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the author from whom the license was obtained has retired; the company however holds worth £ 680

Information management

Student’s name

Affiliation

Course

Date

According to the textbook, information management is among the most critical functions of business success.

In modern world, business has become so competitive and for any business to be at the top then it must be ahead so as to bring new services/ product and features to the market as well as to the customers. When a business is not successful, it impacts the credibility of its brand having timely and high quality data which is an essential business asset. A properly designed data management assists in getting information in order to make correct decisions at the appropriate time, and enhance a fast response to the changes in one’s business environment at a minimum cost, with little mistakes thus leading to better business performance. The top management takes charges of the IT department and manages information quality from the business viewpoint. The management defines what information it needs so as to run the business effectively, when the information will be required and the quality standards it should be.

Evaluate the level of impact of IT / enterprise architecture on information management (e.g., the flow of information throughout the company / organization, etc.) within a company or industry of your choice.

Information technology is radically changing the business setting. Even though the business cultures and organizations strategies shape the use of IT business, it is frequent that the influence is stronger the other way round. IT considerably affects strategic decisions and creates chances and issues that managers require to discourse in the aspects of their business. A business that opens an open flow of information allows everyone in the organization to acknowledge the way the business is expected to be done. A company with kitchen ware products depends exclusively on the IT shop, service catalogues, offers and promotions are enhanced by IT establishing an open flow of information.

Next, determine at least one (1) obstacle or challenge that the IT organizational leader would face in order to support organizational information within the company or organization that you have chosen.   

The company’s main challenge is to accept and adapt to new changes. The business has become fond of offer maintenance, doing promotions in a manual form, store keeping in excel sheet within their working station. However, With the IT architecture of maintaining templates in the main place and auto populate, the present offers and promotions brings about change resistance from business users. They overcome through exclusive training and elevating the technical capabilities of business personnel as well as conducting cognizance conferences on online sales, B2B, B2C models.

According to the textbook, “at no time will a specific target architecture ever be achieved”. State the main reasons why the authors make this assertion and decide whether or not you agree with this assertion. Justify your response.

This is true, thus a simple web design has under gone severe architectural changes for over the last 20 decades, it is essential for changes to take place now and then so as to bring better technological features to the customers’ requirements.

References

Describe a specific web or mobile application’s purpose. How is it used? What changes has it brought about to its users? What are some likely future uses and enhancements?

Mobile application is getting very popular now days, with the new challenges in the world of technologies, there are several mobile applications available across many platforms for mobiles. This application helps users to communicate effective with their social circle and create awareness about their knowledge or understanding with the world easily. Mobile application are quick to use and easy to operate, there is no need of thorough understanding to use these application, anyone having mobile can download easily and start using the application.

[Astigul, 2010]

There are several mobile applications and for many devices such as for Android, Symbion and Java. As now days Android is mostly popular among new generation, so I took some of the application present on Android as follows:

Instagram

Facebook

Gmail Client

aDownloader

Swype Keyboard

Above applications are just for an example, and there are lots of applications available over the android software system. The Android system has completely change the technology world, and how the world thinks about mobiles, it is a new generation operating system form Google, which kicks the market very rapidly.

[Brian, 2009]

In this document we will explore the application of Instagram, which is a very good application for social communication with our friends and family, and it helps us by sharing and modifying the photos we click on our cell phones or we want to share through our cell phones.

Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, and then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. We’re building Instagram to allow you to experience moments in your friends’ lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos.

This application which provides us so many features and let us shares the photos rapidly with our known friends and families only does not cost us a single penny. So, the cost of this application is $0.00 and it is freely available over the mobile.

We love taking photos. We always assumed taking interesting photos required a big bulky camera and a couple years of art school. But as mobile phone cameras got better and better, we decided to challenge that assumption. We created Instagram to solve three simple problems:

Mobile photos always come out looking mediocre. Our awesome looking filters transform your photos into professional-looking snapshots.

There are many server available now days, such as facebook, twitter and many other social media, it connects them and let us share the photo on all of them with just a few clicks in this application.

Uploading photos took time and the experience of uploading photos is very clumsy and take much time, the process is smooth through this application and it helps you to organize photos effectively as well.

Instagram Uses:

This application can be used to modify the background of photos, the texture of photos, and putting any comments, date time and many other things over the photos.

This application can be used to click the photos as well, we can easily open the application by its icon present on our home screen of mobile, then it gives us an option either to open a photos already present on your mobile device, or you want to take a new photo, based on our selection it performs the activity and let us create the wonderful images. [Paul, 2008]

It becomes very easy to share the photos with Instagram, as we can modify the photos according to the patterns available in it, which will enhance the photo style further, and then we can easily share photos among our friends on Facebook, twitter, tumblr and many other social networking sites supported by Instagram.

It lets you connect your social networking accounts such as Facebook, twitter and others once, and then for next further request it processes the request internally and stores your information to always connect using Instagram.

Instagram has really helped users across the world, and they can now share their imaginations, thoughts and wonderful ideas using images or photos across their friends and families.

It allows users to apply digital filters to photos and apply their own creativity to it with minimal efforts and learning.

It allows you to create your own profile of instagram, which your friends and family members can access to obtain information about you.

You can update status to any social networking site by adding photos through this application.

[Astigul, 2010]

Changes for Users

Before Instagram, to share photos on multiple social networking sites, users need to visit all of them and their status will be visible separately, but with the help of Instagram, it can be managed easily and independently of different social networking system available.

Photos status, tags and messages can be organized easily into this system and no need to view it separately.

User can view and modify the images by changing its effects and background if necessary and according to their taste.

Upload is faster and easier.

Future Enhancements

There are many changes comes in applications from time to time and it leads the development of application to be robust and keep an eye on the changing market. This way company’s can easily create awareness in the market with their newer changes and effective replacement of their previous features. From my point of view, company should now focus more on connecting the instagram as an Offline application to users mobile, where they can store and create the photos even if no internet connectivity is present, if the user got internet connectivity then they can just upload the photos to different social networking site by just clicking once to upload it.

[Brian, 2009]

References

Astigul Astas, 2010, Analysis of Current Mobile Marketing Applications

Brian Fling, 2009, Mobile Design and Development

Paul Golding, 2008, Next Generation wireless applications

Accountability.

Allen, Dawson, Wheatley and White (13) argues that diversity management programs cannot be successful without holding the managers accountable for implementing its goals through performance management and rewards system. In order to enhance accountability an organization could consider making managers’ performance ratings and compensation dependent on their success in achieving diversity-related goals. Such a move motivates the employees to become personally involved in achieving the diversity goals of the organization. This strategy has become used by the federal government whereby the appraisal criteria of the senior executives depends on how they contribute to the agency’s EEO program. This strategy has motivated the senior executives in the federal government to undertake initiatives such as implementing EEO requirements, and developing zero tolerance for discrimination.

In order to encourage accountability the organization could take some deliberate measures. The first measure is to establish executive-level diversity councils chaired and composed of senior line managers. Each manager should be responsible of ensuring diversity initiatives are fulfilled in his or her line of authority. In addition, managers should be held accountable for developing a work force that mirrors the demographic make-up of the available internal and external labor market.

Participation of the minority-owned based suppliers

Although diversity programs mainly target the minority employees, minority-owned businesses should also be brought on board. Supplier-diversity programs communicate to the community that the organization is committed to pursuing diversity. This initiative is more likely to become successful if the organization establishes a policy aimed at encouraging the participation of minority suppliers.

Evaluation

Although in the last decades organization have embraced diversity management through initiatives such as education, training, communication training, career planning, performance and accountability, cultural-change, employee involvement, they still lag behind when it comes to evaluation programs. Evaluation of the diversity programs is imperative in order to ascertain whether the program has been successful or not. In addition, the evaluation helps to measure the nature of return on investment compared to the costs involved in diversity activities.

Quantitative and qualitative tools are used to evaluate the effectiveness of diversity initiatives. A simple way would be to use employee surveys in order to determine their perceptions. The data collected can then be used to gauge the progress made from the point when the organization began the diversity initiative. Surveys could be used to measure outcomes such as turnover rates, and retention.

Another tool that could be utilized is the 360-degree feedback process. This tool allows management to obtain information related to diversity issues, from the employees. The information collected is then utilized by the top management to improve the diversity program. Another prominent method is the focus group. Just like the 360-degree process, focus groups are used to gather information from the employees about the progress of the diversity program. Other popular tools include benchmarking, employee feedback, informal group feedback, employee attitude surveys, peer reviews, diversity-specific surveys and customer feedback. Unlike the other tools, customer feedback aims to determine whether the needs of the customers are being met by the company’s products and services.

