Abstract from the Posted Full Length Dissertation: Increasing numbers of British firms are outsourcing there call centre operations. This move has aroused a significant amount of criticism. On the one hand, some politicians argue that the trend has the potentially to detrimentally impact employment rates in Britain. On the other hand, customers are complaining that they are receiving sub-standard service. Both claims are somewhat exaggerated as a review of the literature indicates that while there are, undoubtedly, some poorly managed offshore call centres, there are significant numbers of excellently managed ones as determined through customer feedback. This study focuses on the said problem. In so doing, it traces the reasons behind the offshoring of call centres and identifies the key operational determinants of successful call centres. Informed by both primary and secondary data, the study concludes with a set of recommendations for the improvement of service quality in offshore call centres.

Abstract from the Posted Full Length Dissertation: The dissertation focuses on the provision of public services to asylum seekers and refugees, emphasizing that less than equitable access has functioned against their successful integration into British society and their assimilation of British culture. Given that the primary cause of demographic and population changes in the country since 1998 has been immigration, whether in the form of refugees or asylum seekers, this is a serious problem. It is serious insofar as the increasing marginalisation of the identified group lends to the creation of communities within communities, thereby threatening the country’s social cohesion and unity. Accordingly, it is imperative to embark upon an integration project as would successfully lead to the assimilation of this group into the national culture and society. As the research illustrates, integration can best be carried out through the provision of equitable access to public services and the exploitation of these services for the specific purpose of integration. According to the literature on the topic, the education and mental healthcare services are, within the context of the stated, defined as primary integration enablers. Certainly the cost of integration may be quite high but the benefits of successfully integrating refugees and asylum seekers into British society are even higher.

Extract from Posted Full Length Dissertation: The idea that you are what you buy - that possessions confer status - has long existed and guided some purchasing, as most notably observed by Thorstein Veblen (1899). However, as status became associated with specific brands, the next step historically became the marketing of brand imitations - in some cases, imitations of luxury items such as handbags and jewellery (d'Astous and Gargouri 2001). Antecedents of the purchase of elite brands, their imitations, and non-elite brands form the focus of this dissertation, with the discussion revolving around the macro and micro-marketing of counterfeit goods and the linkage between them.

Abstract from Posted Full-Length Dissertation: While it may be a decade old, the Asian Financial Crisis remains a topic of seminal concern and of academic interest. The crisis, which originated in Thailand and subsequently spread to Southeast Asia’s fastest growing economies, begs the questions of `how’ and `why.’ How did the crisis occur and why was there a contagion effect. Some economists make a very strong case for the IMF’s recipe for economic growth and market liberalisation as the culprit, while others argue that the absence of a strong and supportive economic infrastructure for sustainable growth and development quite effectively determined the inevitability of financial collapse.

This research study undertakes a critical analysis of the crisis for the determination of its causes. Thailand, of course, occupies significant space and attention as it was the locus of the financial crisis in question but the other affected economies are studied as well. Examining the magnitude of the crisis and looking at the economic environment within which it unfolded, the research critically investigates several explanatory theories. The research findings indicate that the Asian Financial Crisis was due to a myriad of factors, including IMF, fiscal, monetary policies and liberalisation strategy and, are rooted in the very nature and circumstances of the so-called Asian economic miracle.

The importance of this study emanates from the relevance of the lessons inherent in the crisis. An accurate, comprehensive and precise understanding of the root causes of the crisis can contribute to the subsequent avoidance of similar national and regional economic collapse.
 

Extract from posted Organisational Leadership Dissertation: Compared to other business industries, the hotel industry is considered slow in adopting new technologies (Dube, Enz, Renaghan, & Siguaw, 2000; Namasivayam, Enz, & Siguaw, 2000). Many hotels are still using the 1980s DOS-based Property Management System (PMS) and interface applications, and are operating with outdated computer systems. This is mainly due to the fact that hotels did not need to be leaders in technology to make profits or to increase the average daily rate (ADR). Many customers were less interested in hotels' business amenities, such as high-speed Internet access, fax and print services, but motivated by discounted room rates (Elgonemy, 2000). However, this tradition is changing dramatically by the new wave of Information Technology (IT). Today hotels are trying to adopt new ideas and technologies to the extent that other industries do. By so doing, hotels not only obtain a competitive edge, but are able to differentiate their product from the competitors.

IT in the hospitality industry can maximize the revenue for every available room and assist to make efficient decisions by “providing historical data on past bookings for a particular day and show what reservations are currently on the books, then make recommendations on how to price the room inventory” (Overby, 2005, p. 46). Despite all the benefits and obvious need for improved IT, the decision for implementation remains difficult. From the hotel management's point of view, investing a great deal of funds in an IT project, and even submitting an IT implementation plan as a capital project, are very risky ideas.

Some hotels invested and allocated their budget for IT projects while the industry was in a slump. For example, Hilton Corporation invested $50 million in a custom-built customer information system "during one of the industry's worst downturns in decades" (Kontzer, 2004, p.34). This approach was made possible by visionary hotel managers who observed and predicted the future of IT movement not only within the hotel industry, but also rapid IT innovation within other industries in general (Kontzer). These hotel managers can be considered leaders with a clear vision and determination. Their unique leadership, instrumental in overcoming obstacles and pursuing goals and objectives, has started to change and rebuild the hotel industry's IT image.
 

Abstract from the Posted, Full-Length Dissertation: The study examines the implications of co-branding in the fashion industry and its impact upon consumer perception of cobranded fashion products. Co-branding is extremely common in the fashion industry whereby one often finds collaborations between fashion designers and individuals or corporations, either from within or without the industry, over a particular line of goods. Examples would include H&M’s collaborations with Madonna, Stella McCartney and Cavalli to name but a few. Given the popularity of co-branding within the industry, the assumption is that collaboration positively translates into an increase in revenues for the brand partners. This study sought to investigate this assumption and in so doing, identify the determinants of successful versus unsuccessful co-branding ventures in the fashion industry.

The question cited in the above was explored through a critical review of the literature and a survey of consumer opinion. The literature review, spread over two chapters, found that co-branding has the potential to significantly contribute to increased revenues for both of the partner firms and can enhance their respective market presence and visibility. On the downside, however, the findings of the literature review suggested that the greater majority of co-branding ventures failed and negatively reflected upon both of the partner brands. Within the context of the stated, the study focused on the identification of the reasons for failure. The literature review identified several causal factors, the most important of which was partner reputation. A company’s market reputation determined consumer perceptions of it and, thus, its market performance. Brands which were identified as untrustworthy and unreliable were not likely to perform well on the market and were further found to negatively impact upon partners within the context of a co-branding venture.

The primary data supported the findings of the literature review. The study adopted a quasi experimental approach in which the factor of partner reputation was manipulated. The consumer survey showed that brands with a positive reputation were likely to suffer were they to ally themselves with a brand with a negative reputation, while that with the negative reputation was likely to benefit from partnership with a brand with a positive reputation.
 

Extract from the Posted Introductory Chapter: Affirmative Action has long been a source of controversy, the focal point of both accolades and detractions. As Burdman (2002) contends, Affirmative Action policies were borne out of the federal government’s determination to ensure the enforcement of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 across the nation. As such, it is credited with affording countless African Americans and other minorities, educational opportunities they would otherwise have been denied. At the same time, however, many have denounced it as an inherently racist policy which is predicated on the assumption that African Americans and other minorities cannot succeed on their own merits, on the one hand, and which denies more qualified candidates admission because of their ethnic and racial affiliations (Burdman, 2002). The controversy, as briefly outlined in the foregoing, is both intense and contentious, with both sides fortifying their respective positions through empirical, and seemingly incontrovertible, evidence. Evidence, in other words, supports and validates both positions on the issue.

Acknowledging the controversy surrounding Affirmative Action and conceding to the fact that it may, possibly, work against and not for, academic merit, the State of Texas banned Affirmative Action in 1996 (Anderson, 2005). Indeed, as Anderson (2005) asserts, while its goal has been equalization of access to opportunities, Affirmative Action was never intended to be employed as a policy which overlooked academic merit in favor of diversity. It was further never intended to function as an obstacle to the strategic and effective management of university admission policies. Its critics, however, assert precisely such usage. It is with the aforementioned in mind that Texas banned Affirmative Action and implemented a percentage-based program in its stead (Anderson, 2005).

Proceeding from the above stated, this study will employ a mixed methodological approach for the purposes of exploring two interrelated question. The first question pertains to the relationship between academic merit and affirmative action admission policies. The second relates to the impact which Affirmative Action admission policies have on the strategic management of admission policies and processes. By responding to these two questions, the proposed study will not just contribute to the settlement of the debate over the relationship between academic merit and Affirmative Action but will outline strategy for the strategic management of Affirmative Action admission policies.

This introductory chapter outlines the direction of the study, explains the research problem and the study’s purpose and provides readers with a brief overview of the methodology which will be utilized for the satisfaction of the research objectives. The study’s research questions and hypotheses will also be clarified, as will the research’s key terms, assumptions and limitations.
 

Extract from the Posted, Full-Length Dissertation: Considerable confusion exists in the literature concerning the various terminologies used to describe E-Business. Terms abound with vague descriptions having loose connections to existing management literature and even more cryptic relationships to evolving technology. Despite this, however, there is relative consensus that the core components of E-Business are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and ecommerce.

It is important to note that a business may not deploy every component or even attempt to link the three components. Some texts use the term 'enterprise Resource Management" or ERM as a comprehensive term meant to include all E-Business systems in one conceptual entity. It may, thus, be agued that these systems are distinctly different, serve specific functions and may or may not "add up" to a comprehensive organizational capability.

The objective of this research is to distinguish and develop a conceptual model of E-Business, on the one hand, and determine, or try to evaluate the potential social impact of e-business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Within the context of the stated, it need be noted that legal strictures have inhibited the development of e-business in KSA but, these restrictions are gradually being lifted. It remains, however, important to emphasise that lack of an e-business presence in Saudi Arabia implies that, rather than evaluate the actual effect within the country of focus, the study will look towards theoretical and empirical studies on the social impact of e-business for the determination of potential, and probable, effect.
 

Extract from the Posted, Partial (3 Chapter) Dissertation: Motivation has been one of the most studied research topics worldwide. Even within the context of a technological age in which countless work tasks have been mechanised and computerised, the human worker remains the most important source of knowledge and productivity. Added to that, work teams, wherein the variant talents, skills, knowledge and productivity potential of individual workers/employees is pooled together, have long been identified as an important source of organisational success and an integral predicator of an organisation’s ability to attain its strategic goals and objectives. Bearing the aforementioned in mind, the extent to which motivation techniques and schemes positively impact upon both individual employee behaviour and teamwork is an important area of study, especially as markets become more and more competitive. Indeed, as markets become increasingly competitive, successful employers are paying more attention to their human resource management by developing incentive programs in an attempt to keep their employees motivated and thus maximise their work productivity.

The factors which incite employee motivation, and the extent to which bonus and various other incentive schemes do so, especially within the context of work teams are the focus of this dissertation. 
 

Abstract from the Posted, Full-Length Dissertation:  The research study adopts a case study approach to the investigation of the environmental sustainability of air freight activities at Birmingham international Airport beyond 2008. The environmental aspect focused upon was air quality. In response to this concern, the study reviewed the literature on the impact of airport activities on the surrounding region’s air quality and found that there were unavoidable environmental consequences. At the same time, studies also led to the conclusion that airports are economically indispensable as they vitalise the regional economy, attract investment and connect it to the global economy. This is particularly true in relation to air freight activities.

Survey questionnaires and interviews further supported the findings of the literature review. They indicated that while there was an environmental cost to airport activities, especially air freight ones, the economic benefits outweighed the environmental costs. This, in itself, determined the sustainability and continuation of airfreight activities. Nevertheless, to ensure continuation of airfreight activities, it is imperative that airports implement strict environmental and air quality regulations and policies. The study proposed an air quality control model for implementation at Birmingham International Airport.
 

Extracted from Posted (2 Chapter), Partial Dissertation: In their article on the structure of control within multinational enterprises (MNEs), Gupta and Govindarajan (1991) remarked, “the vast majority of research on MNEs has focused on the economic reasons that motivate companies to go abroad and on the economic effects of foreign direct investment.” Most studies analyze this more `attractive’ (Birkinshaw and Hood, 1998) and `appealing’ side of international business whereas the other side has been relatively under-researched. In other words, divestment, divestiture, closure and exit are rarely considered in works on international investment (Benito, 2003). As a result, “divestiture continues to lack a research identity that is distinct from other acts of corporate restructuring such as mergers and acquisitions” (Buchholtz, Lubatkin and O'Neill, 1999, 633). This study focuses on foreign subsidiary divestment.

Extract from the Posted, Research Paper:  One of the greatest challenges confronting educators is the articulation of an effective paradigm for adult teaching and learning. Adult learning per se may not be an insurmountable challenge, as the educational psychologist T.C. DeWitt (2003) points out but, adult teaching more likely is. Rather than assume that the problematic nature of adult teaching-learning is an outcome of adult mental non-receptivity to new information and a consequence of some biological inability to assimilate and digest information as would a child, scientists have determined that the problem of adult teaching-learning stems from the multitudinous concerns and responsibilities which adults have to grapple with (DeWitt, 2003; Manning, 2003; Michelson, 1996; Wilhelm, 1997). The child is a professional learner and his/her life revolves around school attendance and study, to the degree that learning may be defined as the child’s foremost priority and responsibility. The situation is entirely different where the adult learner is concerned, with career and familial responsibilities functioning as the foremost priorities and study/learning, a secondary concern which may even be resented insofar as it impinges upon the adult’s free time or the attention he wants to direct towards his other concerns (DeWitt, 2003; Manning, 2003; Michelson, 1996; Wilhelm, 1997). The articulated differential between adult and child learners has given rise to an entire body of literature on adult learning and teaching approaches and strategies. Each of the theories or learning strategies proposed for employment with adult learners is validated by a wealth of empirical evidence but, educational psychologists have incontrovertibly established experiential learning to be the optimal learning strategy vis-à-vis adults. Through a discursive analysis of this particular learning theory, its application s and outcomes, concomitant with a subjective experiential overview, the essay shall affirm the utility of this teaching-learning approach and argue that its strength primarily emanates from the fact that it embraces the principles of variant learning-teaching theories but maintains that assimilation of the learnt can only occur pending practice an application. However, rather than simply proceed from the assumption that adults learn best when they learn from, by and through experience, the essay shall first overview the scholarship of learning, present the variant and more popular of the learning theories and argue that even though each is inherently valid, experiential learning remains the most effect vis-à-vis the adult student both because it embraces the major precepts and teaching strategies presented by those theories and extends beyond their confines. Nevertheless, and as the argument shall highlight, irrespective of the learning theory that a tutor selects, if the aim is to create a dynamic and constructive learning environment, characterised by efficient and effective learning, the tutor must integrate elements of the experiential learning theory into his/her teaching style, especially as pertains to learning from, by and through experience.

Extract from the posted analysis of an Education Law and its outcomes: Approaches to reading instruction constitute an incontrovertibly important issue, as importance directly stems from the fact that reading fluency is a predicator of academic survival, let alone success. Within the context of the stated, and considering that reading is the bedrock of education, multiple studies have been conducted on the optimal reading instruction approach. Needless to say, controversy surrounds the question of optimal approach, giving rise to what has been termed the `reading wars.’ In an effort to settle the said wars and affirm the imperatives of reading excellence, in 1997 Congress passed the Reading Excellence Act, subsequent to which a committee for the study and investigation of the components of reading excellence was formed. Following an overview of the report’s findings, the research will overview reading instruction paradigms.

Extract from the Posted, Critical Literature, Research Essay: Mario Benedetti, one of Uruguay, if not South America’s most celebrated writers, is renown for his exploitation of a wide array of literary genres for the purpose of criticising the socio-political conditions of both his nation and continent. His writings, whether his novels, plays, poems, short stories, political articles or polemical songs, are both reflective and critical of the political discontent and socio-cultural idiosyncrasies which were fomenting throughout and characteristic of Latin American/Uruguayan politics and society. Benedetti’s writings, with their inherent ideological concerns and message, betray an intricate relationship between the worlds of fiction and reality; between literature and contemporary history. It is a committed, or `engage’ literature, as some have described it and, while appreciated by some critics, vehemently criticised by others. Indeed, some critics have maintained that Benedetti’s works, insofar as they are guided by ideological and socio-political concerns, have little poetic and aesthetic value. That some critics should interpret his works as such indicate that Benedetti’s intentions were never to produce works which flattered critics but works which criticised his surrounding reality.

