Research Topics: Acupuncture

THE RIGHT ORGANIZATION FOR THE OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPANY

This study is based on the scenario on the Harrison-Keyes, a global publisher of books, journals, and educational materials. The paper discusses the problems that are faced by the company with its new strategy: e-book publishing. This strategy has been the company’s solution to the current tough competition in the publishing industry. The paper aims to present the problems that are associated with this new strategy and the ways on how the company should handle and solve these problems.             This study’s objective is to present the importance of having the right organization that fits to the strategy of a company. It aims to determine the effect of the organization to the implementation of a strategy especially a global strategy that can bring changes to the production process, distribution and marketing channel that will demand new ways of organization.             Harrison-Keyes is a leading global publisher of technical, scientific, business books and journals, professional and consumer books, textbooks and educational reading materials since 1899. The company holds about 22,700 active titles and publishes about 2000 new titles each year. In recent years, the company has felt the competition from low-cost retailers and other publishing industry players. As an answer to this challenge, the company hired a new CEO who strongly proposes a new strategy for the Harrison-Keyes, the e-book publishing.             With the e-book publishing strategy, many problems arise, from the alignment of the company’s core business to the strategy, to leadership as well as financial problems.              The basic problem of the company came to the challenge of still gaining the top position in the publishing market by creating another market through the e-book publishing strategy. E-book publishing strategy is basically the publication of books through the internet. A company which utilizes the internet and other advancement in technology should have a good information technology system and information system strategy to capitalize the technology properly. This has been the first problem of Harrison-Keyes, the lack of established information technology system. First of all the CIO of the company lacks a strong background in technology. The company needs a CIO that has strong knowledge and can align the company’s information technology system with the implementation of e-book publishing. In most multinational companies today, both the productivity and competitiveness are dependent on an ability to generate and make use of information (Hillesund, 2001). The information needed for the implementation of e-books is a digital and network based technology for both distributing and reading books which needs technological competence, financial resources and access to information (Hillesund, 2001).             Moreover, production of e-books has been largely digitized. Writing, layout, and pre-press preparations are computerized and the publishing workflow is all network-based (Hillesund, 2001). This means that the company needs a standardized information system that will make its production reliable. Publishers will no longer be mere producers of paper books, but digital content agents, producing content in several formats and for different distribution channels, Publishers will produce books on paper and on demand in various digital formats, changing the structure of book production (Hillesund, 2001). The traditional information system of Harrison-Keyes will need a great change to adapt to technological changes brought about by e-book publishing. The company needed a strategic plan like updating their systems to fit to the digital content. Publishers like Harrison-Keyes need to relate to new technologies and should meet the special requirements on structuring and formatting of e-books. To be competitive in the world of digital books, a certain level of competence in the area of technology will have to be developed within the organization and more on to the research and development department of the company. With the leadership of its CIO, Harrison-Keyes could have been started the project by planning it carefully, making sure that the project was backed up by reliable and capable systems, ensuring that all information and resources needed for the project will be distributed and allocated properly. The company basically needs an integrated information system that will help track its authors and books-in-process as well as the sales and royalties. The company needs a CIO that has strong technical qualifications plus a background in finance, marketing and strategic planning. With today’s technology driven industries, the role of the CIO is moving from technical planning and implementation to strategic planning. CIO tends to focus on the planning and implementation of specific information technologies, rather than on long-term company strategy (Anonymous, 1999). The current CIO of Harrison-Keyes lacks most these skills and the company should consider hiring someone more qualified to the current business plans of Harrison –Keyes. Another problem of the company is the deal and communications with one of the company’s stakeholders, the outsourcing company, Asia Digital Publishing. Harrison-Keyes’ production manager is having a hard time communicating with the company that will format the e-books and is causing a significant delay to the implementation of the e-book project.  The Asia Digital Publishing which was hand-picked by the company’s Executive Vice President for Global Strategy has a good reputation on the business. Looking at the situation, it seems that the problem is in the part of the production manager of Harrison-Keyes. Although he has been in the publishing industry for 25 years, e-books strategy is new to him and with the background of the company’s executive vice president in global strategy and consulting firm, she will not go wrong in picking up a company that should work with Harrison-Keyes. To solve this issue, Harrison-Keyes might need a staff that will coordinate with Asia Digital, a staff who has good public relation, strong technical background on e-book productions and has good experience dealing with foreign suppliers. A good collaboration with a company that offers formatting for the e-books, along with Digital Rights Management, DRM, website construction maintenance, hosting and payment systems should be established. With the introduction of e-books, the whole production of process of books at Harrison-Keyes will definitely change and the knowledge and understanding of a production manager in the new situation should also be leveraged with the technology used in e-book production. Another major problem of Harrison-Keyes has also something related to the stakeholders of the e-book supply chain, the authors. A well-known author who has been in the company for years has reservations and fear that his works are at risk of being pirated once becomes digitized. This issue has also put the company’s reputation in bad publicity. The company’s first step to address this problem is to convince the authors that there are existing technologies that will protect their works and prevent piracy. Again, this is another task of the CIO, to conduct researches on the development of new technologies such as encryption and Extensible Rights Markup Language, XrML, that will give protections to authors and the company and it should have been part of the project planning process even before the stakeholders were informed of the e-book project.  