Young Latina Mothers

Latina Recently, the Latino population in the US has become the largest ethnic group. According to the Census data, the Latino population grew by 58% from 1990 to 2000, whereas the total population grew by 13% in the same period (Skogrand, 2005). The number is estimated to be much larger but due to their undocumented status many Latino people did not participate during the 2000 census. The term â€Å"Latino† includes a wide variety of immigrant subgroups that speak Spanish, and encompasses a number of groups from Central and South Americas, with migrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba being the largest, and â€Å"Latina† is the feminine form. Young Latino Mothers A research conducted by Berkowitz and Kahn (1995) titled, Sources of Support for Young Latina Mothers, highlighted the plight of young Latina mothers in the US and ways to address their problems. Due to high rates of immigration and fertility of young Latina women, which is twice compared to the rest of the US population, their numbers are growing rapidly. According Berkowitz and Kahn, many young mothers and their children are poor, and young mothers who raise their children independently bear the brunt of hardship compared to those who live with husbands or parents or other adults who are financially sound. However, neither getting married nor outside support to cushion the young mothers from poverty and other adverse affects. There is no single to pattern to describe Latina mothers as they are diverse; however, there are certain features each of the subgroups. Puerto Rican mothers are impoverished compared with other groups, remain single, live away from parents or relatives, and are welfare dependents. Cuban mothers are economically well off with low rates of welfare benefits. Central and South American mothers living patterns are similar to Anglos, though they are poorer to the Anglos. Young teenage mothers who raise the children on their own are found to be the most vulnerable. Teen mothers who live with their parents and relatives tend to remain in school and less likely to be poor. Married teen mothers are better off compared to single teen mothers who live with relatives or parents. However, married teen mothers are less likely to attend school than unmarried, resulting in lower education levels. Mothers who delayed their first births after the teen years had done well compared to parents who became teen mothers – they completed school and college. Social and cultural influences Acculturation and biculturalism, according to several researchers, influence the parenting style among young mothers. Acculturation is the process in which an individual acquires the skills required for life in a new environment. Hence, the impact of acculturation has altered traditional gender roles that resulted in women taking up employment, yet they fall into low income groups. Latinas who are less acculturated have traditional gender role beliefs, whereas more acculturated Latinas see more life choices (Latina Adolescent Health, 2007). Within the community, there are large cultural differences, however, there are commonalities within many Latino families. According to research the Latino families give importance to family, religion and gender roles. The importance of the family is the pervasive value in the Latino culture, extended family is essential. Both parenthood and partnerships are considered to be same as family affiliations are given importance. The main purpose of the marriage is to have children and the subsequent family life. Traditional roles play a critical role in reinforcing the gender roles: Machismo alludes to maleness or manliness and a man is expected to be physically strong, authority figure in the family who sustains the family. On the contrary, the role of the woman is complementary or Marianismo, who is self-sacrificing, religions and a homemaker. In Latino culture, motherhood for women is an important goal, apart from taking care of the elderly relatives and children. The importance of family and motherhood in the culture encourages young Latinas to become mothers during their teenage years. Due to high value for motherhood in Latino culture, young women do not see pregnancy negatively. Latino cultural traditions are found to be barriers to young women's ability to communicate openly with their partners. Some young women have babies with a hope that will bring attention from baby’s father, and later he will take up the responsibility of fatherhood; in Latino culture he is the sustainer of the family. They have the highest unmarried birthrate in the nation, over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one-and-a half times that of African-American women. Nearly half of the children of Latina mothers are born out of wedlock, and there is no sign lessening of the rate as there numbers are increasing rapidly. This is due to one of the traditional Hispanic values to have children and often. It is seen as a honorable thing for a young girl to have a baby, and it is difficult to persuade young single mothers to give up children for adoption. The tight-knit extended family assists unwed child rearing. Documenting fathers of illegitimate children is problematic as the impregnators of younger women are sometimes their uncles, boyfriend of the girl’s mother, older men who have a false notion that virgins are not capable of motherhood and who avoid sexually transmitted diseases.   Often, the mother’s family do not view see anything bad of these activities (Mac Donald, 2006). Although older men take advantage of younger women, the age difference between the mother and the father of an illegitimate is child is narrowing. An agency in California found that fathers as young as 13 to 14 years of age and it quite common to find an 18-year-old to have children with different girls, and boys feel getting a girl pregnant is peer approval thing. A large majority of fathers abandon their children and mothers, for a father may be already married or doing drugs or in prison. Though they know about the fathers’ whereabouts but do not know if they are working or in jail. The young women’s mothers are callous and overlook what is happening in their daughters’ lives, and the existing social milieu perpetuates the child-bearing activities. References Berkowitz, R. ; Kahn, J. (1995). Sources of support for young Latina mothers. Retrieved on June 19, 2007, from http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/cyp/xslatina.htm Latina Adolescent Health. (2007). Retrieved on June 19, 2007, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/iag/latina.htm Mac Donald, H. (2006). Hispanic Family Values? Hispanic trending. Retrieved on June 19, 2007, from http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2006/11/hispanic_family.html Skogrand, L. (2005). Understanding Latino families, implications for family education. Retrieved on June 19, 2007, from Utah State University, Extension Web site: http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FR_Family_2005-02.pdf ; ;

Jeffrey Dahmer’s Childhood and Capture Essay

â€Å"His behavior didn’t change. The object changed.† This is what psychologist at George Washington University, David Silber, stated when asked about the relation between Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood activities and his unspeakable crimes later on in life that traumatized civilians and Milwaukee’s finest law enforcement. The name â€Å"Jeffrey Dahmer† conjures images of his numerous brutal murders. However, as his violence was believed to be spurred by his childhood experiences, his court case and his capture involved some of the best, and worst, work done by the American justice system. As a young child, Jeffrey Dahmer had a considerably unusual childhood. In 1964, at the age of four, his father, Lionel Dahmer, noticed Jeffrey was developing an interest in the remains of small animals; while he was sweeping some out from underneath his house and placing them in a bucket, Jeff was thrilled by the sound they made (â€Å"Jeffrey Dahmer’s Childhood†). That same year, according to a â€Å"Twisted Minds† web page article, he underwent a double hernia operation, which left him vulnerable and scared for he did not understand what was going on. By age six, Jeff and his family moved to Doylestown, Ohio, where his younger brother, David, was born and, according to Radford University, his teachers began reporting him feeling neglected. Only two years later, his family moved to Bath Township, Ohio, where his father claimed he had been sexually abused by a neighborhood boy (â€Å"Dahmer’s Compulsions†). Such a traumatic experience as this most likely would follow him throughout the rest of his life. By age ten, his hobbies evolved into somewhat of an addiction. Jeff had begun collecting road kill, bleaching chicken bones, decapitating rodents, and even taught himself how to use acid to strip the meat of dead animals from their bones (â€Å"Childhood†). During his teenage life, those around Jeff began to notice some distressing changes occurring within him. According to Radford University, Jeff discovered alcohol at thirteen, and, by the time he was sixteen, he was sneaking scotch into his morning classes. He most likely took to alcohol because he felt unaccepted, as his peers began viewing him as desperate and lonely. His parents, Joyce and Lionel Dahmer, constantly quarreled and, just like any other teenager, he took their arguments to heart (â€Å"Childhood†). In 1978, the same year Jeff graduated high school, his parents divorced and his mother gained custody of Jeff’s younger brother, David (â€Å"Dahmer’s Compulsion†). Former neighbor Susan Lehr spoke on his attitude and personality when these events were occurring, stating that, â€Å"something devastating [was] going on in his life and there wasn’t anybody there to help him,† (â€Å"Cannibal†). This could have possibly been what sparked him to become the monster that the public know him as today. Jeff took his parents’ divorce extremely hard. According to Los Angeles Times, his mother and brother moved to Wisconsin while his father stayed at a motel, leaving him alone in his house, feeling abandoned and developing an intense fear of loneliness. While alone in his house, Jeff claimed his first victim, hitchhiker Steven Hicks (Newton 46). When asked about the incident thirteen years later, 31-year-old Dahmer told police that â€Å"[Hicks] wanted to leave and I didn’t want him to leave,† so, as a result, he killed him in order to keep him from doing so (â€Å"Cannibal†). Jeffrey Dahmer first came to authority’s attention in October 1981 when he was placed under police custody for public intoxication and disorderly manner at a Ramada Inn (Yusof). According to Newton’s serial killer encyclopedia, he was also arrested in 1982 for indecent exposure at the Wisconsin State Fair and again in 1986 for similar charges (47). At this point, his attraction to young individuals was becoming more and more noticeable. On September 26th, 1988, Dahmer was charged for sexually assaulting a thirteen-year-old Laotian boy at his Milwaukee apartment (Newton 47). During trial, Assistant District Attorney Gail Shelton urged to get Dahmer imprisoned for five to six years, saying that â€Å"it [was] absolutely crystal clear that the prognosis for treatment of Mr. Dahmer within the community [was] extremely bleak†¦ and just plain [was not] going to work.† However, Judge William D. Gardener refused to send him to prison where psychiatric help was not available, and, instead, sentenced him to a one-year work release program at the Franklin House of Corrections for the rehabilitation of sex offenders (Yusof). On May 16th, 1991, police were informed about a naked and bleeding boy, named Konerak Sinthasomphone (coincidentally the brother of the Laotian boy of 1988), stumbling through the Milwaukee streets that lead back to Dahmer’s apartment (Newton 47). According to Newton’s serial killer encyclopedia, Dahmer falsely told Officers John Balcerzak, Richard Porubcan, and Josheph Gabrish that Konerak was his nineteen-year-old lover who had drank a little too much which resulted in an argument between the two. After a bit of contemplation, the officers returned Konerak to Dahmer’s custody and considered it just a conflict between two homosexual lovers (Yusof). However, law enforcement had no idea that they would find one of the most gruesome scenes at that same location only two short months later. Tracey Edwards approached a Milwaukee police vehicle on July 22nd, 1991, hand-cuffed, drugged, and frightened, claiming to have escaped from Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment (Montaldo). Arriving at his apartment a few moments later, the calm demeaned Dahmer tried to convince the officers that it was only a misunderstanding between him and Edwards. The officers, almost believing him, just narrowly returned Tracey to Dahmer, but, spotting Polaroid photos of bodies in various states of dismemberment, the shocked officers placed him under arrest instead (â€Å"Cannibal†). According to The History Channel Website, authorities found a house of horrors within the walls of the one-bedroom apartment: two human heads in the freezer and refrigerator, a fifty-seven-gallon drum of human torsos, limbs, and other various parts decomposing in acid, evid ence of cannibalism, and much, much more. A sight that startled, sickened, and scarred those investigating it for the rest of their lives. Later, Police Chief Philip Arreola of the Milwaukee Police Department and Mayor John O. Norquist launched an internal investigation, firing officers Balcerzak and Gabrish for failing to perform their police duties properly (in the case of Konerak Sinthasomphone), keeping officer Porubcan under close observation (Yusof). Standing trial in early 1992, of the courtroom’s one hundred seats, thirty four of them were reserved for Dahmer’s victims’ mourning family members, twenty three seats for reporters, and the remaining forty three seats were open to the public while Dahmer was separated from the rest of the gallery by an eight-foot barrier, constructed out of bullet resistant glass and steel (Bardsley). It definitely was not the â€Å"normal† courtroom setting that most legal systems were accustomed to. Partaking in the legal drama was Judge Laurence C. Gram, Jr. , District Attorney Michael McGain, and defense lawyer Gerald Boyle who had defended Dahmer on prior occasions of his offenses (Bardsley). The Majority of the testimony was based on Dahmer’s one hundred and sixty-page confession where he acknowledged that he knew his actions were wrong, coming at a great expense, but, at the same time, was still uncertain of why he did them (Montaldo; â€Å"Confession†). While Boyle stressed that the gruesome nature of his client’s crimes was part of a strategy that only an absolute lunatic were capable of committing, the prosecution labeled Dahmer as â€Å"cold-bloodedly sane† and reasonably frightened of being discovered as he went to great length to avoid detection for so many years (Yusof). There was no question that he was aware of the consequences of his actions. According to the article â€Å"Jeffery Dahmer’s Confession†, Dahmer agreed to help the police in any way he possibly could to identify his victims in order to make restitution for the victims’ families. On January 30th, 1992, according to Montaldo’s article â€Å"Profile of Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer†, Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty by reason of insanity before Judge Laurence C. Gram, Jr. However, as he was found sane enough to stand trial, Dahmer then pleaded not guilty despite the fact that he had already confessed to seventeen murders (Yusof). On February 15th, 1992, after deliberating for over five hours, the jurors found Dahmer fully responsible for his actions and guilty of first-degree intentional homicide on fifteen of the seventeen accounts (â€Å"Childhood†). According to â€Å"Jeffrey Dahmer Case File†, after his sentencing, Dahmer begged to be executed. After the horror he caused, hundreds of others would have been pleased with thtis outcome, as well. However, as Wisconsin had abolished capital punishment years prior to Dahmer’s case, he was instead sentenced to fifteen life sentences (a minimum of 936 years) without parole which he wo uld serve at the Columbian Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin (Newton 48; â€Å"Profile of Serial Killer†). At first, Dahmer was separated from the general population for his own safety, but, despite the many threats against his life, he refused protective custody (â€Å"Profile of Serial Killer†; Newton 48). Later, Dahmer probably should have reconsidered this decision. According to the Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, the first attempt on Dahmer’s life was on July 3rd, 1994, when another inmate tried to slash his throat while he was praying in the prison chapel. Although this attempt failed and he walked away with only minor scratches, the story would not be the same for the next. On November 28th, 1994, only six months later, while Dahmer was cleaning a bathroom near the prison gym, twenty five-year-old inmate Christopher Scarver acquired an iron exercise bar and attacked Dahmer, crushing his skull and killing him (Newton 48). At first, according to Newton’s Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, it was believed that Scarver murdered Dahmer for racial purposes as he, along with the majority of Dahmer’s victims, was African American. However, later, it was proven that this notion was untrue. Scarver was deranged, believing he was on a mission from God and performing his â€Å"Father’s† orders (Newton 48). Jeffrey Dahmer was an extremely, if not the most, notorious serial killer who conducted his misconducts in the United States. Not only did he rape, murder, and dismember his multiple victims, but he also admitted to sampling cannibalism. From experimenting on small animals as a child to doing the same to humans as an adult, some believe that his intense fear of loneliness, derived from his parents’ divorce, drove him to commit these atrocious crimes, while others simply view him as a cold-blooded monster with the intention of destroying lives. Thanks to Wisconsin’s legal system, along with determined police assistance, the clever, resourceful, and calm demeaned Jeffrey Dahmer who had floated through life, undetected for so many years, was incarcerated, removed from a position where he could do additional harm to society.