To claim that Benedetti’s literary works are so overpowered by ideological and socio-political concerns that they are ultimately rendered bereft of aesthetic and poetic value is not only an exaggeration but, an exaggeration predicated on erroneous readings and interpretations of works such as Ida y Vuelta, La Víspera a indeleble, El Ultimo viaje y otros cuentos and El Cumpleaños de Juan Ángel, to name but a few. Benedetti’s literary works, including the most overtly political ones of the late 1960s and 1970s, are not simplistic representations of political ideology and concerns, nor is their intent a primarily didactic one, as has been claimed. Instead, they seek the transformation of middle-class myths and contemporary history into literary and artistic renditions which highlight the inherent idiosyncrasies of the stated even as they sound a call for awakening, for reform. Benedetti aspires towards the analysis of the Uruguayan mindset, worldview, contemporary history and the peculiarities of Latin American culture within an aesthetic framework. This approach has led to both the popular and critical acclamation of Benedetti as the “Generation of 1945’s” voice and pen. Within this group, a circle of writers and artists who, through their aesthetic productions sought the exposition of reality’s inherent contradictions, Benedetti was hailed as the embodiment of a literary movement which, through art, sought to change self-contradicting, idiosyncratic and truth-defying reality of the contemporary Latin American socio-political culture and landscape.
 

Abstract from the Posted, Full-Length, Criminal Justice Capstone Project: This project examines the rationale behind the evolution and subsequent exploitation of less-than-lethal weapons. Contrary to popular opinion, law enforcement officials must observe very stringent guidelines pertaining to the use of lethal force, whereby improper use leads to investigations which could culminate in criminal and civil liability charges. Added to that, the use of lethal force does not only inflict physical harm upon the target/suspect, but can further endanger police officers and innocent bystanders/members of the public. Nevertheless, the use of force is often integral to the capture and incapacitation of suspects and/or violent criminals. It is, thus, that less-than-lethal (LTL) weapons evolved as a viable and effective alternative.

Several categories and types of LTl’s have emerged as a suitable alternative to lethal weapons. Amongst these, the TASER is the most effective and, indeed, is widely used throughout police department across the nation, most notable the Los Angeles Police Department. Despite the stated, however, the TASER is surrounded by negative myths and stereotypes which depict it as a lethal, as opposed to an LTL, device. Through a review of the literature on TASER and a critical analysis of both the advantages and disadvantages of its use within law enforcement, this study argues for the TASER as the preferred LTL. Scientific and medical evidence establishes that it inflicts no long-term physical harm upon targets, is an effective incapacitator and, more importantly, allows law enforcement officials to apprehend suspects while limiting the potential danger of doing so which often confronts law enforcement officers and innocent bystanders.
 

Extract from the Posted, Full-Length, Dissertation Proposal: Bilsky (1954) observes that the formulation of educational policies and curriculum without the a priori articulation of a framing philosophy represents the unnatural separation between knowledge/philosophy and education/communication and society/morality. Educational policy makers need to elucidate that philosophy of education which addresses society’s present and future expectations of the educational system.

In light of the fact that the inculcation of ethical and moral precepts into generations of learners, from the earliest stages of primary education to the final stages of higher education, is an overwhelming concern, the articulation of a philosophy of education which addresses the defined imperatives is a valuable undertaking. It shall function as the primary concern and objective of the proposed dissertation.
 

Extracted from the Posted, Full-Length, Analytical Research Paper:  In 1995, the National Center for Education Statistics (1997) reported that only one third of higher education institutions offered distance education courses. In 1999, researchers found that 85% of colleges and universities planned to offer primarily online, distance learning courses by 2002 (Distance Learning may soar, 1999). Many traditional colleges and universities are expanding course offerings to include several courses and degrees available entirely online (Robertson & Stanforth, 1999). The increased interest in distance learning has given rise to the imperatives of identifying the componential elements of quality distance learning offerings. Within the context of the stated, the IHEP (2000) examined existing benchmarks, guidelines, and principles that addressed quality online learning. The examination resulted in a list of 24 benchmarks that are deemed essential to quality online distance learning.

Proceeding from the above stated, this research will evaluate two distance learning programs using the 24 benchmarks referred to in the above. This analysis will show that even though Phoenix University’s online programs are very well developed, they fall short of Athabasca’s.
 

Extract from Posted, Full Length, Literature Review Chapter: Common sense suggests that if one had to sell to a particular community of consumers, then it would help to speak in a language that this audience understands. The relationship between advertising and culture derives from this basic premise: advertisements reflect the culture of the community or location where it is aired. This is not, however, simply a one way relationship where an advertisement reflects an existing culture. It is, rather, a situation where advertisements and culture can be understood as mutually reinforcing. In other words, as Wright (2001) contends, advertisements feed off existing cultural texts, but they are themselves texts that participate in the production of culture.

The relationship between advertising and culture has become more interesting, or less straightforward, due to the influences of globalisation, which is a phenomenon that has increased the interactions between various cultures. An important feature of globalisation, as theorists such as Appadurai (1996) have indicated, is the deconstruction of the centre-periphery model of structuring the globe (Wallerstein, 1974). That is, the globe can no longer be divided neatly into powerful (western) countries at the centre, and the weaker (southern and eastern) countries at the margins. Instead, Appadurai has forwarded a theory that structures the globe as comprising gaps, which are formed due to the interaction of cultural similarity and difference. Two important components of this model are the role played by electronic mediation and mass migration, which create imagined existential spheres.

Yet, unlike Anderson's (1991) theory of the imagined communities of nation-states, imagination in the contemporary world allows nationality to exist outside the territorial boundaries of the state. For example, while Korean immigrants might be watching Korean films in Philadelphia, American expatriates in Singapore may be watching American television programs, and the Indian cab-driver in New York City could be listening to the songs of the latest Hindi blockbuster made in Mumbai, while he drives around. In addition, due to the increased mediation of foreign cultures, the possibilities of cross-cultural allegiances increase. That is, while Asian viewers might develop a liking for American basketball, the popularity of Asian martial arts may increase in the U.S. (Appadurai, 1996). Moreover, cultural flows need not necessarily be from the West to the East and vice versa. As Larkin (2002) explains, although western hegemony exists, it is also important to consider the range of non-western media choices available in a non-Western location.

Globalisation has also increased transnational commerce, particularly due to the trade agreements that have become operational. Thus, it has become more common for companies to be selling their products to customers in foreign countries. That is, a company based in France might be doing business in Chile, Kenya, and South Korea, while another company based in South Korea may be doing business in Chile, India, and Jordan. This phenomenon requires companies to advertise to foreign customers, which in turn requires them to understand the cultural characteristics of these foreign countries.
 

Extract from Posted, Full-Length, Methodology Chapter: A research methodology references the procedural rules for the evaluation of research claims and the validation of the knowledge gathered, while research design functions as the research blueprint (Creswell, 2003). As Sekaran (2003) further clarifies, a research methodology may be defined as academia’s established regulatory framework for the collection and evaluation of existent knowledge for the purpose of arriving at, and validating, new knowledge. Cooper and Schindler (1998) maintain that the determination of the research methodology is one of the more important challenges which that confronts the researcher. In essence, the research activity is a resource consumptive one, and must maintain its purposeful or functional activity through the justification of resource expenditure. In other words, given that research is ultimately defined as constructive, the resources that it utilizes must fulfil explicit purposes and withstand critical scrutiny. Research methodology occupies a position of unique importance. A methodology does not simply frame a study but it identifies the research tools and strategies (i.e. resources) that will be employed, and relates their use to specified research aims. As Sekaran (2003) suggests, its importance emanates from the fact that it defines the activity of a specified research, its procedural methods, strategies, for progress measurement and criteria for research success.

Extracts from two of the four Posted, Full-Length, Model Exam Questions:

Question 1:

A decision is defined as “a moment in an ongoing process of evaluating alternatives for meeting an objective, at which expectations about a particular course of action impel the decision maker to select the course of action most likely to result in attaining the objective” (Harrison, 2001, p. 5). Decision making is at the core of any business transaction or process and is, by all accounts, the foundations upon which the success of an organisation is based. Decision-making is a predicator of both managerial and organisational success, as evidenced by empirical studies. Such studies indicated that successful organisations exhibited all of
Ø A capacity for effective and well-informed decision making
Ø Effective decisions
Ø Timely/speedy decisions
Ø High rate of decision implementation (Harrison, 2001)
Indeed, as Drucker (2003) contends, decision-making is of such unique importance to organisations that the performance of managers and executive is largely, although not exclusively, evaluated in accordance with their decision-making capacities and abilities. While not intending to obscure the many other responsibilities assigned to managers or undermine the importance of any, the aforementioned is intended to highlight the fact that decision-making is, by far, one of the most important of the many managerial responsibilities.

The significance of managerial decision-making stems from the fact that decisions ultimately influence and alter both management itself and the organisational as a whole. Accordingly, managerial decision-making functions as the criteria for the evaluation of management performance and for the determination of the likelihood of an organisation are satisfying its strategic objectives (Agarwal & Malloy, 2000; Lippitt, 2003). In order to further clarify this, and in so doing, defend and support the contention that decision-making is the most important of the managerial/leadership responsibilities, the componential and definitional elements of decision making shall now be analysed.

Question 2:

The British labour market is a highly diverse one and, according to available statistics, is continually moving towards greater diversity. According to 2005 data released by the Office of National Statistics, 5.4% of the current labour force is foreign, with EU and former Commonwealth migration statistics, among other non-British sources of labour inflow, indicating a continual increase. The previous year, 2005, was witness to the largest ever influx of foreign workers to Britain, totalling approximately 400,000 (Salt and Miller, 2006). In addition to that, diversity statistics indicate that ethnic minority groups comprise approximately 8% of the current workforce; 25% are non-Christian; and around 12% are disabled. Statistics pertaining to gays and lesbians are indeterminate, largely because of a lack of national surveys but, are estimated to stand between 5-7%. The implication here is that the British workforce is, incontrovertibly diverse; a fact which poses challenges to organisational management.

Over the past thirty years, legislature has effectively acknowledged the reality of the nation’s existent and, ever-increasing, gender, ethnic, racial, religious and cultural diversity and has sought its positive address. From 2003 to 2006, Employment Equality regulations addressed the issues of all of age, religion/belief and sexual orientation, effectively establishing the legal and regulatory framework for both the prevention of direct and indirect discrimination against minority group employees while, at the same time, outlining the imperatives of equity. Prior to that, all of the Equal Pay Act (1970), the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), the Race Relations Act (1976) and the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000), among others, sought to ensure against both direct and indirect discrimination in the provision of goods and services and within the workplace. Consequently, from the legal and regulatory perspective, Britain has taken the requisite steps to ensure that its minority groups are extended the necessary opportunities for integration and assimilation.

Extract from the Posted, Full-Length, Report: The research traces the history of the coastguard, focusing primarily on the United Kingdom in light of the fact that it is home to the first coast guard services in the world, provides examples of different coastguards, highlights the service’s missions and objectives, clarifies the importance of the aforementioned and looks towards the future. As the research argues the coastguard’s role, responsibilities and duties have increased over the years and its importance has similarly expanded. The coastguard plays a fundamental role in national security and is a coastal and island nation’s first line of defence. Apart from that, its function as a search and rescue service and as an environmental monitoring and protection one, cannot be underestimated or undervalued. The coast guard is essential in the life of any coastal or island country and its importance is expected to increase.

Extract from the Posted, Full-Length, Research Paper:  The research shall explore the effect of cyberschools on public education. Huerta, González and d'Entremnont (2006) affirm that the popularity of cyberschooling is on the rise, largely consequent to the fact that it expands the educational environment beyond geographically imposed limitations, on the one hand, and because it furnishes students/learners with an array of previously unimaginable learning tools and aids. Cyberschools are effective education delivery media and allow for the student-student and teacher-student interaction relationship models which are considered integral to successful schooling (Huerta, González and d'Entremnont, 2006).

There is, as many professional educators and researchers have contended, little doubt that cyberschools are a positive addition to the education and information delivery models available. The cyberschool, may function as a viable and valid alternative to public schools in instances where the latter are not available to students or whose attendance is problematic.
 

Extract from Posted, Full-Length, Political Science and International Affairs, Capstone Project: Despite the tremendous evolution it has experienced over the past years and the unique experiment CFSP represents in international relations, scholars have not extensively studied the phenomenon. When they have, they have usually focused on its shortcomings attributed to its intergovernmental framework – i.e. CFSP is a treachery, because it requires the agreement of all the EU member-states, a situation which rarely exists. The classical example in the CFSP literature is the Balkan wars of 1991-1995. In addition, because the institutional changes to CFSP that have occurred since the Treaty of Amsterdam have left the second pillar in an intergovernmental framework, scholars have rarely analyzed the implementation of those changes in particular situations to see how they were used in practice. Finally, because the second pillar deals with foreign policy, it has usually been approached from an international relations (IR) perspective, explaining why member-states created it or analyzing the outcomes of it from an inter-states relations perspective, rather than from a comparative politics perspective, as has extensively been done in the first pillar.

One major attempt in the literature to study how CFSP has taken a different path than the one traditionally predicted by those analysis focusing on the intergovernmental aspects of the CFSP has been the work of Michael E. Smith on the institutionalization of the CFSP. Smith shows how through the years of EPC, what started essentially as an intergovernmental process, gained a life on its own through socialization and institutionalization. Smith also shows how the institutional developments of the second pillar influence outcomes in foreign policy. Smith’s approach influences the direction and purpose of this dissertation. In other words, the purpose of this dissertation is to analyze foreign policy making and diplomacy in the EU through reference to EU foreign policy and diplomatic initiatives vis-à-vis the Middle East conflict.
 

Extracted from the Posted, Full Length, Political Science and International Affairs, Capstone Project: The significance of this research is both empirical and theoretical. Empirically, it explores an area that has been left in a grey zone, while changes have occurred at an unprecedented pace. It will thus add to the body of knowledge on the EU policy-making processes. Theoretically, it will show the relevance of foreign policy analysis, while attempting to bridge the gap between public policy literature and “high politics.” Finally from a policy perspective, it occurs at an important moment. On the one hand, analyzing the decision-making processes of the CFSP is crucial at a time when the EU is in the process of reforming itself. As Gordon writes, “progress toward CFSP” could conceivably be defined according to how integrated it is (as opposed to intergovernmental), how global it is (as opposed to regional), how military it is (as opposed to civilian), how well articulated it is (as opposed to poorly explained), or how well it can deal with immediate crises (as opposed to pursuing long-term goals). […] Along any of these axes, I believe the notion of “making progress” toward CFSP must involve the creation of institutional, legal, or political mechanisms to promote and implement common perspectives or actions. For the word “cooperation” to have meaning, it must to some degree entail getting states to do what they otherwise would not have done, either through mechanisms to promote convergence of views (through common analysis and consultation), through deals in the expectation of mutual gain, or, most significantly, through biding decision-making institutions. Simply happening to agree on the same policy – say, to support democracy in South Africa – is very important, but it does not require a common foreign and security policy to bring it about.

In the first EU pillar, the European Commission, together with the European Court of Justice, the European Parliament, and the use of Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) in the Council of the EU, provide the institutional backbone of the decision-making process allowing for policies to be taken and implemented by and at EU-level. Except for the European Commission (but with a lesser role), those institutions and institutional mechanisms have no role in the second pillar. As Gordon reminds us however, agreements among member-states could still occur, even in the absence of the specific and sui generis mechanisms found in pillar one. To that extent, agreements occur all the time between states, bilaterally, trilaterally, and multilaterally within international forum such as the United Nations, or outside. In foreign policy, these agreements are more difficult to reach, especially if they involve the use of force. Again as Gordon explains, it is easier to agree that democracy should be promoted in South Africa, than to agree on the way and means to implement that broad policy. Even declaratory policies are not easily agreed upon, however.
 