There are companies that provide software and Digital Rights Management, DRM, systems for the protection of e-books. The problem with Harrison-Keyes is its being not up to date with the latest in technology. The management of Harrison-Keyes must also gives emphasis on the advantages of e-books on the part of the authors such as reaching a wider audience than by just publishing in print encouraging new readers by producing e-books in an attractive format; gaining status from the wider dissemination of their publications; and gaining revenue from e-book (JISC, 2003). In order for the project to be successful there should be an alignment of the stakeholders such as the publisher which includes its management, the authors, the suppliers and the outsourcing company. By understanding stakeholders’ issues and striving for solutions, a company can maintain support for its operations and expansion plans (Willis, 2005). Due to the delay of the launching of the project, financial problems arise in Harrison-Keyes. Due to not well-anticipated project cost, the project needed a cost that is beyond the budget of the company. It seems that the CIO and the CFO of Harrison-Keyes has no good strategic planning team.  Another problem is that there is someone in the management who lacks good corporate ethics and links information outside the company that causes bad publicity. Summarizing the problems of Harrison-Keyes, its problems include stakeholder misalignments, organizational structure and lack of good information technology system. Generally, Harrison-Keyes has good strategy but its strategy planning and implementation are hindered by many factors such as having the wrong person at a certain position due to lack of appropriate skills and stakeholders misalignment. Most multinational companies undergo reorganization especially when implementing a new project or strategy that will significantly change the company in order to meet new challenges. Basically, the challenges face by the company is to have a certain level of competence in the e-book publishing. Considering the scenario on Harrison-Keyes, strategy planning and its relationship with the entire organization and the stakeholders should be taken into consideration. Organizational structure and strategy are essential elements in the formula of sustainable business performance. Sound organizational structure usually means a certain mix and interaction of talented individuals, working in relevant functions and areas of responsibility, sharing knowledge and related assets, behaving responsively and constructively (Wolfe, 2003). When a structure’s elements are properly aligned with one another, that structure facilitates effective implementation of the firm’s strategies (Barth, 2003). Thus, organizational structure is a critical component of effective strategy implementation processes (Barkerna et al., 2002). Effective organizational structure provides the stability of the firm to successfully implement its strategies and maintain its current competitive advantages that will be needed for its future strategies (Ireland et al., 2003). A firm’s structure specifies the work to be done and how to do it, given the firm’s strategy or strategies (Jenster & Hussey, 1997). Thus organizational structure influences how managers work and the decisions resulting from that work (Schilling et al, 2001). Selection of new strategy calls for changes to an organizational structure especially when inefficiencies force it to do so. (Chandler, 1962). Some top-level managers hesitate to conclude that there are problems with the firm’s structure or strategy. Because of these inertial tendencies, structural change is often induced by the actions of stakeholders who are no longer willing to tolerate the firm’s performance. Harrison-Keyes exhibits a functional type of organizational structure. Functional structure is a structure consisting of a chief executive officer, CEO, and a limited corporate staff with functional line managers in dominant organizational areas such as production, accounting, marketing, research and development, engineering and human resources. This structure allows for functional specialization, thereby facilitating active sharing of knowledge within each functional area. The negative effect of a functional orientation like this is on communication and coordination among those representing different organizational functions. Because of this, the CEO must work hard to verify that the decisions and actions of individual business functions promote the entire firm rather than a single function. Analyzing Harrison-Keyes’ organizational structure, the new CEO is highly driven by technology while it CFO is not conformed to the new strategy. The company has roster of talents with its executive vice president who has knowledge in global strategy; with its vice president for marketing which is said to be creative; and with its head of the implementation team who seeks for promotion and seems to exert effort to get his promotion. On the other hand, the company seems to be not ready with the implementation of e-books due to its current CIO who lacks understanding of new technologies and interpretation on how these technologies can be applied to the advantage of the business; financial background to properly set IT investment priorities to achieve business goals; knowledge management and knowledge creation. The e-book publishing strategy is greatly dependent on new technology so the company needs a reliable CIO that can effectively develop, implement and align information technology strategy of the company with the implementation of e-book publishing. The CIOs of today plays key roles in strategic planning due to the driving force of technology and information.    The company’s production manager although has years of experience in publishing, e-book publishing is entirely different to traditional publishing and therefore should also has to be replaced by someone more knowledgeable of e-books production and process or the company can add another production manager that will be assigned solely on the implementation of e-books.             The main reason behind Harrison-Keyes implementation of e-book publishing is to maintain long-term competitive success which is kind of international strategy. International strategies also allow the firm to search for new markets, resources, core competencies, and technologies as part of its effort to outperform competitors (Begley et al, 2003). Therefore, an effective organizational structure is necessary for its implementation. Global operations such as e-book publishing need proper matching of strategies and organizational structure for coordination and control. A strategy designed to achieve growth will be ineffective without the appropriate organization of a company’s talent and resources. As a company grows or implements a strategy that causes change to the company, it has to evolve its organizational structure to ensure optimal performance and to deal with changing priorities and business complexity. However, reorganization is a high-risk activity that represents a shock to the corporation, is personal to employees and can result in an erosion of performance. To address the risks associated with reorganization, companies need to be aware of key success factors when implementing reorganization initiatives and to initiate systematic communications plan to influence perceptions ay all levels and stakeholders within the organization (Goold and Campbell, 2002).             Having the right people in place allows a company to face changes and growth. Management needs to attract right people, train them properly if necessary and position them at the right position that can help the company pursue its purpose and meets the reasonable expectations of stakeholders. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

