Death Race Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Death Race - Movie Review Example The entry of the deadly Dreadnought is the main highlight of the movie. The race is posted online so this race becomes the world's most popular pay per view showing violence and killing real time. The main objective of the car race is to kill the other car racers so that the winner is the one who stays alive. Each convict who participates in the race is given a female navigator who comes from the female prison facility. The navigator is also freed if her race partner wins the race. She also dies if the car is attacked by the other race drivers. In exchange for winning in the race, the prison convict who is a winner gets to win his freedom. Jason Statham's character in this movie is that of a daily worker who is framed and is convicted for a crime he did not commit. He enters the prison and the jail warden had asked him to play the role of the evil Frankenstein. He enters the race wearing a special evil mask to hide his own identity. The objective of the other car racers who are also prison convicts is to defeat him. This movie is very relevant as it presents a setting goes against many of the basic human rights of US prison convicts. First, any form of gambling, whether internet based or site-based not is never permitted inside the premises and facilities of the US prison system. By posting the car race in the internet and encouraging gambling, the jail warden has committed a serious crime.Moreover, gambling in the internet also violates the non-profit nature of all the federal rehabilitation facilities of the US prison system. All of the prison convicts are entitled to basic human rights as provided for by the US constitution and the United Nations Human Rights Document. Maine and Vermont are the only states which even allow prisoners, parolees and probationers to vote during elections.Second, the prison convicts are forced to enter the car race or else they are threatened, penalized and put in isolation cells. This situation happened to Jason Statham wherein he was forced to join the race aga inst his will. He did not like the violence and the killing which was an integral part of the car race but the jail warden forced him to consider this or else he will be given a hard time while inside prison.This prison car race policy goes against human freedom which enables a person, even a prison convict to have the personal freedom decide to do whatever one wants without being held under duress. The movie denies the value of a human life even that of a convicted inmate. The movie also did not feature the personal rights or freedom of a convict to communicate with and consult his or her counsel in cases where he feels a degree of uncertainty in any activity he undertakes while he is in prison.Third, the prison convicts were told to compete in car racing without having the proper racing outfit, a stipulated and duly signed contract for payment and additional compensation, adequate preparatory driving training and an orientation on car safety measures. These facts violate basic hum an rights since the warden makes good money at the expense of

The Future of The United Nations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Future of The United Nations - Essay Example The primary responsibility for a state is to provide protection to people within the state itself" (International Commission On Intervention And State Sovereignty 2001). Sovereignty is more then just an emblem or measure of international relations between countries. The UN does not remove sovereignty of member countries, however it takes steps to make sure the overall the UN member countries stay sovereign. It does that by assisting countries whenever an event comes up which somehow or the other effects their sovereignty (International Commission On Intervention And State Sovereignty 2001). Just to quote a recent example, Iraq and Afghanistan were proving a threat to the international community at large. Media reports claimed that the two countries possessed weapons of mass destruction and their rulers were tyrants, wanting to cause harm to their country men by taking innocent lives. The UN taking notice of the security concern, deployed its peave making force in these two countries with the aim to protect its member state from being affected anyhow by these "weapons of mass destruction" (Thakur 2001). Another very important question after the September 2011 terrorist attacks has been how should the United Nation handle "intervention calls" for human protection purposes. Interventing on humanitarian grounds has always been a very controversial topic. The Rwanda incident of 1994 is often remembered as a landmark event where UN intervention could have prevented mass genocide, but the failure of international will to intervene lead to one of the greatest human catastrophes ever. The demand for interventions has been raised by many states however the UN has not been able to service all these demands. Reasons have been various by the former UN secretary general once put it down really well in words. He said â€Å"If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault of sovereignty, how should we respond to Rwanda, to a Srebrenica – to gross and

Becoming a Business Accountant Essay Example for Free

Becoming a Business Accountant Essay Business Accountant help to ensure that the country’s firms are run efficiently, its taxes are paid on time and its public records stay accurate. Accountants offer a wide variety of business and accounting services. Some of these services are: public, management and government accounting. Their main tasks are preparing, analyzing, and verifying financial documents in order to provide information to clients. Many accountants are required to have a lot of skill and knowledge. Most accountant work in an office, however those that are self-employed may be able to do part of their work at home. Accountants who are employed by public accounting firms and government agencies sometime have to travel often to perform audit at branches of their firm, clients’ places of business, or government facilities. Usually accountants work about a 40-hour week, but most work longer especially if they are self-employed and have many clients. Most accountant position requires at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field. Beginning accounting positions in the Federal Government requires 4 years of college including 24 semester hour in accounting or an equal amount of education and experience. Also practical knowledge of computers and their applications in accounting is a good thing to have for job seekers in accounting field. People who want a career in accounting should have a skill in mathematics and be able to analyze, compare, and interpret facts and figures quickly. They must be able to communicate the results of their work to clients.

