Nursing Theory and Research Essay

What is nursing (caring) according to Fawcett (1984)? Nursing is defined by American Association (1980) as â€Å"the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems† (cited in Fawcett, 1984, pg. 84). Diagnosis, according to the nursing process is when the nurses identify the actual problems and find out how to treat them in order to prevent any potential problems. According to Walker, 1971) nursing is establishing limits or boundaries in terms of the person  providing care; person with health problems receiving care; the environment in which care is given and an end-state, well-being (cited in Fawcett, 1984). This is related to what I mentioned before that the four concepts are interrelated; they cannot work on their own. The connections among the four metaparadigm concepts were clearly identified by Donalson and Cowley (1978) which states that â€Å"nursing studies the wholeness or health of humans, recognizing that humans are in continuous interaction with their environments† (cited in Rolfe, 1996, pg.6). This statement may be considered the major proposition of nursing’s metaparadigm. B: Christensen’s (1990) Partnership Model: Christensen’s (1990) Partnership Model identify the concept of a partnership as a basis for involvement between a nurse and a patient. This concept provides a sound humanistic foundation for nursing practice. From the patient view point, a partnership of equality and respect provides security. From nurses, patients are vulnerable or faced a situation, which requires care from health services. The experience of partnership empowers and enables people when they are patients, and we believe that security proved by the nursing partnership is a basic human right for a patient. For a partnership to exist and work effectively, there must be a willingness from all partners to collaborate as equals, and then to jointly make decisions and endeavour to solve problems. Christensen (1990) described partnership is initiated when the patient is admitted to hospital and ceases when they go home. It is a continuous process, which offered ways of looking at what happened when a nurse offered learned expertise to a person who is going through a health related experience. The learned expertise is known as â€Å"nursing (caring). What is nursing (caring) according to Christensen (1990)? Although many nurses’ scholars described nursing according to their own research, Christensen (1990) defined nursing â€Å"when a nurse offered learned expertise to a person who is going through a health related experience† (pg.  47). Also, New Zealand Nurse’s Association (1990) defined nursing is a â€Å"specialised expression of caring, concerned primary with enhancing the ability of individuals and groups to achieve their health potential within the realities of their life situations (pg. 7). So, nursing is the actions or treatment to help the patient promote health not only part of his body, but nursing is looking at the person holistically. As discuss by Christensen (1990), the major work of nurse-patient partnership is commences at the time of admission to hospital and continues until the patient goes home, as mentioned before. We could see that the work of the nurse is dynamic and sensitive as nursing strategies are selectively used to ease the pathway of each patient through an individual passage. The passage, according to Christensen (1990) is a â€Å"social process, which can be used to describe an experience of a significant change in a person’s circumstances† (pg.26). It is characterised by the giving and receiving of nursing in order for the patient to make optimal progress through a health related experience. So, nursing is attending. According to Christensen (1990) attending takes place during the time of contact between the nurse and patient and also accompanies the patient through hospitalisation. Attending is the essence of partnership because it shows that nursing is caring and concerning about the change in patient’s life. Therefore, Christensen’s model of nursing partnership involved two or more people in a shared venture. It requires the nurse to view nursing as a collaborative between the nurse and the client. It initiated when the patient is admitted to hospital until they go home. It is a continuum process, which offered ways of looking at what happened when a nurse offered learned expertise to a person who is going through a health related experience. According to Peplau define nursing is â€Å"how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no disease†(Cited in Nightingale, 1992, pg. 48), which means what can and should nurses do to promote health, prevent illness and recovery from disease. As I mentioned above in Christensen’s model,  nurses work alongside with the patient but using nursing strategies to ease the path of the person by listening to them and taking heed of what they are saying. Moreover, is to comforting them in order to aid recovery from diseases they present. Harmer & Henderson (1995, cited in Rolfe, 1996) point out that the unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or peaceful death). In Christensen’s partnership model is very similar to this idea as to assist the patient and supporting during this journey of sickness or seeking help with things that they are unable to do for themselves. That is the goal of nursing is to use their knowledge to find the most efficient and effective ways of carrying out nursing procedures to help their partner in nursing care, as the patient. Moreover, according to attend, being their for the patient and spending time with him in order to understand their needs. Also, ministering which Christensen defines as a selective application of nursing knowledge and skills to meet the identified needs of the patient. Within that knowledge, nurses have a systematic body of knowledge that underpins practice, which means, they know what to do, how to do it and why they are doing it. For example, an eighteen months old baby was brought from theatre whom he had a Gastrostomy. I took observations on him for half hourly for two hours and hourly after that. Why do I have to do that, because to identify any signs and symptoms of haemorrhage which is potential for shock. That is the basic knowledge that I have taught so far that this baby has a tendency of bleeding. It was very important for me for these observations. According to Christensen (1990) that the work of the nurse is dynamic and sensitive as nursing responds to the immediacy of the patient’s situation. During this time the nurse and the patient negotiate their partnership by looking at the work of the nurse and the work of the patient in order to cushion the impact on the patient of the disturbances associated with hospitalisation. Moreover, according to Christensen (1990) the passage is â€Å"a social process  which can be used to describe an experience of a significant change in a person’s circumstances† (p.26). It is characterised by giving and receiving of nursing in order for the patient to make an optimal progress for a better health. In reality it may or may not lead to a beneficial passage. But, the work of the nurse begins as soon as the patient admitted to hospital. It is known as the beginning phase, which is to assist the client to attain the means, opportunities and the ability to act within the present circumstances, though the nurse-client partnership exists for all nursing goals and the expected outcomes may not always turn out as desired. The beginning is marked by the patient experiencing a health-related problem. The phase begins with awareness that something is wrong which requires an admission to hospital it may be days or weeks or whenever the patient takes responsible for his own self-management. This period precedes entry into the partnership, at the same time the patient prepares for the upcoming experience, whereas the nurse serves to make patient complete, whole being of a person or independent. And I believed this includes identifying the problems of the whole being of the person, that is, culturally, psychosocially and mentally. This relationship includes respect and acceptance of where the person is and the nurse’s openness to another person’s reality. Caring relationships occur with individuals and family and their significant others. According to Levine (1973) described nursing as â€Å"a human interaction. It is a discipline rooted in the organic dependency of the individual human being on his relationships with other human beings† (Cited in Fawcett, 1984, pg 122). She further describe nursing as â€Å"a subculture, possessing ideas and values which are unique to nurses, even though they mirror the social template which created them† (ibid, pg, 123). This is true with nursing is caring for another human being which have their own culture, ideas and values which recognise themselves from whom they come from. When we compare with Christensen’s model (1990), interpreting is the â€Å"attempt made by the nurse to attach meaning to the status of the patient and the situation† (pg. 42). Including observing, monitoring, analysing,  translating, conceptualising, synthesising and decision-making. When assessing the patient and collecting data, nurses should recognise the social issues and cultural needs of the patient in order to provide treatment that are suitable for them. Moreover, as Christensen stated that the intentional presence of the nurse is essential for coming to know and understand what it means to be human and humans in relationship or partnership. This knowledge provides the basis for the mutual selection of interventions that can promote health and self-determination. That is the essence of partnership is engaging the person in the process of their journey from the time they face the problem and come in to hospital until they go home. Partnership includes intimacy, trust, and authenticity. Furthermore, commitment, responsibility and accountability, which are the nature of nursing which Christensen identifies. Not only that, caring takes place within the context of a therapeutic relationship and is considered a moral vital of nursing. According to Henderson’s definition of nursing â€Å"I say that the nurse does for others what they would do for themselves if they had the strength, the will and knowledge. But I go on to say that the nurse makes the patient independent of him or her as soon as possible†. â€Å"Nurse serves to make patient â€Å"complete, whole† or independent† (Cited in USA Nursing Knowledge Consensus Conference, 1998) Conclusion: Although I found very difficult to understand Fawcett’s description of the metaparadigm but at the end I found this very interesting to know that metaparadigm is like a framework that help me in my practice. Nursing has a unique responsibility to promote, protect and restore the client’s holistic health. REFERENCES: Christensen, J. (1990) The Ethics of Care: Towards Partnership in Nursing, Lincoln University Press with Daphne Brasell Associates Ltd, London. Fawcett, J, (1984) The Metaparadigm of Nursing: Present Status and Future Refinements. Images: The journal of Nursing Scholarship, Vol. XVI, No. 3, pg. 84 – 7. Fawcett, J, (1984) Analysis and evaluation of conceptual models of nursing, F. A Davis Company, Philadelphia. USA Nursing Knowledge Consensus Conference, 1998, Consensus Statement on Emerging Nursing Knowledge, A value-Based Position Paper Linking Nursing knowledge and Practice Outcomes, Boston, Massachusetts

