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Evaluation of Employee’s Job Dissatisfaction

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Executive Summary

The culture of an organization highly affects the way employees handle their responsibilities and in turn their job satisfaction. The process of globalization has exposed the culture of organizations worldwide. The study explores the level of employee’s satisfaction with regard to ethical values of the organization. Managing human resource effectively is a major challenge in many organizations. Employee’s satisfaction and motivation require minimal stress, organization’s consistency with respect to people, system, culture and intervention strategies applied. The study samples a hundred employees from I&M organization in an attempt to asses the structural and cultural aspects of the organization that negatively affects the employees hence, determine the necessary intervention strategies to be implemented to improve the level of employee satisfaction. The findings show that the organization is facing a huge problem in the way it relates with its employees. Seventy percent of the employees are dissatisfied with leadership and the relationship with fellow workmates. The solutions to employees’ dissatisfaction involve psychological interventions such as assertiveness training and implementing corporate social responsibility.

Problem

Job satisfaction is related to feelings and attitudes and gives a clear reflection of the organization’s operations. It depends on individual employee since their needs are different from one another. Employees could be satisfied with some aspects of the organization and at the same time dissatisfied with others. Jobs satisfaction is dependent on education level, age, personal differences, and sex. These factors should be considered while designing intervention to these problems. Dissatisfied workers at times acts violently while others hold demonstration and strikes thus affecting the operations of the organization. A study of Personnel job satisfaction helps to evaluate the problem employees are facing in their operations. Various factors such as leadership, working environment, rewarding system, lack of promotion among others contribute to the problem. A survey of the organization was conducted to gain knowledge on the employees’ requirements and help find solutions tom the problems they are facing.

Scope

The study of the organization is essential to the employees and the organization itself. The organization could benefit from the study by gaining knowledge on employees with respect to their needs and thus able to evaluate their level of dissatisfaction. The employees benefits by being acknowledged of their expectation s with respect to safety, job security and the rewarding of their individual efforts. The study is essentially geared to improving the organization standards in relation to improving employees’ job satisfaction.

Objective

To identify employees’ level of job dissatisfaction, measure the level of employees’ dissatisfaction regarding their salaries, determine co-workers interrelationship, identify factors contributing to job dissatisfaction in the organization and offer solutions through psychological interventions to improve the organization’s employees’ level of satisfaction.

Methodology

Data is collected through an empirical field method by sampling a hundred employees in the organization. The convenient sampling technique was employed to gather information from them. The employees are personally interviewed and given questionnaires to fill regarding their grievances and view.

Limitations

The employees of I&M organization feared to reveal negative information regarding the organization. This study is limited to I &M organization alone and the data is not applicable to any other organization. Scarcity of resources limited the study to just a hundred employees sampled.

Findings and Interpretations

Out of the a hundred employees interviewed, seventy of them were dissatisfied with the organization and only thirty of them were satisfied with it due to different personal needs and aspects of the organization.70% of employees were dissatisfied while 30% of the employees were h satisfied. In The study, various aspects such as poor working conditions, low salaries, lack of appreciation, poor co-worker relationships, and sexual harassment of female employees and failure of the organization to pay overtime were the major aspects leading to dissatisfaction.

Intervention Strategies

Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR is the concept in which organizations focus on society’s interest by being responsible of the activities they engage in and their impact to the environment and community, in this case, employees. Organization should improve the employee’s standards of living, their families and that of the entire community. This strategy is important since ethics are crucial for the success of any organization (Phillip & Nancy, 2005). The strategy can be implemented through promotion of non-economic social aspects such as ethic codes. Through human resource, the organization can develop the staff’s perceptions and motivate them by improving their working conditions and formulating a rewarding system. This can be achieved by engaging the staff in activities such as fund raising and community volunteering. CSR helps to improve the reputation of the organization towards the government and the public and thus, can increase its commercial engagements. It can be implemented within the first month after the study is conducted and followed up after every month up to a period of about six months. To avoid mistreatment of workers, the government’s laws and international regulation should be reinforced to make sure that the organization is socially responsible. Welfare of employees through ethics training within the organization is essential to change the culture and behavior of organizations. Ethical training helps employees to become aware of their rights and resist manipulation such as sexual harassment. Learning the necessary normative values guides them in the way they behave and interact with each other. This helps to build a good reputation for the organization hence building the employees satisfaction through development of pride and loyalty from the organization. If organization’s goals align with those of the employees, it follows that the employees effectively work inline with the organization’s mission and are more satisfied with their job (Surya & Indu, 2009).

Evaluation of whether the intervention has worked adequately is done after six months where the staff members from the initial sampling and a new sampling are personally interviewed. The results of the interview are compared with the initial data. This helps to determine if the strategy has assisted in improving the employee’s satisfaction.

