Evaluation of Subway’s Branding and its SWOT analysis Essay

NAMEA brand is a combination of name, term, sign, symbol and design intended to identify the goods or services of one seller, which helps him/her to differentiate from those of competitors (Kotler 2006, 269). Subway is first known as Pete’s Super Submarine in 1965. The name was shortened to Subway and it is also then, the first franchised unit was opened in 1974 in Connecticut (Subway 2008). Perhaps, the founder of subway – Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck – realized the importance of developing a good brand name. There are several desirable qualities for a brand name. It should (i) suggest about the product’s benefits and qualities, (ii) be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember, and (iii) distinctive. Subway has fulfilled all these qualities. Its slogan ‘Eat Fresh† suggests the freshness of the ingredients used for the submarine sandwiches. Also, as Subway offers a wide assortment of products like sandwiches, salads, cookies, potato chips etc, making every visit a fresh one for its consumers. The colour green and the use of tomatoes in the logo symbolize the healthier aspect of Subway’s food products. Subway has a high degree of brand awareness; consumers are able to associate Subway with its submarine sandwiches that are filled with fresh vegetables. The brand name is not offensive; it did not create any inappropriate excitement like French Connection’s provocative slogan – FCUK, which has resulted in many controversies in countries including Singapore. Brand name is very important as a good one can add greatly to a product’s success (Kotler 2006, 273). SUBWAY’S OVERALL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES StrengthsSubway has successfully market itself as a healthier alternative to traditional greasy fast food. In the press release on 18 November 1999, Subway has listed the seven low-fat subs with 6 grams of fat or less menu offering convenience and good nutrition food products for consumers’ fast-paced lives. This has made Subway as the best fast food choice for consumers who are concerned about eating right; counting calories or trying to eat healthy. Also, according to the press release, Subway is conscious of the dietary needs of vegetarian consumers and offer options for them – Veggie Delite, which is simply a salad sandwich. At Subway, consumers are able to personalize their own submarine sandwich by choosing the type of ingredients, condiments and salad  dressing they wish to have for their sandwiches. The choice of getting the sandwich toasted is available too. This personalized service is not common in most of the fast food restaurants. Besides, unique sides like freshly baked cookies and potato chips are offered instead of the usual mash potatoes, French fries or coleslaw. Generally, the portion served is relatively in comparison to normal burgers. Overall, Subway’s sandwiches are loaded with fresh ingredients that differentiate Subway from its competitors. WeaknessesSubway’s sandwiches tend to become soggy after kept for a period of time without consuming. This will affect the overall tastiness of the sandwich. Such situation happens most frequently to people who do take-away. In addition, Subway’s sandwiches only come in Six-inch or foot-long sizes. This may be considered a relatively large portion to consumers whom may have smaller appetites, especially for the tweens and those younger. Also, Subway’s sandwiches are not Halal Certified. ‘Halal’ is an Arabic word which means lawful or allowable. Any food or drink that falls under this category is permitted for consumption. (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore 2008) Since subway’s products are not Halal Certified, the affected people would mainly be the Muslims. As a result, Subway may lose such potential consumers, where actually there could be opportunities to tap a global Halal food market of about 1.4 billion people. Hence, stalls with Halal Certification will have a competitive advantage over Subway. (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore 2008) RECOMMENDATIONS 1.To prevent Sandwiches from becoming soggy easily, Subway can separate Sandwich’s dressing for take-away orders. Thus, the taste of the Sandwiches will not be affected. 2.To overcome the weakness of Sandwiches being a relatively big portion to people with smaller appetites, Subway can introduce smaller sizes of sandwich. Also, even though Subway Singapore does provide kids meal to cater to the tweens and younger crowd, known as â€Å"Kids’ Pak†, when compared to kids meal available in McDonald’s and Burger King, Kids’ Pak is relatively unknown. The image of Kids’ Pak. (Official SUBWAY Restaurants’ Web Site 2008)Kids’ Pak ®, a specially designed meal package for children that includes a  sandwich prepared on a 4-inch round deli-style roll, a fruit roll fruit snack, a 100% juice box and a toy premium. (Subway Singapore 2008) (Is it possible for this paragraph to shift to beside the above pic?)Hence, Subway Singapore should widely advertise on the availability of such kids meal to gain more consumer awareness of the product. This can be done through posters and TV advertising, especially on Kids Central – Singapore’s local channel for kids, where children are the main viewers. This way, it will appeal greatly to them and parents will see the meal as a great option for a healthier meal as fats contained within the Subway’s Kids’ Pak – similar to Subway Fresh Fit for Kids is much lesser than in Kids’ Meal offered by McDonald’s and Burger King. (Subway Fres h Fit n.d.) The Image of Halal Certification (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore 2008)However, presently, Subway is not able to obtain Halal Certification due to various market, regulatory and business issues. However, Subway still does cater to customers who need a non-pork menu. Subway obliges by recommending them what is suitable in the menu and would change to a fresh pair of gloves to prepare the sandwiches. (Subway Singapore 2008) IN GENERAL, GIVE 5 EXAMPLES OF PACKAGING OR BRANDING WHICH SERVES A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR A FIRM Coke: The packaging of coke not only offers convenience to consumers, but also helps consumer to identify the product easily through its shape and colour – red and white, of the bottle. In addition, the branding of Coke has facilitated the promotion of all same-brand products. Examples are Coke Zero, Coke Light and Vanilla Coke. McDonalds’: The logo ‘M’ is well recognized worldwide which helps speed consumer purchases by identifying the firms’ product. The colour combination of the logo – red and yellow also acts as a tool in identifying its product. Apple: The logo of Apple denotes product quality and a form as status and self-expresion as apple has successfully brand and market itself. According to Gobe, M., â€Å"The power of their branding (Apple) is all that keeps them alive†, where brands have established deep, lasting bonds with their customers. (Kahney 2002) This foster of brand loyalty serves as a competitive advantage over rival firms. KFC: The acronym of Kentucky Fried Chicken makes it easier for consumer to say and spell. It also denotes the product that it’s selling and differentiates the quality of it chicken sold from competing firms. Moreover, the use of ‘Colonel Sanders’ as a mascot/logo further helps in identifying KFC’s product. (Armin. 2006)Nike: Nike has effectively brand itself using a ‘tick’ as its logo. The incorporating of the simple ‘tick’ onto the design of its products makes it distinctive from rival firms. In general, all these brands are widely recognized, where consumers are simply able to relate the brand name and its products. (Need to write conclusion?)Reference List1.Kotler, P., S. Adam, L. Brown, and G. Armstrong. 2006. Principles of Marketing. Australia. Pearson Education Australia. 2.Subway 2008. n.d. About Subway : History. http://www.subway.com.sg/exec/sam/view/id=540/node=206/ (accessed October 2, 2008). 3.Singapore. Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore. 2008. Halal Main Page: Basic Principles. Islamic Religious Council of Singapore. http://www.muis.gov.sg/cms/services/hal.aspx?id=1706 (accessed October 5, 2008)4.Singapore. Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore. 2008. Halal Certification: Halal Certification Benefits. Islamic Religious Council of Singapore. http://www.muis.gov.sg/cms/services/hal.aspx?id=1704 (accessed October 5, 2008)5.Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore [Image]. 2008. http://www.muis.gov.sg/cms/services/hal.aspx?id=1704 (accessed October 5, 2008)6.Subway Singapore. 2008. About us: Subway FAQ’s. http://www.subs.sg/aboutus/aboutus_faq.html7.Subway Singapore. 2008. Frequently Asked Questions. http://www.subway.com.sg/exec/sam/view/id=544/node=294/8.Official SUBWAY Restaurants’ Web Site [Image]. 2008. http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/menunutrition/menu/menu_kidspak.aspx9.Subway Fresh Fit. n.d. Fit Kids: Nutritional Information.

Education and Sustainable Development

Environmental education is a process of learning and teaching of environmental concepts and practices which increases people’s awareness about the environment. It mainly focuses on creation of knowledge and understanding of the environment and its challenges. It also focuses on creation of skills to mitigate environmental problems which are arising day by day and provides a forum for existing environmental knowledge to be exercised. Its objectives are creation of awareness and helping people to develop a positive attitude towards environmental education.Status of environmental education in Kenya In Kenya today, environmental education has enabled learners to play a big role in environmental conservation measures. An example is the Green Belt Movement which has over 600 community networks across Kenya which along with other networks have participated in planting more than 30 million trees on private and public land, protected reserves, sites with cultural significance and urban centers.This has resulted in the transformation of many landscapes (forests, sleep slopes and other degraded areas) and protection and restoration of habitats for local biodiversity (plants and animals). Many communities work with the Green Belt Movement to conserve and harvest water more effectively through construction of dams made of sand. That harvested water is used for household needs, food crops and tree nurseries. A related program with the Green Belt Movement Kenya improves food security i. e. he capacity of families to feed themselves, by promoting planting of fruit trees and indigenous foods including yams, cassava and arrowroots. In Kenya today, many groundbreaking initiatives including environmental education have been launched so that people could identify the sources of their problems including poor use and management of their environment and poor governance at local and national levels. They then identify solutions to those problems hence helping in maintaining a st able environmental state.Environmental education has been a reliable advocate for environmental and human rights by challenging abusive or ill-conceived actions by the previous Kenyan governments and rallying Kenyans to the cause. Through its advocacy and civic education campaigns, environmental education has been instrumental in bringing environmental issues to the Kenyan policy makers’ attention and has enjoyed significant success most notably the protection from wanton destruction of Uhuru Park and Karura Forest, both in Nairobi. This has been achieved through the Green Belt Movement.Environmental education should examine major issues locally and internationally. Currently in Kenya, a certain aspect of environmental education, The Green Belt Movement, has opened the Lang’ata Learning Center in Nairobi which continues to offer environmental education through exchange programs that expose participating groups to community biodiversity issues through discussions with l ocal leaders and excursions to selected areas around the country. Through its Pan African Green Belt Network, the Green Belt Movement has trained representatives from 15 African countries.As a result, several tree planting initiatives have been established in East and Central Africa and in the west. Environmental education in Kenya today has promoted cooperation among very many people. Different people come together in joint initiatives to plant trees or build dams. They also partake in attending and holding seminars and workshops to discuss diverse environmental issues. In this way, people are able to listen to each other’s ideas and suggestions hence enabling exchange of knowledge and skills. They also get a chance to inspire and help each other as they offer a listening ear.Today, environmental education is increasingly becoming a continuous process with so many environmental conservation measures been born and exercised. There thus arises the need to educate people on car rying out these practices. It is also being made continuous by the increasing environmental degradation in our society. People are cutting down trees carelessly and polluting the environment at a very fast rate. As a result, environmental education is being carried out continuously to combat these ill habits. This is being done through initiatives such as the Green Belt Movement.Environmental education has taken a big consideration in development and government plans in Kenya today. The government has planned to build many industries, medical facilities, petroleum refineries and electronic manufacturers. All these will generate hazardous wastes to the environment. Various movements to conserve the environment have recently sensitized the government on the need to institute both incentives and command and control measures to ensure that industries that generate hazardous waste dispose them off responsibly. Opportunities of environmental educationSince environmental education should e nable learners to actively play a role in environmental conservation, it should have a hand in encouraging research and propagation of drought-resistant crops such as cassava, millet and sorghum in order to assure food security. This is particularly important given that climate change is likely to occasion an increasingly higher incidence of crop failure. Environmental education should also have an emphasis on encouraging propagation of indigenous tree species. Although these enrich tree species and are better able to withstand environmental shocks, they are considerably under-utilized in agroforestry.It should discourage illegal logging of trees to meet timber and charcoal needs. This will be done by encouraging the formation of Community Forest Associations (CFAs) in line with the stipulations of the Forests Act and empower them to engage in sustainable forest management. CFAs should be representative of the communities that live adjacent to the forests and include women and margi nalized communities and have strict rules and procedures that prevent their appropriation by the local dominant groups. Environmental education should consider environmental aspects in major development and government plans.It therefore has the opportunity to sensitize the initiation of a range of energy sector reforms that will impel investment in clean and affordable sources of renewable energy such as solar, wind and biogas and therein eases the enormous pressure exerted on the country’s diminishing forests and woodlands for wood fuel. Challenges of environmental education Environmental education has suffered from the lack of participation among social groups and individuals. Studies have shown that most people formally educated make little efforts in ensuring that they take responsibility of the environment.This leads to knowledge gained from environmental education being stifled and may not get implemented and spread to other persons. Groups may find it unnecessary due t o lack of incentives to participate in environmental education. The lack of comprehensive strategies is another challenge facing environmental education in Kenya. Kenya has not focused much on inter-linkages between the environment and sustainable development. The environment has been mostly viewed in a great detail from the biophysical view but with less emphasis on the economic and social perspective.This has led to less participatory approaches to environmental education hence hindering its development. There exists a negative attitude among some individuals towards environmental education. Some people are suspicious about environmental education as they fear it may affect their day to day living by e. g. preventing them from logging, use of chemicals on crops e. t. c. This brings a bad image on environmental education especially on less educated individuals. The relevant government authorities are mostly underfunded in their attempts to bring environmental education to the foref ront.The government allocates more funds to other ministries and departments that are seen to bring instant returns to the economy such as agriculture and tourism and thus undermines ministries such as environment. This makes it unable to fund sensitization projects based on environmental education. There is lack of enough manpower to undertake projects concerning environmental education. People mostly in rural areas may end up not getting the relevant information concerning their environment whereas they are the people directly in contact with natural resources such as rivers, forests e. . c. This greatly undermines the spread of environmental education in the country and is a huge challenge. In certain cases, there might be inadequate information on the threats that the environment faces to the people. Theoretical teachings may not be sufficient to convince individuals on why they need to undertake certain measures to prevent environmental degradation and promote sustainable devel opment. Practical case studies may have to be carried out to convince learners adequately on threats on the environment.

