Prevention of Falls in Elderly Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Prevention of Falls in Elderly Care - Essay Example The contributory factors according to the authors have been diverse and complicated. The risk assessment approach is based on the multicomponent risk determination and management strategy. According to Brown et al. (2005) there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that interventions which are effectively intended to prevent fall risk factors among elderly can be more result oriented. However the authors doubt the degree of prevalence of such evidence and its real impact on clinical practices and physical therapy. According to Brown et al, further there is a clear impact of the professional behavioral change on the related outcomes involving fall prevention programs among the elderly. According to a survey carried out by the authors among some physical therapists in Connecticut, USA, almost 91% of the respondents identified environment related risk factors, the gait and physical balance related deficits as the main fall risk factors. At the same time a remarkable feature of the survey was the fact that 82% of the respondents said that modern intervention techniques based on medication were responsible for effective prevention of fall among the elderly. ... The exercise based intervention was recommended to a selected group of participants. Their results showed a greater degree of improvement in the focus group while the control group participants had no any improvement. Yet again the authors admit that there were some significant differences in mobility and strength of participants alone with substantial presence of divergence in balance.According to recent research the risk factors of falls among elderly are not limited to old age only. For example female patients are more likely to have a fall than a mail patient (Barry et al. 2001). In addition to the above there are such factors as low weight, too much of self dependency, psychotropic medication, alcohol abuse, disturbed vision, disorders related to gait, diabetes, physical imbalance and environmental factors. However such extreme courses like hypotension and cognitive impairment cannot be determined with a realistic assessment. For example risk factors involved in falls among elde rly can be basically related to physical disability arising from a variety of persistent weaknesses. Therefore habit forming behaviors might lead to falls that might become a pattern.The consequences of such falls have been identified as both mild and far reaching. For instance the current literature on the subject identifies the severity of falls along with their frequency to investigate the nature of outcomes. Weak bones in the elderly have been identified as one of the major causal factors for relative severity and frequency of falls. Falls that lead to fractures in the proximal femur, are often regarded as severe and mainly attributed to weak bones

Gazprom One of the Largest Gas Producing Companies of Russia Essay

Gazprom - One of the Largest Gas Producing Companies of Russia - Essay Example UGSS assures steady gas supply from the wellhead to the end user. (Gazprom.com, 2008c) d. Processing: Gazprom Group’s processing segment is made up of gas and gas condensate processing plants (GPP), the enterprises of Sibur Holding, and the oil-refining capacities of Gazprom Oil (Sibneft). (Gazprom.com, 2008d) e. Power industry: Its strategic task is to become a world scale energy production company with one whole chain – from production to sales – not only gas but also liquid hydrocarbons as well as producing a wide range of end products, electrical power being just one of such. (Gazprom.com, 2008e) The global strategy of Gazprom is to become the largest in the world for producing and distributing gas to the entire world so that appropriate amount of utilization of the natural resources can be done. Datamonitor (2007) states that 2006 was the first year after Gazprom’s share market liberalization. During this period, OAO "Gazprom" capitalization increased by over 70 % and amounted to $270 billion at the end of the year. Gazprom has been developing a unique resource base, production capacities and pipeline system. This effort take taken the company as the world’s most reliable energy resource suppliers to enterprises, organizations, and individuals. They are devoted to a specialized and accountable advance towards the development of these resources and the supply of the markets both in Russia and globally. Gazprom is engaged in research and development activities to strategize important energy resources in cooperation with the most successful and responsible international energy companies. This makes them quite strong in their operations base and marks the strength of their strategy for further growth. Gazprom is constantly pursuing its business globalization strategy, and actively increasing the supply to the entire globe for its gas production.  In 2006, the company supplied liquefied natural gas to the UK, Japan and Korea for the first time.  