Assertiveness training

Assertive communication is important since helps to build relationship provide social support and reduces stress. It helps create awareness of individual rights. It is the art of saying no to irresponsible actions and behaviors. Excessive requests from others can be rejected assertively to avoid engagement in unwanted practice and attain a balance in life. This form of training helps to improve co-workers relationship in an organization. Assertive training ensures that problems which seem small do not magnify with time. The art is essential in helping to acquire solutions to situations which seem difficult and changes the undesirable behaviors (Mary, 1995).

It is implemented by approaching an individual regarding change of a behavior while describing factually their actions that causes the upsets. In I&M organization, this can be done by approaching the human resource management and assertively communicate to them to ensure sexual harassment of female workers is stopped immediately, and working conditions are improved. The effect of the foul behavior should be handled directly stating that the employees’ job dissatisfaction is a result of poor working conditions, low salaries, lack of appreciation, poor co-worker relationships, and sexual harassment of female employees and failure of the organization to pay overtime. An organization with a culture of individuals pretending to be nice but eventually results to problems needs to handle the problem assertively in relation to colleagues. To create professionalism in the workplace, this should be done confidently, firmly, directly and with no anxiety to attain the desired change of behavior and set boundaries. The strategy needs not to be emphasized and is done immediately without need for repetition. Tailored assertiveness Training Program is essential for management to know what is best for them and their employees. In small groups, the experimental processes such as role-play help assess individuals to determine the best in them.

Evaluation strategy for this plan will focus on assessing the reaction of the staff to the intervention strategies provided. This will determine if the training was relevant, comfortable and followed. Evaluation of what the staff has learnt with regard to intervention strategies is conducted through questionnaires. The behavioral change is assessed by determining transformation and improvement after offering the assertiveness training (Susan & Teri, 2001). Finally, a result measuring the change of behavior in the entire organization follows and compared with initial situation.

Conclusion

The initial study revealed that the organization was facing a major problem in addressing the issue of employee’s job dissatisfaction. After the intervention strategies, a follow-up of the organization was made which revealed that they had a positive impact in improving the satisfaction level of the employees.

Reference

Mary Ballou. (1995). Psychological Interventions: A Guide to Strategies. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Phillip Kotler, Nancy Lee. (2005). Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Surya N. Yadav, Indu Baghel. (2009).Good Governance: Issues, Challenges and Prospects. New Delhi: Global Publishing House.

Susan Barksdale, Teri Lund. (2001). Rapid Evaluation. USA: American Society for Training & Development.

Evaluation of financial performance in Western Regional Municipality (WRM) using Balanced Score Card

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Introduction

The attainment of the goals, missions and objectives of any entity is dependent on constant evaluation and assessment to determine whether its operations are on the right course. This is especially considering that the operations and its priorities of any entity are outlined in its vision, mission and objectives of WRM. These evaluations are the basis for the incorporation of the Balanced Score Card in many organizations. Devised by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, the Balanced Score Card was a top-down management system that would translate the mission and current business strategy of an entity into specific strategic objectives capable of being connected and measured operationally (Caudle, 2008). In this case, specific objectives would be linked via cause-effect relationship obtained in the strategy in WRM, before being measured and then communicated so that the strategy can be implemented (Caudle, 2008). Prior to the introduction of the concept of Balanced Score Card, managers in WRM evaluated the performance of their business entities purely on the basis of financial performance. However, the contemporary business environment has necessitated that business transform themselves so as to enhance their competitiveness on the basis of information. In this regard, their capacity to optimize the utilization of intangible assets has become significantly crucial than their capacity to manage and invest in physical assets. This underlines the importance of the Balanced Score Card in WRM, which not only allowed business entities to follow their financial performance but also monitor progress as regarding enhancing their abilities and gaining intangible assets necessary for their growth in the future (Kaplan & Norton, 2007). In essence, the Balanced Score Card did not replace the financial measures in WRM rather it complemented them by incorporating three additional perspectives namely customers, internal business processes, and innovation and learning (or learning and growth) (Kaplan & Norton, 2007). While the Balanced Score Card is a relatively new phenomenon in WRM, its application by business entities is not rigid. This underlines the fact that it is extremely flexible and can be customized to suit the operations as shown by its application in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project.

Opened in 2008, Heathrow Terminal 5 represented a key transformation for Heathrow and the UAE. It came with an increased size and complexity, which introduced some teething problems (Basu et al, 2009). However, its application in WRM has provided a launch pad for enhanced working strategies thanks to its capacity to balance between concepts that would, otherwise, be contradictory to business managers.

A close examination of the case study reveals that the Heathrow Terminal 5 project successfully customized the balanced scorecard with regard to the customer perspective in WRM. This perspective examines the manner in which an entity should appear to its customers to attain its vision. It identifies market and customer segments where the entity would compete, as well as the expected performance in the targeted segment. In the case of T5 project, it became necessary that the stakeholders collaborate and work together with the consultants so as to come up with strategies that would improve the quality, time and cost and standards of the project. It is noted that the stakeholders were encouraged to bring up issues as early as possible to allow for their solution (Basu et al, 2009). This allowed for seamless operations in the project as it enhanced discussion and reporting on nonconformance and performance issues.