Marketing Plan Chevrolet Essay

A performance appraisal is a review and discussion of an employee’s performance of assigned duties and responsibilities. The appraisal is based on results obtained by the employee in his/her job, not on the employee’s personality characteristics. The appraisal measures skills and accomplishments with reasonable accuracy and uniformity. It provides a way to help identify areas for performance enhancement and to help promote professional growth. It should not, however, be considered the supervisor’s only communication tool. Open lines of communication throughout the year help to make effective working relationships. In Chevrolet each employee is entitled to a thoughtful and careful appraisal. The success of the process depends on the supervisor’s willingness to complete a constructive and objective appraisal and on the employee’s willingness to respond to constructive suggestions and to work with the supervisor to reach future goals. In Chevrolet it i s important for them to give the satisfaction of their customers as part of their business. As the company needed employees who will help them in obtaining their goals, they make sure to have excellent agents or dealers to gain more customers in market. The services which they offer to their buyers are based to the performances of their car dealers and agents who sell their products. As having an integrated performance appraisal, the Chevrolet handle their employees with a synchronization on their management that will help them to comprise more strategies, goals of the company and the right plan for them to be marketable in their business. Chevrolet has their records of their sales on their cars and the level of performances of their dealers and agents. As managing a business that needed to sell in a high cost of prices but giving customers a satisfaction and good value of their products, the company needs to check and monitor the employee who sells and market the products. Periodic reviews help the supervisors of Chevrolet gain a better understanding of each employeeâ€⠄¢s abilities. The goal of the review process is to recognize achievement, to evaluate job progress, and then to design training for the further development of skills and strengths. A careful review will stimulate employee’s interest and improve job performance. The review provides the employee, the supervisor, the Vice President, and Human Resources a critical, formal feedback mechanism on an annual basis; however these discussions should not be restricted solely to a formal annual review. Annually, the appropriate supervisor evaluates each employee’s performance. In the case where an employee has changed jobs part-way through the appraisal period, both of the employee’s supervisors during the appraisal period should submit an appraisal of the employee’s performance. During the performance evaluation process, the most recent job description on file with Human Resources will be reviewed and updated if necessary, by both the employee and the supervisor. The Chevrolet employees are reviewed for a salary increase, annually. The amount of the salary increase pool of funds is recommended by the administration and approved by the Board of Trustees. The method for allocating funds is based on rewarding meritorious performance. Merit increases will be awarded on a pay-for-performance basis and are based on individual performance. When used as intended, a pay-for-performance structure achieves the goal of rewarding truly top performers with merit increases that match their achievements and contributions. These bases of performances of the employees are one way of recognizing the job that they worked hard for the company. The company wanted to increase the level of good quality services for their employees for them to have the loyalty of their customers. This reward to their dealers and agents are persuading them to enhance the ability and performances in marketing their products. The goal of Chevrolet is to give satisfaction and needs to their customers and to their future buyers. The company’s Performance Appraisal can help the company to obtain the following objectives: To maintain records in order to determine compensation packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job, to maintain and assess the potential present in a person for further growth and development, to provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status, to provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status. It also serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees and to review and retain the promotional and other training programmes. It is said that performance appraisal is an investment for the company which can be justified by following advantages: Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to chalk out the promotion programmes for efficient employees. In this regards, inefficient workers can be dismissed or demoted in case. It can help in chalking out compensation packages for employees. Merit rating is possible through performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal tries to give worth to a performance. Compensation packages which include bonus, high salary rates, extra benefits, allowances and pre-requisites are dependent on performance appraisal. The criteria should be merit rather than seniority. The systematic procedure of performance appraisal helps the supervisors to frame training policies and programmes. It helps to analyse strengths and weaknesses of employees so that new jobs can be designed for efficient employees. It also helps in framing future development programmes. Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to understand the validity and importance of the selection procedure. The supervisors come to know the validity and thereby the strengths and weaknesses of selection procedure. Future changes in selection methods can be made in this regard. For an organization, effective communication between employees and employers is very important. Through performance appraisal, communication can be sought for in the following ways: the employers can understand and accept skills of subordinates; the subordinates can also understand and create a trust and confidence in superiors. It also helps in maintaining cordial and congenial labor management relationship. It develops the spirit of work and boosts the morale of employees. All the above factors ensure effective communication. The Performance appraisal of the company serves as a motivation tool. Through evaluating performance of employees, a person’s efficiency can be determined if the targets are achieved. This very well motivates a person for better job and helps him to improve his performance in the future. Life Cycle Costing The Life cycle costing is a method of calculating the total cost of a physical asset throughout its life. Life-cycle costing is concerned with all costs of ownership and takes account of the costs incurred by an asset from its acquisition to its disposal, including design, installation, operating, and maintenance costs. There are four major benefits of Life Cycle Cost analysis and it is evaluation of competing options in purchasing, improved awareness of total costs, more accurate forecasting of cost profiles and performance trade-off against cost. When the Chevrolet is planning the acquisition of a major asset, organizations spend considerable time and effort in making an economic evaluation of the initial (capital) cost. This evaluation typically considers the required size or capacity of the item, operating performance requirements, physical appearance or image projected, the capital cost, and alternative product options. The company future costs are less visible, as they are often â€Å"hidden† within general operating expenses, but they can have a significant impact on the future viability of the organization. The scale of these costs depends on the level and frequency of usage of the asset. There are also broader environmental implications that flow from the decision to acquire a major asset. Resources are used during the creation, operation and disposal phases, with the potential to affect environmental sustainability, and there may also be direct environmental impacts. The study of these broader issues is often termed life-cycle assessment. This guide does not specifically address these broader issues but they should be part of a complete assessment of the merit of a specific project. The determination of costs is an integral part of the asset management process and is a common element of many of the asset manager’s tools, particularly Economic Appraisal, Financial Appraisal, Value Management, Risk Management and Demand Management. Growing pressure to achieve better outcomes from assets means that ongoing operating and maintenance costs must be considered as they consume more resources over the asset’s service life. Both the capital and the ongoing operating and maintenance costs must be considered wherever asset management decisions involving costs are made. This is the Life Cycle Cost approach. Quality Costing Improving quality is considered by many to be the best way to enhance customer satisfaction, to reduce manufacturing costs and to increase productivity. Any serious attempt to improve quality must take into account the costs associated with achieving quality, since nowadays it does not suffice to meet customer requirements, it must be done at the lowest possible cost as well. This can only happen by reducing the costs needed to achieve quality, and the reduction of these costs is only possible if they are identified and measured. The identification itself is not straightforward because there is no general agreement on a single broad definition of quality costs. However, according to Dale and Plunkett (1995), it is now widely accepted that quality costs are the costs incurred in the design, implementation, operation and maintenance of a quality management system, the cost of resources committed to continuous improvement, the costs of system, product and service failures, and all other necessary costs and non-value added activities required to achieve a quality product or service. Measuring and reporting these costs should be considered a critical issue for any manager who aims to achieve competitiveness in today’s markets. These are costs that can be only estimated such as profits not earned because of lost customers and reduction in revenue owing to non-conformance. The importance of opportunity and intangible costs for quality costing has been recently emphasized in the literature. The practice of costing quality is the combination of two important elements: the first is to analyse the cost of each part of a process and identify areas where savings may be made; the second is the ‘right first time’ approach. Of course people don’t just need to do things right, they need to be sure they are doing the right things. The aim of a quality costing process is to maximize quality while minimizing cost. A sound quality costing programme will measure the cost of quality; aim to control and reduce it; and, continually monitor it as a measure of progress. The process of quality costing is, on the whole, one of negative analysis – instead of strengths, it looks for weaknesses. This may be a painful exercise, be prepared for that. But remember that by identifying costs you can take steps to reduce them. Ignoring ineffectiveness and poor quality is rather like the ostrich approach to management – if I don’t see it, it won’t hurt me. It is useful to bear in mind that the best business with which to compare quality costs is your own. If you introduce quality cost measurement activities twice a year you will soon have data to compare. The Chevrolet cost categories in the quality planning is one of the most important and had prioritized by the company for them to achieved customer satisfaction. The company offer products with good materials to maintain the quality but with affordable prices. The company’s prevention costs support activities whose purpose is to reduce the number of defects. Chevrolet employs many techniques to prevent defects, for example statistical process control, quality engineering, training, and a variety of tools from total quality management (TQM). Prevention costs include activities relating to quality circles and statistical process control. Quality circles consist of small groups of employees that meet on a regular basis to discuss ways to improve quality. Both management and workers are included in these circles. An out of control process results in defective units and may be caused by a miscalibrated machine or some other factor. In statistical process control, workers use charts to monitor the quality of units that pass through their workstations. With these charts, workers can quickly spot processes that are out of control and that are creating defects. Problems can be immediately corrected and further defects prevented rather than waiting for an inspector to catch the defect later. Any defective parts and products should be caught as early as possible in the production process in the company. Appraisal costs, which are sometimes called inspection costs, are incurred to identify defective products before the products are shipped to customers. Unfortunately performing appraisal activates doesn’t keep defects from happening again and most managers realize now that maintaining an army of inspectors is a costly and ineffective approach to quality control. Employees are increasingly being asked to be responsible for their own quality control. This approach along with designing products to be easy to manufacture properly, allows quality to be built into products rather than relying on inspections to get the defects out. Failure costs are incurred when a product fails to conform to its design specifications. Failure costs can be either internal or external. Internal failure costs result from identification of defects before they are shipped to customers. These costs include scrap, rejected products, reworking of defective units, and downtime caused by quality problem. This also experienced by the company and the more effective the company’s appraisal activities the greater the chance of catching defects internally and the greater the level of internal failure costs. This is the price that is paid to avoid incurring external failure costs, which can be devastating for the company. When a defective product is delivered to customer, external failure cost is the result. External failure costs include warranty, repairs and replacements, product recalls, liability arising from legal actions against a company, and lost sales arising from a reputation for poor quality. Such costs can decimate profits. External failure costs usually give rise to another intangible cost. These intangible costs are hidden costs that involve the company’s image. They can be three or four times greater than tangible costs. Missing a deadline or other quality problems can be intangible costs of quality. Internal failure costs, external failure costs and intangible costs that impair the goodwill of the company occur due to a poor quality so these costs are also known as costs of poor quality by some persons.

Mystery Shopping Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Mystery Shopping - Essay Example However to evaluate the service from a customer point of view is the critical factor that most organizations are faced with. There are different types of research methods and techniques to evaluate customer service and mystery shopping and it can be regarded as the significant tool used by modern businesses to measure the quality of the service or to collect particular information about product or service. It is a highly detailed shopping program and it will help managers to make sure that the particular brand experience is protected or not. Therefore managers have identified that effective service delivery will direct particular organization on profitable growth and lead to sustainable gains in the market. Moment of truth is a main element in a customer delivery process and managers will concentrate in depth of different moment of truth that get only one chance to make a good first impression about a particular product or a service. There are important features in service delivery process - the roles of product; place; process and physical atmosphere, and then there each element of the service delivery process is recognized as a significant factor in customer service experience. Further it evaluates whether the brand promise is delivered along with meeting customer expectations. Thus mystery shopping considered as a main management tool to measure the customer perspective and performance of the current products and service which is mainly affecting to customer loyalty and the satisfaction (Schmidt, 2007).When the marketing mix - price, product, place, promotion and by extension people, process and physical evidence - is considered against the current level of market concentration rati os there are a lot of opportunities in the market. For instance the existing brand loyalties might curtail the degree of freedom enjoyed by each seller. In such situations mystery marketing efforts don't help much. This development has a very significant impact on the organization's marketing goals too. 1.1. Purpose of the study or research aims To establish correlations and regressions, if any, among and between the above mentioned variables such as the mystery shopping programs and customer satisfaction as determined by organizational environment: cleanliness, speed of service, store appearance, grooming, friendly environment and greeting and so on . To identify and emphasize the existence, if any, of such mystery shopping programs related initiatives and policies and customer satisfaction, thus focusing attention on an otherwise often neglected aspect of customer satisfaction related compulsions. To delineate the existing correlations between mystery shopping programs and customer satisfaction against the backdrop of an ever growing complexity and diversity in theoretical and conceptual spheres of the modern business environment. To arrive at particular as against broader conclusions on the strategic importance of mystery shopping programs in the organization's own operational environment within the defined limits. 1.1. Hypothesis or thesis statementThe hypothesis or thesis statement of this paper rests on the testing of the primacy and the immediacy of a broader cross section of theoretical and

Fight Club Novel essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Fight Club Novel - Essay Example People are always asking, did I know about Tyler Duren† (Palahniuk 1). The post modern style of writing is a convergence of different forms of critical theory, deconstructionist approaches and particular reader-response strategies. The most important characteristic of post modern literature is the use of neatly tied-up ending. This characteristic is favored by post modern writers because it celebrates chance over craft, in addition to employing meta-fiction in order to undermine the authority of a writer. The novel is post modern because the writer creates an idea and clarifies it before fragmenting the story. The novel is about a character rather than a story. It is written in a manner that shows that it is a sketch about a certain character. In the first chapter, the narrator is counting down the clock and he discusses how to make a bomb with his friend. In the second chapter, the story is fragmented because the narrator appears to be in a group session. The narrator states, â€Å"Bob’s big arms were closed around to hold me inside and I was squeezed in the dark between Bob’s new sweating tits that hang enormous† (Palahniuk 4). The author of the novel succeeded in creating a character or idea about the character. He also clarified the character as a person who was experiencing a form of psychological problem. In one instance, the character is talking about his friend Tyler, and how Tyler helped him secure a job as a waiter. The next minute, he is talking about bombs with a gun in his mouth. The fact that he is embracing someone shows that he has started rehabilitation. Since the idea of the film is the character of the narrator, the author did not give the narrator a name. Readers are left with ambiguity particularly with regards to the narrator. Post modernism is also shown in the conditions of the characters and their self involvement. During one of the support groups, the narrator notes, â€Å"the only woman here at Remaining Men Together, the