The Concept Of Teaching Practicum

The Concept Of Teaching Practicum Teaching practicum concerns preparation of teachers and its use has embraced all the learning experiences of student teachers in schools. The purpose of reviewing related literature is to explore ideas of teaching practicum. This review will discuss three main ideas, namely, overview of the concept of beliefs and teaching practicum, theoretical framework and related research studies. 2.1 The concept of teaching practicum Teaching practicum is almost universally accepted today as the climax of a teachers professional preparation in pre-service teacher education programs. According to the studies of Gower Walters (1983), the teaching practice programme is the major essential component in professional education. Teaching practicum is defined as those periods of continuous practice twelve weeks (depends on the particular teacher training college or university) in school constitute an obligatory part of the course in colleges or universities of education. This period of practical experience is also called by various term, clinical experience, student teaching, teaching practice as well as practicum. During the teaching practicum, student teacher conducts classroom lessons and performs the duties of a teacher in school. According to the Teacher Training Division Guidelines on practicum for pre-service teacher training (2005), teaching practicum provide opportunities for student teacher to practice theories in teaching and learning practices and to develop individual teaching and learning theories. The main aim of teaching practicum is to produce effective school teachers and not merely classroom teacher. Student teachers are also provided with opportunities for a variety of encounters with children in schools. This means that student teachers are not only know how to teach effectively in class but are also able to handle co-curricular activities as well. In short, teaching practicum programme is to equip future teachers with the essential experiences which can lead to the development of their professional competencies. Teaching practicum aims for student teachers to master and practice all the concepts, principles, skills and values in order to become a professional teacher. 2.2 What is belief ? According to Michaela Borg (2001), belief is a proposition which may consciously or unconsciously held, is evaluative in that it is accepted as true by the individual, and there imbued with emotive commitment; further, it serves as guide to thought and bahaviour. On the other hand, Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) define belief as information, factual, and nonfactual cognitions. Cognition is described as what someone knows or assumes to be true (Berkowitz, 1980, p. 275). No matter what is ones belief, the beliefs still play an important role in many aspects of teaching, as well as in life. It is because these beliefs help individuals make sense of the world, influencing how new information in perceived, and whether it is accepted or rejected. Nevertheless, beliefs differ from knowledge, although they are related to each other, in that beliefs do not always represent the truth. Beliefs are not only considered as discipline-dependent (Tsai, 2002), but beliefs also include understandings, assumptions, images or propositions that are felt to be true (Kagan, 1992 Richardson, 1996). 2.3 Theoretical framework 2.3.1 Teachers Beliefs Shulman (1986) claimed that a teacher needs to know about the subject matter, to know a variety of general instructional strategies, and to know about the specific strategies necessary for teaching particular subject matter. Most of us would also agree that the good teacher transforms curriculum goals and guidelines in such a way that a particular student is able to master and understand the related content. Dan Lortie states that ones personal predispositions are not only relevant but, in fact, stand at the core of becoming a teacher. Teachers belief is a term usually used to refer to teachers pedagogic beliefs, or those beliefs of relevance to an individual teaching. The areas most commonly explored are teachers beliefs about teaching, learning, and learners; subject matter; self as a teacher, or the role of a teacher (Calderhead, 1995). Besides that, teachers beliefs do play a central role in the process of teacher development. Those beliefs form part of the process of understanding how teachers conceptualize their work as a teacher. Tattos (1996, p. 155) important work on beliefs concluded lay cultural norms among enrollees are strongly ingrained and that most teacher education, as it is currently structured, is a weak intervention to alter particular views regarding the teaching and management of diverse learners. Another study shows that a persons belief system has pervasive effects in different spheres of activity- ideological, conceptual, perceptual, and esthetic (Rokeach, 1960, p. 288). In addition, Brown found that certain philosophical beliefs and educational beliefs were effective in predicting agreement-disagreement with experimentalism of classroom practice. Indications were that professed educational beliefs had a generalized effect on teaching behavior; specific fundamental beliefs were most powerful in influencing specific classroom behaviors (Brown Webb, 1968, p. 215). To support those beliefs, Clark and Peterson (1986) proposed that: The most resilient or core teachers beliefs are formed on the basis of teachers own schooling as young students while observing teachers who taught them. Subsequent teacher education appears not to disturb these early beliefs, not least, perhaps, because it rarely addresses them. If teachers actually try out a particular innovation which does not initially conform to their prior beliefs or principles and the innovation proves helpful or successful, then accommodation of an alternative belief or principle is more possible than in any other circumstance. For the notice teacher, classroom experience and day to day interaction with colleagues has the potential to influence particular relationships among beliefs and principles, and, over time, consolidate the