How do the Montagues and Capulets react to loss in Romeo and Juliet? Essay

Throughout Romeo and Juliet loss is abound, making the text relatable for modern and contemporary audiences. Loss is an ineluctable part of human life allowing audiences from any era to be able to sympathise with the characters and connect with them. Many people share the view that lord Capulet cared little for his daughter, not unusual In Elizabethan times, but I feel there is much evidence to the contrary, lord Capulet, loved his â€Å"only child†, Juliet. PROLOGUE Juliet’s supposed death evoked intense feeling of grief and guilt, clearly shown in the successful use of alliteration. Capulet is overwhelmed by grief, exclaiming â€Å"O child, O child! My soul and not my child!†. Throughout the text â€Å"O† is used to express characters grief. Capulet use of the repetition of â€Å"O† Portrays his shock to Juliet’s death and the grief he feels over it. Shakespeare uses â€Å"O† numerous times to express grief because it can portrayed differently by each actor depending on their interpretation of the character. In Capulets case either the actor thinks he is truly grieving over the death of his â€Å"only child† or he is exaggerating his reaction due to the presence of Paris. It can be interpreted this way because Capulet doesn’t use â€Å"O† when talking about his loss until Paris enters. As soon as Paris sees Juliet he immediately exclaims â€Å"O love! O life!†, Capulet then needs to outdo his reaction so that his love for Juliet is not questioned. Capulet is merely a misunderstood father as he truly grieves the death of his daughter although he neglects to show it to Juliet and the audience before her death. (effect on the audience) In Juliet’s â€Å"death† Capulet used a lot of imagery which serves to portray his emotions. He refers to her as the â€Å"sweetest flower† creating the image of how beautiful Juliet was. However as â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is a play the audience would have already seen Juliet so it portrays his inner feelings. To Capulet Juliet was the prettiest and â€Å"sweetest† woman. Afterwards he says â€Å"she was a flower deflowered by him†. He no longer feels Juliet is his â€Å"flower† because death has tainted her and took it away, it has â€Å"deflowered† Juliet. Juliet is far too young to die in the night, arousing Capulets  suspicions that Juliet may have been involved. Thus, she is no longer his â€Å"flower† as she betrayed his trust as she is now unable to marry Paris. Capulet was extremely egar for Paris and Juliet to get married and even referred to it is as â€Å"our† wedding. The marriage to a relative of the prince would raise the social standing of the Capulets and hopefully remove them from the watchful eye of the prince. This is dramatic irony because the audience knows Juliet and Paris will never wed because then the Montagues and Capulets won’t be â€Å"alike in dignity† as the Capulets will be valued higher than the Montagues. Upon learning of Juliet’s death lord Capulet acknowledges his mistake of pushing her to marry Paris, insisting the feud cease. Lord Capulet immediately pleads to Montague, â€Å"O brother Montague, give thy hand. This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more can I demand†. Lord Capulet refers to Juliet’s â€Å"jointure† as being her death bed, voicing his regret and guilt for forcing her to marry Paris; he now understands why Juliet didn’t want to marry him. A jointure is something a woman agrees on in consideration of marriage, by calling Juliet’s death her jointure he admits that he wanted Juliet to marry Paris for reasons other than love. However this was common in Elizabethan times which is why they would sympathise with him unlike today’s audience who would not as arranged marriages are not a supported or common aspect in society. The acknowledgement of Montague as Capulets â€Å"brother† infers that he is aware of the marriage between Romeo and Juliet. When Capulet talks about the â€Å"jointure† he is thinking about his son in law, Romeo. Therefore, in order to honour Juliet he ends the feud between the families as he knows this is the only â€Å"jointure† that would have pleased Juliet. This shows evolution of character as he’s ended an â€Å"ancient† feud due to his grief over the loss of his daughter. In act 1 Capulet refers to Romeo as â€Å"a virtuous and well governed youth† supporting the idea that if he had known, Capulet would have approved the wedding between Romeo and Juliet. Thus, if Juliet had told him she could have lived a fulfilling life with Romeo. However as this play is a tragedy it requires the hero to die a tragic death due the (can’t remember the word) (Mercutio’s death), foreshadowing that this would never happen. On  the other hand he could call his former enemy â€Å"brother Montague† because he is suffering the same sorrow for the death of his only child thus, they are brothers in sorrow. Death lies on her like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. (31-32) Visual lightness and darkness within the scene corresponds to the image of life and death facing Juliet. MY GRAVE IS LIKE MY WEDDING BED-FORESHADOWING Dead art thou! Alack, my child is dead, And with my child my joys are buried. hy camest thou now To murder, murder our solemnity?

Innovation in Sustainable Engineering Design Essay

Innovation in Sustainable Engineering Design - Essay Example The political powers have played key roles in the share of the oil products. In addition, international environmental policies have demanded that there be a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gasses. Hydrogen and hydrogen-powered fuel cells are the better options as a means of achieving alternative sources of power. A fuel cell is concerned with converting chemical energy that is present in a fuel to be emitted as electricity. The process demands the use of oxygen. Hydrogen can be produced separately from varying components available naturally. The chemical processes that take place in a fuel cell demand a continuous supply of fuel and oxygen in order to sustain the production of electricity. The most direct driver for clean energy sources, those are safe, secure and reliable amidst this economic competition is worth investing. The needs that the projected source should meet include the mitigation of changes in the climatic conditions, greatly reduce the amount of toxic levels of pollutants and set forth a clear plan for the ever-dwindling oil reserves. The above results must for some reasons be met without which the effects will be felt in the economy, the health aspects in societies and the environmental consideration. The efficiency in the use of energy, in line with a focus on the supply, and an inclination on the growing proportion of carbon-free sources is highly encouraged. To achieve objectives to power elaborated above, it is essential that hydrogen and electricity be ventured into to determine one of the best approaches to meet customer, economic and environmental needs. Hydrogen is regarded as an energy carrier. Hydrogen has regenerative characteristics becaus e they can be produced from nuclear available sources, and the fossil-based energy system made use in the conversion. Fuel cells achieve use in portable devices like mobile phones, motor vehicles and for heating purposes in power generators considered in

Leadership Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Leadership Philosophy - Essay Example The effective leader is a person who has already developed a leadership philosophy which includes the core values that he holds to be important. The modern effective leader imbues these values into every action he or she takes so that the people around see him or her as an example that should be emulated. The incorporation of the leader’s own values into his or her own life means that the leader has effectively chosen the right direction in life. Not every person has the strength required to determine his or her direction and to stick to it in life as challenges arrive. The leader is effectively a person who has chosen a path and chooses to persevere on this path no matter what obstacles appear. In choosing the path, the leader has to sacrifice a number of things in life to set his or her priorities in the right order. Only this method of setting personal values allows a true leader to gain a direction that other people can emulate.

