Identify and Describe at Least Six Markwt Segments free essay sample

Customers are people who buy products and services from other people (usually companies of one sort or another). What customers think and feel about a company and/or its products is a key aspect of business success. Attitudes are shaped by experience of the product, the opinions of friends, direct dealings with the company, and the advertising and other representations of the company. Irrespective of whether a business customers are consumers or organisations, it is the job of marketers to understand the needs of their customers. In doing so they can develop goods or services which meet their needs more precisely than their competitors. The problem is that the process of buying a product is more complex than it might at first appear. Customers do not usually make purchases without thinking carefully about their requirements. Wherever there is choice, decisions are involved, and these may be influenced by constantly changing motives. We will write a custom essay sample on Identify and Describe at Least Six Markwt Segments or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The organisation that can understand why customers make decisions such as who buys, what they buy and how they buy will, by catering more closely for customer’s needs, become potentially more successful. Term buyer are ones who purchases goods or services; also called customer. A consumer makes purchases for his or her own use or purpose. A professional buyer makes bulk purchases on behalf of a retailer or wholesaler. A media buyer purchases media space or time for an advertiser. Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions Factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions are price, income, credit facilities, reference groups, and need satisfaction, (uPublish. info, 2005-2012). I believe a factor that is most important is the ‘needs satisfaction. ’ According to uPublish. nfo, 2005-2012, Maslow’s theory of motivation suggests that human beings seek to satisfy lower needs and then the higher needs: 1. Physiological needs- this includes the basic needs such as food and shelter 2. Safety- this include shelter and the needs to protect one from danger 3. Affection- these are the needs for one to belong to certain groups or family 4. Self-esteem- these are th e needs for recognition and dignity 5. Self-actualization- these are the needs to realize our full potential As we saw fuel prices rise, there was less traveling involved, thus this affected airline companies and vacation destinations. For the most part, people need to feel secure with basic needs, such as food, shelter, gas, etc. before making big purchasing decisions. A bad example of this would be the housing market. Many banks were lending money to people who could not afford to make the monthly payments. I do not know whether the people knew this or the bankers convinced them they could make the payments. Somewhere they must have felt ‘secure. ’ Some factors markets can be segmented are environment, demographic, and culture. For example, it does not snow where I live and it is about 100 degrees until winter. There have been some years where we are wearing flip-flips and shorts in December. It would be ridiculous to have ski wear or extreme winter clothing here. Another example is, Whole Foods Market. Market segment Segmentation refers to a process of bifurcating or dividing a large unit into various small units which have more or less similar or related characteristics. Market Segmentation  ¦Market segmentation is a marketing concept which divides the complete market set up into smaller subsets comprising of consumers with a similar taste, demand and preference. A market segment is a small unit within a large market comprising of like-minded individuals.  ¦One market segment is totally distinct from the other segment.  ¦A market segment comprises of individuals who think on the same lines and have similar interests.  ¦The individuals from the same segment respond in a similar way to the fluctuations in the market. Basis of Market Segmentation Gender The marketers divide the marke t into smaller segments based on gender. Both men and women have different interests and preferences, and thus the need for segmentation. Organizations need to have different marketing strategies for men which would obviously not work in case of females. A woman would not purchase a product meant for males and vice a versa. The segmentation of the market as per the gender is important in many industries like cosmetics, footwear, jewellery and apparel industries. Age Group Division on the basis of age group of the target audience is also one of the ways of market segmentation. The products and marketing strategies for teenagers would obviously be different than kids. Age group (0 10 years) Toys, Nappies, Baby Food, Prams Age Group (10 20 years) Toys, Apparels, Books, School Bags Age group (20 years and above) Cosmetics, Anti-Ageing Products, Magazines, apparels and so on Income Marketers divide the consumers into small segments as per their income. Individuals are classified into segments according to their monthly earnings. The three categories are: * High income Group * Mid Income Group * Low Income Group Stores catering to the higher income group would have different range of products and strategies as compared to stores which target the lower income group. Pantaloons, Carrefour, Shopper’s stop target the high income group as compared to Vishal Retail, Reliance Retail or Big bazaar who cater to the individuals belonging to the lower income segment. Marital Status Market segmentation can also be as per the marital status of the individuals. Travel agencies would not have similar holiday packages for bachelors and married couples. Occupation Office goers would have different needs as compared to school / college students. A beach house shirt or a funky T Shirt would have no takers in a Zodiac Store as it caters specifically to the professionals. Types of Market Segmentation  ¦Psychographic segmentation The basis of such segmentation is the lifestyle of the individuals. The individual’s attitude, interest, value help the marketers to classify them into small groups.  ¦Behaviouristic Segmentation The loyalties of the customers towards a particular brand help the marketers to classify them into smaller groups, each group comprising of individuals loyal towards a particular brand.  ¦Geographic Segmentation Geographic segmentation refers to the classification of market into various geographical areas. A marketer can’t have similar strategies for individuals living at different places. Nestle promotes Nescafe all through the year in cold states of the country as compared to places which have well defined summer and winter season. McDonald’s in India does not sell beef products as it is strictly against the religious beliefs of the countrymen, whereas McDonald’s in US freely sells and promotes beef products. Criteria for selecting Market Segments Measurable A segment should be measurable. It means you should be able to tell how many potential customers and how many businesses are out there in the segment. Accessible A segment should be accessible through channels of communication and distribution like: sales force, transportation, distributors, telecom, or internet. Durable Segment should not have frequent changes attribute in it. Substantial Make sure that size of your segment is large enough to warrant as a segment and large enough to be profitable Unique Needs Segments should be different in their response to different marketing efforts (Marketing Mix). Consumer and business markets cannot be segmented on the bases of same variables because of their inherent differences. Bases for Consumer Market Segmentation There are number of variables involved in consumer market segmentation, alone and in combination. These variables are:  ¦ Geographic variables  ¦ Demographic variables  ¦ Psychographic variables  ¦ Behavioural variables Geographic Segmentation In geographical segmentation, market is divided into different geographical units like:  ¦ Regions (by country, nation, state, neighbourhood)  ¦ Population Density (Urban, suburban, rural)  ¦ City size (Size of area, population size and growth rate)  ¦ Climate (Regions having similar climate pattern) A company, either serving a few or all geographic segments, needs to put attention on variability of geographic needs and wants. After segmenting consumer market on geographic bases, companies localize their marketing efforts (product, advertising, promotion and sales efforts). Demographic Segmentation In demographic segmentation, market is divided into small segments based on demographic variables like:  ¦ Age  ¦ Gender  ¦ Income  ¦ Occupation  ¦ Education  ¦ Social Class  ¦ Generation  ¦ Family size  ¦ Family life cycle  ¦ Home Ownership  ¦ Religion  ¦ Ethnic group/Race  ¦ Nationality Demographic factors are most important factors for segmenting the customers groups. Consumer needs, wants, usage rate these all depend upon demographic variables. So, considering demographic factors, while defining marketing strategy, is crucial. Psychographic Segmentation In Psychographic Segmentation, segments are defined on the basis of social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. Psychographic variables include:  ¦ Interests  ¦ Opinions  ¦ Personality  ¦ Self Image  ¦ Activities  ¦ Values  ¦ Attitudes A segment having demographically grouped consumers may have different psychographic characteristics. Behavioural Segmentation In this segmentation market is divided into segments based on consumer knowledge, attitude, use or response to product. Behavioural variables include:  ¦ Usage Rate  ¦ Product benefits  ¦ Brand Loyalty  ¦ Price Consciousness  ¦ Occasions (holidays like mother’s day, New Year and Eid)  ¦ User Status (First Time, Regular or Potential) Behavioural segmentation is considered most favourable segmentation tool as it uses those variables that are closely related to the product itself. Bases for Business Market Segmentation Business market can be segmented on the bases consumer market variables but because of many inherent differences like  ¦ Businesses are few but purchase in bulk  ¦ Evaluate in depth  ¦ Joint decisions are made Business market might be segmented on the bases of following variables:  ¦ Company Size: what company sizes should we serve?  ¦ Industry: Which industry to serve?  ¦ Purchasing approaches: Purchasing-function organization, Nature of existing relationships, purchase policies and criteria.  ¦ Product usage  ¦ Situational factors: seasonal trend, urgency: should serve companies needing quick order deliver, Order: focus on large orders or small. Geographic: Regional industrial growth rate, Customer concentration, and international macroeconomic factors. Explain why the different types of target consumers are chosen for different? As discussed earlier, the countrys consumers can be divided into so many different consumer groups. Based on which consumer groups they li e in, the consumers will have different needs. Also they will find different things that appeal to them. So before you launch a marketing campaign, you need to identify which set of people does your business cater to? What we mean by this is that you need to know who your customers are? What kind of life do they live? Who influences their buying decision? What kinds of media are they exposed to? How much purchasing power do they have? Etc. Knowing this information, you can target your marketing campaign to appeal especially to this group of customers you have chosen. Many a times, you may find that the product or service you are offering is consumed by not only one group of people. You may find that your product has many varied uses and hence has many varied possible consumers. Because of this you may want to choose more than one group of people as your target market. Your marketing strategy will fail if you try to be everything to everybody. When you make a marketing strategy you have to choose only one group of people and design your marketing strategy so that it appeals to the group you have selected. If you have many groups of people to choose from, choose only the group of people that you can best cater too and will offer you the best opportunities to grow. For example, if you are a small firm that makes women’s perfumes, your target market could be teenage girls, house wives, rich women who can fford to spend highly on perfumes and other such accessories etc. You could choose any one of these customer groups as your target market. Suppose you choose the rich women group then your marketing plan will be designed to appeal to rich women. The price of your perfume will be high. Your ads will be designed to appeal to rich women etc. These ads cannot simultaneously appeal to younger middle class women also. If you come up with a marketing strategy to appeal to more than one target group of customers, your strategy will not be effective. Your sales will be eaten away by specialist products or specialist marketing strategies. Just consider the case of shampoo. If someone is looking for a shampoo to deal with their dandruff problem, they are more likely to buy a shampoo which says Anti-dandruff shampoo than a shampoo that says, Hair shine, Hair strength and Anti-Dandruff shampoo. This point will be explained later again in more detail. The thing to understand is that the first step to making a marketing strategy is to select the â€Å"target market† for who the marketing campaign is to be designed.