individuals permutation of them. Nevertheless, it seems that greater experience does not lead to greater adaptability in our beliefs and, thereby, the abandonment of strongly held pedagogic principles. Quite the contrary in fact. The more experience we have, the more reliant on our core principles we have become and the less conscious we are doing so. Professional development which engages teachers in a direct exploration if their beliefs and principles may provide the opportunity for greater self-awareness through reflection and critical questioning as starting points for later adaptation. The teachers conceptualizations of, for example, language, learning, and teaching are situated within that persons wider belief system concerning such issues as human nature, culture, society, education and so on. Consequently, teachers belief about the importance of teaching have a great impact on their teaching practices (Salmon, 1988). The next section will look at teachers belief about teaching practicum. 2.3.2 Teachers belief about teaching practicum The term practicum is used generically to refer to the different types of school attachment; namely, school experience, teaching assistantship, teaching practice and so forth that pre-service students will be undergoing as part their initial teacher preparation programme. The school-based practicum is designed to enable student teachers to observe a teachers real work of work, and to apply and refine the knowledge and skills acquired through course-work in classroom teaching. Student teachers are to use the opportunities during the practicum to integrate education theory and practice and to widen their practical experiences. In the context of teaching practicum, a student teacher is expected to apply what they have learned theoretically. To maximize the utility of practicum, it is important that teacher trainers actively promote the effective learning during the practicum period. Effective learning should be concerned with the learning of organized wholes of knowledge. It is a process that involves developing the ability to identify the objectives one is seeking and, within a flexible framework, optimizing a programme to meet these objectives, in line with individual learning attributes. Effective learning also needs to achieve transference of knowledge from the artificiality of a training course, to practical application where the trainees adapts acquired knowledge to the perceived needs of a particular problem or situation (Robotham, 2003). Many researches claim that teaching practicum is a central element in most pre-service teacher education programmes. Many also debates about the assessment of the practice of student teachers often reflect ongoing philosophical debates about the nature of teacher education (Brown, 1996) and traditional barriers between teachers and academics (Groundwater-Smith, 1997). A set of written criteria used to assess the competence of pre-service secondary teacher education students during practicum. The dimensions of the assessment protocol did not appear to be based on any articulated theory of good teaching practice, and there were significant doubts about the extent to which the various groups of stakeholders had a shared understanding of the standards implied in the criteria. In education what we label as standards are socially constructed and frequently fuzzy (Sadler, 1987) and require the shared understanding of a construct in a community of practice (Wiliam, 1996). 2.4 Related Research Studies 2.4.1 Pre-service teachers beliefs about teaching practicum Prior to actual teaching experiences, pre-service teachers derive their initial views on teaching from at least two sources. Firstly, it comes from their personal experiences as students, consisting of their interactions with and exposures to various teachers throughout their school life, with such factors having a tendency to influence their reasons for career choice, as well as beliefs and practices on their professional lives (Ben-Petetz, 2003; Bramald, Hardman, Leat, 1995; Saban, 2003). Secondly, it results from pre-service teachers forming their conceptual repertoires as they undergo the formal training provided by teacher educational programs (Bermald, 1995; Dunkin, Precian, Nettle, 1994; Nettle, 1998), initially consisting of theoretical knowledge through foundation and methods courses, and eventually progressing or culminating into the application of such theories via the so-called practice teaching. Few studies have been done in pre-service teachers. The following assumptions are fundamental to a justification of practice as a part of the training of teachers: Teaching is behavior, and as behavior is subject to analysis, change, and improvement. Much of the habitual behavior which individuals have developed in other contexts is inappropriate for the teaching situation. Under present conditions, much teaching is conducted under conditions of stress. Teaching is an extremely complex kind of behavior, involving the full range of thought processes, communication and physical action. Teachers, through practice can learn to analyze, criticize and control their own teaching behavior. Practice has the dual purpose of training and the elimination of the unfit. Practice provides the experience which gives meaning to many other aspects of instruction in education (teaching). The beliefs of pre-service TESL teachers have may merit their own exploration. These beliefs may influence students in acquisition of knowledge, selection and definition of specific teaching tasks, and interpretation of knowledge, and interpretation of course content. Puchta (1999) asserts that beliefs are guiding principles of our students behavior and strong perceptual filtersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ they act as if they were true. On the other hand, Dunkin (1994) claims that how student-teachers views on teaching may be influenced by formal teaching practicum programme. Kennedy (1996) hypothesizes that real and effective change in teachers practices can only occur through a change in their beliefsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the way teachers behave.