THE RIGHT ORGANIZATION FOR THE OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPANY

This study is based on the scenario on the Harrison-Keyes, a global publisher of books, journals, and educational materials. The paper discu...

Sample About Environmental Reports of Australian Firms Essay

Introduction             This paper discusses and analyses articles.  It also shows a case study about environmental reports of Australian firms and its development during 1997-2006.  Combining theories and the case will be useful in evaluation tool to describe the decade change in environmental disclosures of Australian firms.  For reference, the significant turn-around in disclosure practices of Australian firms is presented in appendix 1.  The prose used in this presentation is description-assessment type with analysis.         Wells and his Suggestive Analysis The 1976 article of Wells was basically intended to argue with previous admonitions of Nelson (1973) including that of (1974) on how they devalue a priori research in accounting.  Within his article, Wells had explicitly laid down his arguments directly undermining the claims of the three authors (on insignificant advancement and doubtful value of a priori research in accounting p. 477 and its theoretical deficiency p. 478).  He initially related accounting to science in an attempt to use Kuhn (1970) ideas about scientific revolutions that then strengthen his claim that the weaknesses of a priori research in accounting came from the process of accounting revolution.  And until the old set of ideas move to new and complete the five revolutionary steps, the weakness would seem to be eminent, but when seen in a different view, weakness can also be beneficial.               The heart of Wells’ argument was to relate accounting to science to be able to use the ideas of Kuhn.  However, as admitted by Wells (p. 472), accounting undergoes evolutionary rather revolutionary process which could then defeat his anti-thesis on Nelson’s insignificant advancement of a priori research in accounting.  The anti-thesis was that alternative views went to be thought in schools which was the basis to prove that significant advancement do occurred with reference that prior to Wells’ article (primarily in 1960s) teaching such alternatives to schools were not prominent.  In view of this, Nelson should be given by Wells the doubt for the error as the latter time of analysis would be the evolution itself specifically the emergence of step 5.  In the contrary, Nelson could be partially deceived by the awareness of the communities about the vitality of steps 1 to 4 that such communities did not created too much noise (as to prevent oversight from authorities or another round of debates from conflicting schools of thought) that Nelson would have been taken note.                         Kuhn did not relate science to accounting rather politics (p. 472).  However, Wells had maneuvered his article to emphasize that revolution is necessary in accounting.  Science is a potential source of revolution because when two scientists with conflicting ideas argues (like Galileo experiment on Leaning Tower of Pisa to refute Aristotle’s view that the 10-pound weight will fall faster 10 times than a 1-pound weight) an instant winner or replacement to the original knowledge could emerge.  The same is true with politics.  When an old political ideology (communism or dictatorship) has already been inconsistent with time (as values of people changed as affected by different factors, say, globalization), people power or civil war could ensue triggering a revolutionary/ instant change in leadership and political system.  In the contrary, accounting does not have the same social emphasis unlike the former examples.  The subjective (generally against science) and diplomatic (mere option for political reconciliation) nature of accounting evolution prohibits its capability to result in revolution.  Revolution requires abruptness in results.  As stage 1 of accounting revolutionary process is attached on relevant economic effects (Great Depression) or big corporate scandals (the recent Enron fall), the start of the process would be explicit while the others (until step 5) would be implicit.                Revolution is unlikely because accountants who are interested in establishing schools of thought are minimal (only those employed by international organizations like ASCAP or national professional groups) while the most of them are within independent associations especially in the private ones.  As such, the latter groups are embedded in varying goals of their employers that limit their capability to participate in the accounting revolution.  To save energy and secure their jobs, they are used by their employers (who are profit-oriented) to manipulate, oftentimes, bypass regulatory constraints provided by the former groups to serve the self-vested interests.  As there are no strict rules in the revolution process (p. 474), that is, non-regulatory accountants are not bound (even allowed) to conflict the regulation imposed (defeating the revolutionary steps) but may insert their modifications as long as properly audited, settlement of differences of the two groups will be the dominant theme.               Thus, a priori research of accounting admitted by  as being theoretically deficient held its ground.  The deficiency was brought about by the limited number of analysts willing and able to argue their views as such can be detrimental to their respective employer’s goals and opposing to regulations being imposed.  There could be anomaly (the onset of stage 1), say, in historical-cost based system but the basis to become insecure varies to these two factors that makes the development of alternative sets of ideas and school of thought possible but domination of new practices unlikely.  This is the significance of discussing accounting thought within the frame of strict rules such that after steps 1-4 (no rules attached) step 5 will give rise to rules in order for domination stage to follow.  This is why regulation bodies are created in international and national levels.  As strict rules need not apply, revolution would be associative of indications not a direct observation since step 5 will implicitly and symbolically emerged.  Thus, Wells’ argument might come from personal vigilance or his period had emitted numerous indications of step 5.                             Lastly, Nelson’s statement that a priori research in accounting had doubtful value was translated by Wells into positive approach.  The rationale was that debaters possessing this in their conflicting ideas aid accounting evolution.  But since there are regulating bodies and private accountants, “anything goes” or the pre-paradigm features of the evaluative process would be dictated by the former according to its own means but manipulated by the latter according to its own ends.  Thus, the doubt will continue to be used by these actors with different goals (one is administrative while the other is operational) to prevent revolution from happening, if not, being felt by the community or the society in entirety.   If any, Wells succeeded in claiming that a priori research in accounting served as the catalyst for new disciplinary matrix (p. 480).  This is shown how accounting and auditing policies are enforced to maintain shared commitments and values of accounting intact as response to globalization where technology affected how people thinks while being multicultural countries become common.   