Challenges of Hr

Challenges of HR The future success of any organizations relies on the ability to manage a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize on this melting pot of diverse talents.With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles, an organization can respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena, which must be one of the important organizational goals to be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does not support diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors. The role of HR has changed from a primarily administrative position to one that is more strategic.Times certainly have change from those days when the HR department was called the â€Å"smile and file† department since in that era the primary qualifications for HR were simply a friendly disposition and an ability to file. The emerging trends in HR call for HR Professionals to take the lead in planning for the future and becoming strategic business partners in their organizations. The key to HR planning for the future begins with one simple question that HR Professionals have to ask themselves: If we are successful in the years to come, what will our customers and competitors are saying about us?With the answers to this question, HR Professionals can formulate a clear, shared vision and a sense of direction for the organization. The role of the HR Professional is evolving with the change in competitive market environment and the realization that Human Resource Management must play a more strategic role in the success of an organization. Organizations that do not put their emphasis on attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in dire consequences, as their competitors may be outpla ying them in the strategic employment of their human resources.With the increase in competition, locally or globally, organizations must become more adaptable, resilient, agile, and customer-focused to succeed. And within this change in environment, the HR Professional has to evolve to become a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate, and a change mentor within the organization. In order to succeed, HR must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organization's big picture and be able to influence key decisions and policies.In general, the focus of today's HR Professional is on strategic personnel retention and talents development. HR Professionals will be coaches, counselors, mentors, and succession planners to help motivate organization's members and their loyalty. The HR Professional will also promote and fight for values, ethics, beliefs, and spirituality within their organizations, especially in the management of workplace diversity. The ro le of the HR Professional must parallel the needs of the changing organization.Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR Professional must learn how to manage effectively through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the human resource and be knowledgeable of emerging trends in training and employee development. The Twenty-first century recognizes the importance of HR Professionals in their contribution to supplying the best manpower supply in a thriving industry.Organizations in the business world rely on Human Resources management teams in overseeing business functions such as hiring, training, conducting interviews, relaying of company-related business trends and issues and employees' benefits and the like. Individuals who work inside this type of industry are tasked to making sure that the provided workforce are adept in their respective business roles and are able t o function optimally under any condition.Companies are increasingly seeking technological solutions to streamline the basics of HR administration, manage competencies, deal with performance and boost learning. Making them work in concert remains a huge challenge. The HR function has an opportunity to deliver on the promise of becoming a strategic department within your organization. Lately, technology has been enabling HR departments to reinvent themselves as a strategic business partner, providing opportunities for HR to play a greater role in aligning the workforce with business objectives.The end result can be improved organizational performance. HR Professionals keep the company they are working with able to stay on top despite of existing competition against companies who compete with the same product or services a certain company caters to. The most successful HR Professionals add value and make a difference with their organizations. They do this by treating their departments as business partners, anticipating their needs and providing HR solutions just-in-time. About the Author Syed Imtiaz Hussain is Head of HR & Administration in one of the leading multinational Company.As a member of top management team; he develops a highly professional A-Class HR environment in the organization by utilizing his vast practical and visionary experience of HRM and HRD. He believes organizations that invest in people can face the global economic and technological challenges in better way. His numerous of articles were Published in leading Newspapers and practitioner journals. He is also the author of â€Å"HR Global Challenges†. If you have questions or comments about this article, you can contact Imtiaz at (www. whrppk. com) [email  protected] com

Hollywood Science & Disaster Cinema Essay

To some extent, all fiction attempts to bend factual truths in the service of the narrative. In some cases, this is done for purposes of pure function, such as heightening the stakes of narrative or preventing the dramatic momentum from grinding to a complete halt. In other cases, it is done to express a particular authorial viewpoint – perhaps a political perspective or an observation about society – which is more often than not, contingent on the thematic integrity of the narrative. In the case of cinematic fiction, Hollywood has always had a special affinity for a liberal interpretation of the truth. In the 90s disaster classic, Armageddon, screenwriters Jonathan Hensleigh and J. J. Abrams presuppose that it is impossible to communicate drilling experience to well-trained astronauts in order to justify sending up an oil rig crew with no astronautical experience to save the world by dropping hydrogen bombs into a geologic mass the size of Texas – which is roughly analogous to trying to split an apple with a needle. The 2003 film, The Core operates from a complete non-premise in which an inactive magnetic field puts Earth at risk from incineration by space-based microwaves – which more accurately, pose no threat and are affected little by magnetic forces let alone the Earth’s magnetic field. One could say that Hollywood does not merely bend the truth. Rather, truth is made to stretch, contort and mold itself into incredulous shapes as if it were so much Play-Doh. The film The Day After Tomorrow, which had been marketed heavily as an ostensibly cautionary tale about the potential perils of climate change, is certainly no exception to this Hollywood tradition. Directed by German-born Roland Emmerich, the apocalypse porn auteur of such films as Independence Day and Godzilla decides to unleash his cathartic urges on a larger, planetary scale (with New York remaining his primary canvas of destruction). The Day After Tomorrow focuses on one paleoclimatologist – an eight-syllable term for ‘guy who studies prehistoric weather conditions’ – and his futile attempts to convince world leaders of the disastrous implications of climate change. While many of the scientific premises he puts forth are true, it is when they reach their tipping point and send the Earth into an Ice Age far sooner than he had predicted that the film enters the realm of fantasy. At the very least, The Day After Tomorrow does the honorable thing to scientists and tries not to make them look like idiots to viewers who know a thing or two about science. Jack Hall, the aforementioned paleoclimatologist played by Dennis Quaid, maintains a coherent view of science that is above par for most Hollywood scientists. He articulates the film’s core premise, which is that melting polar ice will have a negative effect on the Gulf Stream that will severely disrupt the natural thermal flows causing severe weather changes. However, he projects that this will happen over the course of decades or centuries. Therefore, the mechanics of climate change articulated by Hall are sound. (Duke University, 2004; McKibben, 2004) It is the rate at which climate change occurs within the film that is unrealistic, as well as the near-mystical forecasting abilities of Hall’s computer simulations. The notion that no one other than Hall can transplant present day meteorological data, as gathered by his colleague Terry Rapson, played by Ian Holm, and his co-workers at the Hedland Climate Center, into a paleoclimatological scenario is utterly discombobulating, as if to suggest they are the only experts who could foresee this. To screenwriters’ Jerry Rachmanoff and Roland Emmerich credit, they remain fully aware of the level to which they have exaggerated these matters. The climate tipping point sends the Global North into a series of weather disasters: Tornados wreak havoc on the Hollywood sign (as if to foreshadow the film’s ultimate rejection of a Hollywood ending solution), hurricanes sending automobiles flying all over Los Angeles, and sub-zero temperatures freezing airborne helicopters over Scotland. All the while, the hero-scientists, such as hurricane specialist Janet Tokada, point out plainly how nigh-impossible this accelerated pace of disaster is. It’s almost as if their secondary role was to remind viewers that these are all the exaggerations of fictional conceit. Unlike The Core, The Day After Tomorrow does not disrespect the professional integrity of the science professions by presenting a fabricated non-problem. Furthermore, The Day After Tomorrow does not propose that blue-collar derring do, when equipped with enough magical high technology can combine to form the â€Å"silver bullet† solutions which undo everything. However, by presenting the climate change problem on such incredulous terms, The Day After Tomorrow risks undermining the very message it is attempting to get across, despite the fact that it has the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration director telling a dismissive Vice President who vaguely resembles Dick Cheney, that if policy makers â€Å"had listened to the scientists, you would have had a different policy to begin with! † While popular culture may have a limited influence on policy making, it most definitely affects popular perceptions of key issues such as nuclear weaponry and bioterrorism. (Schollmeyer, 2005) The filmmakers of The Day After Tomorrow have often stated that one of their goals to draw increased attention and spur greater action towards addressing the threats of climate change. However, because many scientists on both sides of the climate change debate have taken issue with the scientific accuracy of the events depicted in the film, it risks muddying this goal further. This means that The Day After Tomorrow’s lack of scientific accuracy makes it easier for climate change skeptics to continue to dismiss the threat of climate change by suggesting that the film is built on the foundations of propagandist and alarmist science, while the climate change Cassandras will remains Cassandras as they become forced to debunk a film that represents their own concerns. REFERENCES McKibben, B. (2004, May 4) â€Å"The Big Picture. † Grist. Retrieved online on December 6, 2008 from: http://www. grist. org/comments/soapbox/2004/05/04/mckibben-climate/ Duke University (2004, May 13). â€Å"Disaster Flick Exaggerates Speed Of Ice Age. † ScienceDaily. Retrieved online on December 6, 2008, from: http://www. sciencedaily. com ¬ /releases/2004/05/040512044611. htm Schollmeyer, J. (2005, May-June) â€Å"Lights, camera, Armageddon. † Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 61. Retrieved online on December 6, 2008 from: http://www. illinoiswaters. net/heartland/phpBB2/viewtopic. php? t=9007