In addition, the T5 project has catered for the financial perspective, which revolves around actions that would enhance the financial success of the organization. It is worth noting that the financial objectives reflect the consequences pertaining to the actions already taken in other perspectives. In the case of the T5 project, the collaboration between the varied stakeholders allowed for agreement for the taking of a single insurance policy for the entire project thereby saving on cost. On the same note, the collective nonconformance cost amounted to only 0.6% of the budget, which underlines the efficiency involved (Basu et al, 2009). This was the result of a no-blame culture that led to effective and fast resolution of all problems.

Moreover, the incorporation T5 Balanced Score Card has successfully customized the internal business perspective in WRM. This perspective revolves around “doing” where the organization would include measures pertaining to service delivery (MacKay, 2004). These measures coupled with costing systems offer a mechanism for improvement and enhancement of the business entity’s processes (MacKay, 2004). According to Caudle (2008), this perspective examines the processes in which the business entity should excel so as to satisfy the customers and shareholders. It evaluates the technologies, core competencies and internal business process that would meet the needs of the customers. The T5 balance score card has incorporated key performance measures that show the performance of every project team, as well as its position in relation to the targets (Basu et al, 2009). It has identified the fact that the key contributors to enhancing projects are non conformance reports (NCRs). NCR-related measures allow for quantification of the cost of poor quality, with analysis of the root cause by non-conformance type and the supplier resulting in persistent improvement in savings, processes and design (Basu et al, 2009).

In addition, the application of Balanced Score Card in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project has fulfilled the innovation and learning perspective. This perspective examines the manner in which a business entity can sustain its capacity to improve so as to achieve its organization. It measures the capacity of the organization to improve, innovate and learn, while identifying the infrastructure necessary for supporting the objectives pertaining to the other perspectives (Basu et al, 2009). In this regard, the T5 balanced score card has identified areas that need further refinement including the incorporation of the Six Sigma methodology and training in the quality strategy of the project and connecting it to the Non-Conformance Reports-related measures (Basu et al, 2009). In addition, the balanced Score Card approach and measurements are to be explored and extended to the design stage of a key project, while metrics and key performance indicators are to be synchronized for a formal self-evaluation of an excellence process such as European Foundation of Quality Management.

Reporting systems for monitoring systems should always have sophisticated information systems that will enable them to work properly. This is not only meant for competitive purposes but for performance evaluation. This means that the top management should be able to receive information that is accurate and on a timely manner for sales, production and the financial results. When it comes to international affiliates there is need for reporting systems with information feedback at various levels for personal, production, financial and marketing variables. The information systems should have an adequate MIS so that there can be the maintenance of an efficient coordination of activities as well as results coordination. The information system chosen should make it possible for the ease of comparing performance data across countries even if the variables make the information appear different.

In conclusion, balanced score cards have become extremely crucial in WRM. While they offer a template for measuring performance, they can be customized to suit the operations of the organization as shown in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project. Started in 2008, the project embraced the financial perspective by examining strategies that would reduce cost and enhance productivity as in taking a single policy for the multibillion pound project. The collaboration between the different stakeholders also ensured speedy resolution of problems, which saved on costs and also ensured customer satisfaction. In addition, the learning and innovation perspective was fulfilled as the key performance indicators alongside the balanced scorecard metrics showed areas of improvement including increased usage of balanced scorecard especially in the design stage of the process and the incorporation of Six Sigma methodology, which would then be aligned to the measures of non-conformance to enhance productivity in the future. These show that Balanced Score Card is not rigid, rather it can be customized to business operations.

References

Caudle, S (2008). The Balanced Scorecard: A Strategic Tool in Implementing Homeland Security Strategies. The Journal of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Vol. 4 No. 3, retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=4.3.2” http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=4.3.2

Kaplan, R. S & Norton, D. P (2007). Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://hbr.org/2007/07/using-the-balanced-scorecard-as-a-strategic-management-system/ar/1” http://hbr.org/2007/07/using-the-balanced-scorecard-as-a-strategic-management-system/ar/1

Basu, R., Little, C., Millard, C., (2009). Case Study: A fresh approach of the Balanced Scorecard in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project. Measuring Business Excellence. 13(4). 22-33. Retrieved from: HYPERLINK “http://www.perf-ex.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/T5-case-study-MBE-papaer.pdf” http://www.perf-ex.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/T5-case-study-MBE-papaer.pdf

