Where Did Americans Spend Their Money Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Where Did Americans Spend Their Money - Essay Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that in his findings, Sparshott reveals that restaurants and retailers witnessed a sales rise of 1.2 percent in June compared to the previous month. The big vehicle sales also helped boost the level of economic growth. Dealers of motor vehicles and spare parts indicated that they witnessed a 2 percent rise in June compared to May. Even with the elimination of auto sales, gains were broad-based, as they still reflected a 1 percent growth. Furthermore, the cheap prices of gasoline have provided Americans with a windfall, although in recent months they are more motivated to saving rather than spending. In May, however, gasoline stations witnessed their ultimate leap since 2012, although Americans ignored the move. They directed their earnings to gardening and building materials, non-store retailers, and clothing stores. Thus, based on the growth in sales in the recent months, the researcher has realized that Sparshott has ef fectively shown the way the American economy is shifting from the harsh weather witnessed during the first quarter of the year. This is because the present figures are revealing strong growth in payroll real income. This way, the author hopes the country will be able to reverse the contraction it witnessed during the first quarter of 2015.

Sedimentary or metamorphic rocks and engineering issues Essay

Sedimentary or metamorphic rocks and engineering issues - Essay Example der, 2001).   Given the ability of engineers to measure all these, an emphasis on the latter is quite important in order to provide insight that would at least help in reducing earthquake intensities in the society. Particularly, the understanding of sedimentary rocks and their contribution to earthquakes intensities is necessary. To start with, earthquake shaking starts from the rupturing fault and then continues at other distances away from the fault. Earthquake shaking intensity is supposed to decrease as the distance from the rupturing fault decreases. However, it has been observed that shaking in one site is sometimes stronger than shaking in another site. Sometimes, this shaking can be ten times higher or stronger than shaking in another site (Ammon, 1997). Geologists have come up with information relating sedimentary rocks with earthquake shaking intensities. Geologists argue that shaking is always high in areas of softer rocks. In addition, shaking is amplified in areas of thicker sediments compared to areas of thin sediments. As it has been observed, the major reason why sedimentary rocks are associated with shaking intensities is because they are soft (Denecke & Series, 2003). An explanation of the relationship between sedimentary rocks and earthquakes shows that seismic waves’ speed is much higher in hard rocks when compared to sedimentary rocks. This is because the latter are soft as it has been explained earlier. In areas with different rock types, waves tend to pass through harder rocks to the softer rocks, they slow down. However, in order to carry the same energy carried in the hard rocks, they tend to get bigger than before. Therefore, shaking at sites that have soft rock layers is stronger since the seismic waves tend to move slowly as shown in Figure 1 and 2 (SCEC, 2014). The loss of life and properties associated with earthquake intensities can actually be controlled by avoiding buildings in area of soft sedimentary rocks. If this is not

Perceptual Maps Essay Example for Free

Perceptual Maps Essay Perceptual Mapping, as defined by Miguel Mauricio Isoni and Cid Goncalves Filho (The Strategic Use of Perceptual Maps in Corporate Reputation Analysis: an Empirical Survey), is a â€Å"strategic management tool that offers a unique ability to show the complex relationship between marketplace competitors and the criteria used by buyers when making purchase decisions and recommendations. † Usually, perceptual maps is plotted through a two dimensional plane, thus it is capable mainly of comparing four factors affecting a certain market product. To come up with a perceptual map, product analyst would perform its designed three part methodology. A. The Three Phases of Perceptual Maps as Used in the Simulation I. The Exploratory Phase In this first stage, we would get to know the origin of the need for the making of the perceptual plan (Isoni Filho). The simulation had started with the laying out of the situation of Thor motorcycles decrease in sales with their product CruiserThor, a 1500cc power cruiser priced at $25,800. Thor believed that the decrease in sales they analyzed in May 1, 201 was brought by the growing older of its target costumers (bracket 35 – 50 yrs old) that made them no longer interested with the lifestyle CruiserThor symbolizes. The age bracket of 21 – 35 years could not also be a replacement since they prefer more buying low-cost motorcycles for practicality reasons concerning with their young age’s small disposable income. As a recommendable solution, we need a new marketing plan. But in order to come up with a plan, we need to know the position of the CruiserThor in the market through a perceptual map. Since we had opted with making a perceptual map, we then need to choose four fundamental parameters CruiserThor gives the most concern. And we decided that they were the Lifestyle Image, Service Offerings, Price and Quality Engineering. We would also have a comparison of CruiserThor with its other competitor product and then conduct a market research to obtain CruiserThor’s representational ratings. II. The Descriptive Phase At this point, we would then need to make a survey with structured questionnaire and with representative sample that will be analyzed by Perceptual Mapping software (Isoni Filho). This could be in the form of four questions asking for a ranking from 1 – 10 that corresponds to the existing client’s perception to the selected four parameters. Does the CruiserThor made a great impact with your lifestyle? Does it possess the uniqueness you could not see with its competitor brands? 2. Does the engineering design compensate with its projected lifestyle image? 3. Does the CruiserThor priced right? 4. Does its included technical support and additional services suffice its total package? As these questions are filled up by the CruiserThor’s customers, dealers and distributors, we could then extract from it the public’s representational perception. The values that we had assigned are 9. 2 for the lifestyle image. 1 for the service offerings, 2. 95 for the service offerings and 7. 