The Christian Life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

The Christian Life - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that throughout the scriptures, God is referred to as Holy and His holiness provides the motivation for sanctification – a process by which God has chosen to create a people for Himself. God is not only the â€Å"motivation for holiness, He is also the agent of holiness†. Since God is holy, He requires His children also to be holy and it is He who enables them to become holy with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is therefore the sanctifying agent that enables believers to be transformed. It is of vital importance that believers cooperate with and obey the Holy Spirit to experience Christ like living. Even though the Holy Spirit empowers the believers, the transformation into Christ like living will not manifest unless they willingly surrender and cooperate with the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is important as the goal of every conversion is for believers to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. This is cl early stated in Romans 8:29 (New International Version) which says, â€Å"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.† Holiness involves putting to death the sin nature which God has already sentenced to death on the cross and living the new life that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In the book of Romans, Paul introduces two aspects pertaining to holiness – justification or positional sanctification (Rom 1-5) and experiential sanctification (Rom 6-8). ... w he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.† Holiness involves putting to death the sin nature which God has already sentenced to death on the cross and living the new life that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.2 Thesis Statement Accepting the scriptural truth that a believer is united with Christ and has the power to walk the victorious Christian life by surrendering to the indwelling Holy Spirit is the key to be transformed into the image of Christ. Justification and Sanctification In the book of Romans, Paul introduces two aspects pertaining to holiness – justification or positional sanctification (Rom 1-5) and experiential sanctification (Rom 6-8). Justification is the legal title declaring that a believer is now holy and righteous and is accomplished by the believer simply placing their trust on the finished work of Christ at the cross, whereby God’s holiness and righteousness is imputed on the believer. Experiential sanctification is the process of being made holy to align with the new legal identity of the believer and is manifested by the believer’s surrender and obedience to the Holy Spirit. It is therefore an important aspect of God’s redemptive plan and the primary work He does to develop godly character in His people. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is central to Paul’s theology. Throughout his writings, Paul emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is granted to all believers in Christ. He underscores that being a Christian is not just accepting certain truths about Christ but rather to have an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is clearly recorded in Rom 8:9 which reads, â€Å"You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if

Web 2 Tools to Enhance Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Web 2 Tools to Enhance Education - Essay Example Indeed, while the use of technology in classroom has addressed the individual needs and requirements of students, its application in myriad formats has opened huge possibilities for students and teachers alike to exploit their potential for higher learning. The advancing technology and Web 2 tools have increasingly emerged as key elements to impact students’ learning outcome and made acquisition of knowledge highly interesting. They have therefore, widened their horizon of educational scope and outcome. Statement of problem In the current times, not using Web 2 tools could pose serious problems for students. Technology is intrinsically linked to development processes and its huge impact on education system has necessitated its inclusion within the curricula to enhance learning outcome. Valdez has emphasized that educators must be ready for technology rich future and promote dynamic strategies and tools within the curricula so that the students are prepared to meet the challeng es of the 21st century (1). The current generation of tech savvy students is no more satisfied with classroom teaching and is constantly seeking real time learning through new tools which can challenge their abilities to explore new avenues of knowledge acquisition (Akyeampong 3860). Web 2 provides the students with interactive media to share their knowledge and at the same time, facilitate their learning processes by sharing experience, opinions and views on different areas and issues (Greenhow et al., 247). Thus, Web 2 has wide ramifications on individual learning and its inclusion within curricula becomes key element of motivation. They help individuals with varying needs to optimize their learning outcome and ensure higher achievement. Thus, not using Web 2 tools could seriously hinder students’ personal and academic achievements. Purpose of the study The major purpose of the study is to explore how the use of Web 2 tools influence learning process and enhance education o utcome. Today, technology has become part and parcel of education system and the use of internet and online learning tools have increasingly become popular within and outside classroom. But the efficacy of the Web 2 tools like social networking, blogging and use of video sharing websites etc. needs to be explored within the academia to study their impact on students’ learning outcome. Most importantly, how it can be exploited for enhancing students’ learning is vital issue that must be explored and evaluated to ensure students’ continued interest in the core academic areas. The huge possibilities of internet based learning offers tremendous scope of growth that needs to be used by educators for enhancing students’ education outcome. Research questions 1. What are the main elements of Web 2 that make it attractive for students? 2. Do the Web 2 tools offer different challenges for students with varying skills? 3. How does Web 2 help to influence the learnin g processes of students with varying needs? 4. How does the interactive platform of Web 2 help to widen the understanding of different issues? 5. Do the web 2 platforms promote global values and improve and improvise learning outcome across the geographical boundaries of class, color, race and culture? 6. How do Web 2 tools encourage greater interaction amongst students and teachers? 7. How does it impact reading, writing and comprehension skills of students? 8. How does it keep the students motivated in the academic learning? 9. How can teachers exploit the vast potential of Web 2 tools for enhancing students’ education outcome? What is Web 2.0? According to O’Reilly the Web 2 tools are internet based technologies and platforms of

Legal citations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal citations - Assignment Example James Mathes Garrett had a conviction by the jury of one count of bank robbery. It was in violation of 18 U.S.C. Â § 2113 (a) and (d). Garrett sentence was a term of incarceration of eight years and one month, followed by forty-eight months of supervised release. In his appeal, Garrett raised several issues that were challenging both his conviction and the sentence. After the court had reviewed the record, the issues were found to be with no merit. The defendant had a conviction for armed robbery and murder and received concurrent terms of 50 and 30 years in prison. The Supreme Court held that plain error doctrine did not apply in the case after the defendant raised the issue of unfair judgment. The disposition did not reach all the issues the defendant presented; the Supreme Court had directions to consider those questions. Gilbert Martinez-Jimenez, the defendant, appeals his conviction after a bench trial on one count of armed bank robbery. It was in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2113 (a) & (d). Martinez contends that the court was wrong in deciding that the toy gun that he had in the bank robbery was a "dangerous weapon" as defined by Act 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2113 (d). The judgment of the district court was right in his decision. Alton Campbell appealed his conviction of two counts of offering to pay voters in violation of 42 U.S.C. Â § 1973i (c) (1982). The county judge of Newton County, Arkansas, was acquitted of his crime, twelve counts of vote-buying, one count of voting numerous times, and one count of conspiracy, 18 U.S.C. Â § 371 (1982). On appeal, the defendant argues that there was no sufficient evidence to support the results of the ballot of Pamela Cross. Eugenia Toney was playing on a public sidewalk in Arizona when she was bitten by a German Shepherd dog on September 13, 1976 that is owned by Harlean Bouthillier. The dog had no leash, and it was roaming in the neighborhood Eugenia had to go through several operations. The plaintiff argued

Comparing short stories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Comparing short stories - Essay Example Later on it was found out that her daughter from her first marriage was alive and was living in the cottage. The little girl was black and Effie concealed this fact from Grant as she was scared that he would reject her as she was mother of a child of mixed race. â€Å"The Murders in the Rue Morgue† revolves around twin murders of a mother and her daughter in Rue Morgue, which is a fictional street in Paris. Dupin, who lives in Paris takes it upon himself to solve the mystery. There were numerous witnesses who claimed they heard the suspect but could not recognise the language. At the murder venue, Dupin finds a hair which does not belong to any human. Eventually, it was revealed that an Ourang-Outang has escaped from a sailor with his shaving razor, and the animal is responsible for the murders. Though the theme of both the stories circles around unlocking of a mystery but they are very different from one another in terms of plot in both the stories. The theme in the â€Å"The Yellow Face† lies in the mystery surrounding a previously married but devoted wife’s sudden suspicious behaviors, whereas, we witness a much more complex theme in â€Å"The Murders in the Rue Morgue† where we are gripped with an aura of chilling mystery surrounding a couple of ruthless murders. The first story is a framed narrative from Dr. Watson’s point of view, like most other Holmes’ series. On the other hand, the second story is narrated in first person by an unnamed narrator. Although its inspirations can be traced back to the â€Å"Das Frà ¤ulein von Scuderi† by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1819 and the 1748 publication of the â€Å"Zadig† by Voltaire, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) by Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the first ever detective mystery that showcases the art of deduction in solving a crime based on detection and analysis of clues that by an investigator.

Employees' Benefits Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Employees' Benefits - Essay Example This study suggests â€Å"Leverage the power of the leading stock plan administration technology Our Full Service Plan Administration solution is delivered through our proprietary web technology, Shareworks† (Share Works Premier 2010 par 2).The employer can establish new plans like incentive plans, savings and investment plans. Employees are the most important assets of an organization, who are the pillars which support the organization and without an organization cannot operate its business therefore, Use of web-based technology will help the Microsoft to re-establish stock purchase plan in a better way which will be helpful for the organization to sustain and motivate its employees, web technology will also help the organization to improve its administration and will allow the employees to stay updated about current and upcoming incentive plans (Beam and McFadden, 2001). Introduction of new plans will motivate the employees to work efficiently and these new plans will cover the loss of employee stock purchase plan to employees and will provide more investments option to employees, so introduction of new plans will allow employees to reduce the investment risk by diversifying the portfolio through investing in other investment and savings plans. Investment and saving plans generally provide a sense of ownership in the firm, these plans will definitely boost up employees motivation and their loyalty towards their organization, Microsoft then be able to retain its efficient and productive workers. Microsoft should also increase its existing plans such as increasing the discount percentage on employee stock purchase plan; it will improve the current working conditions of employees and will help the organization to provide employees with improved working environment, researches have shown that improving existing incentive plans will increase the motivational level of employees and it increases organization’s performance as well. The company should al so devise new incentive plans and rewards, new incentive plans to the efficient workers will be helpful for the organizations to get best out of their employees in return; whereas organization should introduce new awards and should make sure that those employees who are doing well and meeting their targets should be appraised and rewarded in front of everyone, it makes sure that management cares about them and notices their every effort made for the well-being of the organization. New incentive plans will provide a new opportunity to employees for self-improvement and for enhancing their living style (Martocchio, 2010). Use of web technology will also allow the organization to provide detailed information about plans to the employees that will increase clarity and transparency; it will help the employees to understand offered plans in a better way. Clarity and transparency reflects the mirror image of an organization, so basically it eliminates or minimizes doubts regarding the imag e of the organization, it will help employees to stay clear about plans and will definitely increase employees’ strive towards achieving those incentives and rewards that will eventually increase organizational productivity and performance (Medina, 2006). Web technology will also help the organization to manage the reward system in an efficient way, so that deserving employees won’t get de-motivated and will be rewarded timely. Use of web technology will decrease the administrative cost of the organization, will allow the organization to better utilize its capital on incentive plans offered to employees. Employees work for some compensation and they always need a pay back for their efforts not only in terms of basic salary but in shape of extra benefits as well. Extra

