Workplace Violence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Workplace Violence - Assignment Example Therefore, workplace violence remains a grave threat to employees and the larger community. This paper argues that victims of workplace violence experience perceived fear and psychological distress or mental problems immediately after the unpleasant incident. These negative outcomes of workplace violence cause dysfunctions in an organization. Hence it is important to implement effective prevention policies against workplace violence. Perceived Fear and the Psychological Effect of Workplace Violence Numerous studies have reported the effect of workplace violence on the victims’ psychological or emotional wellbeing, as well as on their self-perception. Some examples of the psychological impacts of violence in the workplace are lowered self-worth, distress, vulnerability, anger, fear, depression, denial, humiliation, and guilt. Several researchers have identified post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as an outcome of violence in the workplace among those victimized. Several of th e warning signs of PTSD are damaged concentration, weakened memory, recurrent nightmares, disturbance, isolation, bad temper, physiological stimulation, and anxiety (Cavanaugh et al., 2012). Victims of workplace violence immediately feel physical and psychological numbing, distress, denial, and suspicion. Immediately after the unpleasant incident, the victims go through three kinds of effects (Browne-Miller, 2012): (1) withdrawal effects such as truancy, social isolation; reliving effects such as nightmares, recollections; and (3) other effects such as excessive shock, anger, fear, and irritability. Horizontal violence is one of the forms of workplace violence that brings about negative psychological effects on victims. And horizontal violence is most prevalent in health care settings. Increasing rates of continuous horizontal violence or harassment and bullying have been reported to negatively affect the physical and psychological wellbeing of nurses, employee retention, and job sa tisfaction as well as indirect impacts on patient care quality and possibility of negative health outcomes. Horizontal violence harms the individual’s self-esteem and eventually becomes damaging to the nurses’ career, as violent behavior develops from colleagues who are supposed to be providing support, assistance, and guidance (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Continuous horizontal violence among nurses is a major problem. In enhancing and broadening the field of research to intervention and prevention level, theoretical perspectives from sociology, psychology, and biology are explained alongside the theoretical explanation of the frequency of horizontal violence against nurses. Several studies discovered that employees are more likely to be victimized by people outside their organizations or by members of the civic sector than by colleagues, even though there are discrepancies. Nevertheless, in spite of the evidently lower prevalence of co-worker violence existing findings indicate that its psychological effects are more damaging and serious than those of public hostility (Mueller & Tschan, 2011). In the study of Kelloway and LeBlanc (2002 as cited in Mueller & Tschan, 2011), public hostility determined perceived fear and possibility of future victimization but was not related to emotional dedication, physiological health, and psychological wellbeing. In contrast, co-worker violence did not determine perceived fear or possibility of future victimization but was strongly related to reduced employee retention, weakened dedication, and poor health. The explanation for this pattern of findings needs additional study to resolve but there are several available possible explanations. First is that public hostility or client-initiated workplace violenc

The Fire in My Fathers Hands Essay Example for Free

The Fire in My Fathers Hands Essay When I was a kid, about 5 to 8 years old, my hands would always get cold whenever the surrounding air is chilly. My dad would always tell me to rub them together, like you would in order to make fire. And so I did it. I rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. My fingers grind against each other from the tips of my little fingers to the base of my palm, but none of this worked. My hands still are cold, stone cold. Then my dad said after watching me rub for a whole 3 minutes: You can stop rubbing your hands when they are warm again, as rubbing would make your skin raw. I replied: But theyre still cold. Then he told me to hold out my hand and he started rubbing warmth into my hands; his strong, rough hands massaging my palms, my fingers, then suddenly my hands are warm again. After a while, I wondered: will my hands ever become tough and strong like my fathers? Practice Till You Get Tired of It My Mom is my role model. I guess this is due to the fact that I used to scarcely see my Dad because he comes home really late; he still does, though not as late, while my Mother took care of me ever since she quit the job as the General Manager when I was in 2nd grade. She is the one who is there for me whenever I have a problem, like a robot on standby, but she is also a harsh whip with her discipline though she never hit me. My most notable memory of my Mom is when I sucked at math in 3rd grade. I dont know how to do a problem so naturally, I asked her. However, after she taught the same problem 4 times, I still didnt get it. I was afraid she would get mad, but she didnt and in the end when I finally got it, I asked her why she is so patient. She simply replied practice makes perfect, an old adage I hear very often to this day. The Playful Shadow Everyone in my family has different hair. My fathers, a hair like a bush or a vigilant meerkat or a comb. A comb with black and white bristles because my father is slowly aging. It stands tall and mighty nevertheless, and doesnt ever change no matter how many times you run your hand through the mass of black and white. Other times my father applies hair gel to his hair, though I dont see a point. After all, crew cuts dont have a lot of potential for shaping. In contrast though, my hair is like a playful shadow, flexible and could be shaped into anything. Its of medium length, though sometimes when I am too lazy or busy I dont pester my mother to take me to the hair salon in a nearby department store. Speaking of her, my mother has the smoothest hair in the family. Its silky and sleek almost all the time, and has a certain shine to it whenever light falls on her hair, like twinkling stars on a silent, dark night. Not The Usual It was around my mid-summer vacation. I went to my grandmothers in Taipei, but I stayed for a long time, about 2 weeks or so. I came back home eventually, but before the moment when I stepped through onto the white marble floor, I never realized the beautiful house that I considered as mundane was indeed quite nice. I immediately noticed the sunlight streaming through the tall windows that cover up a side of the spacious living room, as opposed to my grandmothers artificially lit house and the tiny space one is allowed to move in. You really have to pick your way carefully in order to not trip over something. Although this is mean for me to put it like this, especially since I have been accepting their hospitality for an extended period of time but after this time I learned to appreciate the place I live in. The next day, my mother started her usual sermons, Why dont you start doing your grammar workbook. Then I replied, But mother, its summer. Even if I finish it you wont give me any free time. Fine, you can have free time after you finish 5 pages in the workbook. Yes. I exclaimed. Then I thought to myself. Well, this is rare, mother is giving me free time. Home Ruler In German my name means home ruler. It means king. It is like the wind; strong, yet soothing. An energizing gust that one would welcome on a hot sunny day. It is like the symphonies that Beethoven conducted, vivid, strong symphonies. Henry was my fathers name and now I have it. Before that my fathers name is Eric, then he changed it to Chief during college years. But now he is Henry, and I am Henry Jr. On that lazy afternoon when he told me that he changed his name twice, I asked him why he wanted to be called Henry. He replied Because I like the sound of it. What?! You chose your name and my name only because you like the sound of it? Isnt there some kind of symbolism behind it like Chinese names do? I pressed. But he just simply said Nope. Personally though, I do not dislike my name. Its alright, though it could be confusing when people just say Henry when both Yu and I are present. Thats pretty much it, after all names arent good material for bullying anyways. All Alone On lazy days when Im bored, I daydream a lot. Just staring into space or look at the sky and the clouds or whatever that catches my intrest. I imagine various things, from the future, to the past. Sometimes I think of of the possibility of having a brother or sister since I am the only child in my house. I think of other people and their relationships with their siblings and sometimes I feel forlorn, because I never really had a person I can relate to at home. But other times when I see siblings fight I wonder if I would do the same. Chances are I would fight, be the peacemaker, or just let them go all over me. Perhaps I would try to maintain peace between me and my sibling. I suppose things get lively, crazy, and out of control sometimes when you have a sibling, but the more, the merrier right? Stop Judging! Shun is my old, old classmate, a classmate I had in 4th grade. He was a boy who had eyes that stare daggers and a posture or a physique that suggested he can fight well. I always took care to avoid him, for I am afraid of what he might do, especially since he got in a fight with my best friend, Kevin. The fight exploded suddenly with Kevin beaten down pretty badly. But in a strange twist of fate, I had to take the late bus with him, not to mention the small bus is very, very crowded. Time passed and passed, and eventually I had to go on the bus. It turns out that he isnt much of a bad person. I was apprehensive at first, but after a while I got the courage to ask him a few questions and we started talking. It was then I realized the true meaning of the saying dont judge a book by its cover. Party Pooper Rain, rain, go away. Go away so i can play I hate rainy days. The way it brings cool, humid air, and the way it forces me to stay indoors. The way it makes the skies dark, gloomy, and sometimes filled the air with static. It came when I went to Hualien the first time I went there. There wasnt much to do except to roam the department stores that was packed with refugees of the rain, just like my family and me. The rain prevented us from exploring Hualien Ocean Park, the amusement park I was so excited to go to, but the trip prematurely ended. We did stay in Hualien for an extra day though to compensate for the missing day, but that doesnt cover up the fact that the rain ruined half of my vacation. Just as it ruined the bicycling trip my dad and I planned to go on. And the trip to the Sun-Moon Lake. Oh, how I hate the rain. Different Things, Deep Meanings My mother tells me a lot of things. Family values, information, something about maintaing discipline, and many others. However, I find her small tales most intruguing. She once told me about a story about a kid and his mother. The story begins when the child was hit by his mother because he did something bad. Throughout his life, the child was always hit by his mother when he did something wrong. The strange thing is, the child never cried, not once when he was hit hard. He just held the tears in as the mother began her rentless attack, at least thats what I think she said, after all its been 3, 4 years. Anyway, the story goes on with the child finally reaches manhood, and the mother became an old lady, her hair streaked with dull gray, her hands and face wrinkly and her hands dont stop shaking. Then the child, now a man, did something to upset the mother again and of course the mother reaches to hit him as she did throughout her sons life. But this time when the blow landed, the son finally cried. Why? Because his mothers punch did not hurt, while in the past it hurt really bad. To this day, I still dont get the meaning of this little story. Work, Save, Relax I have a dream. A dream to be able to do anything i want. I feel tired studying for tests and doing homework all day. To go to school, back home like a an endless cycle which will likely change to go to company, return home when I get a job. Someday, Id like to travel to various countries, taste gorment food, and maybe even sip on wine. I want to see new things, experience them, and try them. Someday I will make this happen. When my dream turns to reality, this may be when my hair is all gone, streaked with whitish gray strands, and arms that are weakened by time, but I would be happy, happy that my dream is fulfilled. Being free of the bounds of duty, responsibility, and just be able to do anything I want is my lifetime goal. I have a dream. A dream to be able to do anything I want. I feel tired after studying and doing homework all day, and just doing work all day. Someday, Id like to just relax and enjoy, perhaps when I retire. I would travel to far-off coutries and taste gorment food.