1 for the quality engineering. These figures had also been compared with the figures generated from two of CruiserThor’s competitors, Anzai and Espritique. These figures tell the current position of the product which would then be subject to review and/or revisions. III. The Presentation Phase For this last phase, we would present the maps to the managers (Isoni Filho), who would then give generalized interpretation with the marketing of the product with respect to its four factors evaluated. As the values had been analyzed, two possible solutions were suggested, to enhance the current positioning strategy or to totally change it. We may also opt to launch a new motorcycle that targets younger costumers. If ever you chose the last, you should then decide how it would be packaged with its features as opposed to the constraint of cheaper pricing. As a final decision, we would then stick with launching a new product, called RRoth that would accommodate a younger age bracket. This option would undergo several stages so as to determine its proper marketing mix to be used. These were deliberations on how would it be priced, how would it be handed down to its end-users, and how would it be promoted. The company’s team of analyst suggested with a $13M budgeted RRoth motorcycles that would be priced $13T $15T. They would use the help of their identified dealers and distributors to act as its middleman. They would also set-up exclusive showrooms. Promotions that would be done were to offer insurance and protection plans, to offer free test rides, to hire celebrities for endorsements, and to provide giveaway merchandise. Additional services were dealers training, customization options and financial services. Total cost of differentiation decisions was then accounted to be $11. 149T. B. Summary of the Different Marketing Components Used I. Relationship between differentiation and positioning of products and services Differentiation, as its word implies, is the offering of various products that tends to target distinct costumers from each other. This would help with covering all the possible customers’ individual needs basing on bracketing schemes just like age. In relation to this, positioning strategies for these various products need to be considered so as to not make them compete with each other (Positioning Defined). As an example, CruiserThor was designed to target possible costumers coming from the age of 35–50 yrs. old. To address the need to cover the market with younger age who may wish to avail a lifestyle imaged motorcycle but at a lower cost, Thor motorcycles decided to launch RRoth and it was positioned to attract the age bracket of 21–35 yrs. old who were less likely to had disposable incomes. II. The Impact of Product Life Cycle Production analysis through time had come up with a thinking that products have a life cycle (Product life cycle management, Wikipedia). Products start with the market introduction stage by creating a demand through different ways of promotion and information dissemination about its importance of use. The product may either benefit or suffer the existence of competition depending on the reaction of its target costumers. Products would then enter into the growth stage wherein it should develop a sense of profitability to its producers and sellers. Competition would usually increase as others would see its success in gaining a market share. As the products gain years being in the market, it would enter the maturity stage wherein the cost of production was minimized since publicity is less likely to be required. Final stage would be whether the product be stable or in a state of decline depending on the continuity of interest of its target costumers. References M. Isoni C. Filho. The Strategic Use of Perceptual Maps in Corporate Reputation Analysis: An Empirical Survey. Retrieved June 14, 2008 from www. isbee. org/index. php? option=com_docmantask=doc_downloadgid=33 Perceptual Mapping. Retrieved June 14, 2008 from http://www. populus. com/files/Perceptual%20Mapping_f_1. pdf Perceptual Mapping. Retrieved June 14, 2008 from http://www. iqlogo. com/library/perceptual-mapping. htm Product life cycle management. Retrieved June 14, 2008 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Product_life_cycle_management Positioning Defined. Retrieved June 14, 2008 from http://www. 1000ventures. com/business_guide/crosscuttings/positioning_main. html

Post Bureaucracy And Network Society

Post Bureaucracy And Network Society Organisations around the world have changed their structures, the internal managerial strategies in order to survive within a competitive market and hence evolved to best suit the external environment they operate in. Every organisation in todays time has to be profitable in order to be in business and therefore it must organise its structure, (Grahame .F. Thompson 2003 Oxford University Press). In the 21st century a revolution of globalisation, Information technology and cultural change has made corporate organisations to re-think and re-structure themselves to better suit the needs of workers, employers, consumers and the future of the company as a whole. There has been a social change in the division of labour and concepts of Post Fordism and flexible specialisation has come up in the last quarter of a century, (Tony J. Watson 2003 Routledge). In this essay we will see the shift from factory type bureaucracy towards a network society and the emergence of post bureaucratic organisa tions in todays economy which is based on knowledge and innovation. But this leaves us with an argument that is a post bureaucratic organisational form predominant in the network society/knowledge based economy? In the latter part of this essay we see some evidence of bureaucracy and its elements still present in Network Organisations. To understand this and come to a reasonable conclusion we must know what are bureaucratic organisation, post bureaucratic organisations and network organisations. As we know that bureaucracy is a highly structured system of administration it was seen in the late 1920s as being highly successful in the era of capitalist and mass production and administrative complexity. Thus, due to its nature of being machine like it ignored moral, ethical and emotional values and was efficient. The control and co-ordination of work task through a hierarchy of appropriately qualified office holders, whose authority derives from their expertise and who rationally, devise a system of rules and procedures are calculated to provide the most appropriate means of achieving specified ends. (Tony J. Watson, 2003, Routledge, sociology, work and industry fourth edition, pg-86). Bureaucracy had a hierarchy and decision making which flowed from top level managers to low level skilled and unskilled workers. In Weber ideal model Weber argued that without a proper filing system the bureaucratic organisation would fail and many organisations followed that and had highly secre tive filing systems. Managers and workers were allocated task according to technical expertise. There was a framework of rules to be followed for the production and functions to be carried out. Decisions made were not affected by emotions or personal preferences but defined by system of rules and under the official jurisdictional area. But the ideal form is for us to understand that it is unachievable but through which reality can be compared. (Tony J. Watson, 2003, Routledge). Bureaucracy is a concept of sociology and political science and can be seen in many government agencies, large manufacturing firms, hospitals, and many academic institutions, (Reference). As the government of states grew larger during the modern period, modern bureaucracies arose and especially following the Industrial Revolution, (Osborne David and Gaebler Ted, 1993, Plume). The major changes which gave rise to the factory system was that the workforce of labour shifted from hand production such as working i n the fields to a power driven machinery system. This revolution made division of