Summer for a Camp Skyline Ranch Counselor Essay Example for Free

Summer for a Camp Skyline Ranch Counselor Essay When the realization that my final days of high school were vastly approaching, I began to ask myself what I would do with my life. From that point, the thoughts began to creep in of what things I could do to help better prepare myself for the future that was being pushed upon me. Seeing that I have known since a young age that I wanted to be an educator, my exploration of a summer job that would involve surrounding myself with children began. After endless hours of internet searching for the job that would best suit me, I discovered a Christian summer camp that was very much a place that would cease to leave my mind for the next few days. Days passed by and prayers were sent up when I finally came to realize that this was the job I needed. Working at a Christian summer camp would be a great job for any young person because it is a way to spread God’s word with young girls, push limits and set new goals, and it exposes the counselor to see what teachers and educators face on a day to day basis. God’s word always needs to be shared with everyone but more especially to the youth. God has always been a huge part of my everyday life. Finding a place where I would be able to share this joy was a priority I had. Camp Skyline was undeniably the place for that. Each night we would sit around a campfire just to hear the songs of the praises to God’s word. Voices as sweet and soft as honey would travel through the mountain air as if a bee on a summer day. Beneath that sound would be the faint crackling of the fire that blazed before us and faintly gave light to each face. On Sundays we had â€Å"Skyline Church.† Everyone was to wear pure white on this day. Upon entering church I would see girls of all ages running around in white dresses that were catered to fit each of the hundreds of girls. During those next few hours praises would be lifted and hearts would be led to God as if a lost child in a store searching for a parent that would soon be recovered. Some knew where they were being led while others only knew of the joy that was overtaking the friends around them. Blessings would overflow in my heart  after seeing such tiny innocence find something that would forever change every life that heard His call. Pushing limits and setting new goals is a necessity to being a successful person. Challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone was definitely an ambition I had for the summer. My first class to assist in would be ropes. There I would send girls off of zip lines, unusually high swings, and belay girls to their destination at the top of the trees. The smell of sap growing on these large oak trees began to surround me as if cake escaping a bakery and surrounding the streets. My heart sank as I was assigned to be in the tree to send the girls off of the zip line. As I was creeping my way up this never ending oak tree I realized that this is the adventure I had wanted. Capturing the top, I looked out to see the sun gleaming down and beautiful blue skies surrounding as if God himself had spent His morning painting that moment for me. Girls began to climb up and jump off with fright not being a possibility of thought. To my astonishment, panic had left my mind as well and peace had taken the place of that. By the end of those hours, I was just as eager to jump out of that tree only to be caught by a thin cable attached to black rope like a dog on a leash. Teaching is very much underestimated much like being a camp counselor can be as well. Teaching is a desire that I have had for as long as I can remember. Being a summer counselor is very much like being a teacher in many ways. This job consists of continuous hours of helping children obtain a goal they have set for themselves and sometimes just being that comforting hand in a time of need. Encouragement and perseverance are the keys to succeeding in this job. When I walked around camp I could feel the desperation of achieving a task creeping through the air as if a robber in a bank. Much like teaching, counselors must give the reassurance that many children search for to help them succeed. â€Å"You can do it!† is a phrase that is heard often throughout these wide open spaces. Nights are spent making sure they have enough sleep to help them be able to make it through the rest of camp while also allowing them to have fun during the experience. Waking up to find a girl standing over your bed saying she is sick is not a rare occurrence. Drama among the girls, cleanliness, sleepless nights, and being whatever support a girl needs in that moment can sometimes be challenging. Nonetheless rewarding life lessons can still be learned in moments such as these. A job like this me a whole new appreciation for the people who are willing to spend endless hours with children like a teacher does on a day to day basis. In closing, working at a Christian summer camp would be a great job for any young person because it is a way to spread God’s word with young girls, new limits will be set, and it exposes the counselor to see what teachers and educators face on a day to day basis. I recovered all of the goals I had set for myself for the same and was able to make new goals out of the experience as well. When leaving time came I had too many stories to be able to repeat and new standards set for myself to take home. My heart remains overjoyed today when I look back on the experiences I had. Smelling a strong odor can always take me back to the endless scent of dirty Chaco’s. Campers leave with dirty laundry and a stream of tears to follow for they dread seeing leaving day arrive. For me, I am already counting down days until opening day of camp next year while my heart searches for small things to take me back to that wonderful place on the mountain.

Film Genre Essay Example for Free

Film Genre Essay â€Å"Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality†. Popular fascination with shock, horror and psychological thriller genre has been situated at an ultimate high, with school students wanting to learn about these popular genres. From watching videos and reading books from these exquisite genres, students receive various in site from the different eras and how those particular eras were controlled. Throughout the range of poetic genres each author has their own way of express feelings, protruding language techniques and helps show and feels emotions. Authors who illustrate genres in a particular way should be a part of the English curriculum, for the way they display the particular genres and help students understand the nature of fear, guilt and human conscience. Particular language techniques are used in shock, horror and psychological thriller genres. The language techniques have changed intensely over the years and this is due to how lifestyles are controlled and how woman and men portray themselves to each other. The differences between sentences from today society and society from years ago have changed dramatically. A sentence from ‘Macbeth,† Wherefore was that cry†. Today’s society â€Å"what was that noise or where did that noise come from†. Another quote from Edgar Allan Poe shows that the sentence structure were simple but complex and had intended to mean so much through such little words, â€Å"We loved with a love that was more than love.† Sentence from Authors who lived in different eras are interesting to study because we received a brilliant in site to how the language techniques were portrayed to being simple but complex. With the evidence provided, it is easy to see that Authors from different eras have much better language techniques. From directors, narrators, author and actor, in their plays, movies and shows a high variety on universal themes are shown. A universal theme is human emotions that the audience can relate to throughout the play, movie or show. A universal theme is themes were the actor or character is feeling sad, happy, angry or betrayed. Universal themes are defiantly very important for a student to learn about, and understand these different terms. These themes are used to interact with the audience and make the audience involved and when using universal themes in a scene it helps the audience interact  with that particular scene and helps the audience feel apart. Thirdly, students in today’s society are more engaging in English themes that they are wanting to learn about or what they enjoy learning about. With shock, Horror and the Psychological thriller genre at high demands and statistics say that these 3 genres are the most demanded genres in the world. With Shock, horror and psychological thriller genre being taught in schools, will most likely make school students engage in the Lesson more because they want to actually learn and be involved in the lesson. The final criterion is the difference in shock, horror and psychological thriller genre to now and 100 years ago has changed dramatically. These genres a long time ago were about simple fighting, simple killing, blood and guts. And in this century these genres mean people playing sick mind games and torturing, ghosts, demons, spirits, haunted houses, more in depth gory scenes and lots more. It is very important for students to learn about the difference in these genres and to compare them together they have changed a lot. School students today learn a lot from shock, horror and psychological thriller genre. The students learn a lot from particular language techniques, universal themes and how these particular genres have changed and evolved over time. If the Queensland censorship board considers banning these genres, they are taking a lot away about history that students need to learn about and are essential to the English learning curriculum.