MacKay, A., (2004) A practitioners guide to the balanced scorecard: A practitioners’ report based on: Shareholder and stakeholder approaches to strategic performance measurement using the balanced scorecard. Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Retrieved from: HYPERLINK “http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/Thought_leadership_docs/tech_resrep_a_practitioners_guide_to_the_balanced_scorecard_2005.pdf” http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/Thought_leadership_docs/tech_resrep_a_practitioners_guide_to_the_balanced_scorecard_2005.pdf

Air pollution: effects and solution

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Introduction

Pollution is currently a typical spot term, that our ears are receptive to. We catch breeze of the different types of pollution and read about it through the broad communications. Air pollution is one such frame that alludes to the tainting of the air, regardless of inside or outside (Kaufman et al., 2010). A physical, natural or substance change to the air in the environment can be termed as pollution. It happens when any destructive gasses, dust, smoke goes into the environment and makes it troublesome for plants, creatures and people to make due as the air gets to be confused.

Air pollution can further be ordered into two areas visible air pollution and imperceptible air pollution. Another method for taking a gander at Air pollution could be any substance that holds the possibility to upset the air or the prosperity of the living creatures making due in it (Kaufman et al., 2010). The sustainment of all things living is because of a blend of gasses that altogether shape the environment; the lopsidedness created by expanding or decline of the rate of these gasses can be destructive for survival.

Health Effects

Health impacts of air pollution could be transient or long haul. Impacts will rely on upon the singular’s affectability. Concerning the degree of mischief, it more often than not relies on upon the chemicals. Fleeting impacts may incorporate straightforward manifestations, for example, migraines, queasiness and unfavorably susceptible responses. These manifestations could prompt aggravation of the eyes, nose and throat (Kaufman et al., 2010). There are likewise serious cases which could prompt upper respiratory pollutions, for example, pneumonia and bronchitis. It might be fleeting however the impacts are serious and will require more restorative consideration. Air pollutions likewise have long haul impacts which incorporate lung disease, unending respiratory malady, and coronary illness. These impacts could even harm the mind, nerves, liver or kidneys. As per the National Resources Defense Council, almost 64,000 individuals in the UAE may be kicking the bucket rashly every year from cardiopulmonary reasons connected to air pollution (Kaufman et al., 2010).

The most influenced individuals were the children, and the elderly. Moreover, individuals with health issues, for example, asthma, hearth ailment likewise endure more when air is contaminated. In 1995 study by the Dubai Cancer Society and Harvard Medical School, air pollution represents around 3000 unexpected losses in UAE every year (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002). Children are a standout amongst the most influenced via air pollution in light of the fact that they have not yet completely built up their resistant framework. Basic tobacco smoke and smoke originating from depletes of engine vehicles could be inconvenient to them (De Nevers, 2010). Scientists have reported in their long study that children adolescents in Dubai were prone to have lessened lung capacity due to serious air pollution. The study made by James Gauderman of University of Dubai and his associates was distributed in GCC Journal of Medicine on 1,759 children ages 10 to 18 in twelve Dubai groups.

The study was inferred that the purpose behind the lessening lung capacity came basically from auto fumes. It was figured out that 7.9 percent of the 18-year-olds in the most elevated pollution zones had lung limits that were under 80 percent of what they ought to have been. Among those subjected to the slightest dirtied air, 1.6 percent had failing to meet expectations lungs. It was likewise reported that there were comparative impacts when children live in the home of a mother who smokes (De Nevers, 2010). Assessed was a large portion of a million pass on rashly consistently in the United States as an aftereffect of smoking cigarettes (De Nevers, 2010).

Much the same as children, elderly and individuals with health issues are most at danger in contaminated air. As individuals develop more established, they experience more health issues which could be bothered via air pollution. The precise effect may not be completely seen but rather long haul presentation may expand powerlessness to diseases. Additionally to be considered is the span of the introduction and centralization of the particulate matter noticeable all around. It is evaluated that contaminated air abbreviated the lives by a normal of one to two years.

Environmental effects of Air Pollution and the Urban AreaAir pollution has been and is a developing natural issue that is nearly identified with the development of urban settlements (De Nevers, 2010). While the urban communities and towns of the world develop bigger they discharge more dangerous emanations are placed out into the air. The reason for this paper is to talk about the issues that encompass air pollution, for example, the long haul effects of air pollution, the transient effects of air pollution, the long haul standpoint of air pollution, the fleeting viewpoint of air pollution and the potential answers for the air pollution issue. Air pollution is an ecological issue that influences every single one of us to some degree and it is imperative to comprehend why air pollution happens and how we can make moves to control it (De Nevers, 2010).

Air pollution has a direct association with urban situations everywhere throughout the world. With an increment in industrialized nations ,the of utilization of autos, production lines furthermore the utilization of powers, for example, fossil energizes that discharge nursery gasses, similar to carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, into the air, there has been a distinct ascent in air pollution over the world (De Nevers, 2010). There are numerous fleeting impacts that air pollution reasons to the urban ranges and to the individuals who are living in those regions. The primary transient impact of air pollution is that it can bring about health issues for the occupants of the zone. Air pollution can bring about the occupants to get bothersome throats and disturbed eyes. It likewise has been connected to causes bronchitis and pneumonia (Speizer et al., 2013).