labour more complicated, hierarchy gave managers more control, superior supervision and coercive authority, enabled capitalist to take greater reward, moral machinery was introduced to break the resistance from employees, and reduction of skill on which workers relied caused a reduced labour cost, (Paul Thompson and David McHugh, 2009, Palgrave Macmillan). (Give Examples of British companies as well as worldwide) Bureaucracy was at its height with the rise of the factory system. It was transforming organisations into technically superior system of administration and production. Coordination between man and the machine and with the introduction of the assembly line everything changed. Organised and detailed planning were the key features of Technical superiority. Rationality helped large firms achieve more out of the workers by allowing them to do simplified work in a formalised manner to achieve efficiency and limit the decision making power to the top down hierarchy. Limiting workers decision making and increasing efficiency by ground rules clearly defined without personal prejudice and emotional values. Control was achieved by reducing and restricting vital information and knowledge lead to more direct control from the management. Organisations used bureaucratic structures not only to retain the most earning but many of its features benefited the workers, there was job security, grievances procedures and demarcation, etc. This wave caused the workers something to look forward to and see the organisation in a positive manner, (Paul Thompson and David McHugh, 2009, Palgrave Macmillan). Taylorism and Fordism Taylors principles were based on bureaucracy and the phenomena were called scientific management. This was a typical example where an organisation was successful at the time when bureaucracy was at its heights. This was not an ideal type Webers model but it saw social aspects of the organisation where employees were also benefited but the big chunk of profit was taken by organisation. Employees were given specialised routine tasks and which being mechanised with proper coordination of human work effort led to Scientific management. It had a success with organised labour; in which manager had a concept of soldiering on the employee because Taylor thought that it is a tendency for men to take it easy without proper supervision. He had one best way of organising work. In counties like France and Britain experiments on Taylors scientific management started taking place, his ideas of time study and piece rate working gave rise to Taylorism, (Thompson and McHugh, 2009, Palgrave Macmillan). One of the models of Taylorism states that an official can work his way up the career hierarchy within a few years from being a simple worker to a middle level manager and even in some cases as high as the top management. This was the minimum interaction model describe by littler (1982), (Tony J. Watson, 2003, Routledge). In many parts of Britain and Europe Bedeaux system came through and Sweden and Germany followed districting paths but were influenced by Taylorism, (Thompson and McHugh, 2009, Palgrave Macmillan). Henry ford was Fordism became popular after the assembly line was introduced in factory working which increased efficiency many folds. This was the era of mass production were the employees were consumers and part of the market. What made the car factories a success were his detailed supervision, planning management strategies and close supervision. Ford gave his employees something to look forward to in terms of material benefits such as incentives, high wages, and could have a ford car of their own in a number of years. This made them loyal and a sense of trust emerged, (Tony J. Watson, 2003, Routledge). Post Bureaucracy and Network Society Post Bureaucratic organisations emerged when organisations found it difficult to cope up with strict rules and defined boundaries of the bureaucratic structure. With the introduction of advance technology being used in the modern age the organisational structure has changed in many large-scale industries. The age of mass production seemed to be over and highly specialised customer need analysis had to be done. During the time of Henry ford cars were produced in bulk which was standard in its appearance, style and technology. Nowadays we have entered the 21st century where cars are customised according to the needs of a specific customer. We have shifted from a factory type mass production to a customer oriented knowledge based economy where many authors believe bureaucracy is of the past. The ideal type of post bureaucratic structure has more of a dialog based and discussion rather than commands given where individual expertise is given credit. Here we see flat hierarchy which was ne eded in network society to work efficiently on project based process and group tasks, (Heckscher .C, Donnellon .A, 1994, Sage Publications). The changes that are prominent in the network form of organisation are that there are workers and groups with flat hierarchy who take decisions based on their knowledge and expertise. There are team based group doing projects and working together either from the office or from other sites. Networks have proved a useful alternative conception in analysing how a range social activity is organised and governed at a number of levels, (Graham .F. Thompson, 2003, Oxford university press). In modern organisations the concept of flat organisational structure has been introduced and work has been divided into many groups and teams of professional workers, where a set of employees take decisions at various levels of the work process. This also contributes to the innovation where employees have the freedom to make decisions and exercise their expertise. M ost of the employees are treated with formal equality and joint membership in the network organisation, (Graham .F. Thompson, 2003, Oxford university press). Basically what the author is trying to say is that network organisations gave more freedom to work and a sense of equality amongst the workers and employees. This can be seen in highly value added services, like education, medicine, law firms etc. The Network organisations are based on a high trust culture; it has low level of formal division of labour. Networks developed as business shifted from bureaucratic system to a more flexible system because organisations had to survive in the age of technology, innovation and globalisation. The rise of post bureaucratic structure was thought to be due to three major factors such as globalisation, information technology and cultural change. Globalisation caused high degree of competition as the markets to expand and overstretch national boundaries. Many organisations opened branches in other countries and corporate culture was born. This was the era of professionals where knowledge and networking were given importance. Because bureaucratic structures could not cope up with change and adaptability Post bureaucratic organisations had more flexible control process and were more proactive towards its environment. Making connections and providing service was part of almost every organisation regardless of its size and nature. Another major change that gave rise to Post bureaucracy was the change of technology and innovation. Information technology is required for an organisation to stay in