The theory of online tutoring Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The theory of online tutoring - Essay Example In spite of the popularity of great lecture classes found in colleges, the nucleus of learning is one-to-one conversation between a tutor or mentor and a student. The test has always been to discover ways of instruction that is effective in one-to-one learning relationship. The Internet has nowadays made individual education and instructing realistic and cost efficient to a degree that was never before possible (Bloom B. 1984). Online tutoring plans have great demand these days, especially when it comes to getting qualified in the field of IT owing to its profits and quality, amidst the student society. The modus operandi of the studying procedure is suitable for the students and they get a chance to think out of the box answers. In the online tutoring course, the teacher and the student are involved with synchronization between them. The teacher can have a one to one interface and contact with the students. Apart from these, communication is practical in the sense that they are live and real time. The students can also get their doubts cleared in their IT lessons immediately. They can also take part in a live chat with their teachers and avoid break in their work because of the continuous process of learning. Actually according to Eduventures U.S. ... Such tutoring and learning process would be devoid of mono talking but at the same would be filled with a good deal of creative thinking and fun packed actions. Problem Definition Information is very crucial in the growth of an intelligent tutoring system for IT. For this, we can make use of the repository of educational documents mined from the web and can be made simple by the tutors so that the students easily understand. The content stated above can be reinforced from the following key resources (i) MIT Open Courseware, NPTEL India (ii) .edu domain (iii) Discussion Forums - Google Groups, Yahoo Answers (iv) YouTube, Google Video and Metacafe (v) (vii) Domain specific websites for questions, tutorials etc. Open depositories like Wikipedia and different information pages in the field of IT like blogs etc: - authored by informal users if utilised proficiently will prove a very good resource for learning. Actually, in the US the law admits that those schools labeled as "needing improvement" for three consecutive years in the field of IT are obligatory to render free tutoring services to only students from low-income families (Tutorsforkids.org, 2007). Figure: Problem Definition (Courtesy: 03CS3010_Mayank_Jain.pdf) Online Tutoring Conventionally, auxiliary education service suppliers followed a principle, where after school coaches functioned face-to-face with one or a few number of students at a prearranged and selected amount of time. Nevertheless, the Internet has altered this practice since students now can meet a tutor online via live chat with the use of software such as "Microsoft Net Meeting," instantaneous messaging or by voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

A full case study analysis of Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A full case study analysis of Facebook - Essay Example The website has made itself available in more than 70 vernacular languages and massive expansion was achieved as most of the users were outside the U.S.A. and Canada. In 2012, the company made its first public offering and has ambitious plans for the future. Political: Government actions can have significant negative impact on the profitability of facebook’s future expansion. For instance, the Chinese government has banned the website from China and the governments of multiple nations like Germany has raised a concern that collecting user information by the company is a breach of security. Economic: Facebook has been able to maintain strong growth even during the period of recession and its revenue has increased significantly from $731 million in 2010 to $1,584 million in 2012 (Rothaermel and Taylor, 2014). Additionally the rising level of internet penetration in developing countries is contributing to its active users regularly. Social: Social tastes and preferences of consumers regarding the usage of social media are changing drastically which is largely visible from the rising popularity of other social websites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. In the U.K. particularly it has been noted that facebook had lost around 2 million users mainly belonging in the teenage group. Technological: As of now, Facebook does not have the technological expertise of Google which is in a better position to generate revenues from the online advertisement market. Google+, another social networking site is technologically more advanced than Facebook (Rothaermel and Taylor, 2014). Threat from buyers: Customers for facebook are the advertisers who pay the company to post their ads on the website. Current estimates of facebook show that $7.64 billion is expected to be earned from the advertising revenues even by charging higher price to them (Rothaermel and Taylor, 2014). This implies that the current customer

Whistle-blowing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Whistle-blowing - Research Paper Example As high officials in the organization, they became privy to information that they thought would be damaging to the company. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) defined a whistle blower as: An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. Typically, whistleblowers speak out to parties that can influence and rectify the situation. These parties include the media, organizational managers, hotlines, or Congressional members/staff, to name a few. These 3 women could not be properly called whistle blowers under the rules cited in Chap 4 of Whistle blowing,:â€Å"employees who follows established procedures is not a whistleblower† As in definition above, whistle blowing should take into account to whom the information is given in order to achieve the desired change. Merely passing information to higher authorities in the organization is not whistle blowing and is only part of their duties. Their testimony in Congress could not be called whistle blowing as they were legally required to do so, and were not done voluntarily. Their memos only formed part of exhibits for testimony. Rowley could not be a whistle blower because her position requires utmost confidentiality, so she could not divulge to outer sources. Watkin’s advise. When Sherron Watkins wrote a lengthy memo to her boss, Ken Lay, she knew of the ticking time bomb that would explode into a scandal. She uncovered fraud that involved many persons in the organization. When she advised Ken Lay to develop a â€Å"clean up Plan†, she probably meant to have an organizational clean up that would correct the system, and purge erring employees. In an ethical perspective, she was

Case response Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Response - Case Study Example Southwest’s growth strategy has always been to stay away from big cities characterized by delays in airports and instead concentrate on secondary options, which basically are less crowded. Such an approach as this has worked for the airline in the past allowing it to swiftly turn around its aircrafts in addition to flying more routes while at the same time staying realistically on time. Nevertheless, regardless of what looks like a cannot-lose situation, the airline could also be taking a huge gamble in LaGuardia; although a pretty secure one. Southwest is an airline that is known for its reliability on timely service, not only for its customers but also behind the scenes. The delay issues experienced in New York cannot just be underestimated-every one of the big 3 regional airports is frequently among the poorest performers especially in terms of punctuality-and will pose a great challenge for Southwest to surmount. Thus for Southwest to turn around the situation, and sustain its fast-turnaround approach of operation, it has its work already cut out. Whitney Eichinger-Southwest’s spokesperson has been on the record pointing out that the airline has proved critics wrong and succeeded in Philadelphia where everyone thought Southwest would run into difficulties (Heskett & Sasser Jr, 2013). Nevertheless, a move to LaGuardia is an exceptional opportunity that will not only open a huge population of business travelers but also the 8 million New Yorkers-some of whom may forego a ride to Long Island simply to snag low fares offered by the airline. This would especially be a catch if Southwest flies to Chicago and possibly Florida. The Airline’s fans in New York will especially be extremely happy since they will say goodbye to long and boring drives out the expansive Expressway of Long Island. In addition, Southwest will have access to a wide pool of weekday customers flying to such cities as Dallas, Toronto and Chicago. The airline will also increase its

Human Resource Management for Service Idustries Assignment

Human Resource Management for Service Idustries - Assignment Example used on integrating the traditional functions of personnel management in the corporate strategies and objectives of a business is that additional human resource oriented functions of an organization can be adequately performed. In contrast, PM involves the use of traditional personnel management approaches to ensure the maintenance of equitable conditions for employment. The tourism and hospitality service sector is a diverse sector in terms of employment trends and patterns. In some regions and geographical areas, hospitality and tourism act as a high status and attractive employment industry which displays a competitive pay scale and supportive working conditions. In contrast, many of the sub sectors of the hospitality and tourism sector are marked with low pay for the employees, high staff turnover rates, poor working conditions, exploitation of the socially disadvantaged communities, the lack of effective recruitment and selection skills in the key areas and the absence of an adequate level of professionalism and fair practices in the human resource management systems. In such scenarios, the human resource managers of the hospitality and tourism sectors face complex challenges while recruiting, selecting, developing and retaining a competent, well motivated, engaged, committed and well managed group of employees. It can be argued that all these human resource management factors are absolutely necessary for maintaining desirable levels of performance standards and efficiency within an organization. Therefore, the role of the HRM becomes more profound in the current dynamic and continually changing landscape of the service sector. Since any service industry, including the tourism and hospitality industry extensively depends on the direct communication of the company personnel and representatives with the customers and on the level of customer services provided to the clientele groups, therefore, the role of human resource personnel is highly significant in

Information System. Information systems have changed the way we Essay

Information System. Information systems have changed the way we collaborate and work in significant ways. Critically discuss th - Essay Example It has been far too long since people have acknowledged that the wired or networked world is revolutionizing business. This phenomenon has paved the way for organisations to better communicate with their market and all the stakeholders involved in the production and selling of goods and services. In a nutshell, companies use technology and electronic mediation not just to reach out to its consumers and suppliers but also to automate back-office tasks and industrial operations while pushing ahead with research and development. An important product of this technological development is the design of information systems or knowledge management systems where information are collected and stored to be used in decision making for overall organisational improvement (Stahl, p. 113). The efficacy of these systems is underpinned by the argument that they play a significant role in social processes and influences people, institutions and groups. Theoretical Framework Information system is not a novel concept. As a matter of fact, theorists cite it as an inherent feature of human development. More specifically, it is considered as one of the driving factors why societies develop. Wright (2007, pp.46) pointed out that information systems are already in existence even before the stylus or the clay tablet was invented. There is supposedly a mutually reinforcing relationship between society and culture, where the former creates the latter and the latter creates the former in the process (Wright, p.46). As human beings formed social bonds, a steady stream of symbols representing relationships, interactions, and ideas among other cultural and social artefacts emerge. These are the information systems of old. Wright identified folk taxonomies, mythological systems and preliterate symbolisms as examples of ancient information systems that led us to the brink of literate culture (p.46). Indeed, Headrick (2000, pp.32) argued that without it, Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Spec ies could not have been conceived because IS, as an organisational system, depicted society with its mediated information culture. The general theory is that information systems are formed when they organize themselves as new information emerge and assimilated (Wildermuth, 2008, pp.42). As demonstrated by Wright and the works of theorists such as Darwin, IS is inextricably linked to social development. It evolves with it as information flows, created and assimilated. Brown and Duguid (2000) stressed that information technology today would never be effective if it is not grounded on social life. Otherwise, IS, as an information-driven technology, is expected to lead in a so-called â€Å"tunnel vision†. The idea is that knowledge emerges out of numerous and interlinked variables such as those forces of content, context and community (Stahl, pp.113). These underpin the position that an information system has a sociological character, hence, must be treated as such. Based on the theories, it is easy to understand how modern information systems efficiently work in conditions that feature social processes. This is true in the case of organisations. In a bureaucracy, for instance, which is typified by rules and its unbending and rigid orientation, system orientation adapt and come to reflect the type of bureaucratic