Examining The Mission, Vision And Value Statements Of Three Organizations

Examining The Mission, Vision And Value Statements Of Three Organizations Introduction: This report focuses on Mission, Vision and Value Statements of an organization. The report provides the full details on the goals of the organization. The report also consists of developing the organizational strategy by taking the views of the managers. Apart from this I have also mentioned the stakeholders role in the business like power and influence of the stake holders and it has a brief explanation about the stakeholders represents more challenges than opportunities. The report also consists of developing the mission statements of the 3 organizations after having a look on their purpose, values and behavioural standards. I have used appropriate concepts, tools and techniques and also provided the recommendations to improve the business. Services to improve the organization: After analyzing the 3 views of different authors, Milton Friedman, Charles Handys and S Davies, we can go with Milton Friedmans view of profit maximisation. In this literature he explains about the social responsibilities of the business. In every organization the private property system or a corporate executive is the staff of the owners of the business. Employers are the direct responsibilities to the owners. Those responsibilities conduct business in accordance with businesss desires of making more profits. In some cases the owners have different objectives for the employers. The primary responsibility of the manager is to keep the business going with the profit and to establish a corporation with the individuals who can run the organization smoothly. The performance of the manager is not easy to judge, as how well he is doing the job. But the criteria is straightforward, and all the criterion that are exists in voluntary contractual arrangement should be clearly defined. The corporate executive has their own rights of course. Voluntarily the corporate executive has many other responsibilities that he may recognize to his conscience, his family, his feelings of the charity etc. Social responsibilities are not of the business. They dont affect the running of the business. As discussed in these cases the corporate executive is spending someone elses money for a social interest. And this may affect the earning to the stockholders. If he is doing so and not running the business smoothly then there will be a great loss to the stockholders and the owners of the company. If they want they can spend the money separately in case of stock holders, customers or the employees. Rather than serving as an agent the corporate executive is exercising a distinct social responsibility if he have spent the money in some other way than actually he would have spend it. If he does so then, there will be effect on the taxes and he have to decide how the taxes should be paid. The tax processes are the governmental functions and there will be other expenditure on theses taxes. To control these functions, we have different judicial provisions, parliamentary and constitutional provisions. To separate the function of legislative we have different systems of check and balance and there are different functions of collecting the taxes according to the law. The businessman if it is self selected or may be appointed directly/indirectly should be legislator, executive and jurist. To improve the business of the organization the leader should be motivated and have to be fully confidence in running the business. Then only we can achieve the organizational goals easily with the less investment. Organizational Strategy: The implications of these views for managers development of organizational strategy are: If we go as per Milton Friedman a manager can develop the organizational strategy with the social and corporate responsibilities together. While doing both of them together the manager cannot be able to focus on every single job. To achieve the organizational goals, the managers have to take care of both the responsibilities social and corporate. In the view of Milton Friedman The business of business is business. And this is done to increase the profit. If the employees are not satisfied with the work then they work elsewhere. If the customers are not satisfied they can take the business elsewhere. So the manager have to prepare an organizational strategy in such a way that it increase the profit. According to the Charles Handys view Shareholders should be the whole and sole owners of the business. So that they are the only persons responsible for the losses and profits of the organization. We have to be accurate to call them as the investors and the owners of the business. They can prepare the organizational strategy in such a way that it should improve the business day by day. They need to take care of all the responsibilities given to the employees and have to take care of their basic needs like food, shelter and other living things. By this the employees will be motivated and will work more fast. If the business running smoothly then there will be an increase in the profit of the organization. S. Davies, J. Lukommik and D. Pitt Watson addresses the view on the organizational strategy in their book, The New Capitalists. As per this view the business is the property of its stock owners and they have to serve their interest in the business. There are millions of pension holders and other savers that own the biggest organizations all over the world. These owners have to be highly diversified in their investments. They have to keep a record of all the investments they made and they also have to keep record of whatever they are getting profit. If the owner of the company takes the interest in the business, then the success will be all to them only. As per their view the managers have to concentrate on the success of the business. However, they need to have a look and have to serve in such a way that there must be an increase in the profit. Conflicting needs, power and influence of Stakeholders: The Stakeholders represents more challenges than opportunities. Different group of stakeholders have their different interests. Some of them are common stakeholders interests and some of them are conflict stakeholders. The Employees and the stake holders have the common interest in success of the business. If there is a high profit in the business, then their jobs will be secured and more profit to the stakeholders. In the prosperity and growth of the firm, the suppliers have their own interest. There may be an expense in the dividend if wages are raised. There may be an expense of the short term profits if the managers have an interest in organizational growth. Stakeholders power and influence: The stakeholders represents more challenges than the opportunities. The study of the stake holders should not have to be a limited as it impacts on the growth of the organization. What is more important in the context of strategy is the power and influence of the stake holder and this may affect the objectives and goals of the organization. This may be a risk to the organizational growth. The firms are most probably affected by the stake holders itself if they take risk. There will be an external pressure and an internal pressure. External pressure includes the pressure from the customers, suppliers, government (through the taxation and spending), market place and including competitors. The internal pressure to the stake holders comes from their trade unions, employees, managers and the existing commitments. And it also comes from the moral and ethical perspective of the senior managers. To have the power and the influence and for the need, the stake holders must have the desire to exert influence must have to be coupled with the means of the liabilities on the company. The power of the stakeholders reflect the extent to which: They can disrupt the strategies and plans of the organization. They can cause the uncertainty in plans. Stakeholders are the need of the organization and organization is relying on them. Primary and Secondary Stakeholders: The distinction of the stake holders can be divided into two group of stakeholders. i.e.. Primary Stakeholders and Secondary Stakeholders. Primary Stakeholders are those that are most vital to the organization. And they are the group without whom the continuous participation of the company may not survive on the running of the business. For example, supplier and customer. Secondary stakeholders are those the company can be still exist without them. And the company can participate as well. Organization managing handling Share holders issues of ethics, corporate governance and regulations: The internal stakeholders have their own perspective which they might pursue, for example, organizations profit is the need of the manager and high wages and favourable work conditions are the need of the employees. There will be an extensive power to the managers. The Internal stakeholders have the negative power that can be impede while the implementing of the strategy. The stakeholders can threaten the industrial actions. They can give threaten to resign. And they may refuse to relocate. The share holders are the whole and sole owners of the organization, they have the voting rights and they can buy or sell the shares to takeover. The government issues can be handled by share holders in the following ways. It is unacceptable if they are publicising the business activities. If there is a political change then there will be a change in the law. They can refuse to buy goods or services from the fro named firms. They have to make sure that there should not be any illegal actions held. Mission statement: These are the two main components of the business. They provides managers the unity of the direction and transcends the well conceived vision of the business. The first ideology to make the mission statement There are two components in the mission statement. They are: Core Ideology and Envisioned Future. The Core Ideology defines that organization stands for what and why it is exist. This ideology is to create the demands of the business to change the process and to help the organization getting better. It defines the future of the organization and the goals and objectives of the organization depends on these vision and mission statements. If we prepare these statements in a good and strategic manner then we can get good results in the business. When the vision statement expressed and becomes tangible then it will become a mission statement. For a manager, to lead the organization such statement verbalizes the beliefs. The definition of the mission is to define the enduring purpose and fundamental purpose of the firm that sets the statement apart from the firm in similar business. Mission statement of Tata Steel The mission statement of Tata Steel is to achieve the sustainable and profitable growth in the steel and other related businesses. Through the innovative offers they have to create the differential value for the customers. There should be a step by step improvement in the technologies and the business processes. They have to get into partnership with the key stake holders faster. To create a high performing and the innovative organization they have to enhance the employees competencies. They need to be a responsible corporate citizen and have to enhance the quality of life of the employees as well as community. The mission of the Tata Steel embodies the philosophy of the business of strategic decision makers and they would like to achieve the sustainable and the profitable growth that reflects the organizations self concept like as always being the innovative organization and the high performer. Competencies, technologies, company activities and the customer needs are the key components to design a good mission statement of an organization. In the same way, with the help of new technology and the new business processes they have created a well designed mission statement to serve the customer and for the high performance. Mission Statement of Metropolitan Police: The Mission statement of the Metropolitan police is to working together for a safer London. The main aim of the metropolitan police is to develop the police services across Northern Ireland, Wales and England to improve the response of police to those victims of the cyber crime. The mission statement also includes for the most serious cyber crime incidents to be nationally investigated and they should be capable of doing the investigation. Working together by all the other partners, colleagues and all the citizens. Delivering the quality service. Responding the complaints quickly. Working as a team as each one have different part to work for a safer London. Mission Statement of Villeroy Boch: The mission statement of Villeroy Boch is to be leading lifestyle brand in Europe high competence and to present the trend style for the living and high end design. They believe that their success is by the enthusiasm of the customers and they can do it by showing their products and services to the customers. They always takes the constant challenges to satisfy the customers, a variety in the brand should be there to satisfy the customer needs. By having the innovative and committed employees a long run in the strong market can be achieved. The main task of them is to motivate the employees and cultivate their team spirit, to achieve their personal and joint goals they have to encourage them. Following trends is enough to be a successful, constant and to be a leader in the market. To secure the competitive edge and to be recognized worldwide they have to shape trends early on. Earning power is the important concern to maintain the long term success of the company. Appropriate dividends, constant and high rate of returns, earnings oriented growth and balanced portfolios are the fundamentals for this. They feel obligated not only to the employees, customers and share holders but also to the society and the environment. Development of Mission Statement: The purpose, strategy, values and behavioural standards are the key factors of mission statements. Below are some of the points that are suggested to improve the mission statement of the above three cases. In the case of Tata Steel the main point that is suggested is they have to make use of new technologies to improve the business and be the number one in the competitive market. In the case of Metropolitan Police, the key point suggested is, they require a system that is faster than the current system. They have to act on the complaints quickly. They have to open metropolitan police stations available in each area of London. In the case of Villeroy and Boch if they have to be on number one in the competitive market they have to produce variety in their products. Customers always look for variety with the cheaper price. So they have to make the products in cheaper prices. Involve Key Stakeholders and Staff. Research and Review EOF Plans and Research college. Research and Review EOF missions and College. Determine how where EOF supports/fits college mission We can use guides to develop the mission statements. The most powerful motivator in an organization Vivid description of the organization as it effectively carries out its operations. Compelling description of the state function of the organization once it had implemented the strategic plan Represent the core priorities in the organizations culture, including what drives members priorities and how they truly act in the organization Establish core values from which the program would like to operate Articulating values provides everyone with guides to choose among competing priorities guidelines about how people will work together.