Global Marketing and Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Global Marketing and Communications - Essay Example Well established local brands with their prudent research and development teams like Coca Cola has been able to successfully move to foreign lands (Ghemawat, 2003). Companies looking for globalisation generally look for a market with a culture to that of their own. Globalisation deals with seeing the full potential of an outside market and being able to successfully tap that market. A company which is able to do that becomes a successful global brand. Coca Cola as a product came into existence in 1886. An Atlanta Pharmacist named John Pemberton brought it into existence. His bookkeeper Frank Robinson named it Coca Cola. Since then the brand Coca Cola has gone through a sea of change and has become one of the global leader in soft drinks industry (Coca Cola, n.d.). Coca Cola follows a style of growth and leadership along with constant up gradation in their activities thus making it possible for them to be sustainable. Coca Cola is enjoyed by more than 200 countries worldwide thus becoming a global brand after it had started as local brand. It has achieved 48 straight years with an increase in dividends. At present, the company has 3300 beverages being sold worldwide. The present Coca Cola Chairman and CEO is Mr. Muhtar Kent and the company headquarters are located at Atlanta, Georgia (Coca Cola, n.d.). Globalisation is the modern phenomenon that is conquering the attention of the world over in recent times. The term has basically gained popularity in the last two decades. Globalisation, from the point of view of international marketer, refers to the situation where geographical boundaries are neglected. It has made geographical boundaries seem immaterial. Globalisation has made it possible for companies to earn economies of scale which have benefited them in making profit and becoming successful. It has also made

Macroeconomics of China and it's GDP Research Paper

Macroeconomics of China and it's GDP - Research Paper Example The steady increase in prices facilitated by the economic bubble suggests that China has come to a critical point of discouraging inflation within the right time: the vibrant mechanism of the economic growth in China has passed through a great transformation (Lai, 2006). At the time the government of China opened up foreign trade, facilitated investment and implemented the free market reformation about four decades ago, China has since become among the world’s top performing economies. With the real annual gross domestic product growth that averages to nearly 10 percent through the year 2013 (Bachman, 2011). In the current years the economy of China has emerged as the main global economic and the trade power. In the world’s current competitive market China is the top merchandise trading economy, holder of foreign reserves and it also acts as the largest destination of the foreign direct investment. Fortunately, China is expected to be the worlds’ largest economy in the next one year. Most economists forecast that China will overtake the United States of America to become the top performing economy in the world in the next few years. However, the probability of China to maintain the rapid growth of economic situation is minimal in the long run because it depends on the government for the implementation of comprehensive economic reforms (Lai, 2006). This will quickly facilitate the transition of the economy of China to a free market economy and create a balanced distribution within the economy thus creating a consumer demand rather than exportation. The government of China is greatly attached to its economy and it has acknowledged for some renovations in order to deal with some challenges effectively and efficiently (Bachman, 2011). China is the second largest economy in the world that will soon overtake the United States. According to the outstanding

Motivation and Self -Regulation in Learning Annotated Bibliography

Motivation and Self -Regulation in Learning - Annotated Bibliography Example Self-regulatory processes can only work if the students have the ability to organize themselves and stick to it with great determination and will power. The problem statement pertains to the high school, grades 9 and 10. Their students were totally unorganized. They were living aimless life. Their plans about their studies were nebulous. Everyday they came to school and went back to their home. Bur there were no targets defined. The problems which was identified there were as follows. The major problem that students encountered was that they did not set their goals correctly. They didn't weight the time factor in enough. Procrastination was a huge issue. They seemed to think they had all the time in the world and kept putting what they had to do off until the last minute. This might also be due to distractions such as the television or friends. No matter what the reason their goals remained unachieved. Sometimes students did weight the time factor in and when they realized that their goals might take a very long time to achieve, they refused to set such goals. Another problem faced while setting goal was that sometimes students did not conceptualize their goal completely. ... It has been proven that students that have clear, specific goals develop higher self-efficacy and perform better than children with more general goals, such as "work harder this year" Lack of Proximity Projection period of goals is very important. It was observed that students were involved in setting long-term goals rather than short-term goals. As a result they skipped their present requirements and did not bother about there present. They were incapable in prioritize their tasks. In the hope of better future they were spoiling their present because future is always based on present. The Proposed Solution Settlement and assessment of Goals For those students who have a do not have the confidence it takes to have faith in their own abilities, setting goals can lead to positive outcomes as the achievement of these goals influence students' task persistence and problem-solving efforts. Research has proved that for self-regulation to be truly effective students need to have goals and keep assessing their goals and how close they are to achieve their goals. In order to solve above problem, Students were encouraged and helped to set their goals correctly. This activity motivated them to exert efforts, which were required to accomplish their tasks. Defining goals made a remarkable change in the students. They were dedicatedly involved in their tasks. They were more concerned to the results and adopted qualitative and quantitative methods to complete the activities. As students worked on a task they compared their current performance with the goal. Self-evaluations of progress strengthen self-efficacy and sustain motivation. T here