Another, and more relevant to the bulk of his discussion, was his reluctance to accept the analogy of science and accounting with regards to revolution and its implications.  By doing so, Wells had already implied that his analysis of revolution in accounting thought was merely meant to arouse the consciousness of authorities, the accounting community and the public that revolution could be on its way as evolution suffered its century-old long consequences.  This makes the question mark on the title more suggestive of Wells’ objective.          Case Study: Report of Australian Conservation Foundation (ACE) Director’s report remains to be one of highest (p. 7), and more appropriately, it is a strategic medium corporation used to summarize their environmental performance.  With reference to Qantas Annual Report 2004, the Director’s report was used to serve self-interest of the reporting entity, even misled the intention of the disclosure requirement, by merely stating “that there was no significant environmental incidents which are material in nature”.  Basically, the ACE disputed this style of reporting with respect to consistency in disclosure and pushed to amend the legal provision to clarify that materiality in Section 299(1)(f) of Corporation’s Act.  This materiality should refer to being material to environmental not financial structure of the entity if it committed disclosure failure and subjected to prosecution or fines.    In the same manner, the succeeding exposure of ACE that cited deficiencies of Section 299(1)(f) confirms why Australian legislations seemingly were unsuccessful to induce firms towards environmental disclosure.  This is because ACE found loopholes in certain legislations that resulted to misconceptions of firms that can either be intentional or deductive in nature.  ACE wanted clarification, or at best, more explicit disclosure requirements because firms (ten years after research) still do not report voluntarily especially on negative performance.  For example, Coles-Myer 2004 Annual report disclosed its environmental report in one sentence that referred to the occurrence “of no particular and significant environmental regulation applied in its operation”.  As the firm belonged to Australia’s top 10 companies and had environmentally-sensitive subsidiaries like service stations and auto repair shops (not to mention that this firm was one of the successfully prosecuted companies of Environmental Protection Authority or EPA between 1990-1993 (p. 17)), ACE was moved for clarifying the words “particular and significant” in the legal definition.  They are aware that the law can be circled by some firms that potential confusion (as this can be used as a scapegoat) should minimize.                   Further, with relevance to   findings (p. 13) together with other previous researches, firms with environmental disclosures still used them for corporate image building.  This is reflected in Orica 2004 Annual Director’s report in which the company was under an on-going clean-up of a certain botany garden but failed to note that the clean-up was due to the failure of Orica to pursue EPA regulations in New South Wales.  As Amcor Ltd had attempted to play down its disclosure prosecution in 1991 (p.10), Orica was doing the same face-saving strategy, even misleading contribution, more than decades after.  Due to this, ACE intensified its campaign to minimize these misleading disclosures because the liability of a firm is only short-term to EPA while the adverse impact to environment and eventually society is long-term in nature far from what fines or other penalties can remedy.  In doing so, ACE is assured that legitimacy theory (p. 4) will be derived from the actual environmental performance of the firm.                 These foregoing led AS to question not only the guidelines but also the enforcers of them.  The article of  mentioned the research of Trot man (1979) that disclosure increases over time, and together with Bradley (1981), increases with firm size (p. 2).  However, as legislation against Australian firms is geographically bounded within its borders, small firms ten years ago who are now big firms and big firms who are now likely operating internationally may not as well coincide with these findings.  AS cited BP’s pollution in Papua New Guinea and Esmeralda’s cyanide spill in Hungary and Romania not reported in their respective environmental disclosures due to geography constraint to Australia alone.  It is also interesting to note that BP which underwent scrutiny by Guthrie and Parker (1989) was found not to relate legitimacy theory in its voluntary social disclosures (p. 3). In view of this, the point of AS becomes more important as the firm could commit worst environmental practices in other countries that can be detrimental to the international image of the country.   Conclusion             The analysis of Wells has implications to the decade-old study research of .  Revolution is not explicitly admitted to be present in accounting thought.  Therefore, the level of objectivity of environmental disclosures from the time of  study to the current situation in Australia today was resulted to be almost similar.  This is because the five steps of revolutionary change are not completed by Australian conditions.  Although it is noticeable in our analysis that anomalies abounds in environmental reporting throughout the decade in question in which legislations as well as the number of NGOs had increased to resolve the anomalies, step 5 would not be attained because legitimacy theory is ever changing.  This is not to mention that step 2 (insecurity) of disclosure guardians might be easily resolved by accountants that are endowed with manipulative capabilities when it comes to reporting.               Appendix 1: Developments in the Post-  Article (1997-2004) 2004 – Perceptions of NGOs about ED performance after ten years was unchanged           – NGOs and other stakeholders wanted to improve ED provided by firms           – ED does not necessarily attempt to influence corporation’s activities           – The majority of NGOs targets government lobbying to induce ED compliance           – Relevant information is necessary to support accountability claims           – NGOs are skeptical on industry self-regulation 2002 – Environmental disclosure (ED) seen as a means to install corporate change 2001 – Reasons of providing ED is survival          – Australian public policy supports industry self-regulation 2000 – Reiteration that ED is used to build corporate image          – Firms that lack ED also reflect lack of commitment to transparency          – Companies may have other priorities within social responsibility disclosure but not necessarily ED 1999 – ED is a pre-requisite to enter industry affiliation          – Awareness of the public and NGO pressure was proven to induce ED compliance by firms 1998 – ED is used to counter unfavorable media attention          – ED as reflection of financial performance          – Companies may be responding to influential lobby groups regarding on ED compliance 1997 – Several ED deficiencies was caused by the expectation gap/ higher standards than companies can bear or aspire Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample About Environmental Reports of Australian Firms Essay