The Pursuit of Happiness in Fahrenheit 451 :: Fahrenheit 451 Essays

Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness† (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drasti cally affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, â€Å"as wind in dried grass† (Eliot). History Before we look into specifics, we’ll examine the history and development of â€Å"happiness† as a philosophy. Of course, the emotion of happiness has always existed, but it began to be seriously contemplated around 2,500 years ago by philosophers like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle. Shortly after Buddha taught his followers his Noble Eight Fold Path (which we will talk about later), Aristotle was teaching that happiness is â€Å"dependent on the individual† (Aristotle). Probably more than any of the early philosophers, Aristotle promoted happiness as a central component of human life. The Greeks used a term, eudaimonia, which is often used as the Greek word for happiness. However, most scholars translate it as â€Å"human flourishing† or â€Å"well-being of the spirit.† Along with eudaimonia, terms like arete, â€Å"virtue†, and phronesis, â€Å"practical or moral wisdom†, are at the core of Greek philosophy. So if you could have asked Aristotle â€Å"What components or values must a person have in order to live a fulfilling life?† He probably would have answered, â€Å"Virtue, wisdom, and spiritual well-being.† Would Aristotle have been pleased with the futuristic world of Fahrenheit 451? Probably not. Certainly, the lack of virtue, learning, and the false sense of happiness would have astonished any of the early philosophers. Physical Happiness

Ainsworth Strange Situation Studies

Ainsworth Strange Situation Studies The Strange Situation procedure, developed by American psychologist Mary Ainsworth, is widely used in child development research. Much research in psychology has focused on how forms of attachment differ between infants. For example, Schaffer and Emerson (1964) discovered what appeared to be innate differences in sociability in babies; some babies preferred cuddling more than others, from very early on, before much interaction had occurred to cause such differences. It’s easy enough to know when you are attached to someone because you know how you feel when you are apart from that person, and, being an adult, you can put your feelings into words and describe how it feels. However, most attachment research is carried out using infants and young children, so psychologists have to devise subtle ways of researching attachment, involving the observational method. Using the Strange Situation procedure, many researchers have studied the development of child attachment to the mother and other caregivers. However, there continues to be much debate about the origins of the child's reaction in the Strange Situation, and about what factors influence the development of an infant's attachment relationships. The security of attachment in one- to two-year-olds was investigated by Ainsworth and Bell (1970) in the ‘_strange situation_' study, in order to determine the nature of attachment behaviours and types of attachment. Ainsworth (1970) developed an experimental procedure in order to observe the variety of attachment forms exhibited between caregivers and infants. The experiment is set up in a small room with one way glass so the behaviour of the infant can be observed. Infants were aged between 12 and 18 months. The sample comprised about 100 middle class American families. The procedure, known as the ‘_Strange Situation_’, was conducted by observing the behaviour of the caregiver and the infant in a series of seven 3-minute episodes, as follows: (1) Parent and infant alone. (2) Stranger joins parent and infant. (3) Parent leaves infant and stranger alone. (4) Parent returns and stranger leaves. (5) Parent leaves; infant left completely alone. 6) Stranger returns. (7) Parent returns and stranger leaves. Psychologist Mary Ainsworth devised an assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) in order to investigate how attachments might vary between children. The goal of the Strange Situation procedure was to provide an environment that would arouse in the infant both the motivation to explore and the urge to seek security. An observer (often a researcher or therapist) takes a mother and her child (usually around the age of 12 months) to an unfamiliar room containing toys. A series of eight separations and reunions are staged involving mild, but cumulative, stress for the infant. Separation in such an unfamiliar setting would also likely activate the child's attachmentsystem and allow for a direct test of its functioning. Although no single behaviour can be used to assess the quality of the infant's attachment to the caregiver, the pattern of the infant's responses to the changing situation is of interest to psychologists. The validation of the procedure and its scoring method were grounded in the naturalistic observation of the child's exploration, crying, and proximity-seeking in the home. Ainsworth's research revealed key individual differences among children, demonstrated by the child's reaction to the mother's return. Ainsworth categorised these responses into three major types: Anxious/avoidant—the child may not be distressed at the mother's departure and may avoid or turn away from her on her return; Securely attached—the child is distressed by the mother's departure and easily soothed by her on her return; Anxious/resistant—the child may stay extremely close to the mother during the first few minutes and become highly distressed at her departure. When she returns, the child will simultaneously seek both comfort and distance from the mother. The child's behaviour will be characterised by crying and reaching to be held and then attempting to leave once picked up. Strengths The strange situation classification has become the accepted methodology worldwide for measuring attachment (re: Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg, 1988) Ainsworth, M. Infancy in Uganda: Infant Care and the Growth of Love. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967. Periodicals Spock, Benjamin. â€Å"Mommy, Don't Go! † Parenting 10, June-July 1996, pp. 86+. Weaknesses In addition, some research has shown that the same child may show different attachment behaviours on different occasions. Children's attachments may change, perhaps because of changes in the child's circumstances, so a securely attached child may appear insecurely attached if the mother becomes ill or the family circumstances change. The strange situation has also been criticised on ethica grounds. Because the child is put under stress (separation and stranger anxiety), the study has broken the ethical guideline protection of participants. The sample is biased -100 middle class American families. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise the findings outside of America and to working class families. Finally, the observational study has been criticised for having low ecological validity. Because the child is place in a strange and artificial environment, due to the the procedure of the mother and stranger following a predetermined script.

Free Essays on Jasons Quest

The myth of Jason is one of a great quest not only for a fleece but within one’s own self. Jason, who is favored by Hera, gets help along the way by her, but in return this angers Zeus and suffers his wrath. The tasks in which Jason must face are not only mentally challenging but also physical. From the Clashing Rocks to the Harpies Jason must think as well as put his body on the line. Jason’s final venture was to go back home, and once there, deal with Pelias and his other demons. This is not only a quest for a Golden Fleece but one of overcoming great oppression, physical strain, and mental anguish. Hera and Zeus, with the help of the other gods, work to advance and obstruct Jason on his path. Jason helps an old lady, Hera, across a river and for this wins her favor. In return Because of Hera’s favor upon him, Zeus is angered and Jason must than suffer the consequences. Zeus and Hera battle back and forth over Jason. Zeus makes it so that Jason crashes into Poseidon; Hera in return makes him ease up. Hera commands Cupid to make Medea fall in love with Jason so that she would help him get the Fleece. Zeus later takes off the spell on Medea to try and get her to leave Jason but to no avail, because she will not leave him. No matter how much the one tried, the other would always counter act what the other one had done. Jason faces many tasks on his journey and he must not only use his brawn but also his brain to overcome each one. When Jason makes it to Table Top Island he must find Phidaas. Phidaas agrees to give out the location of the Fleece for a price, food that is guarded by Harpies. Jason agrees his plan is to sneak in and get the food and distract the Harpies. While they are distracted, the Argonauts collapse the temple in which they roost and kill them. Jason’s next task was that of the Clashing Rocks, they would destroy any thing that dares pass trough them. Jason devises a plan to send a dove thr... Free Essays on Jason's Quest Free Essays on Jason's Quest The myth of Jason is one of a great quest not only for a fleece but within one’s own self. Jason, who is favored by Hera, gets help along the way by her, but in return this angers Zeus and suffers his wrath. The tasks in which Jason must face are not only mentally challenging but also physical. From the Clashing Rocks to the Harpies Jason must think as well as put his body on the line. Jason’s final venture was to go back home, and once there, deal with Pelias and his other demons. This is not only a quest for a Golden Fleece but one of overcoming great oppression, physical strain, and mental anguish. Hera and Zeus, with the help of the other gods, work to advance and obstruct Jason on his path. Jason helps an old lady, Hera, across a river and for this wins her favor. In return Because of Hera’s favor upon him, Zeus is angered and Jason must than suffer the consequences. Zeus and Hera battle back and forth over Jason. Zeus makes it so that Jason crashes into Poseidon; Hera in return makes him ease up. Hera commands Cupid to make Medea fall in love with Jason so that she would help him get the Fleece. Zeus later takes off the spell on Medea to try and get her to leave Jason but to no avail, because she will not leave him. No matter how much the one tried, the other would always counter act what the other one had done. Jason faces many tasks on his journey and he must not only use his brawn but also his brain to overcome each one. When Jason makes it to Table Top Island he must find Phidaas. Phidaas agrees to give out the location of the Fleece for a price, food that is guarded by Harpies. Jason agrees his plan is to sneak in and get the food and distract the Harpies. While they are distracted, the Argonauts collapse the temple in which they roost and kill them. Jason’s next task was that of the Clashing Rocks, they would destroy any thing that dares pass trough them. Jason devises a plan to send a dove thr...