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 91

Essay Example The methodology includes quotations, plagiarism, citation, parody, textual, imagery, and metaphor. The drive behind adopting intertextuality can be varying and diverse. It can be used to propagate an acclaimed theory, quote someone’s exclusive thoughts to make a point, or to promote and popularise cultural orientation and fashion/ lifestyles of different regions. Intertextuality is also applied to explain certain ambiguous concepts of any literary or artistic work. Furthermore, it can be adopted to present a brand-new perspective on an existing work. Sudha Shastri provided a perfect example of intertextuality by pointing out the fact that Jean Rhys wrote â€Å"Wide Sargasso Sea† (1966) to present a neutral and modernized take on Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel â€Å"Jane Eyre† (1847). (2001, p.3) Steven Pressfields The Legend of Bagger Vance (1995) borrowed its plot from the epic Hindu verse Bhagvad Gita. (Byrd, 2007, p.3) Similarly Jane Austen’s m asterpiece literature Emma was the influencing factor behind Amy Heckerling’s year 1995 movie Clueless. (Baker, 2008, p.534) Story sack is an innovative concept to make kids learning process at school fun-filled and effective (Browne, 2007, p.76). It is an over-sized cloth bag that contains additional props related to a story such as audio-visual sources like CDs or DVDs, toys and models of the characters, games, and entertaining activities like jigsaw puzzle or painting related to the story. Chris Dukes writes that it is an interesting way to â€Å"illustrate the story and make shared reading a memorable experience† (2007, p.84). It not only enhances the process of story-telling but teachers, and parents can also aptly utilize the concept of intertextuality to teach kids about numerous other aspects of life like positive virtues, beliefs, and values by opting for making story sacks on intertextual books. For example, biblical stories and their adapted cinematic

Citrus industry in Florida Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Citrus industry in Florida - Research Paper Example In 1834, citrus groves were being cultivated by farmers, which were interrupted by the occurrence of a freeze in February of 1835 (Florida’s Citrus Production 2013). The freeze, which happened on February of 1835, killed all the fruit trees in St. Augustine as temperature dropped to seven degrees above zero, thus, robbing people of their income (Dobson 2009). The farmers’ recovered production for the succeeding fifty-one years as the state only experienced warm winters; during this time, northeast Florida, as well as St. John’s County, became the hub of citrus supply (Dobson 2009). In the 1890’s, citrus production increased to five million boxes per year due to the demand for the said fruit in the northeast and the existence of rail lines, which promoted long distance shipping of the citrus fruits (About Citrus 2012). In fact, in the year 1894, the shipment of crates of citrus to the north amounted up to 5,000,000 (Dobson 2009). On December of 1894, anothe r freeze happened, killing all of Florida’s orange crops in its wake. On the eighth of February the following year, another freeze came about, bringing about the same disastrous effects; such was its impact that on 1896, Florida was only able to ship a little above 100,000 crates of oranges (Dobson 2009). The freeze caused the abandonment of citrus groves in the North of Florida and the production of melons and potatoes in its place (Dobson 2009). This was the most severe in the history of freezes that Florida had undergone (Timeline of Major Florida Freezes 2013). In 1901, there were little above 1,000,000 crates produced (Dobson 2009). In 1917 and 1934, still the state was plagued with the same natural calamity; the freeze of 1934 resulted in the formation of the Federal Frost Warning Service -- a replacement of the train whistles, which warned people of imminent frosts in the previous years (Dobson 2009). The occurrence of continuous freezes in December of 1934, as well as on February of 1935, yielded a negative impact as it reduce production from a million boxes to just below 150,000 boxes of citrus (About Citrus 2013). Again, the farmers planted their citrus crops, yet another freeze took its toll in

Enterprise Risk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Enterprise Risk Management - Essay Example The reason lies in that it lacks the integrated approach to the management of risk which characterises enterprise risk management. It is precisely for this reason that regulators in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other developed countries have issued rules and guidelines that advocate an enterprise-wide approach to risk management, further pushing many companies to adopt ERM (Kleffner, Lee and McGannon, 2003). Quite simply stated, the drive towards the adoption of ERM, as opposed to RM is due to the fact that the integrated approach adopted by the former, and which is absent within the context of the latter, is regarded as a more effective and efficient approach to risk management. With that being the case, as this research will argue, the real question relates to the reasons why more corporations do not adopt ERM, as opposed to RM. In order to properly determine the reasons why ERM is considered superior to RM, it is important to define each of the two terms. These definitions will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of either approach and allow for a greater understanding of differences between them. Enterprise risk management has become a significant topic for larg... It provides an active, vital and comprehensive modelling approach for integrating all financial decisions and risks. This includes investment decisions, borrowing policies, liability, and setting of goals (Kleffner, Lee and McGannon, 2003). The comprehensive management of risks and the adoption of an integrated approach to risk management has several benefits. An enterprise with fully diversified losses requires much less capital than an enterprise with concentrated worst-case losses. In turn, the anticipated profitability of the company is affected by the degree of diversification since a reduction in capital will increase expected profits. The goal of ERM is to maximize the firm's overall profit, while maintaining its enterprise risks at acceptable levels (Mudge, 2000). Insurance companies, for example, should analyze their major risks so that adequate capital exists at the firm level to pay insurance policyholders in the event of legitimate insured losses. The desired level of capital depends upon the severity of claims. And since these claims are a direct function of random events, the insurance company must calculate a distribution of losses for its entire operations in order to set the proper level of firm-wide capital (Doherty, 2000). Due to this, Meulbroek (2002) insists that regulatory bodies should check these systems in order to validate that the risk management strategies are reasonably well developed and consistent with current approaches and practice. The firm-wide models are also known as Dynamic Financial Analysis. An ERM system consists of three primary elements. These are 1) a stochastic model for projecting a set of scenarios of the future --the scenario

Customer Service Excellence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Customer Service Excellence - Essay Example Then when the organisations realised the fact that the sales pattern followed by them did not correspond with the consumer needs, then the need for a separate marketing department was realise. It can thus be named as the marketing department era. Next came the marketing company era when the need of organisations to focus on its customers to achieve its goals was realised. Hence, customer is given the highest priority in any of the marketing activities followed by the organisations. Customer Relationship Marketing Relationship is vital to the marketing process and the companies are now focussed on relationship marketing which helps to create, maintain and build a strong long term relationship with the stakeholders of the company including its customers (Palmatier, 2008). The area of relationship marketing has been an area of focus for the last few years. Relationship marketing mainly puts emphasis on the retention of customers rather than acquiring new customers. It heavily stresses o n the process of customer satisfaction and gives less importance to sales transactions. Relationship marketing, to a large extent, differs from that of the traditional forms of marketing. Relationship marketing mainly gauges the importance of long term relationship with a customer. Some of the eminent scholars identified that practicing relationship marking will help the company to convert a normal customer into a loyal customer. The loyalty factor in turn offers the company with new sales opportunities through repeat purchase (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1986, p. 234-235). Importance of Customer Service Customer service can be considered as the relationship that an organisation develops with its consumers or customers. It includes the provision of... The facts and analysis presented in this report suggest that most of the business organisations in this modern era are customer oriented. Any company which is market oriented is found to focus on all their business activities keeping the customers at the centre. The business activities are performed in such a way that it corresponds to the specific needs and wants of the customers. This process leads to the increased satisfactions for the customers and once the customer becomes happy it can be expected that they would continue their relationship with the organisation and would like to have the same product in future. This increases the customer trust and loyalty and helps the organisations to have a sustainable growth in future. Concept of marketing is not new and it has evolved through various stages. This paper makes a conclusion that the companies are now focused on finding products for the customers and not finding customers for the products offered by them. Technological advancements are also having a significant impact on the ways in which customer services are provided by the organisations. Technology has helped to provide customer service in a timely manner and the companies can now provide greater satisfaction to their customers. All these facts suggest that customer service is the most important aspect for any business organisation in order to ensure its profitable and sustainable growth in future.

Female King of Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Female King of Egypt - Essay Example Hatshepsut was the eldest child of eighteenth dynasty pharaoh ruler, Thutmose I (1504-1492 B.C.E.) and Ahmose his wife. She married her step-brother Thutmose II (1482-1497 B.C.E.) She had only one daughter, Neferture. After the death of Thutmose II, the throne was inherited by Thutmose III, his son from a non-royal background wife, Isis. Thutmose III was still very young when he was handed over the throne and Hatshepsut became regent for her stepson and nephew. During this time she reigned as an independent ruler and later when Thutmose III became of the age to hold his office as ruler Hatshepsut did not step down but co-ruled with her stepson.Hatshepsut wanted the power all to herself, and co-ruling was exactly the opposite of her desires. She already had experienced the power and control over the whole of the kingdom, where people worshiped her and obeyed her unquestioningly. But Egypt’s dynasty system allowed only a man to be the ruler and Hatshepsut main hurdle was this co ndition. In Egypt, it was believed that the king or the ruler was the connection between the people and Gods. King's main duty was to please the Gods which in turn would grant flourish and bounties of blessings to Egypt. This whole process of pleasing Gods and getting prosperity for Egypt was a balance called â€Å"maat†. This maat could only be achieved by a king and it was believed that in the absence of a king Egypt will be destroyed. Being a female was the biggest hurdle in achieving complete power. She, in order to gain complete control over the throne, dressed in Pharaoh’s clothes, which were obviously manly, a beard specific to a king, a ceremonial wig and declared herself as the pharaoh of Egypt. In order to be accepted by the people as genuine king, she planned the whole thing for years and made up a story of her divine birth and approval of Gods for her kingship. She claimed that she is in fact daughter of one of the God’s,† Amun†. She even ordered men to show the whole story in artistic illustrations, which is typical belonging to that era. To make her story completely credible, She made the artists include the text’s which are supposed to be from the God Amun himself, â€Å"this daughter of mine†¦I have appointed successor upon my throne†¦it is she who will lead you. Obey her words and unite yourselves at her command†.