Discuss policies to stop the dollar falling Essay

Discuss policies to stop the dollar falling - Essay Example Bergstein (2013) notes that there has been a decline in the role of the dollar over the past three decades, and will largely continue falling. Hence, fast reforms need instigation in both the institutions and the enforcement of the rules. Achievement of these alterations can be through amendments to the charter via developed consensuses. All the institutions will then have determination toward the achievement of the goals set. In attempt to halve the slides of US dollar, the government needs to increase its interest rates. The greater the interest rates, the higher the attraction of investors and hence saving pumping in cash that will stabilize the falling of the dollar. Additionally, the high-interest rates will ensure increased savings and lead to declined spending. The situation will facilitate the reduction of imports made into the USA thus helping the dollar to appreciate in value. However, this situation might lead to lowered growth and a spare capacity in the economic state of the USA (Dubil,

Why People Should Read Books Essay Example for Free

Why People Should Read Books Essay It is a disappointment that people read books less often in these days of widespread technological reliance. Books were the primary source of intellectual entertainment just a hundred years ago, but with the invention of radio, television, cinematography, and the Internet and computer games, it seems that reading books is no longer a popular leisure activity. However, I believe that books are an irreplaceable part of our lives, and the role that masterfully-written books play on the personal growth and development of a particular person throughout one’s life is a remarkable one. Books directly expand our consciousness of how we live and where we live, enrich our power to express ourselves, supply us with inspiration in a way that other mediums cannot compete with. Books expand our knowledge and conception of the world around us. One may argue that films and TV documentaries do that too, but I believe that books are a much better alternative, since they allow each reader to experience the same story using one’s own imagination. When a hundred people watch a film or a TV show, they see the same content – whatever the director and the producer wish to show. Books are different. The experience achieved through reading is richer and more personal, since the same description and the same word choice will result in as many different interpretations as there are readers. We are all unique, and books allow us to experience whatever is narrated in the light of our own personal values, through our ideas and our imagination. In addition, books enrich our vocabulary, introduce us to new notions and offer a wider choice of words to us. With every book we read, we become more intelligent. Even reading one seemingly more primitive pulp fiction book per month can enrich one’s personal vocabulary with dozens of new words, help us build more concise sentences on our own and express oneself better, make one’s speech more intelligent. Watching certain TV programs and documentary films can also widen one’s vocabulary, but hardly as effectively as books do, since reading operates with both more sophisticated visual and audio (if reading aloud) receptors. Moreover, our imagination reproduces mental pictures of what we are reading about, so a new word automatically links to a certain image and a particular feeling that it relates to. Therefore, reading books is a wonderful tool when it comes to learning and developing one’s vocabulary at any age. Books are a fantastic source of inspiration. Unlike fine art, architecture or travelling, books help us create our own mental illustration for what we read on paper. In a way, books make us all artists and creators of our own mental cartoons, movies or illustration collections. Every image we create ourselves is automatically allotted a certain emotion, whether a simple or a more complicated one. Every mental image that a written word projects is vibrant with feelings and emotions. This is what makes books powerful and memorable. Books are an endless source of inspiration and motivation to become a better person. I am certain that creating a system of symbols and eventually an alphabet, words, and books was the greatest series of inventions of humankind. The books I am talking about are classics, those that do not have an expiration date and will be priceless for any generation. They will continue sparking new ideas, inspiring new deeds and enriching the lives of every generation to come. I am positive that books will eventually regain their popularity with today’s youth, since unlike the popular kinds of entertainment in fashion today, books are those roots to which people will go back, in search of the motivation, inspiration and aspiration, to find the true meaning and value of life.