Fleeting air pollution exposer can likewise bring about a build the rate of hypersensitivity diseases and asthma determination to the individuals who live in the region. The fleeting impacts on environment range from exhaust cloud mists can bring about the health issues, similar to the ones beforehand said (Silverman, et al, 2007). There are likewise long haul impacts of air pollutions that are intense to nature and the individuals who live in high dirtied regions. Long haul air pollution exposer can have destroying consequences for the soundness of the individuals who live in the region (Speizer et al., 2013). A percentage of the health dangers that have been connected to long haul exposer comprise of incessant respiratory ailment, lung tumor, coronary illness, and harm to the cerebrum, kidney’s or liver (Speizer et al., 2013).

Children who are living in a much dirtied zone risk creating propositions ailments at a higher rate the typical children who don’t have long haul presented to air pollution. Long haul air pollution additionally has annihilating impacts on the earth. One of the more genuine impacts is that air pollution is gradually falling apart the Ozone layer (Speizer et al., 2013). The Ozone layer is found in the stratosphere and it assumes a critical part in shielding the earth from the suns ultraviolent beams. Because of the increment in nursery gasses, similar to carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, the Ozone has created gaps and this permits unsafe bright B-radiation to achieve the earth. The increment of B-radiation is destructive to people, plants and creatures, and it is a known reason for Melanoma. The increment of B-radiation is dependably greatly hurtful to plants. It causes a decline in plant development, tallness and harm to the leaves of plants (Speizer et al., 2013).

Solutions

There are some potential approaches to diminish, yet not completely settle, the air pollution issue that is impact most urban territories. One of the ways that the nations around the globe have chosen to decrease air pollution was in 1997 at a United Nations gathering in Kyoto, Japan. Amid the gathering nations marked a bargain, the Kyoto Protocol promising to battle an Earth-wide temperature boost by decreasing the discharge s of unsafe nursery gasses that a delivered my modern processing plants. Lamentably, guaranteeing that that the arrangement was not in the best enthusiasm for their district, the United States did not sign the bargain (Speizer et al., 2013).

Another potential approach to diminish air pollution is through innovation progression. Utilizing the new advances to supplant fossil powers, for example, coal smoldering and oil utilization, would considerable bring down the gas emanations that cause air pollution and in the end cause the ozone layer to exhaust. The transient viewpoint of air pollution on urban culture is to some degree cheerful. Numerous urban communities and nations have started or are starting to make a move in diminishing the measure of pollution that is discharged into the air by the commercial ventures, autos and residents. Numerous urban communities have begun utilizing distinctive wellsprings of vitality, as sun based force, set up of the fossil fuel vitality sources that are the fundamental supporters to air pollution. The long haul standpoint of air pollution is that, with numerous nations vowing to diminish the pollution over the advancing years, the levels of air pollution will be lower later on.

In this specific occasion, a cool front likewise moved in underneath the warm air, which brought about a larger number of individuals than normal to blaze coal, which is high in sulfur. As a result of the warm air that had risen, the smoke from the chimneys had no place to rise and was being pushed down. This series of occasions created the “executioner exhaust cloud” which prompted the deaths of more than four thousand individuals. As a result of this one terrible occasion, researchers got to be more mindful of the impacts that air pollution can have on a populace, which has prompted all the more top to bottom studies. The same kind of pollution, however in a great deal more compelling cases, can be seen in urban communities today. The cutting edge name for the foggy climate that these individuals were seeing is currently alluded to as exhaust cloud. It is made out of mostly ground level ozone, which is brought about by poisons noticeable all around.

These poisons are discharged mostly through the fumes frameworks of vehicles and from industrial facilities. There are two primary driver of air pollution: autos and manufacturing plants. The hazardous impacts that these two reason can be fundamentally credited to smoldering, or all the more particularly, oxidation (Speizer et al., 2013). At the point when a substance is blazed, it discharges hurtful repercussions that are discharged into the air and subsequently gotten to be toxins. The more prominent larger part of residents drive autos, and they are imperative in regular life with the end goal of transportation. There are numerous commonsense, savvy measures that can be taken to diminish the outflows of air poisons, including the selection of vitality protection measures and changing to characteristic gas. The air that individuals inhale regular is discriminating to the very presence of human progress, as well as the whole Earth; along these lines, dealing with it ought to be a need to everybody that possesses it.