business without communication and innovation a business cannot survive in long term. Some people suggest that culture also influenced Post bureaucratic rise in the network organisation. Consumers are given importance in the network society is based on consumerism, relativism and individualism, unlike in the bureaucratic structure, (Manuel Castells, 2000, Blackwell Publishers). Evidence of Post Bureaucratic Forms in Network Organizations (Castells, Journals) Many authors such as Castells suggest that post bureaucratic systems are the only way of the future of the knowledge based economy. This is a very hardcore and too optimistic approach yet we see that a pure bureaucratic organisational structure has failed to adapt into a network society. We know that due to change in administration in knowledge based economy bureaucracy has been replaced by a more flexible and adaptable organisational structure. Social, technological and economic change, multi-tasking work and the need for analysing data at different levels has shifted network society to engage the workers with high trust, empowerment, de-centralised decision making in knowledge economy, (Give Examples).Many organisations stared de-bureaucratizing because Webers concept of control was seen as an exercise of control on the basis of knowledge but in network organisations there had to a freedom to exercise indirect control where employees would practise self discipline and very less s upervision was needed. They had to exchange information and knowledge to be innovative which meant being proactive towards the environment for a long-term survival for the organisation. The concept of disagree to agree is used as friendly constructive discussion for decision making. We know that through empowerment high performance work systems are possible which has shifted from a factory type system where one could not act out of the official jurisdiction of their job description. In many value added organisations empowerment given to employees can lead to success of the firm/company (give example). (Paul Du Gay, 2005, Oxford University Press). Total quality management and customer satisfaction are relatively new methods of the Post-Bureaucratic structure which are used by organisations in the network society and knowledge based service industry. The famous legend in automobile industry Henry Ford ideas of mass production have shifted to some extent to a customised vehicle for a s pecific customer. An article by John Ovretiveit showed that TQM was applied to many hospitals and clinics across Europe became widespread since the 1990s. This method helps organisations deliver better quality control and customer satisfaction essential in knowledge based economy, (John Ovretiveit, 13/2 [200] 74-79, International Journal of health care quality assurance). TQM has been seen as a useful tool but many experts believe that it is difficult to evaluate and is difficult to implement. Whereas we see that in bureaucracy implementation and supervision were regarded highly and Taylors scientific management made it easy for firms to implement policies and evaluate them according to tasks specified to workers according to their official jurisdiction. As Richard Sennett says that there are three deficits of structural change are loyalty, informal trust and adaptive information faced by firms trying to de-bureaucratise, (Richard Sennett, 2004, Yale University Press). Evidence of Bureaucratic elements still present in Network Organizations (Reed M, Journals) Many Organisations have started to re-bureaucratize because there is a problem with the high trust, empowerment, shared responsibility and personal treatment. The concept of re-bureaucratizing has been discussed by many authors that instead of organisations shifting from bureaucracy they simply clean up the bureaucracy in their organisation (Heckscher .C, Donnellon .A, 1994, Sage Publications). Webers Ideal model of bureaucracy can be re-theorized to include any non-contradictory attributes. His ideal type thus cannot yield a clear distinction between bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organizations, unless bureaucracy is flattened into hierarchy, and post-bureaucratic into non-hierarchical. But hierarchy cannot be eliminated from complex organizations, and bureaucracy can be re-theorized to include any non-contradictory attributes. (Harro M. Hoopfl, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 19 No. 1, 2006, 8-21, Emerald Group Publishing Limited). Charles Heckscher, the author of The Post-Bureaucratic Organisation talks about the theory of contingency, which is clearly not bureaucratic in nature. The best form of organisational structure should be that which suits the environmental complexities and uncertainty when organisations shift to knowledge based economy. If organisations work under the highly bureaucratised system they would not be able to work effectively, but it is argued that bureaucratic forms have a greater capacity mobilising human energy and cooperation. The author of Lost in translation Simon Norton suggests that Anglo-American approaches of new public management may not be suitable and elements of bureaucracy are still present in public sectors in Japan. The finding of the research is that such systems are popular and work for countries like USA and UK. The findings also suggest that Japanese organisations give priority to the long term survival of firms and its group rather than thinking for individual perfor mance and benefit, for example through reward mechanisms for innovation and demonstration of personal initiative, are at odds with the Japanese tradition of amae and Confucianism; instead, reformers should evolve reform policy around the concept of groupism (Koh, 1989). (Simon Norton, 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited). This research shows us that Although Japan being technologically advance it still values its culture and traditions indicates elements of bureaucracy which means that even after entering a knowledge based environment flat hierarchy may not be so suitable as perceived by many authors. In some organisations in network society direct control is being observed in which employees are monitored and supervised. Another finding by Rachel Parker and Lisa Bradley suggests that bureaucratic values within public sector organisations are prominent although there is an evidence of changing economic trend and new public management is emerging. The control and hierarchy in publ ic sectors show a reverse of what post bureaucratic values impose in an organisation. The employees viewed the monitoring and quality management systems as bureaucratic. Public sector organisations have been motivated less by financial considerations than by political considerations, including the public interest, (Perry Rainey 1988). (Rachel Parker and Lisa Bradley, The Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Vol 26, No 2 (December, 2004) 197-215). The transition towards a post-bureaucratic society is evident but the process is slow and cannot leave behind elements of bureaucracy as we have not entered a fully knowledge based economy. This is not a claim by me but, in my opinion it is like two sides of the same coin where elements of both bureaucracy and post bureaucracy are present in the modern knowledge based economy and a hybrid form emerges.