Abstract from the Posted, Full-Length, Extended Information Systems Security, Research Paper: The research paper adopts a case study approach to the problem of insider threats to an organization’s network security. The organization upon which this study is based is the researcher’s place of employment and all organization-specific data was obtained through interviews with IT and security personnel employed at the organization.

Following a review of the meaning and implications of the phenomenon of insider threats, the research paper adopts the position that it is definitely a more serious problem than is that of outsider threats. This position is supported by both the primary and the secondary data used in the study.

The aim of this research was to exhaustively investigate the nature of the insiders who attack the organizations at which they are employed. Through a review of the demographics of and data on the attacks to which the organization was subjected over the past years, a profile for the insider who may potentially threaten the organization was established and the reasons which motivate such behaviour were articulated. The research concludes with a set of recommendations for the minimization of the potentialities of insider incidents.
 

Extract from the Posted, Full Length, dissertation: Dubai, the capital city of Abu Dhabi, has emerged as one of the world’s most expensive and coveted real estate markets, not to mention a primary tourism destination. This, in itself, is a phenomenon well worth studying, given that just a decade ago it was nothing other than a tiny desert principality, whose only claim to fame was its oil wealth. That is hardly the Dubai the world knows today. The wholly-oil-dependent desert principality has been replaced by a modern metropolis which contains, not only some of the world’s most talked-about modern architectural wonders, but expensive, highly coveted real estate. Dubai’s transformation from the capital city of a desert principality which would not, figuratively speaking, have been on the map were it not for its oil wealth, is a testament to its successful marketing and branding of the city, on the one hand, and the creation of a real estate market, where none existed, on the other.

Proceeding from within the context of the above articulated concern, this study will examine the phenomenon of property branding and marketing, with specific reference to Dubai. Apart from defining and identifying the dissertation’s primary focus, the current chapter shall articulate the research problem, outline the research questions, hypotheses and objectives and overview the organisation of the dissertation.
 

Abstract from the Posted, Full-Length, Naval Studies, Report: Although ECDIS is popularly defined as a standard for the elimination of paper charts, the mentioned definition hardly encompasses the capabilities and potentials of this tool. Indeed, the functionality of ECDIS systems have extended beyond the mere elimination of paper charts to the provision of an Integrated Bridge whose primary function is the interconnection of all of a vessel’s sources of information. This paper shall review and evaluate an ECDIS implementation paradigm forwarded by Transas Marine (TRANsport SAfety Systems). The primary criterion for evaluation is compliance with the IMO standard. Following that, additional implementation features shall be critically analysed. The paper will conclude with a set of recommendations for improvement based upon the researcher’s own evaluation of Navi Sailor ECDIS.

Extract from the Posted, Full-Length, Comparative Literature, Dissertation Proposal: In the novels of Toni Morrison, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Nadine Gordimer, Hanan El-Sheikh, Nawal El Saadawi and Arundhati Roy, female suffering expresses the violence of slavery, religious fundamentalism and poverty. Rather than simply revealing loss and diminishment, the areas of criticism most contemporary critics focus upon, such works expose the possibility of transformation through transgressive narratives that discover a sense of wholeness through a moral and spiritual defiance and a redefinition of beauty. This is precisely the reason why the above mentioned narratives were included in the study. They do not express a passive reception of suffering but transgress the norm for the purposes of transforming suffering into a motive for self-realization. Indeed, as these novels explore a postcolonial response to repression wherein torture often functions as reality and metaphor, they transgress against popular understandings of the female self-hood, national identity and the female’s role in society. Quite simply stated, these writers portray suffering as a strengthening force, colonialism as a rationale for rebellion and the re-identification, even redefinition, of the nation and gender as an irrelevant determinant of capabilities and limitation as they proceed from a premise of gender equity.

Extracted from the Posted, Full-Length, Catalonian Literature Research Paper: The fictional and non-fictional writings of Montserrat Roig, popularly recognized as the quintessential representative of Catalonian nationalism and feminism, are singularly devoted to the recovery and revival of Catalonian history. Aiming towards the unveiling of Catalonian traditions, myth, history and language, Roig‘s works unfold through a set of binary oppositions – the male versus the female; the public versus the private; the oppressor versus the oppressed; and official history versus the authentic her-story. As such, her fiction invariably unfolds within a domestic setting and her protagonists, and voices, are female and distinctly feminine.

Roig’s identification of the female as both carrier and purveyor of Catalonian language, traditions, myths, history and nationalism was circumstantially predetermined by the experiences of this quasi-national community during the Franco years. To understand Roig’s works as something other than a feminist treatise and to fully appreciate their complexity, an understanding of the politically history which informed and incited them, is necessary. In brief, throughout the four decades of General Franco’s dictatorship, the Catalan community, as were the Andalusia, Basque and Castilian, was oppressed through the government’s determined efforts to forcibly impose the Spanish culture and language upon all. The Catalan language and culture were outlawed, with the hope being that their de-legitimisation would, over the generations and years, lead to their obliteration. Both, however, were kept alive within the private and feminine space of the home and, both were kept alive through the efforts of Catalan’s women. It was, thus, that Catalonian women played a fundamental role, not only in the rescuing of the national culture and historical memory but, in the survival of Catalonia herself.
 

Extract from the Posted, Full Length, Company and Criminal Law, Dissertation: Statistics indicate that at least 500 people are killed every year in the United Kingdom as an immediate result of corporate negligence. The media vigilantly covers these incidents and, in fact, has done so over the past five to six decades. Yet, successive UK governments have betrayed a reluctance to act against the aforementioned phenomenon through a bill which clearly criminalises the unintentional killing of employees or members of the general public by corporate entities.

Corporate negligence, culminating in the death of employees and/or members of the general public, constitutes a formidable socio-political problem. Corporate entities, supposedly guided by the ethics of corporate social responsibility and duty-bound to provide goods and services which contribute to communal welfare, are increasingly implicated in cases of serious injury and/or death to employees and members of the general public. English law, however, has long failed to recognise the phenomenon of corporate manslaughter and, consequently, corporate criminal liability towards deaths and injuries which are immediately traceable to corporate negligence, or inextricably linked to the use of a service or good extended by the corporation in question.

In 2003, a significant development occurred. The Labour government Home Secretary, David Blunkett, announced the government’s firm commitment to the adoption of a corporate manslaughter bill:

“There is great public concern at the criminal law's lack of success in convicting companies of manslaughter where a death has occurred due to gross negligence by the organisation as a whole.
"The law needs to be clear and effective in order to secure public confidence and must bite properly on large corporations whose failure to set or maintain standards causes a death.
"It is not targeted at conscientious companies that take their health and safety responsibilities seriously." 

The announcement confronted disparate reactions. Some applauded the government’s plans, while others stringently opposed them, questioning the very need for the adoption of a corporate manslaughter bill. A third group maintained the exigencies of designing and passing into legislature a corporate manslaughter bill but voiced doubt over the proposed bill’s capacity to address the problem. The imperatives of bestowing legal recognition upon corporate manslaughter, on holding corporate entities criminally liable for acts/cases of unintentional manslaughter, and the capacity of the proposed bill to effectively address the defined problem, comprise some of the dissertation’s core concerns.

Proceeding from the above articulated concerns, it is evident that the current research shall focus on the issue of corporate manslaughter within the United Kingdom. Apart from defining and identifying the dissertation’s primary focus, the current chapter shall articulate the research problem, outline the research questions, hypotheses and objectives and overview the organisation of the dissertation.
 

Abstract from the Posted, Full Length, Information System Security, Extended Research Paper: The research paper adopts a case study approach to the problem of insider threats to an organization’s network security. The organization upon which this study is based is the researcher’s place of employment and all organization-specific data was obtained through interviews with IT and security personnel employed at the organization.

Following a review of the meaning and implications of the phenomenon of insider threats, the research paper adopts the position that it is definitely a more serious problem than is that of outsider threats. This position is supported by both the primary and the secondary data used in the study.

The aim of this research was to exhaustively investigate the nature of the insiders who attack the organizations at which they are employed. Through a review of the demographics of and data on the attacks to which the organization was subjected over the past years, a profile for the insider who may potentially threaten the organization was established and the reasons which motivate such behaviour were articulated. The research concludes with a set of recommendations for the minimization of the potentialities of insider incidents
 

Extract from Posted, Full-Length, Model Research Paper on Information Systems Security: One of the most important issues confronting network administrators and, indeed, any individual or entity connected to a network is security. While not wanting to exaggerate the dimensions of the security problem, the fact is that every second of connectivity could mean vulnerability to attack or unauthorized access. It is because of the unrivalled importance of network security that much of the material studied throughout the course focused on the variant threats which networked computers and networks are exposed to and the strategies, as in hardware and software, which securitize networks and networked computers. The weekly assignment, which covered various security-related topics, necessitated that we, as students, research the assigned topics, engaged with the material and, importantly, explore the multi-dimensional nature of network security. Added to that, weekly feedback on assignments offered us a clear indication of the topics which we could handle well and those which we could not.

Following a review of the weekly assignments and the identification of the topics which I could write a good extended research on, I decided that threat identification and confrontation was an interesting topic. It was, however, too general and accordingly, I sought the advice of our Chief information Security Officer who directed me towards state of the art threat identification and mitigation technologies as a possible topic.
 

Extract from Journal Entry: As Petty (1993:32) points out, "motivation is regarded by experienced and inexperienced teachers alike as a pre-requisite for effective learning, and the greatest challenge that many teachers face is to make their students want to learn." In other words, effective learning is predicated on the presence of sufficient levels of motivation with the instructor being identified as the learning motivator. In further elaboration of the motivation phenomenon, Atherton (2004) defines it as "either intrinsic/expressive (doing something for its own sake) or extrinsic/instrumental (doing something for some other reason)." Contrary to Petty’s (1993) presentation, Atherton (2004) emphasises that motivation is not an indivisible whole but is comprised of two distinct forms. While Petty's (1993) assertion is largely true, he oversimplifies the complex phenomenon of motivation, in which instance one need turn to Atherton (2004) for a more accurate understanding of the mentioned. In further elaboration of the stated, while Petty has correctly identified the centrality of motivation to effective learning, he incorrectly identifies teachers as the primary instigators of motivation.

Abstract from Posted, Full-Length, Dissertation Proposal: International business literature is abounding with studies that are concentrated on foreign investment. The area of foreign divestment has however for the most part been neglected by scholars. Even managers seem to be relatively more knowledgeable about making investment decisions involving entry modes and survival strategies than they are about divestment decisions or divestment modes and strategies. This study focuses on an under-researched area of foreign divestment strategy implementation. It uses both the network theory and the resource based view to present a broadly normative framework for foreign subsidiary characterization and divestment. Specifically, it deals with a subsidiary's context and network position as defined by the interaction between its relationship-specific and location based subsidiary-specific resources and capabilities and its influence on divestment modes (complete divestiture, partial divestiture, no divestiture). This study also examines the implications of divestiture for performance and sustainability of MNE competitive advantage abroad. Using survey methodology, the study will analyze foreign subsidiary divestment decisions made by top managers in U.K. based multinational firms. The study assumes that achieving a fit between divestment strategy and subsidiary context is positively associated with performance and sustainability of competitive advantage.

Extracted from posted Philosophy of Education Extended Essay: Over six decades ago, the American Philosophical Association sought to reassert the historic relationship between philosophy and education, calling for nation-wide educational policy and curriculum to be informed by fundamental philosophical precepts (Balz and Larrabee, 1942). Forming a committee for the analysis of the then operative educational policy and curriculum, the American Philosophical Association issued its findings in 1942. As per the findings, 82% of all higher educational institutions in the United States acknowledged the correlation between philosophy, educational curriculum and educational policy but hardly any employed a specified philosophic ideology to inform policy, frame curricula, or provide educators with that set of tools deemed integral for effective teaching. Accordingly, the American Philosophical Association recommended the comprehensive reassessment of national educational policy, curriculum and teaching strategies (Balz and Larrabee, 1942).

By virtue of its identity and espoused concerns, the American Philosophical Association, just as the Japanese (Saito and Imai, 2004), the Greek, the Italian (Papastephanou, 2004), the German and the British (Horlacher, 2004), may be accused of subjectivity and its often expressed argument for the articulation of an educational policy and curriculum founded upon a well-defined philosophy of education, as an attempt to reassert the pedagogical value and import of philosophy as a material, rather than a metaphysical, branch of knowledge. As tempting as that may be, it is only possible to ignore the value of a philosophy of education and the intimate correlation between philosophy and education through the blatant denial of the histories of both education and philosophy.

Affirming the intimate historical link between philosophy and education, Masschelein (2004) contends the impossibility of formulating an effective educational policy or designing a sound curriculum without the prior selection of the philosophical ideology or trend that will inform either. Philosophy, meaning the study of knowledge, is fundamentally geared towards education and the history of education records the singular role which philosophers and philosophy played in the evolution of informal, and later formal, educational systems ((Masschelein, 2004). Within the context of the stated, the formulation of educational policies which are not immediately informed by a specified philosophy is to deprive the articulated policies of the blueprint which provides it with guidance, strategy and aims.

The exigencies of a philosophy of education are inarguable. In emphasising the stated, Bilsky (1954) observes that the formulation of educational policies and curriculum without the a priori articulation of the philosophy that would guide and inform them, constitutes the unnatural separation between knowledge/philosophy and education/communication and explication of knowledge. Consequently, it is incumbent upon educators and educational policy makers to elucidate that philosophy of education which best satisfies and addresses society’s present and future expectations of the educational system before the actual design of the curriculum or the articulation of educational policy.

Proceeding from the above explication of the exigencies of formulating educational policies and designing educational curricula only after the selection of that philosophy which will function as the definitional parameters for the aforementioned, it is contingent upon us to question the most suitable philosophy of education. As this essay shall argue, the variant, almost limitless, demands made upon the educational system, concomitant with the multitudinous aims of contemporary educational systems, necessitate the selection of an amalgamated philosophy of education, or one that is derived from several philosophic approaches.
 

Extract from posted Education Management Extended Essay: There is no shortage of educational philosophies. D’Innocenzo (1999) testifies to this in his historical notation on the evolution of educational philosophies. As he writes, the history of education corresponds with the history of philosophy, with the former being entirely responsible for the emergence of the latter. Philosophy is “edu-centric;” its primary concern is, and always has been, the education of the minds and the training of the human intellect (D’Innocenzo, 1999). It is immediately consequent to the correlation between philosophy and education that one finds as many philosophies of education as one does schools of philosophy.

Papastephanou (2004) contends that within the context of multitudinous philosophies of education, contradictions and conflict abound. The Platonic seeks the amelioration of the Socratic; the Aristotelian is determined to improve upon and restructure the Platonic; the realist seeks to annihilate the idealist; and the materialist quests for the obliteration of the metaphysical. The list of philosophies, ad by association, philosophies of education, and their contentious relations with one another, is endless (Papastephanou, 2004). Choosing between them is, thus, problematic consequent to the fact that the shortcomings of each and every one of the existent philosophies of education have been exposed by the competing philosophies, on the one hand, and by experiential and empirical evidence on the other.

Despite the positive critique which most philosophies of education have generated, theory, application and critical analysis have combined to prove that there is no ideal philosophy of education and that each has it limitations and shortcomings. However, as Carr (2003) rightly observes, merits have counterbalanced shortcomings and have functioned to sustain these philosophies over the decades and in the majority of instances, over the centuries. Therefore, shortcomings do not amount to invalidations, although their identification is essential if they are to be overcome in application.

The above stated functions to elucidate the fact that the selection of a philosophy or philosophy of education does not imply ignorance of the selection’s shortcomings, nor does it constitute a negation of the merits of the others. Therefore, even though the liberal arts philosophy of education, and the liberalist theory which informs it, shall be presented in the below as the most advantageous, selection ultimately betrays the author’s subjective preference and exposes his personal philosophy and does not, at any point, imply the invalidation of other philosophical schools and philosophies of education.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper: The veritable tomes which has been written on HRM testifies to its centrality in organisational life and its status as a determinant of organisational success, not to mention the capacity of corporations to successful attain their strategic objectives. An organisation’s human resource, and most definitely its management, plays an integral role in defining a company’s potentials and its limitations. Added to that, while the HRM model operative within an organisation is largely determined by the intra- and extra-environmental cultures, HRM tools and strategies can directly influence organisational culture and, indeed, may affect a transformation within it. As this research shall argue, however, contrary to the popular assumption that compensation schemes are the primary method for doing so, it is the collectivity of HR functions which impinge upon, and have the potential to transform the mentioned culture. In other words, while one cannot deny the fundamental role which compensation plays in affecting employee motivation levels, enhancing organisational commitment and, ultimately, transforming the dominant organisational culture, it would be fallacious and, consequently, indefensible to ignore a host of other HRM practices which, taken as a collectivity, effectively modify organisational culture and increase employees’ commitment.