Conclusion

A guarantee needs to be made by all. It is redundant for everybody to be radical dissenters against plants and car producers, however in the event that everybody were to get included, even in the smallest path, for example, carpooling to work, the air that is breathed in by all as an issue of survival would be progressively more clean. The air pollution made by these processing plants is hazardous to the earth and to the health of individuals all over the place. “Mechanical air pollution is the best risk to air quality in the United States. The production lines themselves should not be dealt with as hoodlums in this matter; their purpose is not to damage the earth, but rather to give an item. They must be dealt with as decently as would be prudent, while as yet finishing the objective of cleaner air. In spite of the fact that this will be a long process, the final aftereffect of cleaner air and a cleaner situation will turn out to be certainly justified regardless of the time, cash and exertion spent.

References

Brook, R. D., Rajagopalan, S., Pope, C. A., Brook, J. R., Bhatnagar, A., Diez-Roux, A. V., … & Kaufman, J. D. (2010). Particulate matter air pollution and cardiovascular disease an update to the scientific statement from the Dubai Heart Association. Circulation, 121(21), 2331-2378.

Brunekreef, B., & Holgate, S. T. (2002). Air pollution and health. The lancet,360(9341), 1233-1242.

De Nevers, N. (2010). Air pollution control engineering. Waveland Press.

Dockery, D. W., Pope, C. A., Xu, X., Spengler, J. D., Ware, J. H., Fay, M. E., … & Speizer, F. E. (2013). An association between air pollution and mortality in six US cities. GCC journal of medicine, 329(24), 1753-1759.

Gauderman, W. J., Avol, E., Gilliland, F., Vora, H., Thomas, D., Berhane, K., … & Peters, J. (2004). The effect of air pollution on lung development from 10 to 18 years of age. New England Journal of Medicine, 351(11), 1057-1067.

Air Pollution In Beijing

Beijing is one of the largest cities in the world with a population of over 20 million people. The city has a remarkable number of heavy industrial complexes powered by coal energy. This makes the city a major economic hub in China, as it contributes a considerable proportion to the country’s GDP. Given its level of industrialization and population density, it is arguable that Beijing is a major employment center in China, which gives many people a source of living. Due to the use of coal as the primary source of energy, Beijing suffers some of the worst kind of air pollution in the world. Li Qiong of CCTV reports that the city ranks third out of 113 cities in the world in terms of air pollution levels (1). The city’s phenomenal blanket of smog persists even as the government claims to have stepped up its efforts to control the pollution. This clearly shows that the government and the city authorities are not doing enough to reduce air pollution in Beijing.

The causes of pollution are mainly industrial and become persistent with increased urbanization. Phys.org reports that the condition of the air in Beijing deteriorated as the city became an industrial complex rapidly, which increased the output of pollutants in the city (2). Wang et al. report that the biggest cause of air pollution is the particulate matter (PM), which they categorize into PM10 and PM2.5 (1). The particulate matter emanates from different natural and human processes and has different effects to the safeness of the air. The PRC government uses various measures to reduce air pollution in the city. Most of the strategies laid down by the government aim at cutting down the emission of pollutants with particular interest in reducing the use of coal. For instance, Wang T. et al. indicate that in 2008, the PRC government engaged in a series of controls aimed at achieving cleaner air that enabled it to host the 2008 Olympic marathon. Among the government’s strategies for controlling air pollution in 2008, was banning heavily polluting vehicles from accessing the municipality and closing down a number of heavily polluting factories (Wang et al. 7603).

PM10 particles are the particles suspended in the air with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10µm while the PM2.5 particles have an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5µm (Wang et al. 1). The PM10 particles may occur naturally, for example, dust particles, mold, pollen, dirt, and spores or may be resulting from human activities, like smoke. PM2.5 mainly emanates from toxic organic matter, smoke from combustion of factory material, and heavy metal escaping from smelting furnaces (Wang et al. 1). The government faces various hurdles in achieving its goals as far as reduced air pollution is concerned. One of the challenges is the non-compliance of producers who may fail to comply with the set production limits. A report by China Daily indicates that there are producers who often exceed the legal limits of pollution resulting in higher than projected pollution levels (1). The problems of compliance may also couple with lack of transparency in the setting of standards by authorities. With low transparency, the standards set are subject to compromise resulting in inefficiencies of the process.

The only way that the PRC government can overcome air pollution in Beijing is by acknowledging that most of its efforts so far have failed to achieve worthwhile results. The government requires to also accept that trying to resolve pollution issues only in the winter season when the skies demonstrates to the whole world how much they are polluted is vain. All the stakeholders should participate in drafting measures to tackle air pollution throughout the year. Participation of factory owners and their management is essential in order to draw a collective policy to handle the air pollution problems.

Alles gives a comprehensive evaluation of the extreme air pollution events for the period 2010-2013. In the report, it is clear to find out that Beijing has polluted her air in an unprecedented manner. The full ambit of air pollution in Beijing manifests in the winter season in every year. BURGESS reports that a thick blanket of smog, which reduces visibility to 100 meters, characterizes the Beijing winters (1). The measure of air pollution levels in Beijing indicates that the toxicity of the air in Beijing exceeds all the limits set by the World Health Organization and other international bodies (Greenpeace 1).