Challenges and Opportunities in the UK Labour Market

Challenges and Opportunities in the UK Labour Market 1: The Business dictionary defines the labour market as: The nominal market in which workers find paying work, employers find willing workers, and wage rates are determined. Labour markets may be local or national (even international) in their scope and are made up of smaller, interacting labour markets for different qualifications, skills, and geographical locations. They depend on exchange of information between employers and job seekers about wage rates, conditions of employment, level of competition, and job location. Although not as heavily regulated as many other countries, the UK labour markets are regulated in many different ways, these include protections against oppression and discrimination, enhance efficiency, attribute responsibility, improve health and safety conditions, offers security, cut costs relating to employee/employer opportunism, and encouraging behaviour from employees and employers by imposing costs and rewards. Employment regulations exist to provide flexibility to employers and job and financial security to employees. It is vital in reducing poverty, supporting growth and employment with equity. Some argue the UK is not regulated enough e.g. TUC has called for greater protection in some areas of employment and argued for measures to further support collective bargaining. Whereas, Employers have complained that increased regulation restricts flexibility, particularly in times of economic burden. For regulations to be effective they must be implemented well and enforced. Social partner institutions such as, the Arbitration and Conciliation Advisory Service (Acas), the Low Pay Commission (LPC), the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), and the UK Commission for Skills and Employment (UKCES) regulate and influence the labour market via intervention and enforcement, to improve practices within the workplace. Regulation can also exist in the form of accreditation, e.g. a licence is required to perform a particular service. The number of professionals within the UK continues to expand. In 2014 roughly 24% of workers were classified professionals. Regulation has brought an end to the closed shop, restricted the ability to strike, and trade union governance. Although employers complain about regulation, it is recognised that it provides them with a level playing field in the market place. The UK economy is recovering, all be it slower than before. Recovery has not been helped by financial problems within the Eurozone, impacting on export markets. However, employment has now surpassed pre-recession peaks in terms of jobs (2012) and hours worked (2013). More recently there has been an increase in the number of jobs at both the top and the bottom of the job market, with significant fall in skilled trades in the middle resulting in an hourglass labour market. Although long term unemployment has increased, the UK has been relatively successful at keeping people in employment; employment rate, generally increasing each year since 2012, climbing to 73.7% (ONS 2015). Unemployment rates have fallen, however those with low skill levels and the young being more harshly hit. Youth unemployment has fallen sharply, and stands at around 22%. (UKES 2014). Although it should be remembered that substantially more young individuals are staying on in education, and enter the labour market much later than in the past, as graduates. The number of self employed has continued to grow, equating to 83% of net gains in employment since 2007 (Ashworth et al 2014). However, earnings with this sector have also dropped considerably. In addition to the growing self employed, the UK has also seen a substantial increase in other less secure employment. Since 2010 there has been a 50% increase in temporary work, zero our contracts, and government training schemes (OECD 2013). Employment within administrative and secretarial roles, and low skilled manual roles, continue to decline in many industries as technology advances. The world is becoming smaller, and many tasks/roles becoming automated. Many employees will find it necessary to retrain to keep up with technology advances and the changes it inevitably brings. Technology enables change, cost savings, and investment. Employees can now work from anywhere in the country/world quickly and efficiently, with the Financial Services, Specialist Engineering, and I.T. being amongst the industries leading growth and all greatly dependant on technology. There has been an increase of higher skilled workers commanding higher pay, within some industries; these include advanced manufacturing, creative and digital sectors (HM Treasury, 2011). Evidence shows those with higher skills and qualifications are more likely to remain employed; high-lighting the importance of high skills on job market outcomes. Research shows a drop in real wages of roughly 2% each year since 2010. (UKES 2014). By the end of 2013, real wages were roughly at levels of a decade previous. Removal of the default retirement age and changes to pension schemes, has seen individuals working longer, putting pressures on employers to ensure their policies and practices relate to older employees, and older employees needing to constantly retrain to meet the demands of different roles across their working life. There has been a drop of 19,000 people on Government supported training programmes. Public sector employment has also fallen, with numbers at lowest levels since comparable records began in 1999. However there has been a significant increase within private sector. Although it still exists there has been a reduction in the gender pay gap. IFS research shows an average difference in womens pay compared to means is 18%. This increases again after women have children. Freedom of movement within an ever growing EU, in addition to an increase in migration from outside the EU, has brought a large number of migrants into the UK looking for work; the number of non-UK nationals employed in the UK grew from 986,000 to 3.22 million 2015) between September 1997 and 2015. Many of which are employed in low-skilled work. Women, people from minority ethnic groups, people with disabilities, and those aged under 25 and over 55 years are all more likely to be either unemployed or economically inactive (Brewer et al., 2012). More women in the workplace, with more part time roles, and family friendly policies available. 1971 37% climbing to 69% by September 2015. The number of employed has increased to just over 4.1 million between 1992 and 2013; those over-50 increasing by 3.2 million, under-25s falling by almost 800,000. By 2013 the number of over 50s increased to 29% from 21% in 1992. 16 to 64 year-olds with a degree or higher-level qualification increased to +20% in the last 20 years. 2014, approximately 24% of employees were classified as professionals in the UK. Goods and services traded globally, are now five times the value in 1980. 2: Employment relationships are both an economic exchange (agreement to give wages for work) and a power relation (employee agrees to accept the employers authority). The psychological contract (Rousseau 1995), relies upon reciprocal expectations between the employer and employee being met. If violated employees may become de-motivated, and inefficient. Organisations have a huge variety of methods available to them, which involve the employee in the decision making process, making them feel valued and motivated which in turn, supports both the traditional and the psychological contract, enabling a positive working relationship, innovation, and high performing teams, these include: Participation empowers and motivates the employee by involving them in decision making. Teams are also trusted to make decisions for themselves, and encouraged to take responsibility for the quality of their own work. Examples include project groups, whereby employees are delegated resposnisbility to make important decisions, suggestion schemes providing employees with a channel to make comments and put forward new ideas, delegation of responsibility to employees at all levels, particulalry those on the front line and multi directional decision making allowing decisions to feed not only top down, but upwards and sideways too. Employee participation is also sometimes referred to as Employee Involvement. Employee Involvement is the level of employee contribution. A one-on-one approach between employee and management. Employee is involved throughout the decision-making process, therefore encouraging employee ownership. Information is the methods used by organisations to communicate information to their employees e.g. newsletters, information pinned to notice boards, informal networking, emails, and a combination of cascaded briefings, face-to-face communication from senior management and employee representatives. Consultation is the process used by organisations toconsult both directly with their employees, via face-to-face upwards communication, or staff surveys for example, and indirectly via employee representatives. e.g. Joint consultation review issues deemed to be of common interest/ importance to all parties, at unionised/non-union workplaces, predominantly private sector Collective representation Predominantly in public sector and some large private sector businesses. Involves negotiation between employee representatives (unionised/non union) and senior management on pay and other conditions of employment. Partnership schemes employee representatives and employers stress mutual gains. Tackle issues via co-operation. There is a high commitment to sharing information. Employee forums groups of mixed groups unionised/non-union employees meet with managers to share information and consultation. Employees can have a significant influence on the outcome. Partnership working is where employers and employees and/or their representatives work collaboratively to make decisions and plan actions. Partnership can take shape in a formal agreement between an employer and a trade union, but it is also used to refer to a way of working in co-operation (Reilly, 2001). Employee relations today, includes both collective and individual relationships, with alternative direct and indirect channels for employee voice emerging, including communication and involvement via team briefings, staff surveys, project working groups, social media, joint consultation, collective bargaining etc. Although union membership within the UK has fallen since 1980s, and employment relations without the involvement of unions is the norm within some industries, collective bargaining still has a considerable influence on European labour regulations. Typically where an organisation is unionised a significant number of employees will be members. Unions will bargain on behalf of the employee, and/or intervene with disputes between employees and management. As they represent large number of employees they are much harder for management to ignore. They can also protect the employee from victimisation. Another major benefit of belonging to a unionised organisation is that management can be legally bound to take procedures more seriously. In addition, unions have the power to threaten industrial action. Trade unions are still a strong force, primarily in the public sector, and large private sector companies. The majority of working population however, do not have access to union representation. Some parts of the public sector do not recognise trade unions; impacting on collective bargaining, representation in grievance, disciplinary matters etc, within large parts of the private sector. Smaller firms use more informal relations for consultation, using intermediaries offering advice primarily on the internet and in publications. However, many small firms operate without procedures and as such can lead to inconsistencies in employment relations. Non-union consultative committees are becoming common place in private sector, filling part of the gap generated by the decline in collective bargaining; the consultation process giving access to management enabling dialogue. In redundancy situations where no trade unions is recognised, non-union employee representatives must be advised and consulted of redundancies of +20 employees is proposed within a 30 day period. Bryson found that direct voice makes a particular difference in union settings suggesting that more channels makes for an employee voice with more impact. Elgar defines employee voice as the ways and means through which employees attempt to have a say and potentially influence organisational affairs about issues that affect their work and the interests of managers and owners. With a mixture of direct and indirect consultation and communication methods leading to higher levels of commitment, job satisfaction and job discretion. Initially employee voice was firmly equated with trade unions and collective bargaining, but more recently is viewed as a broad range of methods enabling employees to have a say about their organisation; it can be via both formal and informal systems, direct individual channels or indirect collective representation (CIPD 2010). Mechanisms can include one-to-one conversation between employee and employer, email communication, work/project groups, social events, suggestion schemes, profit-sharing, employee consultative committees and trade union representation. Research generally supports the notion that employee voice is beneficial to the working relationship of both the individual and the organisation; where employees are allowed to express their views and opinions, put forward suggestions for improvements, they feel recognised and valued. Data shows employee,employer relationships improve as trust increases and employee engagement and in turn performance increases. (Morrison et al. 2011). Farndale et al. (2011), argues that employee voice enables employees to communicate their views, and creates the belief that their contributions are valued, creating a level of respect and trust for their managers. Employee voice allows employees to feel recognised, listened to and valued, conversely, if no mechanisms for employee voice exist, or employees believe their views will have little or no influence it is likely to affect their attitudes and relationship with management (Farndale et al 2011). Truss et al. (2006) argues that one of the major drivers of employee engagement is employees being able to feed their opinions upwards. Research therefore suggests that there is likely to be a link between employee perceptions of voice and engagement, and increased engagement is proven to increase performance. 3: Organisational misbehaviour is defined as any intentional action made by members of an organisation that defies and violates shared organisational norms and expectations, and/or core societal values, mores and standards of proper conduct. (Yoav Vardi and Yoash Wiener 1996). Misbehaviour can be both minor e.g. poor timekeeping, and major e.g. stealing company resources. It can be internal and external, with the main aim being to hurt/damage others or the organisation, e.g. mistreatment, disruption and theft. Misbehaviour usually occurs where an employee: feels that they have been unfairly treated, unclear of job role bullying and harassment in workplace lack of training lack of equality and choose to repay this perceived unfairness by mibehaving. Misbehaviour inevitably leads to more management controls. Conflict in the workplace can take many forms including: an employee becoming withdrawn from the organisation, two workers who are not getting on, employee representatives and management at stand-off, an employee with a grievance, rivalry between teams, or a lack of trust and co-operation between employees and management. Where conflict exists, an organisation may experience a drop in motivation and in turn a drop in productivity, increased absenteeism, and increased negativity on staff surveys, and a general change in behaviour. By listening to employee views can help identify conflict, and take action to prevent the conflict becoming a problem. If conflict is not managed it can lead to strike action or even tribunal claims; Intervention at an early stage by management is crucial. When negotiation cannot resolve a workplace dispute industrial action typically follows. The three main forms of industrial action are: strike action short of a strike work to rule, overtime ban, or go slow lock-out the employer stops employees from working Official industrial action is authorised by the trade union. Employees have a minimum level of protection. Employees have additional protection where the union has appropriately balloted its members. Unofficial industrial action is action which has not been endorsed by any trade union. There is usually no right to argue unfair dismissal, if dismissed whilst taking part in unofficial action. Some conflicts are extremely visible. e.g., a heated exchange between two employees, or a stand off between management and an employee representative, and may result in misbehaviour. Organisational misbehaviour is defined as any intentional action made by members of an organisation that defies and violates shared organisational norms and expectations, and/or core societal values, mores and standards of proper conduct. (Vardi and Wiener 1996). e.g unauthorised absence, pilfering or sabotage. Conflict that is ignored will frequently escalate Recent industrial action trends are: Increase in private sector strikes however public sector lost significantly more days due to large scale strikes A decline in collective conflict increase in individual conflict, including strike, grievance or disciplinary measures Significant drop in strikes since 1980s mainly due to reduced trade union density and collective bargaining, and partnership working with employers. (WERS) average days lost fell to 0.5 million by 21st century 1999 employment tribunal cases soared +100,000, peaking again in 2006/7 with 132,500 applications Pay is the principal cause of labour disputes with the exception of 2009/2010, principal cause was redundancy The number of ballots up to 650, from 484 in 2013. Increase in multiple claims. Majority relating to equal pay claims against local authorities due to 1997 national agreement to seek single status of pay across employees. It is vital that managers are trained to enable them to deal with conflict. To help managers handle conflict they should: be trained to recognise signs of conflict, handle difficult conversations, manage absence, mediation and negotiation skills speak to their employees and letting them speak freely investigate conflict situations, and give sufficient time to finding resolution encourage open communication and expression of views in meetings and appraisals for example recognise the importance of feelings listen to what their employees are saying identify development and training opportunities explain and include employees in planning treat all employees fairly ensure safe working conditions have clear procedures particularly discipline, grievance, dispute procedures, absence and bullying and harrassment to ensure consistency write mediation into contracts of employment and/or grievance and disciplinary procedures identify when outside help is needed Third party involvement Where a dispute cannot be resolved using negotiation, unions and management may agree to approach Acas to resolve the dispute using conciliation, via independent support and advice. 70% cases who used ACAS, were settled or withdrawn before proceeding to an Employment Tribunal. Conciliation is used when a potential or an actual claim has been made to an employment tribunal. An impartial, independent person supporting two or more people in dispute to resolve their differences. Parties are not required to come face to face, as can be conducted over the phone. Pre-Claim Conciliation(PCC) saves time, money and stress. It promotes a quick solution for the employer and employee which may help to avoid a permanent breakdown in the relationship. Mediation is the most widespread form of conflict resolution. It is a form of early intervention and involves an impartial, independent person, or trained employee supporting two individuals/groups reach resolution, and maintain working relationships. Mediation does not make any judgments or determine the outcomes. They use appropriate tried and tested techniques to get people talking and listening and help determine the underlying causes of the problem. The mediator will try to get the parties to compromise and protect their working relationship for the future. The plus side of this method is, it can improve communication between parties, get them talking again when relationship had broken down, it is without prejudice and is flexible so resolution can be tailored to fit. However, the downside of this method includes, success is determined by how competent the mediator, it may not protect legal rights, and is relient on employee full co-operation and good faith, if pertinent parties are missing the process is weakened. Arbitration is a dispute which is settled by an independent person who considers everyones point of view and then issues a decision which is binding. An employee who believes they have been unfairly dismissed, has a complaint under the flexible working regulations, may have their complaint heard by an independent arbitrator who is appointed by Acas, if both sides agree. The plus side of this process is, it is completely confidential, it is formal and therefore minimises bad faith, it is quicker than the courts as there is less backlog, and the process is much shorter and therefore much less expensive. On the downside, success is dependent upon the arbitrator, right of appeal is limited, and confidentiality is not suitable in all disputes. Government has hi-lighted the importance of mediation in the workplace and extended the use of conciliation in-order to encourage the resolution of workplace disputes. 2012/13, over half of the cases (22,630) referred to PCC were resolved with less than a third progressing to tribunal (Acas, 2013). References ACAS. (2008). Conflict_at_work. Available: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/f/j/Acas_Research_Conflict_at_work_03_08-accessible-version-July-2011.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. ACAS. (2014). Managing Conflict and Resolving Individual Employment Disputes in the Contemporary Workplace. Available: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/6/9/reframing_policy_paper_FINAL.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. ACAS. (2016). Disputes and conflict in the workplace. Available: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1662. Last accessed 25.09.16. ACAS. (2014). Workplace Dispute Resolution and the Management of Individual Conflict . Available: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/q/a/0614-Workplace-Dispute-Resolution-Thematic-Review.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. Alessandra Sgubini, Mara Prieditis Andrea Marighetto. (2004). Arbitration, Mediation and Conciliation: differences and similarities from an International and Italian business perspective. Available: http://www.mediate.com/articles/sgubinia2.cfm. Last accessed 25.09.16. Anne Sharpe. (2014). Early Conciliation. Available: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4018. Last accessed 25.09.16. CIPD. (2012). Managing employee relations in difficult times. Available: https://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/managing-employee-relations-in-difficult-times_2012.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. CIPD. (2015). Employment Regulations and the market. Available: https://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/employment-regulation-and-themarket_2015.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. CIPD. (2010). Voice and engagement: how does collective consultation contribute? . Available: http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/5149_Voice_and_engagement.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. Craig Holmes and Ken Mayhew. (2012). The Changing Shape of the UK Job Market. Available: http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The-Changing-Shape-of-the-UK-Job-Market.pdf. Last accessed 25.09.16. DifferenceBetween.com. (2014). difference-between-employee-involvement-and-vs-employee-participation. Available: http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-employee-involvement-and-vs-employee-participation/. Last accessed 25.09.16. Rees, C., Alfes, K . and Gatenby, M. . (2013). Employee voice and engagement: connections and consequences. Available: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/23168236/postprint_IJHRM_2013.pdf. 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Childhood Conduct Disorder Essay -- Diseases/Disorders