Although evaluation is an important activity, it is important to note that some components of diversity initiatives are hard to assess. The first component is the impact of the program on the profitability of the organization. It is hard to assess this component because the bottom line performance of an organization is influenced by many factors which makes it is hard to isolate specific diversity initiatives that caused an increase in profitability. Secondly, it is difficult to assess the return-on-investments of diversity initiatives. Finally, it is also hard to hard to evaluate behavior changes, employee attitudes and internal readiness.

Although evaluation is an important part of the implementation of diversity in an organization it is disheartening to note that companies have not appreciated the use of metrics to measure the effectiveness of diversity initiatives. Several reasons have been advanced to explain why companies have not established evaluation mechanisms. Firstly, organizations prefer not to spend money on the evaluation exercise. Secondly, organizations fear that the data collection may reveal systematic data, hence exposing the organization to legal challenge. Finally, there is a strong feeling that diversity management is associated with positive outcomes and so organizations that have well-defined diversity initiatives find it unnecessary to carry out an evaluation.

Although organizations may not be willing to commit more resources on evaluating the success of the diversity program, such an attitude may actually lead to wastage of resources. There are several steps that an organization should observe while conducting the evaluation exercise. The first step is to form an evaluation team. The team should be composed of members with measurement expertise and a member of internal legal counsel. The team should operate under the leadership of a senior manager. The senior manager should help the team to identify meaningful metrics. After forming the team, the next step is to identify metrics. Some of the metrics that could prove helpful are: measuring the current demographic profile of the organization, workflow statistics, and employee opinion data. To measure the changes in the organization culture, Arthur (497) suggests that organization should use innovate data collection methods. The final step is to carry out the evaluation. During the evaluation process, an analysis of the issues that are unique to the majority group members should be noted. These issues should then be addressed in order to gain support from majority group members.

References

Arthur, M. (2003). Share price reactions to work-family initiatives: an institutional

perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 497–505.

Barker, S., and Hartel, H. Intercultural service encounter: An exploratory study of customer experiences, Cross-cultural Management: An Int. J. 11 .1(2004): 3-14.

Bassett-Jones, N. The paradox of diversity management, creativity and

innovation. Creativity and Innovation Management, 14(2005): 169-175.

Benschop, Y. . Pride, prejudice, and performance: Relations between HRM, diversity

and performance. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12(2011): 1166–81

Campbell, J.D. Changing a cultural icon: The academic library as a virtual

destination. Educause Review, 41(2006): 16-30.

Chang, S., and Tharenou, P. Competencies needed for managing a multicultural

workgroup. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 42 (2004): 57-74.

Chow, I.H.S., and Crawford, R.B. Gender, ethnic diversity, and career

advancement in the workplace: The social identity perspective. SAM Advanced

Management Journal, 69(2004): 22-32.

Greenholtz, J. Assessing cross-cultural competence in transnational education:

The Intercultural Development Inventory. Higher Education in Europe, 25(2000): 411-416.

Monsters Under The Bed

Name

Institution

Many people would not expect that at my age, and as a parent, I would still believe in monsters residing under my bed. However, this is not the case since I still face the fears of having a monster living in the house. Growing up as a child, my mother never gave me a clear normal insight about monsters being in my bedroom. In fact, she encouraged me to believe that monsters under my bed are real and out to grab me by my leg. My mother never denied that there were monsters under my bed. In turn, this tuned my mind to believing that the monsters are real creatures. I lived through my childhood being meticulous every time I went to switch off the lights in my room. The light switch neared the door, and this made me walk across the room towards it. After flipping it, I would take three long strides, and I would dive on to the mattress back to bed. As long as I made it across my room without looking down, everything was in order.

I avoided looking down every time, a strategy that I made perfect use of to help me get past the monster’s long arms, which I speculated were out trying to grab my leg. In addition, as long as I was under my bedding, I found it safe through the night and the monster could not reach me. As I was growing up, I learnt that monsters did not exist under my bed; however, the situation was not getting any better. This is because I still believed in monsters being in my room and surprisingly could not offer solid evidence to my son about their inexistence.

Following my son’s maturity and questioning about monsters under his bed, I could not bring myself to look under his bed. This way, I would prove to him that the monsters do not exist. Instead, I would assure him that the monsters were not there once he asked about their presence under his bed. Nonetheless, at the back of my mind, I still had a strong belief that monsters under the bed still thrived. I find it hard to believe that monsters under the bed do not exist since they play a vital role in my life. This is caused by the fact that I identify similarities between real life situations and the monsters living under my bed; thus, it becomes utterly difficult getting over the belief that there are such monsters residing in my bedroom.

In my life, I always compare problems to these monsters that supposedly exist in my bedroom. Similar to these monsters, life’s troubles also tend to pull one down. For example, a debt will always seem to be a hurdle in my life and oppose me from making significant positive financial developments. On the other hand, the fear of monsters grabbing me by the ankle will always be there, and since my mother never told me about their inexistence, I will always see them as part of my life. Being true to my son is another discouraging factor that keeps my mind engaged in believing the existence of monsters under my bed. Since I cannot come to terms with the fact that monsters under the bed do not exist, I cannot convince my son of their inexistence. Instead, I plan on taming the monster or leaving my son to figure out means of coping with the monster under his bed. Since I never received any significant teachings concerning such monsters, I prefer leaving my son to take a similar path in his life.

Module 7 Lecture Notes – Social Equity in Public Administration

Social Equity

In the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin wrote, “If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin”

Governments at all levels are in part responsible for many of the glaring inequities we see today and should therefore lead the way to solutions

Public policies adopted over time at the federal, state, and local levels have created and exacerbated many of the inequalities that our communities are struggling with today

Social Equity – Theoretical Argument

Theoretical Argument

Reasoning: A service can be well managed, efficiency and economical but we must ask, well managed for whom? Efficient for whom? Economical for whom? We have generally assumed a convenient oneness with the public, and have not focused our attention or concern to the issue of variations in social and economic conditions. It’s of great convenience, both theoretically and practically to assume that Citizen A is the same as Citizen B and that they both receive public services in equal measure. This assumption may be convenient, but it is obviously both illogical and empirically inaccurate

Frederickson: A public administration that fails to work for changes which try to redress the deprivation of minorities will eventually be used to repress those minorities

Essence of Social Equity – 1st Dimension

Two Dimensions

1st Dimension: the definition and analysis of social equity

Definition: The fair, just and equitable management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract, and the fair and equitable distribution of public services, and the implementation of public policy, and the commitment to promote fairness, justice, and equity in the formation of public policy (Academy, 2000)

It is egalitarianism in action – the principle that each citizen, regardless of economic resources or personal traits, deserves and has a right to be given equal treatment by the political system (Shafritz and Russell, 2002)

Essence of Social Equity – 1st Dimension

In contrast to equal treatment for all, equity proposes that benefits be greater for those most disadvantaged (Denhardt, 2004)

To be sure, many sectors of society must be involved with a comprehensive response effort, but the administrative aspects associated with social equity are prominent. Within this mandate, strategies must recognize some obvious realities

Public administration should be viewed as the discipline that ensures fairness; however, saying that is insufficient. One must verity its adequacy and confirm that it works well.

Social equity indicators can help focus the attention of policymakers, staff and those governed to the quality of social equity in each community. These indicators should be part of the accounting frameworks of government, which is as important as the financial and performance indicators emphasized today

Equity may be inherently inefficient under a strict governmental performance definition. As part of an overall framework of costs to the community and over a long period of time, however, its productivity and assistance in creating a sustainable and healthy community can convince even the stickiest of budget experts

Essence of Social Equity – 2nd Dimension

1. 2nd Dimension: the normative essence of social equity that is focused on the institutional structures that continue to promote social inequities

2. Empirically speaking, the essence of social equity in public administration is almost exclusively focused on disparities that exist along certain dimensions, such as race/ethnicity, gender, and income.

3. Whether the topic is education, housing, employment, health, transportation, or poverty, there are two clear and dominant trends

a. Racial minorities tend to fare worse than their white counterparts (Wooldridge and Gooden, 2009)

b. Those who are in poverty fare worse than the middle class and the wealthy (Wooldridge and Gooden, 2009)

c. Example: Stark statistics reported in a Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies show that

i. Borrowers who are African American, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska native are more likely than white borrowers to have subprime loans of each type – home purchase, home refinance, and home improvement.

ii. In 2006, more than one-half (52.9 percent) of African Americans and nearly half of Hispanics (47.3 percent) who acquired home-purchase loans had subprime loans. This is contrast to the fourth (26.1 percent) of American Indian or Alaska Native homebuyers also purchased homes with subprime loans (Leigh and Huff, 2007)

d. In the US, inequities in wealth are also pronounced

i. “The enormous wealth gap between white families and Blacks and Hispanics grew larger after the most recent recession

ii. White households had a median net worth of greater than $88,000 in 2002 (Armas, 2004)

a. 11 times more than Hispanics

b. 14 times more than Blacks

e. “No large government agencies have been established of which the primary mission is achievement of racial-ethinc equality (Waldo, 1972)

Normative Essence of Social Equity

The normative essence of social equity identifies, analyzes, or replicates organizations, policies, or programs that have been successful in significantly reducing or eliminating racial inequities

Example: Using a geographical information system (GIS) mapping, a locality examined the transport time from multiple census tracks to the nearest emergency hospital. They found a clear pattern of racial disparities.