The Reality of War and Death Depicted in Owens Poem, Dulce Et Decorum

If we look at the history of the world with a kaleidoscope, we can see the different aspects of war and what effect it had on the mind of different people and artists such as poets, painters and authors. Many poets romanticized war, luring it with their pen and giving it a beautiful look by glorifying death and obliging young blood to fight for their motherland. For example the poems â€Å"Peace† by Rupert Brooke and â€Å"Fall In† by Harold Begbie painted war with the highlights of glamorous and sensation. Apart from poets there are also politicians who achieved their aims with the help of war and violence while others who used the weapons of non violence to achieve their goals. The most famous example is of Adolf Hitler who took the aid of war to conquer the territories. The media also has a great impact on the mind of the public, like newspapers, televisions, radios arouses the public’s interest and motivates the young generation to join the army and fight fo r the nation. However, there are artists who look at war in its very naked form. For example the poet Wilfred Owen in his poem â€Å"Dulce Et Decorum Est† demonstrates that no sweetness or honor is earned in dying for one’s country, instead humanity is taken away during war. In the first stanza Owen uses strong metaphors and similes to convey a meaningful warning. The first line, â€Å"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks†, describes the soldiers tremendous exhaustion. They have been brought down to a beggar’s level and are being compared to low society. To reinforce this the speaker says, â€Å"And towards our distant rest began to trudge† (3). Everything seemed farther and so the troops desire for relaxation and peace. Owen uses metaphors:†Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots/B... ...Unlike other poets who glorified war and eluded people’s mind Owen brought the reality of war and death in front of people’s eyes. War is not just fighting for your nation and gaining victory, it is looking at death and inhumanity eye to eye and experiencing agony, suffering and reality. The name of heroes and heroism just remains in words but the reality is the inhuman situation faced during the war. In my opinion war is not a solution to all problems, there is no need for bloodshed, killing, violence and destruction. The problems, the difference of opinion and disputes can be settled by non violence, agreements and understandings. Mahatma Gandhi proved to the world that you can achieve your aim by means of non violence and peace. He rightly said: â€Å"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.†

Prejudice in to Kill a Mockingbird Essay

In the world people are always preconceived based on who they are or what they look like. Even thought it isn’t as big of a problem in some areas as in others, we need to fight it. If we don’t then it will continue to get more serious and at times lead to death. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Alexandra tells her niece that she can’t play with a schoolmate simply because of his class. â€Å"? You can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he’ll never be like Jem? Because? he? is? trash. ‘† (224). This prejudiced state of mind is the foundation for the plot events of the novel. By way of experiences, a young girl, Scout Finch, must learn about the part prejudice plays in the everyday life of Maycomb County. Through settlement patterns, justice, and social stratification Harper Lee reveals the ways of prejudice. The first instance of prejudice, settlement patterns, greatly affects how people of Maycomb are prejudged, not just where they lived, but also where they dwelled. The Ewells are considered the lowest class of Maycomb, aside from the blacks, which is shown by the fact that they live at the edge of the town, right next to the black people. â€Å"? He would show me how where and how they lived. They were people, but they lived like animals'† (30). The author describes where people live as a sort of divider among them, the Ewells not only live near the blacks, but also right next to the garbage dump. Not only was the location of one’s residency used to prejudice them, but also where they would dwell. The blacks’ church, as described by Scout, was, â€Å"unceiled and unpainted within? pine benches served as pews? there was no sign of piano, organ, hymn-books, church programs† (120). Through her description of the church, Harper Lee allows you to know, without having to read any other section of the book, that the black people of Maycomb are of low class. The people of Maycomb are so prejudiced that they live in separate areas of the town from people who differ in social class. Furthermore, there are two types of justice in Maycomb. There is formal justice, what the court or law decides, and informal justice, the decisions, or â€Å"verdicts†, the people of Maycomb make about other people. Both are often tacitly bound by a mindset of prejudice. When Jem is upset about the conviction of Tom Robinson, he asks his father how the jury could possibly do it, when he was obviously innocent. â€Å"? I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it? seems that only the children weep'† (213). Atticus means that only children become upset over a black man being convicted simply because of his race. While the older people are so accustomed to it that it is not even unexpected, let alone unsurprising. Likewise, informal justice is very hard for Scout to understand. She questions her father about why the Ewell children are allowed to skip school even though it is illegal. As Atticus explains it, â€Å"? Sometimes it’s better to bend the law a little in special cases† (30). People let the Ewells do what they want simply because they are Ewells. The people assume that none of them could ever become anything anyway, so why bother trying to force them to waste their time in school? The people made this â€Å"law,† and even though it is illegal, nobody fights it because there is an understanding about the Ewells. The people created laws, whether official or unofficial, that were based on prejudices. Last, the largest factor affecting prejudice, is social stratification. The citizens of Maycomb are very quick to make conclusions on a person based on their social class. People are