigating these kinds of situations because of their knowledge of and probably their experience with the nature of the social work profession and the kinds of situations are encountered. A social work manager would need to combine the social work skills of empathy and the advanced skills with skills related specifically to management (creating structures and roles as well as allocating resources within the organization) to reduce the risk of this challenge without removing the personal nature of the work done in non-profit organizations. {text:list-item} Just as much as management in for-profit organizations need a strong knowledge of the laws and policies influencing the nature of the services and products that are rovided to the public, so the management of the non-profit organization needs a strong knowledge of policies and legislation that relate specifically to the kinds of services rendered by the organization (child welfare laws, fundraising laws, laws relating to non-profit organizational management structure) as well as policies relating to employment of employees, human resources and income tax laws (non profit specific management skills). In addition to this, non-profit organizations have an ethical responsibility towards improving and changing legislation and policy to better meet the needs of the people it is supposed to help and serve (SCK411-C Study Guide 1:66). Board members and management need to have strong working knowledge of the various agencies and organizations that influence legislation as well as rules and regulations effecting government and private funding – this is most definitely a non-profit specific management skill (non profit management skills). Social work management is best equipped for this unique attribute of the non-profit organization sector. Once again social workers are trained in the knowledge of legislation and policy that specifically effects the profession and the organizations in which it operates. This puts social work management in the position it needs to be in to not only react to these policies by complying with them and making sure that the organization stays on the right side of the law, but it being on the forefront of service delivery also allows it to be in the best position to make important recommendations to how policies and legislation can be changed for the betterment of the profession and overall, to improve the lives of the people who make use of these services. CASE STUDY: MANAGEMENT IN ONE WAY COMMUNITY SERVICES One Way Community Services is a section 21 company, non-profit organization, which focuses mainly on community development. It was started as the response of One Way Community Church to the needs it saw within its local community – the Vaal Triangle (which consists of Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging, Sasolburg and the surrounding townships). (One way Community Services Brochure). One Way Community Services was started 9 years ago and its emphasis is on community development, specifically in the focal points of children and HIV/AIDS. The organization is proudly South African and firmly believes in the â€Å"purpose and potential locked up in the lives of the people they work with† (One Way Community Services Brochure). They have six core values which they try and incorporate into everything that they do and these are: Unconditional love, compassion, faith, excellence, brightness and fun. Projects which are run by One Way Community Services include Ikageng Shelter for homeless boys, Khanya Khaya Home for abandoned girls, One Way Early learning center, Breakfast club, Princess project, Public Hospital play time and once off community renovations (more information about these projects can be found in the attached One Way Community Services Brochure). Currently, One way Community Services employs five full time staff members 2 full time volunteers. The management team consists of Ellouise Jansen Van Vuuren who is the managing director, as well as four other people from various spheres of the community (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). text:list-item} I met with the managing director of One Way Community Services, Ellouise Jansen van Vuuren who is a qualified social worker who was trained at UNISA. Ellouise fits the description of social work management as described in section 4 and that is why I decided to interview her for the purposes of this assignment. It is important to rem ember that while reading the findings of this case study that they represent the frame of reference (proposition 7 of the person centered approach) and perceptions (proposition 2 of the person centered approach) of Ellouise within the context of her organization (Grobler et al 2006: 50 &69). I have however tried as far as possible to indicate contextual information as such as it could have an effect of my overall conclusion at the end of this assignment. {text:list-item} When asked where her organization would be without management, Ellouise simply responded, â€Å"nowhere† (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). When I asked her to elaborate she said that management literally makes the difference between life and death for any kind of organization, no matter if they were for-profit or non-profit. She also said that the difference between a terrible organization, a good organization and a great organization usually has very little to do with the type of service it renders but the quality of the management. She mentioned further that administration and management keep the wheels turning in her organization and that one could have all the best intentions and resources in the world but if management was not there to administer them, they would not be used to their fullest potential (effectively speaking – effectively and efficiently)(Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). 5. 1. 1. The benefits of planning: Ellouise said that the management function of planning has helped her organization to increase its effectiveness and efficiency mostly in the area of how they use their finances. When it comes to government funding, the organization needs to submit a financial plan to the department of social development on how they plan on spending the money that they need almost 6 months in advance. This not only helps them to identify the resources needed for the next year but it also forces them to plan their activities and calendar ahead of time too (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). This means that things no longer happen haphazardly, but intentionally as the organization deems necessary. This type of planning allows the organization to be purposeful about its priorities. The things that they say are important to them and are priority for them to do to fulfil their goals and objectives (as well as their mission and vision) can now happen according to a schedule which allows them to be as prepared as possible for these events – this is because they know that they are coming and prepare adequately for them, and the more prepared they are, the more effective and efficient their services can be (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). . 