System Application and Product Training Effectiveness

System Application and Product Training Effectiveness CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Overview of the study This section gives overview of the study of SAP training satisfaction in Felda Authority and Development Board (FELDA) and the impact that SAP brings towards accounting processes in FELDA, including the rationale, brief past literature, reasons for carrying out this study and significance contribution of this study. (ERP) Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are software systems that enable companies to enjoy real time business environment and share common data across the organization (i.e. Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Spathis and Constantinides, 2003, Nah et al., 2001) that assure able to meet business requirement (Bradley and Lee, 2007). ERP systems are commonly used to replace legacy systems which require high maintenance (Bradley and Lee, 2007). There are many selections of ERP. However, the top five ERP system vendors are System Application and Product (SAP), Peoplesoft, Oracle, J.D. Edwards and Baan (Equey and FragniÃÆ' ¨re, 2008). Little and Best (2003) sum up majority of international organizations range from medium to large sizes have adopted ERP. Of these, the most popular choice is won by SAP R/3 (Little and Best (2003). (SAP) System Application and Product (SAP) R/3 is an ERP system (Little and Best, 2003), originally developed and marketed in Germany. In the 1990s, SAP became better recognized outside Germany and attracted many companies due to its various benefits and functionalities (Martin and Cheung, 2000). It is comprised of a collection of modules including financial accounting, sales and distribution, materials management, production planning and human resources (i.e. Martin and Cheung, 2000, Finney and Corbett (2007). All modules are integrated with each other (i.e. Little and Best, 2003, Nah et al., 2001). The R/3 smoothen the progress of monitoring and controlling job, where it can be designed to be fit with companies roles and assigned to users performing these roles (Little and Best, 2003). (How ERP works) As found by Gupta (2000), traditional systems take care of each business transaction separately. Amazingly, ERP discontinues treating these transactions individually. More astonishingly, data generated by various departments are stored in the same database for the use of multiple users, from multiple units, for multiple purposes at multiple places (Gupta, 2000). A transaction generated by one unit can automatically updates any other unitsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ transaction. The interconnections ensure that common information in a unit can be obtained by any other unit. This also brings means that ERP allows real time data processing (Vathanopas, 2007, Gupta, 2000, Nah et al., 2001). However, these functionalities require involvement and support of all level of employees from top management downward to shop-level employees (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). (Benefit SAP-6) R/3 helps in separating duties in an organization (Little and Best, 2003). Other than R/3 usefulness, one of ERPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s major strengths includes the restructuring companies to a better position (Nah et al., 2001, Willis and Willis-Brown; 2002; Kim et al.; 2005; Hong Seng Woo, 2007). While ERP may empower management and serve employees, customers and suppliers needs (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002), this may lead to greater companies value (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). The study of Spathis and Constantinides (2003) prove ERP offer huge significant benefits on accounting information and management processes. In addition to that, the sample company in Amoako-Gyampah (2004) study of which a healthcare products organization with over 20,000 employees worldwide chose SAP R/3 as they claim SAPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"s tight integration philosophy met their business need for integration. Furthermore, ERP offer seamless data integration or cross-functional within the c ompanies (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). This corroborates the purpose of ERP where it is designed to provide one common source of data. Lastly, ERP adopters may enjoy the productions of real-time data which is shared across the organization (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004, Mustacello and Chen, 2008; Finney and Corbett, 2007). (Cost SAP -6) Perhaps, one of its shortcomings is the pain during implementation (Gargeya and Brady, 2005). For the adopters, the organizationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s long term implementation process may cause fatigue and dissatisfaction. Worse, this also may cause imperfect system design and testing (Trimi et al., 2005). Moreover, the greatest disadvantage of an ERP system (Trimi et al, 2005) is stiff and expensive to implement (Bradley and Lee, 2007, Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). Implementation costs include software, hardware, consultant fees, cost for staff to operate the system and the very large cost component of user training (Trimi et al. 2005). This leads to over budget, in average of 189 percent for many companies, especially failed projects (Gargeya and Brady, 2005). The complexity of the system is another major complaint (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002, Bradley and Lee, 2007). Consequently, companies will face high resistant to change from employee s (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003) as employees do not insist to learn new ERP system due to its non-user friendly features compared to old system (Bradley and Lee, 2007, Pijpers and Montfort, 2006). (CSF) With all the costs and disadvantages of ERP, increasingly we hear of the fall short of ERP implementations (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002, Nah et al., 2001, Finney and Corbett, 2007; Gargeya and Brady, 2005). Resultantly, there has been long-drawn-out investigate concerning on critical success factors (CSF) of ERP implementations (Finney and Corbett, 2007; Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Kim et al., 2005, Hong Seng Woo, 2007; Mustacello and Chen, 2008). Accordingly, as suggest in prior literature, in order to ensure success of SAP implementation, CSF needs to be identified (Nah et al., 2001; Finney and Corbett, 2007; Kim et al., 2005, Hong Seng Woo, 2007); Gargeya and Brady, 2005; Mustacello and Chen, 2008). These factors may act as impediment and in worse case may be the focal grounds of a failure of implementation project (i.e. Nah, Lau and Kuang, 2001; Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). Finney and Corbett (2007) who compile and analyze current literature of CSFs of ERP implementation, found five mostly cited categories. It includes top management commitment and support, business process reengineering (BPR) and change management, system development and testing, training and education and the best and brightest project team. This study will add up this list focusing on good project management (Nah et al. 2001, Kim et al.; 2005, Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Hong Seng Woo; 2007, Mustacello and Chen, 2008), proper planning (Finney and Corbett, 2007; Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Nah et al. 2001), effective communication (Finney and Corbett, 2007; Hong Seng Woo, 2007; Mustacello and Chen, 2008, Nah et al. 2001), feedback from employees (Nah et al., 2001; Finney and Corbett, 2007) and monitoring and eva luating performance (Nah et al., 2001; Finney and Corbett, 2007). (Importance of training) To outweigh the implementation costs, sufficient training should be given to employees. The training effort is ample and is a challenge to deliver effectively in a timely manner (Martin and Cheung, 2000). Trainings help companies by offering a smoother transition for the employees to accept the new system. Vathanophas (2007) argued there can be a hierarchical level of ERP training. The ERP consultants first train the IT staff that in turn train the individual departmental representatives or key users. These key users then teach their own departmental users or end users. It can be said that ERP implementations can be more successful if training is structured and focused. Training should give rise to satisfaction feel among users to boost their confidence level. (TAM) Theoretically, the technology acceptance model by Davis, suggests successful implementation requires user acceptance (Bradley and Lee, 2007). Since ERP is such a complex technology (Gargeya and Brady, 2005), organizations undertake training as an approach to gain the advantage of technology acceptance. Thus, this study seeks to explore the relationship of training to ERP project success (i.e. accounting processes). The variables used are: User perception of ease of use User perception of usefulness (Job position and business division) Job position and business division may theoretically see to influence SAP training satisfaction (Okpara, 2004). Differences are widely known to augment in the perceptions and attitudes of different hierarchical organizational members toward innovations and technology (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). Managers perceived that technology would be easier to use compared to end users (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). Concerning the need for more training and education, Bradley and Lee (2007) found that all level of employees show the need for more training. While difference job position gives different perception on ERP training, Ifinedo (2007) reported a positive relationship between organizational structures that facilitate ERP adoption. As a consequence, ERP will be less successful in companies where tasks are less specialized and organizational tasks are not properly segregated. (Accounting processes) ERP provide huge benefits to accounting processes in company (Spathis and Constantinides, 2004). ERP systems provide companies the ability to improve business processes by integrating both financial and non-financial data among all functional areas within an organization. The study of Spathis and Constantinides (2004) highly rated à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“increased flexibility in information generationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“increased integration of accounts applicationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“improved quality of reports-financial statementsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? as perceived accounting benefits may be achieved in using ERP system. Problem statement (Present situation) To remain competitive, FELDA have undertaken business process re-engineering of using SAP to replace the old legacy system. Throughout the Felda Group of Companies (FGOC), the implementation is executed by phase, since 2002. Currently, 20 companies are formally using SAP and have formal SAP system in place. (Wrong with present situation) Numerous complaints received by the Customer Support Centre in term of the complexity of the system. Many problems logged at Customer Support Centre, requiring guidance on the use of the system. Worst, the problems logged are rising especially during account closing or stock count. Although training prior to implementations had been conducted, many refresh training after the implementations are requested by different companies independently. Many employees of finance unit claim SAP make daily job become difficult due to complexity of SAP. For instance, they feel reporting purpose using SAP takes time to perform. Yet, some of them feel SAP really helps especially during account closing. Countless criticisms on these harms, blaming on the several major issues faced during implementation of SAP were not fully solved. (Needs to be done) Consequently, this study seeks whether users of different groups of employees (i.e. job position and business division) are satisfied on the adequacy of SAP training given by Felda Prodata Systems Sdn. Bhd. (FPSSB) and external consultants. Moreover, the impact of SAP on accounting processes will be explored. Research objectives The main objectives of this study is to examine whether users (i.e. staff of finance department in FELDA) are satisfied on the adequacy of training given prior and post the implementation. The breakdown objectives of this study are: To determine the critical success factors of SAP implementation in FELDA. 1H- H01 To gain insight on perception of groups of employees (i.e. job position and business division) of finance department in FELDA on training adequacy. 2H- H02, H03 To analyze the relation between training and education satisfaction, and perceptions of ease of use and perception of usefulness (i.e. effectiveness and efficiency) on SAP system in the finance department in FELDA. 1H- H04 To explore the impact of SAP implementation on the accounting processes at FELDA. 1H- H05 4 Research questions What are the critical success factors in implementing SAP in FELDA?  · Do different groups of employees (i.e. job position and business division) of finance departments in FELDA perceive training adequacy differently?  · Do training and education satisfaction have impact on perceptions of ease of use and perception of usefulness (i.e. effectiveness and efficiency) on SAP system in the finance department in FELDA?  · How does the implementation of SAP affect the accounting processes at FELDA? Definition of terms Satisfaction of user on the SAP training will act as the independent variable. The dependant variables are the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) of SAP. Davis (1989) cited in Bradley and Lee (2007) explains the perceived usefulness is attributed by efficiency (perform job faster) and effectiveness (achieve desired results in performing the job). There are other variables use in this study to look for differences in perception of training satisfaction, including job position and business division. Overview of research methodology SAPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s website lists many of the worldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s largest companies as its clients (Trimi et al. 2005). To remain competitive (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003), FELDA have undertaken the Felda Group of Companies (FGOC), the implementation is executed by phase, since 2002. Currently, 22 subsidiaries are formally using SAP and have formal SAP system in place. FELDA face many problems in installing SAP such as resistance to change among employees and useless training which did not achieve the purpose it brings (Bradley and Lee, 2007). The data collected is from Felda Group of Companies (FGOC) who formally used SAP in place. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effect of training satisfaction on use and usefulness. ANOVA was used on survey data to look for difference in perception of training satisfaction by job position and business divisions. Significance of this study This study is interesting to examine as to fill in the gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence on the adequacy of SAP training conducted at FELDA and the impact on accounting benefits that SAP brought in. FELDA organization may use it in improving their business operation activities. It is a hope that this study can also be used by other companies in dealing with ERP implementation. Summary As FELDA is using SAP system formally, this study focuses on SAP training satisfaction in FELDA in relation to the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use among finance department staff in FELDA. The CSFs of SAP implementation and its impact on FELDAsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ accounting processes are also explored. Regardless of the seamless integration offered in a real-time environment, ERP also badly comes with numerous disadvantages including cost overruns, fatigue implementation and less user-friendly characteristics. By proposing a model on the basis of the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis, this study hopes to support any existing literature on the adequacy or appropriateness of SAP training and the impact on accounting benefits. Organization of dissertation This study is organized as follows. Chapter 1 briefly highlights the literature review, research methodology, rationale and reasons for carrying out this study. Chapter 2 debates literature reviews on previous studies related to SAP. This is followed by Chapter 3 on the research methodology adopted in this study. Chapter 4 describes and discusses the findings of the study. The final chapter concludes with major findings, limitations of the study and recommendations on future research. