A Year of Wonders

Year of Wonders is a story of great courage in the face of extreme adversity discuss. ‘A Year of Wonders’, written by Geraldine Brooks is based during an era that represents a challenging time in history where original ideologies of religion is confronted by the effects of a catastrophic disease known as the black plague. Because traditional remedies through religious rituals proved ineffective, core beliefs were questioned and faith waned. How does one respond through such calamities where a cure seemingly ceased to exist?Strength, bravery and tenacity through specific females in the novel demonstrated how individuals can respond in an exceptional manner in horrific situations. As well as highlighting the constructive effects, Geraldine Brooks also points out how a dissimilar outcome can also be created where iniquitous behaviour is resulted instead. Despite this, it is clear that although the author acknowledges the negative results, she tries to emphasise the heroic a bilities instead through her narration of the novel ‘A Year of Wonders’.The heroine of the novel, Anna Frith is a symbol of hope. She represents the underdog, a character for which has no significant importance in society, but as the story unfolds and her town becomes the breeding ground for a deathly infestation, she rises above her original character, an ordinary maid, and is transformed instead into a hero for her community. Her subservience is illustrated through her selfless act in which she helps Merry Wickford, a young orphaned girl who lost her family to the plague.To prevent Merry from living a ‘bleak future in a poorhouse’, Anna embarks on a dangerous mission to attain the required dose of lead in the Wickford mine. Such an act held many potential dangers, although aware, Anna continued with her pursuit. Described as ‘the one good, perhaps, to come out of [that] terrible year’, Anna is a clear example of how arduous times can make â⠂¬Ëœheroes of us’. Independent, unconventional and unique are the words that describe Anys and Mem Gowdie. Their courage is shown through their decision to not conform to their community’s ideas.They represented a different group of women in their society, one who was not ‘a man’s chattel’ and was still able to ‘manage alone as a woman in the world’. Such behaviour was unheard of in their society, their differences were not welcomed in the town in which they resided and many despised them for behaving as they did. As tensions rose due to the death toll from the plague increasing, any ‘strange’ behaviours were questioned. Anys and Mem represented ‘strange’ but despite this, they stayed true to their character from start to finish.Only the brave can stand against the perceived normal, against the ideas of what is ‘right’ in the eyes of the majority and Anys and Mem are two symbolic figures who were b old enough to challenge the norm. Unlike the aforementioned, Aphra is a character who responds to adversity in a manner that can only be described as destructive and damaging. In the circumstance of plague in this time frame where cures were unknown, people become desperate for any remedies that may prove effective.Aphra takes advantage of these insecurities of fear and distress and exploits it for her own selfish gains. Posing as Anys Gowdie’s ghost, she deceives her community by selling fake charms at night which were assumed to provide cure to the disease but instead were merely a way to make profit of the situation. Another example demonstrating Aphra’s detrimental means to survive is through her most climatic experience, the death of her children.This is final event for which her personality is transformed dramatically where her rational is lost completely as a coping mechanism for the loss of her kin. Harbouring ‘a wealth of superstitions in her simple mind ’, the situation in which she is placed only further fuels these thoughts which eventually drives her into a state of insanity and hysteria. Her growing madness leads her to keep her child, Faith’s deadly corpse for torturous superstitious reasons and eventually to the most climatic event in the novel, the bloody murder of Elinor Mompellion and her own gruesome suicide.Through the character Aphra, Geraldine Brooks is able to illustrate how adverse times can also make ‘monsters of us’. ‘A Year of Wonders’ demonstrates ‘how people are changed by catastrophe’. These changes lead to the establishment of one of two persons; a ‘hero’ or a ‘monster’. Geraldine Brooks created characters such as Anna Frith and the Gowdie’s to highlight how individuals can use tragedy as the catalyst for good change such as valor, fortitude and tenacity.Although being largely based on celebrating such personalities, the auth or also takes into account of the opposing reactions. Aphra exemplifies wicked behaviour through her exploitative activities and corruptive mindset. Through this approach of contrasting two opposite reactions of the same environment, the story shows realism as it relates to how people of today’s society can respond to such conflict. By characterising these reactions, Geraldine Brooks is able to effectively mirror the responses of society in her powerfully dramatic tale.

Building Community Capacity

The chapter â€Å"Building Community Capacity† discusses models of community organizing stressing the importance of working together. I think the chapter raises important issues for our community because it promotes the ideas of collective work, collective interests and simply being together. The paper is very informative and analytic as it offers scientific interpretation of the issues raise.It is necessary to outline that the author is very persuasive as he uses logical arguments, opinions and suggestions to defend his position that community organizing should be promoted to bring people together, to foster interpersonal relations and to evaluate collective efficacy. I fully agree with the author that common self-interest is the primary reason in building community. Building community is important because people involved are interacting with each other either formally or informally as they are pursuing common interest.I know that often populist goals are incorporated to call people for affirmative action. Moreover, building community suggests developing leadership from relations among the people who are involved in the process. In my opinion, the main positive moments of organizing community are empowerment of the members, equal distribution of power, democratic governance, etc. Apparent strength of the paper is that author promotes participating in voluntary organizations.I think that participating provides members with opportunities to express their interest, abilities, talents, concerns and ambitions. Such people are helping other community members contributing them more valuable than monetary assistance. Volunteerism plays crucial role in community organizing because it is some kind of glue holding community members together and addressing their needs. Voluntary activities assist in nurturing and building new communities. As a result, friends, colleagues, or neighbors are working together pursuing the common interest.The author reviews the main mod els of community organizing (e. g. civic, women-centered, power-based, transformative, etc. ) and I think all of the models are important as they increase people’s understanding of the necessity to cooperate. Models address the issue of capacity building offering distinct approaches how to form social networks. The potential outcomes of the community organizing are sense of collective identity, mutual support, cooperative action, and expanded scope.Nevertheless, I am sure that one community is able to succeed only in several outcomes and will definitely fail to achieve others. In other words, community is unable to achieve mutual support, identity and cooperation at once. For me, sense of collective identity means that people are enabled to â€Å"perceive their shared fate† and it plays important role in developing relations with other community members. Mutual support is the most desirable outcome of community organizing because it makes people put needs of others abo ve their own interest.Our current world is certainly lacks mutual understanding and mutual support. Mutual support is needed when it is necessary to develop trust and understanding among community members. Cooperative action promotes group goals and working together as one community. Community members should share objectives. Finally, I think that expanded scope means that social networks are able to expand their capacity by connecting people and available resources with organizations situated outside community.In conclusion, I would like to stress that the main forces driving people to organize communities still remain desire of power and full control of the built community. In a certain way organizing is bringing new voices to the table. Nevertheless, I think that every person has a sense to belong to something. People are social and they need to belong to a community they are interacting in. While building communities, leaders develop not only managerial and organizational skills ; they enhance knowledge of public policy. However, not every person is able to become true leader.

Practical advice for business Essay

E-commerce has radically revolutionalized the act of selling and buying, introducing both speed and efficiency. It refers to the process of buying and selling goods and services over the internet. It stands for Electronic Commerce, referring to carrying out of trade transactions through the internet. The concept of E-commerce owes it roots to the 1960s after the introduction of electronic data interchange (EDI) . From the days of EDI, E-commerce has undergone many rapid changes that have seen it grow into an efficient instrument evidenced today; the internet. This is a technology that still continues to marvel humanity, it has reduced long hours of wait and long distances traveled to a click of a mouse over the worldwide web. E-commerce involves a multiplicity of varieties ranging from banking, marketing, logistics and many others. A website is a collection of interconnected files available on the worldwide web providing information about a specific topic or organization. It exercises the overfull combinations of multimedia texts, images and sounds. Access to these files requires the use of a web browser like the Microsoft internet explorer. Almost every organization or institution owns a website, with an intention of providing relevant information either to the public or to specific people. It is this website that has totally changed how business organizations are carrying out their trade. Advertising, marketing, purchasing and may other processes have all changed to embrace this modern phenomena and hope to increase customer satisfaction. A website is created with an intention of easing a customer’s access to information he or she may require from a particular organization. It should be attractive by designed, but not too flashy to distract the customer. Implementing a website simply refers to operationalism of it (www. bsinesslink. gov. uk). This is done after a website has been designed, planned and created. The first step in implementing a web page is to design a homepage that should load quickly. This can be achieved by designing a short page, but not too short such that it compromises on the subject of the site (www. rocketface. com). The images too on the webpage should also not be unnecessarily large; this is achieved through the use of graphic software that maintains the images at an agreeable size and shape. There are some few tips on implementation to ensure that the best possible results are got. (www. rocketface. com) †¢ Background music is highly unadvisable as it might distract the web visitors. †¢ The web page should contain no videos; these should be made available as a visitor browses deeper. The next step in implementing a website is to resize the graphics. These graphics should not be larger than they are supposed to be and not be too small as to obscure clarity. Music, video or images should strictly not be put on the web page but should be put further inside so as not to cause distractions to a visitor. Ensure too that navigational tools are available on the webpage, these are tools or commands that when clicked provide instantaneous link either forward or backwards, this in addition to a home link to help a visitor browse through the various pages easily. An FAQ page should also be installed; this is a page that displays the most frequently asked questions saving the organization time instead of having to answer the questions over and over again. Install an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol). It is a program that aids in transferring files from one computer to another, allowing access to any files in a computer connected to the internet. It facilitates either a download or an upload (www. thecomputershow. com). After all the above have been accomplished, it is important before the site can be accessed over the internet, to test the system. This ensures that errors are detected and corrected early enough. It also helps to access how fast it can load and respond during peak times as well as how easily the visitors will be able to navigate through the site. The website now needs to be rolled out or launched out to the people. It is up to the organization to decide whether it will be availed on the internet without hype or through a promotion. The web address through whichever means used should be widely promoted to ensure that the potential customers are aware of it (www. ixda. org). Factors to consider when implementing a website There are several factors that should be put into consideration when implementing a website. It is these factors that will dictate the general outlook of the websites. There is a need to analyze the target audience of the website. The skill level and knowledge of the expected audience should be analyzed as well as the state of technology they are likely to be using. Be it slow or fast computers, high or low quality. It should also be analyzed on the expectations of the audience, what they may want to find out from your website. They might be looking for prices, physical location of the organization or manual. This will have an impact on the implementation (www. techsoup. org) The content of the website also should be put into consideration when implementing a website. This includes whether the information should enable either printing or downloading and whether it is available directly on the screen. Nature of the organization as well as the nature of its product will also influence the web implementation. It will affect the background of the site, the fonts to be used, language, and flashiness of the visual images. Should the fonts indicate seriousness or fun, the colors to be used will also be influenced by the nature of products or services. Funeral homes or hospitals are not expected to have similar presentation with music stores or boutiques (drupal. org) Impact of a Website As noted before, websites continue to ease communication between customers and business organizations. Now transactions are conducted over a matter of seconds or minutes regardless of the distance and location of the two components. If a website is created and implemented effectively, it can result to a turnaround of a business. A website presents a ripe opportunity for an organization to expand its clientele due to its ability to reach a large number of people at the same time. It has no physical limitations and can be structured to reach people of different linguas, whenever they maybe providing them with current and updated information regarding the organization’s products and services provided. This can help an organization expand. Its customer base and consequently their revenue. It is an opportunity for the small companies to compete on equal ground with the big companies at no additional costs. This can be done through the proper imaging and designing of the website. The structure and design of a website does not relate with the size of the business entity. A small company can prepare even a better website than a bigger one. Website ensures that organization compete with each other from the same footing. What differs then is the presentation of the webpage (www. 10e20webdesign. com). Websites have seen companies cutting on the costs of doing business, especially reducing on labor costs. For a business to be competitive in the business, it requires good marketers and sales people who take up a lot of company’s resources. This can be changed through a website. E-Marketing allows a company to get hold of a customer without any physical interaction. Although it has a disadvantage as immediate feedback is not certain. It can lead to reduced operation costs for an organization as it does not have to maintain leads of people to deal with potential customers. Marketing is done through the web and those who are interested can get in touch with the organization through E-mails. It saves the company a lot of finance as it can reach long distance customers without any physical traveling. E-marketing is not also limited to hours. It is available to customers 24 hours every day wit no additional costs (www. passioncomputing. com. au) Administration costs are also reduced due to the decreased paperwork. Information on customers is gotten and recorded online. By providing information on how to do it manuals and answers to the frequently asked questions, an organization ends up reducing the number of public relations staff (www. design4dot. com). Follow up calls to customers are replaced by E-mails, promotion cost are cut, and need of prints is reduced greatly (www. yhanpolo. com). It should be noted that simple creation of a website does not eliminate the need of other follow up systems like calls and mails. Alot of businesses lack in the traditional customer service systems or customer inquiry programs. These websites are more structured to suit marketing needs with minimal concerns for customers navigational needs. Not all people are comfortable in dealing with an impersonal organization and an organization should use retain the traditional system as a backup to the modern technology. There a number of negative impacts websites may have on anorganisation arising from the disavantages of implementing a website. One major disadvantage arises from the stiff competition of products in the website, it is a maze of information that needs to be navigated through. Before a customer gets to see your products he or she shall have come across many competing products that may be superior to yours. With an intention of maximising their satisfaction they might opt to go with the competitors products (www. quickregister. net) Many online customers’ nowadys are having a preconceived perception that some online marketers are out to make a killing and hence wary of giving their credit cards details. They fear these details may be stolen. This presents the biggest challenge to organisations today because customers would wish to be guaranteed the security of their details to protect themselves from unscrupulous dealers. The issue of cost also arises, every technology has a catch. The cost of designing a website, implementing, and maintenance costs have to be factored in. There is also the addition cost of softwares and hardwares needed to suport these systems. All in all, the benefits of a website surpasses those of the traditional means. Marketing and administration costs are minimised. The firm too is armed with a potential of competing with bigger organisations offering the same products. References History. Electronic Commerce. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://flysyko2. netfirsm. com/ecommerce/history. htm Website advantages, 2005. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://www10e20webdesign. com/website-design-planner-advantages. htm Website advantages. Passion computing http://www. passincomputing. com. au/articles/website-advantages. aspx Advantages of a website. 2007 design 4 dot. com. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://www. design4dot. com/advantates-of-a-website. htm Advantages of a website. 2006. Yhanpolo. com. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://www. yhanpolo. com/web-design-articles/advantages-website. htm Practical advice for business. Business link. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://ww. businesslink. gov. uk/blotg/action/detail? type=RESOURCES&Hemld=1075383651 Susan Tenby, 2000. Implementing your website. Site wise: laying the foundation. Tech soup. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://ww. techsoup. org/learningcentre/webbuilding/page5065. ifm Planning a website2006. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://drupal. org/node/88594 Website implementation, 2007. Webmaster tutorial. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://www. rocketface. com/implement-website/implement-website. html AlGrovett: Designing and implementing your website. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://www. thecomputershow. com/computershow/news/websitecreation. htm How to implement a dialogue, 2007. IX DA. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://beta. ixda. org/discuss. php? post=11054 Chameleon net to develop and implement new website for telehouse Europe. 2007. Chameleon net. Viewed on 12/8/2007 http://www. chameleonnet. co. uk/news-item. asp? id=197 Internet marketing. Advantages and disadvantages. Quickregister. net website promotion Articles. http://www. quickregister. net/articles/internetmarketing/internet_marketing_Advantages_and_Disadvantages. html