Jury Duty essays

Jury Duty essays Jury system is a trial system that twelve citizens decide whether defendants are guilty or is unanimous. The jurors are all laypersons , as far as law is concerned. There is a reason verdict. If one jury is against the verdict,it is regarded as being room for doubt. are direct participation of American people, conventional judgement by people, fair stage resistance against polictics' and judical plot, and making of democratic consciousness. public prosecutor submit unlawful proof without trial permission, counsel makes an judge can't admit counsel's objection. Defendant is at a disadvantage. However, there is a jury system will check rotting of trial. Jurors need not explain reason of verdict to court. of investigation is dirty and viorate human rights, they can decide the defendant is can decide defendant is innocent even if a public prosecutor has disadvantageous proofs Juries who are representative of citizen make the decision value about proof. But, Jerome delegates of legal realists, criticized jury system in Law irresponsible juries' products of caprice and prejudice, for example, the defendant is a rich plaintiff is a poor boy and the counsel is an eloquent speaker. Such facts often decide who He characterizes that juries have tendency to like weak people and hate strong people. to have many problems. A sophisticated and rich person, a person of position and a busy not want to become a juror, because juries are bound for all trial period and therefore afford time for trial can become a juror, such as a housewife, an old person and an ...

Wants vs. Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wants vs. Needs - Essay Example The notion of wants and needs will be accorded in this instance in the context of desert survival with the semi-nomadic Ju/'hoansi Bushmen in the Kalahari desert. Contrary to the common views that desert survival is relatively easy, being stuck or to live in a desert for an indefinite period of time needs a lot of careful planning and effective strategy. Before deciding which things I need to bring with me, it is important to describe the prospective conditions. Half of the Kalahari Desert does not qualify as a desert because it â€Å"receives much more rainfall† (Encyclopaedia Britannica, â€Å"Kalahari Desert†), than the other half of the desert. While rains occur at a significantly large volume annually with â€Å"a mean precipitation of more than 20 [Student’s Last Name] 2 inches† (Encyclopaedia Britannica, â€Å"Kalahari Desert†), still the area is extremely dry and there are no surface water. By and large, the sand is red and hot. Edible veget ation and fruit-bearing trees are present in some parts of the desert but occur on a single season within a year. Semi-nomadic tribes like the Bushmen live in Kalahari Desert. Majority of the Bushmen, also known as â€Å"Shan†, have shelters of their own. Water is their main concern. In dry seasons, they use sip-well to extract water from the ground. While they are hunter-gatherers and plant eaters, they also consume a considerable amount of insects especially during hot seasons (Morris 57). They also have common household necessities like knives, cloaks, blankets, etc. Given these conditions, I have come up with a list of things, either a need or a want, which I will be bringing with me in a stay with the Bushmen for an indefinite period of time: (1) distilled water; (2) medical kit; (3) communication tools; (4) wool jacket; (5) alcohol. Living in a stern environment in so far as water is concerned is both difficult and life threatening. Thus, water is a dire need for someon e who will have to spend an indefinite period of time in the desert. To prevent diarrhoea or other related diseases, it is absolutely helpful to bring large volumes of distilled drinking water. Similarly, dangers are very common in the desert. Poisonous creatures like scorpions and snakes are lurking everywhere. It is especially important to anticipate the possibility of encountering these dangers, or even worse, getting bitten by these deadly creatures in order to carefully plan the travel. Hence, a medical kit should not be discounted as it helps preclude the possibility of injury or even death. Similarly, deserts like Kalahari have very erratic weather conditions. Temperatures are normally high during the day but go too low during the night. If the body is not used to recurrent weather changes, one may [Student’s Last Name] 3 not be able to survive; therefore, a wool jacket should be brought together with the traveller. This somehow neutralizes the body temperature, which may help in regulating the blood flow. As aforementioned, water is the prime concern in Kalahari; water is scarce in the area. Thus, it is rather inappropriate to employ the same hygienic practices in the desert; in other words, taking a bath is relatively not a possibility. Nevertheless, this should not serve as a

Combating compassion fatigue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Combating compassion fatigue - Assignment Example In its entirety, compassion fatigue occurs when the caregiver remains focused on processes of giving care to others that they fail to realize and provide care for themselves. Notably, most of the caregivers went into the practice with the hope of facilitating assistance to those in need. Additionally, the caregivers rely extensively on their compassionate capacity to manage the intensity of the work that comes with the profession. However, at times, the intensity of the various situations and life experiences that the caregivers encounter causes them vulnerable to the possibilities of suffering compassion fatigue. In its nature, compassion fatigue entails all the symptoms that the caregiver experience causing them to suffer from overwhelming exposure to physical and emotional stressors that leave them feeling traumatized as helpers (Ochberg & Gift from Within (Organization), 2012). The core causes of the cases of compassion fatigue; thus, entail the exposure to the stressors that cause their feelings and experiences face challenges in managing their actions. Notably, the encounter with the clients exposes the caregivers to various elements, which can sig nificantly affect the cause of personal development of the caregiver. For instance, in a case where the caregiver is engaging with clients who suffer fears, pain, extreme suffering, intrusive thoughts, nightmares and hyper-vigilance; they face aspects of cumulative stresses. The caregiver bares the suffering of such people, in addition, to that of their personal lives such as family and friend issues can result to significant buildup of extreme states of anxiety and preoccupation of such sufferings (Ochberg & Gift from Within (Organization), 2012). These developments constitute the causative agents of the situations where the caregivers suffer compassion fatigue. The caregivers suffer vicarious traumatization, which results in various aspects of emotional, physical and