Introduction: A History and Brief Overview of Conduct Disorder Conduct Disorder has been a part of the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic Statistical Manuel (DSM) since its original release date in 1994. Although, there is new information about the disorder that was previously unknown, Conduct Disorder is distinguished by a â€Å"repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms or rules are violated† (American Psychiatric Association, 1994.) This mild, moderate, or severe antisocial behavior begins to appear either in childhood, categorized as early-onset conduct disorder , or in adolescence after ten years of age, classified as adolescent-onset conduct disorder (Passamonti et al., 2010.) The criteria to meet to be diagnosed with this disorder are separated into four subgroups: aggressive conduct, nonaggressive conduct, deceitfulness or theft, and serious violations of the rules. Three or more incidents must be present in the past twelve months with at le ast one of the characteristics being present in the past six months. This disorder causes severe impairment of functioning across a variety of situations so it is important to keep in mind society and individual situations because this diagnosis may be â€Å"misapplied to individuals in settings where patterns of undesirable behavior are sometimes viewed as protective† (American Psychiatric Association, 1994.) For example, a patient that has recently relocated from a war torn country would most likely not be a candidate for Conduct disorder even though he or she may exhibit some of the characteristics. An interesting distinction between the two subcategories is that those diagnosed with early-onset Conduct Dis... ...004). Childhood Adversity, Monoamine Oxidase A Genotype, and Risk for Conduct Disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 738-744. Lahey et al. (2004). Predicting Future Antisocial Personality Disorder in Males from a Clinical Assessment in Childhood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 389-399. Maughn et al. (2004). Prenatal Smoking and Early Childhood Conduct Problems. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 836-843. Milich, R., Widiger, T. & Landau, S. (1987). Differential Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder Using Conditional Probabilities. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 726-767. Miller, G. E. & Prinz, R. J. (1990). Enhancement of Social Learning Family Interventions for Childhood Conduct Disorder. Psychological Bulletin. Passamonti et al. (2010). Neural Abnormalities in Early-Onset and Adolescent-Onset Conduct Disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 729-738.

The Giver’s Compassion for Jonas :: The Giver Essays

The Giver’s Compassion for Jonas Jonas’ community is ordered and ruled. Everything is same: their clothes, houses and lives. People follow the rules until they die. They know nothing about the true human life. The receiver of memory, the giver, is the only person who is able to the true pleasure of life. When Jonas is elected as the receiver of memory by the community and meets the Giver, his life is changed. Everything he believes in was controlled and hidden the real human life by the community. He is getting to realize that he will not be able to stay in the community any more and starts to find his own and comfort place. I would like to focus on describing the Giver’ compression for Jonas because I do think that this book can not be described without him. In the book, the Giver is described as an old man, always staying and keeping his sadness for the community alone. He is the only person who really knows what is going on in the community and its people. His role is to give the community advice and help, when they face something that they have not experienced. The community needs the Giver, even thought they have a long history, already fixed its structure, rarely ask the Giver advice. â€Å"They know nothing,† The Giver said bitterly (p.105). He feels sad and helpless for the community, because they reject to have memory and choose painless and predictable life. Memory includes not only in sadness, pain, and evil of human life but also in real happiness and pleasure of human life. The Giver likes to have the memory, however he feels loneliness not to share the memory with people, regret to receive the memory, and bitterness that the community would keep this condition forever. He can not find out the possibility to chang e the entire community. Even though Jonas asked the Giver to come with him, he can not escape form the place and has to take care of the community (p.161-162). The Giver’s compassion in the story is not only for the community but also for Jonas. He must be confused and struggling because he already knows the train will be hard and control the most important parts of the human, which includes the feelings like love, warmth, sadness, patience, and pleasure.

Equal pay act Essay -- essays research papers

Chapter 1: The Scenario   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story begins at a local Wal-Mart super center, its Friday, payday. As employees open their paychecks they are awaiting their annual raise. As one employee, Sue opens up her paycheck she finds she has not yet received a raise; she has waited all year for this raise. She is very sad to find she did not receive one, she begins to think maybe she did something wrong. She starts to think back through the year, and can not seem to come up with any solutions as to why she did not receive one. She really felt she worked especially hard that year in hopes to receive a good raise and really felt she deserved to be recognized for it. In the break room she overhears John, her follow co-worker, bragging to their colleague’s about his second raise. Now John is making $1.25 more per hour than her even though they both have been working at Wal-Mart for two years. They both have the same job descriptions and titles so there should not be differences in their pay. Sue ca n not quite understand why he received two when she only received one. She has seen him numerous times being tardy for work or calling in sick. She knows she is a better worker and is more efficient. Sue recently took a human resource class at Buffalo State College and she remembers learning about a law regarding equal pay. She can’t seem to recall the specifics, so she is determined to look into it further and fix the problem. Chapter 2 Sue: The Victim Sue is a 35 year old divorcee and mother of two young children. For the past ten years or so she has been doing similar work in retail that pays mediocre wages and that have given her good benefits. About two years ago Sue got was laid off from her last job. She applied at many different entry-level positions, as she has no other experience. She does not receive a lot of child support from her ex-husband so Sue relies on the income she brings in to support her and her two children. When Wal-Mart called Sue for an interview, she was so relieved and excited about the opportunity. Wal-Mart hired Sue; she was told that she would start above minimum because of her ten years experience in the field. She was also told that all full-time employees, based upon work performance, receive an annual raise of a dollar each year of their employment. Sue also received a 401k plan. Sue was excited, she hoped to slowl... ...to review stale pay practices will find themselves unable to retain these valuable employees as well as risk being in breach of the federal civil rights laws. It should be encouraged that all employers closely examine their salary policies in order to identify and voluntarily eliminate pay discrepancies based solely on gender. Chapter 7: Sue’s New Lifestyle   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After winning her court case and receiving her deserved compensation Sue found another job that would ensure she would never be discriminated by pay again. Sue is a manager at Victoria’s Secret where she feels more comfortable around women like her, and most important of all she is treated the way she should be. Sue also used some of her settlement money to move into a nicer place. She is much happier in an apartment that does not have any water leaks and her children are safer and better cared for. Sue spends her spare time as an advocate for women’s rights. In the end Sue is glad that she spoke up against her mistreatment, and has helped several other women with similar situations where they did not have the courage to speak up. this paper is in the form of a story on the equal pay act

Reigniting Your Passion for God Essay

The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture and all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go and say, â€Å"I’m going to do something with my life today.† Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull. God created you with the emotions to have passion in your life and He wants you to live a passionate life for Him. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no man’s gone before. Passion is what causes scientists to spend late night hours trying to find the cure to a dreaded disease. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete where they’r e breaking records. You’ve got to have passion in your life. One day a man walks up to Jesus and he says, â€Å"Lord, what’s the most important thing in the Bible?† And you know what the Great Commandment is. We’ve talked about it many times. Jesus said, â€Å"I want you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Nothing matters more than that. That’s the number one thing in life. I want you to love Me passionately.† Nothing else matters in life if you don’t love God with passion. God doesn’t want you to love Him half-heartedly. He wants you to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. I love the paraphrase of that verse, Mark 11:30, from The Message â€Å"Jesus said, ’Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.† Circle the word â€Å"passion†. That word, in Greek, is the word â€Å"heart.† God is saying I want you to put some muscle into it, put some energy, put some emotion into your relationship with Me. Don’t be a wimp about your relationship with Me. Don’t be namby-pamby. Don’t be half-hearted. Give it all you’ve got. Jesus is saying, â€Å"If you’re going to follow Me, you’ve got to go it with passion. You’ve got to give it some oomph, some spark, some zip, some enthusiasm, some zest. In other words I want you to live your life with me passionately.† In fact, this truth is all through the Bible. The Bible tells us that we’re to seek God passionately. We’re to love God passionately. The Bible says that we’re to serve and obey God passionately. We’re to trust God passionately. Then as if you didn’t get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says â€Å"Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men.† He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me. Here’s the amazing thing. In America it’s ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct — to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants. But I cannot be passionate about God. That’s a no-no. I typed in the phrase â€Å"a passion for†¦Ã¢â‚¬  into Amazon.com and found a couple hundred books with that title. There’s a book call A Passion for Birds, A Passion for Books, A Passion for Cactus, A Passion for Chocolate (that’s understandable), A Passion for Fashion, †¦ for Fishing†¦ for Flying, †¦ for Gardening, †¦ Golf, Hunting. There’s even a book called A Passion For Mushrooms. A Passion for Needlepoint, Pasta, Ponies. There’s a book called, A Passion for Potatoes, for Roses, for Shoes. There’s even a book called A Passion for Steam. I can’t figure out what that one’s all about! I don’t know why you’d get passionate about steam. But in our culture today it’s ok to be passionate about anything except your religion, except your faith, except your relationship with God. I can go to a concert, or a political rally or a baseball game and I can shout my head off. I can get excited. I can get hoarse from yelling so loud. When my team loses I could cry. Nobody thinks that’s a big deal. When my team wins I can jump up and dance around and wave my hands in the air. If I do that at a game people go, â€Å"He’s a real fan!† But if I do that in church people say, â€Å"He’s a fanatic! He’s a nut case.† You don’t want to get too emotional about your faith. Its ok about anything else but not that. Romans 12:1 â€Å"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor.† Keep the fires going in your life. Circle the word â€Å"keep.† Notice, it’s not automatic. It’s a choice. It’s a discipline. It’s something you must maintain. You are not by nature passionate about God. It’s something that you must choose to do. You get distracted and everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate about God. So He says keep your passion going. Keep the fires going. It’s a discipline. It’s not just automatic. This kind of thing — being passionate about God has nothing to do with either your personality or your age. Our churches are filled with hundreds if not thousands of senior believers who have walked with God a long, long time and are still passionate. But everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate. And it dissipates your energy. When you first become a believer and you really understand what a good deal you’ve got you get excited about it, â€Å"This is quite a big deal! All my sins were forgiven. I now have a purpose for living, and I now have a future home in heaven. What a deal! And you get excited about that when you give your life to Christ and you’re pretty passionate. But as time goes by you begin to lose your steam. You begin to lose your zip, your zest, your enthusiasm. What happened? Why does that happen? That’s what we’re going to look at today. As we go through God’s word we’re going to look at seven passion killers, things that rob the joy out of your life. I thought this would be a very appropriate message, right in the middle of winter, when nobody feels very passionate about much of anything. You want the warmth of summer back. So this morning we’re going to look at these passion killers together. I want you to use it as a checklist. Because God says, I want you to love Me with all of your heart.