A Brave New World by Aldus Huxley misc 12 00 essays

A Brave New World by Aldus Huxley misc 12 00 essays The novel Brave New World is like no other in fantasy and satire. It predicts a future overpowered by technology where the people have no religion. Has Huxley written about a degrading way of life or has he discovered the key to a perfect world that should be called Utopia? This essay will show that upon close analysis the way of life in the novel is justifiable and all the precautions that are taken are needed to preserve their lifestyle. This essay will also show that however different and easily looked upon, as horrible as their lives seem to be, in actuality it is better than ours. The first argument that would contradict the fact that Brave New World is a Utopia is the government overpowering the world, causing the loss of freedom and liberty in the people. Before judging their lives the reader must ask himself one simple question: Is it really that bad? Obviously no it's not. In the novel, the people don't have to worry about having a job. One must remember that being born and raised in Utopia, one does not know what freedom is and therefore does not know what is missing. Freedom leads to happiness, and if one already possesses happiness, then there is no need for freedom, especially if your government is making sure that all your needs are satisfied. Religion plays an important role in people's lives. It represents our principles and values. Religion guides us, gives us something to believe in and a set of rules to live by. However, who is to say that one hundred years from now people will still believe and practice religion? Mustapha Mond when referring to the Holy Bible says that "they're old; they're about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God Now" (Huxley, p.237). Mustapha Mond is saying that with the evolution of time the need for religion has disappeared and has been replaced by the worship of another God who is Ford. They basically live a fulfilled life and then they die. Also thanks to their conditioning they ...

Cultural Considerations and Modern Family Law essays

Cultural Considerations and Modern Family Law essays It is important to be aware that the 1995 legislation is particularly directed at the wellbeing of children and the promotion of primary dispute resolution, and that these are two broad and important areas which are dependent on value systems which may involve a wide divergence of views. In the case of children, significant feelings about parental roles and responsibilities may be influenced by issues related to ethnicity, just as they may often be influenced by gender issues. In the case of mediation and conciliation, there may be a reluctance to engage in private ordering or a fear of avoiding the more formal litigation path, due to beliefs, which are hopefully incorrect, that the alternatives involve "star chamber like" or unaccountable procedures. Many of those who have come to Australia from particularly repressive regimes would understandably hold such beliefs, just as many indigenous Australians base their lack of trust in the legal system on past experiences with it. It is ob viously most important that there be trust between the various ethnic communities and the legal system in general, and this is particularly important in the area of family law. Fortunately the judges and the courts of this country, unlike those of Nazi Germany, are both independent and above these attitudes and will not be influenced by them in performing their duty. Given the centrality of family life to us all, the impacts of law and policy which impinge directly upon the family are particularly significant in a multicultural society such as Australia most undoubtedly is. Not only will laws which stereotype families fail to have meaning for those who fall outside the stereotype, but their impacts will be discriminatory, and consequently unjust. In the environment of family law particularly, the challenge to reflect and respect the cultural diversity of the population is both enormous and vitally important. The obligation is on the Court to provide a le...

Four Questions 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Four Questions 2 - Assignment Example Essentially, it is these social coalitions that modify and determine the state ‘preferences’ or rather foreign policy in global politics at any moment in time. Political institutions form the basic channels through which these social interests of both individuals and civil society groups find their way into the political realm. The second basic assumption of liberalism is that the interdependence among of state preferences influence state behavior. Unlike realists who insists on constancy of preferences, liberalists hold that the state preferences are dynamic in nature and they play a critical role in influencing the world politics. The variations in state policy and behavior is a function of exact distribution of preferences and nature of the ‘stakes’ in consideration. States, as argued out by liberals, align their behavior to the exact nature of these preferences (compatible or conflictual) and their scope. A â€Å"social purpose† is a pre-requisite for any state to pay any attention to international matters, let alone trigger conflict, initiate cooperation, or consider any other crucial foreign policy undertaking. In the absence of this interdependence among the objectives of different states, a rational state will not engage in any international relations, hence exist as an isolated and autarkic entity. Basically, liberalists argue that conflictual goals promote political disputes whereas convergence of underlying preference form a platform for peaceful cooperation. Burchill (2009) describes liberalism as an optimistic approach to international relations that advocates for freedom, human rights, free market capitalism, and constitutionalism. Liberalists hold the fundamental belief that peace and freedom are the basic questions of domestic and international order. The recent trends in world politics has seen increased calls for nations to cooperate with international bodies for the mutual interest of global peace. In another example, United States has been undertaking solitary interventional actions in world affairs. However, with the advent of modern liberalism, calls to cooperate with multinational bodies such as NATO in conducting interventional plans has been on the increased. This is based evidenced in the recent French Military intervention in Mali and the NATO intervention in Libya. Liberalists advocate for the adherence to human rights and free market capitalism. China and U.S. offer examples of how liberalists’ perspectives of free trade is gradually permeating the international markets. China has recently expanded its market to the developing world especially in Africa. Most of its products are sold in these nations in exchange of other natural resources and agricultural produce. United States has equally expanded its trade across the globe. Nonetheless, China has come under sharp criticism from other players in the global economy for their engagements in activities that are thought to hinder free trade. WTO other nations continuously urge China to embrace the spirit of free and fair cooperation in trade. SECTION 2 Question A:. Identify and discuss at least three social, economic, and/or environmental activities of the UN and other intergovernmental organizations. Do you agree that each of these activities should fall under the realm of an organization such as the UN? Why or why not? Through international bodies such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, the United Nations plays a critical role in ensuring

Psychology Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Psychology Research - Essay Example art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets†, they could provide a more truthful answer without fear of retribution or disapproval (Matthew 16:14, King James Version). When Jesus further quizzed the disciples about what they thought, the disciples knew that the first answer was not right. Thus â€Å"Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God† (Matthew 16:16, King James Version). In which Jesus rewarded him with a blessing stating â€Å"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven† (Matthew 16:17, King James Version). Jesus would have made an excellent interrogator. The methods he used are used today when interviewing a criminal or trying to get to the truth about a matter. He first asked whatever one else thought. This gives the individual being questioned a way to tell the truth without being embarrassed or looking guilty. When the disciples gave the wrong answer, then Jesus pressed them for what they thought. This allows a person to explain themselves. Finally after giving the answer being sought by Jesus, the disciple that answered was praised. Another point is Jesus questioned a crowd (at least twelve). That gives a sense of competition to get the answer right, sort of peer pressure. In the end, the statement of being â€Å"Son of man† was confirmed by Simon Peter. Jesus not only sublimely planted the answer, but made Simon Peter think it was his

Project proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Project proposal - Essay Example act is pertaining to the internal control assessment & accountability the management of the organization whereby the company is required to submit an internal control evaluation report pertaining to the procedures of financial reporting. In the modern context most of the organizations possess IT enabled Business & Financial Control systems and hence internal controls are largely related to IT governance. IT Governance is gradually forming deep roots into the corporate governance of businesses globally and hence best practices of IT Management like ITIL & COBIT are gaining popularity very rapidly across the world. In fact many organizations are now looking forward to implement integrated frameworks comprising of practices recommended by ITIL, COBIT and ISO 27001. The research proposal presented herewith is targeted to evaluate the feasibility, strengths & weaknesses of COBIT framework when deployed as an Internal Auditing System for IT Governance as a part of the overall Corporate Gov ernance system of an organization. [Findlaw.com. 2002] IT Management is no longer a small management system operating in Silo by a group of professionals that are primarily technical administrators & experts. With more and more organizations migrating to IT enabled business process management systems, the components & building blocks of IT Infrastructure & Applications have gradually achieved the critically of being the most valuable assets of the organization but least understood from the governance perspective. In this context the organizations having high dependence on IT enabled business processes need to practice an effective IT Risk Management system to comply with regulatory requirements and manage the business dependence on IT effectively. Hence, it is mandatory in the modern business era that IT Management & Governance becomes the responsibility of the executive management and the board of directors of an organization. The advantages of having strong & well managed IT

Biography of Albert Einstein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biography of Albert Einstein - Essay Example Thus Einstein spent only six weeks in his place of birth. The image of Albert Einstein as an intellectual giant does not relate to skills as a kid. He could scarcely talk till the age of three. Taking this disadvantage into consideration, it was not expected that he would become a scientist whom the world would remember and respect for ever. Despite the problem in speaking, Einstein used to be very constructive and creative right from his early childhood. It has been recorded that he was really good in making tall card castles. It was also evident that he was different from his peers and had interests quite varied from that of children of his age. One ideal example of this is that he did not enjoy playing soldier which used to be a very common game amongst children of his age. Interestingly, at the age of twelve he got totally involved in a geometry book (Lewis, 1985). For a boy of this age to get interested in geometry when children of his age played around with toy cars, suggested the extra ordinary scientific aptitude he possessed even early during his childhood. Education The initial days of Albert Einstein’s schooling was done in Munich. He began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium (Lewis, 1985). He was not a bright student at this school. It has also been argued that as a young boy with high aptitude in Science, the school and the syllabus could not be of interest to Einstein. In the autobiography notes of Einstein it has been mentioned that he developed disinterest in the education system and distrust on the educators. However, the fact that Einstein does live up to the academic standards that the school doesn’t mean that he was slow student. It has been recorded in his autobiography that he came up with his own proof for the Pythagoras theory early in the age of 12 (Einstein,1987). Later, in the year 1894, the family business which was run in Munich collapsed. The family was forced to move from Munich. Young Einstein was of fifteen the n. He had to drop out of high school. The family moved to Italy. Einstein took a break from his education for a year as the family was still getting adapted to and settled in Italy. The next year he tried getting into Eidgen?ossiche Technische Hochschule which is the Federal Institute of Technology.. However he couldn’t pass the entrance examination. He then studied for a year in Swiss high School. He graduated from this school in the year 1896 (Lewis, 1985). This qualification further helped him get admitted to Eidgen?ossiche Technische Hochschule. He was not a bright student here in the Federal Institute as well. It has been reported by a number of researchers that Einstein’s teachers didn’t even expect him to pass this course. He continuously tried to organize a University scholarship to support his studies and living expenses. Attributing to the poor academic records all these efforts were turned down by the University. He also tried to get into a job of a h igher secondary teacher along with his studies so that he could manage his living expenses. He was not successful in getting this as well. He successfully graduated from Eidgen?ossiche Technische Hochschule in the year 1900. An analysis of the schooling and education of Einstein suggests that he never had been a bright student. He studies in three different countries including Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Early Years of Work Albert Einstein’s initial days of professional endeavors were unduly in nature. He had to survive with small scale jobs for many years. He had been relying on temporary tutoring and teaching jobs for his survival. Being a mediocre in terms of academic performance, he couldn’