Quality Care In The NHS

Quality Care In The NHS 1. What is meant by quality in the phrase quality of care? Quality, broadly speaking, is a subjective measure of excellence and when applied to health care, quality can be understood as systems and provisions of care said to be free from defects, deficiencies, and significant variations. Within the NHS, this encompasses the provision of high quality primary, secondary and community care in which the interests of patients are protected through a comprehensive set of nationally aligned policies. Lord Darzi defines quality of care as clinically effective, personal and safe. How is this achieved? Within the NHS, quality is achieved through robust regulation, inspection, standard setting, change management, community and patient advocacy, alongside continual assessment of clinical competency (Leatherman and Sunderland, 2003). Quality is about effectiveness of care, from the clinical procedure the patient receives to their quality of life after treatment. The Equity and excellence: Liberat ing the NHS white papers assertion is that to achieve our ambition for world-class healthcare outcomes, the service must be focused on outcomes and quality standards that deliver them. Leatherman S, Sutherland K, (2003) The quest for quality in the NHS: a mid term evaluation of the ten year quality agenda. London: The Stationery Office, 2. In 2008, the Department of Health published the report High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report. 30 June 2008. (a) Please summarise the main approaches to improving quality proposed by the report (b) compare and contrast these approaches to those described in Gwyn Bevans editorial (quoted from above). The Department of Health report approaches improving quality by: High Quality Care for All proposes that all providers of NHS healthcare services should produce a Quality Account: an annual report to the public about the quality of services delivered. The Health Act 2009 places this requirement onto a statutory footing. Stringent regulation from bodies with increased statutory powers. The Care Quality Commission will have new enforcement powers. NICE will be expanded to set and approve more independent quality standards. New Quality Observatories will be established in every NHS region to inform local quality improvement efforts Strategic health authorities will have a new legal duty to promote innovation. This will be twinned with a portal to share evidence-based, best practice among clinicians and other NHS staff. Devolvement of power to ensure the involvement of clinicians in decision making at every level of the NHS. The introduction of medical directors and quality boards feature at regional and national level Increasing patient information and choice will be introduced in the first NHS Constitution. Patient information will include the systematically measure and publish information about the quality of care from the frontline up. Individualisation will become the key to the way in which patients are handled with a personalised care plan. Noting that one size doesnt fit all. Incentivisation of care outcomes will include a new best practice tariff and the paper suggests this will make funding reflect quality of care. Partnership will be embraced, utilising local authorities, with the services offered personalised to meet the specific needs of their local populations Prevention not just treatment will be paramount with focus on improving health as well as treating sickness. Bevans editorial evaluates the internal market systems that have been tested within the NHS according to the Audit Commission and the Health Care Commissions paper Is treatment working? Suggesting that despite the core intention of the internal market models to improve quality and efficiency of services for patients, as Black insists, there is little evidence to suggest that this has resulted from past models or alternatively the scrapping of the internal market when Labour came to power in 1997; i.e. formation of foundation trusts, increased commissioning autonomy, patient choice or the incentivisation of health outcomes (payment by results). The NHS internal market models aimed to keep healthcare costs low by forcing providers to compete for patients not compete on the basis of quality. A stark contrast in rhetoric is seen in the proposals that are raised in the report, where marketization is the key driver of systemic improvement in quality of care. The High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report shows the need for a more market-orientated strategy: a patient choice-led approach to hospital funding, the removal of barriers preventing the use of private health providers to carry out NHS work, and the devolution of management and budgetary control from Whitehall to local communities. It appears reform is circular and the report bears a resemblances to pre-1991 measures where received funding was based on local populations. While the Report is indicative of the need for a tripartite arrangement for achieving quality, with stakeholders as informants and agents for change, Bevan argues that the internal market model proposed, although attractive, relies on the assumptions that purchasers can be effective commissioners and that failing providers will be removed from the market. The centrepiece of the White Paper reforms and Operating Framework is the handing over of decisions on care, treatments and commissioning solely to GPs, ultimately creating a stable internal model where there will be a quality equilibrium. GPs will be burdened with the challenge of acting as a middleman between the patient and provider, ultimately as a gateway to funding