Organizational change Essay Example for Free

Organizational change Essay Organizational change is an ongoing process with important implications for organizational effectiveness. An organization and its members must be constantly on the alert for changes from within the organization and from the outside environment, and they must learn how to adjust to change quickly and effectively. Organizational change is the movement of an organization away from its present state and toward some future state to increase its effectiveness. Forces for organizational change include competitive forces; economic, political, and global forces; demographic and social forces; and ethical forces. Organizations are often reluctant to change because resistance to change at the organization, group, and individual levels has given rise to organizational inertia. Sources of organization-level resistance to change include power and conflict, differences in functional orientation, mechanistic structure, and organizational culture. Sources of group-level resistance to change include group norms, group cohesiveness, and groupthink and escalation of commitment. Sources of individual-level resistance to change include uncertainty and insecurity, selective perception and retention, and habit. According to Lewin’s force-field theory of change, organizations are balanced between forces pushing for change and forces resistant to change. To get an organization to change, managers must find a way to increase the forces for change, reduce resistance to change, or do both simultaneously. Types of change fall into two broad categories: evolutionary and revolutionary. The main instruments of evolutionary change are sociotechnical systems theory, total quality management, and the development of flexible workers and work teams. The main instruments of revolutionary change are reengineering, restructuring, and innovation. Often, the revolutionary types of change that result from restructuring and reengineering are necessary only because an organization and its managers ignored or were unaware of changes in the environment and did not make incremental changes as needed. Action research is a strategy that managers can use to plan the change process. The main steps in action research are (a) diagnosis and analysis of the organization, (b) determining the desired future state, (c) implementing action, (d) evaluating the action, and (e) institutionalizing action research. Organizational development (OD) is a series of techniques and methods to increase the adaptability of organizations. OD techniques can be used to overcome resistance to change and to help the organization to change itself. OD techniques for dealing with resistance to change include education and communication, participation and empowerment, facilitation, bargaining and negotiation, manipulation, and coercion. OD techniques for promoting change include, at the individual level, counseling, sensitivity training, and process consultation; at the group level, team building and intergroup training; and at the organizational level, organizational confrontation meetings. CHAPTER OUTLINE 10. 1 What Is Organizational Change? Organizational change is the process by which organizations move from their current or present state to some desired future state to increase their effectiveness. An organization in decline may need to restructure its competences and resources to improve its fit with a changing environment. Even thriving, high-performing organizations such as Google, Apple, and Facebook need to continuously change the way they operate over time to meet ongoing challenges. Targets of Change Organizational change includes changes in four areas: 1. Human resources are an organization’s most important asset. Because these skills and abilities give an organization a competitive advantage, organizations must continually monitor their structures to find the most effective way of motivating and organizing human resources to acquire and use their skills. Changes made in human resources include investment in training, socializing employees, changing norms to motivate a diverse workforce, monitoring promotion and reward systems, and changing top management. 2. Each organizational function needs to develop procedures that allow it to manage the particular environment it faces. Crucial functions grow in importance while those whose usefulness is declining shrink. Thus, key functions grow in importance. Organizations can change structure, culture, and technology to improve the value created by functions. 3 Organizational change often involves changing the relationships between people and functions to increase their ability to create value. 10. 2 Forces for and Resistance to Organizational Change Forces for Change If managers are slow to respond to the forces of change, the organization will lag behind its competitors and its effectiveness will be compromised. (Refer to Figure 10. 1) Competitive forces spur change, because unless an organization matches or surpasses its competitors it will not survive. Managing change is crucial when competing for customers. To lead on the dimensions of efficiency or quality, an organization must constantly adopt the latest technology as it becomes available. To lead on the dimension of innovation and obtain a technological advantage over competitors, a company must possess skills in managing the process of innovation. Economic, political, and global forces, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or other economic unions, are significant forces of change. The European Union (EU) includes over 27 members eager to take advantage of a large protected market. Global challenges facing organizations include the need to change an organizational structure to allow expansion into foreign markets, the need to adapt to a variety of national cultures, and the need to help expatriate managers adapt to the economic, political, and cultural values of the countries in which they are located. Demographic and social forces include an increasingly diverse workforce. Changes in the demographic characteristics of the workforce require managers to change their styles of managing all employees and to learn how to understand, supervise, and motivate diverse members effectively. Many workers want to balance work and leisure. Managers need to abandon stereotypes and accept the importance of equity in the recruitment and promotion of new hires. Ethical forces such as increasing government, political, and social demands for more responsible and honest corporate behavior are compelling organizations to promote ethical behavior. Many companies have created the position of ethics officer. If organizations operate in countries that pay little attention to human rights or to the well-being of organizational members, they have to learn how to change these standards and to protect their overseas employees. Resistances to Change Resistance to change lowers an organization’s effectiveness and reduces its chances of survival. Resistances or impediments to change that cause inertia are found at the organization, group, and individual levels. (Refer to Figure 10. 1) Organization-Level Resistance to Change Power and conflict: When change causes power struggles and organizational conflict, an organization is likely to resist it. If change benefits one function at the expense of another, conflict impedes the change process. In the old IBM, for example, managers of its mainframe computer division fought off attempts to redirect IBM’s resources to produce the PCs that customers wanted in order to preserve their own power. Differences in functional orientation: This means that different functions and divisions often see the source of a problem differently because they see an issue or problem primarily from their own viewpoint. This tunnel vision increases organizational inertia. Mechanistic structure: Mechanistic structures are more resistant to change. People who work within a mechanistic structure are expected to act in certain ways and do not develop the capacity to adjust their behavior to changing conditions. A mechanistic structure typically develops as an organization grows and is a principal source of inertia, especially in large organizations. The extensive use of mutual adjustment and decentralized authority in an organic structure makes it less resistant to change. Organizational culture: Organizational culture, values, and norms cause resistance to change. If organizational change disrupts taken-for-granted values and norms and forces people to change what they do and how they do it, an organization’s culture will cause resistance to change. Group-Level Resistance to Change Many groups develop strong informal norms that specify appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and govern the interactions between group members. Often, change alters task and role relationships in a group; when it does, it disrupts group norms and the informal expectations that group members have of one another. As a result, members of a group may resist change because a new set of norms must be developed to meet the needs of the new situation. Group cohesiveness, the attractiveness of a group to its members, also affects group performance. A highly cohesive group may resist attempts by management to change what it does or even who is a member of the group. Groupthink and escalation of commitment also make changing a group’s behavior very difficult. Individual-Level Resistance to Change People tend to resist change because they feel uncertain and insecure about what its outcome will be. Selective perception and retention suggest that people perceive information consistent with their views. If change doesn’t benefit them, they do not endorse it. People’s preference for familiar actions and events is a further impediment to change. Lewin’s Force-Field Theory of Change Force-field theory is a theory of organizational change that argues that two sets of opposing forces within an organization determine how change will take place. When the forces are evenly balanced, the organization is in a state of inertia and does not change. To get an organization to change, managers must find a way to increase the forces for change, reduce resistance to change, or do both simultaneously. Any of these strategies will overcome inertia and cause an organization to change. (Refer to Figure 10. 2) Managerial Implications Managers must continuously monitor the environment to identify the forces for change. They must analyze how the change will affect the organization and determine which type of change to pursue. 10. 3 Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change in Organizations Evolutionary change refers to change that is gradual, incremental, and specifically focused. It adds small adjustments to strategy and structure to handle environmental changes. Sociotechnical systems theory, total quality management, and the creation of empowered, flexible work groups are three instruments of evolutionary change that organizations use in their attempt to make incremental improvements in the way work gets done. Revolutionary change refers to change that is sudden, drastic, and organization-wide. It has repercussions at all levels in the organization—corporate, divisional, functional, group, and individual. Three ways to implement revolutionary change are reengineering, restructuring, and innovation. Developments in Evolutionary Change: Sociotechnical Systems Theory Sociotechnical systems theory is a theory that proposes the importance of changing role and task or technical relationships to increase organizational effectiveness. It emerged from a study of changing work practices in the British coal-mining industry. The socio-technical systems theory argues that managers need to fit or jointly optimize the workings of the technical and social systems. A poor fit between an organization’s technology and social system leads to failure, but a close fit leads to success. When managers change task and role relationships, they must recognize the need to adjust the technical and social systems gradually so group norms and cohesiveness are not disrupted. By taking this gradual approach, an organization can avoid the group-level resistance to change. Researchers suggest that a team-oriented system promotes values that enhance efficiency and product quality. Total quality management uses sociotechnical systems theory. Total Quality Management Total quality management (TQM) is a technique developed by W. Edwards