Introduction This paper discusses and analyses articles. It also shows a case study about environmental reports of Australi...

Sample Poor and Effective Listening Importance of Listening in Organizations Essay

Poor and Effective Listening: Importance of Listening in Organizations   Thesis Statement This paper entitled “Poor and Effective Listening: Importance of Listening in Organizations” is based on my assumption and belief that listening is one of the major areas of interpersonal communication. We sometimes discount the fact that listening is an important part of communication. I believe that listening has a big impact on everyone’s life. However, our listening skills vary. There are effective listeners as well as poor listeners. It is of great importance that we study the behaviors of both effective and listeners. Effective listening have positive effects while poor listening leads to problems and conflicts. The report will focus oh the importance of listening in organizations and in the business context.   Definition of Terms Listening Listening is the most used channel of communication (Harris 2002). In the process of interaction, the process of listening is of crucial importance. In order to respond appropriately to others, we must pay attention to the messages they are sending and link our responses to these. Listening is a fundamental skill and the foundation for other communication skills (2003). <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Listening is the complex, learned human process of sensing, interpreting, evaluating, storing and responding to oral messages (1991 cited  2003, p. 171).</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Listening is the process by which spoken language is converted to meaning in the mind (1971 cited in 2003, p. 171).</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Listening is parallel to, and the social equivalent of, reading: when we read we attempt to understand and assimilate the written word; when we listen we attempt to understand and assimilate the spoken word (1997 cited in 2003, p. 171). </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Listening is the acquisition, processing, and retention of information in the interpersonal context (1997 cited in 2003, p. 172).</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Listening is regarded as the process whereby one person pays careful overt and covert attention to, and attempts to assimilate, understand, and retain, the verbal and nonverbal signals being emitted by another 2003, p. 172).</li> </ul>   Effective Listening Effective listening involves more than simply hearing what the speaker has said; it involves the search for a full and accurate understanding of the meaning of another’s verbal and non-verbal messages. Effective listening is composed of four basic communication skills (Egan 1998 cited in  2002, p. 54): <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Attending – refers to the way listeners orient themselves to speakers, both physically and psychology.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Listening – involves receiving and understanding the verbal and non-verbal messages transmitted by speakers.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Empathy – involves listeners understanding messages from within the speakers’ frames of reference and communicating this to them.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Probing – involves encouraging and prompting speakers to talk about themselves and to define their concern in more concrete and specific terms.</li> </ul> Poor Listening – Poor listening in organizations is seen in failing to follow directions or suggestions, not responding to a message verbally or non-verbally, talking to another, and forgetting previous messages (Cooper 1997). Poor listening creates problems in understanding. Poor listening causes many problems during social interchange.   Outline of the Argument This paper aims to discuss the differences in behavior between a poor listener and an effective listener. It is also the objective of this paper to identify the benefits of effective listening. Different topics and issues such as poor listening styles, effects of poor listening and the barriers to effective listening will also be discussed in this paper in order to give a full understanding of the topic.       Listening Styles Let us look at the different listening styles. There are at least five listening styles. One is effective listening while the other four are considered poor listening styles. Poor Listening Styles 1. The “Missing-in-Action” Listener This is typically a passive or detached listening style. These listeners, although physically present, are clearly mentally or intellectually absent. They may be preoccupied with personal issues and at times even appear to be in trance. Although there may be a smile on their face, their eyes are blank and distant, and it is obvious they are disengaged from whatever is being said. It is not a question of misunderstanding the communication; they do not even hear it. It is a total lack of perception, not a lack of comprehension. A person could become a “missing in action” listener if he or she has little interest in what is being said or he/she gives little or no legitimacy to the communicator. A person might go missing in action if they feel unable to understand a complex message. If people are intimidated by the deliverer of the content of the message, they may choose to zone out o0f the listening process (Chambers 2001).   2. The “Distracted” Listener This is an active dysfunctional style. These people are obviously distracted from listening by more immediate concerns. Typically, they are consumed by “urgent” internal issues of the moment. They may be doing two or more things at one time. They try to appear to be listening while reading, writing or pursuing some other activity. They may be concerned about time pressures, perhaps they repeatedly glance at their watch, and their behavior usually indicates impatience. They clearly convey a message of wanting to get the conversation over with so they can get back to the things that are really important to them. This listener appears to be engaged by consistently nodding in agreement or using appropriate verbal cues, yet they realize they are not doing an effective job absorbing the message. They know the importance of listening and are aware of the negative message not doing so sends so they attempt to create the illusion of listening. Their goal is try to bring the communication to a quick conclusion. They have little or no interest in the information (Chambers 2001).   3. The “Selective” Listener This listening style involves listening to be right or to confirm previously determined opinions and positions. These listeners sift through the message to glean information to support what they already think, hearing only what they want to hear. They are not listening to the total message, they are only selectively listening to validate their own beliefs. They screen out or ignore information that does not fit their preconceptions. Selective listeners can be either positively or negatively inclined. A person can become a selective listener if he or she does not discipline her/his self to listen to someone’s total message. It is an arrogant listening style and should be avoided because a selective listener dismisses the messages of others and confirms her own self-righteous positions (Chambers 2001).   4. The “Contentious” Listener A contentious listener is one who uses a combative or negatively aggressive listening style. Similar to selective listeners, contentious listeners listen only to find points of disagreement. They listen only to reject, not to actually process the entire message. They are determined to disagree. Disregarding any areas of agreement, they only wish to focus on areas of disagreement. A person can become a contentious listener when listening with his/her emotion. Fear, anger, jealousy, resentment, and similar emotions often result in combative listening patterns. This is subjective, reactionary listening (Chambers 2001). After presenting the poor listening styles, let us now discussed the fifth listening style.   5. The Effective Listener Effective listeners are both mentally and physically committed to the listening process. They exercise conscious control over their listening activities. Being focused on the entire message that is being delivered, they are very attentive to the speaker’s total delivery. They maintain keen awareness of the alignment of words, tone of voice, and non-verbal communication. Effective listeners practice open-minded objectivity, withholding judgments and interpretations until they have processed the entire message. Effective listeners send powerful messages to their communication partners of holding them high esteem and finding their thoughts and opinions to be of great interest. Those who truly listen effectively demonstrate great respect for other, and in turn are held in high regard by others (Chambers 2001).   Obstacles to Effective Listening Dichotomous Listening – This occurs when we attempt to assimilate information simultaneously from two different sources.  