On the whole, residents who live in white majority census tracks have shorter hospital transport times than those who live in majority-minority census tracks.

After discovering this, the locality starts a “15 minutes to health care” initiative.

Within 5 years, the locality is committed to ensuring that all residents live within 15 minutes of a health-care facility

Accomplished this through building new roads, economic development incentives, etc.

The locality is successful in eliminating social inequities in hospital transport times.

The key point is that the organization (the locality) prioritizes the examination and elimination of social inequities

Normative Essence of Social Equity

It advances the discussion beyond individuals and focuses on organizational or structural actions.

It examines how an organization or system – particularly a public organization or system – undertakes a serious examination of its current practices and policies, demonstrates organizational commitment to addressing racial disparities, or has modified organizational behavior or practice specifically for the purpose of reducing racial disparities in client outcomes

Essentially, the normative essence of social equity becomes an effective learning tool for agencies and policymakers because it documents how equity was achieved and produces rigorous models for others to consider.

Government agencies and policy makers are eager to achieve social equity within their spheres of influence

Evolution of Social Equity

Social equity in public administration is linked to the 1971 book by John Rawls, titled A Theory of Justice

Rawls developed a principle of justice as ‘fairness” in which “each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for all” (p.250).

Argued that a modern theory of government should equalize the distribution of social and economic advantages.

Challenges us to remove our “veil of ignorance” and to use our innate sense of justice to derive principles of equity without the bias of knowing our own situation”

This type of government moved beyond “ballot box democracy” to include equity and justice in the availability of public services (Frederickson, 1980)

This makes social equity a core concern of public administration

Minnowbrook 1

While the concept of social equity can be traced back to the writings of Aristotle, Plato, and Wilson, within modern public administration, social equity was brought to the forefront of public administration discourse at the first Minnowbrook conference

The first Minnowbrook conference was convened by Dwight Waldo, after observing the shortcomings of academic discourse surrounding the future of public administration. He described it as “old men talking to old men about irrelevancies”. The Minnowbrook conference was organized to allow young voices in the field discuss what they believed to be the most important issues facing public administration.

Minnowbrook 1 – Topics

Waldo asked the attendees to “make a broad and synoptic approach to the discipline of public administration”

Topics Discussed

Anti-positivism, dissatisfaction with the state of the discipline, personal morality and ethics, innovation, improved human relations, client centered responsiveness, and social equity

Minnowbrook 1 occurred with the backdrop of the 1960s, when (similar to today) a national conversation was occurring focused on civil rights, racial inequality, and injustice.

Minnowbrook I attendees noted, “A government built on a Constitution claiming the equal protection of the laws had failed in that promise. Public administrators, who daily operate the government, were not without responsibility” (Frederickson, 1990, p.228).

Minnowbrook 1 – New Public Administration

Minnowbrook I served as the foundational basis for New Public Administration (NPA)

NPA rejected the idea that administrators are value neutral and recognized a constellation of five normative core values that, although legitimate, can often be conflictual. Values include:

Responsiveness

Worker and citizen participation in decision making

Social Equity

Citizen choice

Administrative responsibility

New Public Management calls for public administrators to become an instrument for achieving social equity

Includes an array of value preferences, organizational design preferences, and management style preferences

This Week’s Readings

The State of Social Equity in PA

“During the past thirty years, as social equity has grown in importance in public administration, there is an irony: Americans have become less equal in virtually all aspects of social, economic, and political life.” (Frederickson, 2005, p. 31)

The State of Social Equity in PA

For the first several generations of the field of public administration it was simply assumed that good administration of government was equally good for everyone

Social uprisings of the 1960s made it clear that this was not the case

Public administrators could not logically claim to be without responsibility for some practices that resulted in obvious unfairness and injustice, so an argument emerged for social equity as an added ethic in public administration

Became the “third pillar” of public administration

“The ethical and equitable treatment of citizens by administrators is at the forefront of concerns in public agencies. Reinforced by changing public attitudes, the reinventing government movement and civil rights laws, the new public administration has triumphed after a quarter century. Now it is unthinkable (as well as illegal), for example, to deny someone welfare benefits because of their race or a job opportunity because of their sex. Social equity today does not have to be some fought for by young radicals as administered by managers of all ages” (Shafritz and Russel, 1990)

Eye roll

Social Equity – The Early Years

Early ears of social equity in public administration

Emphasis on race and gender in employment, democratic participation, and service delivery

Three obligations of social equity (Shafritz and Russell, 1990)

Obligation to administer the laws they work under in a fair manner

Interpreting obligations to advance social equity is to feel bound to proactively further the cause – to seek to hire and advance a varied workforce

The government can only go so far in forcing social equity. But there is no limit to the amount of inspiration it can provide to encourage people to do the right, decent, and honorable thing

Equity is now broadly defined to include

Race, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, certain mental and physical conditions, language, and variations in economic circumstances

Income and Political Inequality

Frederickson makes a point to single out income inequality and political power inequity as a big problem for the future of public administration

Rising economic inequality is accompanied by other forms of democratic privation

Highly unequal voices in political affairs and government processes that are much more responsive to the privileged than to other Americans

Disparities in participation mean that the concerns of lower or moderate-income Americans, racial and ethnic minorities, and legal immigrants are systematically less likely to be heard by government officials.

In contrast, the interests and preferences of the better-off are conveyed with clarity, consistency, and forcefulness.

Walking the Social Equity Talk

When it comes to social equity, we should think globally and act locally. All important matters of social equity are local, in the sense of consequences.

Jurisdictional fragmentation

Concentration of ethnic minorities in low-income urban areas has a spiraling effect on inequality as the basic elements of opportunity – access to good schools, jobs, transportation, housing, and safety have become largely unavailable to residents of these neighborhoods.

Public administrators at the local level are increasingly in a position to either influence policies or implement already established policies in a way that ameliorates some of the effects of poverty and opens opportunities

Walking the Social Equity Talk

Everyone within public administration should engage in the war of ideas

We must relentlessly ask the so-called second question.

First question: Is an existing or proposed public program effective or good?

Second question: For whom is this program effective or good?

The war of ideas is not necessarily won by good ideas

Determination, organization, money, and persistence behind an idea are likely to win the war

Walking the Social Equity Talk

When public administration is practiced at the street level it employs a form of social equity

Street-level bureaucrats (e.g., police officers, teachers, social workers) face scarce resources, limited time, ambiguous expectations, and conflicting rules

To manage their way through these limitations, they apply a form of public service delivery and distribution based on what is described as “client worthiness”

Client worthiness – when public employees affix particular identities to their clients based on past experiences

Walking the Social Equity Talk

Senior public administrators and those who study public administration are part of the elite, the privileged

PA research can be patronizing

Researchers must look after the interests of those who are denied opportunities or are disadvantaged regardless of their competence

Walking the Social Equity Talk

It’s time for moral indignation, for passion and anger

Inequality is a moral problem, and if you are convinced that it is a real problem in America today, you should not be afraid to say to – and not be afraid to recommend whatever policies or programs you believe might make a real lasting difference

Social Equity: It’s Legacy, Its Promise (Guy and McCandless, 2012)

“Social equity is rooted in the idea that each person is equal and has inalienable rights. Because of America’s unique blend of social, religious, economic, and political characteristics, we value this concept despite, or perhaps because of, the simultaneous tensions of a capitalist economy, which requires inequality, set within a democratic constitutional system, which assumes equality.” (Guy and McCandless, 2012, p. 55)

Equity vs. Equality

While equality can be converted into a mathematical measure in which equal parts are identical in size or number, equity is a more flexible measure allowing for equivalency while not demanding exact sameness

Equity vs. Equality – Example

Civil Rights Legislation vs. Affirmative action

14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 and provides for equal protection under the law. The criterion considers whether group members have been historically discriminated against, have a highly visible trait (like skin color), or have little to no power to protect themselves in the political process

Affirmative action was a lever to advance equity, such that all else being equal, members of an underrepresented group would have priority in the hiring process to rectify prior exclusion.

Affirmative action continues to receive pushback

Policy initiatives that advance equality are less controversial than those designed to advance equity.