The Impact Of The Internet On Communication Essay -- Networks Telecomm

The Impact of the Internet on Communication The internet has revolutionized all forms of communication since the beginning of its existence. The world has now become ‘smaller' or more like a ‘global village', so to speak. The internet was first used by the U.S military for communications purposes. The internet, from the communication point of view, has brought on new developments and techniques to keep in touch not only for individuals, but for businesses as well. An example of how the internet has impacted communication would be an example of doctors now communicating through live video feeds via the internet with patients or other doctors to diagnose patients or to even guide and advise surgeons through complicated procedures. Email Email (electronic mail) was one of the biggest breakthroughs in communication when the internet was commercialized. With email, it became possible to send messages and letters across the world in a matter of seconds to the recipients address. Email was used as an alternative to conventional mail or ‘snail' mail, as the term was introduced to describe its speed. As technology improved, it became possible to ‘attach' documents, photographs and even sound clips or songs to emails which made mail by post redundant. Emails used packet switching software whereby the email was broken down into ‘packets' and sent via the internet to the recipient. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Internet Voice, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make regular telephone calls using a dial up or broadband internet connection instead of a regular phone line. Some services using VoIP may only allow you to call other people using the same service, bu... ...ely in real-time. When logged into a chat session, you "converse" by typing messages that are instantly sent to other chat participants. One of the most popular IRC programs is ‘mIRC'. P2P technically stands for "peer-to-peer." A peer-to-peer architecture allows hardware or software to function on a network without the need for central servers. The person connects directly to his or her peer through a dedicated connection where no one else can interfere. An example of P2P chat clients are MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. These P2P clients make chatting user-friendly and interesting as there are options for a web cam or an audio conversation, and options to transfer files from one peer to another. The use of emoticons makes the conversation either more real or more fun. Bibliography www.google.com www.fcc.gov www.askjeeves.com www.about.com www.mirc.com

Book Club Novel Study vs. Conventional Core Novel Study

Book Club Novel Study vs. Conventional Core Novel Study Although the Book Club approach and the conventional novel study approach are group discussion oriented, the Book Club method is a more efficient way of extracting thorough analysis from multiple perspectives. In the Book Club approach, students are forced to read because we are constantly being evaluated. During discussions, the teacher is always walking around evaluating groups.My group especially was always prepared because of the fear of not getting a good mark due to being unprepared. The fact that we are constantly being evaluated develops pressure on the students, which forces them to prepare for the discussion the night before. Preparing the night before allows for a more in depth analysis. If everyone is prepared with notes and questions the discussion will be much more interesting because everyone brings something to the table.Which in essence allows a much more effective and efficient discussion. However, with the con ventional approach you have majority of the classroom not participating and not being involved in the discussions. In last year’s English class, there were a set number of students who were always participated and then the majority of the class not effectively participating. Because the traditional method is a more broad discussion and there aren’t specific roles for students to carry out students are not pressured to be prepared.I can use myself as an example, last year there would be times I wouldn't read the sections assigned and because of this I found myself not participating and engaging in class discussions. The Book Club approach consists of continuous evaluation and a certain set of tasks like discussion leading that force students to consistently engage in discussions. The evaluation creates pressure, causing students to be prepared and contribute during scheduled conferences. On the other hand, the traditional method of novel study is not as effective.The st udents are not pressured because they feel as if they are not being evaluated on a regular basis. So students take advantage of this and feel their input is not necessary and rest of the class will carry their weight. To conclude, both approaches involve students participating and engaging in a group discussion but the Book Club approach has a higher efficiency in terms of each students input during discussions in comparison to the conventional core study.