and care. They with fundamentally be dismantling the current monopoly of care provision. Their decision making will be accountable to local communities and a board. This new buyer position is thought to remove duplication of population care commissioning and streaml ine decision making to where the Government foresees a natural place to put this responsibility. Propper et al, (2003) noted that in 1991, the Conservatives created a set of buyers, funded by central government, who were free to purchase health care for their populations from both public and private sector suppliers. Public sector suppliers were therefore not given direct funding, but were set to compete with each other, alongside a small private sector, for contracts from these public buyers. The autonomy of Foundation Trusts as buyers, in Bevans opinion, has led to a free market of care with little standardisation, with the private sector benefitting from the poor levels of governance most. Bevanss editorial suggests this may have benefit to the population because so much healthcare cost is driven by decisions that GPs make and should not be guided by ministerial change. Unviable providers will be pushed out of the market by new entrants, creating a self-regulated, internal market. The White Paper suggests there is evidence that health systems work better where budgets and spending power are moved as close to patients as possible. Providers will be paid according to their performance. Furthermore, that a bottleneck on the road to driving the quality agenda is linked to ministerial involvement in the day-to-day running of the NHS. This new public management gives GPs greater autonomy, placed them at arms length from the government, interlinks purchasing and providing functions, and increases competition with quality in mind. GPs will be responsible for all aspects of performance; acting as bureaucratic gatekeepers for all care needs their patients, and potential scapegoa ts for ministerial politicking. As it stands, effectiveness of this system is being hindered by hierarchical bureaucracy and political micromanagement on both a local and national level, including politically driven reforms with each new government. The report suggests the forced autonomy of GP Consortia, comparatively to Bevan whom notes the earned autonomy system, in which, the independent health care inspectorate awarded each NHS provider an annual star rating of zero to three stars. Providers that scored well on the star ratings gain small financial bonuses but win much greater operational freedom, and the ability to apply to become an independent not-for-profit NHS foundation trust status. Autonomy was the incentive as this gave managers more choice. At the other end of the spectrum, providers that score zero stars are placed on special measures, and if progress is not soon forthcoming, their management is replaced. Bevan suggests that measures of Provider performance (cost, equity of access, outcomes, patient satisfaction etc.) have proved difficult to progress forward and that only patients acting as consumers has left a marked change on the system. I think it is questionable whether in the short term, GP buying powers wi ll drive quality in a market in which there are few providers. The 2008 DH report takes note of such and relays the importance of an individualised service in which patient information to inform choice will breed quality. Patient choice and measures of satisfaction will simultaneously puts more pressure on providers to increase performance of measured care outcomes, which in turn become incentivised by cash rewards. They foresee GP consortia, evaluating Services considered to be sub-standard and withdrawing them from service if patient satisfaction and quality care outcomes are not met. Propper, C., Burgess, S., and Gossage, D. (2003).Competition and quality: Evidence from the NHS internal market 1991-1999. Unpublished paper, University of Bristol. 3. As one of the accompanying papers to the White Paper Liberating the NHS, the DH has recently published Transparency in outcomes a framework for the NHS.http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_117583 Please summarise the main approaches to improving quality proposed by this consultation. The NHS Operating Frame is an accountability framework which should, if followed, ensure that the NHS Commissioning Board works to deliver better healthcare outcomes. This will be through measures that are valid, reliable and sensitive to change, notably evidence-based outcome measures, not process targets. The outcomes and incentives emerging from the frameworks will be organised around 5 national outcome goals /domains that cover all treatment activity for which the NHS is responsible. Outcomes appear to be related to feasibility, cost of improvements and pre-existing data sets. Quality of care as advocated by Lord Darzi in realised in three of the domains; patient experience, safety and effectiveness. The domains fail to include outcomes of access/equity, expediency in service or efficiency, which seems to underlie previous national reforms imposed by the Labour Government in 1997. The Operating Framework fails to identify purposeful ways of addressing deficiencies and poor outcom e performance. Incentives and regulation are suggested but may not be drivers. Each of these five areas will have: outcome indicators improvement areas according to evidence (collected data, patient surveying of experience, etc) Quality standards, developed by NICE, will inform the commissioning of all NHS care and payment systems. Measuring and reporting on outcomes will focus the attention of clinicians and managers on how well they are