Early Childhood Intervention Services on Social Performance Essay

Based on many researches, surveys, and studies conducted recently, the early intensive intervention method showed a significant outcome for children having autism. The behavioral approach as intervention on preschoolers with the said disorder showed an affirmative short- and long-term effect (Anderson, Avery, DiPietro, Edwards, & Christian, 1987; Fenske, Zalenski, Krantz, & McClannahan, 1985; McEachin, Smith, & OI, 1993). It was said that results showed a partial to nearly complete recovery from symptoms of autism where the most hopeful and positive result suggests a nearly 50% recovery through intensive early intervention (Handleman, Harris, Celiberti, Lilleheht, & Tomchek, 1991; Hoyson, 1984; Lord & Schopler, 1989; Lovaas, 1987; Sheinkopf & Siegel, 1998). The reported improvement was based on the outcomes from â€Å"standardized pre-post test scores† and at times, was based on behavioral outcomes (Handleman, Harris, Celiberti, Lilleheht, & Tomchek, 1991; Hoyson, 1984; Lord & Schopler, 1989; Lovaas, 1987; Sheinkopf & Siegel, 1998). Also, in contrast to the previous approximations that implied only 50% of all children have a chance to learn to use â€Å"functional speech†, more recent approximations as based from participating children under early intervention showed at least 85% to 90% of these children can utilize the functional speech if intervention begins in the preschool stage (Koegel, 2000). The intricacy in terms of mutual social interactions involved in autism disorders paved way to the need of early identification of this disorder to children because of the significant advantages that resulted if early intervention is performed. It is also this same complex nature on the social feature of autism that led to formulation of early intervention programs. But to date, there are few intervention programs that focus on the enhancement of social interactions to peer groups and siblings since most programs formulated were on â€Å"child-adult† interactions (Koegel, Koegel, & Frea, 2001). There is also the inadequate outcome of these programs on the child’s â€Å"true† functioning in his or her natural environment such as social and behavioral improvements because most outcomes are based on the alterations of the child’s IQ scores and post-intervention assignments (Koegel, Koegel, & Smith, 1997). It was also noted that few assessment studies were conducted on the consequences or results of early intervention programs on autistic children less than three years of age since the knowledge of possibility for practitioners to diagnose autism prior to age three was only recent. CHAPTER 1 The Historical Viewpoint behind Early Childhood Intervention Programs The concept that brain development can be manipulated during the early childhood period necessitates the need for early treatment or intervention of autism since this imposes a greater chance of success and the possibility of a long-term treatment being prevented and reduced (Ornitz, 1973). The trainings in communication, social learning, and self-help skills from the family, school, community, peers, and group can further help autistic children on their social and emotional development. In an early intervention program, the factors being evaluated that become indicator if improvement occurred are age and IQ. There are studies showing that the incidence of a higher IQ and an earlier age at the start of intervention is a positive predictor of better chances of recovery and better outcomes (Gabriel, Hill, Pierce, Rogers, & Wehner, 2001; Handleman, Harris, Celiberti, Lilleheht, & Tomchek, 1991). Recently, the recognized predictor of intervention outcome in the language and peer aspect is the stage of the child with autism on peer social avoidance after under intervention program for six months (Ingersoll, Schreibman, & Stahmer, 2001). Peer social avoidance is described as the frequency of the child’s avoidance near peers. Some studies showed a noteworthy connection of the child’s use of joint attention behaviors and later communicative language improvement (Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1990). These joint attention behaviors include eye gaze alternation and pointing. There is also a study demonstrating that child initiations anticipate very high favorable treatment outcomes (Koegel, Koegel, Shoshan, & McNerney, 1999). Child initiations are defined as the start of a new interaction or changing where the interaction is headed for. These three characteristics namely peer avoidance, joint attention, and initiations are described in nature as exceedingly analogous. They are also called as intervention target behaviors. Before early intervention or treatment services are done, a proper and thorough evaluation of the child with autism should be conducted to identify the appropriate approach to conduct (Shackelford, 2002). First, this assessment should be performed by a trained staff to work on a suitable methods and procedures to be followed. Secondly, it should be based on â€Å"informed clinical opinion† from skilled medical professional for the said specialization. And lastly, there should be a review of the relevant records that would be applicable in evaluating the child’s current health and medical history and child’s level of functioning on the critical development areas such as cognitive, physical (including vision and hearing, communication, social or emotional, and adaptive aspects (Shackelford, 2002). As defined, the term â€Å"early intervention† generally refers to program options for the child with autism at six years of age and below (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). There are many described and formulated different early intervention options specifically center-based programs for children with an array of developmental delays, conventional and expert preschool programs, center-based programs specializing in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), home-based programs on a certain therapy approach, specific therapies from particular clinics, agencies that organize the early intervention personnel to visit the child’s home on a regular or semi-regular basis or outreach service, and programs that are investigated and organized with parents (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). There are many different types of services offered under the early intervention program. These are family support services, funded specialist programs, non-funded specialist programs, specific therapies, alternative therapies, and behavioral assistance services. Many family support services are available (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). Example is the â€Å"Early Childhood Intervention Services† from the Department of Human Services that funds support programs like â€Å"Early Choices† and â€Å"Making a Difference† for a successful implementation of these programs. The local councils can also render this support service as they are funded too to provide such (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). The support and information service under family support services can help families through immediate guidance, sensible and emotional support, and provision of necessary information regarding autism through library, information packages and tip sheets, and published magazines (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). The funded specialist programs are funded under the Department of Human Services purposely for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). These are center-based programs and outreach programs (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). But still, funding is greatly limited and these funded programs are only available to offer services just a not so many hours per week. Outreach programs are where trained personnel visit the patient in his or her home, or are community based services such as child care or preschool for autistic children. The non-funded specialist programs are programs that do not receive funding from the federal government (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). Example of this is the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The ABA is a home-based therapy that is structured in pattern to the work of Dr. Ivar Lovaas (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). The format of this program is one-to-one instruction, and support and strengthening. But an ABA trained teacher or psychologist is the only one certified to develop and supervise the program. On the other hand, only the parent and/or trained ABA therapists can carry out the teaching conferences. It is known that ABA program outcomes are positive but still, as usual, the outcomes vary from child to child. The only possible disadvantages being seen are on the financial and time viewpoints, that is, it is expensive and not all families can afford it (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). Another type of service for early intervention is the conduction of specific therapies. These trained therapists are those already skilled in executing therapies in relation to autism (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). These are the psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, early intervention teachers, physiotherapists, music therapists, and dance and movement therapists. Most of these therapists are in private practice and have explicit professional fees. Some families are able to secure funding from support programs while others have to pay it on their own. In year 2006, the federal government tried to include mental health conditions in Medicare insurances to help families to lessen expenditures if therapy is the proper approach to the autism condition of the child (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). The identified alternative therapies are those treatments or approaches that showed constant positive outcomes (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). These are usually the educationally and/or behaviorally based programs (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). These programs are intensive, planned, ordered, and long-standing. There is no instant approach. The behavioral assistance programs are more often than not where parents ask for help (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). In view thereof, Gateways Support Services developed an interactive website with a large data bank as guidance for these parents (â€Å"Early Intervention†, 2007). Researchers and educators have debated the question of how communication goals and objectives for children with autism and related disabilities should be derived. The perspective espoused by traditional behavioral programs has been to establish goals and objectives a priori (Lovaas, 1987). Behavioral discrete-trial programs begin with general compliance training to get a child to sit in a chair, look at the clinician, and imitate nonverbal behavior in response to verbal commands. Speech is taught as a verbal behavior, and objectives are targeted beginning with verbal imitation, following one-step commands, receptive discrimination of body parts, objects, person names and pictures, and expressive labeling in response to questions. Later, language objectives include prepositions, pronouns, same or different and yes or no. More contemporary behavioral approaches have developed goals for outcomes from a functional assessment. Goals and objectives are individualized, based on a child’s repertoire of communicative behaviors, teaching functional equivalents of challenging behavior, and addressing the child’s individual needs. The functional emphasis focuses on goals that affect a child’s access to choices of activities in which to participate, opportunities for social interaction, and community settings (Brown, 2006). Contemporary behavioral programs emphasize teaching communication skills so that greater access is provided to a variety of people, places and events, thereby enhancing the quality of life of children with autistic spectrum disorders. The perspective espoused by developmentally oriented approaches has been to focus on the communicative meaning of behaviors and to target goals and objectives that enhance a child’s communicative competence by moving the child along a developmental progression (Ornitz, 1973). Contemporary developmentalists begin with social-communicative goals, including gaze to regulate interaction, sharing positive affect, communicative functions, and gestural communication. Language goals are mapped onto social communication skills and are guided by a developmental framework (Koegel, Koegel, & Frea, 2001). Developmental perspective usually guides the goal-setting in an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention. Beukelman and Mirenda (1998) state that the goals of an AAC intervention are to assist individuals with severe communication disorders to become communicatively competent in the present, with the view toward meeting their future communication needs (Lovaas, 1987). One major purpose of communication assessment is to document change as an outcome measure of treatment. However, most formal or standardized language assessment measures focus primarily on language form and rely on elicited responses. Because language impairments associated with autism are most apparent in social-communicative or pragmatic aspects of language, formal assessment instruments can provide information about only a limited number of aspects of communication for children with autism (Shackelford, 2002). Formal language measures are especially imprecise in measuring nonverbal aspects of communication and therefore are not sufficient, particularly for low-functioning children with autism. In many situations, the tests used for pre- and post-assessment are different, due to the child’s increasing age, making interpretation of results difficult. Another major purpose of assessment is to provide information for educational planning that can be directly translated into goals, strategies, and outcome measures for communication enhancement. Several communication abilities have been identified as important to assess for children with autism like use of eye gaze and facial expression for social referencing and to regulate interaction, range of communicative functions expressed, rate of communicating, use of gestures and vocal/verbalizations, use of repair strategies, understanding of conventional meanings, and ability to engage in conversation (Shackelford, 2002). It is pointed out that communicative abilities of children with autism should be documented in natural communicative exchanges, with a child’s symbolic abilities serving as a developmental frame of reference (Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1990). To supplement formal measures, the systematic use of informal procedures to assess language and communication is needed. In order to gather an accurate picture of the communication and symbolic abilities of children with autism, a combination of assessment strategies has been recommended that includes interviewing significant others (i. e. , parents, teachers) and observing in everyday situations to find out how a child communicates in the home, classroom, and other daily settings (Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1990). Although there is consensus on the importance of enhancing communication abilities for children with autism, intervention approaches vary greatly, and some even appear to be diametrically opposed (Koegel, 2000). The methodological rigor in communication intervention studies in terms of internal and external validity and measures of generalization has been stronger than in many other areas of autism intervention