Ethics and Information Technology

IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System Importance of ethics among the IT professional Abstract: In work environment, ethics is the common rules or approach for all professionals need to obey in order to achieve a great environment in an organization. Most of people think that ethics and morals is something that share the same meaning but actually they are not. The morals are towards the personal character, while ethics stress a social system in which those morals are applied. In other words, ethics point to standards or codes of behaviours expected by the group to which the individual belongs.The ethics might be national ethics, social ethics, company ethics, professional ethics, or even family ethics. So while a person’s moral code is usually unchanging, the ethics of he or she practices can be others to depend on. This paper is written based on data collection from many sources such as webs, articles, and books. So, this paper will provide an overview on the i mportance of ethics among the IT professionals. Furthermore, it will be explaining the beneficial of applying ethics to IT professionals in order to achieve a good relationship among the workers or team members in an organization.Keyword: Importance of ethics, Ethics, Morals, IT professionals P/S : ABSTRACT N REFERENCE LUM SIAP†¦ nak check semula nanti .. nie lum check lagi. 1 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System 1. 0 Introduction Nowadays, as we know that, information technology becomes the famous things in the world because most of technology makes our work become clear and it is very useful to the people in order to manage or do something. It is very unique of information technology like mobile device, computer, and so on because it is variety of used to the people directly make the people life more comfortable.But refer to the ethics of information technology professional, it can be seen that on how they used the technology, implement the information techno logy and built for it. In the short term definition, information technology is the technology that is used to process the data. Like nowadays, we used the computer devices to process the data within the organization or out of the organization or the company. Nevertheless, when we come up with the information technology professional, we will want to know the ethics I order to used the information technology either it is good ethics or the bad ethics.There, ethics is referring to the behavior or moral of the individual people in daily life. It is very crucial things that need to know because it can show the achievement of the individual or organization goals and objectives. Actually, ethics make us become more disciplines because we need to follow the rules and procedures of the organization. Ethics among information technology professional can be defines as the attitude of information technology professional in order to accomplish something based on their behavior. It is because base d on their behavior, it can show their successful either they can achieve the goals or not.It is depends on the level of ethics strangeness. Information technology professional must have high of motivation or ethics in them self because they faced with the information technology where they need facing on the information technology which can process the data that need to manage, analyze, design, implement, control, maintenance and storing. It is mostly referring to the hardware that is familiar to process the data or information like computer. As the information technology professional, sometimes they need to face with any challenges when their work in order to accomplish something work that need to be done.It is the problem that the information technology professional in their profession. When the challenges or any issues that they need to faced, information 2 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System technology professional need to try the best to find the solution to o vercome their problem and it is their roles and responsibilities. It is mostly refer to the ethics of information technology professional on how they handle some issues or any challenges in their work or job. 2. 0Methodology In completing this term paper, primary and secondary literatures are used to enable in depth understanding of the importance ethics among information technology professional. For the primary literatures in order to complete this term paper, mostly I used observation method by review all the article that is related to the ethics among information technology professional. Besides that, I used secondary data where I refer to the sources that are related to the topic that I focused on such as books, article journals, internet sources and so on.From the primary and secondary literature, I know about the challenges that are faced by information technology professional and the issues that are come up today. From the challenges or the issues, information technology prof essional need to think on how to overcome the problem that they need to faced and find the alternative or the solution to overcome it. It is based on their behavior on how they can settle their problem. The primary and secondary literature method that are used, is very crucial thing to know on what happened among the information technology professional that are based on their behavior or ethics. IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System 3. 0 Definitions and concept of ethics There are various definitions of ethics. According to the Britz, J. J. which come from department of Information Science University of Pretoria, he defines ethics as the individual action either good or bad and he told that ethics in the general term which make the people come as the fully human. He prefer to the use of technology that are threat to the right of privacy of a person. As a person, ethics is very importance thing in our daily activities.As we know that, ethics is referring to the variou s styles. Maybe, ethics might be as the national ethics, social ethics, company ethics, and family ethics and can be professional ethics. What is ethics? According to Sir Aristotle which is the famous philosopher, ethics is the custom, character or the habit of a person and in the simplest word; it can be defined as the system of the moral principles. It is worked out from human reason and experience by human action that determines either right or wrong. But, a sociologist like Dr.Raymond Baumhart said that ethics is can be divided into two divisions which is rights, obligations, benefit to the society, fairness of specifics virtue. It is refer to the moral beliefs. Secondly, ethics refer to the study and development of the standards of the ethical. So, ethics told that on how the people lead their lives and making the decisions. Today, we know that everybody needs to be fast and smart. For the information technology professional money is very importance thing but not in their caree r life.It is means that, career as the information technology professional will followed by their effort directly money is their reward on their effort. For the powerful organizations, information technology professional mostly refer to the ethics as the guidelines to achieve the goal of an organization. According to the Jefferson, guideline is crucial things because ethical principles that are provided will assist them in the many of the professional decisions they will make. Lacovino stated that ethics is the reasoned process but not just how we feel about something because it can be a habitual when we set a value to apply consistently.Some of the researcher defined the ethics as the agent where it refers to the agent processes or action. When we come up with the professional ethics, means that what the person who is professional should do or should not do within the organization or outside the organization. That are stated by Mclarty (2007) but Worthington (2008) told that in dev eloping any information 4 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System technology, professional ethical issues can be occur. Nowadays, the modern world, all the services like internet allow people to connect