Critique a research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Critique a research - Assignment Example This essay critics the procedures and the methods of the research to identify if the research is credible and any weaknesses that could affect its conclusions. The problem statement of the research centered on the shortage of nursing based intervention measures to help the Post-Stroke patients to regain strength as soon as they recover. The research addresses a very important aspect of nursing that is gaining relevance today. In the recent past, there has been an increase in the number cases of stroke, demanding more serious intervention measures. Therefore the research by Kim (2012) was crucial and relevant for a growing problem in the nursing practice. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of the enjoyable games as intervention measures for post-stroke patients. The purpose of this study is of great significance to the nursing profession. For long it has been the wish of the nursing professionals to provide efficient intervention measures to replace the medical based treatment procedures that have proved inefficient (Byun, 2012). Therefore, the research is meant to improve the provision of treatment and care for post-stroke patients. Since this has been a major problem in the past, such a research by Kim (2009) is a major contribution to the nursing care. The researcher did not formulate any research questions for the purpose of this research. However, the research seems to be based on the question of whether there enjoyable intervention measures can be used to improve the physical fitness of the post stroke patients. From the purpose of the research, it is clear that the research is meant to investigate whether nursing based intervention measures are efficient in improving the strength of these patients (Byun, 2012). Although, the researcher does not state the research questions, he remains clear on the direction of the research, which makes it possible for one to identify the issues he intends to address with his

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

Portfolio - Essay Example Global interaction has increased, and the need has arose to enable people to develop the capability of adapting to different environments comprising of a multitudes of people with varying personalities, where an individual can encounter contradictory, imperfect and inconsistent opinions and views (Tambe, 1997), thus individuals should be willing and capable enough to take charge of situations by initiating in ones self the spirit of leadership and adaptability. This semester has proved worthwhile since it has equipped us with the insight to recognize our own skills as well as our flaws, and has developed in us an urge to polish our strengths and take advantage of the opportunities available to us in order to hone our personalities and unleash our potential to improve, which is innate in every individual. Furthermore, it has enabled us to identify the weaknesses which lead to setbacks in various moments in life and the resulting damage to the self confidence and morale due to these failures, and has given us the timely opportunity to work on this weakness and therefore establish ourselves into dynamic individuals who have the courage to withstand different challenges in life, thus we can apply the marketing management approach of SWOT analysis on our team to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats we face and work upon them specifically to reap maximum advantage (Piercy and Giles, 1989). Throughout this semester we fac ed teamwork challenges in the form of three mediums: four reading review tests wherein individuals had to ponder over a given set of questions and then collaborate with the team members to agree on an answer which is accepted by all members, essay writing in group was another way to initiate team spirit in all members, and lastly the challenge which was most significant was the presentation in which the entire group had to work as a team in the development of the presentation

Sampling Assignment then write the topic by your own

Sampling then write the topic by your own - Assignment Example By taking the first ten students and the last ten students, the sample was almost evenly distributed. Here, the students were chosen systematically. The sample of students picked were those falling between ids 21 to 40. This was because the number of days absent was evenly distributed. Again, there was need for an average that is closed to the total population’s average. Convenient samples can easily be assessed; they are not involving. In this sampling technique, data is easily gathered and analyzed. A major risk associated with this method is that it is not representative of the whole population (Thompson p16). Respondents can sometimes be biased. Moreover, there may be overrepresentation and underrepresentation of some members of the sample. Simple random sampling has a major advantage; respondents are selected randomly, so the results may be close to average. Every segment has an equal probability of being chosen. It reduces biases associated with overrepresentation and underrepresentation (Thompson p24). A major disadvantage of this method is that all members of the population may have to be listed; which could be quite cumbersome and time consuming. Systematic sampling uses fixed intervals with a stated staring point. It has the same advantages and disadvantages as simple random sampling. In all the three sampling techniques, the sample interval was ten. When a larger number is considered (40 instead of 20), the variation reduces. The average values are closer to the average for the total than when a sample of 20 is used. For instance, the largest variation is 7.1-5.85=1.25, and the smallest is 5.85-5.5=0.3. Larger samples have less variation. They give better results, which mean the average are closer to the whole population’s average. It leads to generalization of the whole population (Thompson 34). Systematic sampling improves estimates since it representative samples are considered for best

Control System -inkwell Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Control System -inkwell - Coursework Example A review of this system is targeted at enhancing how the company handles its employees’ remuneration and other work packages. In this report, the chosen system for review is the payroll system, whose investigations are expected to provide a summation of the entire accounting system that is in operation in the organisation. A study of Inkwell’s payroll system shall entail an in-depth examination of the organisational activities such as the tax management, tracking of taxes that have been withheld, analysis of the record of hours employees work, and a record of the paychecks issued to employees (Bragg, 2006.p.125-129). To assess the payroll system being used by the company with the motive to provide recommendations for its improvement in efficient employee management. The payroll system, being a core accounting system is essential to the management as it streamlines the organisation’s ability to stay on top of its regulatory and legal responsibilities. Therefore, this report shall seek to identify the weaknesses within the organisation’s payroll system, and determine the needs that require improvement. Therefore, the report shall outline the cost-benefits analysis of implementing the payroll system’s improvements in Inkwell Limited (Bragg, 2003.p.85-92). It is expected that as a result of this review, it would be possible for the payroll system being used to effectively process payroll reports that can be used to make tax withholding summaries. The covering of this system’s evaluation in this report has been achieved as part of an accounting assessment, which is part of the AAT level 4 accounting. 2.1 Inkwell Limited is a Limited Company with a larger section of its operations majored in the private sector. However, its specialisation in the re-manufacturing or re-cycling of used laser toner and printer cartridges. The company’s sales targets are achieved by distributing its products through a nationwide chain that comprises over 60 high

Writer's choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Writer's choice - Essay Example Toyota is an example of a company that uses operations management in order to have an edge over its competitors. This paper will examine how Toyota has, over the years, implemented exceptional management skills to increase their competitive advantage, and how this has helped them expand their global reach. Toyota is a brand recognized worldwide by most individuals. This advantage is brought on by the fact that their products are cheaper as compared to others, and at the same time, the company provides products that everyone is comfortable with in terms of desires and needs. At the outset, Toyota and its success can be attributed to the fact that they continuously improve on their products and services. This is while also catering to the aspect of time. These two highly crucial aspects of operations can only be possible if there is involvement on the part of employees and consumers. There is a high level of employee participation in the company, which allows all parties to get involved in the creation of new and improved products and services for their consumers (Williams, 2011). Through their production and just-in-time production systems, Toyota places emphasis on high quality products at all possible low costs. For effective management operations, Toyota incorporates consumer services, which allow Toyota to start projects that their consumers want or desire. These services aid Toyota in solving some of its problems. Feedback from their consumers creates an avenue for Toyota to evaluate any and all issues that come up with regards to their automobiles, hence; addressing any future problems based on past experience. In the highly competitive automobile industry, it is vital for companies to improve customer relations, which endears most of their consumers to their brands. Toyota’s approach to effective operations management has