Economics for the global manager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Economics for the global manager - Essay Example All benefits have a corresponding cost. The air we breathe, kept clean through laws costing millions of dollars to enforce, is not free. If your friend treats you for lunch, it is not free for you either, because the time you spent with your friend has an opportunity cost that may probably be more than the price of the lunch. 3. Why might the government want to influence transactions The government wants to influence transactions for many reasons. First, as in nations with free market economies, the government wants to make sure the market's rules are fair as part of its mandate to keep the people happy. One danger of a free market economy is explained by what is called asymmetric information: sellers may hide vital information from buyers that does not allow a fair price to be paid for a good (think second-hand car dealers). Otherwise, people cheated all the time will be aggravated and may move to change the government. Second, the government wants to control the supply and flow of money in the economy, because if they do not, there will be trouble in the form of inflation that can lead to social unrest (Solomon 1972 cited in Samuelson 1992, p. 712). Third, the government wants to influence transactions, like the Fed setting interest rates, Congress cutting budget deficits, or the Commerce Department ne gotiating trade agreements, because of the add-on effects that these actions (all are forms of market intervention) have on the nation's macroeconomic conditions. And fourth, government wants to ensure the country's patrimony is safe, for example to prevent some scam artist from selling the Statue of Liberty to foreigners. 4. What does the spillover or externality principle measure Use examples. This principle measures the costs or benefits of externalities, activities that affect others, without meaning to, either positively in the form of benefits not paid for or negatively in the form of inconvenience or costs for which they are not compensated. An example of the first (called external economies) is having a wife who is a doctor (you can consult her for "free" or, at least, you don't have to pay someone else to prescribe the right medicine). An example of the second (called external diseconomies) is driving recklessly on the freeway, which makes many other drivers nervous and increases their consumption of tranquilizers. 5. Currently our demand for gasoline is rising as our economy is expanding. However, we expect OPEC to keep the supply stable. Use a graph to show what your prediction is for the price of gasoline. USE A GRAPH INDICATING WHEN THE DEMAND INCREASES. I predict the price will increase, because as shown in the graph on Figure 1, with the supply constant and the demand increasing, the demand curve shifts to the right, moving the equilibrium point to the right, with the effect of increasing the equilibrium price, or the point at which the current supply curve intersects the increased demand curve, from p to p'. At price p, the gasoline market is in equilibrium, that is, supply equals demand. OPEC's move holds the supply curve steady, but an expanding/growing economy needs more fuel,

Static Code Analysis

Static Code Analysis Jim Kielt Table of Contents (Jump to) 1.0 Analysis 1.1 Cross-Site Scripting: 239 vulnerabilities detected. 1.2 File Manipulation: 9 vulnerabilities detected. 1.3 SQL Injection: 4 vulnerabilities detected. 2.0 Bibliography Table of Figures Figure 1 RIPS results output for bWAPP Figure 2 Line of code from xss_json.php vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting detected by RIPS Figure 3 Returned message from xss_json.php Figure 4 Returned message from xss_json.php with a script being passed to the application. Figure 5 Returned message from secured xss_json.php with the script being passed to the application. Figure 6 Vulnerable to File Manipulation code detected by RIPS Figure 7 Link to uploaded file on unrestricted_file_upload.php showing path to uploads Figure 8 Attempted upload of a PDF file on unrestricted_file_upload.php Figure 9 Vulnerable to SQL Injection code detected by RIPS Figure 10 Message from SQL Injection on sqli_3.php 1.0 Analysis The open source project for analysis for source code vulnerabilities is The Buggy Web App or bWAPP. This application is deliberately insecure to help security experts and students of IT security learn about the vulnerabilities that exist on the Internet today, how they can be exploited and how they can then be secured. bWapp is a PHP application that makes use of a MySQL database. [1] To analyse the source code for vulnerabilities, a static source code analysis tool is required. RIPS is such a tool which is written in PHP and designed to find vulnerabilities in PHP applications. It transforms the PHP source code that it is analysing; into a programme model that can detect potentially vulnerable functions or sensitive sinks that could then be tainted by user input that causes vulnerabilities. [2] So a potentially vulnerable function in source code that uses a source containing user input creates a vulnerability. bWAPP is available as a virtual machine called buzz-box where it can run as a stand-alone web server on a lab/testing network. To analyse the buzz-box server, the RIPS application files need to be extracted to the buzz-box server’s document root i.e. /var/www/rips/. Then on the host machine’s browser, navigate to http://localhost/rips to bring up the main scanning page. The path to the file or directory and/or subdirectories to be scanned is entered along with some available options before the scan button is clicked. The available options for scanning are as follows: Verbosity level:1. User tainted 2. User, file and database tainted 3. User, file and database tainted secured 4. User, file and database untainted secured 5. Debug mode Vulnerability type: All or one of the following: Server-side all or one of the following: Code Execution, Command Injection, Header Injection, File Disclosure, File Inclusion, File Manipulation, LDAP Injection, SQL Injection, XPath Injection, and other. Client-side all or one of the following: Cross-Site Scripting and HTTP Response Splitting Unserialized / POP For the bWAPP analysys, /var/www/bWAPP was entered as the path with the subdirectories option checked. Verbosity level option 2 (User, file and database tainted) and vulnerability type option All was selected. After clicking the scan button, 198 files were scanned in the web directory and after just under a minute, the statistical output in figure 1 was generated. According to RIPS, the scanner works by tokenizing and parsing all of the PHP source code in the file or directory structure and tranforms the code into a program model which detects sensitive sinks that can be tainted by user input, the source throughout execution of the program. At a glimpse it can be seen that Cross-Site Scripting has been heavely detected along with some of the other top vulnerablilties found in web apps today. Of the 198 files scanned, 4251 sensitive sinks (vulnerable functions) were found of which 293 could be tainted by user input and therefore considered vulnerabilities. The three chosen vulnerabilites for futher analysis are as follows: 1.1 Cross-Site Scripting:239 vulnerabilities detected. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an injection attack where malicious scripts can be passed through user input on to the web application to create undesired effects and generally performed through a client browser. An attacker can use his browser to use XSS to execute a malicious script to another browser user visiting the same page and have the script display unintended information or perform an unintended action. Because the user’s browser has no way to know if the script should be trusted or not, it has no option but to execture the script. The script or tainted data becomes embedded into the HTML output by the application and rendered by the users browser which can lead to website defacement, phishing or cookie stealing and session hijacking.[3] A potentially vulnerable function like echo() which prints data to the screen that uses a source like $_GET containing user input can create Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability, e.g: $title = $_GET[title]; echo ($title]); The above code would display whatever the user enters and could therefore be exploited. To demonstrate the Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability in bWAPP, the focus is on the bWAPP/xss_json.php file/page. Figure 2 shows the code snipit where user input was found and marked by the scanner (white dots) as a potential entry point for exploitation. Line 34 of the program places unchecked user input straight into a function which causes the vulnerablility. Figure 2 Line of code from xss_json.php vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting detected by RIPS This page was opened in a browser and was titled ‘XSS-Reflected(JSON)’, displaying one textfield and a search button looking for the name of a movie to be entered. To test how this page works, ‘Spiderman’ was entered using the ‘Marvel’ hint ans submitted. The resulting message appeared below the textfield based on the input (see figure 3). Figure 3 Returned message from xss_json.php So the user input was displayed back in the output message which could mean that the input was probably unchecked. To test how the texfield responded to a simple script to display cookie information in an alert box, the following was entered and submitted: alert(document.cookie) The message this time did not display the entered script statement but instead tried to execute the script and displayed lines of the code from the page (see figure 4): Figure 4 Returned message from xss_json.php with a script being passed to the application. This message reveals information about the application that should never be dispayed and raises a security concern. A hacker could learn further how to exploit the application using this information. Mitigation: We should never trust user data entered into an aplication which needs to be screened for the likes of scripting code. All entered data should be encoded before being embedded into the output. HTML encoding converts untrusted user input into a safe format that can be used as output instead of executing as code in the browser e.g Converts ‘’ to ‘amp’. For PHP applications, HTML entity encoding is done via the htmlspecialchars() function which convert all special characters to HTML entities.