Deming to continuously improve the effectiveness of flexible work teams. It was embraced by Japanese companies after World War II. Changes frequently inspired by TQM include altering the design or type of machines used to assemble products and reorganizing the sequence of activities—either within or between functions—necessary to provide a service to a customer. Changing cross-functional relationships to help improve quality is important in TQM. The changes associated with TQM are changes in task, role, and group relationships. Implementing a TQM program is not always easy because it requires workers and managers to adopt new ways of viewing their roles in an organization. Managers must be willing to decentralize control of decision making, empower workers, and assume the role of facilitator rather than supervisor. The â€Å"command and control† model gives way to an â€Å"advise and support† model. Flexible Workers and Flexible Work Teams In implementing socio-technical systems theory and TQM, many organizations are finding it easier to achieve their goals by using flexible workers and teams. Flexible workers can be transferred between departments and functions as demand changes. The advantages of flexible workers include quick response to environmental changes; reduced boredom and increased incentives for quality; better understanding by learning one another’s tasks; and combining tasks to increase efficiency and reduce costs. A flexible work team is a group of workers who assume responsibility for performing all the operations necessary for completing a specified stage in the manufacturing process. A flexible work team is self-managed; members jointly assign tasks and transfer from one task to another. In a flexible work team, separate teams assemble different components and turn those components over to the final-product work team, which assembles the final product. Each team’s activities are driven by demands that have their origins in customer demands for the final product. (Refer to Figure 10. 3) Developments in Revolutionary Change: Reengineering The term â€Å"reengineering† has been used to refer to the process by which managers redesign how tasks are bundled into roles and functions to improve organizational effectiveness. It involves rethinking business processes, activities that cross functional boundaries. Instead of focusing on an organization’s functions in isolation from one another, managers make business processes the focus of attention. A business process is an activity that cuts across functional boundaries and is vital to the quick delivery of goods and services or that promotes high quality or low costs. Because reengineering focuses on business processes and not functions, an organization must rethink the way it approaches organizing its activities. A good example of how to use reengineering to increase functional integration comes from attempts to redesign the materials management function to improve its effectiveness. In the traditional functional design the three main components of materials management—purchasing, production control, and distribution—were typically in separate functions and had little to do with one another. Thus coordinating their activities is difficult. Each function has its own hierarchy, and there are problems in both vertical and horizontal communication. Today, most organizations put all three of the functional activities involved in the materials management process inside one function. Three guidelines for performing reengineering successfully are as follows: Organize around outcomes, not tasks. 2. Have those who use the output of the process perform the process. 3. Decentralize decision making to the point where the decision is made. Reengineering and TQM are highly interrelated and complementary. E-Engineering This is a term used to refer to companies’ attempts to use all kinds of information systems to improve performance. The importance of e-engineering is increasing as it changes the way a company organizes its value-creation functions and links them to improve its performance. Restructuring Restructuring is a process by which managers change task and authority relationships and redesign organizational structure and culture to improve organizational effectiveness. Downsizing is the process by which managers streamline the organizational hierarchy and lay off managers and workers to reduce bureaucratic costs. The drive to decrease bureaucratic costs results from competitive pressures. Mergers and acquisitions in many industries, such as banking, have led to downsizing because fewer managers are needed. Other companies have reduced staff to match competitors. The negative effects of downsizing include overworked managers and lost opportunities. Companies that fail to control growth must downsize to remain competitive. The terms anorexic or hollow are used to refer to organizations that downsized too much and have too few managers to help them grow when conditions change. Restructuring, like other change strategies, generates resistance to change. Often, the decision to downsize requires the establishment of new task and role relationships. Because this change may threaten the jobs of some workers, they resist the changes taking place. Innovation Innovation refers to the process by which organizations use their skills and resources to develop new goods and services or to develop new production and operating systems so they can better respond to the needs of their customers. 10. 4 Managing Change: Action Research In Lewin’s view, implementing change is a three-step process: (1) unfreezing the organization from its present state, (2) making the change, and (3) refreezing the organization in the new, desired state so its members do not revert to their previous work attitudes and role behavior. Action research is a strategy for generating and acquiring knowledge that managers can use to define an organization’s desired future state and to plan a change program that allows the organization to reach that state. Figure 10. 6 highlights the steps in action research. Diagnosis of the Organization The first step in action research requires managers to recognize the existence of a problem that needs to be solved and acknowledge that some type of change is needed to solve it. In general, recognition of the need for change arises because somebody in the organization perceives a gap between desired performance and actual performance. Determining the Desired Future State This step also involves a difficult planning process as managers work out various alternative courses of action that could move the organization to where they would like it to be and determine what type of change to implement. Implementing Action 1. First, managers identify possible impediments to change at all levels. The second step is deciding who will be responsible for actually making the changes and controlling the change process. The choices are to employ either external change agents or internal change agents or use some combination of both. 3. The third step is deciding which specific change strategy will most effectively unfreeze, change, and refreeze the organization. The types of change that these techniques give rise to fall into two categories: Top-down change is implemented by managers at a high level in the organization, knowing that the change will reverberate at all organizational levels. Bottom-up change is implemented by employees at low levels in the organization that gradually rises until it is felt throughout the organization. Evaluating the Action The fourth step in action research is evaluating the action that has been taken and assessing the degree to which the changes have accomplished the desired objectives. The best way to evaluate the change process is to develop measures or criteria that allow managers to assess whether the organization has reached its desired objectives. Institutionalizing Action Research Organizations need to institutionalize action research—that is, make it a required habit or a norm adopted by every member of an organization. The institutionalization of action research is as necessary at the top of the organization as it is on the shop floor. Managerial Implications Managers must develop criteria to evaluate whether a change is necessary, and carefully design a plan that minimizes resistance. 10. 5 Organizational Development Organizational development (OD) is a series of techniques and methods that managers can use in their action research program to increase the adaptability of their organization. The goal of OD is to improve organizational effectiveness and to help people in organizations reach their potential and realize their goals and objectives. OD Techniques to Deal with Resistance to Change Education and Communication: One impediment to change is that participants are uncertain about what is going to happen. Through education and communication, internal and external agents of change can provide organizational members with information about the change and how it will affect them. Participation and Empowerment: Inviting workers to participate in the change process is a popular method of reducing resistance to change. Participation complements empowerment, increases workers’ involvement in decision making, and gives them greater autonomy to change work procedures to improve organizational performance. These are key elements of most TQM programs. People that are involved in the change and decision-making process are more likely to embrace rather than resist. Facilitation: Both managers and workers find change stressful. There are several ways in which organizations can help their members to manage stress: providing them with training to help them learn how to perform new tasks, providing them with time off from work to recuperate from the stressful effects of change, or even giving senior members sabbaticals. Bargaining and Negotiation: Bargaining and negotiation are important tools that help managers manage conflict. Because change causes conflict, bargaining is an important tool in overcoming resistance to change. Manipulation: Sometimes senior managers need to intervene, as politics shows that powerful managers have considerable ability to resist change. Coercion: The ultimate way to eliminate resistance to change is to coerce the key players into accepting change and threaten dire consequences if they choose to resist. The disadvantage is that it can leave people angry and disenchanted and can make the refreezing process difficult. OD Techniques to Promote Change Counseling, Sensitivity Training, and Process Consultation: Recognizing that each individual is different also requires them to be treated or managed differently. Sometimes, counseling will help individuals understand that their own perceptions of a situation may be incorrect. Sensitivity training is an OD technique that consists of intense counseling in which group members, aided by a facilitator, learn how others perceive them and may learn how to deal more sensitively with others. Process consultation is an OD technique in which a facilitator works closely with a manager on the job to help the manager improve his or her interactions with other group members. Team building is an OD technique in which a facilitator first observes the interactions of group members and then helps them become aware of ways to improve their work interactions. The goal of team building is to improve group processes to achieve process gains and reduce process losses that are occurring because of shirking and freeriding. Intergroup training is an OD technique that uses team building to improve the work interactions of different functions or divisions. Its goal is to improve organizational performance by focusing on a function’s or division’s joint activities and output. Organizational mirroring is an OD technique in which a facilitator helps two interdependent groups explore their perceptions and relations in order to improve their work interactions. This technique is designed to get both interdependent groups to see the perspective of the other side. Appreciating others’ perspectives allows the groups to work together more effectively. Total Organizational Interventions: A variety of OD techniques can be used at the organization level to promote organization-wide change. Organizational confrontation meeting is an OD technique that brings together all of the managers of an organization at a meeting to confront the issue of whether the organization is meeting its goals effectively.