1. 1. 2 The benefits of organizing Organizing by a manager at One Way Community Services involves meeting with people from different departments, meeting with the management committee and the marketing team and arranging with them the different activities that need to be done and who needs to do them. Ellouise, who is the managing director, oversees the various areas within the organization and is constantly concerned with the bigger picture and how every department fits in with the others but leaves the smaller details and nitty-gritty’s of running each department or project to the department or project heads. Each project head then has a team that works under them and so this ensures that Ellouise does organizing for the organization as a whole but each project has a team that organizes activities and responsibilities for that specific department or project (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). This ensures (as mentioned earlier), that Ellouise can focus on the bigger picture of the organization in that when she looks at the organization as a whole she makes sure that its meeting its mission and vision while projects and departments are making sure that they meet their own objectives (which contribute to the rganization’s mission and vision). Organizing in One Way Community Services also has an added benefit of ensuring service effectiveness and efficiency and that is because when jobs, time, departments etc are organized, things stand a better chance of actually being done. When things get done, service is delivered and when service is delivered in a certain way by certain people it is also e asier to evaluate which means that it is easier to improve (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). Ensuring that everyone has a specific role and that departments and projects are well organized also ensures employee and volunteer security in that they know what is expected of them. Ellouise has found that people who are unsure of what is expected of them and how what they do fits into the bigger picture, are less motivated and productive than their counterparts who have a clear understanding of where they fit within the organization and a specific project (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). 5. 1. 1. The benefits of activating Activating in One Way Community Services takes place by the setting into motion of the plans, people and departments that have been organized. Having everybody actually performing the role that has been assigned to them vastly increases the capacity of the organization. Ellouise noted that when you give somebody a responsibility, you need to be serious about it because a lot of the time people are given responsibilities as a token measure but they do not really functi on in it. She mentioned a simple example of telling someone they were in charge of answering the phone , sending faxes and making photocopies – if you are always answering the phone before that person and doing the faxing and photocopying yourself you are doing yourself, the organization and the employee or volunteer a disservice. For an organization to truly maximize its capacity and in doing so increasing its efficiency, you need to play people at their strengths and let them do what they are supposed to do. She said that if she was the only one doing the work in the organization, there would be no leading or future planning or big picture thinking and the organization would be limited to only what she could do – but when you start relying on other people to do what was planned to the capacity of the organization expands and you are able to do more (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). 5. 1. 1. 4 The benefits of control Control takes place in 3 key areas at One Way Community Services: Finances, staff performance and project progress (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). Financial control takes place via auditing of the organizations books which takes place once a year, an accountant on the management team that does book keeping of the books once a month, quarterly expenditure reports, 6 monthly progress reports, all the money that enters and leaves the organization (even cash), must go through the back account and there are 2 signatories and passwords on the bank account (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). All of these measures project the organization from financial mismanagement and it enhances accountability and transparency. This improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization because these measures ensure that funds are not easy to spend which means they are not easy to mismanage thus making them difficult to waste or spend unnecessarily. When financial resources are used optimally the effectiveness of the services provided by One way Community is increased and efficiency is improved (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). Control of staff performance is maintained through 6 monthly appraisals and weekly staff meetings. Management also does its best to create climate of trust amoungst the staff so that it is easier to talk about things (Jansen Van Vuuren). These measures enhance accountability between staff members and management but they also allow for the improvement of performance by staff members. Receiving regular feedback at staff meetings and more in-depth, specific feedback at appraisals are done in a very constructive way which encourage the improvement of performance and the development of skills. When staff members receive feedback in such a way that motivates them to improve themselves and how they do their work, effectiveness and efficiency of the organization improves (Jansen Van Vuuren). Measures that provide control for projects and different departments are department heads filling in quarterly reports which are submitted to the management team for review, strict policies regarding the spending of money and accountability measures which put project leaders directly responsible for money spent as well as objectives for each department and project which are determined before hand against which projects are evaluated. These provide a guideline for project leaders and department heads to keep track of their own performance and they know against what criteria they will be evaluated in the future (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). These measures provide both a yardstick for success as well as a means of using that yardstick. When projects and departments know how they measure success they can not only streamline their activities to meet their goals but they also have a means of evaluating their success and determining where to make changes if they are necessary. Any form of evaluation and positive change as a result can only hold positive results for the quality of the services rendered by the organization as activities that are evaluated and adjusted constantly, improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of those services (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). text:list-item} I will