Managing Diversity and Equal Opportunity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Managing Diversity and Equal Opportunity - Essay Example The female literacy and economic empowerment is crucial not only for development but also for the children in the country. It is emphasized in the millennium development goals that child health and literacy levels in a nation show the quality of future population. Thus, at this epoch, management diversity with the provision of equal opportunity is a must to stimulate the economic growth of a country. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 The parliament of United Kingdom had passed another gender related Act in 1975. The name of this Act was Sex Discrimination Act. This Act attempted to eradicate the discriminations on the grounds of sex and marriage in United Kingdom. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) was established under the regime of this Act in U.K. The major concern of this Act was to create equal opportunities for both men and women in the workplaces. It was believed by the government of U.K., that progress of the nation would be just impossible without the support of gender u nbiased features in the economy (NCJRS, 1979). Equal Pay Act 1970 The parliament of United Kingdom (U.K.) in 1970 had established the Equal Pay Act that was related to gender issues in the economy. This Act primarily concentrated in reducing the unequal treatments between genders regarding factors like pay and employment opportunities. The Act was incorporated in the country after five years in 1975. The Act considered the factors like pensions, top wages, and leaves which are allotted equally to both the gender in the workplaces. However, the employers protecting their pay rights under the norms of this Act were supposed to consider that the work done by a competitor (whose salary the employers claims) should be same to the work executed by the employer. This Act made it sure that the salaries of two employees are same when the work load is alike. Differentials in pay would be gender neutral (EEOC, 2013). Case Studies Dr Bhal is an African black woman who lived in United Kingdom si nce she was 9 years old. This was the phase of time when the government of U.K. was demanding for equal opportunities for both men and women the country. So as a representative of the Commerce and Industry group in 1990, Dr Bhal was elected as one of the members of Council of Law Society in U.K. In 1993, she became the chairman of the EOC (Bailii, 2006). Dr Bhal had adopted active measures to improve the condition of women in U.K. Her work was appreciated by many officials in the U.K.’s government body. However, traces of her arrogance and rude behaviour were reported in 1998. Jean Johnson the director of the Human Resources claimed that Dr Bhal spoke to him very rudely over official calls (Xperthr, n.d.). The Director of Corporate Management also commented that Dr Bhals attitude in the business affairs were not good at all. It was very difficult to comment on the actual reason for such claims; it could take place due to gender discriminations or could also occur because Dr B hal became egotistical in her attitude. Ultimately the Law Society made Dr Bhal resign on such grounds. Dr Bhal claimed that this was done because the Law Society was gender biased in U.K. and filed a case against the organization in this ground. Dr Bhal’s strong comments to the media claimed that the Law Society had inherent â€Å"fossilised bureaucracy† and was â€Å"full of champagne-sipping racists†. On one hand, the staffs claimed that Kamlesh Bhal’s attitude was shrewd and unprofessional. On the other hand, Dr Bhal has claimed that alpha

How Becoming an Adult Has Changed Christmas Essay Example for Free

How Becoming an Adult Has Changed Christmas Essay I love the holidays, they bring a special joy to my life, they make me smile even if things may not be going as planned in my life; just the thought of family and friends spending time together is a great big deal in my family. I now get to experience the feeling and joys my parents did when they see me opening my presents. My children are so precious and I love having every memorial moment with them. We still do the same things at Grandmas every year nothing has changed except for the fact that I’m a Mother now. I can distinctively remember the Christmas of 2006; it was the year my son (Jaylen) was born. It’s the year I realized that my spoiled days were over and it was not only about me any more. It was the first time I actually realized that I’m Mommy now! It was a very fearful and joyful moment at the same time; my family didn’t pay as much attention to me anymore. They were occupied with my new baby boy (Jaylen), I was extremely happy, they had taken to my son because 18 months earlier they were a little upset that I was going to have a baby(they thought I was too young). My dad was the happiest I have seen him in years, he was a proud grand pap. I’ll admit I was a little jealous because all the attention was no longer on just me I had to now share it. Then again I sat back and thought I’m an adult now and I should not be treated like a baby anymore, so from that point forward I found the grown up I had hidden inside. Thirty-three months (two and a half years) later there was an addition to my family for the holiday, I had my daughter JaKailah, she was a great gift after losing our Nana Boat in June of 2009. My daughter was born just 13 days later (June 21 2009); my grandmother and I both feel as though she is a part of Nana Boat in many ways. Not having our Nana Boat with us on Christmas anymore is a huge void; she is their saying â€Å"just give the children what ever they want, they are our special gifts from god†. One thing that has stayed the same is all holidays are special in my family, but Christmas is still the most important. All my family still meet at Grandma’s house every year. We have family from every where that comes in from out of state to celebrate this special occasion. Every year our Christmas routine has stayed the same; grandma has a special way of making every holiday memorable, she was also very particular about time, there was a time for everything we did on Christmas. She has a set schedule between 9:00 am and 10:00 am. Everyone shows up at grandmas to put their presents under the tree. Grandma has breakfast made for everyone every Christmas pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs and toast. Then at 11:30am it is time to give each other the presents we have for one another. By the time we were all done opening presents it is time for us to have dinner at 2:30. WOW! We could smell that great food cooking the whole time we were opening our presents. As a child I can remember many traditions sheared with my family. Because there were so many people staying at Grandma’s for the holidays. I can remember making pallets (beds) on the floor with my cousins so the adults could have the beds and air mattresses. My cousins and I would stay up really late and sleep until the after noon. After waking up I can remember my Uncle Bobbie; he looked just like Mr. Rodgers (from Mr. Rodger Neighborhood) he has the same blue sweater and those same blue tie up shoes. I would wake up and say good morning, Mr. Rodgers it is going to be a wonderful day in the neighbor hood. I was a very spoiled child; I got what ever I wanted, when I wanted it from every one in my family. I have even started my own traditions with my children, we have one day where we all sit down at the dining room table after Thanksgiving and we tell each other what we would like to have Santa Clause bring us for Christmas. I have even found a count down to Christmas calendar filled with chocolate candies, it starts at twenty-five and end at one; what you do with this calendar is you start at twenty-five and every night eat one piece of chocolate and by the time its Christmas eve there is one less piece of chocolate remaining. Basically it is a count down to Christmas by eating a piece of chocolate each night until Christmas. My children are still very young so we are still in the process of coming up with new traditions. Things in life change so fast with out notice, some good and some bad, I just make the best of what I have. I always thought that I would need to be the center of attention, but this Christmas I learned that it’s not always about me. Each and every member of my family was very important in many ways. Each of us have our own roles and it works for my family. My fiance is a very quiet, laid back, stay out the way type of person. My Aunt is crazy for the kids, she literally buys them everything. My uncle is the strict no nonsense kind of guy who like the kids to stand in the corner. Uncle what can I say about him? Oh wow he’s the grouch, always yelling, the Children are too loud make them sit down. My dad always happy and feeding into what ever the kids say, do this and do that. Pappi mostly hiding in the room away from everyone to stay away from the chaos. My mom she is the clean freak always running around after every one cleaning up behind them. My Nana Boat she was all for the kids give, give, give that all she knew when it came to her baby’s. My brothers and sister they are needy, always wanting something that they really do not need. Being the big sister I have to love them(I do very much so. I’m only going to talk about my immediate family, because if not you will be here reading for months. As for my-self I’m kind of a reserved person; I just sit back and watch what’s going on around me. I can remember the time it took my grandma to prepare for Christmas; she would bake for weeks. She would let me help her make cookies, pies, fudge, and my most favorite of all chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles. I can still smell those cookies and pies bake. Being with my grandma and helping her bake was the best feeling in the world. Still to this day my grandma still lets me help her bake for Christmas. She doesn’t leave out my children, they are right there with their hands in the dough, just getting as messy as possible. I know every edition to or family makes Christmas every year more and more enjoyable. I believe that each and every Christmas changes each and every person in my family for the better. CODA: There are a few reasons why I chose to use Frank McCourt â€Å"Limerick Homecoming† essay from the book Angela’s Ashes published in 1996. One reason I chose to use this essays style to revise my family essay is because Frank McCourt showed how to go from past to present tense in the same essay to tell about a special event in this life. Another reason I believe that this essay showed that no matter how bad things are at one point or another in your life that having your family around can make things all the better. Lastly, I chose this essay to because I related to the characters, meaning that I related to them so not coming from a rich family, not graduating high school and still striving to make it in this world .

Basic Management and Organisational Theory

Basic Management and Organisational Theory CONTRIBUTIONS STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES CLASSICAL THEORY It is purposeful and investigational attitude. Supervision personnel and organization more efficiently. The whole thing planned and organized harmony of expertise and maintenance by administrators. Goal on construction, developments and superfluous of organization. Lots of broadside effort HUMANISTIC THEORY This concept concentration on humanistic viewpoint.it contributes additional position to individuals. Because of communal considerate in people announcement greater than before. Individuals are complicated in so there is more harmony in conclusion manufacture. It combined with societies internal emotional state and self-concepts CONTINGENCY THEORY This is uncluttered coordination methodology and there is no one way of management the state of affairs.it deal the changed condition another way. No have confidence in in ‘one unsurpassed way’ so many procedures and philosophies are used. It’s reasonably composite and no one truthful administrative approach that mechanism in all state of affairs. IDENTIFY 2 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES: Functional Structure Divisional Structure DESCRIBE The organization is separated into dissimilar subdivisions based on the occupations when management. This allows the organization to intensification the proficiencies of well-designed individuals. These type of organization division the functioning areas of organization into farewells. Each leave-taking has its own capitals in order to occupation autonomously. COMPARE In purposeful construction there is announcement between the decision-making constable and his operates which work efficiently in exhume subdivision. In regional structure numerous sections are occupied composed to spring outputs.in this structure there is no communication allowed in different branches and sub-departments. 1.3 SOURCES OF POWER, INFLUENCE AND AUTHORITY: Legitimate source it’s also known as the positional influence. It’s consequent from the situation of an individual that is grip in an organization. Expert source-it’s originates from knowledge or teaching. Reward source operative supposes some type of recompense from their bosses. Referent source referent authority mentions to the individual who has desirability towards their instruction. Coercive source- operative has terror of enthusiastic or downgraded. IMPACT ON PRESENT DAY ORGS: There is enormous influence of these foundations of influence; inspiration and specialist to contemporary era organization. To clench of the organization both administration squads wants that they must binary or extra foundations. To brand persons under their regulator every now and then they secondhand recompense authority like growth income, elevations. EFFECTIVENESS ON PRESENT DAY ORGS There are several influences that can influence the effectiveness of organization.in the more technical world people are highly technical, knowledgeable. They are more self-assured and believe in their competences. They have the boldness to ‘to do’ things rendering this altering biosphere. 1.4 Â  COMPARISON ON TRADITIONAL AND CURRENT PERSPECTIVE DELEGATIONIn former standpoint individuals delicacies like teen-ager.in the ancient assignment is finished straightly. People come interfering. Every education of the diplomacies gives to face-to-face. Today with accumulative of knowledge it becomes supplementary unceremonious, and now it’s completed by methodological ways and means like e-mails, and texts, Which is more hazardous and perilous. PARTICIPATIONIn terms of contribution, people continuously check the strategies before esteem less what type of elegance they assume. When personnel are complex in the modification exertion they are additional likely to purchase into modification somewhat than struggle it. This method is likely to subordinate fighting more so than just hopeful individuals will consent to transformation. DECISION MAKINGDecision making is identical communal these days. One and all has their specific thinking and professional in equipment.in pronouncement making general public share their designs and plan which is greatly consumed today associate to the ancient. 1.5 IDENTIFY THE PRINCIPLES FOR COORDINATION: Principles of direct contact-there are straight connection between administrators and dependents and the result will be virtuous affiliation between them. Principle of continuity it is not a erstwhile commotion. The progression of synchronization flinches when the association twitches and it’s endure until the association be existent. Principle of reciprocity-the arrangements of all the general public of association are inter-related in.so the pronouncements of one somebody will disturb to all other persons on an association. PAST AND CURRENT RELEVENCE TO MGT EFFECTIVITY: Perpendicular synchronization can be designated as cable of guidelines which is in mandate.in this management statement between companies and supervise is made by consultant who helps in accomplishing administrative goal. On the other hand in straight management there is announcement between sectors to constituent part. TASK 2 2.1 RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION OF THE MOTIVATION THEORIES 2.1.1 – Humanistic Motivational Theory, Incentive Theory Relevance: Humanistic theory is the most well-known theory of motivation. According to these theory human is ambitious to perform their best potential and will always do so unless difficulties are placed in their way. These obstacles include food and shelter, financial problems. The relevance of incentive theory people is motivated to do things in the workforce because of external rewards like money, reward. This theory describes that particular motivation. Application: These theories can be used by the management employers to check the performance of their staff. Employers also understand that their staffs have number of needs that they want to be filled. This way the management comes aware of his responsibility to satisfy these needs. Expectancy theory, Equity theory Relevance: Expectancy theory is best described as process theory.it explains why individuals choose one behavioural options over others because they believe that their decision will lead them their desires. The concept of equity theory is that people get their job satisfaction by analyse their inputs and outputs with other people in the same workforce. Application These theories can be used as consideration example in workforce.it will very helpful for people who are doing their job very hardly. 2.2MANAGERIAL APPROACHES TO MOTIVATION AND THEIR DISTINCTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS 1 Pay and job performance The main contribution of this approach is that it defines the belief in the employees that if they give outstanding performance in their organization then they will get some rewards. 2 Quality of work life programs The contribution of this approach is to describe the ways and programs so employees make their working life better. 2.3POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE IMPLICATION OF THE SOME MANAGEMENT STYLE IN RELATION TO MGT PRATICE: Autocratic style: manager takes all the important decision without involvement from workers. Positive implication: decision making very quickly. Controlling large number of low skilled workers. Negative implication: one way communication. The staff would like to give new ideas to management but this creativity is not respected by the managers. Participative style: managers expect lots of feedback from their staff before coming to a conclusion and making a decision. Positive implication: two way communication to motivating. This is problem solving process and openness to new ideas can result in innovation. Negative implication: this is very slow down decision making process. Still quite dictatorial and autocratic style of management. 2.4 EXAMINATION OF JOB DESIGN FOR MARKETING MANAGER Motivational effects: in terms of characteristics the motivational effect is very high and very exciting, in this task people from various culture involved. And they will get chance to share their views an get chance to gain knowledge.in terms of personal individual don’t get chance to mingle with other people. They have to do their things itself What are the implication of the job design for management The implication of the job design for management depends on capability. The organization looks for the most capable person to handle problems. The thing that is more demanding and needed mostly on the job design is not only the business skills. A person who is cultured and worldly is more entailed on the job design. 2.5 SOCIAL INFLUENCE ON INDIVIDUAL WORK EFFECTIVENESS AND MOTIVATION Social influence like values, rules, customs which effect work effectiveness and motivation. People have their own way to working and solve problems. The management should conscious to these matters. The team leader should know that every member has its own personality and skills. And no one wants to change his/her beliefs for the team. Rather everyone should learn something new from other culture. TASK 3: 3.1 LEADERSHIP VS.MANAGEMENT The role of a leader is to set new vision for the company. Leader focus on people. On the other hand, the role of the manager the manager focuses on systems and structure. The manager relies on control. 3.2IMPACT OF MGT AND LEADERSHIP ROLES ON ORG.STRUCTURE Leader is responsible continually analysing and developing the organizations effectiveness and ability to meet the needs of its members. The manager is the one who implement the plans made by leader. 3.3COMPARE TWO DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP STYLES AND IDENTIFY AND CONTRAST LEADERSHIP STYLE DIFFRENCES SIMILARITIES ATTRIBUTES SKILLLS STRENGTHS WEAKNESS Democratic Democratic style follows people suggestions. A visionary leader is who turn his colleagues towards a common goal. These both style working for people and organization in different working way. Encourage employee to be part of decision making, creativity is encouraged. Staff members involves in decision making. Increase employee motivation and commitment to the decision making. It takes time for decision making. visionary People share information openly. Motivating people Leaders must have convincing power. Definite and clear vision. Sometimes leader have all the power.