[4] To encode any double or single quotation marks that could be interpreted by the application as code, the ENT_QUOTES parameter is used to prevent any injections and defining the correct charset prevents any special characters being used in the input e.g UTF-8 ASCII compatible multi-byte 8-bit Unicode. Line 34 shows the vulnerable code which was updated to incorporate the mitigation to make it secure. Vulnerable code: $title = $_GET[title]; Secure code: $title = htmlspecialchars ($_GET[title], ENT_QUOTES, utf-8); Once the code was secured, the same script code was entered and submitted and this time, the message showed the script statement in the message but this time treated it as a string and did not attempt to execute it (see figure 5): Figure 5 Returned message from secured xss_json.php with the script being passed to the application. 1.2 File Manipulation:9 vulnerabilities detected. File Manipulation can occur with Full Path Disclosure vulnerabilities where an attacker can see the path of a file in the url of a webapp, e.g. /var/www/htdocs/file. This gives the attacker a partial knowldege of how the application is structured or how the underlying operating system is arranged in order to mount different kinds of attacks. [5] Knowing the location of a particular file, the attacker could access and manipulate it by adding malicious code to compromise the webapp server or even upload an attack tool to that location. A potentially vulnerable function like move_uploaded_file() that uses a source like $_FILES directly from user input (upload) can create File Manipulation, e.g. move_uploaded_file($_FILES[file][tmp_name], images/ . $_FILES[file][name]); To demonstrate File Manipulation in bWAPP, the bWAPP/unrestricted_file_upload.php page was examined. Figure 6 shows the vulnerable code where unchecked user input (the selected file for upload) is used by the application. Figure 6 Vulnerable to File Manipulation code detected by RIPS When the page was opened in the broswer, a ‘Browse’ and ‘Upload’ button were displayed where an image file could be uploaded to the server. A test image file was uploaded and the resulting message returned the link to where the file is stored on the server. The link was followed to a directory called ‘images’in the bWAPP directory. Navigating to the images directory brought up a list of all files in the that directory (see figure 7). A PDF file was then selected and successfully uploaded so no file type check was in place. Effectively these files could be manipulated as described above or malicious files uploaded and executed like a webscript that take control of the server. Figure 7 Link to uploaded file on unrestricted_file_upload.php showing path to uploads Mitigation: Sensitive information like file locations should not be visable to the user and any path or file names displayed should be encoded to prevent leakage of this information. This could be achieved by changing the path and filename to a format that the server understands like a hashing function. The move_uploaded_file function should have the file checked that the files being uploaded are image files before being uploaded to the ‘images’ directory. Line 34 shows the vulnerable code which uploads any file to the ‘images’ directly without being firstly checked. The preg_match() function can be used to check for particular file extensions, in this case images file types, in a new $filename variable. [6] A file check statement was added to the vulnerable code that checks for the file type and will now only execute the original code as long as the file has the correct extension using an if statement. Line 166 uses the $file_error variable to determine if the upload is successful or not which determines the output, so $file_error is firslty set to an unsuccessful attempt message by default which is cleared if the correct file extension executes. Vulnerable code: move_uploaded_file($_FILES[file][tmp_name], images/ . $_FILES[file][name]); Secure code: $filename = $_FILES[file][name]; $file_error = Not an image file, try again; if(preg_match(/.(gif|png|jpg)$/, $filename)) { move_uploaded_file($_FILES[file][tmp_name], images/ . $_FILES[file][name]); $file_error = ; } Once the code was secure, another PDF file was browsed to and the ‘Upload’ button clicked and this time because the file is now firstly checked for file type and because pdf in not in the array of allowable files, the upload function does not execute (see figure 8): Figure 8 Attempted upload of a PDF file on unrestricted_file_upload.php 1.3 SQL Injection:4 vulnerabilities detected. SQL Injection attacks happen when SQL queries are successfully injected through user input data into the application that can reveal information about the database to allow for further attacks where the database can be modified by the insertion, updating and deletion of data. [7] The user input is crafted in such a way that it is interpreted by the application as SQL commands allowing the attacker contol over the database in even the operating system itself. A potentially vulnerable function like mysql_query() that uses a source like $_POST containing user input can create SQL Injection e.g $login = $_POST[login]; $password = $_POST[password]; $sql = SELECT * FROM heroes WHERE login = . $login . AND password = . $password . ; $recordset = mysql_query($sql, $link); To demonstrate the SQL Injection in bWAPP, the bWAPP/ sqli_3.php page was examined. Figure 9 shows the vulnerable code where unchecked user input is used by the application. Figure 9 Vulnerable to SQL Injection code detected by RIPS When this webpage is loaded, it shows a login screen for ‘superhero’ credentials requesting a login and password. A basic test for web applications for SQL Injection is the entering of the following command in place for the username and/or password: or 1=1 The single quote is interpreted by the web application as a special character in SQL which allows for the additional condition to the SQL command 1=1 which is of course always true and the double hyphen is intrepreted by the web application as a comment which closes off the query. When the or 1=1 statement is entered into the login and password fields, a welcome note is displayed (see figure 10): Figure 10 Message from SQL Injection on sqli_3.php This shows that this web page is vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks which uses unchecked user input directly by the application which could be exploited in compromising the server. Mitigation: The most successful defence against SQL injections is to never use user input directly in the application and to use parameterized queries (prepared statements) instead — which is supported by most languages — and to avoid using dynamic SQL queries or SQL queries with string concatenation. For PHP the mysql_real_escape_string() function can be used to escape special characters in a string for use in an SQL statement. Lines 137 and 137 of the code takes in the user inputs which are executed in the SQL statement in line 140 which is the vulnerable code really is. By implementing the mysql_real_escape_string() function into the code it will escape any special characters. [8] Vulnerable code: $sql = SELECT * FROM heroes WHERE login = . $login . AND password = . $password . ; Secure code: $sql = SELECT * FROM heroes WHERE login = . mysql_real_escape_string($login) . AND password = . mysql_real_escape_string($password) . ; Once the code was secured, the or 1=1 statement was entered again into the login and password fields and this time instead of getting the previous message as above, the invalid message displayed (see figure 11) Figure 11 Message after attempted SQL injection on secured sqli_3.php 2.0 Bibliography [1] itsecgames. 2015. itsecgames. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.itsecgames.com/. [Accessed 19 February 2015]. [2] RIPS free PHP security scanner using static code analysis. 2015. RIPS free PHP security scanner using static code analysis. [ONLINE] Available at: http://rips-scanner.sourceforge.net/. [Accessed 19 February 2015]. [3] Cross-site Scripting (XSS) OWASP. 2015. Cross-site Scripting (XSS) OWASP. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/XSS. [Accessed 19 February 2015]. [4] PHP: htmlspecialchars Manual . 2015. PHP: htmlspecialchars Manual . [ONLINE] Available at: http://php.net/manual/en/function.htmlspecialchars.php. [Accessed 25 February 2015]. [5] Full Path Disclosure OWASP. 2015. Full Path Disclosure OWASP. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Full_Path_Disclosure. [Accessed 02 March 2015]. [6] PHP: preg_match Manual . 2015. PHP: preg_match Manual . [ONLINE] Available at: http://php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php. [Accessed 25 February 2015]. [7] SQL Injection OWASP. 2015. SQL Injection OWASP. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/SQL_Injection. [Accessed 19 February 2015]. [8] PHP: mysql_real_escape_string Manual . 2015. PHP: mysql_real_escape_string Manual . [ONLINE] Available at: http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-real-escape-string.php. [Accessed 25 March 2015].