now discuss how Ellouise being a social worker in a management position improves the effectiveness and efficiency of social welfare services rendered at One Way Community Services. At the onset of our interview, I asked Ellouise if she felt that as a qualified social worker in a management position she had an advantage when it came to impro ving the effectiveness and efficiency of services rendered at One way Community Services, her reply was â€Å"definitely†, (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). When asked to explain why she thinks so she said that she had previously been involved in the management committee of another non profit organization and being the only social worker, she noticed that although her colleges had the best of intentions, their lack of understanding of the context of community development and how to properly identify needs, a lot of the time lead to money being put into projects which were â€Å"nice thoughts†, but made no real difference to the root causes of poverty or the real needs experienced by the people. Basically money gets wasted on good ideas when people do not have a proper understanding of the theory behind the profession. She went further to say that she wondered how much financial resource had been put into projects that made no real difference in the lives of people they were intended to reach and what kind of a country we would be living in today if management of some non profit organizations had some form of social work training (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). I will now explain the specific experiences One Way Community services has had with the unique challenges facing non-profit and welfare organizations (as mentioned in section 4. 1) and if social work management has been able to assist the organization in improving its effectiveness and efficiency as a result. {text:list-item} Ellouise agreed that the absence of the profit motive existed in non-profit organizations. The staff at One way Community Services are not motivated by corporate money or the ladder or promotion and success but she knows that every person does need money to survive (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). At One Way Community services, management uses principles of the person centred approach like self determination (proposition 4) (which Ellouise learned as part of her social work training) to handle problems that arise as a result of the absence of large salaries etc. They do not beg anyone to stay and freely allow any employee to leave the organization is not serving their needs. They also do their best to hire the right people for the job – people who are motivated by the desire to help others. This eliminates a lot of problems that can occur later. The organization also tries to keep their staff motivated by regular team building, staff meetings, socials and one on one chats between employees and management (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). I can see that Ellouise as the managing director has used a lot of the person centred theory she learnt as a social worker in the interaction with her staff, she however, doesn’t seem to think that her social work training has left her in a much better position than someone in management who has not had training in the field of social work (Jansen van Vuuren). 5. 1. 2. 2 The absence of the profit measure The lack of profit measure has proved a challenge for One Way Community Services management because outcomes of the services that they deliver can be very vague to quantify at times (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). Ellouises training as a social worker has however put her in a position where is better able to identify guidelines and objectives for development projects and departments that fit in with the theory that she learnt as part of her training which in turn fit in with development standards like empowerment of participants and encouraging independence in the organization’s clients. Objectives for the boy’s shelter and girl’s home for example include reunifications with families because the organization understands the importance of releasing people to independence rather than dependence on the organization. Ellouise has also promoted the importance of sustainability within the organization which is also something she learnt to be important during her studies (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). In this instance, it is clear how social work training can be used by management to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of social welfare services within an organization. text:list-item} The sources of financial support at One Way Community Services include grants from government, donations from members of the public and funds raised by the newly established marketing team (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). Ellouise said that her specific training for social work didn’t really help her in these areas. She agrees that it is a unique challenge that management in for- profit organizations would not have to face and that she would probably not have been trained in fundraising if she studied a management degree. She said that perhaps social worker students from other institutions received more input on how to raise funds and work with government funding but she did not feel that she did. She did mention that just being exposed to the social welfare context as a student may have helped her a little bit but she did not feel that as a social worker she had any real advantage over a manager without her training in social work and that she had to stumble around blindly for a while before she got her bearings and figured out how to go about things (Jansen van Vuuren 2010). I believe that the problem in this instance is not necessarily with social work management in itself but rather the training Ellouise received as a social worker. If I look at this case study in isolation, taking no other evidence from other organizations into account, I would have to say that social work management has not been able to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the social welfare services of One Way Community Services in this specific situation. text:list-item} One Way Community Services has a lot of relationships and networks with other organizations like the Vaal Alliance for Street Children, Over the Wall and One Life (to name a few). Ellouise says that networks play a big part in what they do and that they assist the organization greatly in the accumulation of financial, support and knowledge resources (Jansen Van Vuuren 2010). Once again Ellouise said that her training as a social worker didn’t necessarily prepare her for collaboration and that a lot of what she learnt about how to go about it and who to collaborate with, she learnt as she went along. She mentioned that in her specific case, what was emphasised more during her training was the specific approaches that must be followed and not really the day to day running life of organizations. She mentioned that her practical placements helped to prepare her a lot but in