Globalisation :: miscellaneous

Globalisation Globalisation is a term, which has invoked extensive academic debate over its impact and credibility, giving rise to a number of perspectives harboured by their respective scholars. Resulting from this division is a lack of universal acceptance towards a single definition beyond broad descriptions such as increased global interconnectedness.† Hence in order to gain an understanding of the phenomena it is necessary to distinguish between its two major forms, and the various agents involved. Nationalism In The Global VillageINTRODUCTIONWith the dawning of the information age there has been a shrinking of relative distances between people and places all over the world. With an increase in international communication comes an increase in cultural sharing. Cultures all over the planet reflect influences of neighboring cultures and other international trading partners. As these and many other factors work towards creating a global village many people are baffled by the increase in nationalism. Nationalism is a highly emotional phenomenon and as such is very unpredictable. Nationalism is far beyond its peak and the current rise is likely only an indicator of the transitional stage of globalization.GLOBAL VILLAGEToday it is common to here the term "global village" used in every day conversation. It is also common to here someone say, "What the hell is the global village?" The global village is the idea that the world and its people form an interconnected social whole, a village of common interests and concerns, linked by global communication, media, and rapid international transportation. The global village has emerged via the birth of the information age. Technological advances have continually stretched the bounds of our communication abilities and by using improving cellular phone technology or the Internet any individual can interact with another individual from a completely different culture. Since it is so easy and affordable to engage in these cross-cultural experiences, more and more people have been doing so. Cross-cultural exchanges often rise from or result in common interests or concerns developing. For example, international companies have a vested interest in the economies of the various countries in which they conduct business. The stronger the economies the better business will be. This is the sort of common interest and concern that the global village encompasses. All cultures are continually evolving and the information age has increased the ability of one culture to influence another culture. As all cultures begin to adopt features of other cultures the population of the planet begins to develop a homogenous culture.

Essay --

Everyone in the world can access the internet now. People can use different devices to access the internet now. Whether you are in China, Europe, Africa, or the United States, you have access to the internet in some way. I will be talking about the use of internet access around the world. Also, areas that do not have internet access or have low amount of access to the internet. I will also talk about bandwidths that are in some areas and what they are using being used for. The paper will start with a little history of how the internet first started and how it continues to develop. Next, will be the use of internet in the U.S. The way internet has been accessible in homes. Then, will be the use of broadband in the United States and other areas. After that, is the use of internet access in rural areas. Finally, Will be the use of access to the internet using devices. 2. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE The first internet started about 50 years ago in the United States. It started out as a government weapon for researchers to use to share data and communicate with each other. During the 1950s, the Soviet Union lunched the first satellite that was made by man into orbit. The satellite was called Sputnik. The only thing it did was traveling around the earth sending radio transmissions. After that, American scientist decided to focus more on technology and science to further advance their technology. Different corporations decided to use their government funded money and place it in scientific research and development. Even the federal government used their own money to create NASA and ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) so that they can have a place to create more technology. During the 1960s, there was a computer scientist called J.... ...ation in those areas is low. The rural area lacks broadband more than urban areas because there are less people in rural areas. The number of people that lives without broadband is about 19 million, but there are 14.5 million people that live in rural areas, according to the FCC. Even if there is not much broadband service in those areas, rural and urban areas are slowly obtaining the service. Another reason why rural and urban areas lack broadband service is because of the cost to get the service in those areas. The cost will increase depending on how far the area. Companies knows that it will cost them large amounts of money to put broadband in rural areas even if there is a high demand for it. The lack of broadband service in certain areas can also affect the growth of the economy when someone is trying to find out how the economy has improved in the past years.

Essay --

When a viewer clicks onto a website it should stand out straight away to the viewer. A website should be designed to be easily used with simple navigation. Target Market Identification: When you are trying to figure out your target market you must think of the people the products sold would appeal to. For example age, gender and business should be thought about. According to wickipedia.ie ‘A well defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy’. Site Objectives: When you are designing a website you must identify clear objectives. You can communicate your thoughts with clients. Some websites are designed to share info and others are designed to sell products. According to cmit.ie manual, there are a number of objectives relevant to most websites: †¢ To brand yourself †¢ To find sales leads †¢ To conduct e-commerce †¢ To build a community †¢ To attract attention †¢ Share news with customers †¢ Provide customer support †¢ To gain advertising revenue †¢ To brand yourself †¢ To build trust (cmit.ie) Navigation Solutions: Navigation on a website shows the user where they can go on the website. People looking on websites want to be able to use it easily and want to be able to find their way around. Suggested by graphicdesign.about.com, ‘Navigation should be a prominent element of your design’. The two aspects are Navigation and Orientation. Graphisdesign.about.com also suggests that †¢ Navigation-means where can you go? It is an important part of website design and must be simple and clear. †¢ Orientation means where you are now? A common method to show the user where they are is to use large text on headings. Also changing colours on the menu makes it stand out from the rest. Site Structure: You must plan a structure of your... ...ebpage and this will change the amount of space available to display your text and other elements at the top, bottom, left and right edges of your page on screen. The margins can be adjusted in the BODY tag by one of the following attributes: LEFTMARGIN, RIGHTMARGIN, TOPMARGIN, BOTTOMMARGIN, MARGINWIDTH OR MARGINHEIGHT. The amount of space you want to specify is measured in pixels. For example: . The above example creates a margin of 20px from the left side of the screen and 30px from the right hand side. HTML links are defined with the tag. Example: This is a link Ordinary link: Link-text goes here Image-link: Mailto link: Send e-mail (cmit.ie)

Expository Essay – Cory and Noynoy Aquino

Aquinos: Cory and Noynoy on Politics Cory and Noynoy were both known in the field of politics; they have their hopes, visions and actions toward change to help our country – in the area of economic development in general, and as well as its citizens. They also had several major accomplishments that benefited the Filipinos and helped the nation to cope up from despair. They both had their start in the said realm. Cory being the first one to step on the governance than Noynoy, started in year 1986 and noted as the first female president of the Republic of the Philippines and Asia.Noynoy, following the examples left by his gallant parents took part in politics and considered as the fourth-generation politician of their family; He entered in year 1998 as a member of the House of Representatives from Tarlac's 2nd district and now as the 15th and current president of our nation (since June 2010). Both of them envisioned and took actions to provide a better tomorrow to every Filipino . Cory’s motivation in handling governance was to bring back economic health and confidence after Marcos’ abusive acts under his reign that brought misery to our country.She also envisioned and made achievements that; First, agrarian and land reform as the centerpiece of her administration's social legislative agenda. Second, she reinstated the writ of habeas corpus, the right of a prisoner to appear before a judge, and abolished the government's ability to imprison people at will, which had been in effect since 1981. Third, she promised to promote the right to assemble peaceably, and free speech along with prosecuting corruption and abusers of human rights.Fourth, she said she would revitalize the sugar industry by breaking the monopoly. She acknowledged the special relationship with the United States but emphasized that her concern was with the Filipinos, not the Americans. Even after her sovereignty, she was heavily involved in several charitable activities and soci o-economic initiatives. She supported other causes such as the Gawad Kalinga social housing project for the poor and homeless. Noynoy on the other hand, continuously pushes for legislation which helps Filipino workers and consumers. The President also nvisioned and takes actions that: First, in 2016 tourist arrivals will figure at 10 million; Second, by next year he forecasted that we will be a rice sufficient country and will have the capability to get back as a rice exporting country; Third, infrastructure projects for the next year; Fourth, strengthening our defense capabilities especially now that we are in dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea; Fifth, his call for the congress to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the revision of the Mining Law which will increase the percentage of the government’s share in the revenues from mining; Sixth, the passing of the sin tax law and the government’s achievement in the fight against corruption through the succes sful impeachment trial of the former Chief Justice Renato Corona, and many other countless plans for the Philippines. Cory and Noynoy achieved major accomplishments during their administration. First, on Cory’s term, she restored Philippine democracy and provided freedom for the citizens.Second, she improved agrarian and land reform; And after stepping down from the presidency, Cory Aquino remained active in helping nurture the fragile Philippine democracy. Largely through the Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Foundation (BSAF), she supported programs that promoted people empowerment, peace and human rights. In the final years of her life, she devoted much time and energy to harnessing private sector support for the microfinance sector. Her vision was to strengthen the infrastructure that would transform micro-enterprise development into a potent vehicle for raising â€Å"people power† to the next level, slowly creating a broad middle class that would fortify the foundations of P hilippine democracy. Meanwhile, on Noynoy’s period of influence, the country had gains in tourism and agriculture.He also continuously works on his pursuance for a corruption-free country and other numerous concerns that our nation faces. President Cory did not pursue for more time in power after her term. She strongly declined the requests for her to seek reelection for she wanted to set an example to both citizens and politicians that the presidency is not a lifetime position. Cory and Noynoy are both effective leaders; They may have different advocacies but their goal centers on change and a brighter future for our country. They both started on politics, had visions and pursues for change as well as success and had carried out major accomplishments for the Filipinos.