Five Proofs That God Exists Essays -- thomas aquinas, summa theologica

Instinctually, humans know that there is a greater power in the universe. However, there are a few who doubt such instinct, citing that logically we cannot prove such an existence. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, wrote of five proofs for the existence of God. The Summa Theologica deals with pure concepts; these proofs rely on the world of experience - what one can see around themselves. In these proofs, God will logically be proven to exist through reason, despite the refutes against them. St. Thomas’s five proofs rely on the causality of God. Causality, in simple terms, is the fact that you cannot make something greater from lesser parts; the more perfect does not come from the less perfect. In order for something to exist, there must be something greater to have caused it to exist. This means that you cannot trace back causes infinitely - there must be a first, uncaused cause. Therefore, there must be something that caused everything. This we call God. One of the first things that must be said, is that God does not exist. At least, he does not exist as a physical thing. God is not something among all the other things in this world, like a tree, building, or rock. God does not exist in that sense. Instead, according to St. Thomas, God is existence. The first way St. Thomas argues for the existence of God is with the Argument from Motion. The Argument from Motion consists of five main points. The first states that our senses prove that some things are in motion. For St. Thomas, motion didn’t just mean movement as with a car moving down the road from point A to point B or any other thing physically moving from one place to another. St. Thomas takes the Aristotelian sense of the word, which he defined as... ...potentiality to be. For example, a cat cannot give birth to a dog. Simply because it does not biologically have the potential to do it. In the same way, an object cannot suddenly become what it does not have the potential to be. On the other hand, what caused God? If everything didn’t exist, than what caused God to exist? Nothing created God, He has always existed There can only be one being that can be uncaused. If there were more than one uncaused being, then beings would have potential. They would be striving to be what the other uncaused being is. This counteracts what an uncaused being is. It’s impossible because it would make an uncaused cause no longer be a being that is pure act. The being or beings would potentially be striving to be more than it or the other is. Works Cited Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. New York: Benziger Bros., 194748.