Extract from posted French Literature Essay: Journal du voleur is the closest Genet came to writing a traditional autobiography. Though his other novels incorporate names from the author's life experience, the focus of these novels is to create mythical characters out of names pulled from Genet’s reality. The character “Genet” figures in these other novels as the creator/narrator, but it is in the Journal that Genet concentrates on recounting his life experience. As White has shown in his biography of Genet, the chronology of events in Journal, while loosely followed, does, in fact, correspond with Genet's life in the late 1930's. What is most important to Genet, however, is not a simple recounting of his life story, but rather the elaboration of his aesthetic preoccupations. It is in this narrative that Genet identifies most clearly his means of literary production, and discusses the relationship of body to text. It is within the context of the stated reality, and as influenced by Genet’s own sexual proclivities, that the theme of sexuality and suffering asserts itself.

Traditionally, autobiography is a narrative form that has as its primary theme the recounting of the life of the author. The key element in identifying a narrative as autobiographical is, to use the terminology of Philippe Lejeune, the pacte autobiographie By identifying the pacte the ideal reader realizes without a doubt that the character denoted by “I” is indeed a projection of the author on the page. Genet accomplishes this in Journal principally by providing verifiable statistics regarding his “statut civil,” - his date of birth and the circumstances which surrounded it. Though a Genet character exists in Genet's other novels, this information appears only in Journal du voleur. What is most remarkable about this fact is that, rather than stabilizing the identity of the author, by its very nature it destabilizes. The fact that Genet was orphaned at a young age, and that he knows only the name of his mother, and not that of his father, puts the author character in an awkward position in a society more patrilineal than most.

The Journal is in many ways, an aesthetic treatise, an examination of the ideas and practices that have made Genet a creator. The two fundamental concepts that drive his creation are “beauty,” and a vertiginous space that we could call the “vide,” or, “nothingness.” His writing exists in a tense space between the aesthetic attractions of the physical world, and the intellectual imperative of the contemplation of the emptiness of existence.
 

Abstract from posted Dissertation:  Strategic human resource management is, undoubtedly, an integral factor in organisational success but, it only represents an element within the larger organisational paradigm upon which success is ultimately predicated. The implication here is that the shape of an organisation’s human resources and the extent to which it is capable of positive and constructive contribution to organisational success, is determined b its management paradigm.

Proceeding from the above stated, the research examines the paradigmatic flexibility verses fit. Focusing on the division between the public and the private sectors, the first popularly associated with inertia and the second with flexibility, the research will examine the management paradigms associated with either in an attempt to determine whether flexibility, if it is indeed the more suitable of the two, withstands transference to the public sector. In other words, rather than focus exclusively on strategic human resource management, the dissertation will examine the management paradigms which would allow for the optimal functioning of business processes, effectively lending to the evolution of strategic human resource management.

Within the context of the stated aims, and following an extensive literature review, the study determined the division between public and private sectors as largely artificial, in the sense that it has been imposed on either sector by the management paradigms favoured by either. The implication here is that the private sector is not inherently decentralized, informal and organic and the public sector is not, by definition, the antithesis of all of the stated. Instead, management paradigms and strategies have imposed decentralization versus centralised, formality versus informality and dynamism versus mechanism on either. The findings of the literature review, as summarized, were confirmed by a field study which involved the extensive interviewing of top level management at one public sector (Organisation A, City Council) and one private sector (Organisation B, Financial Institution) organisation. With the findings concluding that there are no insurmountable structural barriers to the implementation of private sector management strategies to the public sector, ultimately allowing for the evolution of strategic human resource management within the latter, the strategies by which TQM (within which great consideration for strategic human resource management is awarded) can be implemented within the public sector are critically discussed. Overall, the study contributes a greater understanding of the similarities between the public and the private sector, the efficacy of establishing the foundations for the later adoption of strategic human resource paradigms, and the means by which to implement TQM in the public sector, and the benefits of doing so.

Extract from posted Political Sociology Research Paper:  Scholars agree that a pluralist society should be just, democratic, and fair. The theoretical model they put forth condemns, at least in principle, discrimination on the basis of race, culture, skin colour, ethnicity or religion. Normative pluralism aims to advance the cause of social justice. However, it accepts social stratification based on individual merit and does not challenge the logic of capitalism. According to some critics, it thereby fails to address the most important causes for inequality in modem societies. Nevertheless, in its ideal form, pluralism neither promotes separation among groups, nor does it foster hierarchical group relations based on their interaction in the market place. In sum, the pluralist society does not want it to be a plural one (Rex 1997). Although there is considerable agreement on these principles, pluralism as an ideology remains highly controversial. In fact, while Schermerhorn's (1970) definition of normative pluralism suggests an egalitarian incorporation of ethnic minorities, as affirmed in the slogan “different but equal,” it does not provide an answer as to what type of cultural and structural pluralism this notion implies: Does normative pluralism encourage a high degree of institutional duplication and group-differentiated rights (as implied by multiculturalism)? Or, does it favour an approach that accepts cultural plurality (which necessarily involves a minimal degree of structural pluralism) but rejects the institutional and ideological recognition of group differences within the public realm (as implied in orthodox liberalism and republicanism)? This research will explore these questions with the intent of doing so being the determination of whether pluralism threatens the welfare state. The research will establish that whether or not it does is ultimately predicated on the definition of the nation-state employed and implemented vis-à-vis the sovereign geographic territory in question and the treatment of minorities within.

Extract from posted dissertation: Focusing on the hospitality and tourism industry, the dissertation will question the extent to which university/college training and education programmes respond to the needs of the industry. Accordingly, the central question will be whether or not hospitality and tourism graduates possess the skills and knowledge which the industry’s managers, leaders and customers are looking for in employees. In this introductory chapter, the study’s focus, purpose and significance will be presented, alongside a brief overview of the research method.

Extract from Posted Political Sociology Research Paper: Nation-states are no longer, as a rule, homogeneous entities in which citizens are joined together by immutable bonds of shared identities; shared identities which emanate from a common historical heritage, culture and religion. Instead, nations are becoming increasingly heterogeneous and multicultural. Heterogeneity and multiculturalism have, according to Banting and Kymlicka (2006), been interpreted by some as an immediate threat to welfare citizenship and the welfare state, both of which derive from the presumption of shared identity. To offset the potential problematic of fragmented identities and its implications for the continuation and sustenance of the welfare state, nation-states have engaged in the accommodation of plurality through multicultural policies which are intended, according to Banting and Kymlicka (2006), if not to preserve the welfare state, ensure the continued unity and unification of the nation-state.

As briefly indicated in the above, ethnic and religious plurality constitute a potential threat to the very notion of the welfare state and its associate welfare citizenship. Plurality, implying conflict and difference, is antithetical to the very principles upon which the welfare state is predicated; the principles of shared identity, commonality and homogeneity. Even while conceding to the reality of the stated threat, however, this research will posit the claim that the management of plurality through multiculturalism has the potential to control and limit this threat.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper: There have been and remain various historical debates concerning the Irish Revolution of 1916-23 that reflect the evolution of Irish Historiography in the following decades. Historical debates have attempted to discuss, explain and evaluate the Irish Revolution from different perspectives that have altered in the light of contemporary events and opinions as well as the evolution of Irish Historiography. The main perspectives of the historical debates outlined below will relate to the main actors during the Irish Revolution, the British government plus the Police and the Army, the Ulster Unionists and finally the Irish Nationalist and Republican movements. All played a part in either promoting or resisting the Irish Revolution, their roles having been opened to historical scrutiny and evolution in Irish Historiography or when apt other sources. Historical debates have tended to concentrate on the causes of the Irish Revolution, whether it was a success or a failure and whether it could have been defeated. Historical debates have not remained the same over the decades; the passing of time can change people’s opinions of historical events. As people that lived through the Irish Revolution grew older and started to die out their viewpoints have been passed down the generations sustained as much by myth as by an understanding of events.

The Irish Potato Famine, which reached its nadir in the late 1840’s, in addition to the Irish Revolution at the time of the Great War are the twin pillars that were used to construct Irish nationalism’s ideal of the Republic after the 1923 treaty that recognised the independence of Southern Ireland from the United Kingdom. The two disparate events were celebrated, recalled and made into mythology for very different reasons. The Great Hunger was seen, within nationalist circles, as largely an avoidable food crisis that was exacerbated by British ineptitude and an attitude that saw the Irish as expendable subcitizens. The Revolution, on the other hand, was portrayed as a glorious event that finally liberated a harassed people, in the process making heroes and martyrs of men such as Michael Collins who, “in a span of six short years brought a country from bondage to a position where she could win her freedom.” D. Conlon & A. Barter, Great Irish Heroes (John Blake; London, 2003), p.20 Both events would likewise serve as the twin axis upon which revisionism was to flourish – the backlash against nationalism both from within and outside of Eire.
 

Extract from Posted French Literature Essay: Guibert's 1990 novel To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life must be understood, in the context of a fictionalized memoir which interrogates the status of truth in its very form. Just as Genet calls into question the modern notion that sexual desire bespeaks the truth of subjectivity, Guibert plays with the popular genre of the truth-revealing literary memoir. Predicated upon a notion of confessional authorial authenticity, the memoir becomes for Guibert a medium through which this authenticity is given lie. Hence, the confessed "truths" emanating from this book should never be trusted as such. Although a self-identified gay man, Guibert resists the truth-telling imperatives of out-politics. In both form and content, To the Friend expresses a desire not to tell its author's truth and a desire to be anonymous. The title itself-which is in fact not a title at all but rather an address-attests to this desire; it resists entitlement, deflects the compulsion to identify oneself and others, and displaces the proper name with a dedication. Indeed, this text skips the formalities of names and titles in favour of a vague dedication.

Abstract from posted Marketing Dissertation: The area of brand equity has received significant research attention in recent years. An emerging debate addressed whether brand equity should be considered from a consumer-oriented perspective or a market performance-oriented perspective. While current literature has focused on building and conceptualizing brand equity, there is no consensus on how it should be measured and what constructs should be included in the measurement process. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify and operationalize brand equity constructs in a way that allows researchers to empirically measure them, and effectively analyze the key factors associated with brand market performance. This study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by defining and operationalizing specific brand equity constructs, focusing on hybrid and non hybrid automobile markets in the UK.

This dissertation is composed of three phases. First a literature review is conducted in order to gain an understanding of the theoretical and empirical implication of the topic at hand. Second, an online consumer survey is conducted to measure Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) constructs and assess their impact on Behavioral Equity (BHE) constructs (Brand Preference, Intention to Purchase, and Behavioral Loyalty), in direct relation to hybrid and non hybrid car models. Third, the results of the survey are presented and discussed, thereby arriving at the study’s findings and implications.
 

Extract from posted French Literature Research:  Reception of Emile Zola’s Nana and the veritable tomes of published critical response to this particular literary work, both speak to the importance of Nana within the French literary landscape and testify to the divisive responses that this novel elicited, and continues to elicit, from among the ranks of its readership. Alternately hailed as a literary masterpiece and cheap pornography disguised as respectable literature, the choice of protagonist and her quasi-bestial, derogatory and de-humanizing characterization as the quintessential prostitute, cum courtesan, saturated in depravity, has lent to alternate interpretations and reactions. Nana is about Nana or Anna Coupeau. But who Nana is, remains shrouded in mystery throughout the novel, imposing ambiguity upon the character and ambivalence upon the reader. Is she Courtesan and Carnally Destructive Force, or is she a manifestation of a diseased nation and a symbol of a marginalized people in troubled times, driven to exploit the self as an instrument of destruction and revenge? It is only when we realize that Nana is more than a courtesan and so much more than the material personification of carnal destruction that we begin to understand the deeper implications of the courtesan representation, the complexities of the courtesan theme and our own ambivalence towards Nana.

Nana is portrayed as a near primordial sexual being, exuding a feminine odor which none who come into contact with her can resist (Bordeau). The sexual impact she has upon the men she encounters, whether as members of the theater audience/admirers or as lovers/clients, delineates the courtesan imagery and theme but simultaneously clarifies the implications of the elucidated theme and imagery. As Bordeau explains, from the very start of the novel, the courtesan theme and Nana’s overwhelming “sexe” are intertwined with the themes of domination, power, corruption and destruction (97-98).

Extract from posted Education Psychology Research Paper: The purpose of this research study is to explore the possibility of merging emotion-focused theory with functional assessment methodologies. This purpose is predicated on the assumption that the integration of the two would lead to a more informed assessment and therapeutic instrument. With that in mind, this study will be comprised of three main sections. Emotion-Focused theory and Functional Assessment will be discussed in the first two, and theory integration in the third.

Extract from posted Tourism HRM Dissertation: Macau is the only Chinese jurisdiction where legalised casino gaming is allowed. The tourism industry, especially gaming in Macau is growing at an astonishing speed. In 2005, visitor arrivals to Macau jumped 12 percent to 18.7 million because of the territory's ever expanding casino development and its cultural and historical attractions ("The Associated Press", 2006). According to Concepcion (2006), the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau reported that Macau's casino revenue in 2005 amounted to about US$5.84 billion, up 11.3% from 2004. Asia-Pacific Markets has forecasted that Macau's casino revenue will grow up to about US$7.22 billion in 2006. With about 1,000 table games, the revenue per table in Macau is nearly ten times of that in Las Vegas (Velotta, 2005). Taxes gained from Macau's gambling profit generate about 70% of government revenue (Central Intelligent Agency [CIA], 2006).

In 2002, Stanley Ho's gaming monopoly in Macau ended when the Macau government granted additional gaming licenses to two U.S. gaming companies, Wynn Resort, Inc and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (Gu 2004; Wong 2002; Yu, 2002). Totally, the three companies have committed over US$2.2 billion in investments to the territory. This will significantly boost the GDP growth in Macau (CIA, 2006). Macau's first U.S.-operated casino, the Sands Macau, opened in 2004 with great success. The 600-room Wynn Macau will open in the fall of 2006 and the US$1 billion MGM Grand Macau will follow in 2007 (Johnson, 2006). Las Vegas Sands Corp. is heavily focused on developing the Cotai Strip, which after being built will have 60,000 rooms, 6 million square feet of meeting and convention space, 6 million square feet of retail space and 2.5 million square feet of casino space (Las Vegas Sands, 2005). The Strip will be anchored by the Venetian Macau, set to open in 2007. Furthermore, Las Vegas Sands Corp. is planning to develop a non-gaming resort on Hengqin Island, which is only one mile away from Macau, with massive leisure and convention facilities.
 

Extract from posted French Literature Research:  Jean Genet and Herve Guibert occupy a unique place in French literature. In Journal du voleur and To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life both authors produce fictionalised memoirs which interrogate the very essence of truth and correlate love with suffering, rather than with joy. Genet and Guibert, both self-confessed homosexuals, reject traditional notions of normalcy, of love, of friendship and, significantly, of truth. They live within the parameters of their own interpretations of reality and as their memoirs are written from an unapologetically subjective perspective, readers are often left confused as to whether they are reading fiction or fact. They are, indeed, reading fact; fact as subjectively interpreted by either of the authors mentioned. Within the context of these facts, the relationship between love and suffering is immutable, albeit implicitly, rather than explicitly stated.

Extract from posted Critique: Within the context of an ever-increasingly competitive international business environment, it is imperative that organisations adopt new technologies and knowledge and adapt to globalisation’s challenges. Needless to say, doing so is hardly easy but it is not impossible either. To achieve the aforementioned and to be able to survive and thrive within globalised business environments, organisations should evolve into learning organisations, ones that continually respond and adapt to their external environment. Mets and Torokoff (2007) emphasise the imperatives of doing so in their research on learning organisations. The extent to which the authors successfully explain and argue the imperatives of evolution into learning organisations and the degree to which their research contributes, if at all, to the field, will be explored in the succeeding section. Following the said critique, the essay will expand the parameters of the present discussion to include a review of the relevant literature. The purpose of doing so is not simply to critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen article but to further investigate the implication of the learning organisation construct and the degree to which the embrace of its characteristics can contribute to organisational competitiveness within the international business environment.