doing, where the gaps might be between actual performance and the high aspirations of those who use the NHS. I dont believe all the outcomes are necessarily reliable measures of quality. In Domain 2, for example, there is a focus on functional outcomes and qualities of life for long term illness, which may lead to patients to receive care they do not want. A great deal of the outcomes will be developed through incrementalism, for example those related to compassion, dignity and respect as indicators of the quality of care. The measured outcomes should represent the overall quality of healthcare provided by the NHS, as well as being responsive to population need and demand. The outcomes should also be attributable directly to the actions of health care provided within the NHS, to enable accountability. Best practice should be identified and used as a basis for ensuring that the framework itself does not propagate practice that in itself leads, however indirectly, to inequalities. Key to the five high level outcome/domains is the need for a whole system approach in aspiring for complete transparency, effectiveness and patients exercising appropriate choices, alongside a need to balance local priorities. Seven principles underpin the framework which are intended to improve the quality of health care, these are: Balanced between need and demand Accountability and transparency Internationally comparability Patient and clinician centred environments and service delivery. Excellence and equality promotion Adaptability and focus on outcomes that can be forged in partnership with other public services. International comparability The Health Secretary will be able to hold the new independent NHS Commissioning Board to account for securing improved health outcomes, and measuring the outcomes that are most important to patients and healthcare professionals. These will be backed up by authoritative, evidence-based quality standards that will ensure everyone understands how those outcomes can be achieved Based on past experience, what do you think are the likelihoods of success of this latest initiative? Please ensure that you consider these in the context of the likely challenges for the NHS over the next few years. (Please cite references if referring to evidence of the impact of previous initiatives). The attention of policymakers is always firmly fixed on the future and rarely on documented measures of progress to assess the impact of one set of reforms, before the next wave of organizational change. Political values dominate empirical evidence for reform. With such levels of political uncertainty, it is hard to evaluate if in five years time, a general election will lead to a change in leadership and new Health Minister. With this in mind, change often does not necessarily make best use of available resources, skills and knowledge. The direct influence of research evidence on decision making is often tempered by factors such as financial constraints, shifting timescales and decision makers own experiential knowledge (Elliott 1999). With devolvement of power to local government, there is need for a precise balance to be struck between strategies based on choice and competition on the one hand, and local voice and democratization on the other. On its own, I dont think the NHS reforms will create a patient-led system. It is the people, the leaders and staff of the NHS, who will make or break the change process. Central to this, is the way in which the White Paper reforms will radically change the way in with GPs work collaboratively with providers to better the health and social care of the population they serve. Reorganisation will ultimately mean GPs will have to create new organisations and learn new skills. This will take behavioural change that is likely to be unwelcomed, as theres a shift towards increased paperwork and decreased patient time. GPs have shown considerable levels of apathy towards working reforms and changes in service delivery in the past, including contracted hours. For example, previously published opinion has indicated that the medical profession were predominantly opposed to the package of NHS reforms outlined in the Working for Patients and were especially opposed to the administration of hospital s by self-governing trusts (Lister, 1990). GP consortia will be exactly that, self-operating. As the Operating Framework enters its live consultation it will be important to gather evidence as to strength of feeling with which those opinions, either for or against various aspects of the NHS reforms are held. Reform is costly, since managers and other NHS professionals invest a huge amount of time and effort with each re-organization. The NHS faces the need to make cost savings of  £15-20 billion over the next four years. It is faced with the challenge to create better health outcomes with less resources. Moving to the new system, maintaining control of day-to-day services, and implementing these savings is going to require skilled management. This at time when the NHS is shedding much of its management workforce and when managers have been under political attack. Introduced in 2004 as part of the General Medical Services Contract, the QOF is a voluntary incentive scheme for GP practices in the UK, rewarding them for how well they care for patients. the higher the score, the higher the financial reward for the practice. The very suggestion that this was voluntary implies that not everyone welcomed such change. The introduction of a free market, in which providers can tender for supplying a service as opposed to an internal market, could serve to drive efficiency savings and quality of care. However, accountability and patient choice would require considerably management and information sharing across GP consortia. Department of Health. Payment by Results. London: DoH, 2002. 