What is meant by the term sustainable development How has this concept Essay

What is meant by the term sustainable development How has this concept contributed to the amelioration of environmental degradation - Essay Example Generally speaking, human needs must be met and economic growth must be nurtured keeping intact the available natural resources and environmental integrity (Willers, 1994, p. 1147). Requirements of both ecological balance and economical development must be satisfied. These conditions would be lasting forever or for a very long period. Hierarchial management of sustainable development is necessary and it must be able to result in the essential performance of main requirements, satisfying the various interests. It is essential to overcome the environmental pollution and its effect in aggravating the ecological situation which is a global problem (Ougolnitsky, 2009, p. 428). The concept of hierarchial controlled dynamic management has the chances of providing better decisions. The three constituents of hierarchial management are the administrative, economic and psychological. Private interests of organizations, aiming at short term interests, collide with the objective strategies of the global system (Ougolnitsky, 2009, p. 429). . This contrast in ideas needs to be solved by the hierarchial management which had better be a two tier management. The individual interests should be coordinated into a common group of interests with common objectives. Different methods are employed in the management: compulsion, impulsion and conviction (Ougolnitsky, 2009, p. 431). Compulsion is when a participant is forced to undertake or accept a common interest or objective. Impulsion is when the participant is offered the opportunities or economically advantageous background to promote the common interests. Both levels have common interests and both are equally committed in conviction. Compulsion is an inefficient method to produce a combined effort. Voluntary cooperation is evident in conviction which is actually a psychological approach and the best in the sustainable development (Ougolnitsky, 2009, p. 432). The

Micro economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Micro economics - Essay Example But the other side of picture is also being supportedby many economists. They are of the view that UK is still in the grasp of double dip depression. According to a study, in the year 2008 peak the growth rate of economy was less than 20.1% and in the year 2010, the overall growth rate is around 6.1% which shows a serious plunge during the great depression. International monetary fund issued a forecast about the growth rate in between 0.6% to 0.8 % and this is not considered as a gratifying rate. Since 2008, the government of UK has stimulated up to 380 billion pounds into the economic machinery to increase liquidity rates but due to the lack of â€Å"trickle down† effect, the money has not shown its benefits and didn’t reach the core level of the industries. Many unconventional and out of the way step and initiatives are being taken to solve the problem of liquidity. Massive job lose statistics showed that there were around 750,000 public sector jobs that were cut off but this problem has been sorted out after the pact between democrats and conservatives. During the nine months of double dip depression, the economy of UK shrank up to around 1.1 pc (Kirby et al, 2011) and there is now a rise in the growth that shows that depression has ended. The economists are feeling the fear that the depression can come because economic depressions re-appear and do not go away easily. The measures by the ONS say that the economy grew by 0.7per capita and many other independent sources for example a renowned economist named as Samuel Tombs is supporting the view that growth will touch around 0.6pc. Till 2012, depression was still badly affecting the UK’s economy as this was the consequence of bankruptcies of major banks like Lehman brothers and the stock markets of UK were falling to the lowest records since the great depression. The measures from NIESR says that double dip depression was still there until September 2012 as after pumping thousands of doll ars in the banking systems , there was no rise in the growth of the economy (Hay, 2012). Question 2 There are mainly four categories of unemployment, as follows 1) Structural Unemployment 2) Frictional Unemployment 3) Cyclic Unemployment 4) Seasonal Unemployment (Boyes& Melvin, 2012) The first type of unemployment is when the competent work force is available but there is a huge lack of demand for them. This kind of unemployment is highly proliferated in the world. The second type refers to the unemployment that is caused due to high â€Å"switch rate† of employees between different jobs. The third type is because of the effects of overall growth of the economic conditions and fourth type is because of the fluctuations of international economic trends and developments. Diamond Mortensen Pissarides (DMP) model illustrates the unemployment as a function of limited variables ad the rate of unemployment is directly proportional to the number of variables. If people have limited m eans and skill sets, unemployment will expand automatically. This model is regarded as the most practical one. According to DMP model, the bargain rate between employee and employer is also affected due to unemployment rate. If unemployment rate is high, bargain will be low because hiring is a difficult process altogether. As shown in the above figure, if the productivity in decreased, there is also a decline in Nash’s wage line. A high rate of wage line depicts less unemployment and sound economic condition

The Impact of the Theoretical Basis of Nursing on Contemporary Essay

The Impact of the Theoretical Basis of Nursing on Contemporary Practice - Essay Example This paper approves that nursing as a profession accounts for its conscientious, knowledgeable and responsible actions. The profession has extended education avenues, a body of knowledge leading to defined skills, an ability to provide specific service, professional autonomy to make decisions governed by a code of ethics. The theoretical models have served as frameworks for nursing curriculum and practice by increasing the scientific basis of nursing practice. This essay makes a conclusion that nursing profession today demands responsibilities than the past when the principle of a nurse was just to provide care and comfort. Changes in nursing have expanded the roles of a nurse including health promotion and disease prevention with patient’s care as the core element. The growing specialty treatments have a proportional need for a specialty trained nursing professionals. These specialty nursing professionals assist complicated surgeries working in coordination with the specialties. Every Health Care delivery center today provides a report to the patient on the details of the diagnosis of the disease with follow up instructions, the Medicine information and the allergy reactions that could follow; dietary restrictions, dos and don’ts, restrictions and exercises prescribed. They take an acknowledgement either from the patient or an authorized person after receiving the report. This documentation serves a key purpose in medical pr actice. The health record is the written and legal evidence of treatment.

Identify the artifacts produced on the images during CT scans Essay

Identify the artifacts produced on the images during CT scans. Describe the - Essay Example Several strategies have been developed to prevent artifacts. In this article, different artifacts in CT imaging and various techniques to prevent then will be elaborated. Different researchers have classified artifacts in different manner. While some experts have classified artifacts based on appearance, like ring artifacts, shading artifacts and streak artifacts (Goldman, 2007, 222), others have classified them based on the causes (Yazdi and Beaulieu, 2008, 135). In this articles, classification by Yazdi and Beaulieu (2008, 135) will be used. Patient-based artifacts occur because of some attributes in the body of the patients. The most common patient-based artifacts are metallic artifacts. These artifacts occur due to presence of irremovable metals in the body of the patient like hip prosthesis, dental filling, fracture fixation rods, cardiac prosthesis, chemotherapy ports and surgical clips. Metallic artifacts appear like streaks on images. They occur because of improper and inaccurate correction of beam hardening within the back projection that is filtered. As such, metals absorb photons heavily and cause overestimation of activity in the metallic region. This is the reason why patients are asked to remove all metallic objects in their body prior to entering the scan room. Several techniques have been developed to prevent on minimize metallic artifacts in CT images (Yazdi and Beaulieu, 2008, 136). One such strategy is to disregard data related to projections from metal objects and reconstruct image only based on projec tion data from non-corrupted regions. However, this method is very costly for regular scans and convergence problems occur frequently. Another strategy is to reconstruct images by manually identifying the missing projections and replacing them with non-missing projections of the surrounding areas. This method is known as projection-interpolation method. Other strategies to

Water from Iceland. Bottled Water Industry Speech or Presentation

Water from Iceland. Bottled Water Industry - Speech or Presentation Example In his mind, as the case tells us, he had business thoughts in his mind. Since his tour in Europe, fully funded by his parents as his graduation present, the waters of Ice land fully captivated him. For one reason, he felt that he would do good business if he started a company that was to import this water to the United States. Ice land did not have any industries. Mainly, it relied on the fish export business for its income. The idea kept ticking in his mind until he made up his mind to conduct a market research for the viability of his idea. Later in this presentation, I will discuss his findings after the research. After much thought, perhaps he realized he was more business oriented as he went into the research full throttle. It is interesting to find a fresh graduate contemplating on becoming an entrepreneur at the expense of a full time job. However, due to his business acumen, Otis was ready to make his idea a reality in case he found the industry viable enough. He was certain that if the idea were successful, the company would be a success. Water from Ice land tasted wonderful. In comparison to the United States water, what he tasted during his trip was great. He considered an imports company that would import water from Ice land and bottled it in the United States for the United States market. Armed with a business idea in his mind, he went to the market to conduct a market research about the American bottled water industry. ... Further, he gathered that there were several types of drinking water in the market. These were treated or processed water, mineral water, sparkling water, effervescence water and spring well water. Through the entire investigation, he realized that no water was from European region. This was a big opportunity for him. To make his dreams even appear more real, he realized that the consumption of water was increasing with time. Four reasons were responsible for this growth. Among these factors was increased awareness among the consumers of the impure nature of the city water supplies, increased dissatisfaction with the taste and odour of the city water, rising social influence and the increased desire for consumption of caffeine, sugar, and other coffee substances as well as soft drinks. Further, the highest consumers of bottled water were in the states of California, Texas, Florida, New York and Arizona. He also found out that the industry made numerous profits annually both on the re tail and wholesale business. For instance, in 2001, a total of $6.5 billion accrued from wholesale alone and $7.7 billion in retail. In the recent years, some companies had started importing water. Although this kept rising, between 1998 and 2000 the volumes had declined. He discovered that ice land in specific accounted for only 0.05% market share of the total water imported into the United States. With this information, Otis extended his research on two significant countries in his imported water from Ice land. The United States bottled water regulation and the economic condition of Ice land. Regulation of the bottled water industry in the United States was both at the federal government level and by various states government levels. While some states had stringent

Financial Risk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Risk Management - Essay Example This study involves a comprehensive study of the risk management policies followed by Bear Stearns and how it led to its demise. Risk Management: An Overview Risk is a term associated with any type of business entity. Without risk it would have been an easy task for managers of a company to allocate its resources in the most effective way. And with the world experiencing the global financial crisis in the year 2008, effective and efficient risk management is the key to success for any financial enterprise. The idea of risk management may differ from person to person. In case of regulators risk management is a means of control, for traders it is a means of hedging their risks and for risk managers it is a means of obtaining the highest return possible by allocating capital in the best possible way. Risk management takes into consideration the magnitude as well as the nature of risks involved. It is all about optimizing the risk-return profile of a company. Sources of risk are many and it is due to the uncertainties of future events. In today’s world banks are engaged in wide range of activities like trading of derivatives to its customers which results in exposure, finally leading to risks. Thus risk management plays a vital role in case of banks. Study and analysis of risk begins with study of Markowitz model of portfolio analysis where he defined selection of portfolios based on mean of variances in return of portfolios. Sharpe and Lintner further added to this analysis by assuming the existence of risk free assets. The rate of return of a risky asset is governed by its systematic risk and ‘beta’ is the measure of this type of risks. Next Black-Scholes model for pricing of options gives a measure of the risk of an underlying security by measuring the volatility in the form of standard deviation. Again works of Modigliani and Miller showed that value of the firm is not dependent on the capital structure of the firm. Increase of debt, leading to greater leverage in the capital structure of a firm increases the financial risk for the shareholders of the firm. This means, reengineering of capital structure of the firm would not help the firm, and the management should consider implementing strategies to increase the value of the firm economically. However, it is very difficult and possesses a challenging task for a company to implement these risk management theories practically. For any financial institutions like global banks, before taking up risk management system they must ensure that, they are up to date with their databases regarding various financial transactions within the company and are also aware about financial rates available in the outside market. Also they must have relevant statistical tools to analyze those data. Risk management policies followed by Bear Stearns Bear Stearns was once considered as one of the most efficient managers of risk but at the end it was their faulty risk management policies that l ed to their downfall. Bear Stearns most profitable division was the securitization of mortgage, which brought in almost half of the company’s revenues. Regarding mortgage securitization, the company followed a model that was vertically integrated and made profit at every step starting from originating loan, securitizing them and then selling them. These