Extract from posted Article Critique:  Culture matters and it is contingent upon international business managers and marketing strategists to understand the culture they are communicating with and, importantly, communicate with it on its terms. The failure to understand the degree to which culture actually does matter translates into loss of market shares and revenues. This was confirmed by marketers and managers surveyed in this study.

Extract from posted comparative Book Review:  Globalisation is the twenty-first century’s buzzword and the focal point of intense controversy. Economist, political scientists and sociologists, not to mention journalists are active participants in this debate, with one side contending that globalisation will herald a new age of increased global prosperity and democracy whereas the other side insists that globalisation will, indubitably, expand the divide between North and South and compound the problems of inequality and poverty. Given the controversial and contemporaneous nature of the phenomenon, it is hardly surprising that countless books and articles have been published on globalisation. Of these, two shall be analysed and critiqued for the purpose of identifying each of the author’s positions on globalisation and the state, on the one hand, and the effect of globalisation on international relations, on the other. These two books are Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, and Tarek Barkawi’s Globalisation and War.

Extract from posted Dissertation Proposal:  Retention practices fall under the umbrella of organisational human resources functions, and play a pivotal role in organisational development and success. Due to its complex nature, organisational behaviour and development has received significant academic attention (e.g., Kouzes & Posner, 2002; O'Toole, 1995; Yukl, 2002). Davis and Weckler (1996) defined an organisation as "any collection of people or activities formed for a specific purpose" (p. 147), where each individual affects the collective success. The importance of retention stems from this last: the potential of an individual employee to constructively contribute to collective success. This means that retention is integral to an organisation’s success insofar as it refers to the ability of a corporate entity to generate employee commitment and loyalty and, in so doing, retain its employees and avoid the financial burden incurred by high turnover rates. Indeed, anytime an individual resigns or is terminated, the organisation needs to address the staffing reality quickly. When a resignation or termination occurs, organizations must stretch in their capacity to carry out daily operations until a new employee is recruited and trained. This stretch naturally creates a strain on front-line employees as well as on team leaders who need to dedicate time and energy to recruitment, orientation, and training. The said resignation or termination also represents the loss of the time, energy and financial resources which entered into the training of each individual employee. Accordingly, it is hardly surprising that HR and organizational behaviour scholars devote so much research effort to the identification, analysis and discussion of retention strategies.

Acknowledging the importance of retention, this research proposes to examine innovative and proactive retention practices that businesses can implement to attract and retain a strong organizational workforce. With increasing labour shortages across industries in the United Kingdom, the tight labour pool is creating competition between organizations for skilled workers (Greenberg, 2006). The information gained from this study will constructively inform the recommendation of strategies which organizations may incorporate into their current human resource practices for the avoidance of turnover and the assurance of employee retention.

In order to satisfy the aim of the proposed research, it is imperative that the study be guided by a set of specific research questions, all of which will contribute towards an in-depth understanding of the complexities of the employee retention issue. The first of these questions is: What are the more successful of the retention practices and to what extent is their presence/absence in an organisation influenced by leadership styles and strategies?
 

Extract from posted Literature Review Chapter: Over the years, finding a conclusive definition of leadership has been the quest of many a scholar. However, none have been able to conclusively pin down a universal definition of the term. In fact, Leithwood and Jantzi (2000b) assert that “the meaning of leadership remains murky, and its present status is highly dependent on a set of possibly fleeting, modern, Western values” (p. 425). Marzano (2003) also wrote, “so many [leadership] characteristics have been identified that a comprehensive list is unwieldy” (p.173). In addition, “many people hope that leadership will put us on a more promising path. But what kind of leadership? Here consensus evaporates” (Bolman and Deal,1995, p. 5). As a result, leadership is difficult to clearly identify because “it does not exist in a vacuum” (Fiedler, 1967, p. 11). Yukl (1989) even argued that leadership is simply a word used by individuals to explain experiences, instead of a truly independent and authentic phenomenon. As a result, “decades of academic analysis have given us more than 350 definitions of leadership”(Buffie, 2000, p. 79). Perhaps defining leadership is an ambiguous endeavor because it is such a vital part of human survival (Bolman & Deal). The very nature of the role has the propensity to reduce fears and instil confidence (Bolman & Deal). Therefore, leaders give people guidance and confidence by communicating what they should feel, believe, and what they should do next (Bolman & Deal, 1991).

Extract from posted Research Paper: Software application development companies may be benefiting from outsourcing the development of parts of, or steps within, their applications but they are often confronted with outsourcing management problems. As the network administrator for one such company, I’ve discovered that the advantages are quite nearly balanced out by the disadvantages. On the one hand, when the outsourcing relationship is efficiently managed, the company benefits from lower cost and faster completion and testing periods per application. On the other hand, the slightest breakdown in the outsourcing chain disrupts the entire application development process, translating into higher costs and longer completion and testing periods per application. This being the most common, as well as the most serious problem confronting my organization, the company’s leadership sent out a memo to all managers, requesting that they present their proposals for a solution. As outlined in the memo, all potential solutions, barring the termination of software development outsourcing relationships, will be considered as long as they were practical. As the network administrator, I, too, was required to submit my proposal for a solution. Falling back on both my academic and professional training, I realized that any solution, if it were to fulfil the criteria for effectiveness and lend to the efficient resolution of the defined problem, had to emerge from within the context of an accurate understanding of the parameters of the problem, scientific management theory regarding strategic problem resolution and, importantly, experiential learning.

Abstract from posted Research Paper:  While not disputing the advantages of the traditional teacher-centric, lecture-based teaching approach, it needs to be complemented with other teaching and learning strategies. Lectures provide student with an explanatory overview of a subject but hardly give them the opportunity to engage with it and, as such, attain anything more than a surface understanding of the issue(s). Therefore, concomitant with lectures, it is incumbent upon teachers to utilize other teaching approaches.

The teaching approach which a lecturer/professor selects should be informed by the subject in question. As the focus of this paper was on the health science, the teaching approach selected is the problem-based approach. As argued, this approach is particularly suited to the health sciences since it teaches through real-world examples and effectively forces students to engage with, and delve deep into, the subject.
 

Abstract from posted Research Paper:  As indicated throughout this research, in-service training is not only integral to teachers’ professional development but has the potential to invaluably contribute to more effective teaching and, hence, learning. Through a review of four teaching situations which give rise to particular problems and learning/teaching obstacles, the research outlines the ways and means by which in-service training provides teachers/trainees with the tools and strategies required to confront and resolve these situations and, hence, overcome the associate learning/teaching obstacles. The context of all four situations is a health science undergraduate class and, with the exception of one, large-group lectures. The situations themselves are the problematic of large-group classroom management, small group diversity, large group diversity and effective large group teaching/learning. Following a description of each of the situations and an articulation of the problem in question, the extent to which in-service training contributes to the resolution of the identified problem and, thus, to more effective teaching is clarified.

Extract from posted Research Paper: Internationalization of higher education is a prevalent theme within the academy, for myriad reasons. The 21st century is fraught with conflict among nations, global competition, mounting social problems, and natural disasters that have devastated countries and regions. Global and cross-cultural awareness and understanding are crucial to effective leadership, economic prosperity, competitiveness, and the ability to mediate conflict and solve growing global problems. As technology has opened borders, the academy has been challenged to prepare students to think, work, and solve problems with a global and intercultural perspective. Educational and professional exchange is a powerful tool in opening minds to address the global challenges of the 21st century.

Internationalization of higher education is especially relevant to Australian academia. Not only is Australia a multicultural and multiethnic society which continues to attract immigrants but it is a bridge between cultures, the mediator between the Asian and the Western mindsets. Together with the global challenges imposed upon nations through the internationalization of the global political economy, the aforementioned highlights the imperatives of academia’s responding to internationalization through the adoption of curricular frameworks which mediate between the national and the local, on the one hand, and whose content is relevant to both the national and the international contexts.

Operating from within the parameters of the above explicated concerns, this essay will reflect upon the general milieu and the specific institutional context within which the family health sciences curriculum is located.
 

Abstract from posted Research Paper: A variety of emergent issues are increasingly posing as priority concerns for higher educational institutions in many parts of the world. Amongst these issues are globalization, diversity, technology and budgetary constraints. Looking at these issues from within the parameters of health science education in Australia, the report finds that each and every one of these issues has serious curricular implication. Globalization entails the internationalization of higher education, in general, and the health science curriculum in particular. It necessitates the redesign of the health science curriculum in order to promote the development of health science professionals and practitioners who have a global perspective and consciousness, thereby enabling them to function as global leaders and healthcare providers. Diversity, a remarkable feature of Australian society and incontrovertibly so of its classrooms, is of particular relevance to the health science educator and student. Insofar as the educator is concerned, an understanding and tolerance of diversity are integral to his/her ability to effectively teach and manage a large group classroom; as far as the student is concerned, understanding and appreciating diversity are important because, as professionals, they will have to interact and engage with a diverse population. A third issue of extreme importance is the integration of technology into the health science curriculum. Apart from the fact that it will contribute to the evolution of a more effective and efficient learning/teaching paradigm, encourage professional development, incite collaborative learning and motivate continued learning, amongst others. However, as the last identified issue argues, budgetary constraints function as a serious obstacle to the capacity and ability of the defined curriculum to respond to and accommodate these issues.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  The concept of profession is the focal point of intense debate on the future of work and the workplace. Prior to the eruption of this debate and the associate reconceptualisation of the term, the definition of professions was quite straightforward and uncomplicated. Referring to autonomous, ethics-bound types of knowledge-based work, the concept of profession was inextricably and almost exclusively linked to certain types of work, such as medicine and law. None of the stated holds true any more:

In recent decades, professions and professionals have faced unprecedented challenges: to their autonomy, to the validity of any ethical view of their calling, to their relatively privileged status and economic position, and to the legitimacy of their claims to expertise based on exclusive possession of specialised knowledge (Beck and Young, 2005, p. 183).

The said challenges have been primarily motivated by the drive towards professionalization and have, to a large degree, been aided by the disappearance of craft and low skill manual jobs.

Proceeding from the above, this research will analyse the trend towards, and proliferation of, professionalization and professionalism, focusing on the changes which have been wrought in the expansion-service and knowledge-based work. The first part of the research will be devoted to a definition of professionalism, for the purposes of contextualising the discussion and, the second part of the study to an analytical discussion of the following research question: how have service and knowledge-based work changed and expanded and how do these changes relate to the professionalization of the workplace.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  Lifelong learning is a concept and phenomenon which has recently captured a tremendous amount of attention, largely because sociological, technological and economic changes have made it an imperative. On the technological front, the advances of the past decade necessitate the learning of new skills, on the one hand, and the optimal strategy for integrating technology into one’s work. On the economic front, globalisation has intensified market competition in unprecedented ways, making it imperative that employees and those seeking jobs have a competitive advantage over their competitors, just as it means that national economies must spur lifelong learning if they are to become, or remain, competitive; as regards the sociological front, greater social diversity and changing demographics, as in increasingly older and more ethnically and racially diverse populations, has determined the imperatives of lifelong learning as a strategy for older adults to acquire the knowledge deemed requisite for working and competing within the said environment. In other words, the importance of lifelong learning emanates from both the aforementioned changes and the mercurial, ever-changing, nature of global and national economies.

There is no doubt that lifelong learning, due to the reasons mentioned in the preceding, is a critical imperative. The question is whether this means that the development of a curriculum for lifelong learning is necessary. As this research will argue, traditional curricular models cannot be applied to lifelong learning as these only embrace formal learning which usually unfolds within a classroom setting. In direct comparison, lifelong learning embraces all of formal and informal types of learning and may be defined as a continuous process of learning, autonomous and directed, formal and informal, theoretical and practical.

Following a review of the implications of lifelong learning and a clarification of the meaning and structure of curriculum, this research will argue that while lifelong learning does not need a curriculum, it does need a model.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper: The HR function is playing an increasingly important role in today's highly complex organisations. The demands that are being placed on the HR function are undergoing change, with increased emphasis on the strategic management of human capital. It is becoming increasingly evident that even more will be asked of HR in the future. This requires the identification of key competencies needed by HR professionals with a specific focus on those competencies most important in enhancing individual and organisational success. Whether or not HR can enhance individual and organisational success is ultimately predicated on the extent to which line managers are willing to cooperate with HR strategists and implement their proposals. While conceding to the possibility of tensions arising between HR strategists and line mangers as a consequence of the latter’s perceptions of the former’s interfering with their authority and their preferred approach to the execution of their responsibilities, it is arguable that line managers would cooperate with HR strategists were the latter to exhibit an understanding of core management functions, utilise management development models and work towards the establishment of a strategic partnership with line managers.

Extract from posted Research Paper: Edgar Allan Poe offers us the first instance, in American literature, of a fully-articulated gothic fiction and poetry—complete with a poetic theory that both supports and obscures its own foundations— and one that takes the dynamics of intimacy and self-revelation as an implicit starting-point. In his poems and short stories, readers are confronted with perverse revelation, mesmerism, and uncanny encounter and self-encounter. Readers are led into a realm of the fantastical, bordering on the supernatural and quintessentially Gothic. In presenting this type of literature, Poe challenges and provokes the social optimism, political idealism, and metaphysical certainties of his contemporaries. He offers, instead, a vision of the American self that is neither “self-reliant” nor fully convinced of the possibility or desirability of an unambiguous, democratically-conceived “brotherhood of men” that effectively elides the distinctions and conflicts that lie under the surface of the ideal. The “possibility” that he imagines is, rather, closer to Leslie Fiedler’s lost-yet-defiant Faustian author, than to the visionary “Poet” of Emerson, or the autobiographical Everyman of Walt Whitman.

Extract from posted Chapters:  At the time of its construction, the London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Since its opening by Tony Blair on the 31st December, 1999, however, the Star of Nanchung and the Singapore Flyer have pushed it aside as the second and first, respectively, tallest Ferris wheels in the world. Despite the aforementioned, the London Eye’s status as the more popular of the world’s Ferris, or observation wheels, remains uncontested. Comprised of 32 Eye Pods, or capsules, each of which carries 25 people, the London Eye attracts an average of 3 million visitors, most of which are international tourists, per year. The Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Sir Richard Rogers (2007: 32), wrote the following of the London Eye:

“The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just the specialists or rich people, but everybody. That’s the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London.”

The London Eye is a symbol of twenty-first century London and as such is, indeed, a commanding presence in the city and a formidable tourist attraction. Despite the stated, one cannot ignore that the landmark operates in a highly competitive industry – the global tourism industry. Accordingly, this study proposes to question how, if at all, tourism promotion strategies and destination marketing, can contribute to the generation of increased flows of international tourism to the London Eye. In order to respond to this question, the dissertation will undertake a critical study and review of tourism and destination marketing and management literature.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  While there is hardly an industry which is not vulnerable to both micro and macro-economic trends, the airline/aerospace industry is especially so. It is an industry which is fundamentally founded upon the presumption of security, financial stability and the proliferation of international/cross-border business relations. As the aforementioned comes across as a sweeping generalization or, at the very least, an unfounded claim, it shall be discussed in greater detail in the body of the report. For the present, however, it is sufficient to emphasis the existence of a strong, even immutable, interrelationship between the airline industry and its external environment, with the implication here being that the management of that environment is, as can only occur through a thorough understand of its current characteristics and future trends, is an integral predicator of the said industry’s capacity to survive, let alone flourish.

The aerospace industry is affected by a wide array of micro-economic factors, not least of which are demographic trends. Proceeding from the stated, therefore, an understanding of future trends is essential to the formulation of such long-term strategic plans as would allow for the industry, and firms within, to both survive and, possibly, maintain and expand their existing market shares. Following a clarification of the interrelationship between micro-environmental factors and sectoral performance, on the one hand, and an explanation of the linkage between demographic factors and the performance of the aerospace industry, on the other, the research will analyse demographic trend predictions for developed countries for the next twenty-five years for the identification of possible issues which the company has to contend with, alongside a recommended strategy for managing the said shifts.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  In an era of unprecedented economic opportunities and challenges, marketing strategies and tools have assumed unique importance. Globalisation, effectively blurring the distinctions between the national and the international, has facilitated the movement of companies and services across national borders and has allowed popular Western and American chains, amongst which one may mention McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and Starbucks to expand from the locus of the national to the international. 