5. One of the differences in the current UK coalition governments approach to improving quality, compared to previous governments, is in the use of targets. Targets are defined by the DH (DH 2004) as: Targets refer to a defined level of performance that is being aimed for, often with a numerical and time dimension. The purpose of a target is to incentivise improvement in the specific area covered by the target over a particular timeframe. List the possible benefits of using targets to improve health/health services and then list the potential disadvantages of using targets. Use examples (either from your experience or from what youve heard on the media) to illustrate your points. On balance, are you for or against publication? The benefits of health/ health services targets include: Supports priority setting Promotes consistency Improves commitment and fosters accountability Guides allocation of resources Milestones for incremental improvements The disadvantages of health/ health services targets include: Priorities may be misdirected and are often politically engineered Not always evidence based Hard to measure/quantify Not always related to health care outcomes Often cost related, not need related. Clouded by bureaucracy Often incentive driven ie pay to treat. One such health target in the Labour Governments Health Policy, the four-hour target, imposed in Accident and Emergency Departments has received mixed reviews. It was just one of a range of centrally imposed standards, most of them designed to speed up treatment. With such a target, volume of patients being treated and the expediency of their treatment is implied to be of greater importance that the quality of care or health outcomes of patients. The Guardian, (2010) reports In opposition Lansley had been critical of the way that targets distorted the behaviour of doctors, saying in the case of AE that people should be treated in relation to the severity of their injury not an arbitrary time limit. 6. The current government is strengthening the role of the regulator. Please summarise the role of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). What challenges do you think the CQC will face over the next few years? In April 2009, as the result of passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (2008 Act), the outcome-based regulator, Care Quality Commission (CQC) was officially established. Their primary role is to act as an independent regulator of the quality and capacity of health and adult social care. They are responsible for registering, reviewing and inspecting health, adult social care and mental health services to judge the clinical quality of healthcare. Regulation directly relates to the quality of care experienced by people, so called end users, who use the services and align to the Coalitions vision of a user-centred, integrated service with a strong focus on quality (CDC, 2010). Indeed, when services fail to meet the health and safety legal requirements of their compulsory registration, action against them is taken through strict enforcement powers. In the next few years, as we transition from one governance model to the next, exchanging power to a local level, improvements must be closely aligned to quality and substantial, evidence-based research. Research grants are being cut and it is likely public sector research, including health research, will suffer as result of such austerity. The CDCs broad remit to oversee NHS organisations is not limited to particular service areas or functions, like that of many of the existing regulators. They may find themselves over extending and unable to fully engage with the public in a transparent and meaningful way. As quality of care is embedded to offer assurance and to deliver improvements over time, there is potential for major disruption to be caused by the scale of the change management discussed within the White Paper. The CQCs model of regulation puts user involvement and community level accountability at the core of their actions. Though this is consistent with the changes implied within both the White Paper and Operational Framework, there is still considerable ambiguity surrounded where responsibility will lie across all regulated services, especially with the introduction of GP consortia. Until this is resolved and clarity found, ambiguity will only be escalated by poor engagement of stakeholders and insufficient information dissemination through the crucial transitional points. As patterns of service provision change, consistently identifying providers and commissioners, and then allowing for local communities to hold them to account for the services they provide may prove difficult. Once established within a professional capacity, the CDC will need to be aware of the information on outcomes and how it should be presented in a format that is accessible and meaningful to influence patient choice. Furthermore, in their role as an advocate of patients, as a consumer champion, the CDC will also be required to ensure that people who use services understand the care choices available to them and are involved in making decisions about their own care and support. The CDC (2010) note that Patient and public involvement in health organisation will be strengthened by the creation of HealthWatch England a new independent consumer champion within the Care Quality Commission. As a so called consumer champion, this suggests end user expectations may be heightened. Questions must be asked of how HealthWatch England shall be regulated.