Indias movie industry

Indias movie industry Motion pictures came to India in 1896, when the Lumià ¨re Brothers Cinematographed unveiled six soundless short films in Mumbai. This was just one year after the Lumià ¨re brothers (inventors of cinematography) had set up their company in Paris. The first Indian on record to make a movie was Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar (nickname: Save Dada). He made one short film on a wrestling match at the Hanging Gardens in Mumbai and another on the playfulness of monkeys. Both these shorts were made in 1897 and were publicly exhibited for the first time in 1899 using Edisons projecting kinetoscope inside a tent which the film maker had himself erected. Indias first feature film named King Harishchandra was released in 1913. It was made by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (nickname: Dadasaheb Phalke, 1817-1944). This was a silent movie. By 1920, film making had taken the shape of an industry. The first talkie made in India was Alam Ara (produced by Imperial Film Company) released in 1931. Until the 1960s, film-making companies, many of whom owned studios, dominated the film industry. Artistes and technicians were either their employees or were contracted on long-term basis. Since the 1960s, however, most performers went the freelance way, resulting in the star system and huge escalations in film production costs. Financing deals in the industry also started becoming murkier and murkier since then. Current position India has the worlds biggest movie industry in terms of the number of movies produced (around 800 movies annually, mostly in the Hindi language. Tamil, Telegu, Bengali and Malayalam are the languages in which most of the non-Hindi films are made). Today, the technology of film-making in India is perhaps the best among all developing countries though the films themselves remain mostly repetitive in storyline and content. Superior movies, in thematic and creative terms, are made in many developing countries with less sophisticated technologies. According to unofficial estimates available in January 2001, the Indian film industry has an annual turnover of Rs. 60 billion (approximately US$1.33 billion). It employs more than 6 million people, most of whom are contract workers as opposed to regular employees. The above statistics cannot however be used to calculate the movie industrys share in the GDP or employment generation. This is because a vast proportion of the turnover takes place outside the legal economy. Though Indias overall entertainment industry is taking on professional colours (with the rise of TV production companies), Indias movie industry per se remains highly informal, personality-oriented and family-dominated. Until the late 1990s, it was not even recognised as an industry. Even though it has since been recognised as an industry, banks and other financial institutions continue to avoid the industry due to the enormous risks involved in the business. Two banks, Canara Bank and Indian Bank, have reportedly lost heavily by financing films. However, the prospects of bank financing and risk insurance are becoming brighter, albeit at a slow rate (as explained further down this report). As a result, the financing of films in India often remains shrouded in mystery. Surprisingly, however, the oft-murky world of film industrys finances has not tainted the film industrys perception in the general public eye or in the governments attitude. Even though many famous people from the movie industry have risen to positions of political and social responsibility, including seats in federal and state parliaments, none of them have cared to reveal or have been under pressure to reveal the truth about the industrys finances. Some developments in the years 2000 and 2001 including the arrest of a leading financier, Bharat Shah for his alleged links with a fugitive gangster have not yet brought to public knowledge the inside economics of the industry. The rot or financial amorality of Indias film industry seems to have set in since the 1960s. Until the 1960s, film producers would get loans from film distributors against a minimum guarantee: this meant that the distributors had to ensure that the film was screened in cinemas for a fixed minimum period. If this minimum guarantee was fulfilled, the producers had no further liability. Profit or loss would be the destiny of the distributors. (There are exceptions, however. Indias most celebrated film-maker, the late Satyajit Ray, is known to have pawned his wifes jewellery to part-finance his first film). Star System: The financing pattern, centered on distributors, is suspected to have changed since the 1960s when the studio system collapsed and freelance performers emerged. This gave rise to the star system in which actors and actresses ceased to have long-term contractual obligations towards any studio or film production firm (such as the now defunct Bombay Talkies, New Theatres and Prabhat Studios). Rather, they began to operate as freelancers commanding fees in proportion to the box office performance of their recent films. This increased costs of film production since the more successful actors and actresses hogged major proportions of the producers budget. In the changed system, distributors would pay 50 per cent of the film-making cost leaving it to the producer to get the rest from other sources. The other sources are: conventional moneylenders (who lend at an interest rate of 36-40 per cent annually); non-conventional but corporate resources, promissory note system (locally called hundi system): this is the most widely prevalent source, and underworld money: about 5 per cent of the movies are suspected to be financed by these sources. Film production thus became a risky business and the relationship with usurious money-lenders strengthened over the years. As at the start of 2001, a reasonable budget film in Hindi could cost US$1.75 million. A low budget Hindi film can be made for even as low as Rs. 15 million. A big budget Hindi movie can cost in excess of US$30 million. The bigness of the budget is attributable mainly to the high fees paid to stars, celebrated music directors, high-end technologies and expensive travel costs to shoot in exotic locations worldwide. At the time of writing, it is believed that stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan are paid Rs. 20 million (US$440,000) per film.In contrast, script writers and film editors remain poorly paid. In an interview, Indias so-called superstar Amitabh Bachchan (whose wax statue stands at Madam Tussauds in London) attributed the lack of strong storylines to the poor money paid to writers. India has a National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) which finances some films. A few film makers, who would find it hard to obtain finance from the regular sources, have been financed by the NFDC. However, NFDC cannot be considered to play a central role in the film industry because it finances too few films which, too, are not of the type that has made the Indian film industry so vibrant. It however goes to the NFDCs credit that, without it, some of Indias best film makers wouldnt have got a break in the industry. Another shortcoming with the NFDC is that it funds films only at the production stage while ignoring the just-as-important marketing stage. The film industry is currently losing unestimated volumes of revenue due to competition from local cable operators who illegally beam newly released movies into the drawing rooms of their subscribers. Future Of The Industry This is not intended to be a scare story, however. As mentioned above, the overall entertainment industry in India is taking on professional colours and this will change the culture of the film industry too. Some film production companies, such as Mukta Arts, have made public share issues, thus keeping out of the world of murky financing. The Film Federation of India is actively seeking to make film financing a viable proposition for banks. It is likely that films would also be insured to offset possible losses for banks. The granting of industry status to the film industry will eventually allow overboard financing of films, though this will result in production of fewer films than at present. Stricter enforcement of copyright law will help the film industry in its fight with cable operators. Foreign entertainment companies, with steady revenue streams, can do good business if they invest in Hindi and other Indian language films.Despite high risks on a per-movie basis, the risk spreads out across a number of movies. Animation industry Animation is a word that has practically stormed the film industry these days. Everyone, right from the 8-year old kids to 80-year old granddads, loves to watch an animation flick. Have you ever wondered what animation exactly is and how did it come into existence. Animation is basically the rapid display of a sequence of images, of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions. The display is so rapid that it creates an illusion of movement in the viewers. The phenomenon of persistence of vision is the main basis behind the development of animation. Background of Animation The earliest instance of animation dates back to the Paleolithic times, when attempts were made to capture motion in drawings. The cave-paintings of that time depict animals in superimposed positions, drawn with an aim of conveying the perception of motion. Persistence of vision, the basis behind animation, was discovered by Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, in 130 AD. Fifty years later, in 180 AD, an unknown Chinese inventor created an early animation device, which we later came to know as the zoetrope. Phenakistoscope, praxinoscope and the flip book are the other early animation devices, which were invented during the 1800s. All these devices made use of technological means for the purpose of producing movement from sequential drawings. However, it was the introduction of motion picture films, in the late 1890s that gave a boost to the concept of animation. There is no single person who can be credited with the title of the Creator of animation. This is because when animation was developed, many people were involved in the same thing at the same time. J. Stuart Blackton was the first person to make an animated film, which he called Humorous phases of funny faces. For the purpose, he used to draw comical faces on a blackboard, one after the other, and film them. In 1910, Emile Cohl came out with the first paper cutout animation. The development of celluloid, around 1913, made animation much easier to manage. While talking about the history of animation, three names that are definitely worth mentioning are those of Winsor McCay of United States Emile Cohl and Georges Melies of France. Émile Cohls Fantasmagorie (1908) was the first animated film that was made using traditional (hand-drawn) animation. Georges Mà ©lià ¨s, a creator of special-effect films, was the first person to use animation, along with special effects. He was the one who gave the idea of stop-motion animation. McCay also created a number of animation films, with the most noted ones being Little Nemo (1911), Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) and The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918). In fact, many people take Sinking of the Lusitania to be the first animated feature film. However, it was Walt Disney who took animation to an entirely new level altogether. In 1928, with the premiere of Steamboat Willie, he became the first animator to add sound to his movie cartoons. Walt Disney achieved another milestone in 1937, when he produced the first full length animated feature film, named Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The year 1955 saw Art Clokey producing Gumby, a stop-motion clay animation. Introduction of computers marked a step further in the concept of animation. In 1951, an MIT student Ivan Sutherland created a computer drawing program, Sketchpad, further giving a boost to animation. With time, computer started gaining an increasing importance in the field of animation. Movies like Star Wars relied on computer animation for many of its special effects. In 1995 came Toy Story, produced by Walt Disney Productions and Pixar Animation Studios, the first full length feature film animated totally on computers. Since that time, animation and computer have gone hand in hand, creating new milestones with time. Technology development has prompted a number of low cost hubs with powerful computer animation platforms to emerge in Asia. India is fast becoming a preferred destination for Animation outsourcing and is steadily overtaking the traditional players in the field like Philippines, Korea Taipei. Its boom time in the Indian animation industry, pegged at approximately US$ 300- $350 million in 2005. Cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram are fast emerging as the countrys major animation hubs. The big studios have set up world-class, state-of-the-art facilities equipped with hardware and software like SGI, 3DMax and SoftImage, SFX and processing motion capture facilities. Indias biggest advantages are its cost effectiveness and good quality. The total cost for making a full-length animated film in America is estimated to be US$100 million to US$175 million. On the other hand, in India, it can be made for US$15 million to US$25 million. According to NASSCOM, the animation sector grew by over 20% in 2004. Studios spread across the country are doing animation work like cartoon characters and special effects for clients around the world including Walt Disney, Imax, Warner Brothers and Sony. Some of the other companies are outsourcing animation for commercials and computer games. Some of the prominent animations outsourcing companies are: Toonz Animation India is based in Thiruvananthapuram and has to its credit the successful series The Adventures of Tenali Raman. The team here is also working on a full-fledged feature film called Tommy and Oscar which is a 2D /3D combo project. This is apart from completing work for the Italian producer Rainbow Productions; a 2D television series called Will o the Wisp (26 X 6 min) for Animoon Plc, United Kingdom and a big-budget 3D television series for major a US broadcaster. This company has tied up with First Serve International to form First Serve Toonz. Pentamedia Graphics, Chennai is a subsidiary of computer software company Pentafour. It is best known for its animated 3D film using the motion capture technique, Sindbad: Beyond the Veils of the Mists. Maya Entertainment, Mumbai has been doing outsourced work for a while now and has done the special effects for The Mummy and Stuart Little. It is also working on animating short films starring a character called Wabo, to be used by the United Nations to educate worldwide audiences on the importance of fresh drinking water. UTV Toonz, Mumbai is the animation division of UTV Software Communications and is one of the top ranking studios dealing in flash as well as traditional animation. It has bagged a US$10 billion deal with an American company for