Being A Good Second Language Teacher Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Being A Good Second Language Teacher - Essay Example As for academic studying a foreign language can improve cognitive and critical thinking abilities. Knowledge of a foreign language gives an advantage in every career. Foreign language study provides the ability to gain an understanding of the country's trading partners. Many multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations need people with foreign language abilities. Learning a language is not just learning about its pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, it is learning to see the world as the other culture sees it. To study a language well, the teacher must have professional skills and have perfect knowledge in language. Also it is important to involve students in studying and to make the subject interesting. For language teacher is obligatory to be a good trainer in speaking and writing and know how to make his lessons easy for understanding and for learning. In order to have good knowledge in language it is necessary to understand all sciences that are connected with language studying. These are all sciences that are called Linguistics sciences and of course Country study. Language learners must acquire a language's components such as its sound system, basic lexicon, and grammatical structure, all of which takes time and practice. Students that study modern languages need great opportunities to speak, listen, read, and write in order to develop communicative fluency, understanding of how the language is constructed, and understanding of culturally-appropriate interactions. The most important and the most interesting branch of Linguistics is Communicative Linguistics. This branch works not only with text but also with its elements and their roles and with their functions. While studying language main practical aims are to speak fluently and to write correctly. It is impossible without learning of sound system (Phonetics). Different groups of languages have different sound systems and very often they differs a much. For example, we can take English language. There are three types of Phonetics: Acoustic Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of sounds, Auditory Phonetics is the study of the way listeners perceive sounds and Articulatory Phonetics. Several different combinations of letters can represent one sound. For example, he, believe, Lee, Caesar, key, amoeba, loudly, machine, people, and sea. Also a great role has different factors that have influence on sounds. For example, duration is very important. Let's take duration of the sound [i] in words sea [si:] and see [si] where it gives the meaning to the word. The ways in which sounds and meanings are related is called Semantics. Lexical semantics is concerned with the meanings of words and the meaning of relationships among words, while phrasal semantics is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than the word. Semantic properties are the components of meanings of words. For example, the semantic property "human" can be found in many words such as parent, doctor, baby, professor, widow, and aunt. Other semantic properties include animate objects, male, female, countable items and non-countable items. Also Semantics contains such parts as homonyms (different words that are pronounced the same, but may or may not be spelled the same (to, two, and too), polysemous

ENGLISH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

ENGLISH - Essay Example She and Brandon went out a few months ago, but he suddenly dumped her. Arianna went white-cold every time Anna asked why they broke up. Then, the most joyous day happened. Brandon asked Anna out. It was a gloomy day with black heavy clouds threatening a storm. He was with his friends when Anna was walking home. He said: â€Å"Hey Anna, wow you look so grown up and beautiful. I want to invite you over at my house. Just some movies and stuff.† His friends sniggered. Anna didn’t care. She was in heaven and tried to look like she thought about it first before saying a nervous â€Å"Okay.† His friends left them. Inside the house, they watched a porn movie. It made Anna uncomfortable. The video looked amateur. Boys were breathing deeply at the background and it was dark. Brandon groped her breasts and whispered: â€Å"Let’s do it.† Anna said no, but she felt dizzy and weak. She looked groggily at her glass of soda. Brandon forced himself on her, while his friends videotaped the act. Anna couldn’t breathe. When she glanced at the movie they were watching, the video looked clearer and she saw Adrianna’s face down, her tears rolling, while Brandon grunted like a pig behind

Biography of Albert Einstein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Biography of Albert Einstein - Essay Example Thus Einstein spent only six weeks in his place of birth. The image of Albert Einstein as an intellectual giant does not relate to skills as a kid. He could scarcely talk till the age of three. Taking this disadvantage into consideration, it was not expected that he would become a scientist whom the world would remember and respect for ever. Despite the problem in speaking, Einstein used to be very constructive and creative right from his early childhood. It has been recorded that he was really good in making tall card castles. It was also evident that he was different from his peers and had interests quite varied from that of children of his age. One ideal example of this is that he did not enjoy playing soldier which used to be a very common game amongst children of his age. Interestingly, at the age of twelve he got totally involved in a geometry book (Lewis, 1985). For a boy of this age to get interested in geometry when children of his age played around with toy cars, suggested the extra ordinary scientific aptitude he possessed even early during his childhood. Education The initial days of Albert Einstein’s schooling was done in Munich. He began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium (Lewis, 1985). He was not a bright student at this school. It has also been argued that as a young boy with high aptitude in Science, the school and the syllabus could not be of interest to Einstein. In the autobiography notes of Einstein it has been mentioned that he developed disinterest in the education system and distrust on the educators. However, the fact that Einstein does live up to the academic standards that the school doesn’t mean that he was slow student. It has been recorded in his autobiography that he came up with his own proof for the Pythagoras theory early in the age of 12 (Einstein,1987). Later, in the year 1894, the family business which was run in Munich collapsed. The family was forced to move from Munich. Young Einstein was of fifteen the n. He had to drop out of high school. The family moved to Italy. Einstein took a break from his education for a year as the family was still getting adapted to and settled in Italy. The next year he tried getting into Eidgen?ossiche Technische Hochschule which is the Federal Institute of Technology.. However he couldn’t pass the entrance examination. He then studied for a year in Swiss high School. He graduated from this school in the year 1896 (Lewis, 1985). This qualification further helped him get admitted to Eidgen?ossiche Technische Hochschule. He was not a bright student here in the Federal Institute as well. It has been reported by a number of researchers that Einstein’s teachers didn’t even expect him to pass this course. He continuously tried to organize a University scholarship to support his studies and living expenses. Attributing to the poor academic records all these efforts were turned down by the University. He also tried to get into a job of a h igher secondary teacher along with his studies so that he could manage his living expenses. He was not successful in getting this as well. He successfully graduated from Eidgen?ossiche Technische Hochschule in the year 1900. An analysis of the schooling and education of Einstein suggests that he never had been a bright student. He studies in three different countries including Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Early Years of Work Albert Einstein’s initial days of professional endeavors were unduly in nature. He had to survive with small scale jobs for many years. He had been relying on temporary tutoring and teaching jobs for his survival. Being a mediocre in terms of academic performance, he couldn’

ENGLISH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

ENGLISH - Essay Example She and Brandon went out a few months ago, but he suddenly dumped her. Arianna went white-cold every time Anna asked why they broke up. Then, the most joyous day happened. Brandon asked Anna out. It was a gloomy day with black heavy clouds threatening a storm. He was with his friends when Anna was walking home. He said: â€Å"Hey Anna, wow you look so grown up and beautiful. I want to invite you over at my house. Just some movies and stuff.† His friends sniggered. Anna didn’t care. She was in heaven and tried to look like she thought about it first before saying a nervous â€Å"Okay.† His friends left them. Inside the house, they watched a porn movie. It made Anna uncomfortable. The video looked amateur. Boys were breathing deeply at the background and it was dark. Brandon groped her breasts and whispered: â€Å"Let’s do it.† Anna said no, but she felt dizzy and weak. She looked groggily at her glass of soda. Brandon forced himself on her, while his friends videotaped the act. Anna couldn’t breathe. When she glanced at the movie they were watching, the video looked clearer and she saw Adrianna’s face down, her tears rolling, while Brandon grunted like a pig behind