immediately judged based on whom their family is. â€Å"Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land, the finer it was† (130). The personality of a person is already decided in the minds of many Maycomb citizens just by looking at what their family did in previous generations. In addition, if you are black, you are instantly considered trash and below everybody else. â€Å"It was all over town this morning that you were in the Colored balcony. Wasn’t it right close up there with all those † (214). This statement demonstrates how the people of Maycomb all assume that if you are black then you are lower than they are. The people of Maycomb County almost always jump to conclusions about people just because of who they are or their family is merely because they are so accustomed to it. Concluding, Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, uses many factors, including where people live, the justice system, and social stratification, as items of which her characters use for their prejudices. Through these elements, the plot demonstrates how easy it is to prejudge somebody. While discussing why people fight so much, Jem wonders, â€Å"? Why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? ‘† (227). People fight because they are so vastly different. The answer to the fighting, which is found in this quote, is to stop judging each other on our differences and to start looking for our similarities. We need to all try a little harder to not prejudice different people if we are to achieve the goal of improvement in our lives.

Applied Business Research & Statistics Essay

In the following, the learning team will revise the Business Research Project. The team will collect all the individual papers from week 5 and will incorporate the best elements into one team inferential statistics and findings paper and spreadsheet. The team will also note the strengths and weaknesses of their statistical findings. They will collaborate if there are any differences to find the best approach. The team will combine all the papers from parts 1-5 and revise all tables and figures. In conclusion, the team will summarize the results of testing the null hypothesis, with a clear statement whether or not the null hypothesis was rejected as well as provide the answers to their research question. The purpose of this research was to determine how performance is affected segment by segment at the Blue Bowl restaurant. The team’s research question in basic terms was to determine how to improve performance during peak guests count to better serve the customer on days that w here not normal operating days primarily Friday and Saturday. Every customer is referred to as a guest and guest count is used in all functions of the operations. Every 30 minutes management record the number of guests who have placed an order and compares that to labor costs which broken down in 30 minutes segments at $4.00 per hour. One such way was to record data every 30 minutes during what we determine was the peak or rush hours. The question becomes how to best capture a true and complete record of the number of complaints given to management. Below are the results we came up with. By using several research methods, the team discovered that there were potential problems that needed to be assessed to measure the performance of the operation. The strategic goals of the Blue Bowl restaurant must be identified for the workable design and execution of the data analysis. Additionally, candidate development must be aligned with  business development and constructively support the cultural, leadership and communication elements. By nature, the Blue Bowl restaurant will continue to evolve with the business needed over the long term and permeate through all levels of the restaurant. The variable is the number of guests complaints received during the most nights the Blue Bowl has an average guest count of 300 guests from 6pm to 10pm. On Friday and Saturday nights this total can climb to 400-600 which could mean an increase of 50% on both days. The team has decided that the removal of the obstacles on the staff will increase their productivity measured by the number of guests and income per hour. However, the removal of the obstacles on the staff will not increase their productivity measured by the number of guests and income per hour. Based on the information that was provided, as a group we decided on the above scenario that not only included a number of guests but also included the number of available working employees. The graph defines those segments when guest complaints occurred. In the graph you can see that complaints mainly occurred in the beginning of the increase, in the middle of the increased, and at the end of the increase of guests. The graph below defines those segments when guest complaints occurred. Above are the results of complaints received by guests to management during this time. You will notice in the first quarter and second quarter complaints are lower compared to the target population this would suggest that performance is good with regards to guest counts. However the team seen an increase in complaints in the third quarter suggesting that performance has fallen. This would suggest to them that with the increase of the work load the staff has lost a measure of performance resulting in complaints. It could also mean that management at the time was trying to cut cost by minimizing staffing levels. With staffing levels lower, more responsibility is put on the shoulders of one worker and that could be a very difficult task to retain high service levels. In the fourth quarter the team found that complaints have again fallen given the data collected which would indicate that the staff has regained performance and is operation better in this quarter with the same being true in the last quarter. As a result, of the results in the data and given the findings that performance decreased in the later quarter, the team believes that employees that are much better  suited for handling the increase. The decrease in complaints resulted from gathered information throughout the quarters. Managers were able to see different trends and were able to gather complaints from diners throughout the quarter. Upon compiling all the information together, the manager of Blue Bowl was able to make significant changes and