King Nebuchadnezzar II :: History

King Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II was a Babylonian king around 605 B.C. and was the second king in the Chaldean dynasty. He was born in 635 B.C. and died in the October of 562 B.C. He became King in 605 B.C. 3 weeks after his father’s death. He was 30 years old when he became king and reigned for 44 years. When he died his son, Amel-Marduk took over the throne. He wasn’t only a great king but a great warlord. He is known for conquering Jerusalem, deporting the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, and many of Jehoiakim’s people to Babylon. He and his father Nabopolassar commanded an army together north of Assyria. When he lead a campaign against the Egyptians and came back victorious, Babylon became the most powerful military force in the Middle East. When he was 25 he started acting as a military administrator. One year after his crowning he gets the oath of submission from the rulers of the local states in Syria and Palestine. When Nebuchadnezzar gets his first serious military defeat which was when he was fighting an Egyptian army, it weakened him politically and many of the states withdrew their oaths of submission. His other main achievements were revitalizing Babylon, rebuilding the temple of Marduk and a nearby ziggurat. The Median Wall was built under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The Ishtar Gate, one of the eight gates of the inner city of Babylon, was also built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon dedicated the great Ishtar Gate to the goddess Ishtar. It was the main entrance into Babylon. His most famous achievement was creating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Some people think that King Nebuchadnezzar built that gardens for his homesick wife from Medes. A historian in 450 B.C. named Herodotus wrote that the Hanging Garden outer walls had â€Å"a 56 mile length, a 80 foot thickness, and a 320 foot height†, but archaeologists claim that it’s outer walls had about a length of 10 miles and not nearly as high but still high enough to be very impressive. It was made with huge slabs of stone (stone was only used one other time in Babylon and that was on the north wall of the Northern Citadel). Within the walls there were fortresses and temples with huge statues of solid gold.

The Five Main Sets of Value Paradigms :: Papers

The Five Main Sets of Value Paradigms According to the text there are 5 main sets of value paradigms: values from a perspective of traditional certainty, values from a perspective of post modern Relativism, values from an environmental perspective, the new-age perspective and values from an eclectic perspective. So lets examine that fundamentals of each paradigm to get a better view. The first and probably the most formal of all the paradigms is the perspective of traditional certainty. This set of values is more or less religious in nature, with the majority of its followers espousing monotheistic or one-God beliefs. Despite all the differences between the ideologies of monotheistic cultures, the one truth that holds constant is that of â€Å"divine order†. This cultural universal constant contends that everything has intrinsic value and therefore must be studied and protected. And out of the chaos that comes with our daily mundane existence, there will ultimately be a supreme order, which everything adheres to. The values of postmodern relativism on the other hand are completely different. This paradigm concentrates almost exclusively on the mundane and materialistic aspects of life. Postmodern relativism can be divided into two major parts: the pragmatic/weak form and the nihilistic/or strong form. In the pragmatic view, one’s main goal in life is to strive for all the luxuries that the world can offer and achieve personal happiness. A pragmatic believes that there is no ultimate reality, but chaos. But despite this seemingly bleak overview of the world, they still believe that we must strive to be decent and merciful to other people. To quote David Greegor â€Å"we must act as though we still believe in absolute values favoring a â€Å"good† in which we no longer believe†. According to the nihilistic or strong form of postmodern relativism there is no real meaning to anything. They espouse a sort of â€Å"anything goes attitude† wherein they believe whatever h appens happens and there is nothing more. According to this view, the world around us is just an illusion and the fundamental building blocks of all that is considered real, are in fact more real than the entities they make up. Ultimately a nihilistist’s fate will fall into the hands of entropy and once again turn toward chaos. Values from an environmental perspective are somewhat different from all the others mentioned here. The environmental perspective stresses that nature is a main source of many of the values we see everyday.

Global Communication Challenges: Cross-Cultural Essay

The world is becoming one global interconnected village. Because of compelling necessities in business and related matters, more and more companies are moving their operations offshore and expanding their footprint into new and unfamiliar geographies. A big challenge in managing this change is how to deal with a diverse workforce. This has to be managed well for the company to successfully achieve its business objectives. The company has to ensure that there is clear and transparent two way communication between the headquarters and the branches or subsidiaries, and also strong ties with the Leadership. (Lisbeth Clausen, â€Å"Corporate Communication Challenges: A ‘Negotiated’ Culture Perspective†). To make this happen, all staffs require a certain mastery of cross cultural communication skills. They have to be well trained to empathize with different cultural makers so as to keep communication open and effective without letting it affect business performance. Why are companies facing cross-cultural communication challenges? Companies become multi -national and move overseas for various reasons. With advancement in technology and a driving business need to stay competitive and ahead of competition, they set up operations and expand to newer geographies every day. It could be because they sell a product or service which they feel has