Kyle Heslin-Rees

Darwin and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Literary genres which critics have applied as a framework for interpreting the novel include religious allegory, fable, detective story, sensation fiction, doppelganger literature, Scottish devil tales and gothic novel. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been the influence for The Hulk, Two-Face and the general superhero genre for the story's ties to a double life. This story represents a concept in Victorian culture, that of the inner conflict of humanity's sense of good and evil. 10] In particular the novella has been interpreted as an examination of the duality of human nature (that good and evil exists in all), and that the failure to accept this tension (to accept the evil or shadow side) results in the evil being projected onto others. [11] Paradoxically in this argument, evil is actually committed in an effort to extinguish the perceived evil that has been projected onto the innocent victims.In Freudian Theory the thoughts and desires banished to the un conscious mind motivate the behavior of the conscious mind. If someone banishes all evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to be wholly and completely good, it can result in the development of a Mr Hyde-type aspect to that person's character. [11] This failure to accept the tension of duality is related to Christian theology, where Satan's fall from Heaven is due to his refusal to accept that he is a created being (that he has a dual nature) and is not God. 11] This is why in Christianity, pride (to consider oneself as without sin or without evil) is the greatest sin, as it is the precursor to evil itself; it also explains the Christian concept of evil hiding in the light. [11] Various direct influences have been suggested for Stevenson's interest in the mental condition that separates the sinful from moral self. Among them are the Biblical text of Romans (7:20 â€Å"Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ); t he split life in the 1780s of Edinburgh city councillor Deacon William Brodie, master craftsman by day, burglar by night; and James Hogg's novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), in which a young man falls under the spell of the devil. Some readers have argued that the â€Å"dual personalities† interpretation is overly simplistic. Jekyll himself notes that a person may be divided into many more than two distinct personalities — he expects that researchers in the future will discover that a person is made up of many different selves.In his discussion of the novel, Vladimir Nabokov argues that the â€Å"good versus evil† view of the novel is misleading, as Jekyll himself is not, by Victorian standards, a morally good person. [12] One popular interpretation is the â€Å"civilized versus animalistic† approach. Other readers have argued even further that the split between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde represents the civilized and the an imalistic version of the same person. The description of Hyde as an almost prehuman creature and his actions that occur without thought, suggests that Hyde is more animal than man.Dr Jekyll on the other hand, can be seen as existing in a constant state of repression, with the only thing controlling his urges being the possible consequences imposed by civilized society. Another common interpretation sees the novella's duality as representative of Scotland and the Scottish character. On this reading the duality represents the national and linguistic dualities inherent in Scotland's relationship with the wider Britain and the English language, respectively, and also the repressive effects of the Calvinistic church on the Scottish character. 13] A further parallel is also drawn with the city of Edinburgh itself, Stevenson's birthplace, which consists of two distinct parts: the old medieval section historically inhabited by the city's poor, where the dark crowded slums were rife with all types of crime, and the modern Georgian area of wide spacious streets representing respectability. [13][14][15] The novella has also been noted as â€Å"one of the best guidebooks of the Victorian era† because of its piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy of the 19th century â€Å"outward respectability

Organizational Behaviour Case Study Essay

Cases: Automation in the Book Store and The Night Owl Answering Service Part 1) The field of Organizational Behavior is one that is very important when it comes to managing people and to make them work effectively. This begins with training. In order to understand these cases it is important to look at both the structure and environment of the company. In the case of the Automation in the Book Store, the company is a medium sized bookstore. Because this company is a bookstore with very few employees there is not a high level of formalization, less specialization and less authority. Therefore, it has an organic structure. Employees don’t have a lot procedures and rules that they must abide by while doing their jobs. In fact the initial company policy required employees to stay with the customer they were serving from the time they walked into the store until the sale was made. Also, there was not a great deal of standardization in that there was not a set procedure on how emplo yees did their work, rather it was a freer organization because there were very few employees and this resulted in greater flexibility. Look more:Â  starbuck problem essay These facts all changed once the new computer system was implemented. This system presented employees with some degree of formalization and standardization in their jobs because now there were precise rules and procedures on how to deal with customers. This includes entering an ID number every time a sale was made and closing the store with the system. Also, because this bookstore was not use to high levels of formalization in the past, the implementation of the training program was affected. There were no instructions on how to close at the end of the day in training. The manager had to come in and prepare a hand-written set of instructions about this routine. This is a sign of bad design and implementation. Also, because the company is more centralized than decentralized, the management must follow head office’s requests. This is the exact same thing with employees who must listen to the manager even though the employees were apprehensive, particularly the older staff, about new system. Again, the design of the training program, which was quoted as pretty skimpy and patronizing, was another sign of poor design. However, because the structure of the company was somewhat centralized they had to the training according to the way head office and management wanted. The structure of The Night Owl Answering Services was that it was between mechanistic and organic. This call center was more mechanistic because it was more centralized and more specialization where each individual had a specific role. Bob was responsible for technology, sales and marketing. Mary was responsible for training. This type of structure affected the training because of specialization. Nobody else was responsible for training, so when Mary passed away, everyone else specialized in a different area which left training to be an open mess. Only Mary knew the system the best because she specialized in this. This left the company scrambling to recover and in turn designed a training program that proved to be ineffective and poorly implemented. There was only one lady responsible for training. In the case of Automation in the Boo k Store and The Night Owl Answering Service it is important to look at the organizations environment. In these two cases, the organizations both faced environmental uncertainty. Every organization has the potential for environmental uncertainty. This uncertainty created a poor design for training. This was one of the major similarities in both of these cases. This is when management or people of the organization can’t really predict what is going to happen. The cases with Automation in the Book Store and The Night Owl Answering Services had faced environmental uncertainty that prove to be frustrating and challenging. However, because both of these companies had static environments, that is a company that remain fairly stable over time and had the least amount of uncertainty, they were sensitive to change. In The Night Owl Answering Service the head of training, Mary, passed away. This was an unpredictable event. It was clearly evident that there was no back up to Mary. Because this company was so used to certainty, it caught them off guard, particularly Bob. In the medium size bookstore the company had followed the same procedures to ring up sales until it introduced its new system. It took one month for the company to adapt. Again, both companies trained employees in such a way that proved to be ineffective. This means these two organizations ability to adapt to environmental change was poor. It’s also important to discuss external environmental factors or outside factors that have a direct effect on the company, which in turn affected training. The answering services company had a good reputation for customer service but when the senior operators started leaving they hired new people and trained very quickly to get people on the phone and take calls. Therefore, the external factor here would be the customer. In The Night Owl Answering Services the customer was always the number one priority because they had a prestige reputation on customer service they wanted to continue providing services in a timely manner. This directly affected the training design and implementation because trainers wanted the trainees on the phone as soon as possible to serve the clients of the company because they were short staffed. As a result of this, the trainers wanted to get trainees on the phone quickly which resulted in an implementation and design that proved to be ineffective. Trainees were expected to learn through trial and error style of training. Senior operators were forced to take calls and train at the same time. This resulted in slower operators and higher errors and more complaints to the call center, which lead to clients (external factor) leaving the call center and find business elsewhere. This company was so focused on getting trainees on the phone, they ignored the fact they lacked the basic phone etiquette and computer skills. Senior Management was continuously on the phone, with out breaks. In The Automation in the Book Store the external environment component that should be discussed is technology. Like every other company, it must keep up with technology and accept current business practices. They were entering an era where technology was becoming widespread and they needed a system to calculate the GST. This is a reason why the bookstore decided to take on the new computer system. The organizations employees were reluctant to have it but didn’t have a choice and had to keep up with external technological factors. The company was highly sensitive to this environmental change, which was external, but when the system was implemented, it became an internal factor. There was systematic turbulence in this organization. There ability to adapt to systematic change, the new computer system would be considered systematic turbulence. Systematic turbulence looks at how a company deals with a change in the environment change. This is evident is the case with Automation in the Bookstore. . Part 2) Motivational effects are very important aspects of an organization. People have to be motivated to join and remain in organizations. They also have to carry out their basic work reliability in terms of productivity, quality, and services, requirements and should always interact to accomplish their goal. These are some examples that if were missing in an organization, employees and members of the company began to lose interest and be less motivated. This was the case with these two organizations. One of the major similarities was that both companies faced poor training design and implementation. In Automation in the Bookstore the training was boring and ineffective, which had motivational effects. Lisa was an employee who worked in a medium sized bookstore and was completely dissatisfied with the design of the training. Unfortunately, the training was a mandatory requirement to understand the new system. The first two days started off by having to watch two half an hour videos which Lisa found to be boring and insulting. On the third day of training it went downhill. The computer system was not on training mode the way it was suppose to be. Also, there were no instructions on how close at the end of the day. The manager had to come in and prepare handwritten set of instructions. This caused a lot of problems and created frustration for all members of the organization including management and head office, who wanted to assign blame to someone. The operation of the system was not going according to plan and this got the trainees upset and confused about the policies of the system. Some parts of the training were vague and the continuous frustration had negative motivational effects. Similarly, The Night Owl Answering Services faced great training problems when Mary died, that evidently created negative motivational problems. Bob was forced to take over training without much knowledge o f how to do so, which was also a big problem. Senior operators were forced to work extra hard with no breaks, while at the same time train a new person. New operators were poorly trained and did not know how to handle calls. All these factors started showing in the office environment. These factors inevitably caused negative motivational effects. For example, intrinsic motivations were clearly not met in this organization. Intrinsic is defined as the direct relationship between the worker and the task. In the call center the task was frustrating and created anxiety. If these factors weren’t here there would be more interested in the position. However, because the training was so poorly done, the intrinsic motivation factor was not being met and created less motivation. It is also important to discuss the Maslow’s Need Theory and how it applies to these two cases. The needs theory states: NEEDS BEHAVIOR INCENTIVE AND GOALS. Both of these organizations both fit the physiological needs, which include the basic human needs. In safety needs it includes freedom from anxiety, and a structured ordered environment. The safety ne eds were not being met. Both organizations faced stress and anxiety, particularly the call center, which effected motivation. Results of poor motivation create poor quality of work. The training was poor and it would reflect on the quality of work being performed because they are no longer motivated to work with all the stress factors. Hertrzberg theory should be looked at as well. The first factor is the hygene factor. This includes relationship with fellow employees, security and other various factors. In order for employees to not feel less motivated or dissatisfied is if all these factors are in place. If all these factors are in place you will not feel unsatisfied but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be satisfied. It just means not being unsatisfied. Both companies didn’t even get past the hygene factor of just not being unsatisfied. The second factor of Hertzberg’s theory talks about is motivation. This is a sense of achievement and recognition, which would play different in each company. This doesn’t have a great effect on the bookstore because their situation w as short term in compared to the call center. If the company can’t even properly trained there is no chance of being recognized or feel a sense of achievement. The cases state that the trainees felt like they were being under attack by the senior staff. That would have a negative affect and create decrease motivation. There is no room for job enrichment that in turn means no enhancement in intrinsic motivation. Overall the similarities with respect to the training and the two companies were that of implementation and design. The training program was poor due to various reasons as stated in the report. One of the major differences to note was that the call center issue was a more complex problem and more of a long-term problem. The bookstore training was more of short-term problem. The problem only lasted about a month. Also another difference to note is that the bookstore had a smaller number of employees, so controlling the problem was a bit easier. In the call center there were various problems that were even more difficult to control because they had to meet client needs. In these two organizations there was lack of leadership. Particularly transformational leadership. This is when a leader makes his/her representative look beyond the task, or in this case the training, by observing the bigger picture or goal. Not doing this would negatively effect motivation because the individual will then began to purse his or her own self-interest. In the case of the The Night Owl Answering Service, when Mary passed away, nobody was able to step up and show leadership. Because this particularity affected training, the person responsible for training should have demonstrated leadership ethics to make them feel more positively motivated. Nobody had the leadership to motivate people to put forth their best efforts. There were no directive and supportive people in these organizations. The coaching was ineffective and the trainees had no proper direction. Automation in the bookstore did not face a great deal of leadership problems because again, it only employed about 6-8 people.