Learning Organizations Essay

In the 1990, Peter Senge published a book called The Fifth Discipline that created a flurry of change within management thinking, or at least that is what people say has happened as they avidly quote him. In the September/October 1999 issue of the Journal of Business Strategy, he was named a â€Å"Strategist of the Century†; one of 24 men and women who have â€Å"had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today. † (Smith 2001) In recent book reviews on amazon. com he is still lauded and his work touches the international business community as evidenced by reviews from UAE and India: (The emphasis within the reviews has been added by the author) Amazon. com Peter Senge, founder of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, experienced an epiphany while meditating one morning back in the fall of 1987. That was the day he first saw the possibilities of a â€Å"learning organization† that used â€Å"systems thinking† as the primary tenet of a revolutionary management philosophy. He advanced the concept into this primer, originally released in 1990, written for those interested in integrating his philosophy into their corporate culture. The Fifth Discipline has turned many readers into true believers; it remains the ideal introduction to Senge’s carefully integrated corporate framework, which is structured around â€Å"personal mastery,† â€Å"mental models,† â€Å"shared vision,† and â€Å"team learning. † Using ideas that originate in fields from science to spirituality, Senge explains why the learning organization matters, provides an unvanished summary of his management principals, offers some basic tools for practicing it, and shows what it’s like to operate under this system. The book’s concepts remain stimulating and relevant as ever. –Howard Rothman [pic]The Book that began a fad, January 26, 2003 | |Reviewer: ggxl from Bangalore, India |This book was written quite a long time ago (in 1990) and shifted the boundaries of management from concentrating on silos (marketing, HR, finance, production) to looking at organizations as open systems which interact with outside systems and put into motion forces that may not be easily understood using traditional systems to assessment. This ability of Systems Thinking Senge called the â€Å"Fifth Discipline†, the other four being: 1) Building Shared Vision 2) Mental models 3) Team Learning 4) Personal Mastery The field of Systems Thinking was developed in MIT under Prof Jay W. Forrester, but Senge gave it the ‘managerial’ flavour, cross-fertilising [sic] it with folk beliefs, spirituality and scientific thought from around the world. The belief being, once an organization has mastery of all the five disciplines, the organization can become ‘a learning organization’. This book, therefore triggered the craze and fad on part of organizations to become ‘learning organizations’ and the rise of the ‘knowledge economy’ was perfect timing for it. Now when the hoopla has settled, it is time again to revisit the true essence of Senge’s work and what he REALLY means. [pic]An inspiration†¦ , February 7, 2002 | |Reviewer: la-layl from Dubai, UAE | The Learning Organization remains one of the most talked-of management concepts in today’s business world, and nobody is as capable of explaining exactly what is a Learning Organization or what are the requirements for such an elusive concept than Peter Senge. Senge’s five disciplines are common concepts in many corporate offices. Often quoted in the management literature, he is considered by many to be the founder of the concept of the learning organization. Thirteen years later, the buzz has died down, and while Senge is still quoted, have the principles of the learning organization been implemented? Are organizations learning? A search of the term â€Å"learning organization† produces 133,000 hits on google. com, so people still embrace the concepts. This paper will endeavor to examine the literature on the learning organization in an attempt to define it and review some of the theories about it. It will also provide examples of the attempt to experiment with the concepts of the learning organization in two organizations. The first, an education department of a church undergoing transformation and the second, the training department of a large managed healthcare network provider. What does it take to become a learning organization? Are organizations by nature, learning entities? This paper is an attempt to answer these questions. Defining the Learning Organization Learning organization, organizational learning, organizational development, knowledge management†¦ these are key terms to differentiate at the beginning of the journey of this discovery process. These are my definitions: Organizational development is a defined methodology of looking at an organization from a holistic perspective with the intention of improving it. Organizational learning is what happens as an organization matures and improves; in essence, recognizing and changing the widget-making/serving process it is involved with to build a better widget maker/server. The learning organization is an organization that takes a step back to look at the big picture of how it benefits from new ideas and errors with the intention of continuous improvement. It is a deliberate process,  and one component of organizational development. Knowledge management is the storage and retrieval of the tacit and implicit information contained within an organization, whether it is procedural or content oriented. Knowledge management makes information that is within individuals available and externalizes it for the availability of the organization. Others define these differently and have written much about them. In the research literature, there does not appear to be a common, well accepted definition of these terms, though they are used frequently. The next section will explore the theories and definitions of others. From the Experts Peter Senge In the opening (page 3) of Senge’s flagship book, The Fifth Discipline, he defines the learning organization as â€Å"†¦organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. † (Senge 1990) As mentioned earlier, he defines the core of learning organization work based on five â€Å"learning disciplines†. To expand on them, in Senge’s words they are Personal Mastery Learning to expand our personal capacity to create the results we most desire, and creating an organizational environment which encourages all its members to develop themselves toward the goals and purposes they choose. Mental Models Reflecting upon, continually clarifying, and improving our internal pictures of the world, and seeing how they shape our actions and decisions. Shared Vision Building a sense of commitment in a group, by developing shared images of the future we seek to create, and the principles and guiding practices by which we hope to get there. Team Learning Transforming conversational and collective thinking skills, so that groups of people can reliably develop intelligence and ability greater than the sum of individual members’ talents. Systems Thinking A way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and the interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems. This discipline helps us to see how to change systems more effectively, and to act more in tune with the larger processes of the natural and economic world. (Senge, Roberts et al. 1994) Senge believes that â€Å"the learning organization exists primarily as a vision in our collective experience and imagination. † ( p5, 1994) He also believes that the impact of practices, principles and essences are highly influential. Practices are â€Å"what you do†. Principles are â€Å"guiding ideas and insights,† and essence is â€Å"the state of being those with high levels of mastery in the discipline. † (Senge, 1990, p 373) He looks at leaders as teachers, stewards and designers—quite a different metaphor than the traditional business practices of the time. It is the leaders who must pave the way to the creation of the learning organization, and they must also model the process. The authors of the companion work The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1994) see the learning organization as something that develops within a team, and is part of a â€Å"deep learning cycle† where team members develop new skills and abilities, which in turn create new awareness and sensibilities, which it turn creates new attitudes and beliefs. These new attitudes are the things that can change the deep beliefs and assumptions inherent in an organization and product transformation. Within the learning organization a sense of trust and safety are established and the members are willing to reveal uncertainties and make and acknowledge mistakes. This cycle provides a â€Å"domain of enduring change† within the organization. The architecture of a learning organization is considered a â€Å"domain of action† and consists of guiding ideas, innovations in infrastructure, and theory, methods and tools. The guiding ideas include the vision, values and purpose of the organization. They have philosophical depth and are seen as ongoing. They include the philosophy of the whole, the community nature of the self and the generative power of language. The development of tools and methods test these theories and cause them to be shaped and refined, and bring about the cyclical nature of this domain of action. These changes create infrastructure innovations and â€Å"enable people to develop capabilities like systems thinking and collaborative inquiry within the context of their jobs. † (1994, p34) Senge’s philosophy has been graphically illustrated using the domain of enduring change as a circle and the domain of action as a triangle (Figure 1). It is the interaction between the two that creates the dynamic of the learning organization. [pic] Figure 1 Adapted from Senge, et al, 1994, p42 It is difficult to assess the results in this type of a system because â€Å"deeper learning often does not produce tangible evidence for considerable time. † (p. 45) The core concepts contained in this model are: â€Å"At its essence, every organization is a product of how its members think and interact†¦Learning in organizations means the continuous testing of experience, and the transformation of that experience into knowledge—accessible to the whole organization, and relevant to its core purpose. † (p 48-49) The creation of this type of learning organization comes from establishing a group that learns new ways to work together: discussing priorities, working through divergent thinking, clarification, then convergent thinking to come to conclusions and implementation of the solution. The learning organization discovers how to best work with individual styles, allowing for reflection and other individual needs. It becomes a safe place to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from the results. The learning organization also works through the five disciplines of 1) building shared vision, 2) creating mental models 3) reinforcing team learning, 4) developing personal mastery and 5) understanding systems thinking. Much of what occurs is the creation of shared vocabulary to produce common understandings. Learning about systems thinking concepts of links, reinforcing and balancing loops helps to define problem issues. Following the publication of The Fifth Discipline, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (Senge, Roberts et al. 1994) and The Dance of Change (Senge, Kleiner et al. 1999) were released with exercises to assist in the organizational development process and support the changes it created. Both contain resources helpful in the implementation process. To summarize, Senge’s model is based on the interaction and the learning that goes on between individuals in an organization. It is an intangible process, but one that can be enhanced by taking certain measures to foster development. Peter Kline Peter Kline’s work on learning organizations, Ten Steps to a Learning Organization (Kline and Saunders 1998) focuses primarily on cultural change. He believes â€Å"to have a Learning Organization, you must begin by having an organization of learners, then show them how to function in such a way that the organization as a whole can learn. † (p8) He differentiates how individuals learn versus how organizations learn: The most obvious difference between the way organization and individuals learn is that individuals have memories, which are essential to learning, while organizations don’t†¦The main difference between a learning individual and a Learning Organization is in the information storage process. Individuals store their learning primarily in their memories, augmented by libraries, notes and other aids to memory. Organizations store it primarily in their cultures, with a secondary backup in documentation that is useful only if the culture is committed to making use of it†¦In simple terms, individuals learn through the activation and updating of their memories while organizations learn through change in the culture. (p24) Kline discusses the difficulties of creating change in the organization, realizing that people in general are resistant to change. He defines ten conditions to build a learning organization, allowing people to be able to cope with the ambiguity of the change process. These conditions are: 1) Assess the current learning culture to create a benchmark, Then have: 2) Positive expectation that dilemmas can be resolved. 3) Support for the learning process itself. 4) Willingness to delay closure long enough to arrive at significant Gestalts rather than forced and trivial ones. 5) Communication processes that bring people together to consider in a friendly and noncompetitive atmosphere many different perceptions, templates, habits of thought and possible solutions, from which the most useful may then be chosen. 6) A cultural habit that encourages exploring apparently meaningless ambiguities with the expectation that meaning can be found in them—as an expression of both a personal and organizational commitment to learning over the long haul. 7) The establishment of contexts within which meaning for new possibilities can be found as they emerge. 8) A set of modeling skills, strategies and techniques or mechanisms that allows people more easily to construct meaning out of apparent chaos. 9) A cultural understanding which is shared throughout management of the systemic interactions that will inevitably be present as complex Gestalts are formed. 