While equality creates parallel lines on a ledger sheet, equity changes power relationships that our society have become used to

Social Equity vs. Productivity

Both look at inputs

Equity looks at inputs in terms of the sources which they were derived (income, socioeconomic status, geographic groups)

Equity targets the distribution of services and their impact on different populations

Productivity measures look at the dollar value of inputs

Productivity measure focus on the quantity or quality of outputs

Dyckman (1971): Measures of social equity must ACCOMPANY measures of productivity to assess the adequacy of public services

Productivity

Chitwood 1974: Argued that government activities focusing on productivity had overlooked the importance of social equity and the administrative obligation to practice distributive equity

Importance of

Providing services like education, police, and fire protection to those who are unable to obtain them through market mechanisms in the quantity or quality that is essential

Providing services (education, job training) so that everyone has an equal opportunity to compete for and occupy all positions in society

Providing services that ensure people will receive the benefits to which they are entitled under law (public defender) and outreach activities that notify them of their rights to program benefits

Providing services (food stamps and housing) so that everyone can meet minimum survival needs

Achieving Social Equity in Productivity

To achieve this, Chitwood argued that distributive functions should occur in one of three patterns:

equal services

proportional services (services delivered in amounts that reflect an increasing function of a specified characteristic), or

unequal services that correspond to relevant differences

Or rather – the quantity of services provided should vary directly with the specified characteristic possessed by the client

Upholding Equity

It had traditionally been the courts that acted as change agents, rather than administrators

Upholding affirmative action

Class action suits against organizations that would not hire people of color (looking at you law enforcement)

This was reinforced by the attention equity gathered within public administration

Studies were commissioned to evaluate program formulation, results, efficiency, and equity

Social indicators were used to highlight service gaps

These studies brought attention to

the need for participative decision making

equal employment opportunity

Proponents argued that merit and equity were compatible

By insisting that any selection method measure the ability of a person to perform a specific job, appointing authorities would remain faithful to the intent of civil service laws and to the civil rights act of 1964

This evened the playing field, because other characteristics such as race or gender couldn’t be used to filter candidates into or out of the applicant pool

Compound Theory of Equality

There are simple individual equalities, meaning one person one vote (Kant)

Segmented equality – equality within segments but not equality between segments

Block equalities – equality between groups and subclasses

Domains of equality – goods, services, or benefits are distributed

Equalities of opportunity – equal opportunity for a job if both have the same probability of getting a job and the same talent (means

Value of equality – only the individual can judge which or what pleases them

*Rule-based distribution of shares (equity) is based on non-neutral judgments about each person’s needs

*Example: giving more police protection to someone who has been threatened than someone who has not

The Social Equity Lens – Socioeconomic Class

Social equity is a habit of mind for the decision maker, an administrative goal that can be measured, AND a lens through which needs are identified and processes are grounded

Social problems through a social equity lens

Socioeconomic class

American Dream – those who study hard, work hard, and invest well will pull themselves up from their bootstraps and achieve all that is good in a consumer culture

DiIulio (2004): Fount that the dream is more a myth than a reality

Tracked 6000 people born between 1942 and 1972

Of the 42% of people born into the bottom of the income distribution, only 7 percent rose to the top tier

Upward mobility is the measure of success, and policies are designed with the assumption that if one works hard they can achieve the American dream

Why is this rare?

Global economic restructuring

Poor job opportunities

Inadequate transportation

Education/training

Looking at this issue through a social equity lens allows us to identify blocks and establish goals to reduce the impact of wealth on upward mobility

The Social Equity Lens – Schools and Transportation

Safe Schools

When property taxes fund schools, lower income communities don’t receive the same level of resources as high-income communities

Segregation continues…

Apartheid educational system

Inequity in schools impacts inequity in other aspects of life

Without a good education, how are students expected to succeed?

If the resources for primarily Black schools are based on the income of people who live in the neighborhood, who have been struggling with inequitable hiring practices just compounds the inequity and ensures that that group of people can’t pull themselves out of poverty

Public Transportation

Without public transport, disadvantages have little access to job opportunities in other parts of the city

Public provision of highways for vehicles but not the provision of light rail and buses advantages one set of citizens over another

The Social Equity Lens – Healthcare

Health care

Which citizens merit access to care?

Adequacy of health programs for the underinsured and poor are lacking. They have:

Piecemeal services

Long waits

Outrageous costs

Incomprehensible regulations

Looking at this through a social equity lens allows policy makers to debate the issues in terms of how access can be ensured in a fair and just manner

Social Equity Indicators

When equity outcomes are measured with the same gravitas as other operations, like the number of cases processed or the number of home loans issued, this positions equity as an essential component of public performance

Indicators

Procedural Fairness – due process, equal protection, and equal rights

Access – distributional equity

Quality – level of consistency across services delivered to all constituents

Equitable outcomes – the degree to which programs and policies produce an equitable impact for those served

Challenges for the Future

Social equity has a capacity to frame deliberations, emphasize fairness, and monitor outcomes

The penalty for not attending to social equity issues is that in its absence there is civil unrest and political instability

Social equity is a moral imperative of the field

Administrator commitments

Procedural Justice/Fairness

Equity in the availability of services and benefits

Equity in the process of providing services and benefits

Equal level of outcomes for all groups

Guarantees of a place at the table to express views on policy choices and service delivery

Social equity falls naturally within the purview of public administration, for government is the entity of last resort when the market and social dynamics create problems that do not resolve on their own

Improving Community Relations: How Police Strategies to Improve Accountability for Social Equity Affect Citizen Perceptions (McCandless, 2018)

Social equity scholarship is increasingly examining how accountability for social equity is achieved, or how public agencies improve public services’ access, outcomes, processes, and quality

Social equity accountability: how administrators take steps to promote fairness

Admitting social equity issues

Making equity a priority equal to efficiency

Measuring and tracking progress

Giving everyone a place at the table

Establishing community partnerships

These steps enhance answerability and improve perceptions of legitimacy

Accountability in Policing

Policing is a great example of the need for greater accountability with social equity

Minorities often experience inequitable experiences with police, whether being stopped, searches, and arrested in greater proportions or being killed while unarmed

Police often acknowledge these issues and take steps to address inequities

Engaging in community policing

Undertaking performance measurement related to equity

Expanding ethics training

Improving Community Relations

Research Question: How do strategies of police agencies that foster accountability for social equity affect citizen perceptions?

What did we learn?

What happens in a police-citizen interaction is a microcosm of discourses on the meaning of fairness, particularly whether agencies admit issues, which is the beginning of social equity accountability

This is dependent on how officials socially construct the meaning of their experiences and the experiences of others

The decision to include more citizen decision-making, or the degree to which everyone is given a place at the table affects what police ultimately do.

When officials position equity and safety as competing goals, levels of citizen inclusion drop.

Citizens appear included more when groups mobilize to air grievances and when officials support inclusion as a way to improve practice.

When city-level groups cooperate to define what equity means in practice, departments engage in practices that positively affect citizen perceptions.

When discourses favor officials, the results appear to be more negative perceptions

KEY TAKEAWAY: Social equity accountability requires some redrawing of power relationships so historically marginalized groups can exercise their voice.

Does Coproduction of Public Services Support Government’s Social Equity Goals? The Case of US State Parks (Gazley et al., 2020)

Article focus: Are benefits distributed equitably to service users when philanthropy is used to underwrite or substitute for public services

There’s a connection between community wealth and the capacity of government-supporting charities

Strong relationships have been found between community wealth and the presence of a school-supporting charity

Also, how many dollars per student were raised

These equity concerns are intensified as scholars have found that these government-supporting charities may crowd out public resource investment in corresponding services at the city level

Poorer and more deprived communities may get the worst of both worlds because of the existence of these government-supporting charities

Must consider the research that demonstrates connections between human health outcomes and access to green space and the natural environment.

Coproduction

Coproduction – the involvement of multiple groups or individuals in the delivery of public services

Coproduction activity provided by volunteers and donors to public parks charities is a response to government “failure,” whereby the service is not sufficiently popular to be provided by public funds but is still able to generate niche support

In these instances, private citizens with resources and motivation may step in to offer the necessary collective action

Coproduction has been regarded as a central mechanism for improving public service delivery through citizen participation and involvement since the early 1980s.

Benefits

Mechanism for citizen voice and civic engagement

The predicted outcomes are two forms of philanthropic failure.

Philanthropic Insufficiency

Philanthropic insufficiency: when voluntary contributions do not adequately meet demand in the absence of taxation authority

In some cases, this is tackled by allowing the charities to collect user fees/entrance fees instead of using tax dollars

In other cases, charities may be financially unstable and unreliable especially during economic downturns

Neither situation supports a socially equitable outcome

Either restricts user access on the basis of ability to pay (no longer a public good)

Or they rely on inequalities in community wealth to coproduce the service

Philanthropic Particularism

Philanthropic particularism: the potential ability of a private sector service provi

Module 8 Signature Assignment

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Module 8 Signature Assignment

Introduction

Globalization, advanced technology, competitive pressures, and changing workforce, among other factors, have prompted business organizations and their employees to embrace and manage planned change (Stouten et al., 2018). Planned organizational change involve the intentional activities that move an company from its current state to a desired future state. Stouten et al. (2018) reveal that organizations today often find it challenging to make meaningful, sustainable changes. As such, proper planning must be done to ensure successful organizational change. This paper presents plans and strategies to be incorporated in the current organization. It begins by providing plan for employee performance appraisals in the customer service and accounting departments of the current organization. Further, it outlines how the managers’ performance will be measured. Further, strategies to train leaders to engage in diversity are discussed. Also, the paper includes strategies to impact the culture of the current organization, and innovative and future trends that will assist with plans and strategies to be incorporated. The paper also presents a brief discussion of one major challenge and one major opportunity anticipated with the new leadership once the two organizations merge and what must be done about the challenge and the opportunity to ensure success in the organization.