Automated Record System of Barangay 38 a Thesis Proposal Essay Example for Free

Automated Record System of Barangay 38 a Thesis Proposal Essay Barangay P.N.P Compound is located in the heart of Davao City particularly situated in the center of San Pedro , Bolton , Rizal and Quimpo Boulevard Sts. Even in the older times it is the center of trade and religious activities. Barangay P.N.P Compound in the late 1940`s used to be a swampy area with barely 20 houses ( more or less ) built from light materials was situated. Since our barangay is located near barangay bucana which is also very near the coastal areas most parts of our barangay is usually submerged in water caused by the changes in the sea level. According to the pioneer residents which is now our senior citizens , the area during Their times were mostly fishponds and crabs were all over the place specially during High tide . However , as time passes by population gradually increase and fishponds Turned into houses and establishments . In the year 1978 , our first appointed Tenyente Del Barrio Mrs. Lourdes Espiritu was placed in the position but during Mrs. Espiritu`s term their were still no kagawads . However due to health problems she Was replaced by barangay captain Angelita B. Maneja who was duly appointed by the City Mayor that time , together with six (6) of her barangay . The first ever barangay election was held during the late 80`s . In 1993 , under The administration of the late barangay chairwoman Paz Oracion , our barangay hall was constructed. Although made with wood and light materials it is still an Accomplishment that needs to be recognized up to the present times. In 1994, Barangay Captain Paz Oracion was re-elected with new set of barangay council. During the May 7,1993 barangay election barangay Chairman aspirants Robert Cepe and Paz Oracion both got the same number of votes . However , by means of â€Å" toss coin â€Å" which was done in front of the Barangay Hall Robert Cepe was declared as the new Barangay Captain . He serve for the position from May – September 1997 . Paz Oracion Field a petition in court and a recount was granted . It was found out that there were Two (2) ballots that were invalidated . As a result Paz Oracion was declared as the Barangay . At present , we have already made may improvements and developments Within the barangay . We have estimated a total number of six hundred houses (600) And population have also increased . We are constantly thankful to the past and Present Barangay Officials , the constituents and all those local Government Units and Officials who have unendingly given their support , effort and dedication in the spirit Of public service which paved the way in making us one of the developed barangay`s In the heart of the City. Statement of the Problems The study will seek to the following question : †¢ How should the current system security problems be solved in order to provide a system which is proof against unauthorized person ? †¢ What is the difference between manual record keeping and automated record keeping . Objectives of the study This study conducted in surveyed for the purpose of city government serve a barangay . †¢ To know how the barangay was created. †¢ How it become a reservation of Philippine National Police or know as P.N.P compound. Significance of the study This signifies as basis of a barangay to ensure the people living in b Barangay the maintenance , peace in order , health and sanitation . Scope and limitation of the study The scope of the study will focus on the computerization of barangay P.N.P Compound . The barangay officials and staff of the said barangay will be the major respondents of the study , being the direct representative of the establishment. The proposed system will be created using Microsoft Visual Basic as the Front end and Database Management System (DMS) as the Back – end . Definition of terms The following definitions are based on the conceptual and the operational definitions †¢ Conceptual Definitions : †¢ Automated automatic the password , store and process †¢ Record a process where the entries are recorded into a storage device . †¢ System instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to Work as a coherent entity Operational Definitions : †¢ Automated process all the data †¢ Record a process where information is permanently stored in a database . †¢ System a collection of related process that benefits from each other .

History of Light Gauge Steel

History of Light Gauge Steel History and Development of Light Gauge Steel Within the Construction Industry At the end of World War Two, many countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany were suffering from an acute housing shortage. It was at this time that the use of light gauge steel was introduced into the construction industry by using it as a cladding system within the building of steel framed pre-fab houses. These pre-fabs were poorly designed with little insulation causing cold bridging and ultimately condensation and dampness within the interior of the buildings. This has led to many of these buildings being demolished and traditional brick homes constructed in their place. Despite this, with improved insulation, light gauge steel has continued to be used as an infill structure on multi storey buildings built from hot rolled steel or concrete frames. Commercial and retail buildings in particular continued to benefit from its diverse capabilities, using it as a cladding system which can be formed into many different shapes. In the USA, since 1990 over 20% of a ll affordable homes are now built using this method and it is still growing year on year (Koones, 2006). However, in the UK, we are not using advances in technology as we should be, meaning the buildings that we construct are responsible for almost half of our carbon emissions, half of our water consumption, around a third of our landfill waste and a quarter of all raw materials used in the UK (Smith R A, et al. 2003). This means that the UKs sustainable development targets cannot be met without a fundamental change to the way in which buildings are constructed. The national targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions and the drive for buildings that generate zero carbon in operation present a huge challenge to the building industry (Corus. Sustainable Steel Construction). These drivers have forced the industry to radically change the way in which it constructs its buildings developing other forms of construction to comply with new building regulations and sustainability issues. Advances in technology have led to improved building designs enabling many of the problems that were associated with light gauge steel in previous buildings to be overcome. Other forms of construction have also evolved, most of which are now capable of being manufactured in a factory and shipped to the site ready for assembly. These are known as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and their use has been encouraged by Government and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) due to their impact on the environment and benefits to the end user. In 2006, the MMC market split was: Â £414 million for volumetric (based on manufacturers selling price), 52,797 timber frame units (houses and commercial), Â £61 million for light gauge steel frame (which equates to around 6,100 units), 750 SIPS units (estimate) (BRE 2nd March 09). Today the properties of light gauge steel are being utilised, not only as a cladding system but as a complete building product, replacing bricks and blocks with thin studs of steel fixed together to form non-load bearing or load bearing walls. The studs that are used are formed by folding the strips of galvanised, light gauge steel into the required shape, of which there are many. The most common shape being C sections which are usually formed for use within walls. These vary in size from 40 225 mm and between 0.56 3.2mm in diameter depending on whether or not they are to be used in exterior, interior, load bearing or non-load bearing elements of the building. The steel used is galvanized, providing it with a protective coating for internal applications and has a standard coating of G275 (275 grams/m2). As it is only suitable for interior applications then the entire light gauge steel structure has to be enclosed within a protective covering. This is referred to as the envelope or a warm frame structure and is formed using insulation and a protective vapour barrier. The warm frame structure enables the building to have excellent thermal properties, surpassing the minimum U-Value levels of the Building Regulations 2000. Within the UK the design code for light gauge steel is BS9590 part 5; European design code is Eurocode 3 part 1.3 these are intended to be set of technical rules for the design of buildings using this method of construction. Light gauge steel has the best strength to weight ratio over any other building material and these high strength to weight ratios equate to six tonnes of steel achieving the same performance as 120 tonnes of concrete (SCI, 2007) and as a consequence of its light weight, dependant on ground conditions, less substantial foundations, even the use of prefabricated ground beams assembled to form the foundations may be suitable. Its light weight also inevitably means fewer deliveries to site, in turn causing less disruption to the local community. There are a number of ways in which the elements of a light gauge steel building can be constructed, one of which has taken its name from timber framed buildings where each element of the building is cut to length and fixed together on site. This is referred to as stick building and is a very labour intensive method which, along with a carpenter for timber frames, requires several years of training. This is similar to traditional construction but instead replacing the bricks and mortar with light gauge steel, a good method for one off buildings but it also prevents the benefits gained by off site manufacture to be achieved. The opposite to stick building is the volumetric system. This is the most factory based form of construction and involves the delivery on site of, usually, a complete room fully fitted out with all fixtures and fittings. This minimises on site installation work and only requires the individual pods to be fixed together increasing the rate of construction of the bu ilding. This form of construction is very good for buildings where a repeated style of room is required such as student accommodation blocks or a hospital. When the design of a building is more complex then the cost of producing individual pods significantly rises. The factory based fabrication of the pods ensures a high standard of workmanship with a precision of +0 to -2mm tolerance being achievable and also minimises the traffic, waste, labour, and time spent constructing the buildings resulting in savings for the developer whilst minimising the impact on the environment. The open panel method is another design used with light gauge steel structures. It involves the assembly of the walls, floor or roof within a factory based environment and delivered to the site when needed. All insulation, services, cladding and internal finishes are then fitted on site. The direct factory based savings for the open panel method is reduced due to the fact that the superstructure of a building only amounts to about 15% of the total construction costs. Any savings made using the system would be modest but the reduced time spent on site related to the use of this method would be where the savings would be made. The closed panel method also involves the production of the elements of the building within a factory but will also have the insulation and vapour barrier fixed to it. The services, internal finishes, doors, windows etc may also be in place and the different elements of the building would only require fixing together on site which is usually achieved, as in other methods, by welding, riveting, screwing or crimping. Costs of MMC have been muted as a barrier to the progression of their use and the Barker Review of Housing Supplies (2004) stated that At the present time, traditional brick and block methods of construction remain cheaper, in many cases, than modern methods of construction, including off-site manufacture (OSM). Only four years later a 2008 BRE report (SmartLIFE Lessons Learned), published its findings on a pilot project in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire. It found that light gauge steel construction was in fact, cheaper than the traditional method of brick and block and also that of other MMC used, including timber framed and insulated concrete formwork. According to the SmartLIFE report the advantage of an ongoing partnership and understanding between the light gauge steel manufacturer and the main contractor was a factor in the methods cost effectiveness. The SmartLIFE project was undertaken to find the best ways the UK can deliver a greater volume of sustainable, affordab le and high quality homes in less time, using both traditional and innovative methods of construction. In comparison to other MMC, light gauge steels long roof and floor span capabilities also add to its diversity. Rooms can be changed around within the building by simply moving interior walls which do not require demolition as opposed to other methods. They can also be disassembled and reused or recycled unlike, for example, insulated concrete formwork walls. Whilst there are benefits to using light gauge steel there are also disadvantages including the metals thermal conductivity. Unlike a timber framed building, heat can quickly conduct across a metal stud and with many studs in a wall this can reduce the temperature within a room ensuring the u value of the wall is reduced. To rectify this additional exterior insulation is required at extra cost to the developer. There are also fears about corrosion problems. If the building is not kept within its warm envelope then deterioration of the metal could be a problem. A counter argument is that timber rots far easier and quicker than me tal and timber can also be a food source for a variety of animals. The electric conduciveness of the frame also means that extra work is needed to ensure the wiring does not come into contact with the frame. In modular and closed panel construction this would be undertaken in factory conditions and would be easily overcome but with on site installation it inevitably means further responsibility falls on to the sub-contractor electrician. Perhaps the most serious of its disadvantages is the thermal conductivity of the metal frame and its ability to cause the structure to collapse. To tackle this problem the fixing of two layers of gypsum plasterboard at staggered joints gives the metal frame a fire resistant time suitable to exceed the minimum fire safety requirements of Part B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations 2000. The acoustic performance of light gauge steel has also been questioned but the necessary double layer of plasterboard also takes the level of acoustic performance past the necessary requirements outlined in Part E (Resistance to the passage of sound) of the Building Regulations 2000. The high embodied energy of light gauge steel is also a disadvantage to people who have no knowledge of its reusability and recyclability. To calculate the embodied energy within construction components the World Steel Association uses the system expansion method of lifecycle assessment, which is the preferred approach of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14040 series of environmental standards. Although it is high in proportion to other MMC it is its ability of indefinite re-use and recycling without its qualities ever decreasing which differentiates it from all other methods of construction. Unlike traditional forms of construction light gauge steel benefits from low waste, adaptability, off site manufacture, re-usability, recyclability and resource efficiency making it one of the most sustainable building methods available within the UK. The buildings that can be produced by this method are light, open and very adaptable meaning old buildings would not have to be demolished when they are deemed unsuitable. The interiors would be simply rearranged to meet the end users requirements thus prolonging the life span of the building. Light gauge steel can and does exceed the requirements of todays low level building requirements and in conjunction with other methods of construction its benefits are also widened to medium and high rise buildings. However, a number of barriers will have to be overcome if light gauge steel is to become a prominent method of construction. Consumer confidence and the stigma of pre-fab buildings will have to be improved upon which can only be achieved by educating the consumer on the benefits of light gauge steel, including its whole life cycle properties. Finally financial aspects will have to be challenged including mortgage lenders and insurers who will essentially become a part of the education system. Their own education in the use of light gauge steel will enable them to encourage the use of and be involved in the progression of Modern Methods of Construction. Bibliography AMA Research Ltd, Current Practices and Future Potential in Modern Methods of Construction, waste and resources action programme. (2007) Barker K, Review of Housing Supply, Delivering Stability: Securing Our Future Housing Needs. Final Report and Recommendations, (2004), HM Treasury. BRE, Assessing the Sustainability of Prefabricated Construction Techniques: Building Research Establishment, (2003) BRE, Designing Quality Buildings, HIS BRE Press, (2007) CABE. Design and Modern Methods of Construction: Commission for the Built Environment, (2004) Communities and Local Government, Code for Sustainable Homes, Technical Guide, Department for Communities and Local Government, (2009) Corus BCSA. Sustainable Steel Construction, Building a sustainable future, (date unknown) Corus. Start Building With Fnished Rooms, Modular Building System, (2006). Currie D M, The use of Light- Gauge Cold Formed Steelwork in Construction, developments in research and design, Bre report, IHS BRE Press, (1989) Davison B Owens G, Steel Designers Manual, Blackwell publishing, Sixth Edition, The Steel Construction Institute, (2003) Dye A et al, Environmental Construction Handbook, RIBA, (2008) GRUBB P J et al, Light Steel Framing in Residential Construction, SCI Publication P301, (date unknown) GVA Grimley, Cities, Commerce Carbon: The Role of Property, (2009) Koones, S. (2006), Steel Frames Enter the Mainstream, Free Press, Smart Home Owner, May/June 2006. ODPM, Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, (2003) Perkins M Z, The Utilization of Light Gauge Steel In Residetial Construction In The State Of Utah, Thesis, (2009) Ross Keith et al, A Guide to Modern Methods of Construction, NHBC Foundation, HIS BRE Press, (2006) ROSS Keith, Modern Methods of House Construction. Building Research Establishment, (2005) Sir John Egan. Rethinking Construction, Report of the Construction Task Force, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (1998) Sir John Egan, Egan Review of Skills for Sustainable Communities: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, (2004) SmartLIFE Lessons Learned, (2008), HIS BRE Press. BRE Report BR500 Smith R A, et al, The Construction Industry Mass Balance: resource use, wastes and emissions, Viridis Report VR4 (Revised), 2003, ISSN 1478-0143 Steel Construction Sector Sustainability Committee. Sustainable Steel Construction Building a Better Future. (2001) The Steel Construction Institute, Handbook of Structural Steelwork, 4th Edition, The British Constructional Steelwork Association Limited, (2007) TRADA, Manual for the Design of Timber Building Structures to EuroCode 5, (2007) Modern Methods of Construction, Evolution or Revolution? BURA, (2005) Unknown author, http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ (2009), Her Majestys Treasury, accessed 9th December 2009. Unknown author, http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/public/ (2009), HMSO, accessed 9th December 2009 Unknown author, http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/, (2009), accessed 3rd December 2009 Unknown Author, http://www.hexaport.com/ (2009), Hexaport International, accessed 7th December 2009 Unknown author, http://www.bre.co.uk/ (2000 2009), The Building Research Establishment Trust, accessed 9th December 2009 Unknown author, http://www.azobuild.com/ (2009), AZoM.com Pty Ltd, accessed 8th December 2009