JFK Assassination Essay Example for Free

JFK Assassination Essay Introduction November 22, 1963 is considered one of the darkest days in the history of the United States. Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas was the setting for one of the most horrific moments ever captured on video, in what has become one of the most controversial topics in US history. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy has raised many theories about what exactly happened that day in the fall of 1963. Many wonder if the lone gunmen theory published by The Warren Commission is the truth, or better yet was even possible? Other questions such as why was certain evidence overlooked and in the case of the President’s limousine and clothing, why were they washed and repaired before the proper investigation could be performed on them? Many books have been written on the subject of the JFK assassination, and I in fact would have to end up writing a book just to mention and discuss all of them. Simply to avoid that, I chose to discuss only a few topics and give my own two cents on what could have been done better to investigate the assassination of the 35th President of the United States. I first want to focus on the mishandling of critical evidence that many experts say would easily answer certain questions. For example the mishandling of evidence that might have proven that there was more than one shooter, and where exactly the shots came from. Second, I want to look at how that evidence would have helped in answering those questions and how they may have directed us towards a guilty suspect or suspects. I have heard investigators say that you only get one shot at a crime scene, and once it is gone, you never get a second chance to redo it over ever again. It’s important to keep that in mind as regards to the JFK assassination because the lack of proper investigating is what has lead to there being so many myths about the assassination becoming fact, and the truth slowly being drowned underneath. Obviously, I will not be able to solve this case today, but I’d like to think that if I was given a fair and honest chance to be there in Dealey Plaza on the 22nd of November 1963, I could have provided our country the closure that its been looking for, for over 40 years now. Mishandled Evidence Video footage, eyewitnesses, firearm, bullets and casings, police on the scene during the crime, and most important of all, they immediately had a suspect. So why couldn’t the Dallas police department solve the most infamous murder of the 20th century? Disregarding all of the conspiracy theories and focusing on the crime scene investigation aspect, it seems that this case was all but in the bag when it was dropped into the lap of the Dallas police department. Poor mishandling of evidence seems to be the main contributor as to why so much speculation arises when the JFK assassination topic comes up. A famous picture from that day is of a detective holding up what at first was thought to be a German-made 7.65-caliber Mauser, but was later identified to be an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5-caliber carbine (Lancer, 1996). The interesting detail in this picture is that the detective is holding the Italian Mannlicher-Carcano with his bare hands. In another photo from that day, a different detective is walking out of the Texas School Book Depository with the rifle in his hand, and again is carrying the rifle with his bare hands. Now obviously since the rifle did belong to Lee Harvey Oswald, the Dallas police department was more than likely able to lift a fingerprint off it. But simple procedures such as the proper handling of evidence is what can make or break an investigation, in this case the Dallas police department choose the latter of the two. In addition, another problem raised by poor mishandling of evidence was the Paraffin tests of Lee Harvey Oswald’s hands and cheek. In his book Reclaiming History, Vincent Bugliosi says that the â€Å"Dallas Police performed a paraffin test on Oswalds hands at the time of his interrogation to determine if he had recently fired a revolver and the results were positive, indicating the presence of nitrates from gunpowder residue on his hands (Bugliosi, 2007). But here’s where the plot thickens, according to an online article written by Pat Speer; earlier in the book Bugliosi said that the Paraffin Test was inconclusive on the grounds that â€Å"the mere handling of a weapon may leave nitrates of the skin, even without firing it† (Speer, 2007, para. 4). Even worse, later on in Pat Speer’s article titled â€Å"Bugliosi Fails the Paraffin Test,† Speers brings up the fact that even though the paraffin tests on Oswalds hands were positive, the tests on Oswalds cheek were negative. My point of all of this is simple; if Oswald did fire a rifle that afternoon, and he did so with the intentions of being deadly accurate, common sense and simple logic tells us that he would have had to put the rifle up to his check in order to fire it accurately at his target. Even with little knowledge of firearms or possessing any skills and or knowledge in using them, we can easily deduce that Oswald or any assassin for that matter would have had some form of gunshot residue on their cheek after accurately firing a rifle at President Kennedy. But the most frustrating and disheartening part of the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy is the carelessness and maltreatment of the autopsy. After President Kennedy was illegally transported form Parkland hospital in Dallas to Bethesda Naval hospital in Washington, the mishandling evidence and the lack of operating according to procedures by untrained staff and personnel continued. An example of this is that none of the doctors who performed the autopsy were trained on how to trace a bullets trajectory through the human body (Ramsland, 2009). The pathologist, a Naval officer by the name of Commander James J. Humes was ordered not to do a full autopsy, instead he was instructed to find the bullet lodged in President Kennedy’s body (Ramsland, 2009). More mistakes that are outlandish were made as the Commander burned his autopsy notes because they were covered with blood. And after only two hours, which is said to be an incredibly short amount of time for an autopsy, Commander Humes prepared President Kennedy’s body for embalming. Bad photos by an inexperience photographer, and poor X-rays didn’t improve the situation either, examples of this are the photos of the head wound that Kennedy suffered. The pathologist did not shave the hair around the wound; consequently, the photograph of the area had poor visibility and almost no detail. Small and simple mistakes are contagious, and after time can add up into making a big difference. This was proven to be the case on that fateful day in Dallas. Redoing the Crime Scene I have pointed out many of the mistakes that were made during the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Some of those mistakes may have been done intentionally; others may have been made on accident, that is a topic of discussion for another paper. The questions now are, could those mistakes have lead to clearing up some of the mysteries surrounding the JFK assassination, and how could they have been corrected. In addition, can modern day technology rise above those mistakes and produce a clear and definitive answer into the JFK assassination. I think we can agree that the mishandling of the rifle and the inconclusiveness of the Paraffin tests are easy mistakes to correct, that’s pretty much CSI 101 stuff. However, the investigation gets tricky as regards to the autopsy and the procedures that needed to followed there. First, trained and experienced pathologists needed to be performing the procedure, and need to perform the full autopsy, y-incision and all. Proper notes and sketches of the procedure need to made and kept on record, as well as the determination of whether a wound is an entrance or exit wound. I bring this point up because Commander Humes was unable to determine which wounds were the exit and which were the entrance wounds (Ramsland, 2009). Appropriate photos of the autopsy need to be taken, and the basic process for taking the photos needs to followed so investigators can work with them later on. An example of this would be the photos of the fatal head shot wound and trying to make any determination from the photos. As I stated earlier, it is near impossible to draw any conclusions because the hair around the wound wasn’t shaven as it was supposed to have been in order to enhance the detail and clarity of the wound. Unfortunately, we cannot go back and rework the crime scene or re-gather evidence in its original form. However, modern science and technology allows us the opportunity to take what evidence we do have and analyze it in ways that weren’t possible back in 1963. Let us take bullet trajectory for example; today, bullet trajectories are often determined and calculated using a computerized simulation to help in reconstruction. This method raises much debate, but at the same time, it has been useful in complicated cases. Whether it would be helpful in this particular case can be debated all day long, but the fact remains that if the initial evidence from 1963 that we have is accurate, than this method of mapping the bullets trajectory is more than likely to deliver us the answers we are looking for. Finally, could new technology help us determine where the bullets came from? Was it the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, or could the shots have come from the infamous lone gunmen on the grassy knoll? Using new technology, we have the potential of figuring this out by analyzing the bloodstain pattern in the limousine before it was cleaned and repaired. A team of experts brought together by the Discovery Channel has reproduced the JFK assassination. â€Å"Using modern blood spatter analysis, new artificial human body surrogates, and 3-D computer simulations, the team determined that the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository was the most likely origin for the shot that killed the 35th president of the United States† (Bland, 2008, para. 1). Experts simulated the assassination by recreating the scene as close as humanly possible to what happened that day in Dealey Plaza. After the simulation was complete, it was determined that â€Å"most of the simulated body material had spattered forward into the car, consistent with a shot that entered the back of the head and exited toward the front† (Bland, 2008, para. 10). This helps strengthen the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only assassin that day in Dealey Plaza, and that he alone assassinated John F. Kennedy. This type of computer investigation has only been available for close to five years now, it is probable however, that criminologists will keep on making use of 3-dimensional crime scene reconstruction to help recreate events and gather evidence that a 2-dimensional picture alone cannot divulge. Unfortunately for us though, with so many mysteries surrounding the JFK assassination, even when evidence such as this seems to be as hard as concrete, many still f ind it hard to believe. Conclusion It sometimes seems that we will never know what really happened that day in Dallas; too many clouds have surrounded the assassination and made it incredibly difficult to understand the facts about what truly happened that day. Nevertheless, if we ignore the conspiracy theories and simply look at the facts of the case we can conclude that it was mishandled from start to finish. I am no crime scene investigator, but I feel safe in saying that the men who investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy did a lousy job, and the only good that could ever come from studying their mistakes is using them as example of what not to do. Mishandling of evidence, botched autopsy, and failure to follow in the most basic criminal investigation practices and procedures is what has lead to what should have been an open and shut case, turning into a long drawn out nightmare. We can easily look back and say the investigation should have been done this way, and the autopsy do that way, and that many of the errors that were made were elementary and the motives behind them questionable. However, we cannot go back, and instead of looking to the past for answers, we must look to the future for them. Technology has shed some new light on the investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and has pointed us in the direction to what more than likely happened that day. As stated earlier, the mystery surrounding the assassination of JFK is unprecedented, and no other case not even the assassination of Julius Caesar has so much secrecy, obscurity, and ambiguity been present. Will we ever know who murdered our former president and how? With the mishandling of the evidence collected back in 1963, it just may turn out that we may truly never know. References Bugliosi, V. (2007). Reclaiming History: Norton, W. W. Company, Inc. Bland, E. (2008, November). Tech puts JFK conspiracy theories to rest. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27705829 Ramsland, K. (2009). The Magic Bullet. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/ballistics/4.html?print=yes Speer, Pat. (2007, July). Bugliosi Fails the Paraffin Test. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from http://www.whokilledjfk.net/paraffin_test.htm (1996). Ballistic Evidence. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from http://www.jfklancer.com/photos/Rifle_Bullets/index.html