Globalisation, however, has not universalised cultures or external environments, with the implication being that a company cannot utilise previously successfully marketing strategies in its new environment. Instead it must adapt itself to the new environment of operation. While the aforementioned may strike one as self-evident and, therefore, hardly worth repetition, it is often overlooked by the most successful of companies, with prime examples being Wal-Mart and Virgin.

Starbucks, popularly regarded as one of the world’s most successful beverage chains, has confronted numerous difficulties in its overseas expansions. Amongst the more formidable of the problems it has confronted is consumer resistance. With respect to the stated, marketing plays a fundamental role, whether as the problem creator or the problem solver.
 

Extract from posted Research Proposal:  Over a decade ago, Maguire (1994), a professor of criminology and editor of the British Journal of Criminology, presented an analysis of the British justice system which argued that the existence of structural flaws directly contributed to the ever-escalating UK crime rate, and especially as pertains to reoffending. The division between prison and probation services and the lack of effective and efficient communication and cooperation between them, culminated in offender mis-management, as opposed to effective management, whereby, upon their re-entry into society, a significant percentage of offender reverted to crime. As such, Maguire (1994) established a direct link between efficient offender management, defined as effective cooperation between prison and probation services, and reduction of crime rate.

Within the context of a relatively fragmented justice system and divisive offender management programmes, reoffending is defined as symptomatic of the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the operative offender management programme across much of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (Maguire, 1994; Farrall, 2002; Hedderman, 1998; Pratt, 2002). In an effort to address the resultant shortcomings of a fragmented justice system, the Home Office proposed a merger between prison and probation services, leading to the creation of a unified offender management body, referred to as the National Offender Management Service (Valios, 2004).

Advocates of the reformation of the justice system contend that the reduction in crime rates can only be attained through the establishment of a systemic framework for joint operation between the prison, probation and police services (Brookman and Maguire, 2003). Were these three offender management bodies to enter into an alliance and to work as one, the resultant facilitation in information flows would allow for the targeted and strategic intervention deemed integral to that level of offender management as would proactively respond to crime and reduce crime rates across the country (Brookman and Maguire, 2003).

Despite the above articulated argument in favour of justice system reformation towards alliance, stakeholder reception of the National Offender Management Service (Noms) was mixed, to say the least. While some perceived of it as a constructive step toward the reduction of reoffending rates and a positive contribution towards the greater national aim of crime reduction, others critiqued it as a misinformed strategy which would confuse the boundaries between `prison’ and `community.’ Such confusion, as critics maintain, will have dire societal consequences insofar as it is predicated on the assumption that inmate and out-mate offender management subscribe to the same concern, principles, aims and, thus, paradigms (Valios, 2004; Palmer, 2003; Peters, LeVasseur and Chandler, 2004).

Proceeding from the background and controversy outlined in the above, the research shall focus on the aims of the proposed justice system reform, critically analysing Noms from the perspective of best practices managerial theories.

The rationale for selection did not simply emanate from the contemporaneous nature of the issue, or solely from its societal value but because the researcher has been professionally involved in both prison and probation services for a number of years and is, consequently, in a position to analyse Noms and argue the exigencies of its implementation on the basis of experiential evidence. Apart from the experiential knowledge and both subjective and professional interest in the issue, the topic was further selected consequent to the fact that the researcher’s professional background places him in a position whereby he can collect primary data, conduct the requisite surveys and administer the necessary questionnaires with comparative ease. In other words, the researcher’s professional background and awareness of the fact that community safety and societal interests are best served through the articulation and implementation of an effective and efficient offender management programme, predetermined topic selection.
 

Abstract from posted Research Paper:  Learning organizations are those who look to the future; organizations which are constantly in touch with their market and one step ahead of their competition. Sega Corporation, unfortunately, is not a learning organization and, as such, has adhered to strategies which may have been successful in the past but which are no longer so. As Sega’s OD advisor, I have prepared a report which outlines the roots of its failures and argues the efficacy of its adopting a learning organizational model. The literature reviewed underscores the benefits of doing so and precisely articulates what is involved in doing so. Should Sega implement these recommendations, its business performance, as measured through both financial and non-financial indicators will experience discernible improvement.

Extract from posted Extended Essay:  World War I proved to be a monumental medical challenge for every European nation. A war of attrition, fought in filthy conditions, with dangerous weapons required a fully mobilized medical battery. Keeping soldiers fit and able to serve was a paramount concern for all of the belligerent nations. Throughout the Great War, the British government had to contend with two medical considerations for an adequate supply of manpower to the army. The first was the need to screen the medical fitness of volunteer and conscripted men for military service, and the second was to balance the army's need for doctors with the health needs of the civilian population back home. It is within the context of the stated that medicine medicalized the war and the war militarized medicine.

Proceeding from the premise that WWI witnessed the development of medicalized war and militarized medicine in Britain, this research will establish the validity of the stated through a critical analysis of the meaning of militarized medicine, ultimately leading to a more focused analysis of a single specialisation – shell shock.
 

Extract from posted Extended Essay:  There are a set of guidelines for the performance of psychological research, most of which are intimately concerned with the ethics of the process. Upon selection of a topic and the subsequent determination of the research questions and hypotheses, it is contingent upon the researcher to define his/her research methodology and design. This means that the researcher must clearly specify the strategy s/he will pursue in both the data collection and analysis stages and, in general terms, how the research itself will be carried out. While researchers have a wide array of data collection, data analysis and research design and method tools to select from, ethics guidelines are consistent and not open to selection. When engaging in psychological research, Australian psychologists cannot pick and chose the ethics codes and regulations they will adhere to. In order to obtain the required ethics approval, they must abide by the entirety of the Australian Psychology Society’s (APS) Code of Ethics (2007).

Extract from posted Essay: The facts of the case are incontrovertible: Bill is a serial sexual offender and paedophile. Rehabilitation, while potentially possible, is contingent upon an accurate and precise identification of the source of his deviancy. As indicated in the case study, Bill’s deviancy is traceable to his own sexual abuse as a child by a trusted family member and, significantly, non-disclosure of the occurrence, leading both to his repeated abuse and subsequent lack of psychological treatment. Psychological theory holds that childhood sexual trauma, such as which Bill suffered, incites attachment problems and that this, in turn, leads to the victim’s eventually evolving into a victimiser, a sexual offender. As shall be argued with reference to the relevant literature and theories, this appears to be the case with Bill and the development of any treatment programme needs to emerge from within the matrix of this understanding.

Extract from posted Research Proposal:  Since 2000, several European Unions have undertaken a thorough examination of their mental health care system, evaluating the efficiency of the delivery paradigm, its accessibility to society and whether or not supply equally meets the demands of the variant groups within the society. With few exception, the studies demonstrated a clear differential between the accessibility of mental health care services to majority versus minority communities in addition to which, further investigations revealed that the mental health care system was inherently structured towards the confrontation and resolution of the problems particular to the majority community while rarely, if at all, those prevalent among minority ethnic groups (Ager et al., 2002; Campbell et al., 2006; Healy and McKee, 2004; Verhaak, 2004; Noredam, Mygind and Krasnik, 2005). In other words, the mental health care system within EU states is not designed to address the problems which may confront minority ethnic groups, on the one hand, and does not meet the demand of these groups for short-term and emergency mental health treatment, on the other (Verhaak, 2004; Noredam, Mygind and Krasnik, 2005; Rai-Atkins, et al., 2002).

Britain is not an exception. According to the UK-based charity organisation, National Association for Mental Health, more popularly known as Mind, the country’s African Caribbean community is largely deprived of the mental health care they need. Statistics indicate that the African Caribbean community is overrepresented in mental health care facilities, with there being an overwhelming tendency to diagnose members thereof as suffering from schizophrenia, depression or any of the numerous other mental health problem as require long-term treatment (Reid-Galloway, 2002). The implication here is not that bias among mental health care professionals leads to misdiagnosis but that the mental health care system is simply not, at present, equipped to respond to the immediate problems confronting members of this community and offer them the care they need prior to the compounding and escalation of the problem (Reid-Galloway, 2002; Tucker, 2002; Seedhouse, 2002; Rai-Atkins et al., 2002). As Reid-Galloway (2002) and Rai-Atkins et al. (2002) explain, members of this minority group confront a wide range of societal and occupational stress, whether as a consequence of racism or cultural alienation and subsequent social exclusion, which places them at high risk of mental health problems. The fact is, however, they are not receiving the requisite mental health care with the consequence being the escalation of the mental health problem, with the outcome being the earlier referenced over-representation in mental health care facilities (Reid-Galloway, 2002).
 

Extract from posted Research Proposal:  The study proposes to explore the relationship between business-level strategy and corporate-level strategy. Specifically, it examines how competitive strategy and operational effectiveness influence merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and performance. It argues that the resources and capabilities developed by firms to support business-level competition can also be utilised in making acquisitions, essentially allowing the acquirer to exploit its existing competitive advantages by expanding into new product or geographic markets. An acquirer can also use acquisitions to improve its existing resources and capabilities, allowing it to improve its existing competitiveness by acquiring essential resources and capabilities from a target (Harrison, Hitt et al. 1991; Capron, Dussauge et al. 1998). The proposed study’s topic derives from these concerns. Specifically, it will explore the effect of mergers and acquisitions on acquirers from a strategic management perspective.

Extract from posted Literature Review Chapter:  As individuals can retain a message in memory for long periods of time, commercials have a powerful impact. Alperstein (1990) found that subjects often recalled commercial content for two to three years, and in some instances, for as long as 20 years. According to Stewart and Punj (1998), music can enhance the recall of an advertisement or a brand. Previous studies show that a catchy melody aids retention of information (Wallace, 1991, 1994). Brand information that is conveyed with the help of music is quite memorable. Recall improves because the song enriches the encoding of information and helps guide in retrieval of that information. A popular song is a powerful strategy for enhancing consumer memory of the brand message.
In addition, if the viewer engages in cognitive processing of the advertisement, music is more likely to produce attitudes that persist over time and influence purchase behavior (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). This study looks at research on music's affect on advertising's persuasiveness. Brand personality is also examined, as well as theoretical approaches to attitude change.
 

Extract from posted Linguistics research:  Purists, the guardians of language, are up in arms. Neologists, they claim, have waged an all-out war against language. Not only are they constantly inventing new words and forcing them upon a vulnerable public through a complicit media but are engaging in the deliberate and premeditated deconstruction of language. Language has always had to contend with neologisms but, never with the active deconstruction of the foundations of spoken and written language, the rules of spelling and grammar. Language, from the purist viewpoint, is close to becoming endangered. No language, as the French purists claim, is as threatened by nonsensical neologisms as is the French. Formerly the language of high culture, the French language has been unjustifiably and violently reduced to meaningless neologisms. In support of their rather emotive arguments, purists cite passages from a current bestseller among French teenagers. Written entirely in neologisms, the book is replete with sentences such as this one: "6 j t'aspRge d'O 2 kologne histoar 2 partaG le odeurs ke tu me fe subir?" (what if I were to spray you with cologne so I can make you suffer with the smells you make me suffer from). If this is what language has been reduced to, the purists contend, spoken and write language are in crisis.

Neologists have largely dismissed the purists’ critique as the “hyper-ravings of ultra-conservatives.” Were it up to the purists, they claim, populations would be speaking in Biblical tongues and language’s failure to evolve, expressive of its unremitting stance against the very phenomenon of evolution, would have functioned as an obstacle towards scientific and technological progress. The development of language, often spurred by the neological imaginations, or “hallucinations” as purists would prefer to call it, has long functioned as the primary motivator of technological development and scientific invention. Neologists’ capacity to imagine and name concepts and phenomenon before their actual materialisation has immeasurably contributed to technological evolution.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  The organizational assimilation of newcomers is, quite often, a source of concern and anxiety. Newcomers, even those who are confident in their professional abilities, must acclimatize themselves to the organization’s culture, become familiar with, and adept at, the organization’s business processes and approaches and, importantly, acquire a comprehensive understanding of their job and get to know their co-workers/peers. Organizational assimilation is, therefore, a complex and anxiety-producing process.

Successful assimilation is ultimately contingent upon learning and communication. While the greater majority of newcomers bring their prior, both experiential and academic, learning into the organization with them, they must learn about the organization itself. All organizations have their own unique set of experiences and knowledge, both of which inform the nuances of the job, work attitudes, business processes, organizational culture and intra-organizational relations. Successful assimilation is predicated on learning all of the aforementioned, on immersion into the organization’s knowledge and experience and on the embrace and acceptance of the organization’s culture. Newcomer assimilation is, therefore, predicated on organizational and on-the-job learning.

Within the matrix of organizational assimilation, communication emerges as the primary facilitator of learning and the optimal means for reducing newcomer anxiety. Effective communication reduces newcomer anxiety because, in the intra-organizational setting, it is the means by which newcomers acquire organization-specific knowledge and become familiar with the organization and its members. The more knowledgeable newcomers become, the less anxious and they more confident and productive they are. It is within the context of the stated that newcomer assimilation and the role of communication therein acquire importance.

As may have been deduced from the foregoing, this study is concerned with the newcomer organizational assimilation process and the organizational learning upon which it is contingent. Several communication channels will be examined as assimilation facilitators and learning enablers but, particular attention will be devoted to the unique benefits and advantages of advanced information and communication technologies to newcomer assimilation.
 

Extract from Education Management Research Paper:  Online education has annihilated the spatial barriers which previously constrained the ability of many to access quality higher education. Online degree programmes, currently offered at all of the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels, have, to an extent, functioned as an educational opportunities’ equaliser. As may be inferred from Phipps and Merisotis’ (1999) argument, online education is an opportunities’ equaliser to the extent that it offers prospective learners from the four corners of the globe the chance to study in and graduate from reputable universities of their choice, eliminating time and space constraints and challenges because it takes the educational environment to the learner and allows the former to design his/her educational programme around his/her time.

Online education has the potential to be an education opportunities’ equaliser but, in practical terms, it has not realised that potential yet. This statement is borne out by Gilbert’s (2001) contention that available statistics indicate that the non-completion, drop-out and inactivity rates for online graduate learners is almost double that of traditional learners. In specific reference to Athabasca University (AU) , Crawford (2000) cites high non-completion and inactivity rates , noting that from 1994 to 2000, 85 of the 423 enrolled students have withdrawn from online programmes for various reasons. The implication here is clear, online learning has not reached its full potential.

Following from the premise that online learning has not attained its potential, as evidenced in high withdrawal and non-completion rates, this research shall present a proposal for the establishment of a student support system as would positively contribute to higher student retention rates. Pending the contextualisation of the online learning environment to which this proposal is directed and a clarification of online delivery modes and models, the research will propose a tutoring and student support strategy whose primary objective is the reduction of inactivity and non completion rates, thereby contributing to e-learning’s eventual realisation of its potential to function as an educational opportunities’ equaliser.
 

Extract from posted Public Policy Essay:  Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould first proposed the concept of punctuated equilibrium (PE) to explain the evolutionary speciation patterns of organisms observed in the fossil record. In their original work, Eldredge and Gould (1972) described the process of speciation as rapid, episodic, and best represented by a PE process instead of a gradual process (p. 84). In evolutionary paleontology, the PE process works over a long period of time according to the following principles. First, any population of organisms has slight genetic variations within its individual members. Second, environmental changes isolate a small group of organisms within that population. Third, these new environmental conditions favor the further development of genetic variations within the isolated group. Over a short amount of time, which can last thousands of years in evolutionary paleontology terms, the descendants of the isolated group become a new species morphologically different from the original population (Eldredge & Gould, 1972, p. 94-95; Gould 2002, p. 766-768). As a result, organisms rarely show any gradual evolutionary change throughout their phylogeny. Instead, new species appear quite suddenly in the fossil record.

Working from the theoretical insights of Eldredge and Gould, Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones used PE to explain their observations on public policy. Baumgartner and Jones (1 993) found that for long periods of observations on different policy subsystems, policy change rarely occurred (p. 17- 18). However, on rare occasions certain policy conditions fluctuated such as the venue for a policy debate or the public's image of a specific policy problem. Fluctuations in venue and image often led to a quick policy change that was immediately followed by additional long periods of policy stasis (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993, p. 38). As a result, Baumgartner and Jones concluded that the evolution of any public policy followed a PE pattern rather than a gradual, incremental pattern.
 