Sustainability Issues In Civil Engineering Environmental Sciences Essay

Sustainability Issues In Civil Engineering Environmental Sciences Essay Sustainability is the prevention or reduction of the effect of environmental issues for humans to live a sustainable life and as part of the effort is to return human use of natural resources to a sustainable limit at which it can be replenished. The fact that sustainability issues affect the ways in which project are been chosen, planed, designed or implemented does not mean human life should be stagnant, rather, according to Mahri (2001), environmental issues needs to be put into consideration as a principal means of achieving sustainable development, also sustainable development enhances the quality of life This report shall put lights on a critical evaluation on current academic thinking as regards how sustainability issues can affect the way civil engineering projects are chosen, planned, designed and implemented. CHOSEN PROJECTS AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES Civil Engineering is the construction of systems that aim to improve life in different ways (Tavares, 1999). These are engineering field that brought about bridges, dams, roads, buildings, fabrications, etc. and these constructions have either a direct or indirect ways of polluting the environment during their construction processes. Like in the construction/fabrication of buoys, piles, vessels, where blasting and painting are carried out on-site, also hammering activities on-site, excavation and foundation works, transportation of raw materials, radiography (X-ray). All these processes affect the environment not alone but human lives such s waste generation requiring land storage, alteration of soil, emissions of substances into the atmosphere (e.g. grits and sand blasting operations) and water. However, according to Gangolelles et al., (2008), environment has been considered as among the project performance in construction organisations which environmental management system (EMS) h as been implemented to improve environmental performance. Constructions A sustainability issue of civil engineering structures has been a problem thatà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s been ongoing for the construction industry and society (Samir E.C., 2009). The construction industry in the UK is under increasing legal and commercial pressure to become more sustainable (Ian Holton, Jacqui Glass, Andrew, D.F. Price, 2010). Roome Cited in Ian Holton, Jacqui Glass, Andrew, D.F. Price, (2010), and it states that managing sustainability aim is for a strategic development and changes in organizations. Acording to Smith (1991) cited in Yip (2000), the construction industry is accountable for 50% of Co2 emitted worldwide through the utilization of fossil fuel which results to a quarter of green house gases. UK contributes 55% of Co2 to the total gas emitted (Ghanbari Parsa and Akhavan Farshchi, 1996). Also, occupants of buildings contribute to Co2 emission this is due to the heating and cooling systems. By estimate it has been observed that 78% of UK houses us e natural gas for heating of their buildings while few uses electricity (Lowe 2004). According to Olgyay and Herdt, (2004), three-quarter of this energy is obtained from fossil fuels. Most countries are not sustainable as far as fossil fuel management is concerned (V.S. Ediger et al., 2007) Oil and Gas Industries The oil and gas industries like the Upstream and Down-stream sector cause water, noise and air pollution. They bring about negative effects such as damage to agriculture, landscape and forestry, contamination of water or seas and all these effects bring human and organisms to an unsustainable life. According to Akeredolu F.A. and Sonibare J.A (2004), Flaring is a universal means of discarding flammable waste gases in the upstream oil, gas, downstream refining and chemical processing industries and flare is an open-air flame that is exposed to the weather elements, particularly winds. Flaring of associated gas from oil exploration has a number of consequences on the environment. (Elisha J.D., Leonard S.B and Tano D.A., 2008). Nigeria tops the list of ten countries responsible for 75% of gas flaring emissions in the world. According to World bank cited in Elisha J.D., Leonard S.B and Tano D.A., (2008), Nigeria flares 16% of the total associated gas which is the highest amount by any co untry in the world. This has affected the growth and development of crops especially cassava plant in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and made food very expensive in that part, this has also result in conflicts between local community, Government and oil companies, which have made companies relocate back to some other countries like Angola. Construction The constructions of bridges, roads and highway cause air, noise and water pollution because some techniques used during construction like blasting, have been found to affect human health and could also lead to destruction of property within the area of construction. (Ozer, 2008). By and large, construction projects diminish land in form of landfill waste and space aquired by the project. Previous studies have shown possibilities of construction waste contributing to more than half of UKà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s landfill waste (Ferguson et al., 1995 cited in Faniran and Caban, 1998). Related studies have also shown the following percentages of construction waste in landfills: 19% in Germany (Brooks et al., 1994 cited Faniran and Caban, 1998), 26% in Netherlands (Lanting, 1993 cited Faniran and Caban, 1998) and 13% à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 15% in Finland (Heino, 1994 cited Faniran and Caban, 1998). PROJECT PLANNING AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES After the hurdle of project selection and its sustainability issues, then next is project planning. Environmental management plan, contingency plans and equipment that is to be used to carryout a specific work on all construction contract should be specified, in order to have a friendly environment.(Pun et al., 2001). A project is said to be unique when it has a proper budget in place and realistic delivery time. It has been described by Coventry et al., (2001 cited in Dainty and Brooke, 2004) that studies have shown that construction wastes are associated to design changes. Also, inadequate funds and timing of project finish date tends to encourage wasting and destruction of materials, thus generating waste on construction site which could also be a hazard to human life. Adequate control measure should be in place on material control, so that during material order, the required quantity needed should be ordered and ensure its delivered as at when due, this will reduce the long storage and improper handling of materials and condole waste generation on site (Dainty and Brooke, 2004). Equipments and operations that generate noise pollution should be well controlled and noise monitoring should also be introduced. There are measures which exist in some countries; most of them which are governmental form of laws, to control noise generated industrial operations. This form of law is to regulate the usage of machineries with high noise level to operate at a favorable time (Yip, 2000). Also reduction of personnel at workplace exposure limit should be a perfect way to reduce the impact of noise on human. PROJECT DESIGN AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES Building and Transportation Infrastructure Designs Buildings should be approached with a system and process which will apply and integrate essential values into building performance. Thus, construction projects should best be determined at the design and planning stage (Leaman et al., 2001; Mohsini, 1989 cited in Pheng et al., 2008). Future impacts on environment and habitants should be put into consideration when designing buildings. Moreover, things like energy consumption which in future has effect on vision, acoustics and air quality and lead to health issues and other unsustainable issues that might even lead to low productivity at work place when absenteeism has become rampant. General lightening and improper citing of openings in buildings, environments where contaminant-producing machines are cited close to occupants brings low quality air and poor vision from the lightening (Pheng et al., 2008). Analysis during the last 7 years on environmental impact on residence carried out by Adalberth et al., cited in Oscar ortiz, France sc castells and Guido sonnemann, (2009), on Life Circle Assessment, shows that the factors with the greatest environmental impact was electricity which occurs when its on use. Studies have shown that buildings designed and constructed with insulation on both roof and help enormously to reduce heat loss, hence carbon dioxide emissions are reduced. It was confirmed by Shorrock and Utley (2003 cited in Lowe, 2007) that there was a 40% reduction of heat loss in UK buildings in 2001 as an outcome of roof insulation. Sustainability of Construction Materials and Designs Sustainability of Civil Engineering structures has been an ongoing issue in the construction sector and the society in whole. Materials used for construction also have sustainable issues with the way construction projects are designed, most of the materials use up energy when in the manufacturing stage or transporting materials to site. Materials like cement, steel and concrete, aluminium require much energy during their manufacturing and transportation phase (Morel et al., 2000; Pearlmutter et al., 2007). However, the durability of materials should also be considered in the design phase, according to Samir E. Chidiac, (2009), described the durability of concrete in particular to depend on the qualities of material, design, construction and condition its been subjected to during and after its manufacture. Therefore, in selecting construction materials, lifespan of the material should be highly considered because a good combination material having a high lifespan makes projects last long and brings its maintenance and demolition rate low. As described by Morel et al., (2007), stones masonry and concrete buildings have lifespan of 200 and 100 years respectively. A Life Cycle Assessment done on steel bridges by Widman (1998) revealed a high emission of carbon dioxide due to steel and cement production. The changing of roads to railways, efficient use of coke and coal in steel production and the use of bioà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬fuels by vehicles is thus suggested. PROJECT IMPLIMENTATION AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES Implementation is a phase in projects where all planned activities is brought into play. However, material loss in building industry is always seen as normal, and according to McGrath and Anderson, (2000) cited in Dainty and Brooke, (2004), wastage rate in site construction is from 10% to 15%. According to Hore, et al.,(1997) cited in Ajayi, et al., (2008), for every 100 houses built there is enough waste material to build another 10 houses. Similarly Akinpelu (2007) cited in Ajayi, (2008), which is of the view that on most capital projects resources from which waste is generated, account for more than 60% of their production costs. Most construction waste are drain into landfills which increases the burden on landfill and operation, also result in soil and water pollution which are source of environmental hazards. Proper and effective way of curtailing this is to ensure a construction waste management is implemented and possibly a landfill tax imposed also. The reduction and recycling of waste yields to increase in lifetime landfills and exploitation of natural resources use in material manufacture (Ajayi, et al., 2008). CONCLUSION After thorough analysis on how sustainability issues affect project, it was observed that civil engineering projects do more harm by making human leave unsustainable lives and deplete the environment. Much work had been done on civil construction projects and emphasis has been more on the design stage because it describes what the project would look in future.