quickly to the information technology system.So, Worthington states that professionals are more likely to confront ethical issues when dealing with the internet and World Wide Web (WWW). In this term paper, I mostly focused to the importance of ethics among information technology professional. When we talk about the information technology professional, it will focus on computer professional field. Being the IT professional, it is must be good certificates in information technology with their knowledge and their skill. It is the powerful tool for providing job and the business opportunities and for meeting challenges in information technology field.First, the importance of ethics among information technology professional is responsible to ensure that computer technology does not used in the wrong ways which can harm people, environment and the society. That why information technology professional need to be fair, loyal, honest and have ethical in its practices because they want to be an employee where they work for an organization and make the organization become success. With the good ethics or behavior among IT professional, they will work comfortably without feel tired on their job and responsible in term of care of the data or information in the system.With the ethics of the employee directly they can contribute better for an organization. Besides that, the importance thing among the information technology professional is access the data. According to Gordana (2003), to perform the computer or information technology professional job, they will require to access the data only in order to complete their task that they want to do. Besides that, to complete their task, they are very careful in order to use the right time to complete their task beca use they will plan better first so that each of the task can be settle step by step.It is also because of the thinking of the information technology professional which is very high level thinking by using the technology that are provided in an organization or they own technology. Therefore, quality of the data that they want to access is the factor that they should consider so that the task must be done properly in a good manner. So, in order to do the task by information technology professional, they will not concern at all whether the task or the job is complete or not and without any concentration that are cause by improper ethics education. The other importance of ethics among information echnology professional is the procedure of information technology process that will keep in secret. According to Dahlbom and Mathiasan, information technology 5 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System professional just only participate in development the task, it objective and the context explicitly. For the information technology professional, it is very importance things for big organization in order to survive the industry because they have own strategy that need to do or any benchmark which it can be the key success of the business today for them.Allocated the resources is also the importance of ethics among the information technology professional. They must be professional and more responsible and punctual in complete the task that they need do and need to be done properly. It is because information technology professional like computer professional, just only take part in project with the time and the resources that are assigned which can make it possible to deliver a good job.Nevertheless, living in this era or modern information technology will happen something that are very wrong through the law which is computer crime and it is the one of the problems that need to be faced by information technology where it can attack an organization in term of vir uses and hackers that getting widespread over the years it is because Bynum (2001) stated that logical security can be divided into five aspects such as consistency by ensuring the data and behaviour can being see today and same with tomorrow, privacy and confidentially, controlling the access to the resources, not modified the data and the programs without proper authority in integrity and last but not list is in aspect unimpaired service. As we know that nowadays, there are many malicious kids of software that being used to access certain system without authorization. Viruses, Trojan horse, worms and logic bombs are some of the example that can harm the computer system in an organization. It is show that unethical action happened there which could make breaking the company system and could be penalized due to the unauthorized access.Because of that, information technology professional should be concerns on the ethics that should be apply in information technology themselves or the professional people who involved computer science so that, they could achieve a great environment information technology industries. At the same time, it can improved performance an individual in information technology field. Other than that, the importance of ethics among the information technology professional also will increase of respect among the professional people. When talk about the respect it is come from the cooperation between the team member which contribute to the development of the project that should be do by them and the 6 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System evelopers of the system understand the users needs because from that, information technology can find the opportunities in order to develop some of the project to fulfil the user requirements. Besides that, ethics in information technology professional can leads the user or customer satisfaction. As an example, computer professional will develop the systems that are related to the technology i n order to satisfy the interest of the users and directly can bring the good work environment by develop system. it will show that the performance of an organization if the information technology involve under the organization and make them become more professional in term of manage of information technology that are very importance in each of an organization in the world. 4. 0Ethics conceptual Theory Ethical theory provides framework to get at underlying rationale, classify and understand arguments and defend conclusion about right and wrong that have in ethical perspectives. Deontology People should follow to their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma and it is very consistent decisions. Utilitarianism The ability to predict the sequences of action in order to determine which choice is Ethical Theory more beneficial. Right It is considered to be ethically correct and valid to the society. Virtue Judge a person by the character rather than by an action they may clash from the normal behavior. 7 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information SystemFigure 1: Ethics Theory All the ethical theory or concept above is define by the people who is expert in information technology profession or sociologist that are concern with the ethics and it is very importance that need to apply in information technology professional. 5. 0 Challenges in Encouraging Ethical Behaviors among Information technology professional. There are several common challenges in developing ethical in information technology professional. Information technology needs to alert with their surrounding because many challenges that they need to faced when they complete their task within the organization. Below are the challenges that are faced by information technology professional in managed their information technology equipment and services. 5. Facing with computer crimes As we know that, nowadays is the modern world. Therefore, all the technology that is used today mostly shows t he advanced technology. We know that media technology or the communication technology is very familiar to the people and the importance things is to the organization that are used the technology to implement and maintained the task in order to achieve the goals of an organization. But, when we deal with the advanced technology, the information technology professional need to be careful by used they ethical in term of complete the task. In this times, there are most of computer viruses and added with the hacker which also known as international spy.Here, the computer security is the crucial thing that needs to consider in the field of computer ethics by the information technology professional. By the way, the problem that is faced by them is not on the physical security but in term of logical security like privacy and confidentially, controlling access to the resources and so on. Hackers which are the person who breaks into someone computer system without any permission directly can steal the data of an organization or privacy information. 