Plan for Employee Performance Appraisals

After the two organizations are merged, there will be a need to perform employee performance appraisals to assess the employees’ level of performance. The goal of performance appraisal in business organizations is to provide feedback to employees, allocate rewards, allow for employees’ self-development, and gather the information that can be used for managers’ personal decisions, such as to guide in developing training and development programs (Oyomikun, 2017). Managers from the two organizations will be expected to conduct employee performance appraisals quarterly. Before the managers start conducting employee performance appraisals, they will first be trained on how to go about it. The following plan will be used for training.

Setting training Goal

The first step will include setting the goal for training the managers. The goal of training managers in the accounting and customer service departments will be to enlighten them on how to perform employee performance appraisals so as to allow the new organization to recognize the achievement of its employee, their weaknesses, and future potential.

Training on appraisal methods

The managers will be trained on at least five most commonly used modern performance appraisal methods such as Management by Objectives, 360-Degree Feedback, and Assessment Center Method. During the training, managers will be informed about the benefits and challenges associated with each appraisal method. Also, they will be informed of the guidelines for implementing each performance appraisal method.

Explain Common Appraisal Mistakes

After training on the most effective appraisal methods, managers will be educated on the most common appraisal mistakes done by managers and how these mistakes can be avoided. Such mistakes include managers evaluating an employee favorable because they share similar cultural background instead of what the employee has accomplished. Other common errors include recency effects (rating employees based on what happened during the past evaluation) and central tendency (rating all employees in the middle).

Explaining Ways to Deliver Feedback After Assessment

After enlightening managers on the best performance appraisal methods and common appraisal mistakes and how to avoid them, managers will be trained on ways of delivering feedback to the employees. Managers will be encouraged to ensure that their feedback focuses mostly on the areas that need to be improved instead of dwelling on the positive side. According to Tahiri et al. (2020). An employee performance appraisal should focus mainly on areas that an employee needs to improve.

Explaining Post Appraisal Actions

Lastly, managers will be educated on the actions to be taken after performance appraisal. This may include the two types of corrective actions. One of the corrective actions includes putting out fires. This action is immediate and involves dealing predominantly with symptoms. Another corrective action entails delving into the causes of deviations between actual performance and standard performance and seeking to adjust the difference permanently. Among the most commonly used corrective actions that managers use to improve employee performance include coaching, training, and counseling.

After managers in the accounting and customer service departments are trained on how to conduct the appraisal, they will use the following employee performance appraisal plan to assess the performance of employees serving in these departments.

Establishing Performance Standards

The first step of employee performance appraisal will involve establishing performance standards. Managers from the accounting and customer care departments will be required to first determine the accomplishments, outputs, and skills to be evaluated. The performance standards will be determined from the job descriptions and job analyses.

Communicating the Established Performance Expectations to Employees

After establishing the performance standards, the managers will communicate these standards to their subordinates to inform them of what is required of them. Research reveals that failure to communicate performance standards to employees compounds the appraisal problem (Tersoo et al., 2018). Managers will be required to ensure that all of their subordinates understand the performance standards. The managers will also require employees to give their feedback on the set performance standards. The standards will be revised or modified based on the employees’ feedback.

Measure Actual Employee Performance

After the performance standards are agreed upon, the managers will perform the first actual appraisal after four months. Performance appraisals will be conducted quarterly for the new organization. During this stage, managers will assess the actual performance of the employees based on information obtained from different sources such as performance reports, personal observations, and weekly reports submitted by the employees to their managers.

Comparing the Actual Performance with the Established Standards

After measuring the employees’ actual performance, managers will compare the results with the standards established. Comparing employees’ actual performance and the set standards will allow the managers to identify any deviation between actual performance and standard performance.

Discussing the Appraisal with the Employee

During this stage, the managers will share and discuss the appraisal results with the employees. Discussing the results with the employees will allow employees to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and potential (Mwema & Gachunga, 2014). The manner in which the appraisal results are presented to the employees either positively or negatively impacts their future performance. Therefore, managers will be required to ensure effective communication is upheld.

Initiating a Corrective Action

This will be the last step of the appraisal. After the areas that need to be improved are identified during the discussion of the results with the employees, corrective action will be initiated to help employees improve their performance.

How the Managers Performance Will be Measured

The performance of managers in the accounting and customer service departments will be measured based on their ability to meet the reasonable and achievable goals and targets set for their departments. Often, organizations set targets and goals for various departments that align with the requirements set out in the job description. These goals and targets can be monthly, weekly, or daily. The expectations are that these goals and targets are met and exceeded for performance to be considered effective (Daoanis, 2012). This method of assessing the managers will be preferred since it will provide them with objective and easily identifiable clear targets.

The manager’s performance will be evaluated on a monthly basis since each department has monthly targets to met. If the departments will be found to have met and surpassed the set targets, the managers’ performance will be considered excellent. If the departments will have met at least half of the targets, the managers’ performance will be considered above average. If the department will not have met at least half of the set targets, the managers’ performance will be considered below average. A performance management process will be instigated for managers whose performance will continually be below average for more than six months. Lack of improvement may lead to termination of the working contract.

Strategies to Train Leaders to Engage Diversity

Merging the two organizations will lead to employees and managers from different backgrounds coming together to work under one department. This will increase diversity in the organization. Managers from the accounting and customer service departments will be required to manage this diversity to create and maintain a positive work environment that values the differences and similarities of the employees.

Various strategies will be used to train these managers to engage diversity in the organization. One of these strategies includes awareness training. The goal of the awareness diversity training strategy will be to give the managers an overview of the organization’s demographics (Cletus et al., 2018). Managers will be able to understand how diverse the workforce. Awareness training will also provide managers with gender, sexual orientation, race, racial minorities, and ethnicity information. It will also inform the managers about workplace equity, how it can be improved, and its benefits. Awareness training sessions will help shift managers’ mindsets and promote employees’ inclusivity, respect, and value.

Another strategy that will be used to train managers to engage in diversity will be skill-based diversity training. This strategy focuses on specific activities that workers at various levels within a workforce may take to practice inclusion skills, ensuring that all employees have practical skills that foster belonging (Treven & Treven, 2007). Skill-based training strategy will allow managers to gain the necessary skills and become proficient in handling diversity. It will also equip them with skills to foster a culture of inclusivity in their organizations.

Another strategy that will be used to train managers to engage in diversity is intermediate diversity training. This strategy will involve providing managers with the tools required for implementing change and creating an inclusive culture within the workplace. The strategy entails discussing personal behavior. Therefore, managers will discuss with the trainer about their personal behavior, and the trainer will help them identify how they can engage in diversity based on their personal attributes and behavior. An intermediate diversity training strategy will be ideal for helping managers in the accounting and customer service departments since it helps identify implicit biases and know how to deal with them, eradicates microaggressions, makes a working environment free of discrimination, and encourages team building and cross-cultural communication.

Strategies to Impact the Culture of the Current Organization

The HRM will be responsible for leading the upcoming change. The HRM will utilize various strategies to impact the culture of the current organization. Organizational culture refers to the values and beliefs of employees in an organization that influences their behavior and attitudes (Joseph & Kibera, 2019). Usually, HRM brings the company’s culture to the fore by reminding employees of the importance of acting in accordance with the organizational values. One of the strategies that human resource managers will adapt to lead the upcoming change is practicing what they preach. The HRM will act as the role models of the organization, embodying the values and the behaviors that the new organization will need to promote. Usually, things such as leaders acting against their own stated beliefs may negatively influence an organization’s culture. However, leaders setting a good example for the rest of the organization may be transformative in obtaining buy-in. Therefore, HRM is positioned to shape their organization’s culture in both unintentional and deliberate ways and must ensure that they serve as a good example to positively impact the current organization’s culture.

Another strategy that the HRM will use to impact the current organization’s culture is introducing a benefits package. The HRM will include a benefits package for employees in the new organization such as parental leave (including both paternity and maternity leave), financial wellness programs such as saving plans for employees, gender reassignment and transformation assistance, and flextime. The benefit package will directly impact the culture of the new organization since it will improve employee job satisfaction (Norbu & Wetprasit, 2021).