voodoo Essays -- essays research papers fc

Could Voodoo be nothing but evil, black magic, and the work of the devil? Is voodoo really an evil religion that sacrifices humans as well as animals to the demonic Gods? When I first did my paper on Voodoo, the first thing that came to my mind was how Hollywood portrayed Voodoo. When people see something on television or at the movies, they believe it to be reality. Undoubtedly, misconceptions will occur, and unless people are shown evidence against the delusions, it will be taken as fact. I think Voodoo religion is as acceptable as Christianity or any other religion. Voodoo has been tainted from the true principals and understanding. Voodoo has been shown on screen as evil, black magic, and the work of the devil, rather than as a faith, and most people see spells cast on voodoo dolls like Chucky in Child’s Play, who goes around killing people because he is possessed (Child’s Play 1988). Is Voodoo a true, spiritual religion, and if so, are people willing to tolerate it? In today’s society, religious tolerance of different groups of people or cultures is very important. By understanding and accepting the differences of real versus imaginary using Voodoo as the prime example, people will be able to see these groups as part of actual society and not just a fictitious magical and evil portrayal in entertainment such as Child’s Play, Trilogy of Terror, and Chloe-Love is Calling You. Hollywood’s portrayals of Voodoo in movies, thus invalid. Voodoo was founded in Haiti, back when the slaves were brought in from the African homelands. African and Christianity beliefs were easily merged because they are not all that different. Both religions are similar in ways of baptism, or ritual purification. Both believe one God created all people (Hintz 95). In place of God is a Supreme Being called Bondye. He is the head loa and is very powerful. Bondye gives individuals their own destinies. He is too busy to be involved in the personal everyday lives. This is why they believe in the spirits or Loa to whom they worship and make sacrifices (Brown 6). Just like other religions, Voodoo has it’s own principles, with it’s own set of rites. The Voodoo priest is the houngan. A priestess is a mambo. A houngan religious authority is much more informal then that of a Catholic priest (Hintz 97). A priest has to answer to the bishops and the people. He has a structural church, where as ... ...uisiana. Hintz, Martin. Haiti: Enchantment of the World. New York: Children’s Press, 1998. This book is about the different kinds of religions that are practiced in Haiti. Voodoo doctors in Haiti use plants and other items for treatment. â€Å"A spider web is placed over a cut to stop the bleeding.† (98). Murray, Alexander. Who’s Who In Mythology. New York: Bonanza Books, 1989 This book gives a description of the Greek and Roman deities and how they are represented. Neusener, Jacob. World Religions in America. Kentucky: Westminster/Johnknox Press,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1994. This book is about the diversity of religions on America. Among the different religions in America we can get a sense of understanding then and their uniqueness to their culture. Smith, Houston. World’s Religions. New York: Labyrinth Publishing, 1994. This book is about â€Å"values† (11). A true understanding of the world points directly to the true understanding of the religions in the world today. Tart, Charles. Body, Mind, Spirit. Virginia: Hampton Roads, 1997. This book is about the scientific findings of spirituality and the existence of the of a soul.I haven’t had time to read much of this book.

Impact of Mental Illness Essay -- essays research papers

Impact of Mental Illness Mental illness has the potential to impact every faucet of an individual’s life, as well as the lives of those close to them, including relationships (family and friends), vocational, financial, and behavioral tendencies. These effects differ between each individual due to the treatment approaches taken, the variety of diagnoses, and the intenseness of symptoms. At the age of seventeen Joe felt clueless when his usual good quality school and family life began to change due to a string of stressful experiences. Although his diagnosis was not made immediately, the symptoms of schizophrenia affected his daily life. He became delusional, began to withdrawal from friends, his senses were distorted and overall he was uncomfortable around people. Two categories were created to illustrate the impact on family members caring for an individual with a mental disorder. These are identified as ‘objective burden’ and ‘subjective burden’. An objective burden refers to such things as disruptions to family relationships, limitations in leisure and vocational activities, and financial difficulties. (Dore et al., 2001; Magliano et al., 1998). High rates in separation and divorce among relationships where a spouse has a mental illness is an example of an objective burden (Dore et al., 2001). Following three semesters in University, Joe’s symptoms of delusion came back leading him to temporarily drop out of school. This interruption in his educational experience also constitutes as an example of objective burden. Subjective burden describes the personal feelings and reactions experienced by family members (Dore et al., 2001; Magliano et al., 1998). These feelings may consist of being distressed, angry, grie f, loss from past to present situations, embarrassed, unhappy, and guilty if an individual feels they were the cause of the illness (Dore et al., 2001). Dianne’s father was diagnosed with schizophrenia twice and never followed through with treatment. His symptoms caused him to believe that his wife was ‘out to get him’ and he confided this situation to Dianne, who he later claimed was not his daughter due to an extramarital affair on her mothers behalf. During the time of his illness he abandoned his wife and soon after stopped communicating with Dianne as well. The turmoil experienced by the family sent Dianne’s mother into a depressed state, she i... ...ive burdens’ and ‘subjective burdens’ depending on disruptions in a persons life and the reactions towards them. The severity of a diagnosis, along with response to treatments and medications effect the extremities of the symptoms, in turn effecting the impact a mental illness will have on an individual and those around them. References Barlow, D. H. & Durand, V. M. (1995). Abnormal psychology. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Dore, G., & Romans, S.E. (2001). Impact of bipolar affective disorder on family and partners. Journal of Affective Disorders, 67, 147-158. Retrieved January 21, 2005, from http://www.sciencedirect.com Magliano, L., Fadden, G., Madianos, M., Caldas de Almeida, J.M., Held, T., Guarneri, M., Marasco, C., Tosini, P., Maj, M. (1998). Burden on the families of patients with schizophrenia: results of the BIOMED I study. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 33, 405-412. Retrieved January 21, 2005, from Academic Search Premier. MerckMedicus. (2000). Dorland’s Medical Dictionary – tardive dyskinesia. Retrieved January 22, 2005, from http://www.merckmedicus.com/pp/us/hcp/thcp_dorlands_content.jsp?pg=/ppdocs/us/common/dorlands/dorland/dmd-d-037.htm

Reaching Understanding through Non-Verbal Communication in Timothy Find

Reaching Understanding through Non-Verbal Communication in Timothy Findley’s â€Å"War† and â€Å"About Effie† The two stories â€Å"War† and â€Å"About Effie† from Timothy Findley’s Dinner Along the Amazon are both told by the same child narrator, Neil. In each of the stories Neil attempts to make sense of a mystery of the adult world. In â€Å"War† Neil tries to understand the adult world of war, and explain why it seems that his father has betrayed him, and in â€Å"About Effie† Neil tries to understand the mystery of Effie’s strange need to wait for a man in a thunderstorm. Neil reaches an understanding of each of these mysteries in a similar way: through observation of non-verbal clues from adults. However, Neil’s own attempts to communicate non-verbally through his behaviour are unsuccessful. Taken as a whole, these two stories show how very important non-verbal communication is in child-adult relationships. In â€Å"About Effie† Neil’s most significant impression of Effie is created when she looks at him. Neil tells how when he first meets the new maid, she looks at him with such meaning that it scares him: â€Å". . .the way you’ll know her is this: she’ll look at you as if she thought you were someone she was waiting for, and it will probably scare you. It did me† (82). Neil describes the first time he meets Effie in terms of the way they look at each other, saying â€Å"The first time I saw her, she saw me first† (82). Neil is shocked by this new maid, not only because she gives him such a profound look, but also because she bursts into tears upon seeing him. Neil tries to make sense of why Effie would become so emotional upon seeing him, and tries to discover more about this mysterious person for whom she is waiting... ...her captures both Neil’s naivete at the time and the sadness of his father’s war obligation. Through looking at this photograph Neil realizes and accepts that the incident was truly not his father’s fault. The non-verbal image contained in the photograph provides the key to Neil’s understanding. In â€Å"War† Neil’s attempts to communicate non-verbally through his behaviour are ineffective. However, in both stories Neil reaches understanding through powers of observation, even when the adults are unable to communicate through words. In reaching understanding, Neil takes a step towards adulthood himself. Through the process of looking at Effie’s smiles and looking at his father’s wounded face in the photograph, Neil is able to decode the mystery of their actions. Works Cited Findley, Timothy. Dinner Along the Amazon. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1996.