10) An intuitive feeling for how complex interactions will be likely to occur. (p32) Kline’s third point is one of the key elements of creative thinking—learning to continue to look for solutions rather than just accepting the first one that fits as best. His fourth point is similar to Senge’s concept of the team learning to work together in new ways, and incorporates convergent and divergent thinking. Kline presents his change model as â€Å"The Great Game of Business,† with three elements: 1) know the rules, 2) keep score, and 3) have a stake in the action. (p 35) Knowing the rules is working to choose rules that emerge from self-organizing systems to select the ones that lead to the most productive behavior. Keeping score is about measurement, and having a stake in the action is about employee buy-in. He encourages that one of the rules must be the breaking down the cultural barriers between managers and workers. Rules should also include integrative learning, (the restoration of the natural learning of early life), strategic micromanagement tools for decision making, communication and problem solving, generally originating from the people who use them; and expanding the scoring system beyond financial reports. (p 38-39) Kline also acknowledges that the most valued asset of the organization is people, and the development of relationships between them if highly important so they can work together well. In the end of his book, Kline equates business to a theatre metaphor, by â€Å"getting the show on the road. † He speaks of improvisation, ensemble work, and creativity; then continues the metaphor making workers the actors and leaders the directors. He emphasizes the need for continuous improvement and awareness of what everyone is doing while excelling in one’s individual role as would occur in a theatrical production. He begins the process with an assessment of the culture from an institutional perspective: to learn what everyone thinks, then from an individual perspective: take responsibility for what you think and what you do. He stresses looking for fear, which can be disabling to an organization. Kline has created an assessment to look at the culture of the organization. It is designed to be filled out by the members of the organization, and discussed as a group to explore differences. The assessment may be scored by averaging the rating numbers for each question to provide an overall score of the conditions for creating a learning organization, or the individual scores may be entered in a matrix, which assigns the different questions to one of the ten steps of his later plan. Using the matrix, scores are obtained for each of the ten areas, providing a more specific idea of which areas the organization needs the most work in. In filling out the form within an organization, it is anticipated that different groups within the establishment will have different perceptions of the organization itself. He recommends creating an overall report for the organization and asking the members to voice agreement or disagreement with the results. He also encourages that at this stage, the ideal state of the organization is discussed to determine where it would like to be at the end of the process. A large portion of the learning comes from the discussions and the decisions for direction that follow afterwards. This is a similar pattern to DiBella’s model of assessment. After the assessment is completed, the organization is instructed to work through steps two through ten. Kline provides numerous activities that focus on a variety of thinking skills, working to change attitudes and behaviors of individuals. Learning to reframe things in a positive way by â€Å"looking in two directions at once: at the current reality and the positive outcome that can be developed from it† (p 70) is just one of the many ideas given for step two. He deals with learning styles, mind mapping, and teaches people how to listen to one another. He creates safe ways for people to take risks. Unlike some of the more theoretical books on Learning Organizations, Kline’s book contains practical steps for developing a group to become a Learning Organization. Working through the ten steps as a team would do remarkable things within the group as they learn to learn together. Chris Argyris/Donald Schon Argyris is best known for his concepts of single and double-loop learning. In a book written with Donald Schon (1974), they believe that organizations learn through individuals acting as agents. Organization learning is the detection and correction of error. Their key concepts revolve around single- and double-loop learning. Single-loop learning results in the organization continuing in the existing policies while remedying the situation at hand, while double-loop learning examines and modifies norms, policies and objectives as necessary. There are needs for both types of learning. Argyris’ model is much earlier than most of the other organizational learning literature, and he is revered as a founding father by others and like Senge, often quoted in discussions on the learning organization. As a side note, Argyris was one of Senge’s influential teachers: Despite having read much of his writing, I was unprepared for what I learned when I first saw Chris Argyris practice his approach in an informal workshop†¦ Ostensibly an academic presentation of Argyris’s methods, it quickly evolved into a powerful demonstration of what action science practitioners call ‘reflection in action’†¦. Within a matter of minutes, I watched the level of alertness and ‘presentness’ of the entire group rise ten notches – thanks not so much to Argyris’s personal charisma, but to his skilful practice of drawing out†¦ generalizations. As the afternoon moved on, all of us were led to see (sometimes for he first time in our lives) subtle patterns of reasoning which underlay our behaviour; and how those patterns continually got us into trouble. I had never had such a dramatic demonstration of own mental models in action†¦ But even more interesting, it became clear that, with proper training, I could become much more aware of my mental models and how they operated. This was exciting. (Senge 1990, p. 182-183) In the December 2002 issue of Reflections, the Society of Organizational Learning Journal on Knowledge, Learning, and Change, Argyris’ article on Teaching Smart People How to Learn is reprinted as a â€Å"classic. † In this article, he references single- and double-loop learning, but discusses the need for â€Å"managers and employees [to] look inward. They need to reflect critically on their own behavior, identify the ways they often inadvertently contribute to the organization’s problems, and then change how they act. † He makes the observation that the individuals in leadership in an organization are not accustomed to failing, therefore they â€Å"have never learned to learn from failure†¦they become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the ‘blame’ on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it the most. † He sees the learning from mistakes something that must become a â€Å"focus of organization learning† and part of the continuous improvement programs within an organization. He discusses how often individuals â€Å"turn the focus away from their own behavior to that of others [which] brings learning to a grinding halt. † This type of behavior creates what he calls the â€Å"doom loop† where people do not follow the theories they espouse, acting inconsistently. He calls what they do as behaviors that apply â€Å"theories-in-use. † This type of behavior without examination creates repetition without reflection, and doesn’t promote improvement. His first recommendation is to step back and examine what is occurring, and challenging it beginning with the uppermost strata of the organization. Argyris and Schon’s model involves governing variables, action strategies, and consequences. The governing values are the individual’s theories-in-use, and the action strategies are what keeps their behavior within the boundaries created by the theories-in-use. The resulting actions are the consequences. The interaction between these concepts is illustrated in Figure 2. [pic] Figure 2 from (Smith 2001) When the consequences of the action strategy used are what the person anticipated, the theory-in-use is confirmed because there is a match between intention and outcome. There also may be a mismatch between intention and outcome. Sometimes, however, the consequences may be unintended or not match, or work against the person’s governing values. This is where double-loop learning needs to be applied and processes and concepts revised. When only the action is corrected, Argyris refers to this as single-loop learning. (figure 3) [pic] Figure 3 (from Smith, 2001) Anthony DiBella DiBella defines organizational learning as â€Å"the capacity (or processes) within an organization to maintain or improve performance based on experience. This activity involves knowledge acquisition (the development or creation of skills, insights, relationships), knowledge sharing (the dissemination to others of what has been acquired by some), and knowledge utilization (integration of the learning so that it is assimilated, broadly available, and can also be generalized to new situations. )† (DiBella, Nevis et al. 1996) DiBella’s work in How Organizations Learn (DiBella and Nevis 1998), overviews the Learning Organization literature of that time, and classifies the writing into three categories: the normative, the developmental and the capability perspectives. In the normative perspective, the â€Å"learning organization presumes that learning as a collective activity only takes place under certain conditions or circumstances†¦The role of organizational leaders is to create the conditions essential for learning to take place† (DiBella 1995) Senge’s model fits this category. In the developmental perspective, the learning organization is a stage in the development of a maturing organization or in parallel, the development phase of the organization determines its learning styles and character. The third perspective, capability, identifies that organizations develop and learn as they mature or by strategic choice, and that â€Å"all organizations have embedded learning processes. † Rather than ascribing to perspectives one or two, DiBella and his colleagues believe that all organizations have learning capabilities. These seven areas are labeled â€Å"learning orientations† and each runs on a continuum of opposites. For example, the knowledge source may be internal or external. These seven orientations and their descriptors are: Seven Learning Orientations. |Orientation |Spectrum |Description | |Knowledge source |Internal/External |Where does the organization get information from? Primarily | | | |from the inside or outside world? | |Content-Process focus |Content/Process |Which is more important: the content of the information, or | | | |the process of doing it? | |Knowledge Reserve |Personal/Public |Where is information stored? Is it accessible to all, or in | | | |the heads of individuals? | |Dissemination Mode |Formal/Informal |How is information given out in the organization? Through | | | |informal conversations, or in official meetings or written | | | |communication? | |Learning Scope |Incremental/Transformative |When learning occurs, are the changes little by little or | | | |dramatic ones? | |Value-Chain Focus |Design-Make/Market-Deliver |Is the focus more on how something is created and made, or | | | |promoted to the customer? | |Learning Focus |Individual/Group |Is intentional learning geared toward individuals, or | | | |groups? | Figure 4 These orientations are facilitated by ten factors called Facilitating Factors. These factors enhance certain orientations, and increase the likelihood of the organization functioning as a learning organization. Facilitating Factors |Facilitating Factor |Description | |Scanning Imperative |Gathering of information on best practices and conditions outside of the organization | |Performance Gap |Shared perception in the organization between the current and desired performance | |Concern for Measurement |Desire to measure key factors and discussion about the statistics | |Organizational Curiosity |Interest in creative ideas and technology, with support for experimentation | |Climate of Openness |Sharing of lessons learned, open communication about all areas at all levels | |Continuous Education |Commitment to quality resources for learning | |Operational Variety |Valuing different methods; appreciation of diversity | |Multiple Advocates | New ideas can be advanced by anyone in the organization; multiple champions for learning exist | | |throughout | |Involved Leadership |Management is personally involved in the learning and perpetuation of the learning organization | |Systems Perspective |Recognition of interdependence among organizational units and groups; awareness of the time delay | | |between actions and their outcomes | Figure 5, adapted from DiBella In the analysis process utilizing DiBella’s methods, the organization determines its current status and desired status using the learning orientations and facilitating factors. There is an interrelationship between the ten facilitating factors and the seven orientations, and focusing on specific factors can help an organization become a better learning organization. In an article written with DiBella, Edwin Nevis calls learning â€Å"a systems-level phenomenon because it stays within the organization, even if individuals change†¦Organizations learn as they produce. Learning is as much a task as the production and delivery of goods and services. † (Nevis, DiBella et al. 1995) Nevis et al sees â€Å"three learning-related factors important to an organization’s success: 1. Well developed core competencies that serve as launch points for new products and services 2. An attitude that supports continuous improvement in the business’s value-added chain. 3. The ability to fundamentally renew or revitalize. † They see these factors as â€Å"some of the qualities of an effective learning organization that diligently pursues a constantly enhanced knowledge base. † There is also an assumption made about the learning process following three stages: knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization. There is the belief that all organizations are learning systems, that learning conforms to culture, there are stylistic variations between learning systems and that generic processes facilitate learning. The model supporting all this is comprised of the learning orientations and facilitating factors. Other perspectives Consultants online define the learning organization in similar ways. From the UK, David Skyrme (Farago and Skyrme 1995) quotes several other theorists on his website: â€Å"The essence of organisational learning is the organization’s ability to use the amazing mental capacity of all its members to create the kind of processes that will improve its own† (Nancy Dixon 1994) â€Å"A Learning Company is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms itself† (M. Pedler, J. Burgoyne and Tom Boydell, 1991) â€Å"Organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to learn together† (Peter Senge, 1990). Fargo and Skyrme use these thoughts to create their own definition: â€Å"Learning organizations are those that have in place systems, mechanisms and processes, that are used to continually enhance their capabilities and those who work with it or for it, to achieve sustainable objectives – for themselves and the communities in which they participate. † They speak of four elements that create learning organizations: learning culture, processes, tools and techniques and skills and motivation. They define these as: Learning Culture – an organizational climate that nurtures learning. There is a strong similarity with those characteristics associated with innovation. Processes – processes that encourage interaction across boundaries. These are infrastructure, development and management processes, as opposed to business operational processes (the typical focus of many BPR initiatives). Tools and Techniques – methods that aid individual and group learning, such as creativity and problem solving techniques. Skills and Motivation – to learn and adapt. They also define things that inhibit learning organizations: †¢ operational/fire fighting preoccupation – not creating time to sit back and think strategically †¢ too focused on systems and process (e. g. ISO9000) to exclusion of other factors (bureaucratic vs. thinking) †¢ reluctance to train (or invest in training), other than for obvious immediate needs †¢ too many hidden personal agendas. †¢ too top-down driven, overtight supervision = lack of real empowerment Fredrick Simon and Ketsara Rugchart define a learning organization as â€Å"one that is continually enhancing its ability to get the results it truly wants. † (Simon and Rugchart 2003) They see organizational learning as â€Å"facilitative of knowledge management by first aligning common vision reduces competitiveness†¦allowing for greater demand for the shared knowledge (the information retrieval side of the equation)†¦ The greatest learning takes place in failure, when things don’t go as expected†¦[sharing] leads to a willingness to be open and to risk vulnerability by sharing the learning from failure (the input side of the equation. ) †¦Organizational learning does not replace knowledge management tools, but can provide a substantial accelerator to the KM effort. † DaeYeon Cho looks at the connectio.