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the literature concerning ERP and SAP definition as well as past studies conducted on benefits and costs of ERP and SAP, and the need of training on ERP. Related literature describes userà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s satisfaction on ERP training and the impact of job position and business division on perceive ness of SAP training adequacy. The chapter then highlights some theories relevant to the ERP impact on accounting processes. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise resource planning (ERP) come into view as a system for a whole business that offer to share data throughout the entire organization, generate and access information in a real time world (Vathanopas, 2007, Gupta, 2000, Trimi et al., 2005, Finney and Corbett, 2007; Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Kim et al., 2005, Hong Seng Woo, 2007; Mustacello and Chen, 2008, Nah et al., 2001) five years ago (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). It is one of the most popular software system emerged in this world (Hong Seng Woo, 2007). Realizing its huge benefits, ERP systems have been widely implemented by numerous firms throughout the world (i.e. Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002, Gupta, 2000). According to Equey and FragniÃÆ' ¨re (2008), as at 2001, there are more than 100 ERP suppliers. Of these, only five are the current market leader, of which System Application and Product (SAP), Peoplesoft, Oracle, J.D. Edwards and Baan. Little and Best (2003) sum up majority of international organizations range from medium to large sizes have adopted ERP. And again, of these, the most popular choice is won by SAP R/3 (Little and Best (2003). System Application and Product (SAP) The call for for ERP systems has permit SAP R/3 to dominate the ERP system market (Little and Best, 2003). SAP was opted in reorganization project of large companies in 16 countries in Europe (Martin and Cheung, 2000). Soliman and Youssef (1998) highlight, according to a Fortune magazine survey, there are over 7,000 companies in 50 different countries using the SAP R/3 system. While SAP R/3 is currently the most leading ERP system (Little and Best, 2003), industry watchers and consultants rated SAP as the best system that able to fit with companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s requirement (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). SAP R/3 is an ERP (Little and Best, 2003). It is an integrated software system, originally developed and marketed in Germany (Martin and Cheung, 2000). It a product of the German software company, SAP AG. (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). In the 1990s, SAP became better known outside Germany (Martin and Cheung, 2000). Its centre of attraction is its high level integration and vast functionality (i.e. Amoako-Gyampah, 2004, Gupta, 2000). It is comprised of a collection of modules including financial accounting, materials management, sales and distribution, production planning and human resources (i.e. Martin and Cheung, 2000, Finney and Corbett, 2007). All modules are integrated with each other (i.e. Nah et al., 2001). The R/3 means that facilitates the monitoring and controlling job, where it can be designed to be fit with companies roles and assigned to users performing these roles (Little and Best, 2003). How ERP works Old system or ERP perform the same function of storing data and information, process and present them whenever requested by user. However, for traditional system, there is no link between the systems being used by different departments or units. According to Gupta (2000), traditional systems take care of each business transaction separately. An ERP does the same thing in a different modern manner. Surprisingly, ERP discontinues treating these transactions individually. Data generated by various departments are stored in the same database for the use of multiple users, from multiple departments, for multiple purposes at multiple places (Gupta, 2000). The software is capable to integrate data from several different functions of an organization such as finance, human resources, logistics, marketing and manufacturing (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). In simpler words, user from finance unit can view common data keyed in by human resources unit. ERP allows real time data processing (Vathanopas, 2007, Gupta, 2000, Nah et al., 2001). The emergence of ERP in early 1990 led to linkage between departments such as accounting and sales management (Gupta, 2000). For instance, a purchase order entered by procurement unit sends a materials request to store unit. At the same time, the purchase order transaction appears as an expense on general ledger. Supplier also can monitor latest stock level and whenever the materials run low, they can add the stock without having to be notified by client. The interconnections ensure that common information in a unit can be obtained by any other unit. This makes it simpler to see how the entire business as a whole is operating. ERP systems by their very nature offer cross-functional transact and information system (IS) is widely used in an organization. The wave of changes covers inside out the company where it modifies the way employees does their jobs and how the company operates (Hong Seng Woo, 2007). Hence, the implementation inevitably enquires the involvement of all level of employees from top management downward to shop-level employees (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). Benefits of ERP vs. cost ERP adopters seem to experience one or two opposite outcomes. For some, ERP aids in restructuring companies to a better position (Nah et al., 2001, Willis and Willis-Brown; 2002; Kim et al.; 2005; Hong Seng Woo, 2007). For instance, ERP may empower management and serve employees, customers and suppliers needs (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). This may bring greater companies value (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). As found by Willis and Willis-Brown (2002), ERP facilitates companies in term of information pertaining to customers. Customerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s data is collected such as pattern of orders, product preferences and any complaint or satisfaction received. Conversely, suppliers are responsible in monitoring their own inventory level supplied to their client. When the materials run low, they can add the stock without having to be notified by client. In contrast, employees may have facilities to take the ERP with them. This service is referred as mobile ERP, where it is one of the greatest opportunities today. One example is that ERP allows the setup of pricing and promotion programs automatically attached with invoicing and billing. In addition to that, the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) technology offers another excellent opportunity. Companies can use the ERP system in better tracking the status of materials such as the movement of tagged inventory from receiving, work-in-process, inspection, packaging and distribution. R/3 helps in separating duties in an organization (Little and Best, 2003). The R/3 facilitates the monitoring and controlling job, where it can be designed consistent with companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ roles and assigned to users performing these roles. The SAP system itself restricts usersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ access to certain functions within the system, which means that users have to be authorized to perform a certain action. These authorizations are associated with roles. And the roles are assigned to users. These authorizations are necessary for users or staffs to perform their duties. If a staffà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s authorization profile contains no authorizations then the staff cannot have access to respective action on the system. ERP advantages have been well explained in the study of Spathis and Constantinides (2003). The study explores ERP system benefits on accounting information and management processes for companies adopting ERP system in Greece. The most highly rated perceived benefits achieved involve increase flexibility in information generation, improved quality of reports-financial statements, increased integration of applications and easy maintenance of databases. This clearly suggests that ERP has significant impact on accounting procedures. The evidences of Spathis and Constantinides (2003) study also support the argument that ERP is successful in fulfilling the adoptersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ business purposes and requirements. The integration of applications, the production of real-time information for decision making, improves both accounting information and business operations. The sample company in Amoako-Gyampah (2004) study of which a healthcare products organization with over 20,000 employees worldwide chose SAP R/3 as they claim SAPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"s tight integration philosophy met their business need for integration. ERP transaction systems meant to offer companies with seamless data integration and it appears that this benefit is likely to be understood by employees regardless of their position within the companies (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). The integration involved the automatically update of different modules at different locations within the organization at different time periods. For example, say ordering goods was being completed at one location, pricing was being started at another department and financials would have nearly been completed at another location. ERP are designed to eliminate multiple sources of data, eliminate multiple data entries and provide more accurate and timely data. This corroborates the purpose of ERP where it is designed to provide one common source of data. Companies adopting ERP enjoy integration business applications using real-time information. The productions of real-time data are shared across the organization. This is important in business environment where effectiveness and efficiency in operations and real-time data are among crucial factors for business success (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). Consequently, generation of timely information improves decision making process, planning and monitoring of ERP adopters. Despite ERPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s promises, the greatest disadvantage of an ERP system (Trimi et al, 2005) is stiff and expensive to implement (Bradley and Lee, 2007, Gargeya and Brady, 2005, Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). In fact, Trimi et al. (2005) conclude ERP is expensive by their nature. Generally, software development represents about 80 percent of total implementation cost. Implementation costs include software, hardware, external consultant fees and internal staff for installation, and not to forget a very large cost spent on training of staff to operate the system. Studies have shown that, for every dollar spent on ERP software, 3 to 10 dollars might be required for the users training (Amoako-Gyampah, 2004). For the adopters, the organizationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s long term implementation process may caused fatigue and dissatisfaction. Worse, the level of dissatisfaction appears to be arising (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). The main problem faced by ERP implementers is the decision to customize or not in suiting the system with the organization (Gupta, 2000). Company adopters will demand ERP to meet their needs. They spend excessive time trying to retrofit the business process to ERP. Thus, the companies which customize will end writing more code of which requiring more time and cost. It can be said that the changeover may take a longer time causing cost overruns (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). Since most external consultants are charged on man-hour basis, project time overruns substantially inflate costs. Many companies, especially failed projects, found themselves over budget, in average of 189 percent (Gargeya and Brady, 2005). Inflating implementation costs that exceed budget has caused many companies to trim project efforts. Companies will then attempt relying heavily on limited-knowledge internal expertise. Generally, the decision was forced by over price set by external knowledgeable consultants. The result was improper setup and configuration (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). Theoretically, Trimi et al. (2005) see many projects failures as a result of imperfect design and implementation of the system. The lack of knowledgeable and skilled staff resulted in the failure to implement some very useful features or in a worse case, critical operations (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). For instance, the critical failure would be associated with the companiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ ability to rapidly respond to situation with real-time information. Given any new arises or major SAP upgrade (Gargeya and Brady, 2005), changes are required to respond throughout the system (Trimi et al., 2005, Gupta, 2000) probably denying many of unique customizing or specific business process related to the respective companies. Different companies are unique which they have different cultures, their own way of doing things, operates with different procedures and business requirements. They do not wish to be assimilated into one corporate culture. Companies carry their unique business pr ocess which requires unique ERP customizing. Gargeya and Brady (2005) found Sobeyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s, an $89 million Canadian grocery chain, abandoned the implementation process as it feel SAP could not handle its requirements. In a nutshell, planning an ERP project cannot be taken lightly (Gargeya and Brady, 2005). Another major complaint (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002) is the lack of user-friendly systems (Bradley and Lee, 2007). Few staffs may use the system as their perceptions of ease of use of the systems are set at a lower level. Personnel claim it is difficult to capture data at the inception of a particular transaction (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). The main hurdle (Gupta, 2000) faced was high resistant to change (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003). Staffs do not insist to learn new technologies due to attachment to old system (Bradley and Lee, 2007, Pijpers and Montfort, 2006). Not surprisingly, many companies suffer guilt of making simplistic assumptions as they realized culture changes do not occur magically. These changes characterized by human psyche. If staffs are not ready or willing to change, change simply will not occur. Unisource, a $7 billion companies, terminate its SAP implementation plan due to internal problems of unable in dealing with cultural change (Gargeya and Brady, 2005). Critical success factor in implementation of ERP The difficulties and failure in implementing ERP have been widely cited in the literature (i.e. Nah, Lau and Kuang, 2001; Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). For instance, Allied Waste Industries, Inc. decided to pull $130 million budgeted on SAP development and Waste Management, Inc., terminated SAP installation after spent about $45 million from expected $250 million on the project (Kim et al., 2005). Thus, it is important to identify predictors for the success of ERP implementation (Nah et al., 2001; Finney and Corbett, 2007; Kim et al., 2005, Hong Seng Woo, 2007); Gargeya and Brady, 2005; Mustacello and Chen, 2008). Critical success factor (CSF) can be defined as any element or situation that can be characterized as necessary in order to succeed in any ERP implementation (Finney and Corbett, 2007). Below are the list of CSFs which are widely debated in the literature (Nah, et al., 2001; Finney and Corbett, 2007; Kim et al., 2005, Hong Seng Woo, 2007); Gargeya and Brady, 2005; Mustacello and Chen, 2008). (Training and education) As ERP is not easy to use, training users in using ERP is important even for highly educated personnel or highly information technology (IT) skills personnel (Hong Seng Woo, 2007, Nah et al.; 2001, Mustacello and Chen; 2008, Gargeya and Brady ;2005, Finney and Corbett, 2007 and Gupta; 2000). Hong Seng Woo (2007), Nah et al. (2001) and Mustacello and Chen (2008) stress that sufficient training can help enlighten the opportunity for ERP system success. Heavy investment in training, support and education should be emphasized such as hands-on job (Finney and Corbett, 2007), on-site support staff and support centre (i.e. helpdesk, online user manual) (Nah et al., 2001). It is common that training effort is downplayed or ignored, because it does not provide huge quant