Portrait and Best-self Stories

We wish to acknowledge our collaborators, Brianna Barker Caza, Ph. D. , and Emily Heaphy, Ph. D. , for their contributions to our ongoing research on the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ (RBSEâ„ ¢). This research served as the inspiration and conceptual anchor for this exercise. We thank Jennifer Suesse for her collaboration on the Bringing My Reflected Best Self to Life action steps, which inspired Phase 2 in this edition of the exercise. We thank the Stephen M. Ross School of Business for its continued support of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship.We appreciate the questions and comments we have received from those who have completed and/or facilitated the RBSEâ„ ¢. Thank you for sharing how you have brought your best self to life! COPYRIGHT INFORMATION This copy is intended for single use only. Please do not copy or distribute. The Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ is available for sale as a PDF download at the website of the Center for Positive Organiza tional Scholarship, www. centerforpos. org. REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANEXECUTIVE BRIEF Born from empirical research from University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship, the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ (RBSEâ„ ¢) uses stories collected from people in all contexts of your life to help you understand and articulate who you are and how you contribute when you are at your best. With this new insight, you will feel immediately strengthened and connected to others, experience clarity about who you are at your best, and refine personal development goals to be your best self more often.The RBSEâ„ ¢ guides you step-by-step through the process of identifying potential respondents, making the request for feedback, creating your a priori best-self portrait, analyzing your reflected best-self stories, creating a new, reflected best-self portrait, and translating that portrait into proactive steps for living at your best.  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ OVERVIEW All of us can recall our own extraordinary moments, those moments when we felt that our best self was brought to light, affirmed by others, and put into practice in the world.These memories are seared into our minds as moments or situations in which we have felt alive, true to our deepest selves, and pursuing our full potential as human beings. Over time, we collect these experiences into a â€Å"portrait† of who we are and what we do when we are at our personal best. This â€Å"best-self portrait† is a resource we call on to build confidence, to help us make decisions, to be courageous, to prepare and see possibilities for the future, to face challenges, and so much more.We can strengthen our own best-self portraits with insights reflected back to us from significant others in our lives. Our friends, colleagues, and family members have dif ferent perspectives, and can offer unique and valuable insights into the ways we add value and make positive contributions. Research shows that the difference between a weakness-based self portrait and a strong best-self portrait is closely correlated to the difference between normal and extraordinary leadership.A popular assumption of personal development exercises and programs is that a person’s area of weakness is that person’s greatest area of opportunity (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Proponents of a strengths-based orientation argue that the deficit model may diminish people’s chances of making their greatest contributions, which is performing at their best, or achieving an integrated sense of who one is at one’s best.A strengths-based approach to personal development assumes that progress towards excellence is not a function of improving on weaknesses, but is a function of building on strengths. As you’ll see in the last step of this exercise, the RBSEâ„ ¢ takes a nuanced approach to developing understanding of both your strengths and weaknesses. CHANGES TO THIS EDITION The 2011 version of the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ has been updated to reflect advancements in research and years of feedback from users and facilitators of the exercise. Some of the important updates were to: Highlight unique attributes of the RBSEâ„ ¢, such as the use of stories, an emphasis on strengths exclusively, and solicitation of respondents from all contexts of the participant’s life †¢ Instruct participants to write personal best-self stories to consider with the reflected best-self stories †¢ Provide more instruction on the analysis of best-self stories individually and in aggregate †¢ Incorporate action-planning activities into the RBSEâ„ ¢ to help participants identify developmental goals that relate to the best self †¢ Combine the best of the original Reflected Best Self Exercise: Assig nment and Instructions to Participants and the Bringing My Reflected Best Self to Life booklet previously published separately †¢ Honor wisdom gained by facilitators and users over the years since first publication REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TABLE OF CONTENTSParticipant Instructions †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 Phase 1: Creating the Reflected Best-Self Portrait Step 1: Identify Potential Respondents†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 1, 2 Step 2: Request Reflected Best-Self Stories †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2, 3 Step 3: Write Your Own Best-Self Stories †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3, 4 Step 4: Analyze All Best-Self Stories†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4, 5, 6 Step 5: Compose the Reflected Best-Self Portrait†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Phase 2: Bringing the Reflected Best Self to LifeStep 1: Analyze Context, List Enablers and Blockers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7, 8, 9 Step 2: Create an Action Plan †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 9, 10 Author Information†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 11 History and Basis in Research†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 About the Center for POS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ PARTICIPANT INSTRUCTIONS Two phases comprise the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ (RBSEâ„ ¢).In Phase 1, you will create your reflected best-self portrait. In Phase 2, you will create a personal development action plan inspired by new insight into you at your best. (Conte nt previously found in the Bringing My Reflected Best Self to Life workbook. ) After each step in either phase you will see how our sample participant, Shawn, approached the step and a â€Å"Your Turn† icon ( ) with suggestions for how you can approach the step yourself. For some steps we also discuss other options to augment the exercise. Phase 1 | Creating the Reflected Best-Self Portrait Step 1: Identify Potential Respondents Thoughtfully select 15-20 people whom you will ask to write stories about you at your best. Why 15 – 20?Over time, researchers of the RBSEâ„ ¢ have found that identifying 15-20 potential respondents from whom you wish to solicit best-self stories should help surface a sufficient number of stories. Realize that due to time and other constraints, not everyone will be able to respond. Ideally, you will receive at least 30 stories, or three stories from 10 respondents, of you at your best. This number has provided past RBSEâ„ ¢ participants w ith sufficient data in which patterns across those stories can be found. How should I create this list of potential respondents? Choose people who have seen you at your best and people who will give you their honest opinion.Research shows that the RBSEâ„ ¢ is most effective when your respondents come from a mix of colleagues (former or current), superiors or subordinates, friends (old or recent), family members, customers, and anyone who has had extended contact with you. Know that past participants have found that their respondents have been quite willing, even eager, to assist with this exercise. (And past participants have been happy to reciprocate the favor! ) TABLE 1: SAMPLE LIST OF POTENTIAL RESPONDENTS PAGE 1 /// REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN YOUR TURN: Review the lists of contacts in your email account, address book, or social networking sites to refresh your memory.When you create a list of potential respondents , double-check to make sure a cross-section of people from your spheres of influence is represented. Shawn used a spreadsheet to organize the list. Step 2: Request Reflected Best-Self Stories Compose a story request (see example request below) and email it to the 15-20 potential respondents you identified in Step 1. NOTE: There are many ways to solicit and gather these stories. The below example is written for an individual user who is soliciting and compiling best-self stories as a class assignment. If your professor or program administrator is soliciting and compiling stories on your behalf, please use the customized instructions that they provide for contacting potential respondents.Shawn’s Sample Email Request for Stories Dear [name], I hope this message finds you well! I am writing to request your help with a class assignment. I am taking a course on leadership development as part of my MBA program. I would be grateful for your help with one of the required exercises for the course, the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ (RBSEâ„ ¢). The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at University of Michigan created the RBSEâ„ ¢ to help individuals expand their understanding of who they are and what they do when they are at their best. The RBSEâ„ ¢ is a unique story-, strength-, and contribution-based approach to feedback-seeking and analysis.A former RBSE participant said of the process, â€Å"Besides feeling closer to my friends and peers for their positive views of me, it was very interesting to note the different impact that I seem to have made on each of them. The specifics mentioned by them allowed me to see some of the mechanisms by which I influence and have had an impact on people. † I am asking people who know me well to provide me with three stories of when I was at my best in their eyes. What was my positive contribution in each story? Additional instructions and examples can be found below. Please e-mail your responses to me by [insert date]. Thank you very much for your cooperation. I will keep all responses anonymous and will be sure to tell you what I learn after the exercise.Kind Regards, Shawn ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS This will require you to think about your interactions with me and to identify those times when I was at my best in your eyes. In writing, please be sure to provide details so I can understand the context, what happened, and what my positive contribution was. Best-self stories often capture things that people say or do in critical times or everyday routines that make a difference. These stories are  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ /// PAGE 2 often unacknowledged publicly. Best-self stories may describe someone’s approach to people, challenges, tasks, or even a work environment. I have included some examples of what these stories could look like. Please use this only as a guide. STORY EXAMPLES 1.From work colleague: You have the ability to get people to work together and give all they have to a task. For example, I think of the time that we were working on the Alpha project. We were getting behind and the stress was building. We started to close down and get very focused on just meeting our deadline. You noticed that we were not doing our best work and stopped the group to rethink our approach. You asked whether we wanted to just satisfy the requirements or whether we wanted to really do good and important work. You reminded us of what we were capable of doing and how each of us could contribute to a better outcome. No one else in that room would have thought to do that.As a result, we did meet the deadline and created a result we all feel proud of. 2. From a friend: You have capacity to persist in the face of adversity. For example, I think of the time that we were helping Lila empty her flooded basement. Her family lives far away and she was impossibly short-handed. Instead of getting overwhe lmed with her, you became more focused than I have ever seen anyone get. I think you went 24 hours without sleep to help her remove the water. I was amazed that you could maintain a positive attitude and consistently helpful orientation to Lila under those conditions. 3. From a boss: You are great at building relationships critical to project success.For example, I think of the time that: We were working for a clothing company committed to using organically grown cotton, and to having fair labor practices. You were the liaison with the various agencies and individuals critical to sourcing the organic cotton, and to creating the worker-owned sewing cooperatives here and in Central America. Despite resistance, you crafted and co-created a vision for how the business could work to meet these radically different goals. You easily navigated cultural differences and built strong relationships that thrive to this day. If you want to learn more about the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢, please visit http://www. centerforpos. org YOUR TURN: Feel free to copy and edit Shawn’s letter to suit your situation and personal style.Consider the options for disseminating this request—hard copy letter, email, online form or survey—while keeping in mind instructions from your facilitator, speed of delivery and response, ease of compilation, and so on. Step 3: Write Your Own Best-Self Stories While you are awaiting your stories from respondents, we ask you to engage in deeper personal reflection about times when you believe you were at your best. You will analyze your own best-self stories, and the analysis will be part of your final reflected best-self portrait. Write your own best-self stories Think about three times in your life when you were at your best. Allow yourself to think of stories from all PAGE 3 /// REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN contexts and time periods. For three of these memories, write the story of what happened.In the story you could describe the context, the role you played, the actions you took, the characteristics you displayed, the results, and the reasons behind your actions. The examples and explanation in the sample letter in Step 2 can be helpful also. Sample Best-Self Story I feel I was at my best helping my organization create and pursue a new vision. We had been in existence for ten years and had tried and learned so many things along the way. I believed in the organization’s mission but wanted to move us in a new direction to expand our impact. I reflected on what was possible and crafted a vision of our team at our best. I presented the vision to my team and was delighted to incorporate their ideas into mine, thus creating something entirely new in a way that united the team.YOUR TURN: Pretend you received the story request you sent in Step 2. Reflect about times when you were, and normally are, at your best and capture the stories that exemplify that time in the same space, document, or file that will eventually house the stories you receive from respondents. Step 4: Analyze All Best-Self Stories Collect and aggregate your stories and the stories from respondents. Read and reflect on each story Read each of your stories carefully. In a table like the one below, note key insights into who you are and what you do when you are at your best. You’ll have an opportunity to analyze the context of the story. Please focus on your actions, contributions, attitudes, etc.WARNING: Reading these stories can stir up a great deal of (positive) emotions for you. It is normal to find yourself surprised by how people saw you positively. We recommend you find a quiet time and space where you can be free from interruptions and you can reflect on what you are learning. NOTE: We have analyzed the stories provided in the line sample email in Step 2 as an example below. TABLE 2: SAMPLE INDIVIDUAL STORY REFLECTION  © 2003, 2011 RE GENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ /// PAGE 4 YOUR TURN: Collect the stories you receive in a spreadsheet or other document, using the column headings shown in the example for the analysis.OPTIONAL STEP: Have a trusted group member or friend read your personal and reflected best-self stories to see if they come up with different themes or interpretations for each of the stories. Analyze the stories in aggregate After you have thought deeply about each of the stories, look for patterns and themes that emerge from considering the stories and analysis together. These patterns or themes will help you write declarative statements about you at your best. These declarative statements will be represent anchoring â€Å"truths† about you at your best and can later be woven into your reflected best-self portrait. PATTERNS: Recurring behaviors, contributions, etc. , across all of the stories and analysis.If you are unsure about how to find patterns, t ry looking for verbs, adjectives, and nouns that you see repeated in the stories or in your analysis of each story. For example, repeated verbs could lend insight into some of your best skills and strengths, and repeated adjectives may lend insight into some of your values and aptitudes, your approaches to problem solving, and the nature of your relationships. THEMES: Underlying truths about your values and beliefs and the essence of you at your best, inferred from