Extract from posted Public Policy Essay:  Political systems theory discusses the way political systems respond to external forces and demands that arise from its environment. These demands can be public opinion or interest group pressure seeking to further their interests and values. These demands from outside the environment are considered inputs (Easton, 1965), and the "political systems response to demands in the process of policy making produces outputs (decisions, law, policies) that overtime may create changes (policy outcomes) in the situations that prompted the demands and support in the first place." (Kraft and Furlong, 2004, p. 77). Although systems theory is helpful in understanding public theory, Anderson 91984) suggests that it is limited because it does not show "how decisions are made and policy developed within the "black box" called the political system.'' (p. 15).

In the institutional approach to public policy, it is understood that political and government institutions such as legislatures, executive, courts and political parties, determine and structure policy decisions and outcomes (John, 1998). Researchers studying policy utilizing the institutional approach suggest that structures and rules are critical elements in the kind of policy process that occurs and the policy actors that are likely to be influential. The institutional approach model has also been used to concentrate on the behavior of participants in the political process by studying how these different entities and individuals perform in the policy making process and how rules, norms and strategies are utilized by individuals in certain organizations and agencies.
 

Abstract from posted Research Paper:  Learning organization concept is a widespread philosophy that has become popular in modern companies both multinationals and the smallest ventures. Though it is not known how long the concept will remain fashionable, any organization that will survive in the global marketplace must continuously change and adapt with time. What the concept achieves depends considerably on ones commitment to it and interpretation of it. For an organization to implement a learning organization idea, it requires a strategy, which is clear with well-defined goals. In the process of producing an action plan to transform groups into learning organizations, it might seem impossible since everyone has their own interpretation. This paper will discuss the implementation plan that should be adapted and implemented by the CEO of Dell company who want to turn his company into a learning organization as proposed by a management consultant.

Extract from posted Article Critique:  From the inception of nursing practice, simple and complex technologies have played a fundamental role ion caring for the sick. From the poultices of the 1900’s to the intravenous balloon pumps of the 1970s, nurses have incorporated technology as an integral part of nursing care. As Sandelowski (1996) points out, however, although the nursing profession has relied on technology and incorporated technological advances into its practice since inception, very little has been written about the impact of these technologies on nursing practitioners.

In direct relation to the research gap outline in the above introductory paragraph, Sawyer and Penman (2007) address the impact of computer use on nursing practitioners. More specifically, they address the physical consequences of usage and whether or not nurses receive the required ergonomics training and implement it in their practice. This study will critique offer a comprehensive critique of Sawey and Penman’s (2007) article.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  The United States has the dubious honor of holding the highest criminal penal population in the world, the highest crime rate in the world and the highest reoffending rate in the world. Figures for 2001 indicated that 6.6 million Americans were either incarcerated or on probation. Estimated in per capita, or percent of the population terms as opposed to mean figures, the United States’ penal and probationary figures are five times as high as those for the United Kingdom, six times as high as China, and fourteen times as high as Japan (Heide et al., 2001). Re-offending or recidivism figures for the United States, as published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, emphasizes the magnitude of the crime problem confronting the United States. As reported by Douthat and Marshall (2005), figures from 1994 to 2003 indicate that recidivism rates are consistently above 50% and, often exceed the 60% mark. Recidivism figures further indicate that reoffending occurs within the first year of release and often within the first six months. Rather than reassess the current prison regime and identify the failures in the system, federal and state governments are simply building more prisons and pouring more money into the penal system. Offender management expenditure, embracing both probationary and prison services, is currently five times as high as the education budget and is likely to increase even more (Douthat and Marshall, 2005). It will increase simply because of the system’s inherent, and persistent, failure to fulfill one of its more important obligations towards both society and convicted offenders: to rehabilitate criminals and ensure their reintegration in society as constructive members therein.

Extract from posted Research proposal:  Mental health professionals in the Arab Middle East estimate that at least 60% of the population, age 14 and upwards, suffers mental health problems. Dr. Nasser Loza (2006), owner and director of the largest private mental health hospital in the region, Behman Hospital in Egypt, disagrees with this estimate. Loza (2006) insists that the figure is much higher. In Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, for example, both medical and mental health practitioners have estimated the figure at around three-quarters of the above 14 age group and have identified depression as the most prevalent condition (Loza, 2006).

Mental health problems, like the vast majority of physiological illnesses, are curable or, at least, controllable. Treatment or control of the problem, however, is primarily dependant upon the acknowledgement of its existence and the subsequent seeking of professional help. Within the Arab Middle East, as is the case with regions, countries and cultures across the world, there exists a persistent unwillingness to admit to the presence of a mental health problem or, at least, to acknowledge its existence to the point of seeking curative treatment. As Professor Loza (2006) explains, despite the fact that there are some very good mental health facilities and professionals in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, it is incredibly rare for a Saudi or a Kuwaiti national to seek treatment within his home country. The stigma associated with mental health problems makes it virtually impossible for many to tolerate the notion of the social isolation/exclusion that would inevitably result from the acknowledgement of such a problem. Accordingly, when the mental health problem reaches the point where it is debilitating and difficult to conceal, the sufferer’s family only agree to treatment if that treatment is received from outside the home country and anonymously. Needless to say, many cannot afford this treatment option and, so, the vast majority are either left untreated which, as bad as that is, is infinitely preferable to the widely popular practice of self-medication and treatment (Loza, 2006).

The stigmatisation of mental health is a formidable obstacle to treatment. Fearing stigmatisation, sufferers are reluctant to admit their condition and seek help. Family, friends, employees and society at large, plays an active role in helping to ensure that this reluctance is maintained and transformed into an outright refusal to admit to the problem and seek treatment. Needless to say, mental health professionals have repeatedly addressed this problem and have outlined strategies for the resolution of the stigma surrounding mental health complaints and conditions, believing that upon the elimination of stigmatisation, access to treatment will be facilitated. A World Health Organisation (2001) White Paper on the stigmatisation of mental health argues that the nursing profession, primarily mental health nurses, must play a more active role in the elimination of the stigma surrounding mental health problems. A critical analysis of the nursing intervention strategies outlined for the confrontation, and the removal of the stigma surrounding mental health illnesses indicates that several of the proposed intervention strategies can play a positive and constructive role in the reduction of the mentioned stigma but that its removal is a long-term process which requires much more than nursing intervention.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  While one may not immediately realise this, the fact is that European regionalisation, within the larger context of globalisation, has predetermined the increasing necessity of standardised professional practice. In response to these twin forces, the legal profession, especially the European, is investigating the means by which to standardise the ethical guidelines and best practice framework of the profession, just as industrial and manufacturing organisations and professional bodies are working towards the articulation of a framework for the establishment of minimally acceptable quality standards. The medical profession and the physiotherapeutic one therein, cannot ignore the changing regional and global environment and just as the aforementioned are doing, it too, must respond to the increasing fluidity of national boundaries through the establishment of standardised professional guidelines and best practice models. Currently, and in specific reference to the practice of physiotherapy within the European Union, lack of standardised guidelines for practice is evident. Through a contrastive analysis of the professional guidelines for physiotherapeutic practice in both Germany and the United Kingdom, the ethical and legal differentials shall be highlighted, with the argument centring on the necessity for standardisation as a strategy for the establishment, and subsequent maintenance, of a best practice framework for the profession. In other words, the exigencies of fortifying the lego-ethical base of the physiotherapy profession across the EU, and in immediate compliance with, and acknowledgement of, the operative human rights laws and guidelines, shall be clarified through a discursive analysis of the increasing import of the profession and existent guideline differentials as determined by curricular discrepancies and diverse professional supervisory regulations.

Extract from posted Dissertation:  Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death in the United Kingdom and, indeed, across much of the world. There is no known cure for COPD but a number of therapeutic and rehabilitative treatment programmes are employed for the purposes of relieving the symptoms and improving quality of life among COPD patients.

This study proceeded from the assumption the occupational therapy was best poised to improve quality of life among COPD patients. This assumption was investigated through a critical, and relatively extensive, review of the academic literature on the topic. As explained in Chapter Two, this study unfolds as a review of the literature on the topic and, in consideration of the fact that the validity and reliability of the studies selected for inclusion contributed to, or detracted from, the value of this present study, extreme caution was exercised vis-à-vis the selection of the literature. Only peer-reviewed studies which had been published in reputable journals or books which had been written by authorities in the field and published by leading publishing houses met the criteria for consideration of inclusion. The final inclusion decision was predicated on whether or not the authors had substantiated their findings, had clearly outlined their methodological approaches and explicated the sources of their data findings’ reliability and validity.

The literature reviewed covered several interrelated aspects of COPD. Morbidity rates, epistemology. Prevalence and characteristics of the disease were all thoroughly investigated for the purpose of clarifying the impact of COPD on quality of life. Following from that, several therapeutic and rehabilitative treatment programmes were investigated. The findings did not support the study’s initial assumption. While it was found that occupational therapy has the potential to significantly contribute to quality of life, it hardly did so more than did other therapeutic and rehabilitative programmes. Indeed, the results of the study indicated that no single programme could significantly improve quality of life among COPD patients. Instead, several programmes had to be pursued for the purposes of significantly elevating quality of life levels.
 

Extract from posted Dissertation:  'Smoothing' typically refers to two important features of pension accounting, shared by both SFAS 87 (the U.S. standard) and SSAP 24 (the old U.K. standard). First, pension assets and liabilities are not reported on the balance sheet at fair value. Rather, the recognized net pension asset or liability on the balance sheet is the cumulative historical difference between the periodic pension expense and cash contributions. Second, gains/losses on pension assets and liabilities, arising from changes in their fair value, are not reported in the income statement (or in comprehensive income) at their realized values. Rather, these gains/losses - referred to as actuarial gains/losses - are amortized through earnings over a long period, usually the estimated service life of employees.' It is important, at this juncture, to clarify that actuarial gains/losses have three components: those arising from the difference between the actual and the expected return on assets (primarily driven by equity and bond market volatility), those arising from the difference between actual experience and the assumptions used to calculate pension liabilities (e.g., employee turnover, pay increases, etc.), and those arising from changes in pension assumptions (e.g., a change in the discount rate). Smoothing thereby considerably reduces financial statement volatility. FRS 17 eliminates smoothing - pension assets and liabilities are reported in the balance sheet at fair value, while actuarial gains/losses are reported at their realized values in a separate comprehensive income statement. However, in the income statement, firms are still allowed to offset their pension cost using an expected return on their pension assets, an aspect of smoothing that remains controversial.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  The extent to which the implementation and exploitation of Human Resource (HR) strategies, tools and paradigms positively contribute to organisational productivity, is virtually undisputed. Of course, benefits can only be realised if the implemented practices are consistent with the organisational culture and if a fit between the HRM paradigm and the intra and extra-organisational environments has been attained. Assuming that both of the aforementioned conditions have been satisfied and returning to the initial contention (undisputed benefits), the question is how and why are these benefits realised?

The list of the benefits which organisations can accrue following the implementation of HR practices includes employee retention, lower absenteeism rates, higher levels of employee satisfaction and increased employee productivity and commitment, among others. The means by which to realise these benefits include employee training and development. Given the virtual impossibility of discussing all of the mentioned benefits in the allocated space and considering that each one deserves and demands attention, one area was selected for critical analysis: employee retention. Through reference to training and development, this paper will discuss four key areas of employee retention. These are retention and its significance, organisational retention best practices, leadership influence on retention and organisational culture and retention. The extent to which employee training and development practices relates to each one of these four areas and the role they play in the realisation of the benefits which employee retention promises, will be clearly articulated. Indeed, as this essay will argue and illustrate, effective and efficient people resourcing strategies may be defined as the foundations upon which profitable and productive organisations are built.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  Performance management can be defined generally as the process used in organisations to identify, measure, and develop employee performance (Campbell & Garfinkel 1996). In order to more accurately describe the process and not just the traditional annual employee performance review or evaluation, the term performance management is steadily replacing the term performance appraisal in the practitioner literature. This change in terminology appears to be happening at a slower rate in the research literature even though research on the topic of performance appraisal addresses issues beyond that which the term implies. Performance appraisal research, in fact, has encompassed a number of related topics including administrative and developmental purposes, process effectiveness, approaches to evaluating employee performance, rational and political perspectives, contextual considerations, and legal implications.

Organisations use performance management systems and processes for various reasons and in various ways, but the primary espoused goal is to enable organisational performance (Rheem, 1995). Organisational performance may include financial performance, productivity, product and service quality, customer satisfaction, and employee job satisfaction. A 1993 national survey (Rogers et al., 1993) and a follow-up survey in 1997 (Bemthal et al, 1997) of 80 companies found that the majority of responding organisations had a company sanctioned performance management process in place and planned to continue using it. While manager and employee satisfaction with the overall effectiveness of that process did improve between 1993 and 1997, the majority of managers and employees surveyed remained dissatisfied.

Most organisations use some semblance of a performance management process to increase organisational performance, but most of the people in those organisations, managers and employees alike, report that they do not think that process is entirely effective. Questions about why performance management processes are not effective and how they could be made more effective have generated a substantial body of empirical research and practitioner how-to books and articles. These questions will be investigated in this research
 

Extract from posted Public Policy Essay: CBA is a widely used tool for policy analysis. Advocates regard CBA as a means for increasing social welfare by opening the government process and subjecting information to public scrutiny. In particular, advocates stress that CBA technique encourages decision makers to use quantitative results and information. Given these advantages, CBA is paradigmatic of much contemporary policy analysis (Anderson, 1979, p. 719).

Critics have raised questions about the fundamental theoretical grounds and utilitarian assumptions of CBA - that the sum of individual utilities should be maximized and that it is possible to trade off utility gains for some against utility losses for others. For example, Greenberg and Weimer (1996, p. 2) challenge the notion that trade-offs between gainers and losers can be summed; in some cases, they argue, the mere existence of losers represents a zero-sum circumstance. Critics claim that CBA ignores political processes and democratic principles, such as public participation and consensus building, maintaining that CBA is built upon an expertocracy dependent upon the judgment of engineers, scientists, system analysts, and economists (Byrne, 1987).
 

Extracted from posted Essay:  Policy analysis is a systematic process for reducing issues or problems to actionable solutions. Wildavsky (1979) refers to policy analysis as "an activity creating problems which can be solved"(17). Policy analysis proceeds through a set of steps once a problem has been identified and defined. The problem is analyzed, clarified, and restated so as to allow for a solution. Policy objectives are set and actionable solutions are then developed to meet those objectives. The solutions must be actionable, or capable of being implemented in the specific environment where the problem exists. Within the analysis of the problem, policy alternatives are systematically composed to identify policy outcomes and impacts. Criteria such as cost-benefit, goal achievement, or potential achievement are typically used in sorting out alternatives. The final step is a set of recommendations for future action.

According to Patton and Sawicki (1986), from a historical point of view, the term policy analysis was coined by Lindbloom (1959) as a comparative analysis term to describe utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods to recognize the interaction of values and policy. Researchers (Katz and Sack 2001; Zeglen 1996; Patton and Sawicki, 1986) have used the term policy analysis to refer to the actions, steps, and phases involved in the policy process and to refer to the development, implementation, and evaluation of policy. Wildavsky (1939) called policy analysis a process of relating objectives to resources though social interaction and intellectual cognition. Gill and Saunders (1992) call policy analysis a decision-making tool and a means for guiding informed decision making when goal conflicts exist within an organization. Zeglen (1996), on the other hand, refers to policy analysis as a systematic process for reducing issues or problems to actionable solutions.
 

Extract from posted Public Policy Research Paper:  The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) and punctuated equilibrium (PE) models both examine the policy process and what forces influence it. These forces, usually independent of direct governmental control, can sway the policy process one way or another. Political scientists have long pondered the forces that influence the policy process. In studying these forces, many researchers emphasized the important role of advocacy groups, also known as interest groups or pressure groups. Although many political scientists link the origins of such studies on interest groups to David Truman's (1951) work on group theory, the emphasis on interest group research actually started with Arthur Bentley. Bentley's (1908) research offered preliminary insights on how advocacy groups affect the policy process. After Bentley's research, numerous studies on interest groups followed, with each study revealing the importance of interest groups to the policymaking process and the difficulty of measuring the impact of interest group influence on the policymaking process (Baumgartner & Leech, 1998, p. 45-46).