potential to be marketed overseas. The company may perceive a big business opportunity in doing this and decide to set up a network on foreign shores. Or they may decide to off-shore their operations in order to leverage skills availability or even for labor arbitrage. Whichever the reason, once an office is set up overseas, this typically means that management and staff from the head office or flagship have to interact on a regular basis with local staff in the new countries. And if the business opens up in more than one country, it has to deal with multi cultural staff and or customers – a situation that calls for adroit handling of culture sensitive communications so that all business activities like decision-making and problem-solving take place without any gaps and in a way that is best suited to business needs. It is natural that people from different cultures to react differently to situations – for example, when the SHOE Company from Denmark entered the Japanese market, it found that many local business practices, like the hierarchical style of management, were creating barriers to quick brand penetration. The Japanese on the other hand felt that the Danish were not open for negotiation; that headquarters was ‘sending mixed messages’. (Lisbeth Clausen, â€Å"Corporate Communication Challenges: A ‘Negotiated’ Culture Perspective†). Leadership will have to patiently and successfully overcome the challenge of building the company culture amongst new staff in a foreign land. The new staff members have to embrace the company’s values and work style; this is critical for delivering good business results. Similarly, the Danish were impatient with Japan’s ceremonial approach to business; they just wanted to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible without partaking in social obligations. . How do these challenges affect an individual’s performance and effectiveness? Clear and lucid communication of business goals and corporate expectations of how staff can help achieve business goals is critical to the successful running of any business. Ineffective communication can lead to a lack of understanding of what is expected of a person in the company and how he or she should contribute towards achieving the business objectives. Many times a feeling of apathy sets in when staff feel left out and consequently their performance suffers, hurting the company’s business performance as well. When Jesus Ricardo was sent on a two year assignment from North America to South East Asia, she was one unhappy expat. It started with the very basics – her name; none of the people she worked with could say it right. It was simply a matter of her co-workers not being aware that in Spanish, the ‘J’ is pronounced like an ‘H’. She ended up having to explain this repeatedly and correct every person she met. This annoyed her tremendously although the locals did not think much of it. They did not understand that where Jesus came from, it was important to pronounce one’s name correctly. Then in the office, Jesus found her colleagues (all local), always spoke in Chinese. She felt terribly left out and sometimes even ignored. Often she wondered if they were talking about her, especially when the conversation was peppered with giggles. She consequently made no effort to get to know her team mates and insulated herself in her own world. At the end of three such trying months, she decided to quit her job if her company did not move her back to N America. Could the company have avoided such a situation? Yes, if it had been better prepared to handle a diverse workforce. As part of the relocation exercise, the company should have put both Jesus and the team in Taiwan through cross cultural sensitization. The host team should have been given a detailed briefing about the new member from N America and a ‘buddy’ could have been arranged to soft land Jesus into a completely new culture and living. How do these communication challenges affect the business objectives of the company? A person’s behavior – his attitudes, his beliefs, life style, his thinking, and his responsiveness are all influenced by his cultural background and markers. (Madelinde Daane-van der Houwen, â€Å"Understanding of culture optimizes a global communications strategy†). As companies start to do business with other countries, it becomes evident that there is a compelling need to understand local culture and habits. To persuade people to contribute fruitfully to business objectives, it is important to establish credibility and trust. This is best done by exhibiting an understanding of local habits and ways of life. To be able to recruit and retain the best employees and successfully achieve its business goals, an organization has to value the diversity of its employees and customers and communicate effectively to them. It is true that a diverse workforce helps to build respect for the company brand both internally and externally; through proper handling of cultural sensitivities, misunderstandings can be avoided and closer relationships can be cultivated between the company and customer. Such teams enhance productivity and spur creativity and innovation. And because of a variety of thinking styles and opinions they lead to effective problem resolutions and better decision outcomes. Organizations that believe in espousing cultural diversity and communicating effectively across differences of race, gender, religion, age, geographic background, education, economic and cultural background, and thinking and communication styles. will be committed to creating an inclusive organization where the differences of all people will be respected, valued and utilized towards achieving a common goal adding tremendous value to the way the company conducts its business. References: 1. http://www. thelatimergroup. com/aboutus/newsversions/spotlight_v5issue5. html, 2007 2. http://www. immi. gov. au/media/publications/multicultural/confer/01/speech5a. htm, 1995 3. http://perspectives. larryhollon. com/? p=414, 2006 4. http://journals. cambridge. org/action/displayAbstract? aid=1740740, 2008 (COSTAS M. CONSTANTINOU, OLIVER P. RICHMOND and ALISON M. S. WATSON (2008). International Relations and the challenges of global communication. Review of International Studies, 34 , pp 5-19 doi:10. 1017/S026021050800778X)