Also, the HRM will impact the current organization’s culture by keeping the managers on track. Since managers will be managing a large group of employees, it will be very easy for them to lose sight of how their decisions and behavior may affect the entire organization. As such, it will be the duty of the HRM to bring the organization’s culture to the fore by reminding managers of the different departments of the impact their decisions and choices have on employee commitment and morale and how crucial it is for the organization to act in accordance with its organizational culture.

Innovative and Future Trends that Will Assist with the Plans and Strategies to be Incorporated in the Current Organization

The previous sections have outlined various plans and strategies that will in incorporated into the new organization after the two organizations merge. One innovative and future trend that assists with the aforementioned plans and strategies to be incorporated into the new organization is embracing technology and analytics. Managers in the current organization will use emerging tools for performance appraisal to ensure effective performance appraisal. Analytics will also be used to predict and assess the effectiveness of the tools used for performance appraisal. Also, emerging technology will be used to facilitate the training of managers on how to perform performance appraisals. Online training of managers will be preferred since it will be convenient for managers due to their busy schedules. Mason (2020) reveals that online training is more accessible and convenient for employees compared to in-person training.

Also, analytics will be employed to assist with measuring managers’ performance based on their ability to meet and exceed the set goals and targets. Also, the training of the managers to engage with diversity will be made easier using technology since the training can be performed online, and managers will be able to get training materials right away through the computers. During the training, chatbots will allow managers to have an automated, personalized conversation with computers where they will be able to ask various questions concerning diversity and how it can be managed. Also, analytics will be used to examine the effectiveness of the strategies proposed to be used by the HRM to impact the culture of the current organization.

Major Challenge and Opportunity Anticipated With the Managers and What Must be Done

One major opportunity anticipated with the managers of the new organization is synergies. The concept of synergies suggests that the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts (1 + 1 = 3) (Holtström & Anderson, 2021). In other words, the combined value of the two organizations should be more than the value of each independent entity. In the context of this paper, synergies mean that when managers from the two organizations that merge work together, the managers should perform better than when the organizations are working independently. To ensure the success of the organizations, managers should promote teamwork and work collaboratively to ensure that their department meets the organizational goal.

One major challenge anticipated with managers in the new organization is cultural differences. Managers from the two merging organizations will have different cultures, which may pose a significant challenge to the managers as they try to integrate different cultures. To ensure organizational success, the organization must set a clear organizational culture that all employees must adhere to despite their individual cultures.

Conclusion

Overall, this paper presents a plan to be shared with current employees and managers of a finance company in corporate America that intends to merge with another organization as part of its organizational change. The process of employee performance appraisal in the new organization will involve establishing performance standards, communicating the standards to employees, measuring the actual employee performance, comparing the actual performance with the standard performance, discussing the appraisal results with the employees, and initiating a corrective action is the actual performance of employees is below the standard performance. Managers will also be trained on how to perform the appraisal. They will be enlightened on various things, including the different appraisal methods, common appraisal mistakes, ways of delivering appraisal feedback, and post-appraisal actions. The performance of managers will be measured by their ability to meet the goals and objectives set for their respective departments. Also, strategies to train leaders to engage in diversity will include awareness training, skill-based diversity training, and intermediate diversity training. The strategies to impact the current organization’s culture will include the introduction of an employee benefits package, HRM acting as role models, and HRM keeping the managers on track. Also, the current organization will embrace technology and analytics to assist with the effective implementation of plans and strategies for the new organization. The major challenge that will face managers is cultural differences, while the major opportunity for managers in the new organization is synergies.

References

Cletus, H. E., Mahmood, N. A., Umar, A., & Ibrahim, A. D. (2018). Prospects and challenges of workplace diversity in modern day organizations: A critical review. HOLISTICA–Journal of Business and Public Administration, 9(2), 35-52. 1. https://doi.org/10.2478/hjbpa-2018-0011Daoanis, L. E. (2012). Performance Appraisal System: It’s Implication to Employee Performance. International Journal of Economics and Management Sciences, 2(3), 55-62.

Holtström, J., & Anderson, H. (2021). Exploring and extending the synergy concept–a study of three acquisitions. Journal of business & industrial marketing, 36(13), 28-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-09-2020-0420Joseph, O. O., & Kibera, F. (2019). Organizational culture and performance: Evidence from microfinance institutions in Kenya. SAGE open, 9(1), 1-11.https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2158244019835934Mason, M. E. (2020). Design and Delivery of Online Learning for Employees (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).

Mwema, N. W., & Gachunga, H. G. (2014). The influence of performance appraisal on employee productivity in organizations: A case study of selected WHO offices in East Africa. International Journal of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurship, 1(11), 324-337.

Norbu, J., & Wetprasit, P. (2021). The study of job motivational factors and its influence on job satisfaction for hotel employees of Thimphu, Bhutan. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 22(2), 245-266. https://doi.org/10.1080/1528008X.2020.1769524Oyomikun, O. I. (2017). Effectiveness of Performance appraisal system and its effect on employee motivation. Nile Journal of Business and Economics, 5,15-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.20321/nilejbe.v3i5.88Stouten, J., Rousseau, D. M., & De Cremer, D. (2018). Successful organizational change: Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures. Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 752-788. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0095Tahiri, A., Kovaçi, I., & Krasniqi, A. (2020). Human Resource Management, Performance Management and Employee Performance Appraisal by SME Managers in Kosovo. Human Resource Management, 8(4), 288-298.

Tersoo, T. J., Hembadoon, D., & Ekeh, L. O. (2018). Effect of employee performance appraisal on organisational commitment in the banking sector in Benue State, Nigeria: A study of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. International Journal of Current Aspects in Human Resource Management, 1(2), 160-178.

Treven, S., & Treven, U. (2007). Training in diversity management. Journal of Diversity Management (JDM), 2(1), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v2i1.5003

Montgomery Cares Program

Student’s Name

Institution

Montgomery Cares Program

Enterprise Economic Model for Sustainability

Montgomery Cares program is one of the successful and leading programs in Montgomery County, Maryland. It was recognized as a center that offers, as well as provides basic health care to low-income, adult uninsured county tenants through monetary support to pubic-municipal clinics. Implementation and inception of the program began nine years ago in July 2005 with initial funding of 5 million US dollars. The funds accruing to the program, obtained from government grants and county allocations is scheduled for an annual increase to the operational cost of approximately 15 million dollars in FY 13. Interestingly, Health care services at the center are provided through Community Health Link, a system of not-for-profit community health care providers in Montgomery County, Maryland.

In the preceding years, the number of Patients being attended to at the Montgomery health care service has increased by 25.1 percent and total number of patient calls increased 12.0 Percent after the enactment of the health service program. Moreover, it is worth noting that growth in the total number of patients seen varied across Montgomery Cares clinics. For instance, in one of the clinics, there was a growth of more than 51 percent in the number of patients seen, while other two clinics had roughly uniform growth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Nonetheless, there never misses an exception in the research, with merely one among seven to eight clinics, the number of ailing people visiting rose. Interestingly, this occurred at each of the Montgomery Cares clinics. On the other hand, enormous, factors other than Montgomery Cares contribute tremendously, to the growth in patients seen and in the number of patient visits. Consequently, it is evident that more work needs in order to straighten out the particular impact of Montgomery Cares.

Montgomery Cares Patients are largely minority women with substantial health care needs. The population distribution of the people around the vicinities of Montgomery Care is primarily a diverse one. That is, is mainly composed of the immigrant population; this is evident with about three quarter of patients, reporting that they are non-citizens of America, or were born outside the U.S. Hispanics represent the leading percentage of patients (59 percent), followed by blacks (9 percent) and Asians (7 percent). Nearly three-fourths of patients are women, and nearly half are parents of minor children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Nearly half of patients are employed and work full-time. The majority of patients—nearly two-thirds—either have never had health cover or have been without cover for many years. Approximately half valued their health as either fair or poor and more than three-fourths showed signs of having lingering conditions (such as the different types diabetes or cardiac diseases), and more than a third reported two or more such illnesses. Hypertension and diabetes respectively affect at the very least one-quarter of the entire sample population of patients attending Montgomery Cares (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).

On one hand, gaining access to Care is a task, but once there, satisfaction with care provided at Montgomery Cares Clinics is high. In one of the surveys conducted on appointment accessibility, it is evident that approximately, one in four potential patients is inept to get hold of reach a medical profession when doing all he or she can to call for an appointment (Business Group Health, 2012). Moreover, only 28.1 percent of potential patients whom their calls are received (and 21.1 percent of all callers) perhaps were able to obtain an appointment successfully. Among Montgomery cares patients, nearly 41 percent gave an account of poor service or encountered difficulty in contacting the clinic during business hours (Business Group Health, 2012).