5. 2 Intellectual property rights connected with software ownership. In this aspect of challenges ethics or the right. Many people think that software should be own able.Intellectual property is the one of the controversial areas of computer ethics. Some people think that software ownership not be allowed 8 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System at all and all the information should be free, all programs should be available for copying. In term of that, it is very wrong ways according o the laws that are provided. As the information technology professional ethics, they need to know who take their intellectual property properly. 5. 3 Computer condition in the workplace that need to be concern As the information technology professional, the challenges that they faced is condition of the computer itself.Because of the computer always run to manage the data that are store in the system and to implement the data, ma ybe it will make the system down because the computer itself does not rest. When the system down happened that will make the information technology professional lack of ethics in order to monitor the system. 5. 4 Information privacy Privacy is the one of the computer ethics that need to be develop by public interest. The efficiency of the computer network can be used to gather the information, store, and search and retrieved the information making the computer technology treating anyone to keep various kind of information that are privacy.It is the challenges also that are faced by the information technology professional especially sensitive information like medical record. Because nowadays, the people think so far in order to get the information and make it as the basic information that is not importance. It is because of the hacker that wants the information. Therefore, information privacy nowadays also does not secure in hundred percent. 5. 5 Globalization In term of globalizatio n, computer ethics today is rapidly involved in more importance field. It is also can be known a global information ethics. Global networks like internet will connect people all over the world. Globalization refers to the variety of used like global cyber business, global education and so on.The world is very close to the technology which can provide electronic privacy and security on the interne in order to connect the international business transactions. This challenges is very familiar nowadays, because in 9 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System transaction of the business today cheating and fraud in business always happened. 6. 0 Recommendations to address the challenges in encouraging ethical behaviors among information technology professional In response to the challenges that are stated above, several recommendations are proposed as follow: 6. 1 Government should have a strict action with the computer crime. To address the challenges, I recommended that govern ment of each country in the world should be strict to the computer crime based on the computer crime act.There, people who involved in the investigation of the computer crime should find the people who do the wrong things in using computer until the people who make computer crime can be punished so that we can reduced the number of computer crime directly make it very clear. There, no give up action should behave but always find the ways on how to catch them. 6. 2 Discuss with the team member In this point, that I recommend, means that all the information technology professional that are deal with the information technology, should discuss everything about the problem or the challenges that they faced in manage the technology and the system. For example, when people used t software and sale that software without any permission of the software ownership, they could discuss about it on their intellectual property on how to take the action to the people who wrong in that situation.From the discussion with the team member, it will provide more decision and the best decision will be used to settle that problem. That is the good ethics when working in the group as the information technology professional. 6. 3 Told the society about the act of privacy We know that, government today implement the act of privacy but the society does not know about the act anymore. It is because the society today lack of information that they should know. When we told them about the act of 10 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System privacy, they will know what might be right and what might be wrong. From there, the act of privacy will be clear to the society. 6. 4Motivate the information technology professional In order to motivate the information technology professional, the top management in an organization should lead them in order to motivate them. Top management in an organization should remind the information technology professional when they do their job or work. It s very importance thing to do where the top manager alert with the leadership style or skill in each of the organization. Top manager should support their staff so that they will motivate to accomplish the task that is given. 6. 5 Organized seminar Some of the organization should organize the seminar o that all people involved in the seminar programmed.Especially, seminar about the information technology professional where the audience of the seminar will focus on the information technology department in term of tell about the ethics of information technology professional includes their roles and responsible. Told them on how to faced the problem or any challenges and on how to overcome it immediately. 11 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System 7. 0 Conclusion As the conclusion, by applying the ethics among the information technology, it will make the organization become more success and will make the individual become more talent when deal with something issues and a ny challenges that they need to face. By the ethics in themselves, will make them more professional in handling the information technology directly deals with the user or customer of the system.So, ethics is a set of principle that should have in all the people itself but not just only in information technology professional only. The importance of ethics among information technology professional should be concern by the people so that the environment of information technology become more special to the user and people who in charge on it. By applying the ethics also, we could determine that the right and wrong of an individual action. But, it is depending to the situation that is faced by the people. Therefore, with the ethics, information technology can avoid from the unethical action like unauthorized access, plagiarism, disturbing people privacy hacking the information and etc. ecause of that, information technology profession, need to concern the code of ethics so that the indiv idually performance could be improve and directly improve the company or organization itself in order to achieve the organization goals, vision, mission and objectives. 12 IMS657 Legal and Ethical Aspect of Information System 8. 0 References Bynum. (2001). Computer and information ethics. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/ethics-computer/#ComCri Lacovino. (2002). Ethical principles and information professionals: Theory, practice and education. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://www. alia. org. au/publishing/aarl/33. 2/full. text/iacovino. html Worthington. (2008). Ethics for ICT professionals. Retrieved April 11, 2013 from http://www. tomw. net. au/technology/it/ictethics. shtml 13