studies. Nevertheless, there have been relatively few prospective studies with controls for maturation, expectancy, or experimenter artifacts. The strongest studies in terms of internal validity have been multiple baseline, ABAB, or similar designs that have included controls for blindness of evaluations (Koegel, 2000). There have been almost no studies with random assignment, although about 70 percent of the studies included well-defined cohorts of adequate sample size or replication across three or more subjects in single subject designs. A substantial proportion of communication interventions have also included some assessment of generalization, though most often not in a natural setting (Koegel, 2000). In order to examine the critical elements of treatment programs that affect the speech, language, and communication skills of children with autism. It is then useful to characterize the active ingredients of treatment approaches along a continuum—from traditional, discrete trial approaches to more contemporary behavioral approaches that used naturalistic language teaching techniques to developmentally oriented approaches (Koegel, 2000). The earliest research efforts at teaching speech and language to children with autism used massed discrete trial methods to teach verbal behavior by building labeling vocabulary and simple sentences. Lovaas (1987) provided the most detailed account of the procedures for language training using discrete trial approaches. Outcomes of discrete trial approaches have included improvements in IQ scores, which are correlated with language skills, and improvements in communication domains of broader measures, such as the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (McEachin, Smith, & OI, 1993). A limitation of a discrete trial approach in language acquisition is the lack of spontaneity and generalization. Lovaas (1987) stated that â€Å"the training regime†¦its use of ‘unnatural’ reinforcers, and the like may have been responsible for producing the very situation-specific, restricted verbal output which we observed in many of our children†. In a review of research on discrete trial approaches, Koegel (2000) noted that â€Å"not only did language fail to be exhibited or generalize to other environments, but most behaviors taught in this highly controlled environment also failed to generalize†. There is now a large body of empirical support for more contemporary behavioral approaches using naturalistic teaching methods that demonstrate efficacy for teaching not only speech and language, but also communication. According to Koegel 2000, there are many approaches that could be considered that include natural language paradigms (Koegel et al. , 1987), incidental teaching (Hart, 1985; McGee et al. , 1985; McGee et al. , 1999), time delay and milieu intervention (Charlop et al. , 1985; Charlop and Trasowech, 1991; Hwang and Hughes, 2000; Kaiser, 1993; Kaiser et al. , 1992), and pivotal response training (Koegel, 1995; Koegel et al. , 1998). These approaches use systematic teaching trials that have several common active ingredients: they are initiated by the child and focus on the child’s interest; they are interspersed and embedded in the natural environment; and they use natural reinforcers that follow what the child is trying to communicate. Only a few studies, all using single-subject designs, have compared traditional discrete trial with naturalistic behavioral approaches. These studies have reported that naturalistic approaches are more effective at leading to generalization of language gains to natural contexts (Koegel 2000). There are numerous intervention approaches based on a developmental framework. While there are many different developmental programs, a common feature of developmental approaches is that they are child-directed. The environment is arranged to provide opportunities for communication, the child initiates the interaction or teaching episode, and the teacher or communicative partner follows the child’s lead by being responsive to the child’s communicative intentions, and imitating or expanding the child’s behavior. Although the empirical support for developmental approaches is more limited than for behavioral approaches, there are several treatment studies that provide empirical support for language outcomes using specific strategies built on a developmental approach providing the largest case review. Developmental approaches share many common active ingredients with contemporary naturalistic behavioral approaches and are compatible along most dimensions. Many researches had been done on the effectiveness of â€Å"early intervention† because a proper selection of goal when dealing the autistic spectrum disorder should be done since the disorder is characterized of many complexities that treating it also involves critical selection of approach. In general, it was shown that researches on these intervention programs had focused on the effectiveness of the programs and not the appropriateness of different goals. For example is knowing a certain intervention program to be effective but the parent and child had to travel across town once a week for the said program or the child is taken out from class in order to be treated by his therapist. Educational objectives must be based on specific behaviors targeted for planned interventions. However, one of the questions that arises repeatedly, both on a theoretical and on a clinical basis, is how specific a link has to be between a long-term goal and a behavior targeted for intervention. Some targeted behaviors, such as toilet training or acquisition of functional spoken language, provide immediately discernible practical benefits for a child and his or her family. However, in many other cases, both in regular education and specialized early intervention, the links between the objectives used to structure what a child is taught and the child’s eventual independent, socially responsible functioning are much less obvious. This is particularly the case for preschool children, for whom play and manipulation of toys (e. g. , matching, stacking of blocks) are primary methods of learning and relating to other children. Often, behaviors targeted in education or therapy are not of immediate practical value but are addressed because of presumed links to overall educational goals. The structuring of activities in which a child can succeed and feel successful is an inherent part of special education. Sometimes the behavior is one component of a series of actions that comprise an important achievement. Breaking down a series of actions into components can facilitate learning. Thus, a preschool child may be taught to hold a piece of paper down with one hand while scribbling with another. This action is a first step in a series of tasks designed to help the child draw and eventually write. Other behaviors, or often classes of behaviors, have been described as â€Å"pivotal behaviors† in the sense that their acquisition allows a child to learn many other skills more efficiently (Koegel, Koegel, Shoshan, & McNerney, 1999). Schreibman and the Koegels and their colleagues have proposed a specific treatment program for children with autism: pivotal response treatment. It includes teaching children to respond to natural reinforcers and multiple cues, as well as other â€Å"pivotal† responses. These are key skills that allow better access to social information. The idea of â€Å"pivotal skills† to be targeted as goals may also hold for a broad range of behaviors such as imitation (Stone, 1997; Rogers and Pennington, 1991), maintaining proximity to peers (Hanson and Odom, 1999), and learning to delay gratification (understanding â€Å"first do this, then you get to do that†). Longitudinal research has found that early joint attention, symbolic play, and receptive language are predictors of long-term outcome (Siller and Sigman, 2002). Although the research to date has been primarily correlational, one inference has been that if interventions succeed in modifying these key behaviors, more general improvements will occur as well (Kasari, 2000). Another explanation is that these behaviors are early indicators of the child’s potential developmental trajectory. Sometimes goals for treatment and education involve attempting to limit and treat the effects of one aspect of autism, with the assumption that such a treatment will allow a child to function more competently in a range of activities. For example, a number of different treatment programs emphasize treating the sensory abnormalities of autism, with the implication that this will facilitate a child’s acquisition of communication or social skills (e. g. , auditory integration; sensory integration). For many interventions, supporting these links through research has been difficult. There is little evidence to support identifiable links between general treatment of a class of behaviors (e. g. , sensory dysfunction) and improvements in another class of behaviors (e. g. , social skills), especially when the treatment is carried out in a different context from that in which the targeted behaviors are expected to appear. However, there are somewhat different examples in other areas of education and medicine in which interventions have broad effects on behavior. One example is the effect of vigorous exercise on general behavior in autism (Koegel, Koegel, Shoshan, & McNerney, 1999). In addition, both desensitization and targeted exercise in sports medicine and physical therapy often involve working from interventions carried out in one context to generalization to more natural circumstances. Yet, in both of these cases, the shift from therapeutic to real-life contexts is planned explicitly to occur within a relatively brief period of time. At this time, there is no scientific evidence of this kind of link between specifically-targeted therapies and general improvements in autism outside the targeted areas. Until information about such links becomes available, this lack of findings is relevant to goals, because it suggests that educational objectives should be tied to specific, real-life contexts and behaviors with immediate meaning to the child. Because the range of outcomes for children with autistic spectrum disorders is so broad, the possibility of relatively normal functioning in later childhood and adulthood offers hope to many parents of young children. Although recent literature has conveyed more modest claims, the possibility of permanent â€Å"recovery† from autism, in the sense of eventual attainment of language, social and cognitive skills at, or close to, age level, has been raised in association with a number of educational and treatment programs (Ingersoll, Schreibman, & Stahmer, 2001). Natural history studies have revealed that there are a small number of children who have symptoms of autism in early preschool years who do not have these symptoms in any obvious form in later years. Whether these improvements reflect developmental trajectories of very mildly affected children or changes in these trajectories (or more rapid movement along a trajectory) in response to treatment (Lovaas, 1987) is not known. However, as with other developmental disabilities, the core deficits in autism have generally been found to persist in some degree in most persons with autistic spectrum diagnoses. There is no research base explaining how â€Å"recovery† might come about or which behaviors might mediate general change in diagnosis or cognitive level (Ingersoll, Schreibman, & Stahmer, 2001). Although there is evidence that interventions lead to improvements and that some children shift specific diagnoses within the spectrum and change in severity of cognitive delay in the preschool years, there is not a simple, direct relationship between any particular current intervention and â€Å"recovery† from autism. Because there is always room for hope, recovery will often be a goal for many children, but in terms of planning services and programs, educational objectives must describe specific behaviors to be acquired or changed. Research on outcomes (or whether goals of independence and responsibility have been attained) can be characterized by whether the goal of an intervention is broadly defined (e. g. , â€Å"best outcome†) or more narrowly defined (e. g. , increasing vocabulary, increasing peer-directed social behavior); whether the study design involves reporting results in terms of individual or group changes; and whether goals are short term (i. e. , to be achieved in a few weeks or months) or long term (i. e. , often several years). A large body of single-subject research has demonstrated that many children make substantial progress in response to specific intervention techniques in relatively short time periods (e. g. , several months). These gains occur in many specific areas, including social skills, language acquisition, nonverbal communication, and reductions of challenging behaviors. Often the most rapid gains involve increasing the frequency of a behavior already in the child’s repertoire, but not used as broadly as possible (e. g. , increasing use of words) (Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1990). In single-subject reports, changes in some form are almost always documented within weeks, if not days, after the intervention has begun. Studies over longer periods of time have documented that joint attention, early language skills, and imitation are core deficits that are the hallmarks of the disorder, and are predictive of longer-term outcome in language, adaptive behaviors, and academic skills. However, a causal relationship between improvements in these behaviors as a result of treatment and outcomes in other areas has not yet been demonstrated. Many treatment studies report post intervention placement as an outcome measure (Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1990). Successful participation in regular education classrooms is an important goal for some children with autism. However, its usefulness as an outcome measure is limited because placement may be related to many variables other than the characteristics of a child (such as prevailing trends in inclusion, availability of other services, and parents’ preferences). The most commonly reported outcome measure in group treatment studies of children with autism has been IQ scores (Lord & Schopler, 1989). Studies have reported substantial changes in IQ scores in a surprisingly large number of children in intervention studies and in longitudinal studies in which children received nonspecific interventions. However, even in the treatment studies that have shown the largest gains, children’s outcomes have been variable, with some children making great progress and others showing very small gains. Overall, while much evidence exists that education and treatment can help children attain short-term goals in targeted areas, gaps remain in addressing larger questions of the relationship between particular techniques and both general and specific changes (Lord & Schopler, 1989). The child with autism is also protected in the federal state law. These are the Public Law 108-77 also called Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 and Public Law 105-17 also called Individuals with Disabilities Act or IDEA of 1997. This mandates the major care provider to refer the child with autism and the family to an early intervention service. It was stated that every state has an early intervention program and must make it available to children from birth to three years of age, thus, autistic children are covered under this law. Examples of these program are behavioral methods, early developmental education, communication skills, occupational and physical therapy, and structured social play.