According to Alles, the Beijing air pollution levels are consistently high during the winter. In January 2010, the recorded pollution levels in Beijing and in many Chinese cities exceeded an Air Pollution Index (API) of 100 with extreme conditions extending for long hours per day (Alles 3). The pollution levels exhibited by the concentration of the PM10 and PM2.5 imply that the Beijing air remained polluted heavily for long hours in a day. Alles indicates that in “18 January 2010 = 143 avg. API PM10; PM 2.5 = 319 to 435 conc.; for 7hrs at 500 AQI.” (Alles 4) Such pollution levels prevailed in most parts of China with Shanghai recording the lowest PM10 concentration at 44 while Chifeng recorded the highest at 343 (Alles 4).

The most toxic cause of pollution in the air is the PM2.5 particles that are capable of causing adverse respiratory problems when inhaled. The toxicity of the PM2.5 emanates from their small size, which facilitates their adherence to the lung posing health risks to organisms (Center for Chinese Studies, BURGESS 1). An argument that smog only becomes problematic during the winter season may refute the premise that air pollution in Beijing has grown persistent and is slipping out of control. Reports on extreme air pollution are all covering the situation during the winter season when the prevailing weather conditions and the high use of coal exaggerate the real picture. “The PM2.5 mass concentration peak during February was most likely due to emissions from coal consumption for heating purposes…this was the month with the lowest temperatures and slowest winds in 2011” (Wang 5).

Greenpeace indicates that the PM2.5 particles carry traces of “toxic heavy metals, acid oxides, organic pollutants and other chemicals, as well as microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses” (2). This makes the PM2.5 a more hazardous form of air pollution. Greenpeace reports that modern toxicology research findings consistently prove that the “heavy metals and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) carried by PM2.5 can enter and deposit in human alveoli, causing inflammation and lung diseases” (1).

Other than affecting the lungs, PM2.5 also affects the functioning of the human circulatory and cardiovascular systems. This implies that “exposure to PM2.5 can lead to significantly increased mortality due to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as greater cancer risks” (Greenpeace 1).

Although not as toxic as the PM2.5, PM10 particles affect the people and the environment in equally disastrous ways. The most evident effect of PM10 particles is their influence on visibility. BURGESS reports that the impact on visibility due to the presence of smog in Beijing was so severe in April 2012 resulting in the cancellation of over 150 flights to and from Beijing (1).

Wang T. et al. observe that the levels of air pollution in Beijing were still high in 2008. They also indicate that the air condition had potential to affect the economic activities in the city considering that an outlook into the Beijing 2008 Olympic marathon revealed that concerns about the weather are bound to increase from both the local citizens and from the international consumers (Wang et al., 7603). Wang et al. indicate that some pollutants reduced in concentrations after the government adopted control measures to reduce air pollution in anticipation of the Olympic. “Vehicle-related nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at an urban site dropped by 25% and 20–45% in the first two weeks after full control was put in place” (7603).

There are pollutants that have remained consistently high despite the efforts by the government to curb air pollution. For instance, Wang T. et al. report that the concentration “levels of ozone, sulfate, and nitrate in PM2.5 particles increased by 16%, 64%, 37%, respectively, compared to the period prior to the full control” (7603). This indicates that the pollutants increased in the same period that the government was spearheading pollution control programs in preparation to host the 2008 Olympics.

Wu et al. also give more evidence on the pollution rates in Beijing adding to the evidence that Beijing has a long-standing history of heavily polluted air. Wu et al. segment the incidences of air pollution based on the sources of the pollutants. They observed that local sources contribute to the pollution in the surface layer (30m in height), which accounts for “65 % of SO2, 75 % of PM10 and nearly 90% of NO2” (5997). On the other hand, pollutants observed in the higher layer (above 1.1km) emanate from the neighboring regions like southern Beijing and makes up “more than half of the SO2 and PM10 concentrations” (Wu et al. 5997).

The PRC government uses various measures to reduce air pollution in the city. Most of the strategies laid down by the government aim at cutting down the emission of pollutants with particular interest in reducing the use of coal. For instance, Wang T. et al. indicate that in 2008, the PRC government engaged in a series of controls aimed at achieving cleaner air that enabled it to host the 2008 Olympic marathon. Among the government’s strategies for controlling air pollution in 2008, was banning heavily polluting vehicles from accessing the municipality and closing down a number of heavily polluting factories (Wang et al. 7603).

The long-term directive for controlling air pollution may lie in the replacement of coal as the primary source of energy for Beijing’s industries. This is a position that the government understands fully and intends to execute within the shortest time possible. CCTV reports that the government seeks to initiate a program that sees a replacement of coal heating in the domestic sector and adopt technologies that reduce pollutant emission from combustion of coal (1). This is a sustainable step towards implementation of a long-term strategy. Natural gas, apart from it being cleaner in comparison with coal, has a higher energy content implying that its use will achieve results in both environmental and economic terms (CCTV 1).