Further, half of Montgomery Cares patients reported noteworthy difficulty gaining access to care and of those, one in four recounted that the inability to get finished on the phone was a significant obstacle to care (American Heart Association, 2013). In terms of gratification, respondents by large reported contentment with the care received at the clinic, with 75.1 percent reporting being satisfied or very satisfied with the care. In addition, satisfaction assessments were relatively high across an array of variables gauging diverse features of medical care and services, with semi- or more of patients answer back positively to the various categories (American Heart Association, 2013). Evidently, the more effectively care providers listened, the the most easy communication turned out to be for the provider. Moreover, the thoroughness of the exam highly depends on the established respect, patients are treated with and how much time the clinical care providers spent during a patient’s visit.

Case analysis: Diabetic Patients

Data collected and reported for diabetic Montgomery Cares patients is inadequate for measuring quality of care. Montgomery Cares clinics collect and record facts for diabetic patients in automated form (using a database system called “CVDEMS”). However, the data collected is incomplete. 30.1 percent of visits in patients’ hard copy medical records remain unrecorded in CVDEMS (American Heart Association, 2013). Almost half of patients had their medical record data linked to their smoking practices, but no such data existed in CVDEMS. Further, only one-quarter of patients who concluded the diabetes edification had that logged in both the electronic and hard copy medical record.

The assessment data provides a print of current Montgomery Cares clinics, the patients they attend to, as well as serve, and patients’ past ailments and experiences, and establish a reference point against which imminent changes can be paralleled (American Heart Association, 2013). The data also allude to steps clinics may need to emphasize and prioritize in order to help mold the efficacious advancement of Montgomery Cares, include the following:

One entails the improvement in patients’ access to a live vocal sound at the end of the receiver line. This is essential especially to psychiatric patients, who may need live conversations in order to improve on the cognitive abilities. Further, increasing the availability of appointment slots may have a multiplier effect to Montgomery economy. Employment induces personal development and this literally spiral down to the community.

On the other hand, working to minimize the time spent by patients waiting for medical attention is perhaps an essential consideration. Too many backlogs hinder efficiency and performance in an organization (American Heart Association, 2004). On another perspective, it is better off to identify patients’ needs such as language need in order to increase the accessibility of multilingual organizational staff and/or transcriber services. As such, this sharpens providers’ attention to potentially under-diagnosed conditions.

Finally, it would be prudent for medical providers to make whole and precise data collection a priority (American Heart Association, 2004). This perhaps may be expedited by the use of automated applications customized for medical settings, as well as the integration of medical experts proficient in information technology and its application. Coupled with this is the maintenance commitment to ensuring patients obtains guideline-appropriate defensive care and endorsed a care for chronic conditions (National Cervical Cancer Coalition, 2013).

References

American Heart Association. (2004). Why Blood Pressure Matters. Updated June 2012.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HighBloodPressure/WhyBloodPressureM

atters/Why-Blood-Pressure-Matters_UCM_002051_Article.jsp

American Heart Association. Understanding Blood Pressure Readings. Updated March 1, 2013.

www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HighBloodPressure/AboutHighBloodPressure/

Business Group Health. Evidence Statement Cervical Cancer Screening.

http://www.businessgrouphealth.org/benefitstopics/topics/purchasers/condition_specific/e

videncestatements/cervical cancer_es.pdf (June 7, 2012)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012). National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2011.

http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2011.pdf (June 15, 2012)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012). Diabetes Public Health Resource: Basics about Diabetes.

http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/consumer/learn.htm (June 15, 2012)

National Cervical Cancer Coalition. (2013). Prevention. www.nccconline.org/index.php/prevention (June 5, 2013)

Understanding-Blood-Pressure-Readings_UCM_301764_Article.jsp (April 4, 2012)

National Cervical Cancer Coalition. (2013). Prevention. www.nccconline.org/index.php/prevention (June 5, 2013)

Name

Professor

Course

Date

Capital punishment in the USA

Introduction

Capital punishment refers to the legal means of inflicting of death as a penalty. It has been applied since primeval times for an extensive diversity of offences. The opponents of capital punishment argue that legal executions infringe on the condemned person’s right to life. While the capital punishment proponents frequently attempt to contradict this argument, by emphasizing that, individuals convicted of capital offences have in essence, forfeited their alleged right to life (Batchelder 61). This paper posits to investigate whether the death sentence reduces the motivation to commit homicide and whether it is solid ultimatum to criminals in the U.S.

OVERVIEW OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE U.S

In the U.S., capital punishment was introduced by European settlers particularly from Great Britain. The initial recorded execution in the U.S occurred in 1608, in Jamestown. The victim was George Kendall who was put to death on allegations of being a Spanish spy. In contemporary times, in the United States, prisoners placed on death row are normally executed by means of a lethal injection. It is essential to mention that, the U.S is among very few developed countries which still maintain capital punishment. Furthermore, it extremely few countries, which execute mentally sick persons, individuals with extremely low IQ, as well as juvenile criminals. Astonishingly, a huge percentage of individuals as well as the majority of conformist religious denominations in the U.S are pro-life on issues related to abortion and pro-death in regard to capital punishment. These people usually rationalize this position by alleging that they are fundamentally pro-innocent life (Beccaria 102).

As of the year 2010, fifteen states in the U.S had eliminated capital punishment, and nineteen have not refrained from executions since the year 2009. It is evident that, capital punishment is prevalent in the Southern states. In the year 2002, sixty one out of seventy one executions were performed in the Southern states. Away from the South, only California, Missouri, and Ohio had performed executions. Between the years, 1976, when capital punishment recommenced, until 2009, the U.S has witnessed 1,188 executions. This figure includes sixty six executions in 2001, seventy one executions in 2002, and sixty five executions in 2003. There were fifty nine executions in 2004, sixty executions in 2005, fifty three executions in 2006, forty two executions in 2007, thirty seven executions in 2008, and fifty two executions in 2009 (Bedau 65).

Deterrent Effects of Capital Punishment. In the U.S, the question as to whether capital punishment acts as a crime deterrent crime has been subject to debate for decades. The original participants in this debate were criminologists and psychologists. The research carried out by these criminologists and psychologists, was theoretical or founded on comparing crime patterns, in the states with, as well as, the states without capital punishment. On the other hand, since they did not employ multiple-regression statistical approaches, the analyses were not capable to make a distinction between the effects that capital punishment has on murder, from the effects of a diversity of other factors. Several studies allege that commutations, pardons, as well as exonerations, cause an increase in murder, while other studies argue that the time required to complete appeals abates the deterrent effect of execution (Batchelder 63).

There is emergence of new research on deterrence that has been declared as persuasive in academic journals and by outstanding jurists and scholars. Legal academics find the new deterrence proof to be impressive and powerful. They connect it with several decades of consistent data concerning the deterrent effects of capital punishment as the basis of their argument. Their argument holds that, given that capital punishment effectively deters murders, there is an ethical imperative to uncompromisingly prosecute capital offences. Several scholars concur, while finding the proof persuasive. On the other hand, some jurists disregard the apprehension concerning the potential execution of innocent people as executions are enforced in order to realize increased deterrent effects (Paul 3).

Topical studies that detach murders that are deemed as capital-eligible show no noteworthy change in the fullness of time in the rate of murders that are capital-eligible, notwithstanding the variations in the rate of execution. The computations in statistical models are repeatedly flawed. For instance, uncomplicated corrections for huge amounts of mislaid data generate estimates of the deterrent effect that are not different from chance. Employing alternating statistical models, models that explain the strong statistical relationship of murder rates in consecutive years, also generates results that demonstrate that changes in murder rates are statistically isolated to any degree of capital punishment. The studies may as well, irrationally inflate the deterrent effects of executions by disregarding the analyses in done in 1998, thus, not including later years whereby murders reduced, as did the executions. Other studies find the proof of deterrence extremely unstable and fragile, with deterrence estimates changing uncontrollably with the slightest modifications or adjustments either in statistical methods or measurement. Such volatility ought to signal prudence in causal inference, as well as in utilizing these data in informing policy decisions (Beccaria 105).

It is intricate to show categorically the non-existence or existence of any deterrence effect since correlations discovered, or not discovered, in statistical analysis do not entail causation. It is evident that, any individual who refrains from committing capital crimes, owing to a hypothetical deterrent effect of capital punishment, will by definition, on no account be captured in any statistic. This is regardless of the theory that the commencement of capital punishment ought to imply the resultant commencement of a deterrent effect, if any. This should generate a downward movement in crime numbers. The graph below demonstrates that the rates of murder in different states in the U.S that employ capital punishment are higher, compared with the rates in states that do not apply capital punishment.

(Paul 6).

According to the graph above, it is apparent that deterrence does not work. However, this can only be verified when capital punishment ceases to be applied for several years in the future. This would be an appropriate approach in the states that currently apply capital punishment. It would then be accurate to conclude that capital punishment has deterrent effects, in the event that the rates of murder rate following capital punishment abolition do not rise. However, the murder rates may fail to increase owing to other factors. The graph below portrays a different scenario:

(Bedau 65).