E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development

Public Organiz Rev (2010) 10:31–47 DOI 10. 1007/s11115-009-0087-6 E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development Shahjahan H. Bhuiyan Published online: 9 July 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract This paper critically examines the progress made in introducing and implementing e-government programs and policies in Kazakhstan. It argues that in order to achieve the articulated development goals, the Kazakh government has moved toward e-government paradigm to ascertain a people-centered, accountable and transparent government.Available data substantiates that the initiative faces several challenges such as political support and relationship between political institutions, bureaucracy and citizens, digital divide, widespread corruption, lack of human resources, and inadequate infrastructural development, which needs to be amputated to improve public service delivery. This study illustrates some international development experiences to und erstand the benefit of e-government. Such experiences may serve as policy guidelines to the successful implementation of e-government to ensure overall development in Kazakhstan.Keywords Development . E-government . Kazakhstan . Service delivery Introduction Electronic governance has been widely endorsed as a solution to a range of predicaments in the public sector. With promises of decreasing corruption, cutting red tape, reducing government costs, and fluctuating participatory governance, the egovernance revolution has swept most nations, capturing the imaginations of policy makers and attracting the interests of citizens and business alike (Salem 2006).Electronic government evolves swiftly through defined stages, beginning with a web presence of public agencies (â€Å"interaction†) to a means for citizens around the clock seven days a week in the convenience of their homes (â€Å"transaction†) (Netchaeva 2002). This essentially creates a new ground for public sector operation. The S. H. Bhuiyan (*) Department of Public Administration, Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP), 4 Abai Avenue, Almaty 050010, Kazakhstan e-mail: [email  protected] com 32 S. H. Bhuiyan equence of stages was depicted as inevitable, fueled by technology, citizen demand, and economic realities in the public sector (Mayer-Schonberger and Lazer 2007). The prime objective of any technological innovation is to improve the quality of human condition. This cannot be achieved by technological advances alone. First and foremost, they have to be successfully applied to human society. Such an approach is significant for governance and public administration because of its impact on a larger section of the society (Sharma 2002).To reap benefit of the information and communication technology (ICT), international development agencies are paying considerable attention to the gradual improvement of egovernment, particularly in developing countrie s. The most recent United Nations Report entitled e-Government Survey 2008: From e-Government to Connected Governance succinctly illustrates the importance of e-governance: ‘E-government can contribute significantly to the process of transformation of the government towards a leaner, more cost-effective government.It can facilitate communication and improve the coordination of authorities at different tiers of government, within organizations and even at the departmental level’ (UN 2008, p. xii). In the same vein, the 2001 Human Development Report entitled Making New Technologies Work for Human Development, commissioned by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), clearly portrays the role of ICT for development as it stated: ‘[I]t is time for a new partnership between technology and development. Human Development Report 2001 is intended as the manifesto for that partnership’ (UNDP 2001, p. iii). Again, in the UnitedNations system, the World Bank launc hed an e-government website, and in November 2002 its Information for Development Program released The E-Government Handbook for Developing Countries. Later on, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development convened the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in December 2003, and in Tunis in November 2005. Outside the UN system, many initiatives were launched. One was the Roadmap for E-Government in the Developing World, released by the Pacific Council on International Policy in April 2002 (Holliday and Yep 2005, p. 239). Kazakhstan was a part of the USSR until its collapse in 1990.During the Soviet regime, public documents were largely shelved as ‘classified’, and thus restricting people’s access. Living with such cynic norms of governmental operation for years, the Government of Kazakhstan (GoK), after independence in 1991, quickly realized the need of a transparent and accountable government. In the midst of transitional challenges, the Gov ernment has chosen the introduction of e-government for the twin objectives of providing fast and quality access to public services and of improving public services’ effectiveness through the widespread use of ICT in the public sector (World Bank 2006).In order to measure how far e-government initiatives have contributed to the improvement of relationships between politicians, bureaucrats and citizens in post-independence Kazakhstan, this paper: (i) analyzes the background to the introduction of e-government programs and policies; (ii) describes the overall development of e-government; (iii) investigates the challenges facing the implementation of e-government initiatives; and finally (iv) highlights its contribution to development.In short, the main focus of this paper is to critically examine the progress made so far in introducing and implementing e-government programs and policies in Kazakhstan. This paper concludes by presenting a road E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challen ges and Its Role to Development 33 map showing how e-governance in Kazakhstan can be utilized as an instrument of development. In reality, Kazakhstan is in transition. Of the many transitions now going on, an important one is the shift from ‘closed’ to ‘information’ society.Here lies the significance of the present study, insofar as it analyzes how this shift is being negotiated in a crucial area of development, the public sector. There is much to gain from a critical assessment of the success of e-government initiatives have so far attained in post-independence Kazakhstan, as it sheds light on the challenges it is confronted with at present, which in turn helps to identify some of the ways as to how they can effectively be overcome. The existing scholarship on e-government in Kazakhstan is less than satisfactory.This paper is intended to make a contribution to the steadily emerging area of study focused on e-government in a local as well as global context. Methodology This paper is based primarily on secondary sources. Three sources in particular have been explored and analyzed: first, published academic journal and newspaper articles on e-government; second, reports published by the international organizations; and finally, review of websites of both public and private agencies in Kazakhstan and elsewhere.The latter contributes to our understanding regarding the contents and services they provide to citizens. What is E-government? E-government was introduced in the field of public administration in the late 1990s, though it has not been clearly defined and understood by scholars and practitioners of public administration (Moon 2002).The term e-government arises by analogy to the concepts and practices of electronic commerce applied to the public sector, referring to the delivery of government services to the public ‘on-line’ (typically over the Internet) or to the technological infrastructure required to deliver those s ervices (Brown 2005, p. 242). E-government denotes the strategic, coordinated use of ICT in public administration and policy decision-making (Haldenwang 2004).Similarly, by e-government, Tandon (2005) refers to the provision of efficient, convenient and transparent services by government departments and agencies to citizens and businesses. The Global study of E-government, a joint research initiative for global egovernment by the United Nations (UN) and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), provides a comprehensive definition of e-government: Broadly defined, e-government includes the use of all information and communication technologies, from fax machines to wireless palm pilots, to facilitate the daily administration of government.However, like e-commerce, the popular interpretation of e-government is one that defines it exclusively as an Internet driven activity†¦to which it may be added â€Å"that improves citizen access to government information, services and expertise to ensure citizen 34 S. H. Bhuiyan participation in, and satisfaction with the government process†¦it is permanent commitment by government to improving the relationship between private citizen and the public through enhanced, cost-effective and efficient delivery of services, information and knowledge. It is the practical realization of the best that government has to offer. † (UN and ASPA 2002, p. 1)According to World Bank, e-government means to governmental use of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other agencies of government (cited in Sharma 2002, p. 607). The World Bank definition indicates the areas of operation of the concept and also lays down the broad benefits accruing out of this utilization of ICT to the field of governance, namely, to promote citizen empowerment, improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, inc rease transparency, or improve government efficiency (cited in Tandon 2005, p. ). This paper takes a wider view of e-government by adopting the application of ICT tools to the improvement of governance through building public-private partnership to achieve development. In this article, ‘e-government’ and ‘egovernance’, despite their subtle conceptual differences, are interchangeably used. Kazakhstan: context The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia bounded in the West by the Caspian Sea, in the North by Russia, in the East by China, and in the South by Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (see Box 1 for summary information).Extending over a territory of 2,725,000 square kilometer (Makhmutova 2001), it is the second largest country of the former Soviet Republics with a population of 15. 48 million in 2007 (World Bank 2008), of whom 4. 5 million are ethnic Russians (Wilson et al. 2002), and population density 5. 7 per square kilometer (Agency of Statistics of Kazakhstan website: www. eng. stat. kz). Kazakhstan continues to negotiate the enormous challenges inherent in any transition from a planned to a market economy and, in the last decade, has experienced plummeting production levels (Wilson et al. 002) and two-digit (now 11%) inflation continues to grow. In recent days, Kazakhstan makes considerable progress in almost all aspects of life. Although, critics expressed concern about the limit of the country’s democratic development and the lack of its commitment to hold free and fair elections. For example, the most recent Presidential elections were held in December 2005 when President Nazarbayev won a third term with more than 90% of the vote.The elections gained negative commentary from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which claimed they had not met international standard, citing campaign restrictions, interference in polling stations, multiple voting, pressure on voters, media bias and restric tion on freedom of expression (Keesing 2005 cited in Knox 2008, p. 478). In the same vein, in 2001, another scholar also observed: â€Å"It is as yet too early to herald the dawn of real democracy in Kazakhstan† (Robinson 2001).Kazakhstan’s economy has gone through stages of decline, stagnation, and high economic growth after independence in 1990. The period from 1990 to 1997 was the E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development 35 period of negative economic growth, or at best stagnation (in 1995–1997, economic growth was close to zero) due to transformation in economic arrangements. It was only from 1998 that Kazakhstan entered the phase of strong and sustained growth (Agarwal 2008). In the first nine months of 2007, Kazakhstan’s GDP grew by 9. % (ESCAP, 2008). In 2007, GDP per capita was US$ 7,857 (UNDP 2007). However, GDP growth is projected to fall to 5% in 2008, and a modest increase to 6. 3% is penciled in for 2009 (ADB 2008). Over the period 1998–2004, the population living below the poverty line in Kazakhstan declined significantly from 39% in 1998, to 20% in 2004 (Agarwal 2008). The measures being taken by GoK to raise the living standards of the population have cut poverty levels by 1. 7% in 2006 by comparison with 2005 (to 18. %), and the figures for 2007 indicate that poverty levels have fallen to 12. 7% (UNESC 2008). The long-term development strategy ‘Kazakhstan 2030: Prosperity, security and improved living standards for all Kazakhs’ was adopted in 1997. It identified seven priorities for the country’s development: (i) National security, (ii) domestic stability and social cohesion, (iii) economic growth, (iv) health, education and welfare for the citizens of Kazakhstan, (v) energy resources, (vi) infrastructure, transport and communications, and (vii) a professional state.Since 1998 all the programs adopted in the country are being developed in accordance with the noted development strategy of the country, which aimed at improving the quality of life for the population by reducing social exclusion and raising the quality of social services, improving the environment, and involving civil society in development (UNESC 2008, p. 6). Box 1: Kazakhstan: summary information Head of State President Nursultan Nazarbayev, first elected in December 1991 and re-elected in 1999 and 2005. National Legislature Bicameral: 77-seat lower house (Majlis), 39-seat pper house (Senate). Language Kazakh is the state language. Russian is most widely spoken. Currency Tenge Exchange rate 2007 average US$ 1 ? 120 Tenge Unemployment rate 8. 8 (2003) Adult literacy rate (% ages 15 and older) 99. 5 (2005) Life expectancy at birth (both genders) 65. 9 years (2005) GDP 104 billion US$ Internet users (per 100 people) 12 Time required to start a business (days) 21 Sources: Agarwal 2008; UNDP 2007; Wilson et al. 2002; World Bank 2008. The development initiatives of GoK have contribu ted to improving human development index (HDI).In 2007/8, the HDI for Kazakhstan is 0. 