continue with training thus the reason for the steady decrease. A random sample over the course of a few weeks produces 91 surveys or customer complaint cards. The observations produced a mean of x= 26.1 and a standard deviation to s= 2.8. Since the sample size is large the standard formula will be used. The equation will be 26.1 + and – 1.960 2.8 / the square root of 91. Once the calculations are done we can determine the calculations will be 26.1 + and – 0.58. Thus the 95% confidence level for u will be 25.52 and 26.68. This allowed us to determine that out of the surveys we received feedback on we can say that 95% of the data is accurate. With this data, we will be able to move forward with training and different courses of action to perhaps minimize the complaints that we receive during peak hours. From this data we can now determine what was happening during these peak times if we redefine our research question a bit. We can now ask â€Å"how many complaints where about incorrect orders and how many complaints where from too long of a wait from placing the order and when it arrived at the table?† Below is a chart with these redefined questions and the data which has been separated. So the inferences that can be made here is that the team sees the sharp increase that was due mainly in part to increased wait times and not incorrect orders being delivered to the guests. With this chart you can say that the statistic is regression and from the data you can say that the majority of complaints where in fact due to waiting periods. You can further say that the data infers that the next week’s guests will experience much of the same. Overall the team as a group found out from their data that not all concerns about the performance actually where related to employees. The team found that the great numbers of complaints where from guests that were unhappy about the wait to be seated. The wait time was increased by the guest who  remained longer than projected by management. Early on in their projects they stated that everything in the restaurant was driven by guest count from the food to be ordered, to the number of staff they have on hand to serve the guest, and even the number of kitchen staff working to fulfill the orders. When guests remained longer than one hour the matrix established failed. In their terms the null hypothesis was rejected. Management had few choices about decreasing wait time given the number of tables. If space is available in the dining room, staffing could not be increased for this reason as well. Friday and Saturday nights saw the most increases in our population size and affected our data the most. Another variable we determined as the cause was effectiveness of both the order taking and order fulfillment. Fatigue played a factor in the performance of employees as well as the unpreparedness of staff when increased order volume occurred. Ten Research Questions: 1. Were you greeted immediately upon entering the restaurant? 2. Once seated, how long did it take before your server greeted you? 3. Was you food/drink order correct? 4. How was the quality/presentation of the food/beverage that was provided? 5. How did everything taste? 6. Was the check presented in a timely matter? 7. Did you observe manager/supervisor interacting with guest? 8.Was the server/host knowledgeable about the items on the menu? 9. Would you recommend Blue Bowl Restaurant to your friends and family? 10. How would you rate your overall experience on a scale from 1-5? With 1 being poor and 5 being excellent. The strength was asking or being given responses directly from a guest and recording that data to find the core of the complaints of guests during peak times. This approach revealed wealth of information based on the perceived experiences from the customer, direct interaction and gathered information is far better than relying solely on a random survey which may not yield the same or intended information needed to accomplish the objectives. On the weakness side this information was solely the opinion of a guest and not backed up by data. In that respect the information has a likelihood of including false results based on an opinion. There was not any model in which to compare a base line from previous days  and not a system that could eliminate miss information such as failure of management to record complete and accurate details of the complaint which is amplified when more than one member of management recording data. Still this does allow for future studies to be completed to fine tune both the data gathering and interpretation of the results found. The team has also discovered during the previous weeks that our data began developing more variables such as the space in the waiting area and the number of seating available to seat guests, as well as fatigue of staff during peak times which affect performance. Yet the data collected does provide enough information to identify areas of improvement and those conditions for which the study was conducted. The simple answer could be to increase the waiting area to increase waiting space available as well as redesign the dining area to provide for more seating space. However, this would mean an increase in expenditures to make such changes which may not be financially possible. In conclusion the team has pointed out some of the strengths and weaknesses in their data. They believed that the process that they were able to come up with was going to allow the Blue Bowl Restaurant to continue high success and growth in the future. As a team they gathered data and performed different hypothesis tests to come up with different results. Charts and graphs showed the data that was collected and the variables that were tested. They thought that the complaints came from customers being unhappy with the employee’s service. In actuality it was because the customers had to wait longer to be seated. So as a team they found out that it was not the employee’s performance but prior guests sitting longer than projected. If there was more seating space in the dining room then this problem would not occur. This would mean that the Blue Bowl restaurant would have to expand and might not be enough finances for such renovation. As a team they figured out that they should have included the customers that stayed longer than anticipated as a variable in their tests.