Iconic Construction Projects: Issues and Controversies

Iconic Construction Projects: Issues and Controversies Introduction Construction of large, expensive, and prestigious projects is an historical obsession of the human race. Every age of human history, as well as every human civilisation, features huge architectural showpieces (Silverberg, 1965). Religions have used enormous and ornate structures, churches, mosques, and temples, to shock and awe their followers into submission. Many of the ancient and modern seven wonders, e.g., the Coliseum of Rome, the Great Wall of China, or the Taj Mahal, were architectural wonders that were built with massive doses of money, effort, time, and genius (Silverberg, 1965). It took two emperors, ten years, and extensive public taxation to build the Coliseum. The Great Wall was built, over hundreds of years, to protect the Mings against invaders, by generations of architects; who did not foresee that the opening of one of its doors would neutralise centuries of sweat and toil (Silverberg, 1965). The Taj Mahal was built over 16 years with an unlimited budget by an idiosyncratic emperor who failed to connect the irony of amputating the arms of his sculptors (after the erect ion of the Taj) with the building of a monument to the cause of immortal love (Ahmed, 1993). In modern times each of these iconic projects would have been considered to be failures in some aspects, even though they have delivered and continue to deliver numerous benefits. Such awesome projects link humanity over time and distance with common threads of ambition, grandeur, status, and prestige. The construction of the Empire State Building in New York in 1931 set off a race, albeit some four decades later, among other cities, to build something grander and taller, (Cowan, 2007), the title for the tallest building going from skyscraper to tower in different locations until it was grasped in late 2007 by the under construction Burj Dubai, an architectural and construction wonder that will be ready only in 2009. Accepting numerous design modifications and a construction delay of many months, mainly to ensure that their project does not get upstaged in its target of becoming the world’s tallest building, the creators of Burj Dubai are motivated by ambitions that are largely iconic. â€Å"Chairman Mohammed Ali Alabbar said Dubai has resisted the usual and has inspired to build a global icon, ‘it’s a human achievement without equal.†™â€  (Dubai skyscraper worlds tallest, 2008) The urge to undertake iconic construction projects, projects that are commonly associated with size, status, prestige, architectural complexity, and grandeur, is not restricted to the oil rich sheikhdoms of the Middle East, the capitalist bastion of the United States, aggressive young economies like Australia, or the ambitious Asian Tigers. The United Kingdom, long associated with restraint and the virtues of understatement, has its fair share of projects that can be termed iconic; the Millennium Dome, the London Eye, Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower, and London’s Wembley Stadium; to name but a few. Iconic projects are usually undertaken with diverse objectives in mind, e.g., raising the profile of a city, creating a tourist attraction, or even increasing the status of a premier football club; they are normally complex in nature and require substantial outlays of money, long construction periods, large tracts of land, sophisticated construction and construction management skills, involvement of political and non-political organisations, agencies and individuals, and numerous administrative, financial, and legal issues (Prasser, 2006). Always in the arc of media attention, their progress receives inordinate publicity; their failures and successes are widely discussed, debated and often roundly criticised. The amount of controversy and censure that invariably attaches itself to most such projects, as well as their patchy records, can well lead people to believe that â€Å"iconic projects are virtually certain to fail†. With such sweeping statements possibly appearing to be somewhat naà ¯ve to serious students of management and construction, (more so in light of the rapid strides made by the construction management industry in recent years, both in terms of technological advances and in terms of utilisation of management processes), this study attempts to investigate the issue, with the aid of relevant current examples and current construction management theory. Commentary and Analysis A meaningful discussion on the italicised topic calls for logical and relevant structuring. This analytical commentary is structured into sequential sections that take up the determination of failure, as applicable to iconic projects, the various environmental, political, economic and managerial factors that can contribute to such failures, and the measures that can be adopted and implemented to lessen the chances of their happening. The concluding section summarises the discussion and contains appropriate recommendations. Determination of Project Failure A project can be defined as a discrete and predetermined endeavour that has specific commencement and conclusion nodes and is undertaken to construct a quantifiable deliverable (Lewis, 2007). Projects can be initiated in many areas of social, economic and business life and can be classified as iconic in terms of their status, importance, glamour, media friendliness and size. With the topic of this discussion being related to construction, the commentary is focussed on iconic projects that involve substantial construction activity, e.g. stadia, buildings, roads, dams, museums, monuments and the like. Large and prestigious projects in areas like IT or brand building, which can also be truly termed to be iconic, do not find place in this study. A project can be termed to be a failure if it does not meet its objectives (Lewis, 2007). With most modern day projects, especially those that are large and complex, having aims and targets, in terms of physical, cost, and time deliverables, and expected to conform to norms of accountability, transparency, and ethics during their execution, such projects can be deemed to be unsatisfactory if they fail to meet such signposts and requirements (Lewis, 2007). Properly set project objectives, in the language of project management, are expected to meet specific SMARTA criteria, i.e., they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Framed, and Agreed (Lewis, 2007). Apart from such objectives, iconic projects have broad aims in terms of what they are expected to achieve and the services they are to provide (Prasser, 2006). The Millennium Dome at Greenwich in the outskirts of London, for example, was conceived as a mega project that was planned to be either a football stadium or a huge convention and exhibition centre (and an attractive tourist destination), after the completion of the Millennium Experience in December, 2000 (Maddox, 2000). The structure, which is the largest of its type in the world, whilst proving to be a huge tourist attraction in 2000, proved to be of little use thereafter. Horrendously expensive to maintain, it remained practically unused during the next five years. Most of its adjacent structures were demolished. Renamed O2 in 2005 it has since been transformed into an entertainment district at a cost of 600 million dollars (Millennium Dome, 2008). The Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth is another example of an iconic project that has come in for widespread criticism. Reflecting Portsmouth’s maritime history and designed to resemble a sail, the tower was completed five years after schedule, incurred expenditures far beyond what was originally forecasted, was executed poorly, developed construction defects and was found to be unfriendly towards disabled visitors (Oates, 2006). The London Wheel, on the other hand, which received lesser visitors than the Millennium Dome in 2000, belied pessimistic forecasts and went on to become a hugely successful tourist attraction, redefining London’s skyline and being featured in every Bollywood movie that was shot in London. Projects to be successful should specifically deliver on the wider planned benefits and services. â€Å"The concept of project benefits is central to project success. A project will be deemed successful if it delivers its promised benefits. What about on time and on budget? These are different questions, relating to how well the project is managed. Important as they are, these are not the focus of a quest to clarify objectives. Besides, in the end we would rather have a successful project a little late and over budget than a beautifully managed disaster which fails to deliver on promises† (Writing Project Objectives, 2008, http://www.numerix.com.au/docs/newsletter-articles/writing-project-objectives.htm). Causes for Project Failure Commercial project management, as a discipline, has enlarged significantly in recent years. Imbibing theories and concepts from various sectors of management theory like strategic, human resource (HR), financial, general and environmental management, its evolution has been helped by the progressive sophistication of project management, decision making, monitoring and control techniques (like PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Techniques), CPM (Critical Path Method), Gantt Charts, and Fishbone diagrams) (Richman, 2002). With construction having progressively become one of the biggest business activities in the world, the use of sophisticated management practices, which otherwise originated and were developed in other business sectors like automobile and steel production, is but normal (Richman, 2002). The fact that project construction, especially on the scale of what is being attempted in the modern day, is an extremely complex process that involves political decision making, activist involvement, environmental repercussions, land acquisition, financial organisation, use of sophisticated technology and complex machinery, diverse human skills, and the involvement of numerous agencies, contractors, and subcontractors, results in the emergence of numerous variables, which, individually, and in tandem with others, can lead to partial or complete failure in achievement of project objectives (Richman, 2002). Despite the existence of numerous related and independent factors that can effectively hinder the success of projects, management experts feel it advisable to group and analyse these variables under specific categories. Again, whilst project management experts and project consulting organisations by and large appear to have their own interpretation of reasons behind failures of large and prestigious projects, they are united on some major causal factors. Problems in Project Initiation The most important of these causal factors arise during the initiation of the project, a process that in the case of iconic projects is likely to include issues of political governance, harmonisation of expectations of different stakeholders, environmental requirements, cost estimation, organisation of finances, selection of management team, and crystallisation of broad project objectives, benefits, and services, as well as its SMARTA criteria (Lewis, 2007). Ambiguity about any of these factors, especially at the initiation stage can lead to the perpetuation of uncertainties in objectives, as the project progresses, and inadequate or inappropriate managerial inputs at later times (Lewis, 2007). Large projects, more often those that are public in nature, or involve public private participation, need clarity in political approach, inter-departmental involvement, and decision making; the lack of which can lead to continuing snags in project implementation. The Millennium Dome, projected as the most celebrated iconic project of the beginning of the Millennium, went over budget by more than 200 million GBP and lay idle for five years after 2000 (Millennium Dome, 2008). It was mired in political and public controversy regarding its cost, design, and content right from project inception; developments that definitely contributed to unsteadiness in its management and leadership and uncertainty in its execution. Whilst the initiation stage of the project in matters of time is often much shorter than the actual time required for its completion, it is critical for satisfactory project outcomes, because of its key processes, (all of which involve high level decision making skills), namely (a) crystallisation of project benefits (b) agreement on project implementation at governing levels, (c) fleshing out of project dimensions and project design, (d) arrangement of finance, and (e) selection of management team (Lewis, 2007). Although commercial project management does borrow many managerial and control techniques from regular management theory and practice, its finite and bounded nature poses significantly different and multifaceted challenges, especially those that arise from the need to make route corrections, if and when such need arises (Hannigan Browne, 2000). Whilst such route corrections are part and parcel of regular management projects, their occurrences in construction projects invariably lead to disruption of time, cost, and completion targets; thus the need for careful project initiation. A project well begun often leads to far easier meeting of project objectives (Hannigan Browne, 2000). The costs of the project, its construction and finance requirements, and time frame, ultimately depend upon project design, the excellence of which has a significant effect on its final success. The design for the Millennium stadium at Cardiff had to take account of variables like the proximity of the river Taff, the issue of tidal flooding and the demolition of a number of buildings with consequent compensation and relocation costs (Lowe, 2008). Mishandling of these issues could well have fatally jeopardised the outcome of this project. Project design is also inextricably linked to the land needed for the project. With land for prestigious projects invariably being substantial, and more often than not in populated areas, land acquisition is a complex exercise with political, environmental, social, and economic aspects that need to be addressed separately and competently. The Tatas, recent acquirers of Corus Steel and Jaguar Landrover, are in the process of constructing their factory for the world’s cheapest car, the 2200 USD Nano, in India. In many ways the group’s most celebrated and iconic project, the original Nano site near Kolkata in East India had to be abandoned after a year’s work and more than 100 million US dollars in expenses, after protests from local landowners, (who did not agree with the land acquisition price negotiated by the concerned state government), led to riots and violence (Misery Is the Price Farmers Must Pay for â€Å"People’s Car†, 2008). The project, whi ch has been resumed in a totally different location, is now substantially behind, both in terms of costs and time, and only the future will tell whether the Tatas will be able to keep their price commitment. Provisioning of finance, its estimation, its sources, and its arrangement form another crucial component of project initiation activities. Project financing, especially in public private partnerships is a complex process, with different sources of finance carrying different cost and repayment commitments. Whilst the Millennium Commission projects were by and large funded by the national lottery, most projects are not so lucky and need to be funded adequately to ensure against work delays on account of financial inadequacy. The Spinnaker Tower, the showpiece of Portsmouth Harbour, suffered from underestimation of cost as well as under-arrangement of finances, leading to an overrun of 36 million GBP and the