794, which gives the country a rank of 73rd out of 177 countries (UNDP 2007). In the contrary, the 36 S. H. Bhuiyan ongoing mammoth development activities also encouraged, it would seem, widespread corruption in the country. As a result, during the years, Kazakhstan consistently gained poor corruption perception index (CPI). A 2008 Global Country Report on the state of corruption launched by the Transparency International ranks the country 145th among 180 countries with a CPI 2. (Transparency International 2008). Admittedly, the backdrop painted a landscape that suggests the critical importance of implementation of e-government scheme in Kazakhstan with an aim to quick and quality access to public services, improving its effectiveness, combating corruption, poverty reduction through income generation, and thus building a breeding ground for development. The state of E-government in Kazakhstan Over all situation: benchmarking Kazakhstan has envisioned joining 50 most competitive countries in the world by 2030.In achieving this goal, ICT plays a critical role by readying the country for entry into the forum of competitive world. In doing so, Kazakhstan’s accomplishments in fostering e-government include (World Bank 2006): & & & & & Recognition of e-government as a priority at the highest political level and the elaboration of an e-government strategy; Establishment of the Agency for Informatization and Communications (AIC) as an independent regulatory authority empowered to implement state ICT policy; Creation of government agency Web sites (32 out of 42 government agencies have their own Web sites);Development of a number of corporate networks and databases (e. g. , integrated taxation, customs, pension information systems) by individual government agencies; and Enacting important legislations such as the laws on e-documents and esignatures. Kazakhstan has made substant ial progress in introducing ICT in public sector. In terms of e-readiness, the United Nations Report on the e-Governance Survey 2008 recognizes Kazakhstan as the leader of Central Asia, while the region has regressed the most since the 2005 survey.This global survey report has ranked the country 81 among 189 countries with an index value 0. 4743 as compared with 65 among 179 in 2005 (UN 2008, pp. 31–32). Table 1 shows e-government readiness in Central Asian countries. The table indicates that the countries in the region had a lower e-government readiness index than in 2005. In spite of government’s efforts, Kazakhstan slips from its 2005 position partly because 2008’s Survey had more focus on the interactive and transactional stages which largely remain unachievable, and thus the scores were lower (UN 2008).Another potential reason is its weak telecommunications facility. A 2004 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) data shows that effective teledensity in the country was quite low, 16. 23 (ITU 2004). However, this number continues to improve. In 2000, the main telephone lines per 100 people were 12. 3 E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development 37 Table 1 E-government readiness for Central Asia Country 2008 Index 2005 Index 2008 Ranking 2005 Ranking Kazakhstan 0. 4743 Kyrgyzstan 0. 4195 0. 4813 81 65 0. 4417 102 Uzbekistan 0. 4057 76 0. 114 109 Turkmenistan 0. 3262 79 128 †¦ Tajikistan 0. 3150 0. 3346 Region 0. 3881 0. 4173 132 117 World 0. 4514 0. 4267 †¦ Source: UN 2008, p. 32 which increased to 19. 1 in 2006, while in the same period mobile cellular subscriber increased from 1. 3 to 51. 2 (World Bank 2006). The e-Government Survey 2008 data shows that both mainline telephone and cellular user further increased to 19. 77 and 52. 86 respectively (UN 2008). E-government program objectives and implementation Kazakhstan’s e-government program incorporates a three-stage approach (World Bank 2006) : & & & st stage: creation of the basic components of e-government infrastructure, such as the governmental portal, a â€Å"payment gateway† providing a linkage with the banking system, national identification system, government-wide ICT network backbone infrastructure, creation of cross-agency information systems, provision of mainly informational and transactional e-government services, promoting Internet use among the citizens and bridging the digital divide. 2nd stage: expansion of the scope and depth of e-government services (predominantly of transactional nature) and comprehensive ICT-enabled reengineering of government administrative procedures. rd stage: ICT-based transformation of government agencies’ operation, building a fully-fledged information society, provision of e-health, e-education, e-culture, e-democracy and other services. Some tasks related to the first stage were implemented in 2006. On the April 12, 2006, e-government web-portal (www. e. gov. kz ) was launched which provides more than 900 information services (egov magazine 2007). This portal is tri-lingual: Kazakh, Russian and English. Laws ‘On Informatization’ and ‘On Amending Certain Legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Sphere of Informatization’ were developed and enacted.Interagency electronic workflow with digital signature has been implemented in 39 state bodies. A pilot model of National Authentication Center for physical and legal entities has been developed, and a pilot project on integrated transportation medium of state bodies has been implemented in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. In an interview with the egov magazine in July 2007, Kuanishbek Esekeev, the Chairman of AIC, reported that GoK had implemented, on 38 S. H. Bhuiyan an experimental basis, government databases on ‘Physical Bodies’ and ‘Legal Entities’, in six oblasts (regions).Moreover, 15 interactive services such as land register and address register software were developed and tested in pilot zones: Citizens’ Service Centers (CSC) of Almatinskiy and Saryarkinskiy regions, Astana (egov magazine 2007). To connect citizens with the web, till 2006, 460 public access points kicked off. Eleven classrooms for providing computer literacy were opened in several regions as a part of capacity development of public sector employees, where more than 1,500 civil servants have been trained (egov magazine 2007).In 1997, a state program was adopted to incorporate information technology (IT) into the general education system, so as to create IT network within the international education space. In 2007, the provision of computers to schools had reached one computer for every 21 pupils compared with one for every 62 in 2001 (UNESC 2008, p. 15). Besides, online instruction has been introduced into the teaching process, comparing a set of five subject schemas, and work has been progressing to connect the education system to t he Internet (UNESC 2008).The AIC is currently working to develop interactive services delivery through national e-government portal. In recent days, the Agency has been successful to deliver limited e-services. For example, it is possible to submit tax statements to the authorities as well as to clear mutual payments with the state budget through electronic channels in real time using digital signatures, which distinguishes Kazakhstan from other CIS countries (World Bank 2006, p. 10). In March 2006, a service has been launched, which enables citizens to submit applications to five ministries (e. . , Ministry of Economic Affairs and Budget Planning) and get an answer to his or her question in 3 to 5 working days. Almost all Akimats (city government) and ministries opened their virtual reception rooms. Visitors can download reference-document; get acquainted with legal base and search addresses of various offices (AIC website: www. aic. gov. kz). Future plans The transactional phase o f e-government development will allow citizens to pay for using public services via governmental portal.AIC is in the process to implement a payment scheme based on existing electronic transactional (payment) system of second-tier banks. GoK is committed to build a transparent information society that presupposes gradual increase of the portal users in number. It means this will eventually transfer public services delivery only in electronic form. As a move to this, AIC plans to provide 900 different kinds of services that are to be exhibited on the portal in 2009 (egov magazine 2007). The challengesIn 2005, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has estimated that more than 60% of e-government projects in developing countries fail (Salem 2006). Likewise, Kazakhstan confronts with multifaceted challenges to the introduction of e-government, and some of them are described here. E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development 39 Political suppo rt and relationship between political institutions, bureaucracy and citizens Kazakhstan e-government program receives strong support from the President and his office.AIC has been given a mandate to coordinate and lead the effort (World Bank 2006). But problem arises due to the government’s tendency to monopolize political power (Perlman and Gleason 2007), dodging the established norms of multi-party politics. As a consequence, in the August 2007 elections, the President’s political party â€Å"Nur Otan† (father land) received 88. 41% of vote and captured all seats, and thus became the only party in the parliament when none of the parties were able to meet 7% threshold required to obtain parliamentary seats (Bakenova 2008, p. 4; Iqbal 2007). It is corroborated that political elitism is compounded by the fact that Kazakh opposition political parties are in disarray and fractured, offering no real alternative to the voting public (Knox 2008, p. 487). Kazakhstan is dominated by a formal political elite and a highly centralized and power base comprising the Administration of the President of Kazakhstan and key stakeholders therein: the State Secretary, Head of Administration and Security Council Secretary (Knox 2008).Cummings (2005, cited in Knox 2008) argued that the elite system is a compelling factor behind the emergence and maintenance of authoritarianism in Kazakhstan. Given disintegrated political context, it is clear that political communication develops in line with one’s party affiliation, which limits the general trust in government. As a result, the nature of relationship existing between the party in power and opposition signals low quality of political development in Kazakhstan. The lack of political participation, however, compartmentalizes the development of e-governance.On the other hand, a major means through which interaction between citizens and politicians occurs is the parliamentary website, which is supposed to fac ilitate the top-down flow of information from the legislature to citizens, allow a bottom-up channel for feedback from citizens to the elected members, increase transparency by providing detailed information about legislative procedures and activities, expand the number of avenues for greater public scrutiny of the nature and processes of public policies and thus enhance the accountability of these elected politicians to their constituencies (Norris 2001, cited in Haque 2002, p. 38). To this point, Kazakh Parliament maintains a website (www. parlan. kz) and provides a list of basic information such as parliamentary activities, legislative acts, constitution, and list of parliamentary groups. It also provides an option to the website visitors to contact parliamentary secretariat to inform their queries and comments. The emergence of e-governance has significantly changed the nature of the relationship between citizens and public servants (Haque 2002). A 2002 World Bank survey made an assessment of Kazakhstan’s governance and service delivery.The survey suggests that general areas where Government can work on to improve the quality of public services through e-government. For example, the results of the survey indicated that households were not satisfied with their interactions with public officials (World Bank 2002). To improve this perception, ICT can be utilized for the reduction in the time that citizens and businesses have to spend to complete transactions with public bodies can be set as one of the performance indicators. If the transactions can 40 S. H. Bhuiyan e completed online, citizens do not have to spend the time to visit and wait at a public office, as long as they have an Internet connection (World Bank 2006, p. 20). Corruption In April 2005, the President of Kazakhstan signed a decree ‘On Measures to Step up the Fight against Corruption’ to strengthen discipline in the activities of state bodies and officials (Transparency Int ernational 2006, p. 185). Against this backdrop, petty corruption in the various form of bribe taking is a fixture of daily life (Gleason 1997, p. 379). High profile corruptions are also rampant.For example, the President of the state-owned Kazakh Telecom joint-stock company was sacked by Security Council when it was revealed that his monthly wage was $365,000 (Knox 2008, p. 487). Similarly, in 2007, Kazakh Anti-corruption Agency (financial police) filed charges against the selection committee of â€Å"Bolashak† (future) program, a presidential scholarship scheme that enables talented young Kazakhs to study in developed countries. The charges stated that many scholarships have been actually purchased through the corrupt jury decisions (Bakenova 2008, p. 94).It is widely believed that e-governance is promised to reduce corruption, which displeases corrupt political executives and bureaucrats, who, in turn, create building blocks to the implementation of e-government programs. Digital divide ‘Digital divide’—exclusion of groups within the population to get access to a computer—is another challenge that has received government attention. It reveals that only 12% of the population in Kazakhstan has skills to use PCs and half of them can use computer without being helped (egov magazine 2007), and only 12% are Internet users (World Bank 2008).To bridge the gap, the government is implementing Digital Inclusion Program for years 2007–2009. This program aims to increase number of ITC educated people by 15% and prepare the country to the transition from the industrial to information society (AIC website: www. aic. gov. kz/? mod=static&Ing=rus&id=22, accessed November 22, 2008). Many governments across the world have taken up measures to lessen the magnitude of the problem. Philippines and Hong Kong, for example, have facilitated this partly by providing free or subsidized access to computers and Internet) in designated public pla ces (Holliday 2002). Telecommunications infrastructure is relatively problematic, although there are examples of significant public intervention. To this effect, several municipal governments in Germany have facilitated the development of high-speed network cables, fiber optics, and public access to improve digital economy (Hasse 2002). Infrastructural development E-government operation requires strong technological infrastructure such as computing and telecommunications. A great deal of financial resources is involved to develop structure.In Kazakhstan, it is more burdensome due to its vastness and unique geographical structure. The government has so far (2005–2007) allocated E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development 41 approximately US$380 million (World Bank 2006) for the purpose of e-government implementation. Let alone government fund is inadequate to meet required expenses, which warranted a partnership among public, private and donor agencies f or the accumulation of investments. Kazakhstan’s poor infrastructural readiness for egovernment also reflected in the e-Government Readiness Survey 2008 where it scored 0. 