In addition to interest groups, political scientists also emphasized the role of bureaucrats, policymakers, and the media in the policy process. All of these entities could influence a specific policy subsystem such as agricultural subsidy policy, pesticide regulatory policy, or any policy considered by policymakers. Over the course of 100 years, political scientists used case studies and quantitative analyses to further examine the impact of these variables on the policy process. By the late 1980s, this collection of research helped to provide the theoretical backdrop to models such as the ACF and PE that attempted to theorize about policy process.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  Jean Paul Sartre was a philosopher, not a novelist or playwright. He was a philosopher, whose epistemic stance was immediately influenced by the twentieth century’s unrelenting destruction of ideals and idols, and the annihilation of heroes and heroism; by a century which had witnessed not one, but two world wars; by a century which had exposed the boundless human capacity for brutality and man’s limitless ingenuity at inflicting pain and suffering upon others; a century which had witnessed the invasion of France, the treachery of the Vichy government and the collapse of the Third, Fourth and Fifth French Republics. Sartre, a product of, and witness to, the twentieth century was indubitably coloured by it. His philosophy, as he himself, was a product of that century. His works of literature were born of that philosophy and, arguably, a dramatic enactment of Sartrian existentialism, with their unwavering exploration of the concepts of being and nothing. Nowhere is this more evident that in his one-act play, “Huis Clos.” A dialogical exposition of the hellish nothingness which pervades three characters, “Huis Clos” does not simply emanate from within Sartrian existentialism but, may be defined as an enactment of it, with each of the characters therein personifying a particular aspect of this complex philosophical construct. Understanding “Huis Clos” and appreciating it as an enactment of, and metaphor for, Sartrian existentialism, necessitates identifying and defining Sartre’s existentialist concerns and conceptualisations.

Extract from posted Dissertation Proposal: Countries such as France, which attract a high volume of extra- and intra-regional tourists and have a wide array of geographic differentials, from seaside resorts to ski resorts, from cosmopolitan urban centres to idyllic rural ones, possess the potential for an active and vibrant real estate market. Such a supposition is supported by empirical evidence which identifies France as one of the most important real estate markets in Europe, and a primary attraction for property investors (`France continues,’ 2006). The implication here is that the real estate market in France is not only vibrant but that it has enormous growth potentials.

Given the above stated observations, one may surmise that real estate agencies in France have attractive profit-making potentials, insofar as they operate in a market which attracts both domestic and international buyers and investors. While that may be the case, the fact remains that the potential of any real estate agency can only be realised through the efforts of its sales force and its agents. As Davis (2002) explains, the performance of individual real estate agencies is inextricably dependant upon the characteristics, activities and qualities of its sales force with it, therefore, being incumbent upon real estate agency managers to deploy such motivation techniques and strategies as would incite performance (Davis, 2002).

As may be deduced from the above, the dissertation proposes to undertake an analysis of the French real estate market and the performance of a select number of real estate agencies therein, with specific focus on the extent to which the deployment of motivation techniques may positively impact agency performance.
 

Extract from posted Dissertation:  It was a historic moment when the reluctant Yitzchak Rabin shook the hands of a beaming Yasser Arafat on the White House Lawn in September 1993. The collection of agreements, collectively known as the Oslo Accords, recognised the Palestinians’ acceptance of Israel’s right to exist whilst paving the way for a Palestinian state. However, the peace process faced significant opposition and problems from the outset, and ended with the outbreak of violence after the Camp David summit in 2000. This dissertation shall therefore analyse which factors led to the failure of the Oslo process.

This dissertation shall show that Oslo failed due to the coercive strategies adopted by the Israeli and Palestinian leadership. I will show that there was a lack of commitment by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority to genuinely seek a peace which was compatible with their adversary’s aspirations. I will show that as soon as Oslo was signed, the Israelis planned to expand Jewish settlements whilst the Palestinian leadership continued in its violent rhetoric and push for the full return of Palestinian refugees. Leaders were thus guilty of not truly wanting a peace that was compatible and that was being implied. The lack of a campaign and motivation by the leadership to condition their public for peace further exacerbated the intensity of opposition that existed. In turn, the large degree of public opposition thwarted the abilities of the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to adopt conciliatory strategies and make the concessions needed to finalise the Oslo Accords.

The dissertation is set out in four chapters. The first chapter will establish a theoretical structure for analysing the Oslo negotiation process by outlining the two major strategies which actors can adopt. The theory will also show how the choices of principal actors to choose certain strategies are further influenced by factors such as perceptions, stability of the agreements and the influence of external actors. This theoretical framework will then be applied to chapters two, three and four which analyse the beginnings of the Oslo period, the interim period, and the final negotiations at Camp David respectively.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper:  In an era of fast-paced market changes and ever-intensifying and increasing competition, the value of organisational learning has been enforced. Indeed, it has emerged as nothing less than an absolute imperative, as dictated and determined by the very nature of the external environments within which corporations and organisations operate. Ivory et al’s (2007) discussion on the problems which confronted Northumbrian Water Ltd in its effort to acquire a capital good whose technology was largely alien to organisational members, confirms and emphasises this argument. As they write, “sharing knowledge across organisational and interorganisational boundaries is essential” (Ivory et al., 2007). Organisational learning and knowledge-sharing, however, as the experiences of Northumbrian Water Ltd amply evidence, are often complex processes which are rendered all the more complicated by the barriers to organisational learning.

This research will argue the imperatives of organisational learning and outline a variety of strategies for the attainment of this objective. The first section of the research will examine several organisational learning strategies, alongside models for overcoming barriers to learning. The second section will undertake a critical investigation of just two of these models and relate them to Northumbrian Water Ltd’s experiences.
 

Extract from posted Naval Sciences Report:  The primary aim of the present research is the determination of the extent to which radar systems efficiently and effectively execute the requirements and tasks associated with coastal surveillance. Hew (2006), a defence systems analyst with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, contends that no single radar system is capable of fulfilling the stated tasks and responsibilities but that coastal area characteristics have to be matched against specific systems. In other words, the selection of the coastal radar selection system is dependant upon the characteristics of the coastal area in question and no radar system addresses the needs and features of all. Proceeding from an acknowledgement of this argument, this study will review all of radar technology, coastal surveillance requirements and existent methods for radar coastal surveillance to determine the optimal system, or systems for the execution of coastal surveillance responsibilities.

Executive Summary form posted Research Paper:  Outsourcing, as explicated by Domberger (2005), is fundamentally based on sound economic precepts and best business practice principles. Whether defined as off-shoring or contracting, it is a response to the exigencies of keeping business to customer service and production costs low, without impinging upon the quality of either the services of the products offered on the market. It is, in other words, a decision imposed upon corporate entities by an increasingly competitive environment and a practice facilitated by the evolution of globalisation (Domberger, 2005).

As pertains to supply chain management, especially in consideration of the multiple steps involved therein, outsourcing, as in contracting, has always functioned as a predominant characteristic of the process. It is outsourcing, as in off-shoring, which is a novel addition to contemporaneous supply chain management paradigms (Teece, 2005).

While corporate experiential and empirical evidence pertaining to the outsourcing of some functions and steps within the totality of the supply chain management framework have fortified arguments in favour of the referred to business phenomenon, others have solidified opposition to it. Certainly, and as the experiences of both Nike and Dell Computers indicate, outsourcing has evolved into an integral componential element of the supply chain management paradigm, not only significantly reducing production and service costs while maintaining the integrity of quality standards but, it has significantly contributed to organisational capacity for efficient and effective operation and resource allocation. That, however, does not imply that outsourcing is not without its problems or that organisations do not have to contend with often formidable challenges prior to reaping the benefits of outsourcing. The failure of many organisations to do so, or to fully appreciate the importance of the outsourcing planning stage, concomitant with a comprehensive articulation of the areas of supply chain management to be outsourced, and the outsourcing paradigm of each, should not be interpreted as evidence against the outsourcing of supply chain management functions. Instead, it should be more accurately understood as evidence for the exigencies of planning.
 

Extract  from posted Dissertation Proposal: 

Project subject area and Angle description - Small to medium enterprises are major components of developed economies as they constitute 99% of the total number of business operations in these countries. Given the space that SMEs occupying within developed economies and their importance therein studying the methods by which these enterprises can utilise IT tools to maximise organisational efficiency and effectiveness, and enhance organisational performance, is extremely crucial. In direct relation to the aforementioned, accounting and organisational management scholars have determined that the right accounting software package can substantially contribute to organisational performance and the maximisation of efficiency and effectiveness (Hirst and Hopkins, 1998).

Choosing the right accounting software is perceived to be one of the most challenging tasks that an entrepreneur faces in his professional career (Johnston 2003). This is especially true for small scale business operations where owners often lack the resources and expertise beyond their core activities to the point that other functions are overlooked. However, the selection process is problematic, as is the subsequent implementation process.
 

Extract from posted Dissertation Proposal:

Project Subject Area and Aspect Description - Every business is concerned with how to improve the performance of its employees. This concern is evident in industries like financial services, which change all the time and thus require continuous employee training and development. Therefore, it is of crucial importance that such corporations find ways to provide courses to the staff in a fashion that is effective and as inexpensive as possible. A web-based Learning Management System (LMS) is one way to provide employee training in a cost-effective fashion because it does not entail travel costs or other related costs of off-site education. Thus, the decision as to whether a corporation utilizes an in-house training program or outsourced LMS is a concern of IT strategy-making.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  In an article on the costs and benefits involved in the implementation of management information systems in organisations, David G. Wastell (1999) argues that a number of technical, environmental, and organizational factors, not to mention software related ones, can mitigate against successful implementation to the extent that costs vastly outweigh, even completely negate, expected benefits (p. 581). Socio-environmental and organizational factors, in fact, have increasingly proven to be a persistent cause of IS failure. This statement, supported by reference to numerous cases of such failure, ranging from software-related air traffic control disasters to the unmitigated failure of the London Ambulance Service experience, motivates Wastell to argue for the implementation of a specific set of operational requirements before sensitive industries, institutions and organisations are allowed to implement a software automation system (pp. 581-582). While the uninformed may find Wastell’s call quite extreme, a brief overview of the relevant failure-causal factors, provide ample justification for the stated. Prior to arguing that, however, a brief statement on the obstacles involved in the translation of theory into practice must be made. In other words, despite this being a mature organisation, the relative novelty of its IS structure and the unfamiliarity of emergency teams’ with the workings of the system, itself reflecting the failure of LAS’ IS department and manger, significantly contributed to the system’s failure.

Extract from the posted Dissertation Proposal: Managing customer relationships is not a new concept. Since the beginning of trade, sellers have focused on providing products and services to satisfy their customers. Since globalization has brought about an increase in competition for customers, the emphasis has switched from customer acquisition to customer retention, particularly with the cost of acquiring a new customer estimated at 4 to 10 times higher than simply retaining one (Kumar & Kumar, 2002).

Access to businesses worldwide via the Internet has resulted in a power shift from business to customer, with today’s consumer demanding a higher level of customer service than in the past (Broetzmann & Grainer, 2005). For organizations, such as call centers that handle customer complaints on a daily basis, that heightened level of customer service expectation is measured by having problems resolved on the first call, customers having the perception that they are valued by the organization, and employing call center representatives who exhibit patience, understanding, and a caring attitude (Broetzmann & Grainer, 2005).

The ability to resolve effectively customer complaints in a reasonable amount of time (as perceived by the customer) should be a priority for organizations that care about increasing customer retention and reducing the costs associated with acquiring new customers. One recent study noted that 72% of customers will return if their complaints are resolved quickly, while 46% of customers will not return if their complaints are not resolved in a timely manner (Stone, 1999).

Call centres, as clear from the above, play a very important role in customer satisfaction and retention. Yet, more and more British companies are outsourcing their call centres to India and other locations because of cost consideration. This study will examine the functions of call centres and explore the key operational determinants of successful call centres.
 

Extract from posted Dissertation Proposal: It is generally assumed that a company’s image is an outcome, or is determined by, its practices. Indeed, theories of consumer resistance to global brands, irrespective of their utility, maintain that resistance is a consequence of a company’s labour relations, its disregard of fair practices and its failure to project itself as socially responsible corporate entity. In such instances, theory maintains that marketing strategies and promotion campaigns are virtually ineffectual in the face of consumer resistance.
Starbucks effectively disputes the above stated theoretical propositions on consumer resistance. While it publicly engages in philanthropic activities, the company has an extremely poor labour relations record and has consistently proven itself a socially irresponsible company. Yet, this has not resulted in the above theorised consumer resistance and, indeed, has not halted Starbucks’ global expansion or stemmed its ever-spiralling success. This indicates that contrary to theoretical assumptions, marketing and brand management have the potential to overcome the challenges posed by corporate practices.
 

Extract from posted Dissertation Proposal:  It is generally assumed that a company’s image is an outcome, or is determined by, its practices. Theories of consumer resistance to umbrella brands maintain that resistance is a consequence of a company’s labour relations, its disregard of fair practices, its failure to project itself as socially responsible corporate entity and, importantly, market perceptions of it as a monopolistic entity. In such instances, theory maintains that marketing strategies and promotion campaigns are virtually ineffectual in the face of consumer resistance. Indeed, there is an abundance of theoretical and empirical research which indicates that a poorly performing product could cause spillover costs to other products that share the same brand name.

Centrica Plc. effectively disputes the above stated theoretical propositions on consumer resistance to umbrella brands as an outcome of corporate practices or the poor performance of other products sharing the same brand name. While it publicly engages in philanthropic activities, the corporation has a poor labour relations record, has consistently proven itself a socially irresponsible company, and has fuelled claims that it is, in essence, a monopolistic, exploitative entity. Yet, this has not resulted in the above theorised consumer resistance and, indeed, has not halted Centrica Plc’s expansion or stemmed its ever-spiralling success. While it can be argued that this is partially because there are no substitutes to Centrica’s products and services, it is the position of this study that the aforementioned evidences the fact that the marketing and brand management of umbrella brands have the potential to overcome the challenges posed by corporate practices.
 

Abstract from posted Dissertation Proposal:  International business literature is abounding with studies that are concentrated on foreign investment. The area of foreign divestment has however for the most part been neglected by scholars. Even managers seem to be relatively more knowledgeable about making investment decisions involving entry modes and survival strategies than they are about divestment decisions or divestment modes and strategies. This study focuses on an under-researched area of foreign divestment strategy implementation. It uses both the network theory and the resource based view to present a broadly normative framework for foreign subsidiary characterization and divestment. Specifically, it deals with a subsidiary's context and network position as defined by the interaction between its relationship-specific and location based subsidiary-specific resources and capabilities and its influence on divestment modes (complete divestiture, partial divestiture, no divestiture). This study also examines the implications of divestiture for performance and sustainability of MNE competitive advantage abroad. Using survey methodology, the study will analyze foreign subsidiary divestment decisions made by top managers in U.K. based multinational firms. The study assumes that achieving a fit between divestment strategy and subsidiary context is positively associated with performance and sustainability of competitive advantage.

Extracted from posted Policy Process Essay:  Political systems theory discusses the way political systems respond to external forces and demands that arise from its environment. These demands can be public opinion or interest group pressure seeking to further their interests and values. These demands from outside the environment are considered inputs to which the political system responds through the formulation and implementation of policies (Dowding, 2001). Despite the described, the assumption that the policy formulation and implementation process is straightforward is erroneous. Several political science and public policy researchers have attested to its complexity in their writings (Jenkins-Smith and Sabatier, 1994; Dowding, 1995; Roch, Schultz and McGraw, 2000; Dowding, 2001; Robinson, 2006) and Dowding (2001), in particular, has emphasised the imperatives of understanding the complexities inherent in the policy process through the formulation and propagation of explanatory theory which accurately and precisely distinguishes between policy community, epistemic community, interest network and advocacy coalitions, among others. The imperatives of understanding each of the aforementioned, and others, is inextricably linked to the importance of understanding policy causal factors, policy outcomes and, above all, the process by which different types of policies come into being.