Disparities in Capital Punishment Application across States. There are immense disparities in capital punishment application across states. For instance, states differ extensively in their perceived definitions of capital offences, their incidence of imposing capital penalties, their incidence of executions, their execution methods, and the executions’ publicity. These essential disparities may affect the impact of deterrence States’ executions (Paul 7).

Disparities amongst States. An issue that depicts the necessity for a federalized capital punishment is the vast differences between States. Firstly, a number of States apply capital punishment while some other States do not. In the States that apply capital punishment, there are vast distinctions in the incidence of the application of capital punishment, differences in execution methods, and dissimilarity in the types of offences that are carry a punishment by death. In the States that apply the death sentence, there are distinctions by county as to how frequently they seek the death sentence. There was a case from Maryland that is principally alarming. In this case forum shopping was employed to seek the death sentence against Kevin Johns a Maryland defendant. It occurred that Johns murdered another inmate while on a bus transporting them across prisons. The bus travelled across four counties, thus, making it difficult for the authorities to establish where the crime took place. Prosecutors had the case tried in the Baltimore County since the death sentence was sought more in Baltimore County than in the other three counties. In a federalized capital punishment system, this type of forum shopping can be abolished. The federalized system would also place everybody in the country in an equivalent position in so far as the eligibility for capital punishment is concerned. This would mean that, defendants would not be sentenced to death, for their crimes for the reason that they live in the wrong States (Shepherd 12).

There are significant regional distinctions in the United States. Sixteen states do not allow capital punishment, and in eight of the states that allow capital punishment, have not performed an execution in twelve years or more. It is noteworthy that twenty-six of fifty three jurisdictions in the United States, fifty states, the Federal Government, the Military, and the District of Columbia, either do not apply capital punishment or have not performed an execution in over a decade. The majority of those States have not performed an execution, since capital punishment was re-established in 1976.  A few as twenty States performed an execution in 2010, and seven States performed more than one, principally in the South. The map below shows the States that apply capital punishment, and the States that do not apply capital punishment in the U.S.

Capital Punishment Map of the United States

(Batchelder 73).

State By State Depiction of Inmates on Death Row in the U.S

In the United States, the average duration of time an inmate may spend on death row is fifteen years. In the year 2009, of 3173 prisoners on death-row, 113 had been in prison for above twenty nine years. The diagram below shows the State by State depiction of inmates on death row in the U.S (Shepherd 22).

CONCLUSION

The question begs as to whether capital punishment can reduce the incentive to commit homicide and be a solid ultimatum to criminals. As it has been demonstrated in this paper, it is difficult to establish the fact one way or the other. Capital punishment is much more probable to act as a deterrent, in the event that the crime necessitates preparation and the potential criminal has adequate time to reflect on the likely consequences. On the other hand, where the offence is committed in ad hoc, there is no possibility that any penalty would act as a deterrent. In this regard, there is a spirited argument for ensuring that murder committed in such ad hoc circumstances not punished by death or for establishing degrees of murder. However, anti-death sentence activists constantly argue that, death cannot be a deterrent, and frequently site several studies based on American states to attest their point. In the opinion of this paper, capital punishment is a deterrent to reduce the incentive to commit homicide and can be a solid ultimatum to criminals.

Works Cited

Batchelder, N. Reasons to Abolish the Capital Punishment: Oklahoma Coalition to Eradicate the Death Sentence. Journal of Legal Studies, 14.8 (2011) pp. 61-73. Print.

Beccaria, C. Crimes & Punishments and Related Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009. Print.

Bedau, H. Death Penalty in America: Contemporary Controversies, New York: Oxford University Press. 2011. Print.

Bosworth, M. Race & Punishment, Punishment and Society, 2.1 (2010) pp14–18. Print.

Paul, Z. Deterrence, State Executions, & the Incidence of Homicide. Applied Econ, 24.8 (2011) pp. 3-7. Print.

Shepherd, J. Executions, Deterrence, & the Characteristics of the Victim. Criminal Justice Studies, (2011) pp12- 22. Print.

ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATION

Integrated health care association (IHA) is a national wide health organization that provides quality, improvement and accountability health care in California. IHA is a non-profit organization that has a mission to assemble other heath care organization to collaborate on health care issues. The association conducts regional and statewide programs that help to assist in promoting health care programs and projects.

P4P

Health care pay for performance rewards physicians, hospitals and providers with money and non-financial strategies based on their performance (Berenson, 2010). The financial aspects cover various issues such as quality of clinic, adoption of technology and experience of patients. The sponsors of payment of performance are government agencies, insurance plans and health care providers. Most of Payment for performance programs have demonstrated improvement of clinical quality and have encouraged health providers to use systems of clinical health. P4P programs that have encouraged use of efficiency and quality services have experienced the advantage of cost savings. In addition, P4P services have shown improvements in patients’ experience. However, there are inevitable consequences that arise because of P4P. These include avoidance of complains from patients and handling patients with more than one health condition. However, there is no evidence on the above complains.

Research has shown that P4P programs have initiated change in behavior and have engaged provides. This program has assisted in follow up of patients conditions and has encouraged providers to adopt technology in health care. The program has also encouraged providers in improvement of health care services and collaborative learning has reduced unwanted practices.

There are new medical devices that have assisted in health care improvement and reduced death rates. However, these devices have also increased cost in healthcare (Berenson, 2010). These new medical services that are used and specialty of procedures used add quality to the hospital and services provided by the medical practioners. They also encourage adoption of health care technology and improvement of heath care insurance plans. Quality and efficiency is marked by better data collection and high standard benchmark on the prices of equipment both locally and internationally. In addition, there in improved purchasing of hospital equipment with the collaboration of physicians and provision of best services in the hospital. Lastly, there is advanced methods of payments where the incentives of the physicians and hospitals are bundled together.

Episode Payment

There is growing interest world wide in method of medical care treatment in connection to heath care policies. There are proposes on whether payment should be done on basis of episode care instead of the individual test or population based care (Kocher &Sahni, 2010). Coming up with a single budget of free care that involves many providers might bring quality and efficiency problems in connection to the current payment method. This is because there is increased imbursement and increased services that need payment. Pricing methods that involves bundling of various components of services might bring issues of transparency to the consumers. It is therefore important for the teams to make informed choices on selection of the provider team. IHA is conducting bundling payment of the services offered in California. This demonstration begun with bundling payment for knee and hipbone replacement.

Efficiency Measurement

There is a national wide campaign in private and government-sponsored hospitals in measurement of efficiency and increasing transparency in use of resources and cost of medical services. This will improve the quality of medical services and enhance improvement in health care. California stakeholders have an opportunity to adopt standardized measures and ensure there is efficiency development by using a collaborative report (Lee, Casalino, Fisher, 2010). Using standardized procedures and transparency in the cost is a method of creating a balanced and fair comparison on the physician group in connection to P4P. Even though measurement of efficiency and transparency might result to apprehension to those who are measured, it is good strategy for ensuring affordability in health care programs. The main goal of P4P efficiency measurement program is for lowering medical cost without compromising the quality of medical health care. This can be achieved through the development of a reliable and valid set of efficiency measures and establishing a trusted process of data collection and analysis. In addition, it is convenient to collaborate with other heath care plans for provision of meaningful incentives for provision of efficient health care delivery.

Conclusion

Integrated health care association (IHA) is a national wide health organization that provides quality, improvement and accountability health care in California. Health care pay for performance rewards physicians, hospitals and providers with money and non-financial strategies based on their performance. Research has shown that P4P programs have initiated change in behavior and have engaged provides. There are new medical devices that have assisted in health care improvement and reduced death rates. However, these devices have also increased cost in healthcare. There is growing interest world wide in method of medical care treatment in connection to heath care policies. There is a national wide campaign in private and government-sponsored hospitals in measurement of efficiency and increasing transparency in use of resources and cost of medical services.

References

Berenson, R. A. (2010). Shared Savings Program for Accountable Care Organizations: A Bridge to Nowhere? American Journal of Managed Care, 16 (10), 721-726. Retrieved on March 2013 from,

<http://www.ajmc.com/media/pdf/AJMC_10oct_Berenson_721to726.pdf>

Kocher R. &Sahni N. R. (2010).Physicians versus Hospitals as Leaders of Accountable Care Organizations. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(27), 2579-2582. Retrieved on March 25 2013 from,

<http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1011712>

Lee, T. H., Casalino, L. P., Fisher, E. S. &Wilensky, G. R. (2010).Creating Accountable Care Organizations.New England Journal of Medicine, 363 (15), e23. Retrieved on March 25 2013 from,

<http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1009040 (video) or http://www.nejm.org/doi/media/10.1056/NEJMp1009040/NEJMp1009040.pdf>