Examples include trying to listen to two people in a group who are speaking at the same time, and conducting a telephone conversation while carrying on a face-to-face interaction with another person, or when distracted by some form of extraneous noise. In all these instances the dichotomous nature of the listening interferes with the ability of the listener to interact effectively, since messages may be either received inaccurately or not received at all ( 2003). Inattentiveness – Here the listener for some reason does not give full attention to the speaker. Someone who is self-conscious, and concerned with the personal impression being conveyed, is unlikely to be listening closely to others (2003). Individual Bias – The biases we have developed as part of our upbringing and socialization are filters that may distort the messages we receive. This can occur in a number of contexts. Someone with limited time may not wish to get involved in lengthy dialogue and therefore may choose to ‘hear’ only the less provocative or unproblematic part of what was said (2003). Mental Set – We are all affected by previous experiences, attitudes, values and feelings, and these in turn influence our mental set for any given situation. We evaluate other based on their appearance, initial statements, or what they said during previous encounters. These influence the way the speaker is heard, in that statements may be screened so that only those aspects that fit in with specific expectations are perceived (2003). Blocking – The process of blocking occurs when an individual does not wish to pursue a certain line of communication and so employs various techniques to end or divert the conversation (2003).   Comparison of Behaviors Behavior of Poor Listeners Based on the discussed poor listening styles and barriers of effective listening above, let us now look at the characteristics and behaviors of poor listeners. <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners have little interest in what is being said or give little or no legitimacy to the communicator.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners find it hard to understand complex messages, they may be intimidated by the content or the deliverer of the message.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners are always distracted.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners appear to be preoccupied with other thoughts or concerns, their behavior indicates impatience.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners only hear what they want to hear, they screen out or ignore information that does not fit their preconceptions.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners listen not to process the entire message but only to reject.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners focus on areas of disagreement.</li> </ul> <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners are easily distracted by external factors such as noise and heat/cold.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listener make no effort to absorb difficult information,</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Poor listeners over-react to a speaker’s delivery rather than concentrating on what is being said ( 2003).</li> </ul>   Behavior of Effective Listeners <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="circle"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Focus on the messages being communicated by the other person.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Critically evaluates what others are saying.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Attempt to gain full, accurate, insight into other person’s communication</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Monitors the non-verbal signals accompanying the other person’s verbal messages.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Conveys interest, concern and attention.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Encourages full, open and honest expression.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Develops and ‘other-centered’ approach during interaction.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Reaches a shared and agreed understanding and acceptance with others about both sides’ goals and priorities.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Have a strong commitment to the listening process.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Realize that listening skills are neither instinctive nor eternal.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Motivated to learn, practice, and reinforce their active listening skills.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Display high self-confidence and self-assurance by listening effectively.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Highly efficient in completing their and fulfilling their responsibilities.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Demonstrate greater flexibility in resolving disagreements and conflicts.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Participate more intelligently and effectively in conversations.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">As focused on their communication partner’s message as they are on their own.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Make more decisions based on a solid foundation of facts and data and avoid reactionary conclusions.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Suffer less embarrassment resulting from foolish mistakes or incompetent decisions.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Successfully control the listening barriers that affect their reception of messages (Chambers 2001).</li> </ul>   Negative Effects Poor Listening There are numerous effects of poor listening. Let us discuss the negative impacts of poor listening on businesses and organizations. Poor listening is considered expensive. Individuals make many mistakes because of poor listening. Mistakes due to poor listening case embarrassment, irritate customers, alienate employees and, affect profits. Poor listening can lead to numerous problems including misunderstanding another person’s intentions, confusing an issue, missing valuable information, or antagonizing people (2002).     Benefits of Effective Listening In organizations, as well as everybody’s personal life, the advantages of effective listening are almost endless. Listening has been shown to be a vital skill for successful managers, supervisors, and professional employees. According to  (1994) misunderstandings are reduced, innovation increases, and morale improves at the workplace because of effective listening (cited in Harris 2002). Listening, is being linked by Bone (1988) with learning, building relationships, being entertained, making intelligent decisions, saving time, enjoying conversations, settling disagreements, getting the best value, preventing accidents and mistakes, asking intelligent questions, and making accurate evaluations (cited in 2002). In addition, it paves the way toward better personnel relationships, fewer mistakes and errors, more successful meetings, shared viewpoints and perspectives, a stronger culture, and a greater organizational cohesiveness ( 1985). Thus the benefits of effective listening are summarized below: At Work <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Greater customer satisfaction</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Increased employee satisfaction</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Higher levels of productivity</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Fewer mistakes</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Improved sales figures</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">More information sharing</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Greater innovation and creativity</li> </ul> Personally <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Better family relationships</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Improved social network</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Greater interpersonal enjoyment</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">Improved self-esteem</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">More close friends</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">An enriched life ( 2003)</li> </ul> Conclusion Based on the discussions above, it is clear that poor/ineffective listeners and effective demonstrate contrasting behaviors. Poor/ineffective listeners exhibit signs of impatience. They have little or no interest in the message. They lack the ability to comprehend or process the speakers’ message. Poor listeners are distracted by other concerns. They lack focus. Poor listeners are dishonest, they disrespectful of the speakers’ feelings. Effective listeners on the other hand focus on the speakers’ messages. They attempt to gain full and accurate understanding of the communicators’ messages. They monitor and interpret non-verbal signals effectively. They listen carefully before reacting or commenting on the message. They convey interest, concern and attention. They display high self-confidence and self-assurance by listening effectively. They participate intelligently and effectively on the communication process. I also found out that there are different barriers or obstacles to effective listening. These barriers are dichotomous listening, inattentiveness, individual bias, mental set and blocking. Ineffective listening is considered expensive. It affects the organization’s performance and profits. It also affects the satisfaction of the customers, employees as well as the managers. Poor listening causes embarrassment, conflicts and misunderstandings. Effective listening on the other hand is linked with learning, building relationships, enjoying conversations, settling disagreements, getting the best value, preventing accidents and mistakes, asking intelligent questions, and making accurate evaluations. In organizations, effective listening paves the way toward better personnel relationships, fewer mistakes and errors, more successful meetings, shared viewpoints and perspectives, a stronger culture, and a greater organizational cohesiveness. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample Poor and Effective Listening Importance of Listening in Organizations Essay