outsourced work. Other assignments for international clients include like two Dutch deals to produce a musical cartoon series called ClubNow! and a fantasy series The Donz; a project with Cinegroup of Canada for the images for a sci-fi series. They are also working with companies in Scotland and Luxembourg for the development of series like Clootie Dumpling and Snow Queen. It will also be working on Kong: The Next Generation for New York-based BKN New Media. Heart Entertainment, a 2D animation studio is yet another big name in the animation sphere, which is doing a lot of outsourced work. Among the animation featured in its portfolio are Warner Brothers Histeria, Tommy Nelsons Crippled Lamb and Little Dogs on the Prairie. It also has to its credit some work done for Walt Disney. Padmalaya Telefilms, Mumbai is a unit of Indias largest listed media firm, Zee Telefilms. It is expected to make 104 cartoon episodes for US$ 14 million and distribute Mondos library for US$ 15 million. It has also inked some deals with British animation companies like Mallard Media and Ealing Animation. Nipuna Services Ltd, a division of Satyam Computer Services, has recently bagged a project worth US$ 8 billion from 4K Animation GmbH, a German animation company. This assignment is among the biggest deals struck by an Indian BPO in the animation space. It is also doing significant work for a New Zealand based company called Applied Gravity. The work includes animatronics models for New Zealand Theme parks as well as an animatronics dog for Animal Planets series K9 to 11. Jadoo Works, Bangalore is working on an animated film series Lord Krishna and the crime caper Bombay Dogs. It has done work for US animation studios like Wild Brain and Guardian Angel Animation (GaGa). Crest Communications, Mumbai, is a leading 3-d animation company and does a lot of work for American Studios. It came into limelight in 2002, when it won an Emmy for animation production work done for the animated series Jakers: The Adventures of Piggley-Winks. It is also to work on three features for Lions Gate Family Entertainment. Crest is also expected to produce and release Sylvester and the Magic Pebble based on the story by William Steig the creator ofShrek. Silvertoon Studio, Mumbai, is engaged primarily in subcontract work for U.S., French, and British studios, using digital ink, paint and compositing system. The Animation Industry in India though a late starter, is considered as one of the fastest growing segments of the entertainment and media industry. The Animation Industry in India gained significance as an outsourced destination for animation work due to low cost, skilled labour as its many advantages. In the recent past Indian animation companies and animation studios have been moving up the value chain to create their own intellectual property rights with Hanuman, Roadside Romeo, etc. and partnering with international studios to produce animated properties for the global audience. Though a majority of the work done by the animation industry in India is outsourced work, this is expected to change in the future with increased demand from the domestic entertainment industry. The Indian animation industry in 2007 was estimated at USD 0.31 billion and is expected to grow at CAGR 24% to reach USD 0.94 billion by 2012. (Source:Ficci-PwC Entertainment and Media report 2008). The Indian animation industry in 2007 was estimated at USD 0.31 billion and is expected to grow at CAGR 24% to reach USD 0.94 billion by 2012. (Source:Ficci-PwC Entertainment and Media report 2008) 1.2 Introduction to pestle analysis PESTLE Analysis is a simple, useful and widely-used tool that helps you understand the big picture of your Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological Legal and Environmental. As such, it is used by business leaders worldwide to build their vision of the future. It is important for these reasons: First, by making effective use of PESTLE Analysis, you ensure that what you are doing is aligned positively with the powerful forces of change that are affecting our world. By taking advantage of change, you are much more likely to be successful than if your activities oppose it; Second, good use of PESTLE Analysis helps you avoid taking action that is doomed to failure from the outset, for reasons beyond your control; and Third, PEST is useful when you start operating in a new country or region. Use of PESTLE helps you break free of unconscious assumptions, and helps you quickly adapt to the realities of the new environment. How to use the tool: PESTLE is a simple mnemonic standing for Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental To use this tool, follow this three stage process: Brainstorm the relevant factors that apply to you; Identify the information that applies to these factors; and Draw conclusions from this information. The following factors may help as a starting point for brainstorming (but make sure you include other factors that may be appropriate to your situation): Political: Government type and stability Freedom of press, rule of law and levels of bureaucracy and corruption Regulation and de-regulation trends Social and employment legislation Tax policy, and trade and tariff controls Environmental and consumer-protection legislation Likely changes in the political environment Economic: Stage of business cycle Current and project economic growth, inflation and interest rates Unemployment and labor supply Labor costs Levels of disposable income and income distribution Impact of globalization Likely impact of technological or other change on the economy Likely changes in the economic environment Socio-Cultural: Population growth rate and age profile Population health, education and social mobility, and attitudes to these Population employment patterns, job market freedom and attitudes to work Press attitudes, public opinion, social attitudes and social taboos Lifestyle choices and attitudes to these Socio-Cultural changes Technological Environment: Impact of emerging technologies Impact of Internet, reduction in communications costs and increased remote working Research and Development activity Impact of technology transfer Legal World legislation changes National legislation changes Prospects Current legislation home market Future legislation European/international legislation Regulatory bodies and processes Environmental regulations Employment law Consumer protection Industry-specific regulations competitive regulations Environmental Customer values Market values Stakeholder/ investor values Staff attitudes Management style Organisational culture Staff morale Staff engagement The PEST Analysis is a perfect tool for managers and policy makers, helping them in analyzing the forces that are driving their industry and how these factors will influence their businesses and the whole industry in general. Our product also presents a brief profile of the industry comprising of current market, competition in it and future prospects of that sector. Chapter-2 Objectives of the study The major objectives of the study are: To get the knowledge about the business environment of film and animation industry. To assimilate the factors which affects any industry. To enlarge the view of doing business in the present era. Chapter-3 Research and methodology Research methodology is the theoretical depiction of the process involved in the research work. It refers to the collection of data from various sources. This term paper deals with the PESTLE analysis of film and animation industry. For collecting information I have used two types of sources i.e. primary and secondary sources. Primary sources: The primary sources of this term paper includes Interaction with my teachers. Secondary sources: The main secondary sources for this term paper includes- Site visits. Document analysis (Reports and newspapers.) Data collected from various journals. Data collected from books. Chapter-4 PESTLE Analysis of Film and Animation industry Political factors affecting Film and Animation Industry: Tax in Indiasignifies the tax paid by the Film and Animation Industry in India. The entertainment tax in India is usually applicable for large-scale entertainment shows, private festivals that are sponsored, movie tickets, video game arcades, and amusement parks among others.All activities include commercial movie/theater shows, games, amusement parks, exhibitions, celebrity stage shows, any kind of sports such as horse racing, and exhibitions. The entertainment tax department looks after the tax payable for the entertainment activities being performed in various places across the country. The entertainment tax department is located in Delhi and works under the stipulation of The Delhi Entertainment and Betting Tax Act, 1996. The organizers or proprietors of the entertainment shows are responsible for the entertainment tax in India. They collect the tax from the sponsors and deposit it to the Government of India. One of the highest revenue earning sectors from tax in entertainment industry is cinema. With every ticket, a certain amount of tax is tagged which is paid while buying the movie tickets and is included in the price of the tickets. The entry tickets to any cinematographic exhibitions have the entertainment tax included in it, which is 25-30 percent. The entertainment department is a major source of revenue for the Government of India. It also has a great contribution towards the publicity of Indian arts that portrays ancient culture and various sports. This is done by granting tax-free benefits to the same. The organizers of any entertainment shows will have to seek the permission of the Entertainment Tax Department before putting up any commercial shows. The entertainment tax in India is levied upon the organizers or proprietors depending on the kind of shows being organized. There are a range of tax schemes for various entertainment programs. These are as follows: Tax schemes designed for amusement parks Tax-paid programs Programs based on tax exempted sectors Tax programs on cable television networks Tax for various invitee programs Tax on entertainment betting Tax on video parlors To alleviate the tax generating program, a series of technologies has been introduced in the entertainment tax department. For example, the computerized ticket booking system has been incorporated for booking movie tickets along with the online data transmission in the entertainment industry. The more advanced the entertainment industry is becoming the tax rate is increasing at a proportional rate. Customers mostly look for convenience and less hazardous tasks while going for any entertainment program and so faster access would definitely attract more customers. Economic Factors affecting Film and Animation Industry: Consistent commitment to economic reform over the last decade has spurred the steady growth of the Indian economy. The emphasis on creating an enabling environment for investment and the inherent potential of the Indian economy have together pushed Indias annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate beyond 8 percent. While Indias GDP ranks eleventh in the world in absolute terms, it ranks among the top five economies of the world when assessed in terms of purchasing power parity. It is the growing consuming class with the proclivity to spend that will drive the growth of the Indian entertainment industry. Adding to this positive outlook is the fact that the average Indian is getting younger and is showing a greater propensity to indulge and entertain himself. Moreover, there are over 20 million Indians living abroad who are increasingly opting for India-oriented entertainment, as the availability of such content increases. Globally, a clutch of international films with Indian content, themes and performers are receiving wide visibility and acclaim. This broad acceptance of Indian entertainment is likely to give a further fillip to the expansion of this industry. The emergence of the Indian middle class with greater earning power and a higher disposable income is one of the key factors that will drive the growth of the Indian entertainment sector. Demographic analysis clearly shows the evidence of this growth. The consumption indicates the continued progression of people into higher income and consumption segments. As the average Indian gets richer and his more compelling needs are met, his propensity to spend on discretionary items such as entertainment increases. Further, as his consumption of various goods and services rises, companies would try to reach out to him through more marketing and advertising. Higher demand and an increased investment would result in an expansion of the entertainment industry in the years to come. As the Indian entertainment market grows, it is essential to recognize the heterogeneous nature of the market. All too often, the specific appetite of certain segments such as the rural population, women and children, is under-estimated and their financial value proposition continues to be under-recognised. Companies and businesses that have managed to differentially cater to the varying segments of Indian population have benefited. As a corollary, the entertainment sector too has begun to witness the advent of a broader set of offerings which are aimed for specific segments: e.g. television channels for children. On the other hand, the childrens films genre, for instance, has yet to grow and mature in India. There is a case for a proactive and sustained targeting of specific, niche segments of the market. In fact, given the size and potential of Indias niche segments, niche may be a word which is likely to be replaced soon. As per industry estimates, the total advertising spend in India in 2004 was approximately INR 118 billion, a growth of 13.4 percent over the last year. However, India continues to have a low advertising spend to GDP ratios compared to other economies, underscoring the untapped potential. In 2004, the advertising spend for India stood at 0.50 percent of the GDP, up from 0.48 percent the previous year. This is expected to increase significantly due to rising consumerism and growing interest from global brands attracted by this huge and expanding market. Given the increasing number of media channels that consumers are exposed to, brands will have to advertise more frequently and across more channels to generate brand recall. As television channels have multiplied and the content available has become more diverse in the last decade, their viewership has increased, niche channels have emerged targeting specific demographic segments and the cost of advertising on television has reduced. While the broadcasters can dwell on this shared optimism, they must also recognize that advertising budgets are very sensitive to economic downturns. Advertising budgets are not only easily brought down, but the productivity of such expenses is also challenged. Companies are increasingly demanding their advertising agencies to link their fees to performance indicators such as sales increments. With increasing access to state-of-the-art technologies, addressability issues are being put to test, ther