need to use taxpayers’ money, an avenue that was specifically not considered at the time of the project decision (Oates, 2006). With financial inadequacy likely to arise both from poor financial management and from wrong cost estimation, it is important to get the financials right before the start of a complex and expensive project. Activities like the estimation of finance and the coordination of design activity are the responsibility of the commercial management team of the project, the selection of which, along with that of the commercial manager, is critical to project success. Subject to the necessary provisioning of required inputs from the project owners, the functioning of the commercial management team assumes enormous responsibility for successful project execution. Commercial Management Commercial management of projects is a complex and multifaceted discipline requiring numerous managerial skills and inputs. The execution of large projects is possibly among the most challenging of modern day management tasks, an area of work that is distinguished by two main features, first the sheer number of variables that need to be controlled and issues that need to be attended, and second the minimal scope for wrong decisions or operational blunders (Frame, 2002). The commercial management function is underpinned on theory that is drawn from diverse disciplines like social sciences, management, economics, law, accountancy and finance, in addition of course to project management and supply chain management (Lowe, 2008a). Commercial managers of construction projects have extensive responsibilities that commence from the time of initiation and need to be appointed as soon as a final decision on project implementation is taken (Frame, 2002). Whilst commercial managers are not involved in much of the initial decision making that concern areas of political governance, environmental and ecological issues and sourcing of avenues of finance, their involvement at this stage can be rewarding because of their managerial expertise and their previous experience (Frame, 2002). Commercial managers are more often than not senior practicing managers with significant project experience and are expected to be competent in areas of technical and financial knowledge, budgeting, forecasting and monitoring, law, human resource management, supplier chain management and above all leadership and general management. They need to be selected with the utmost of care as much of the proper execution of projects depends upon their knowledge and competence. Whilst they are generally provided with adequate support in both line and staff functions, their own knowledge of finance management, HR management, supplier chain management and project management is under constant challenge and test; successful project progression depends significantly upon their own interpretation of cash flows and assessment of contractors and subcontractors for project jobs. With the overwhelming majority of project work being carried out by contractors who are chosen for and assigned specific jobs, the most important constraint and critical variable in successful project execution arises from the need to appoint, instruct, monitor and control them (Lowe, 2008a). Unlike regular business organisations, where the bulk of the work is handled by company employees, the majority of project work is undertaken by external contractors who are supervised by project managers with the help of support staff and project accountants, a phenomenon that leads to the emergence of numerous uncertainties and project risks. Much of the delay in the construction of the Wembley stadium, which was finally opened in 2007, more than a year after schedule, can be related to unsatisfactory working of Multiplex, the main contractor (Lowe, 2008a). Contractors are used for every conceivable function and service, from providing designing and architectural services to erection, masonry, electrical work, provisioning of machinery and vehicles, and secretarial and canteen services. A comparison of the nature of project work with that of the currently growing trend of outsourcing in routine business operations is apt. Outsourcing, a process by which internal operations of the company, is handed over to outsiders in return of cost and efficiency advantages, can make a company vulnerable to external factors and is handled by most organisations with utmost circumspection and care. It is used only for repetitive and low skills work and the credentials of service providers are literally tested with fire before they are engaged. The complexities associated with running a company where practically every activity is outsourced can be realistically compared with the challenges faced by commercial managers of large, iconic, projects. Whilst appointing contractors it is essential to gauge their competence and ability for fulfilling proposed responsibilities by assessing their size, competence, availability, financial position, and readiness to work (Frame, 2002). Although such contractors are routinely appointed in Asian countries on the basis of their closeness to and intimacy with the commercial management team (leading to informal and trust based client-contractor relationships), such relationships in Anglo American environments are governed by detailed contracts, and most commercial managers use sophisticated legal help to draw out elaborate agreements with their contractors (Frame, 2002). It needs to be mentioned here that few of the contractors who are engaged in large projects represent small one man organisations. Most of them are medium sized or even large, (where the requirement is substantial, involves the use of expensive machinery or large numbers of people), organisations employing thousands of peopl e. Some are joint stock or privately held companies, and many operate a number of projects simultaneously. In many cases main contractors engage sub-contractors to carry out different jobs that fall under their area of responsibility. Apart from contractual obligations, contractors are controlled by regular monitoring, quality checks, and financial incentives and penalties. Despite the use of legal and managerial methods for progressing work, advancement of project activity in line with forecasts and schedules are often affected adversely due to a number of operational reasons. Commercial mismanagement of projects occurs, in the opinion of experts mainly because of (a) lack of commercial and project management skills with the implementing management (b) inability to assess and control risks (c) lack of attention to breaking development and implementation into manageable and discrete steps, (d) lack of understanding and contact with the supply industry at senior levels and (e) lack of effective project team integration between the commercial management team, the subcontractors, and other participants of the supply chain (Frame, 2003). Experts are also quite clear in arguing that many of the problems that arise in p roject management occur because of overworked commercial managers. Project owners rarely understand the extent of detailed and complex work that is natural to commercial management of projects, a phenomenon that leads to unsustainable loads on executives and to consequential errors and delays (Frame, 2003). Failure of Iconic Projects Project execution is essentially a complex exercise and is affected by the inter-play of a host of variables, many of which arise from issues and developments that are not under the direct control of the project execution team. Project delays and cost overruns, are common to both the private and public sector, and continue to happen despite the increasing sophistication of project and commercial management techniques and methods. Project failure in the IT industry, for example, is an unhealthy 85 %! â€Å"Research highlights that only one in eight information technology projects can be considered truly successful (failure being described as those projects that do not meet the original time, cost and (quality) requirements criteria† (McManus and Wood Harper, 2008) The situation becomes even more complex in case of iconic projects. Such projects in the public or public-private domain arise because of a continuing historical obsession of decision makers with size and grandeur and often occur at the expense of more essential infrastructural projects like roads, hospitals, power and public transport. With the origins of such projects often mired in controversy and public disapproval, their approval leads to difficulties in balancing of public budgets and slashing of other required expenditure; the stated benefits of such projects often have to be related to the reduction of benefits from other areas that need to be cannibalised. Iconic projects, all over the world, irrespective of their location in the UK, Australia or the United States involve enormous costs and stress on size as a feature rather than as a requirement. They extol form over function and their benefits are more symbolic than measurable. Often large scale in nature they are taken up for boosting economic or tourism activity, (Millennium Dome), hosting huge sporting events, (Beijing and London Olympics), lifting regional prestige (The Millennium Stadium at Cardiff and Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth), and symbolising governmental achievement (the magnificent Parliament House at Canberra). The Beijing Olympics led to an enormous demand for global steel and the intensification of a commodity super cycle, a phenomenon that now lies buried under the debris of the sub prime crisis. The London Olympics are similarly expected to generate 60,000 person years of employment during construction. With decisions for undertaking such projects often being founded on peripheral considerations, they are subject to excessive political interference, have unclear and ill defined objectives, over optimistic considerations, and inflated viability. More often than not they are driven by considerations of supply rather than demand and suffer from the â€Å"Build it and they will come† syndrome (Fenn, 2002). It is difficult to assess today whether the huge infrastructure that has been created at Beijing or is being created at London will be utilised in future after the dust of the three week Olympic spectacle subsides. With England in the middle of a severe economic crisis, the pound losing against all world currencies, and unemployment expected to rise, the justification of continuing with such massive expenditure at the cost of economic measures that could help overcome the recession appears to be difficult. Critics also associate iconic projects with poor governance, symbolised by secrecy, lack of transparency, minimisation of risk assessment, fudging of budgets, and political expediency. The Federation Square project at Melbourne had major icon implications. It had high profile and high visibility during construction and a complex architectural design. The haste shown in its construction led to construction activity moving ahead of detailed design work and its lack of transparency was revealed in the cost overrun of more than 350 million when it was inaugurated in 2002, two years behind the opening deadline and in a still incomplete state (Prasser, 2006). The project was affected by cost variations, trade disruption and contractor delay claims, increases in contracting costs, extra project costs, hidden design changes, and post completion changes (Prasser, 2006). Whilst examples of poorly executed iconic projects are not difficult to find, tarring all top drawer projects with the same critical brush appears to be cynical; there also being projects that have been handled and executed with utmost transparency and brilliance. Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium at Islington, completed in 2006, is an example of brilliant project visualisation and construction. Awarded the Building Project of the Year at the Annual Building Awards, the judges described it thus: â€Å"The whole process was an example of how important teamwork should be to a project, with everyone from the client to the contractor and subcontractors coming together and working successfully to ensure the project was completed on time and under budget. The way that this team tackled design changes should be a lesson to the industry† (Lowe, D, 2008, 21). Conclusion Much of the perceptions associated with the â€Å"failure† of large â€Å"iconic† projects arise out of their being over budget and behind schedule. The execution of such projects is in common perception also associated with poor risk management, bureaucratic thinking, and poor project execution. Whilst a number of big ticket projects have been rightly criticised for their failure in meeting of project objectives and underdelivery of promised benefits, the basic issue about viability of iconic projects is prone to becoming clouded by media publicity and public debate. Project conception and management are by themselves extremely complex tasks and it is not difficult to understand the reasons behind their execution problems. The private sector also witnesses numerous incidences of project failure, a fact that possibly does not come to light because of the shroud of confidentiality that covers much of private sector working. Successful project execution involves two discrete and distinct components, first, the conception and visualisation of and the decision to undertake a project and second, its actual physical execution and completion. The actual progression of a project is largely carried out by experienced professionals with the aid of experienced contractors and it would be nothing short of uncharitable to lay the blame for unsatisfactory project execution to the inferior project management skills of managers of iconic projects. Brilliantly executed iconic projects like the Emirates Stadium at Islington confirm that large and top drawer projects can indeed be successfully completed. Iconic projects, especially those that occur in the public space, are usually visualised by political leaders, who, whilst capable of feeling the public pulse and conceptualising ambitious and extravagant plans are not fundamentally strong in commercially complex areas of project management. Being impatient doers they tend to rush through the initiation stages of such projects without paying detailed attention to the greater practical ramifications of project execution, thus building in inherent weaknesses that lead to difficulties later. Iconic projects have a far greater chance of being successfully executed if such errors can be minimised by more transparent and participative working in the initial stages without sacrificing the project’s grand vision. The widely publicised aims and benefits of iconic projects are essentially subjective and their assessment in terms of right or wrong is beyond the scope of this commentary. Being public and long term decisions their benefits are judged more by posterity than by current applause or criticism and on many occasions assume dimensions that make issues like cost and time overruns trivial matters of detail and quibble. The public perception of success of iconic projects could however improve radically if their initiation and execution were tackled with clarity, conservatism and attention to detail. The responsibility for this lies essentially with the project owners, the people who conceptualise and decide upon the project, than on anybody else. Word Count: 4691 References Ahmed, A. S. (1993, May). The Taj Mahal, History Today, 43, 62+ Ali, M. M., Moon, K. S. (2007), Structural Developments in Tall Buildings: Current Trends and Future Prospects. Architectural Science Review, 50(3), 205+ Boss Stuck in Lift as Tower Opens. (2005, October 18). The Evening Standard (London, England), p. 9