Fredrick Douglass Essay -- essays research papers

FREDERICK DOUGLASS Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1817, in Tuckahoe, Maryland. Because his slave mother, Harriet Bailey, used to call him her "little valentine," he adopted February 14th as his birthday, not knowing the exact date of his birth. He knew very little about his mother since she was employed as a field hand on a plantation some twelve miles away, and she died when he was eight or nine years old. Douglass knew even less about his father, but it was rumored that he was the son of his White slave master, Aaron Anthony. Young Frederick was grossly mistreated. To keep from starving, on many occasions, he competed with his master's dogs for table scraps and bones. In 1825, he was sent to serve as a houseboy in the home of Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore. Mrs Auld grew fond of him and sought to teach him to read and write. By the time her irate husband discovered the deed and put a stop to it, Douglass had acquired enough of the rudiments to carry on by himself. His life in Baltimore was interrupted in 1832 at the death of Captain Anthony. Frederick was passed along to the possession of Thomas Auld, Anthony's son-in-law. The lessons he learned about the evils of slavery and his hatred of the institution was deepened during his stay with Thomas Auld. He infuriated the Auld's by his refusal to call his owner "Master" instead of "Captain." Determined to crush the spirit of young Frederick, Thomas Auld hired him out to Ed...

Policy Proposal for Economic Reform in Russia Essay -- Economics Polit

Policy Proposal for Economic Reform in Russia Despite making a recovery after the 1998 market crash, Russia remains weighted with numerous holdovers from the Communist era that keep its economy from taking advantage of free-market reforms. In short, Russia has not prospered under capitalism because it has not yet discovered it. In order to do so, the Russian government must engage in extensive reform in several key areas: improving the rule of law, creating stable monetary policy, and ending a policy of favoritism to particular businesses. Engaging in these reforms would lower the extremely high transaction costs of doing business legally, stimulating a wave of new investment and wealth creation within Russia, as well as encouraging investment from abroad. While the causes of Russia’s economic problems are numerous, the absence of a rule of law causes enormous unpredictability and uncertainty that is the primary barrier to economic growth. The regulatory mess caused by presidential decrees, legislative changes and numerous bureaucracies putting out contradictory rulings is just one aspect of this problem. The court system, which is supposed to be a neutral arbitrator of private disputes, is highly publicized, and even worse, is used by the governments to silence critics and unfavorable companies. One of the major challenges to reform is the uncooperative nature of the bureaucratic apparatus in carrying out laws and policies enacted by the executive. While Yeltsin and Putin have generally been in favor of free-market reforms, the bureaucrats meant to carry out their policies are often rich oligarchs who stand to lose financially or politically from reform. To combat this, Putin has replaced most of the Yeltsin-era ruling... ...-07-98.html 9. Dmitry Pinsker, â€Å"TV6 saga nears final episode.† The Russia Journal http://www.trj.ru/index.htm?obj=5321 10. James A. Dorn and Ian Vasquez. Ending Russia's Chaos, September 9, 1998 http://www.cato.org/dailys/9-9-98.html 11. Daniel J. Mitchell, â€Å"Tax Reform: Russia, 1; United States, 0,† March 21, 2002 http://www.heritage.org/views/2002/ed032102.html 12. Rose Brady, Kapitalizm : Russia's Struggle to Free Its Economy, New Haven, Conn. Yale University Press, 1999. 13. Martha De Melo, and Gur Ofer, â€Å"Private Service Firms in a Transitional Economy: Findings of a Survey in St. Petersburg† Studies of Economies in Transformation, 1014-997X ; Paper No. 11: 1994. 14. William C.Gruben, "Dollarization: The Greenback Goes Global," Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Expand Your Insight, March 1, 2000 http://www.dallasfed.org/eyi/money/0003.html

Sunrise On The Veldt: Order :: essays research papers

Sunrise on the Veldt: Order Order is sought instinctively. In Literature, as well as Biology, order is sought instinctively by authors and scientists. Authors use order to convey real-life incidents and make their stories seem more realistic. Scientists use a way of classification to bring order to Biology. The life cycle, as the cycle of a virus, shows order. The young boy in the short story, "Sunrise on the Veldt," found order in the life cycle. He sought this order to help him explain the death of a buck. The death of the buck made the young boy think about the life cycle. He shot the buck, and the buck became injured. Then the buck died. An organism is born, it grows, it lives for a period of time, then it dies. The human life cycle is similar. A baby is born. The baby’s parents take care of it, then the baby turns into an adult. The adult lives for a period of time, then the adult dies. Humans seek order in the life cycle to help explain death. The order in the life cycle was sought instinctively, because people wanted an explanation of death. The order in "Sunrise on the Veldt" was shown in the life cycle. In the novel, The Wave, a teacher sought order to help keep his classroom under control. The order helped keep the classroom under control. But the students began to notice they were not thinking, and the order began to tear the school apart. The teacher sought order because he wanted his students to behave better. Scientists use order to control viruses. Viruses are classified by several attributes; their shape, the vectors that transmit them, and their RNA or DNA content. Once a virus is classified, it can be examined, and controlled. Biologists use order to classify other organisms as well. Charles Darwin sought order instinctively by becoming a naturalist. He studied animals and plants and devised a theory of evolution. He decided that variations exist within populations. Some variations are more advantageous for survival and reproduction than others. Organisms produce more offspring than can survive. Over time, offspring of survivors will make up a larger proportion of the population. Darwin believed that organisms produce more offspring so that the stronger offspring can live, but the weak offspring die. Darwin, the virus cycle, and The Wave portray order being sought instinctively. A virus seeks order instinctively. A virus attaches itself to a host. Then it enters into the host by exchanging its DNA or RNA. The virus then replicates itself, inside the host.

Argumentative Essay Abortion Essay

Our world today is full of unsolved and controversial issues. Most of them relate to our morals, ethics and religion, thus creating a very strong yes and no, or good and bad side. Abortion has a very outstanding black and white side but also contains traces of each in the alternating colour. This shows that if you were to come to any kind of conclusion on abortion, there would still be a downside to it, and that is primarily why the world cannot agree on this sensitive and emotional issue. An abortion is when the pregnancy is ended so that it does not result in the birth of a child. It allows women to put an end to their pregnancies, but involves killing the undeveloped embryo or fetus. For this reason, it is a very controversial subject. Being pregnant and wishing you weren’t is probably the worst feeling a woman can have. Knowing that if you brought a child into the world and you didn’t want it, or you would have to give it up for adoption is such a disheartening way to start off, and you and the un-born child would be so much better off if you were to terminate the pregnancy and wait for a more appropriate time, or in the case of rape, put the past behind you and move on. When we hear of women having abortions, we seem to automatically think that she wasn’t careful enough, or she didn’t use contraception. We forget to stop and think about the other possible reasons, she may have accidentally become pregnant. Just forgetting to take one pill per packet can reduce it’s effectiveness. Condoms can tear or be forgotten, and emergency contraceptives like the morning after pill are not easily obtainable. 50% of women getting an abortion in Britain used some form of contraception when they got pregnant. This obviously shows that women are having huge problems with using contraception, and something needs to be done about it. This also means that we can’t judge people immediately. Women are still getting pregnant even though they use contraceptives. I think that women have the right to get an abortion if they tried to prevent the pregnacy. My thesis is: Abortion should be legalized. Arguments: 1. Personhood begins at birth, not at fertilization,. 2. Fetuses are incapable of feeling pain when an abortion is performed. 3. An association between abortion and breast cancer is unsubstantiated. Counter arguments: 1. Abortion involves killing a human being 2. Fetuses feel pain during the abortion procedure 3. Abortion increases the likelihood that women will develop breast cancer Refutation of the counter argument: 1. A lot of people have the counter argument â€Å"abortion is murder†. That’s not true, abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, not a baby. Personhood at fertilization, is not a proven biological fact. To think that personhood starts at fertilization is a religious belief, nor a provable fact. 2. According to Stuart W. G. Derbyshire, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham (England), â€Å"not only has the biological development not yet occurred to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the development of pain experience, is also yet to occur.† 3. The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have all refuted the reliability of studies claiming abortion can lead to a higher probability of developing breast cancer. 1. Stuart W. G. Derbyshire, PhD, â€Å"Can Fetuses Feel Pain?,† British Medical Journal, Apr. 29, 2006 2. Planned Parenthood of New Jersey, â€Å"Anti-choice Claims About Abortion and Breast Cancer,† Sources used in this report: http://www.bmj.com/content/332/7546/909 http://www.debate.org/abortion-debate/ http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2013/07/questions-about-both-sides-of-the-abortion-debate/ http://www.rfsu.se/Sex-och-politik/Fokus-SRHR/Ratten-till-abort/ www.plannedparenthoodnj.org

Protecting your patients from harm Essay

1: Protecting your patients from harm and abuse Knowledge and Skills Framework core dimension Performance criteria (adapted from the Skills for Health database1) Recognising signs of risk 1. Look for factors that may lead to patients, staff and others, including yourself, being in danger of harm and abuse. 2. Look for signs that patients, staff and others, including yourself, may be in danger of harm or abuse or have been harmed or abused. This would include recognising and dealing with early signs of violent or aggressive behaviour. Health, safety and security 3. Find out what your employer says you should do if you suspect that someone is in danger or has been harmed or abused. 4. Make sure you know what to do when you suspect, or have been told, that a patient or member of staff is in danger of harm or abuse. 5. Identify the factors which allow abusive behaviour to happen and discuss these with colleagues and managers. 6. Consider your own behaviour and actions to make sure that they do not contribute to situations, actions and behaviour that can be dangerous, harmful or abusive. 7. Watch people’s behaviour, actions and situations to make sure that everyone in your workplace (including  any child and young person) is safe from danger, harm and abuse. 8. Identify possible sources and signs of danger, harm and abuse. 9. Recognise and deal  with early signs of violent or aggressive behaviour. Knowing what action to take 10. Work with patients, staff and others to identify and raise concerns about practices that: may lead to danger, harm or abuse of patients, staff and others, including yourself and are dangerous, harmful and abusive. 11. Report suspected or known danger, harm and abuse to the appropriate people. †¢ Avoid actions and statements that could affect how evidence can be used in future investigations and court proceedings. Keep to confidentiality agreements. Keep to your organisation’s policies. 12. Develop relationships with patients and family carers so that they feel able to raise concerns about possible and actual danger, harm and abuse to themselves and others. 13. Work with patients in a way that respects their dignity, privacy and rights. 14. Make sure you are honest with patients about your responsibility to pass on information about potential and actual danger, harm and abuse. 15. Take appropriate action when you see behaviour, actions and situations that might lead to danger, harm and abuse to people (including any children and young people) in your workplace. 16. Object to and raise concerns with appropriate people and organisations about practice or policies which may lead to danger, harm and abuse. 17. Work sensitively with patients and family carers, telling them who to report incidents of danger, harm and abuse to and how to report it. 18. Make sure patients and their carers know that you will listen to their reports and deal with them seriously. 19. Take immediate action if patients have been harmed or abused or are at risk of this. Protecting and recording evidence of harm and abuse 20. Report sources and signs of danger, harm and abuse to the appropriate person.  Avoid actions and statements that could affect how evidence can be used in future investigations and court proceedings. Keep to confidentiality agreements. Keep to your organisation’s policies. 21. Report any unusual or major changes in your patient’s health, cleanliness, physical care, actions and behaviour. 22. Use all available information to assess the concerns raised. 23. Avoid acting in a way or making statements that could affect how evidence can be used in future investigations and court. Support others to do the same. 24. Discuss any concerns with the appropriate people within the confidentiality agreements and your organisation’s policies. 25. Contribute to your organisation’s procedures and work within them for dealing with suspected harm and  abuse. 26. Accurately record and report suspected danger, harm and abuse. Include times, dates and explanations of incidents Avoid acting in a way or making statements that could affect how evidence can be used in future investigations and court proceedings. Keep to confidentiality agreements. Keep to your organisation’s policies.