Poor and Effective Listening: Importance of Listening in Organizations Thesis Statement This paper entitled “Poor and Effective List...

Research Paper on Creating More Frustration For Their Employees.

Research Paper on Creating More Frustration For Their Employees.

Resume`

Campus Address 2122 Willowbrook Cir APT #167 West Lafayette, IN 47906 USA 765-414-5889 Min Chung chungm@purdue.edu   Permanent Address 307-1902 Byung Young APT,    Donong dong Namyangju City, KyungGi Do, South Korea 82-31-558-3636 Objective   Seeking Finance positions utilizing team international background, business knowledge, and team work skills. Education Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN                                                    May 2008 Management, Bachelor of Science                                                    GPA: 3.59/ 4.0 Minor: Finance Special Course Project, Investment, Management science, International finance Management   • Conducted interpret optimization models and analyzed good investment decision in Finance   • Researched and analyzed international rate quotes and international market with a quantitative approach Widener University, Chester, PA  (Transfer)                                      Jan 2004 – Dec 2005 Major: Marketing                                                                 GPA: 3.817 / 4.0 Related Experience Sin Won Communication Industry   Seoul, South Korea                          May 2006 – Aug 2006   • Business Administration Department/ Intern    – Performed analysis of investment stock and purchase the golf club for investment (about 0,000 values)    – Responsible for final financing decision on company vehicles       – Participated in Auction Market for construction and analysis calculations for budget    – Compiled medical insurance report for the public insurance organization Aramark  Philadelphia, PA 19107                                                        Sep 2005   • Conducted marketing research related to Customer’ Satisfaction Measurement The Korean Army  The Korean Military service, South Korea                       Aug 2000 – Oct 2002   • Office Clerk & The Leader of a Search Team Unit    – Conducted budget plan & analysis of capital projects for gasoline & diesel (,000 per year)    – Managed inventory of thousands of dollars military’s goods.    – Made decisions and solved problems as the leader of the unit & Supervised 25 people Projects Chester Community Improvement Project   Chester, PA 19013                              Fall, 2005   • Designed a plan for improving customer service    – Implemented On-line survey    – Improved efficiency of Customer service Awards and Honors   • Semester Honors & Dean’s List at Purdue University                                    2006- Present   • National Dean’s List                                                              2006-Present   • Dean’s List at Widener University                                                      2004-2005 Activities   • The National Scholars Honor Society & Golden Key International Honor society Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Resume`

Campus Address 2122 Willowbrook Cir APT #167 West Lafayette, IN 47906 USA 765-414-5889 Min Chung chu...

Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development

Your group has been hired by an advertising firm that is developing a series of commercials for family-oriented products geared toward the entire family. They want to develop a series of commercials that will target family members at various life stages. Your group needs to thoroughly describe Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial development. In your description of each stage, identify and analyze a television, movie, or literary character for each stage of the theory. The marketing firm will use this information as they develop commercials targeting each developmental stage. Finally, provide a review of three recent studies utilizing a theory of development. The advertising firm has requested that you submit a 4 to 5 page report summarizing your research in this area. Therefore, your group should submit one combined Word document that conforms to the following directions: ·                          Give a description of Erikson’s theory, including the stages of development using the criteria listed above. ·                          Identify a character at each stage. ·                          Choose three of the following studies found in the cybrary article search engine Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. ·                          For each one you choose, describe the study and discuss how it supports or does not support the information you have written in your report about Erikson.  Specifically: o                                         Which particular aspects of the theory does the study examine? Do the experimental or discussion results strengthen or weaken the theory and you ideas?  Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development

Your group has been hired by an advertising firm that is developing a series of commercials for family-oriented products geared toward the...

Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development

Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development

Your group has been hired by an advertising firm that is developing a series of commercials for family-oriented products geared toward the...

PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM

Prospective Payment System               The presence of prospective payment system (PPS), that caters certain health care were implemented last October of the year 2000, changing such reimbursing health care agencies on fee per service basis. Then, under the prospective payment model, such care agencies are reimburse flat rate per patient based on case mix adjusters. The change in payment system have ripple effect on how health services are provided, as there were shifts from focusing on service output to service outcomes. The payment system changes then, presents valuable opportunity for heath workers to become a more integral part of the home health team and to offer much needed psychosocial services to elderly patients. The one caveat in the covered services is that Medicare beneficiaries must need skilled nursing care and physical or speech therapy to also receive occupational therapy, services from a medical social worker, and home health aide services. In addition, only occupational therapy can be provided after the need for skilled nursing care and physical and speech therapy end (, 2000 ). Moreover, patient and family are payment system that influences how they function. Due to the system, the health providers give direct patient activities such as counseling patients and family members, crisis intervention and short-term therapy as well as provide placement services for patients after discharge that is on available services and legal rights.                   Generally, the prospective payment system in health care was a modern progression of cost-control efforts in the Medicare program since the cost containment became a priority for corporations and the federal government’s Medicare program. Aside, there indicates that the first managed health care that was tried on a large national scale was the prospective payment system through the methods being utilized by the Diagnosis Related Groups. In addition, hospitals were reimbursed for Medicare patients on a flat-rate basis, determined by the patient’s DRG. If they spent less, they gained financially; if they spent more, they lost. The theory was that gains and losses would balance out in the end. The question of case mix became crucial regarding the types of patients admitted, and social work-conducted discharge planning became central to the survival of hospitals. In today’s managed care framework, PPS is a modified version of episode of disease capitation (, 2002 ). Furthermore, under the new payment system, Medicare pays home health agencies a predetermined base payment. The payment is adjusted for the health condition and care needs of the beneficiary and geographic differences in wages for home health agencies across the country. The adjustment for health conditions, or clinical characteristics and service needs are referred to as case basis adjustment. However, the current prospective payment system situational methodology does not integrate the agency’s professional resources required for educating and supporting the caregiver and natural helping network roles. The health care payment system will then pay home health agencies for every sixty day episode of care for each beneficiary and there is no limit to the number of episodes a beneficiary can receive as long as they remain eligible for health care benefits.                   Henceforth, payment  for each episode is adjusted to reflect the beneficiaries health condition and needs, but an outlier provision exists to ensure appropriate payment the health care agency’s cost in caring for the sickest beneficiaries and to ensure beneficiaries’ access to health care services for which they are eligible. Aside, the adjustments to payments will basically be created for beneficiaries who experience a significant change in their health condition and for those who change home health agencies (, 1999 ). Furthermore, timely and appropriate social work interventions have been proven to reduce lengths of stay ( and , 1981 ). In both hospital and primary care settings, having social workers on interdisciplinary teams has been shown to improve patient outcomes (, ,  and , 2000 ). Despite the contribution of social workers to patient care, social workers still struggle to be accepted by other health care professionals (, , ,  and , 1984 ). Moreover, under the prospective payment system, the health agencies must develop an optimal mix of services that has the best chance of improving patient outcomes under the set rate. Thus, several agencies will look to an interdisciplinary model to deliver services. The integration of diverse health care professionals will be easy, but without understanding of each other’s expertise and effectiveness, the weakness then, is that such negative issues could be exacerbated under the prospective payment system. Then, the government should create an integrated health care system with seamless transition between acute and long-term care. The current payment model has emphasize certain acute care such as possible clause in the original Medicare legislation limits reimbursement to services that can demonstrate patient improvement.                 Thus, the payment system can possibly minimize the social work role and thus limited appropriate psychosocial care. There is considerable concern in the professional community that PPS, as so much else in the Medicare program, is based on a biomedical view of health care and ignores or limits social and psychosocial factors, systematic attention to which has been demonstrated to be value added to both cost containment and quality. Meanwhile, through such years of experience with prospective payment system in health care and the managed care experience, as there is health care system that reimburses prospectively or on a flat rate or capitated basis runs the risk of denial of appropriate care when the cost of such care greatly exceeds the flat or case-based reimbursement. As of the present, the PPS has begun for home care, which has become the fastest cost-growing sector of the Medicare program, because home care was the logical sequel and the outlet to such cost-contained hospital and nursing home industry. With the addition of both public and private managed care arrangements throughout the health care system as there can be danger of rationing necessary care for the most vulnerable population ( and , 1979 , , 1987 ). For instance, the health care in US has experienced progressively greater cost containment through the prospective payment systems and managed care, quality assurance has taken on new importance. The challenge is how to guarantee quality in the face of more limited or rationed resources. The home care industry must be vigilant in demonstrating quality of care under PPS and must document when limitations of PPS interfere with quality. PPS may also enhance quality, and this too needs to be codified. It is essential that social workers in HHC become proactive to make sure that the psychosocial dimensions of care are integrated into all quality assurance protocols and procedures.                 Furthermore, the home health nurse is usually the care manager and determines the need for social work services and makes the referral. Under PPS, social work services will be weighed carefully against the agency’s PPS rate for the patient and the use of these services will depend on the interdisciplinary understanding between nurses and social workers about social work’s professional role and value in health care ways. Therefore, it is critical that medical work roles in health care are clearly defined and communicated to other members of the home health care team. Thus, for effective care under prospective payment system, the health work must become a true member of the interdisciplinary team to address the psychosocial issues for many of these chronically ill patients. Furthermore, given the present payment environment in health care, knowing how to work as a team to improve patient outcomes is critical to the survival of social work in health care settings. Also, within the payment process, the advocacy for changes to include social work services can only begin with the social work profession’s ability to demonstrate their capacity to improve patient outcomes in health care settings. It is critical to demonstrate social work’s effectiveness on the traditional cost-based outcomes, such as length of stay, hospitalization and readmission, as health agencies will need to show such cost-effectiveness and efficiency related to positive patient outcomes. In addressing the psychosocial needs of home health patients appropriately, effective screening is the key to determining which patient needs social work intervention. Thus, the value of the prospective payment system as it can be critical to provide easy to use tools to help nurses identify patients in need of health work services to determine the identification and intervention are critical to address the patient’s psychosocial needs while receiving medical care and to plan for  the  discharge respectively.       REFERENCES         Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM

Prospective Payment System The presence of prospective payment system (PPS), that caters certain health care were im...