306 on infrastructure index (UN 2008). Human resources There is no denial that in most of the developing countries e-government programs suffer due to the lack of quality human resources. Kazakhstan is no exception. A 2006 World Bank report points out that even AIC, the lead organization to implement e-government, is struggling with the shortage of professional staff, leaving only 12–15 for the ‘informatization’ task (World Bank 2006). To overcome the challenge, GoK provides continuous training and education to develop professionals in this field.However, given the low public sector compensation packages, it is unclear whether the shortage of professionals will ever be overcome. Admittedly, Kazakh public administration suffers from migration of knowledgeable employees to its growing priv ate sector due to attractive emoluments. This will essentially constrain country’s journey toward e-government development. Poverty Given the gradual decline of the population living below the poverty line, the reduction of poverty is still an important policy goal for Kazakhstan (Agarwal 2008).However, a Gini coefficient (a measure of income inequality, with higher values denoting more unequal incomes) increased from 25. 74 in 1988 to 33. 85 in 2003 (ESCAP 2008). Income inequality is on the rise and took a defiant shape due to onslaught global economic meltdown, which also affects Kazakh economy. Consequently, rates of rural poverty continue to grow, and the economic necessity force migration from rural areas to the towns, which contributes to increase urban poverty too.According to UNDP, nearly 16% of the total population lives on less than US$2 per day (Euromonitor International, www. euromonitor. com/pdf/indonesia. pdf, accessed November 22, 2008). In this context, it is argued that a large population is unable to buy PCs (price of a PC ranges between 40,000–60,000 Tenge) and be connected with Internet (initial connection fee and deposit amount to nearly 20,000 Tenge even with the state-owned Kazakh Telecom). Apart from the above, there are disparities in the distribution of basic services in Kazakhstan (Gleason 1997).For example, a study shows that due to ageing Soviet transmission and distribution lines, electricity losses average 15%, reaching 30% to remote areas (cited in Cochran 2008, p. 1), which causes frequent power cut1 mainly in rural settlements and thus upset the prospect of their social and economic life. This poverty-ridden environment is often not receptive to adopt technological innovations, like e-government. 1 Kazakhstan produced 76. 3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 2007 and consumed just over that amount, 76. 4 billion kWh (Cochran 2008, p. 1). 42 S. H. Bhuiyan Harnessing privacyRapid adoption of global netw orks and technological innovations has raised many outstanding concerns from civil society over the protection of their privacy and personal data and has brought into focus the possibility of the rise of ‘Big Brother ’ (cited in Bhuiyan 2006, p. 114). In a similar vein, referring to Korea, Jho (2005) illustrates that the Korean government has faced fierce public opposition and suffered major setbacks in pursuing some of its ICT projects. This symptom worries yet growing civil society of Kazakhstan and effective dialogue with the government can reduce tension over the issue.E-government in the context of development New ICTs can make a significant contribution to the achievement of good governance goals (Heeks 2001). The e-governance permeates the four domains of government: its role in fostering economic growth and social cohesion, its relationship with the governed, its internal administration, and its relationship with the international environment (Brown 2005, p. 251 ). In each of these areas developing countries are faced with limitations on institutional capacity and infrastructure, financial resources and civil service skills that characterize—and prolong—lower levels of development (Brown 2005).Against this backdrop, efforts have been made for implementing e-governance in many developing countries and some of them were successful. The outcomes of those practices have shown improved government functioning, better service delivery, and triumph over many socio-economic, political and administrative ills. Among them, three cases are presented below to help us to understand the usefulness of using e-government to achieve development goals. Lessons learned from the cases have immense value to reorganize Kazakh public administration in line with e-government mandate.Case 1. Brazil: house of representatives e-participation The Brazilian House of Representatives website allows citizens to talk to their representatives and to participate in debates directly through the Internet. The Government of Brazil also provides an e-participation platform that permits Members of Parliament and citizens to communicate through chat rooms, discussion forums and the service â€Å"Falm com Deputado† or â€Å"Talk to the MP†. This form of eparticipation has enhanced the interaction between citizens and Members of parliament.In a country as vast as Brazil and with a geographically dispersed population, online participation has provided citizens with a greater voice in the creation of policies and laws. (UN 2008, p. 31) Case 2. Health service in Malta The Malta Health Ministry is an excellent example of providing customer service online. The portal allows citizens to apply for the European Health Insurance Card online. It has an electronic patient library provided through a partnership with a E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development 3 private firm, which provides citizens with a medical encyclo pedia, information on surgeries and procedures, and has animated lessons. The portal also provides its citizens with a list of local pharmacies. (Source: http://www. ehealth. gov. mt/article. aspx? art=90 cited in UN 2008, p. 60) Case 3. E-seva program in Andra Pradesh, India The Government of Andra Pradesh has a clear vision to create a knowledge society by using IT in all aspects of development and governance (www. esevaonline. com, last accessed November 24, 2008).Consequently, E-Seva (electronic service) program was launched to effectively deliver public and social services to the citizens. This program offers services of multiple central, state and local government agencies as well as some private sector organizations. The salient features of E-Seva include the following: & & & & & & & 46 e-Seva centers (with 400 service counters) spread over the Twin Cities and Ranga Reddy District. All service counters are facilitated with an electronic queuing system. Operating from 8:00 a. m. to 8:00 p. m. , on all working days and 9:00 a. m. to 3:00 p. m. n holidays (Second Saturdays and Sundays). ‘One-stop-shop’ for over 66 government-to-consumer (G2C) and business-toconsumer (B2C). No jurisdiction limits- any citizen in the twin cities can avail of the services at any of the 46 e-Seva service centers. Online services: eForms, eFiling, ePayments. Payments by cash/cheque/DD/credit card/Internet. The Government of India data shows that e-Seva centers offer the total of 132 G2C services from 16 government departments, and 15 B2C services from 10 business firms. Services include, among others, online transaction processing of payments, issuance of certificates, and licenses.The number of transactions at e-Seva centers was initially under 5,000/month (August 2001). It quickly gained popularity and the number surpassed a million in July 2003. As of May 2004, the level of transaction is above 1. 1 million. (Source: http://www. esevaonline. com/ cited in World Bank 2006, p. 42) The first case makes it clear that interaction between MPs and citizens through Internet helps the former to better understand citizens’ opinions, grievances, and demands, while the latter participates in scrutinizing public policies and laws.Kazakhstan government needs to implement the practice, contextualizing it to the local conditions, to boost up contact between parliament members and citizens, a pre-requisite for ensuring good governance. The second case is focused on electronic delivery of customer services related to healthcare in an EU country, Malta. The dismal performance of healthcare sector in Kazakhstan (Iqbal 2007) warrants a major overhaul. As a part of perceived reform, GoK may experiment with the transferability of Malta’s practice in public healthcare outlets.The third example illustrates the significance of providing public services through public-private partnership (PPP) in Andra Pradesh, an Indian state. PPP is now a common stra nd of ‘third way’ government policy, with better efficiency promised 44 S. H. Bhuiyan from the private funding of public infrastructure through the transfer of risks to private concerns. In this perspective, GoK may consider to build PPPs as a potential strategy to deliver effective and efficient services to the citizens. Over and again, control of corruption and poverty reduction are two important development challenges that are being facilitated through e-government.These issues are in some detail discussed here. Corruption Heeks (1998) points out that the level of corruption in the public sector sharply decreases in countries where e-government exists. A survey in India has revealed that, in the states where e-government has been established even partially, the corruption rate has substantially fallen. The survey has found that in Kolkata and Mumbai, two Indian cities, due to implementation of e-governance in some public sector, corruption rate has declined to 19% an d 18% compared to 51% and 38% respectively in 2000 (Kabir 2008).Similarly, in Bangladesh, one may observe that due to computerization of Railway Reservation System, the number of black-marketers has decreased considerably. Elimination of the middle-men in citizen-government interaction, in fact, is the major factor eradicating corruption (Kabir 2008). Poverty reduction Admittedly, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Grameen Bank has made a significant contribution to the development of ICT in Bangladesh. During the years, Grameen philosophy has proved that ICT can be very useful to uplift the rural and disadvantaged communities in Bangladesh and beyond (cited in Hossain 2005).According to the founder of the Bank and Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus identified three key areas ICT can play an immediate role in helping the poor (Yunus 2004, cited in Hossain 2005) are: 1. Integrating the poor into the mainstream economy by expanding their market, eliminating the middle-men in their bus iness, and creating international job opportunities through service out-sourcing; 2. Bringing information, educational programs, skill training, and healthcare services, etc, all in a very user friendly way, even to the most remote villages; 3.Empowering the poor, particularly poor women, with a stronger voice that can be heard behind the borders of their villages, better access to information, and improvement in the democratic process. The study by Aminuzzaman et al. (2003) found a positive correlation between the uses of ICT and poverty reduction in Bangladesh. According to the findings, at the individual level, the Village Phone (VP) of Grameen Bank has contributed significantly to income generation of rural women (popularly known as phone ladies).Socially, it has given a new status and image to those women who are getting Bank’s support to start this venture both at the family and community levels. Moreover, at the community level, it has narrowed gaps between cities and villages by enhancing frequent communication between family members. Economically, it has increased business transactions and dissemination of information (Aminuzzaman E-Government in Kazakhstan: Challenges and Its Role to Development 45 et al. 2003, p. 327). In an earlier but similar study by Bayes et al. 1999) also evaluated the role of VP (of Grameen Bank) within the context of rural development in general and of poverty reduction in particular. They came up with two basic conclusions: first, pursuance of pragmatic policies can turn telephones into production goods, especially through lowering transaction cost, and second, the services originating from telephones in villages are likely to deliver significant benefits to the poor in Bangladesh (Bayes et al. 1999). Kazakhstan suffers from rampant corruption and poverty.As a means to control corruption and eradicate poverty, the government can evaluate the suitability of the noted (or similarly designed) initiatives for implementati on in Kazakhstan. Conclusion The paradigm of e-government emphasizes coordinated network building, external collaboration, and one-stop customer services to facilitate efficient service delivery to citizens, and, thus, contrasts sharply with the traditional bureaucratic paradigm, which stresses standardization, departmentalization, and division of labor (Ho 2002).In order to keep pace with the articulated development goals, particularly to achieve Kazakhstan 2030, the GoK has started to move toward e-government paradigm to establish a citizen-centered, accountable and transparent government. Kazakhstan’s past political history was linked to the long-standing legacies of monopolism, clanocracy, and cynicism of the Soviet period (Gleason 1997, p. 379). In the new Kazakhstan, situation has not improved to the extent many had expected. The country is still marked by widespread corruption, abject poverty, digital divide, lack of infrastructural development and human resources.In t his context, egovernment offers opportunities, though rudimentary at the present stage, to the government to improve service delivery across the country. The international development experiences clearly portray the benefit of egovernment. Such experiences may serve as policy guidelines to the implementation of e-government in Kazakhstan, after careful evaluations to their acceptability in Kazakh society. An important challenge to e-government implementation in developing countries is the lack of financial resources. The case of Kazakhstan is very much the same.The honeymoon period of booming Kazakh oil economy is under stress. To continue the systematic implementation of e-government even during the sluggish economy, public-private partnership is a necessary strategy for the avoidance of huge initial investment costs. 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Kazakhstan e-government program and the road ahead. Washington, DC: World Bank (a joint economic research program with the Government of Ka zakhstan).The World Bank. (2002). Kazakhstan governance and service delivery: A diagnostic report. Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, Europe and Central Asia Region. Yunus, M. (2004). Petersburg Prize 2004- acceptance speech delivered by Professor Muhammad Yunus in the Prize giving ceremony on June 27, 2004, at the Development Gateway Forum 2004, held at Petersburg Conference Center, Kongiswinter, Germany Shahjahan H. Bhuiyan is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Administration at Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP), Almaty.He earned a Ph. D. in Development Studies from the University of Bonn, Germany. His research interests are in governance, public policy and administration, public management, organization theory and behavior, culture, knowledge and development. 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