Critical Issues In Community Care Social Work Essay

Critical Issues In Community Care Social Work Essay The purpose of this essay is to Critically examine an area of Community Care provision in mental health services. ideological, political and legislative frameworks will be taken into account, it will also examine the complex relationships between service user movements, professional bodies and the statutory, voluntary and independent sector services in the delivery of community care it will also identify and justify evidence of good practice in the provision of community care The system of community care was aimed to maintain the stability of the social order and to address the disparities and inconsistencies within the existing community care discourse. Mental health services became a part of the community care system early in the 17th century. With time, mental health in community care became an effective element of regulating the state of mental health across different population groups. Today, mental health community care is a two-tier system of community services, comprising health care and mental care provided to vulnerable populations in need for treating and monitoring various types of mental health conditions. The history of community care in the UK dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, when the Poor Law was adopted to make every parish responsible for supporting those who could not look after themselves (Mind 2010). Yet, it was not before the beginning of the 19th century (or 1808, to be more exact) that the County Asylums Act permitted county justices to build asylums supported by the local authorities to replace psychiatric annexes to voluntary general hospitals (Mind 2010). In 1879, the UK established the Mental Aftercare Association which worked on a comparatively small scale and focused on personal and residential care of the limited amount of mental ex-patients (Yip 2007). The association was further supplemented with three more voluntary associations that worked on a national scale and provided community care to mental outpatients (Yip 2007). Those organisations included the Central Association for Mental Welfare, the Child Guidance Council, and the National Council for Mental Hygiene (Yip 2007). Later in 1939 the Feversham Committee proposed amalgamation of all four voluntary organizations into a single system of mental health community care (Yip 2007). In 1890, the first general hospital clinic for psychiatric patients Was created at St. Thomas Hospital, while the World War I became the turning point in the improvement of health care facilities in the UK, giving rise to an unprecedented number of asylums and hospital facilities for mentally ill people (Yip 2007). It should be noted, that the first stages of mental health community care development was marked with the growing public commitment toward institutionalized care: throughout the 18th and the 19th centuries, cure and containment of mental illnesses in the U.K. and in Europe was provided in accordance with the principles of institutionalized care (Wright et al. 2008). The mental health care went in line in the development and proliferation of other institutional solutions, including houses of correction, schools, and prisons (Wight et al. 2008). The asylums rationale, first and foremost, lay in the belief that separation was in the interests of dangerous lunatics, giving them security and maximizing the prospects for cure (Wright et al 2008). Yet, those who ever appeared within such asylums had only one chance out of three to come out; the majority of mental health patients, regardless of the diagnosis, were destined to stay behind the asylum walls for the rest of their lives (Yip 2007 ). Medical professionals considered asylums as an effective means to isolate potentially dangerous patients from the rest of the community: asylums and isolation often served an effective way of investigating the reasons and consequences of mental health disturbances (Wright et al 2008). Many doctors viewed asylums and isolation as the sources of effective moral treatment for mentally ill (Wright et al 2008). Only by the beginning of the 19th century did professionals in medicine and social care come to recognize insanity as a mental illness and not as a product of sinful human nature; yet, years would pass before asylum residents would be given a slight hope to release themselves from the burden of isolation and torture (Wright et al. 2008). With the development of psychoanalysis in the 19th century, mental health became one of the issues of the national concern supported by the active development of psychopharmacology in the 20th century mental illness was finally explained in somatic terms (Wright et al. 2008). Psychopharmacology promised a relatively safe method of treating and alleviating mental health suffering, while the identity of psychiatry within the medical profession was finally restored (Wright et al 2008). Nevertheless, for many years and centuries, mental health community care remained a by-product of industrialized society development, which, under the pressure of the growing urban populations, sought effective means to maintain the stability of the social order. Because in conditions of the newly emerging economies lunatics and individuals with mental health disturbances were less able to conform to the labor market discipline and more apt to create disorder and disturbance in society, asylums were an e ffective response to the growing urban mass and the basic for maintain peace and stability in the new industrialized community (Goodwin 2007). The need for maintaining social order was an essential component of the community care ideology, with institutionalization and local provision support as the two basic elements of mental health care provision. Today, the provision of mental health community care services is associated with several issues and inconsistencies; many of the community care complexities that emerged early in the 19th century have not been resolved until today. Nevertheless, it would fair to say that under the influence of the social and scientific development, the provision of mental health community services has undergone a profound shift and currently represents a complex combination of health care and social care aimed to treat and support individuals with diagnosed mental health disturbances. In present day community care environments, mental health care provision exemplifies a complex combination of health care and social care. The former is the responsibility of the NHS, while the latter is arranged by local authority social services (Mind 2010). It should be noted, that the division of duties between medical establishments, local authorities, and social care professionals has always been one of the basic complexities in the development of mental health care in the U.K. (Wright et al. 2008). In 1954, the House of Commons was the first to emphasis inadequate resorting of mental health community services and to vote for the development of a community-based rather than a closed system of mental health institutions (Wright et al. 2008). Community services proposed by the House of Commons had to be available to everyone who could potentially benefit from them (Wright et al. 2008). As a result, deinstitutionalization became and remains one of the central policy debates within the mental health service provision discourse. Central to the argument for deinstitutionalization and the development of community-based services is the contention that the prognosis of patients is likely to improve as a result of discharge from mental hospitals, and that people with mental health problems already in community will benefit from remaining there rather than being institutionalized (Goodwin 2007). Social care providers in England claim that deinstitutionalization represents a new style of service provision and approach to mental illness which is better and more acceptable than traditional remote mental hospitals (Goodwin 2007). Since the beginning of the 1970s, mental health community care was associated with the treatment of mentally ill patients outside the asylums but, unfortunately, deinstitutionalization did not always lead to the anticipated results and is still one of the major policy debates. The ideology of deinstitutionalization in mental health community care failed and did not improve the provision of mental health services for several reasons. First, deinstitutionalization does not provide mental health patients with an opportunity to reintegrate with their community: being discharged from asylums, many mentally ill patients were transferred to general medical establishments and other facilities, including residential homes as a result, instead of community living, deinstitutionalization for these patients turned out to be a complex form of deinstitutionalization, while adequate funding of community services was constantly lacking (Wright et al. 2008). For this reason, the practical side of the deinstitutionalization policy proved to be less advantageous for the prevailing majority of asylums residents than it was claimed to be (Goodwin 2007). Second, the ideology of deinstitutionalization does not improve health outcomes for patients with mental problems. The current state of research suggests that the process of transferring mental health patients from one hospital to another results in negative health consequences and adverse mental health reactions, including significant deterioration of behaviors and greater problems with social activity (Goodwin 2007). The more complex are the issues with transferring mentally ill patients from and into prisons according to Fawcett and Karban (2007) the process, later called transinstitutionalisation, results in prison overcrowding and the loss of effective psychiatric care for those who are imprisoned. Today, deinstitutionalization as the ideological underpinning of mental health delivery does not work for patients but works against them. It does not improve the state of care provision and reflects in additional costs and adverse health outcomes. Nevertheless, the prevention of unw anted institutionalization is acknowledged as one of the basic principles of care provision (Gladman et al. 2007) and must become one of the basic elements of policy development and provision in community mental health. The third problem is the lack of outpatient monitoring: the ideology of deinstitutionalization in mental health delivery will not be effective and productive, unless policymakers and social workers have a possibility to monitor the destination of the discharged patients and their live in communities. Throughout the period between 1954 and 1994, the number of mental health hospital beds in the U.K. was reduced from 152000 to 43000 which, according to Wright et al. (2008) did not result in a reduction in the number of people treated. Not with standing that since 1997 the Government is the one solely responsible for the development and implementation of programmes of supervision and control regarding mentally ill patients, the quality of their discharge and monitoring leaves much room for improvement (Lehman 2007). The discharge process itself and the destination of the discharged patients represent the two most problematic areas of community care provision: the discharge process is oft en poorly planned, while a very little effort is put into monitoring their quality of life beyond asylums (Goodwin 2007). Discharged patients are believed to live and operate in the community, with their families and friends, but the real outcomes of the discharge into community is highly variable (Ritchie Spencer 2007). Of all patients discharged from mental hospitals, over 45 percent find themselves in residential homes, 7 percent are in locked facilities, and only 22 percent live independently or with their families (Goodwin 2007). The remainder are either homeless or untreated (Morse et al 2007). Deinstitutionalization in its current form and in the way the government implements it does not make outpatients automatically eligible for social care. In present day community care environments, the four basic measures predetermine the quality of outpatients with mental illnesses lives: sufficient material support, emotional support, sufficient care, and the presence of a well-performing social network within which they must be accepted (Goodwin 2007). These are the basic prerequisites for the successful outpatient reintegration with their Community. The only problem to be resolved is the need to develop a clear set of criteria, which will define and determine each patients right for social care services. Today, according to the basic provisions of the National Service Framework for Mental Health, all mentally ill individuals should have 24-hour access to local social and medical services to meet their needs (Mind 2009). These patients and individuals have the right for their needs to be assessed based on the results of the needs assessment social care providers will decide whether an individual is eligible for this particular type of social services (Mind 2009). Finally, deinstitutionalization of care does not provide any opportunity to properly and objectively assess the needs of patients. When developed, the deinstitutionalization ideology in mental health community care implied that all mental health patients would have similar community needs, but the idealistic interpretation of deinstitutionalization is far from reality. Today, needs assessment was and in one of the most problematic aspects of the social care provision for mentally ill. Despite the fact that needs assessment represents and reflects the major policy shift toward better quality of social care provision, social services do not always provide or have an opportunity to fully utilize their service potential and to meet the needs of the mentally ill individuals. According to Mind (2009), needs assessment compromises community care assessment, care programme approach assessment, mental health assessment, and carers assessment. Yet, there is still the lack of consensus on what constitutes need: social care providers tend to define need as the requirement of individuals to enable them to achieve acceptable quality of life and as a problem which can benefit from an existing intervention (Thornicroft 2007). It is not clear whether acceptable quality of life is the notion comprehensible to guarantee that all community needs of mentally ill patients are met (Barry Crosby 2007). More importantly, it is not clear who, when, and in what conditions should engage in the process of needs assessment: do social care providers possess enough education, training, and knowledge to conduct regular assessments? These are the issues which must be resolved to enhance the quality and efficiency of community care in the context of mental health services. Mental health and deinstitutionalization: still effective Despite the problems and failures of deinstitutionalization, community care for mentally ill individuals is effective and reliable, given that it leads to reduced social withdrawal, better social functioning, and increased participation in various pro-social activities (McGuire et al 2007). That, however, does not mean that mentally ill outpatients have better opportunities to find a job; rather, they either participate in specially designed workshops or return to the function of a house wife (Prot-Klinger Pawlowska 2009). Yet, some population groups require additional attention on the side of care providers. For example, in older populations, more than 55 percent of people with diagnosed schizophrenia were never offered appropriate psychological therapies and do not even have any out-of-hours contact number (Parish 2009). As a result, there must be a profound shift toward providing community care based on the need rather than based on the patient age (Parish 2009). People with lear ning disabilities represent the opposite end of the current problem continuum, and social care providers often either omit or neglect the needs of these patients (Thronicroft 2007). Several essential steps should be made to develop the quality of community care provision for the mentally ill. Conclusion First, community care providers must develop a single set of measures as a part of their needs assessment strategy to make sure that all community care providers operate as one, and use the same criteria of needs assessment in different socioeconomic groups. Second, special attention must be paid to the vulnerable populations that are often overlooked by the community care system, including older patients with mental health problems. Third, the principles of deinstitutionalisation require detailed consideration: more often than not, patients who are discharged from closed mental health facilities are transferred to other mental health hospitals or smaller mental health departments and wards, while the governments striving to reduce the number of mental health beds and specialists do not leave these patients any single chance to meet their health and social needs. The groups of patients, who will benefit most from the closure of the mental health institutions, have in many cases fared worst (Goodwin 2007). Finally and, probably, the most important, is that patients who are discharged from mental health institutions should be closely monitored and constantly supported. One of the main goals of the community care is to help out patients successfully reintegrate with their community. The destination of the discharged patients must become one of the social care priorities, and community care providers must engage outpatients in their social network, to ensure that all social and health needs of t hese individuals are met.