Snowboarding History

As the excitement of fall winds down, many people fall into a depression. The leaves are gone, the woods are desolate, and the chill of winter air has crept upon us. While most people find this sad, I find it exciting! Why? Because it is time for my favorite sport, snowboarding. Snowboarding’s a new, challenging sport that’s attracting new fans from all around the world. It has really changed since it was first invented. It’s become one of the largest and fastest growing sports in the world. Everywhere, people, including myself, are waiting for the snow to get a chance to go snowboarding.Snowboarding is the cross between surfing and skateboarding. Snowboarding use to be known as a child’s story, but now has evolved into a great sport. Since it was first invented, it has changed from a child’s sport to a new competitive sport that is great for both men and women. Some people saw snowboarding as an alternative to skateboarding, skiing, and surfing. Pe ople who could not afford to buy surfboards, like Jake Burton, used snowboarding as an alternative. Skateboarders saw snowboarding as a new sport that they could make their mark on.Nobody knows who truly invented the first snowboard. But in 1929, M. J. â€Å"Jack† Burchett invented one of the first snowboards. He used clothesline and horse reins to secure a piece of plywood to his feet. Thirty years later, Sherman Poppen, a chemical gases engineer invented â€Å"The Snurfer† as a toy for his daughter. He made the â€Å"snurfer† by bounding two skis together and putting a rope at the nose, so that the rider could hold it and keep it stable. Poppen licensed his idea to manufacturer when his daughter’s friends wanted a â€Å"snurfer† too.In 1966, â€Å"the snurfer† sold over a half million times. In 1979, Poppen left the snowboarding business after Jake Burton came up with the bindings and went back to his old profession. Jake Burton, another i nventor of the snowboard, became interested in snowboarding after taking part in Poppen’s â€Å"snurfer† competitions that were organized by Poppen. His parents wouldn’t buy him a surfboard so riding the â€Å"snurfer† was a new and cool thing to do. In 1977, after he finished college, Burton moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make different types of the Snurfer.He made his first board out of laminated hardwood. In 1979, while at a Snurfer competition, Burton shocked everyone by using his new board that had the first binding. It made a big difference that allowed him to control the board and made it easier to beat the other riders. In 1969, Dimitrije Milovich, after he got the idea from sliding down a hill on a cafeteria plate in college, started making snowboards. His snowboards were based on surfboards combined with the way skis work. In 1972, he started a new company called â€Å"Winterstick†.He produced lots of snowboards and even got articles in magazines like, â€Å"News Week†, â€Å"Playboy†, and â€Å"Power†. In 1980, he left the snowboarding business, but was still known as a very important pioneer of the sport. At the same time that Jake Burton was producing his snowboards Tom Sims produced his first snowboards in 1977. Sims was an avid skateboarder who made a â€Å"snowboard† in a junior high school shop class. He made his out of carpet wood and aluminum. He glued some carpet to the top of a piece of wood and put an aluminum sheet on the bottom.He started making snowboards in 1977 in his garage with his friend and employee Chuck Barfoot. Barfoot actually made the boards and came up with the â€Å"Flying Yellow Banana†. It was a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs. During 1980 Sims signed a skate-snowboarding deal with a big company called Vision Sports. Signing the deal helped Sims get out of his financial problems, but his friend Barfoot, was left out and tried to go into business for himself. He couldn’t compete with big competitors like Sims and Burton.The first modern competitive snowboarding contest took place in Leadville, Colorado in 1981. Then snowboarding competition took off from there and became worldwide. In 1982, the first national snowboarding race was held in Suicide Six, outside of Woodstock, Vermont. Because of the conditions of the hill, the goal of the race appeared to be mostly just surviving the race. The race was on a steep icy downhill run called â€Å"The Face†. Paul Graves put it on and Tom Simms and Jake Burton competed. Doug Bouton won first place overall.This race marked the last time that snowboards and snurfer’s raced together. In 1983, Jake Burton puts on the national snowboarding championships in Snow Valley. A couple of months later Tom Sims holds the inaugural World Snowboarding Championships at Soda Springs Ski Bowl in Lake Tahoe. That contest featured the first contest with a half pipe. In 1986 the World Snowboarding Championships moved from Soda Springs to Colorado. In 1986, a new European snowboarding generation launched. Then the Europeans began to organize their own regional events like the Swiss Championships in St. Moritz. In 1987, a group of riders and manufacturers formed the N. A. S. B. A. (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy) whose main goal was to create a unified World Cup tour with the Europeans. In 1988 N. A. S. B. A. got its wish and the first world cup was held in both Europe and the United States. It was the most expensive snowboarding contest ever. In 1994 everybody was happy because snowboarding was declared a Winter Olympic sport. It was finally accepted as a real competitive sport and was first seen in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Public Relations Professionals and Educators