Mental Health Essays

Mental Health Essays Mental Health Paper Mental Health Paper Introduction In this essay, the author will discuss the mental health issues among the youths. The mental problems as it relate to the general health and also discuss the mental health promotions. The author will then discuss on how changes in lifestyle could improve mental health. Finally, it worth’s mentioning that there are some professional help out there for people experiencing mental problems. Mental illness can be defined as the experiencing of severe and distressing psychological symptoms to the extent that normal functioning is impaired, and one needed some form of help in order to recover, Anthony (1999). Some of the symptoms include anxiety, depressed mood, obsessional thinking, delusions and hallucinations. WHO described mental health as â€Å" a state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community†, WHO (2004). The understanding of mental health includes the awareness that mental health is broader than an absence of mental disorders, that poor mental health affects our ability to cope with and manage our lives, (Department of health and children 2006). This means that mental health and mental well-being are part of everyday life. In the area of mental health promotion, the national health promotion strategy states that† mental health is equally as important as physical health to the overall well-being of a person† and set out the strategic aim of promoting positive mental health and contributing to a reduction in the percentage of the population experiencing poor mental health. (The National health promotion Strategy, 2000-2005). Some of the strategies include; focusing on enhancement of well-being rather than illness, identifying the whole population as a target group. The author will present their argument in support of this statement, taking into account any relevant counter-arguments. As a student mental health nurse, to do otherwise would seriously affect their ability to care for patients of involuntary status or receiving coercive treatment, and create a potentially irresolvable ethical dilemma. Involuntary inpatient admission, and other forms of coercive treatment given to patients, is justified where the person is considered to be a risk to themselves or others. It is considered to be a paternalistic act of last resort where the person is seen as not possessing the competence to manage their own affairs, or where they present the possibility of harming others. Critics will argue that behaving in this matter undermines a persons’ autonomy. The problem with such highly principled statements is that they tend to overestimate the degree of autonomy available to people. Free will itself is, to a greater or lesser degree, a fantasy we indulge ourselves in. We, each of us, are a product of our environment and upbringing and our autonomy will always be limited as a consequence (Baggini and Fosl 2007). As paternalism towards children is justified due to their lack of autonomy, why not towards adults whose autonomy is limited as a result of acute mental illness? The author would agree with this assertion. Mill (2007) supported this, stating that such actions ultimately increase a persons’ autonomy and prevent any further decline. The wording of the statement, pitting needs versus needs, subscribes to the utilitarian school of thought in ethics, that of obtaining the greatest good for the greatest number. Subscribers to this school would argue that individual freedoms may be restricted if doing so protects a majority. Pure utilitarianism is problematic in that it could be used to justify gross breaches of individuals’ rights in pursuit of the â€Å"greater good†, lending weight to the slippery slope argument often espoused by critics. What constitutes an appropriate level of risk to justify coercive treatment? How great must the level of disturbance to others be? The author believes that utilitarianism has its’ place. The slippery slope argument would perhaps have some credence if such actions could be taken without justification, however in Ireland we have both the Mental Health Act (Department of Health and Children 2001) and the Mental Health Commission to safeguard service users’ rights and autonomy as far as is possible and to ensure that healthcare professionals are accountable for such actions. Also, use of such guidelines ensures that when coercive treatment is deemed necessary, it is not overt and must be justifiable (O’ Brien and Golding 2003). While it is our ethical duty to ensure that our service users receive justice, at times a sacrifice of justice may be required in order to ensure the greatest good for the community. It is thus important that all healthcare workers in the Mental Health setting foster a highly developed code of personal ethics in relation to such situations. We must also consider how this impacts on the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. Some would say that by limiting a persons’ liberty, mental health services are harming them. Perhaps the person would resolve their difficulties without needing to resort to such drastic measures? However, these steps are only taken in cases where the person is believed, following assessment under strict criteria, to be a risk to themselves or others and incapable of seeing to their affairs. Again, following consequentalist theory, the author believes that it is outcomes that truly matter (Dooley and McCarthy 2005). What of the suicidal person that kills themselves? The paranoid schizophrenic that kills their neighbour, or the manic individual that spends all their life savings in a week? While this happens in a very small percentage of cases, the author believes that involuntary admission and coercive treatment are justified if even one such event is prevented. Furthermore, we must consider the effects these events have on how mental illness is perceived by the wider community, and the damaging effects of the public stigma arising from them. While hospitalisation carries its’ own stigma, negative portrayals of a small number of incidents involving people diagnosed with mental illnesses by the media causes far more damage and can lead to people being ostracised by their community, damaging support networks that may otherwise help them in staying well. It is also the authors’ experience that in many cases, a persons’ community are unaware that they have been admitted for inpatient care, whether voluntary or involuntary. In conclusion, the author believes that they have stated why they believe coercive treatment may be justified at times to protect both patients and their communities. They have shown their belief that the existence and use of strict criteria for such treatment ensures that it is not overused or abused. They have shown that such treatment follows utilitarian principles, and stated their belief that it ultimately helps improve outcomes for patients in our care, and helps protect others from any consequences of actions the person may have taken. They have shown that they do not believe that coercive treatment necessarily compromises a patients’ right to be treated with beneficence and non-maleficence, because the outcome is arguably better than would have been the case without such intervention. Finally, this argument underscores the importance of maintaining and adhering to a strong ethical code. Given the freedom to practice we are permitted in Mental Health services, we owe both the public and our patients no less.

Free Essays on Mac Beth

Mac Beth Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. Shakespeare’s plays communicate a profound knowledge of the wellsprings of human behavior, revealed through portrayals of a wide variety of characters. His use of poetic and dramatic means to create a unified aesthetic effect out of a multiplicity of vocal expressions and actions is recognized as a singular achievement, and his use of poetry within his plays to express the deepest levels of human motivation in individual, social, and universal situations is considered one of the greatest accomplishments in literary history. The opening scene establishes a brooding sense of doom. Shakespeare uses a frightening spectacle to grip his audience. There is nothing perfunctory or boring about Act I that sets the mood of the play. We see a trio of howling, shrieking ugly hags gathered in a thunderstorm, cackling greedily over their evil plans. It is worthwhile to remember that the audience in Shakespeare’s time did believe in witches, and many witches were tried and executed. Even the skeptics, and there were some, were unsure in their in their disbelief. He primarily to show that for the duration of this play, ugliness, evil uses thus these witches, while only a part of Shakespeare’s spectacular opening scene, and power will be united to achieve chaos and murder. A central question is addressed by one of the hags to her sisters: â€Å"When shall we three meet again/ in thunder, lightning or in rain?† (1-2). The question concerns the concept of time. Shakespeare questions all that exists in this world and possible other worlds. The question of time is a key theme of the play, from the introductory 2question, quoted above, to Mac Beth’s despairing â€Å"to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow (v, v, 19) dirge, to Mac duff’s triumphant entry with Mac Beth’s severed head clutched firmly... Free Essays on Mac Beth Free Essays on Mac Beth Mac Beth Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. Shakespeare’s plays communicate a profound knowledge of the wellsprings of human behavior, revealed through portrayals of a wide variety of characters. His use of poetic and dramatic means to create a unified aesthetic effect out of a multiplicity of vocal expressions and actions is recognized as a singular achievement, and his use of poetry within his plays to express the deepest levels of human motivation in individual, social, and universal situations is considered one of the greatest accomplishments in literary history. The opening scene establishes a brooding sense of doom. Shakespeare uses a frightening spectacle to grip his audience. There is nothing perfunctory or boring about Act I that sets the mood of the play. We see a trio of howling, shrieking ugly hags gathered in a thunderstorm, cackling greedily over their evil plans. It is worthwhile to remember that the audience in Shakespeare’s time did believe in witches, and many witches were tried and executed. Even the skeptics, and there were some, were unsure in their in their disbelief. He primarily to show that for the duration of this play, ugliness, evil uses thus these witches, while only a part of Shakespeare’s spectacular opening scene, and power will be united to achieve chaos and murder. A central question is addressed by one of the hags to her sisters: â€Å"When shall we three meet again/ in thunder, lightning or in rain?† (1-2). The question concerns the concept of time. Shakespeare questions all that exists in this world and possible other worlds. The question of time is a key theme of the play, from the introductory 2question, quoted above, to Mac Beth’s despairing â€Å"to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow (v, v, 19) dirge, to Mac duff’s triumphant entry with Mac Beth’s severed head clutched firmly...

Obituary story Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Obituary story - Article Example My children always felt like she was their second mother- sometime their first (laughs). She never said no to anything or anyone that was thought was worthwhile. We are going to miss her very, very much.† Fletcher was an educated woman and majored in science, a field we know is dominated by men. She attended Midville high school and graduated in 1980. She later attended the University of West State. She did proceed to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984 and later on Master of Science degree in1986. Fletcher spent many years in managerial role in the Department of Dieticians at the University of West State Medical Center and worked in private practice as a diabetes-educator at Dialysis Clinical Inc. in South Medville. Fletcher was a Christian and a believer. Since she was 11 years old, attended the Methodist where she was a member of Little Springs during her childhood and later joining the adult choir in the same church she started as a young girl. All through her life, she was quite active in many projects, whose aim was to aid the less privileged in the society. That is the area she found great internal satisfaction. Interfaith Health Clinic, where she was a member of the junior league, was an important part of her charity work. It was an open opportunity for her to venture in as many charitable actions as possible. Other than her charity work, Fletcher worked in organizations aimed at improving the lifestyle of the community in terms of how food consumption. With her rich skills, ambitions and experience in nutrition, she is remembered of her contribution in diabetes education and diet adviser nationally, regionally and locally. Through such activities, she did aim to halt down the lifestyle diseases brought about by feeding practices. She was a patriot of her home area and, therefore, a longtime cast member of member of the Midville nativity pageant. In the light of

Related to Electronic Engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Related to Electronic Engineering - Essay Example QDF is used to identify critical customer attributes and to create a specific link between customer attributes and design parameters. Matrices are used to organize information to help marketers and design engineers answer three primary questions: What attributes are critical to our customers? What design parameters are important in driving those customer attributes? What should the design parameter targets be for the new design? For QDF process the organising framework is a planning tool called the â€Å"house of Working as a team, design engineers and marketers first establish critical customer attributes for the product. These attributes become the rows of the central matrix of the house of quality. The team may group attributes into broader categories in order to simplify planning and analysis (Wheelwright, 1992). The key benefits obtained by adopting QFD are given below. †¢ Reduced time to market †¢ Reduction in design changes †¢ Decreased design and manufac turing costs †¢ Improved quality †¢ Increased customer satisfaction