the collection of stories and analysis. Identify themes and patterns and list several examples from your stories that exemplify that theme.NOTE: You may also find stories that exemplify seemingly opposite characteristics. If this is the case, it may indicate adaptability or flexibility as a strength in particular contexts. For example, you might find stories where you find creative solutions, but also consistently comply with standards. TABLE 3: SAMPLE AGGREGATED STORY REFLECTION PAGE 5 /// REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ⠀ž ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN YOUR TURN: Use a spreadsheet or other document to create a table like the one in Table 3. OPTIONAL STEP: Have a trusted group member or friend read your personal and reflected best-self stories to see if they come up with different themes or interpretations.Step 5: Compose the Reflected Best-Self Portrait Create a portrait of your best-self that captures the wisdom in your personal and reflected best-self analysis. The portrait is meant to be an aggregated articulation of your personal and reflected best self which you can refer to and revise well into the future. It should synthesize the themes and declarations you identified in the tables above. However, be sure that the themes are authentic to you—not necessarily just things you do well, but that reflect your identity as a human being. Reflected best-self portraits are often represented in the form of written narratives (see below for an example).We have also seen participants employ a variety of media to create their reflected best-self portraits. For example, you might represent your portrait in a pictorial collage or montage, a video, a song, or a poem. You may even choose to use multiple formats. Shawn’s Sample Reflected Best-Self Portrait When I am at my best, I tend to be creative. I am enthusiastic about ideas and I craft bold visions. I am an innovative builder who perseveres in the pursuit of the new. I do not waste energy thinking about missed opportunities or past failures nor do I take on the negative energy of the insecure or worry about critics. I stay centered and focused on what is possible and important. I use frameworks to help me make sense of complex issues.I can see disparate ideas and integrate them through â€Å"yes and† thinking. So I make points others do not readily see. In doing so, I frame experiences in compelling and engaging ways. I paint visions and provide new ways for people to see. I use metaph ors and stories to do this. I find the stories in everyday experiences, and people find it easy to understand them. The new images that follow help people to take action. In helping others, I try to empathize with them and understand their needs. I give them my attention and energy but I allow them to be in charge. In exercising influence, I try to enroll people, not force them, in new directions. I invite people to work with me.I use dialog to help people surface their ideas, and then I weave them together with others until we create knowledge in real time. I ignore symptoms and focus on the deep causes. I help people and groups surface the darkest realities and the most painful conflicts. From these emergent tensions comes the energy for transformation. I liberate people from their fears and help them embrace new paths. In all of this I try to model the message of integrity, growth and transformation. YOUR TURN: Be sure to check with the instructor or facilitator of the RBSEâ„ ¢ to see if there is a preferred portrait format. Otherwise choose a medium that inspires you!As mentioned above, it could be a pictorial collage or montage, a video, a song, or a poem, or a combination of multiple formats. OPTIONAL STEP: Share your draft and final portraits with a trusted group member or friend and request feedback. He or she may be able to help you see your portrait differently.  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ /// PAGE 6 Phase 2 | Bringing the Reflected Best Self to Life As you complete your reflected best-self portrait and begin to talk about your best self with others, more questions may emerge. You may be wondering: †¢ How can I use this knowledge to enhance the quality of my work and my life? †¢ How might I incorporate my best self into my current job, relationships, and future career plans? Which situations will stimulate me to contribute maximally from a position of strength? Can those situa tions also help me to grow and develop? †¢ How can I manage my limitations? The steps below can help answer these questions. Step 1: Analyze Context, List Enablers and Blockers As you review your portrait, stories, themes, and patterns, look to identify contextual elements that either helped or hindered your ability to be your best. These enablers and blockers can be personal, relational, or situational. Personal enablers or blockers include the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that affect your ability to leverage your best self in a given context. How do your personal beliefs support or undermine your best self?EXAMPLE: An individual’s belief in his or her ability to contribute in class is correlated with how often he or she chooses to do so. Relational enablers and blockers are those relationships that either support or undermine your best self. EXAMPLE: Shawn has one sister who is a great sounding board for new ideas, but another sister who only points out what could go wrong. Situational enablers and blockers include any contextual features (e. g. , organizational standards, systems, and practices) that promote or inhibit leveraging your best self. Which situations bring out the best in you? Which situations inhibit your best self? EXAMPLE: Some people are at their best in group situations, rather than when working alone.Shawn is best working with others and rarely does well when isolated or working in an impersonal environment. On Weakness: A word of caution as you begin this analysis: remember that your weaknesses should be considered as blockers. While this exercise focuses on your strengths, neglecting any known Achilles’ heels could interfere with your ability to capitalize on your strengths. Robert Kaplan1 has identified two common distortions in behavior that are useful to consider here: overdoing strengths and underdoing strengths2. The table on the next page illustrates some other common â€Å"fatal flaws†: 1 2 Kaplan, S . (2002). Know your strengths. Harvard Business Review. 80(3), 20. From High Flyers by Morgan W. McCall, Jr. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998) page 29, figure 2-1. PAGE 7 /// REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TABLE 4: AVOID OVER-RELIANCE ON YOUR STRENGTHS 2 Sources of initial success†¦ Track Record Makes an impressive impact in functional or technical area > > †¦ can become fatal flaws. Seen as too narrow in a particular area Brilliance Seen as uncommonly bright > Intimidating; dismissive of other people’s ideas Commitment Sacrifice Extremely loyal to the organization > Defines life in terms of work; expects others to do the same Charm Capable of considerable charisma and warmth > Uses selectively to manipulate other people AmbitionDoes whatever is required to achieve success > Does what is necessary to achieve personal success, even at the expense of others in the organization In m any situations you are required to operate in your areas of weakness. If you do not perform your job’s tasks at a reasonable level of competence, failure will follow. Try managing around weaknesses instead: this may mean finding someone else to do the tasks you do poorly, putting in enough effort to develop your areas of weakness to an acceptable level of performance, and so on. Now is the time to analyze your data to see if they reveal any patterns or insights regarding either personal, relational, or situational factors.TABLE 5: SAMPLE IDENTIFICATION OF ENABLERS AND BLOCKERS  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ /// PAGE 8 YOUR TURN: Shawn listed some enablers and blockers in a spreadsheet with two columns. In the end, his list was actually much longer than this with many more enablers than blockers. It might be good to have two totally different documents for listing these to allow yourself room for more creativity. Step 2: Create an Action Plan As you navigate choices about what type of assignments to seek and what kind of skills to develop among a million other choices you face, it helps to work toward an action plan rooted in the insights about you at your best.Having a better understanding of your best self and the skills, characteristics, and opportunities that you need to make a positive impact increases the odds that you will make choices differently after this exercise. Your challenge, therefore, is to identify how to grow from where you are today. This is precisely the purpose of visioning and articulating an action plan. Visioning: Reflect on the choices you will have to make in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. Reflect on your best-self stories, your reflected best-self portrait, and your list of enablers and blockers as you prepare to write your action plan. What can you do to amplify the conditions or relationships that enable you to be your best at these decision points? How c an you work around or lessen the â€Å"blockers†?How can you make your best self even better? TABLE 6: SAMPLE REFLECTION PAGE 9 /// REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN YOUR TURN: Consider your key choices and the (short-term and long-term) actions that will help you be at your best. Write your thoughts down! Shawn chose a spreadsheet dividing the choices by immediacy. Shawn could do a chart like this for personal and community life, too. Action Planning: In this section, take look at your reflections and think about what you would need to do to bring them to life. The following questions might be helpful: †¢ How will you know if you are making progress with your best self goals? What evidence will you seek to document your progress? †¢ What resources will you need to continue to develop into your best self? †¢ What is your plan for accessing or building these resources? Sample Action Plan When I give perform ance evaluations I will know I am my best self when employees leave feeling energized about what is possible for their future with my team. I will help him/her see his/her best self and possibilities for managing weakness. We’ll come up with an action plan together. I will watch the employee’s behavior during our meeting but also in the weeks following the evaluation. I will meet with the employee regularly to listen to his/her story of progress.I will need to make time in my schedule to do this but it is time well-spent if we can keep the team energized. I will talk to my boss this week to enroll him in this plan, which will help me get the resources I need to execute it. YOUR TURN: Shawn chose to reflect the action plan in narrative form, create in a picture of goals the steps necessary to attain them. Choose the medium to do the same that works best for you—calendar reminders, apprise accountability partners, etc. OPTIONAL STEP: Have a trusted group member or friend read your reflections for this section. Encourage this person to help you see even more resources and hold you accountable to your action plan. Thank you for completing the Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢!We wish you the best!  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ /// PAGE 10 AUTHOR INFORMATION Robert E. Quinn Margaret Elliott Tracy Collegiate Professor in Business Administration; Professor of Management and Organizations, University of Michigan Robert E. Quinn is interested in the process of positive change. He seeks to understand processes that lead to increased individual and collective capacity. His recent books include Lift: Becoming a Positive Force in any Situation (Berrett-Koehler 2009) and Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture (Jossey-Bass 2006). He combines both a research and an applied orientation.He has 25 years of experience in working with executives on issues of organizational change. He teaches in both the MBA and Executive Education programs at the University of Michigan and is known for innovative instructional efforts. Jane E. Dutton Robert L. Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Business Administration and Psychology, University of Michigan Jane Dutton’s research on positive organizational scholarship began with an interest in compassion and the difference it makes for individuals and organizations. Her research has expanded to focus on the power of positive relationships at work, positive identities and meaning, job crafting, and resilience.Her recent books include Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations (Routledge 2009), Exploring Positive Relationships and Organizations (Lawrence Erlbaum 2007), and Positive Organizational Scholarship (BerrettKoehler 2003). Jane’s background in strategic management keeps her focused on how positive dynamics create sustainable capabilities in organizations. Gretchen Spreitzer Professor of Management and Or ganizations, University of Michigan Gretchen Spreitzer’s research focuses on employee empowerment and leadership development, particularly within a context of organizational change and decline. Her most recent work is looking at positive deviance and how organizations enable employees to thrive and become their best selves.Most recently she is involved in a large-scale project to validate a measure of thriving at work and better understand strategies employees can use to regulate their subjective and physiological energy. Her books include A Company of Leaders (Jossey-Bass 2001) and the Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship (Oxford, 2011), co-edited with Kim Cameron. Laura Morgan Roberts Professor of Psychology, Culture, and Organization Studies, Antioch University Laura Morgan Roberts’s research focuses on how to construct, sustain, and restore positive identities at work. She became interested in positive organizational scholarship through her doctor al dissertation research on social identity-based impression management among medical professionals.Her interests in the social construction of positive identities now include: the reflected best self, diversity, authenticity, strengths, leadership, and talent management. She is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship. PAGE 11 /// REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HISTORY AND BASIS IN RESEARCH The Reflected Best Self Exerciseâ„ ¢ (RBSEâ„ ¢) is the product of work by scholars at the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. It had its genesis in Bob Quinn’s belief in the benefit of colleagues sharing their thoughts on each other’s strengths. After seeing the power it had in executive education rograms, he joined Jane Dutton, Emily Heaphy, Laura Morgan Roberts, and Gretchen Spreitzer to form the Refl ected Best Self lab in 2002. The team conducted research on the concept, and began using it in classes, with great success. In 2003, Bob Quinn, Jane Dutton, and Gretchen Spreitzer wrote the Reflected Best Self Exercise: Assignment and Instructions to Participants, and they, along with Laura Morgan Roberts, created an accompanying teaching note. Since then, use of the RBSEâ„ ¢ has spread throughout the U. S. , and it is increasingly being used around the world. Universities, which have included it in their curricula include Darden School of Business, Harvard Business School, MIT, Stephen M.Ross School of Business, University of British Columbia, University of Southern California, and Washington University. It was also the subject of articles in the Harvard Business Review and the Academy of Management Review in 2005 and in the Journal of Positive Psychology in 2009. Key references include: Roberts, L. , Dutton, J. , Spreitzer, G. , Heaphy, E. , & Quinn, R. (2005). Composing the re flected best self portrait: Building pathways for becoming extraordinary in work organizations. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), 712-736. Roberts, L. , Spreitzer, G. , Dutton, J. , Quinn, R. , Heaphy, E. , & Barker, B. (2005). How to play to your strengths. Harvard Business Review, 83(1), 75-80. Spreitzer, G. , Stephens, J. P. , & Sweetman, D. (2009).The Reflected Best Self field experiment with adolescent leaders: exploring the psychological resources associated with feedback source and valence. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(5), 331-348. ABOUT THE CENTER FOR POS At the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS), we are devoted to energizing and transforming organizations through research on the theory and practice of positive organizing and leadership. We are passionately dedicated to the development and dissemination of POS research. Our activities include conducting research, writing on POS topics for academic and general books and periodicals, writing teach ing cases, and creating tools to help individuals improve their work life.We share POS principles in BBA, MBA, and Executive Education programs at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and in presentations at various academic institutions. Positive Links, our monthly speaker series, brings together scholars and practitioners to learn and discuss new POS research and POS links to practice. We are also passionate about building the community of researchers who study POS, and our biennial conference attracts scholars from around the world. We are all on a quest to reveal what is possible in organizations and for employees.  © 2003, 2011 REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REFLECTED BEST SELF EXERCISEâ„ ¢ /// PAGE 12 DESIGNED BY STEPHANIE HARDEN