As Michael Winkleman described, public relations professionals and educators are currently engaged in a vigorous discussion of the role of ethics within the profession and the means by which ethics can be taught to both public relations students and professionals. According to Winkleman, the rise in concern over ethical issues can be traced to the reaction of the profession to events in the 1980s, which included high-profile instances of insider-trading and covert government foreign policy activities. In addition, the ethical debate is thriving because corporations have realized that they have to pay more attention to social demands and be more responsive to â€Å"stakeholders. † This realization has paralleled the move from theoretical ethics to applied ethics. Winkleman's conclusion is that ethics are crucial for public relations because they will benefit the profession and the companies for which the public relations work. Ultimately, ethics are good for business. In addition, there is empirical evidence suggesting that public relations professionals basing their decision-making and recommendations to management on ethical principles and social responsibility are more likely to have a greater role in management decisions and activities. The result of this concern over ethics in the public relations field has resulted in a vigorous debate over the pros and cons of a universal ethics code. Many writers agree, despite their differences, that not only does ethical decision-making give public relations professionals more opportunities to participate in the management function, but it also assists the development of public relations as a â€Å"profession. † Ethics and social responsibility are also vital issues in public relations because public relations facilitates communication among the company and its many publics, including society at large. As Pratt notes, there are three main points that result from all the empirical research conducted on practitioner ethics. First, â€Å"they underscore the notion that ethics is an important issue practitioners confront. † Second, â€Å"they suggest that practitioners cannot ignore public (and industry wide) evaluation of their professional ethics and that corporate managements need to continually institute ethics in the workplace. † Third, â€Å"they suggest that older practitioners can help set an organization's ethical tone. However, as will be discussed later, Donald K. Wright convincingly argues that ethical behavior is performed by practitioners primarily out of a sense of personal morality and wanting to be respected by his/her various publics, rather than as a result of vague, codified ethical guidelines. Perhaps, what makes the subject of ethics difficult to address from a pragmatic point of view within public relations is the paucity of empirical research and theoretical writing on public relations ethics. This is surprising given that 75% of the educators at a recent AEJMC conference stated that ethics was an important aspect of their teaching and that PRSA members, in a questionnaire, voted the Code of Professional Standards to be the most important member benefit. Many educators are currently urging public relations practitioners to adopt a universal code of ethics. The interest in this topic is evidenced by the special issue of Public Relations Review from the spring of 1993 entirely devoted to the subject of ethics. Naturally, the problem will arise in developing a code that can specifically address each specific morally problematic situation. Possibly due to this problem, some of the writers addressing this issue have been somewhat non- specific in delineating the actual components of an ethical code. However, others such as Hunt and Tirpok have suggested the framework for a code and the strategy for its employment. Kruckeberg believes that increased globalized trade has hastened the need for an international (universal) code of ethics for communicators. In analyzing the functions of transnational corporations, he describes four social benefits these companies provide to Third World countries: â€Å"(1) development of human resources through employment, training, and indigenization†¦ ;(2) strengthening the knowledge base through research and development and the transfer of technology; (3) raising standards of living through the creation of wealth, encouraging local industry and providing consumer goods; and (4) enhancing the quality of life by assisting programs that raise standards in health, housing, nutrition, and education. Given that a transnational corporation is actually able to produce these benefits in Third World nations, they are indeed meeting demands of social responsibility. However, Kruckeberg notes that many corporations have encountered criticism relating to graft and corruption issues, consumer issues, environmental/human safety issues, and political/humanitarian issues. For example, Nestle was embroiled in a controversy surrounding their marketing practices in the Third World of breast milk substitutes. Nestle responded effectively and in a socially responsible manner in 1981 by endorsing the World Health Organization's Code of Marketing for Breast Milk Substitutes the day the measure was enacted and assembled experts to monitor the company's compliance with the Code. Kruckeberg suggests that a code of ethics could be developed that would be â€Å"capable of guiding behavior which attempts to resolve the inherent moral dilemmas [of the four types of criticism previous described] as well as other dilemmas that have occurred or potentially could occur. Many of the codes currently in existence do not take into account the particular responsibilities of transnational corporations. However, despite weaknesses in ethical codes they serve four valuable functions: (1) providing guidelines for practitioner activities, (2) demonstrating what clients and supervisors should expect from practitioners, (3) providing basis for charges of wrongdoing, and (4) providing defense against charges of wrongdoing. The new code of ethics should be developed under the leadership of professional communicators from multinational companies, but there should be input from all members of the professional public relations associations. Hunt and Tirpok extend Kruckeberg's argument and suggest that the public relations profession needs to establish a universal ethics code. In addition, they suggest an actual framework for the code and provide a strategy for its adoption. Hunt and Tirpok believe that a universal code of ethics ought to apply to all communications professions, uniting public relations and journalism in this sense, but that the code must be adaptable to the needs of the individual professions. While journalism's purpose is most often objectivity, public relations' purpose is often advocacy. In this manner, public relations practitioners share the general nature of their purpose with lawyers. Nonetheless, â€Å"all systems and codes of ethics seem to be rooted in the same fundamental principles and similar values. Their suggestion for an actual code is that it deal with first order concerns, such as â€Å"keeping faith with the public† and â€Å"achieving consensus,† not specific communications situations, since no code could possibly address all these situations. The timetable for developing and adopting the code would take six years. The first stage would be organizing and conducting a conference of academics and representatives of professional organizations with the purpose of drafting the code. In the second phase encompassing two years, a task force would visit the professional organizations with the aim of obtaining suggestions for modification, implementation, and dissemination of the code. The third phase would involve the ratification and implementation of the code. In the final stage, the code would be published and publicized â€Å"to inform target publics about the code and its importance to global communication. † There have been objections to the implementation of a universal ethics code on the grounds that public relations cannot be defined, that anyone can practice public relations due to First Amendment-type rights, and that there are differences within the global community as to what constitutes ethical behavior. Kruckeberg dismisses the criticism of cultural relativists who argue against a universal ethics code citing Asuncion-Lande's recommendation that in distinguishing â€Å"between what is universal and what is distinctive in the ethics of different cultures, ethicists should develop an inventory. This inventory of universal ethics would include â€Å"culturally sanctioned rules of ‘proper' interpersonal conduct, i. e. rules which serve to preserve order and to promote social harmony and unity and which provide stability of human relationships in a rapidly changing world. † Complications in Establishing Effective Ethics Programs A significant problem in the functioning of many corporate ethics programs that undermines its success is that fact that many of these programs are so general and short on specifics, as well as not being equipped to address complex problems. An ideal example is Dow Corning. For years Dow was recognized by business educators as leaders in the area of corporate ethics programs. In 1976, Dow's chairman John S. Ludington established a Business Conduct Committee and Dow also set up ethics training sessions for employees and audits every three years to monitor compliance with the company's ethical guidelines. Nonetheless, there were indications as early as 1977 that the breast implants manufactured by Dow were unsafe. The question raised by Eric Schine was why did the audits monitoring ethical compliance not discover this information. His answer is that â€Å"for the most part, ethics programs aren't designed to deal directly with complex problems. Instead, they are there only to help cultivate an overall environment of proper conduct. † Similar problems occurred at McDonnell Douglas despite their extensive ethics program. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, defense contractors were accused of severe overcharging of the government and some of these contractors were required to compensate the government for the overcharging. In addition, the Iran-contra scandal further tainted the image of defense contractors. In 1980, Sanford McDonnell became Chairman and CEO of McDonnell Douglas and established the company's ethics program because of his conviction that ethics must be woven into the decision process at all steps through all levels of authority. In 1983, McDonnell instigated a study to determine the best course of ethics training for MDC employees. The MDC training program developed a conceptual model for defining ethical decision making. More than 75,000 employees took part in the training seminars. Subsequent to the implementation of the program, the company discovered the following: ethics became an acceptable topic for discussion, Sanford McDonnell's personal participation in the videotape sent a strong message, the case study approach highlighted ethical issues with practical benefits, employees found they did not have to face ethical issues alone, an increased sense of pride developed among the employees, and MDC issued a new policy and procedures manual relative to pricing and contracting with the government. Some of the lessons learned by MDC that could be transferable to other entities include: ethics training should be pragmatic and managerial in nature, strong leadership is needed from the top and implementation must be from the top down, managers must serve as role models, there must be a standardized training procedure and workshops should utilize a participative process. Center and Jackson's main point about the MDC case is that â€Å"a track record of exemplary conduct builds slowly. It requires constant tending. An honorable reputation is both precious and fragile. Opponents or competitors are rearmed by infractions. † In 1988, investigations by the Justice Department, FBI and the Navy, showed evidence of bribery, fraud, and kickbacks in defense contracting. MDC was among the 75 companies named in the investigation. According to Donald K. Wright, voluntary ethics codes are largely ineffective because there is no enforcement mechanism and the codes are only as good as the people who subscribe to them. Much of this criticism is directed at codes of the professional associations. He feels that many codes are just filled with â€Å"meaningless rhetoric. Ultimately, public relations practitioners conduct themselves according to ethical principles because â€Å"they believe in themselves and want others to respect them. † Ethical behavior is not the result of adherence to codes, but rather to the individual practitioner's sense of personal morality. Wright conducted a study to examine the ethical and moral values of practitioners with the major premise of the study being that â€Å"public relations never will be any more ethical than the level of basic ethical morality of the people who are in public relations. He found that the structure of moral values of American practitioners is based on socio-economic morality, religious morality, basic morality, puritanical morality, basic social responsibility morality, and financial morality. Some corporations have addressed the problem cited by Wright, namely that ethics codes are often ineffective when they are not accompanied by enforcement mechanisms. For instance, General Dynamics instituted a comprehensive ethics program aimed at situations involving anti-trust, political contributions, international business, inside information, and corporate resources. Crucial to this program is the possibility of sanctions for infractions, including penalties ranging from warnings to dismissals and criminal proceedings. In terms of professional associations, PRSA developed its first statement of principles in 1950 and its code of professional standards in 1959. Between 1952 and 1985, 168 cases were investigated, with only 10 cases resulting in sanctions. However, the chairman of PRSA's Board of Ethics and Professional Standards, Donald McCammond, claims the â€Å"enforcement procedure gives the Code its teeth, makes it a deterrent in addition to a set of guidelines. Greater Opportunities for Participation in Management Policy Decisions A distinctive benefit of improving social responsibility and ethical decision- making among public relations practitioners is that it will enhance their credibility and increase their opportunities for participating in management policy decisions. Judd conducted a study to test the hypothesis that there is a â€Å"positive relationship between public relations recommending socially responsible actions and public relations participating in policy decisions. One hundred members listed in the 1986-87 Register of the Public Relations Journal were asked, â€Å"Are you aware of situations where public relations has recommended changes in what the organization does or what it produces in order to satisfy the responsibility of the organization to society? † In addition, respondents were asked whether responsibility to the client/employer or to society is more important and were asked a number of questions addressing public relations' credibility in relation to other professions and ways in which credibility could be improved. The study did find a significant relationship at the statistical significance level of . 05 that recommendations of socially responsible actions translated into higher participation in policy decisions. Judd connects these findings to Bernays' opinion that feeling more responsible to society and less motivated by financial rewards marks the development of a profession. This increase in involvement in policy decisions also illustrates public relations strong credibility with management in these cases. Hence, the value of Judd's study is that it shows concern for socially responsible actions among public relations practitioners define public relations as a profession, involve practitioners more intimately in management policy decisions, and improve the credibility of the profession. Judd's study also found that 65% of the respondents viewed responsibility to society as more important than responsibility to the client/employer; in effect, they view themselves as a corporate conscience. In this sense then, public relations practitioners, at least those surveyed, view their ultimate purpose as that of a counselor as opposed to the traditionally assigned role of public relations people as advocates. Grunig fundamentally conceives of public relations as a critical element of the management function. Public relations is â€Å"an essential management function because of its contribution to the long-term, strategic management of the organization. In particular, public relations is involved in the planning process in the sense that it enables communication and building of relationships with publics that support or can divert the mission of the organization. As a result of public relations' capabilities to facilitate communication among publics and its intrinsic role within the management function, it has a unique responsibility to act according to social and ethical considerations. In fact, Grunig asserts that adherence to the requirements of this responsibility is the only way in which public relations can be considered to be an important element of the global communication system. If public relations is practiced according to the principles of strategic management, public responsibility and the two-way symmetrical model, it is an important element of the global communication system — facilitating symmetrical communication that helps to build relationships among organizations and publics and to develop policies that are responsible to those publics. † Ethics Code as a Requirement for Professional Status Thomas H. Bivins asserts that professionalism requires autonomy, but that autonomy comes with the expectation of objectivity. This presents a problem for public relations because not all public relations practitioners serve the role of counselor, many fill the role of advocate. Bivins describes how these two different roles result in the necessity for different ethical guidelines, which involve the degree of responsibility or obligation to the client/employer, degree of objectivity, and degree of autonomy. However, as Judd's study showed, public relations practitioners increasingly view their role as that of counselor, given that they feel more bound to social responsibilities rather than client/employer obligations. This will place a more stringent ethical impetus upon public relations practitioners because the responsibilities of counselors are broader in the sense of having to be concerned with both larger and a greater number of publics. â€Å"Although both the advocate and the counselor must practice within the bounds of the truth, good taste and the law, the counselor must also practice within the moral boundaries of, and with ethical consideration for, all concerned publics. Purpose, therefore, becomes a factor which must be decided upon, to a greater degree, by the counselor. † Bivins stresses that it is the move towards professionalism in the field which has actually led to a concern over ethical principles. Center and Jackson similarly connect ethical concerns with the development of a profession. â€Å"The public relations function has sought to fulfill its aspirations by exerting an ethical and moral force as well as technical skill and, by doing so, developing an identity and a professional discipline of its own. As Winkleman noted, the ethical debate began with Watergate and has gained momentum in the public relations community with the scandals involving Michael Deaver (indicted for perjury) and Anthony Franco (insider trading). Despite the lack of substantial empirical research literature on public relations ethics to date, there appears to be an increased interest in the subject of ethics among educators and researchers. For example, Public Relations Review devoted entire issues to the subject of ethics in 1989 and 1993. Regardless of whether the public relations profession institutes a universal code as some are advocating, empirical evidence has shown that practitioners who base their decision-making on social responsibility and within ethical guidelines, whether personal or structural, will be more likely to be involved in policy decisions. In turn, practitioners will enhance their credibility with management and the public at large. Furthermore, observance of ethical principles demonstrate the mark of a profession.