The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essays

The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essays The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essay The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essay The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations JOHN H HANNAH III UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations This paper will examine the particular issues associated with the impact of outsourcing on public sector organization’s performance and employee commitment. As the move to outsourcing is part of a wider phenonom for flexibility in the organizational, structure, development and change paradigms of public sector organizations. This paper begins by examining the problems associated with an outsourcing strategy in public sector organization. Many counties within the US, have chosen to outsource the investment and operation of non-competitive public services, such as water and waste management, public transports, mail services, information and communication technology services, facilities management and road infrastructures. Outsourcing today has become an essential revenue and growth strategy for almost every existing corporation. It creates flexibility in the company, ensuring the maximum utilization of available resources within the company. It also offers corporations cost advantages and help free up their management resources. Orange county government-anywhere USA, requested the services of a Home Land Security Specialist to assist in the collaborative, assessment, development and strategic enhancement of it municipality’s Information Technology (IT) and Critical Facilities’ (CF) upgrades and security. Upon the completion of plan, expectations and deliverables, a series of introductions with Directors, Managers and Supervisors, it was apparent the federal dollars associated with the project was indeed the motive for the invitation. In my initial general assessment and development of a strategy, the organization handbook was the first critical reading which uncovered a mission statement, values, ethical guidelines and the organizational cultural premise. â€Å"The Mayor’s outline the vision, values and mission as simple – to serve. You have an important job to do as we work to meet the needs of our citizens. We ensure that roads are built and maintained; we protect environmental resources; we respond to crisis and emergency situations; we staff facilities that care for people; and we ensure that the quality of life of our citizens is protected our challenge is to build on the strengths of our diverse community so that everyone can enjoy the very best Orange County has to offer. We are committed to maintaining an organization where citizens are engaged in civic affairs, take ownership in their government and have input in the decision making process†. The following core values serve as our foundation: 1. FAIRNESS, 2. WORK ETHIC 3. INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER 4. EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION: 5. PROFESSIONALISM AND ACCOUNTABILITY (Orange County Government, 2012) . The role of the Security Specialist in this public sector organization is to examine the particular issues associated with the impact of outsourcing on public sector organization’s performance and employee commitment and develop a strategy to move this organization toward outsourcing initially in the areas of IT and CF. Provide an assessment and evaluation of the organizational readiness for change in the area of outsourcing. This paper begins by examining the problems associated with an outsourcing strategy in public sector organization in the form of an assessment. As public sector moves to outsourcing as part of a wider strategy to increase flexibility in the organizational, structure, development and change paradigms of public sector organization. Outsourcing helps organizations to be focused. Since the most valuable resource within management is time, once a process is successfully outsourced, the management gets more and effective time to explore new revenue streams, time to accelerate other projects and time to focus on customers. Traditionally executives spend 80 percent of their time managing details, and only 20 percent on planning and customer relations, in other words, a successful outsourcing process can help reverse this ratio. Outsourcing can also help companies to have access to new technologies that might not be used in their company. This is mainly because the outsourcers use the latest state-of-the art technologies to serve their private sector clients. And this might also increase the change paradigm shift and rapid migration of these companies to new technology. Outsourcing also helps multi functional areas and department of a public sector providing the benefit of 24-hour operational cycles and providing necessary services to their customer. The ever- growing pressure for increased productivity and profitability of city, county and state governments thus, the pressures to reduce costs and improve productivity are the main factors that influenced the beginning of offshore outsourcing. For example, the main advantages to move production to private contracting of products and services to reduce in-house human resources management cost. Hence, today outsourcing has become an attractive and powerful strategy for companies to reduce cost and improve performance. These models provide theoretical guidelines upon which valid and reliable organizational assessments should be based. All of these models provide value to management and human resource organizational leaders performing organizational assessments based on a internal aspects or a system theory evaluation approach (Erwin Garman, 2010). The McKinsey 7S Framework model is used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization closed system assessment. The model is based on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. So, the model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change. The basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful evaluation and assessment tool. The Seven Interdependent Elements of the 7s model are Hard elements (strategy, structure and systems) and the Soft Elements (shared values, skills, style and staff) (Waterman, Peters, Phillips, 1980) Burke Litwin Model (The Casual Model of Organizational Performance Change) – The Burke Litwin Model, suggests linkages that hypothesize how performance is affected by internal and external factors. It provides a framework to assess organizational and environmental dimensions that are keys to successful change and it demonstrates how these dimensions should be linked causally to achieve a change in performance. According to Burke-Litwin’s model, an organization may conduct a change intervention in stages as they relate to a specific focus in two stages â€Å"First order and Second order† changes. If an OD intervention is directed toward structure, systems, and management practice result, it can be considered a first order change, if interventions are directed toward mission, strategy, leadership, and organizational culture then result in second order change (Burke Litwin, 1992). The Marvin Weisbord-Six-Box Model (Weisbord’s Model) is designed to assess the functioning of organizations based mainly on the techniques and assumptions of the field of organizational development. The model represents a particular way of looking at organizational structure and design. It gives attention to issues such as planning, incentives and rewards, the role of support functions such as personnel, internal competitions among organizational units, standards for remuneration, partnerships, hierarchies and the delegation of authority, organizational control, accountability and performance assessment. The model also follows the basic systems approach to organizational functioning including the well-known inputs and outputs categories. The six-box model is comprised of the following components (boxes): (1). Purposes, (2). Structure, (3) relationships; (4). Rewards, (5). Leadership, (6). Coordinating technologies. The only disadvantage to this model is it s design to only address internal environments (Weisbord, 1978). An open system organizational development theory and (Burke Litwin) model will be utilized to conduct a diagnosis analysis planned change assessment to the organization. These changes are usually designed to address an organization problem or to help an organization prepare for future. It is the one method of quickly bringing change, which focus on human and social aspects of the organization as a way to improve organization’s ability to adapt and solve problems. The best theory is developed from practice; the best practice should be grounded in theory (Seeger, 2006; Brown, 2011). The Burke Litwin Model hypothesizes’ how performance is affected by internal and external factors. Public sector management occurs within a complex, dynamic system involving stakeholders, coupled with informational and resource material flows and behaviour that is characterized by interactions related to internal and external environments. According to Burke-Litwin’s model, an organization may conduct a change intervention in stages as they relate to a specific focus in two stages â€Å"First order and Second order† changes. If an OD intervention is directed toward structure, systems, and management practice result, it can be considered a first order change, if interventions are directed toward mission, strategy, leadership, and organizational culture then result in second order change (Burke Litwin, 1992). The theory of Organizational readiness for change is considered a multi-level, multi-faceted construct. From and organization-level construct, readiness for change refers to organizational members shared resolve to implement a change (change commitment) and shared belief in their collective capability to do so (change efficacy). Organizational readiness for change varies as a function of how much organizational member’s value the change and how favorably they appraise three key determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability, and situational factors. When organizational readiness for change is high, organizational members are more likely to initiate change, exert greater effort, exhibit greater persistence, and display more cooperative behavior (Weiner, 2009). References Bateman, T. S. , Snell, S. A. (2007). Management: Leading collaboratiing in a competitive world (7th ed. . New York, NY: McGraw Hill Irwin. Boland, T. , Fowler, A. (2000). 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