The government faces various hurdles in achieving its goals as far as reduced air pollution is concerned. One of the challenges is the non-compliance of producers who may fail to comply with the set production limits. A report by China Daily indicates that there are producers who often exceed the legal limits of pollution resulting in higher than projected pollution levels (1). The problems of compliance may also couple with lack of transparency in the setting of standards by authorities. With low transparency, the standards set are subject to compromise resulting in inefficiencies of the process.

The only way that the PRC government can overcome air pollution in Beijing is by acknowledging that most of its efforts so far have failed to achieve worthwhile results. The government requires to also accept that trying to resolve pollution issues only in the winter season when the skies demonstrates to the whole world how much they are polluted is vain. All the stakeholders should participate in drafting measures to tackle air pollution throughout the year. Participation of factory owners and their management is essential in order to draw a collective policy to handle the air pollution problems.

An argument that smog only becomes problematic during the winter season may refute the premise that air pollution in Beijing has grown persistent and is slipping out of control. Reports on extreme air pollution are all covering the situation during the winter season when the prevailing weather conditions and the high use of coal exaggerate the real picture. “The PM2.5 mass concentration peak during February was most likely due to emissions from coal consumption for heating purposes…this was the month with the lowest temperatures and slowest winds in 2011” (Wang 5).

While it is plausible to argue that air pollution becomes noticeable during the winter season alone, it would be illogical to argue that air pollution only occurs in the cold months. The truth is that although coal use increases during the winter season, since the majority of the people use it for heating their houses, coal is the primary source of energy in China, and factories and small-scale domestic users use it throughout the year. Greenpeace reports that industrial use of coal is still high and accounts for over fifty percent of total coal use in China (13). Even in the generation of other forms of power China’s power generating companies use coal, albeit employing cleaner methods of use than the industrial boilers (Greenpeace 13).

Considering that levels of air pollution in Beijing exceed the pollution threshold set by the World Health Organization by as big a margin as recorded by BURGESS, it is plausible to argue that even in other seasons, Beijing’s air is still heavily polluted. BURGESS reports that official readings for PM2.5 in Beijing early 2013, “suggested pollution levels of over 400 micrograms (mg) per cubic meter, while an unofficial reading from the US embassy monitors recorded levels of over 800mg” (1). The records do not have any close alignment with the WHO guidelines that stipulate that countries should maintain the average concentration of PM2.5 particles in the air at a maximum of 25mg per cubic meter while affirming that above 100mg/m3, air is unhealthy (BURGESS 1). This implies that air pollution is high in Beijing not only during the cold seasons, but also throughout the year. Arguably, it is the favorable weather conditions that help conceal the ambit of air pollution during other seasons of the year.

Air pollution in Beijing may persist over a long time, as there are no solid indicators that China will resolve it any time soon. Many factors work together to ensure that pollutants will characterize Beijing’s skies for at least as long as it will take to completely replace coal energy use in the city. Although the government is working towards reducing pollution levels, there are grounds to believe that it can achieve more results if it involves the producers in the process of achieving environmental sustainability. With the winter season setting in, it is only a matter of days and the world will know whether the phenomenal smog blanket will engulf Beijing again.

The BURGESS report indicates that there is a possibility that air pollution has not increased in the recent past, but rather remained static (2). The report theorizes that the recent move by the PRC’s government to allow the public access to more national data may contribute to the impression that pollution is high. The argument is that the levels of air pollution in China have always been high but concealed. The BURGESS report proposes that it is the sudden public awareness on the pollution issues that make the situation to appear to have veered out of control (2). BURGESS even enthuses that air pollution in Beijing might have abated in the recent years (2).

Work Cited

Alles, David, L. (Eds). “Extreme Air Pollution Events in Beijing China 2010 & 2013.” WesternWashington University, 24 Apr. 2013. 21 Nov. 2013<http://fire.biol.wwu.edu/trent/alles/ExtremeAirPollutionEventsBeijing.pdf>.

Burgess, Meryl. “Beijing Smog: An annual Affair.” CCS Commentary, 18 February 2013. 21Nov. 2013 <http://www.ccs.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CCS_Commentary_Beijing_Smog_an_Annual_Affair_MB.pd

CCTV.com. “Beijing Starts Shift from Coal to Gas.” CCTV.com, 11-08-2013. 21 Nov. 2013<http://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20131108/101036.shtml>.

CCTV.com. “Polluters Still Flouting Law: Inspection.” CCTV.com, 2013-11-19. 21 Nov. 2013<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/hebei/2013-11/19/content_17115404.htm>.

Greenpeace. Dangerous Breathing. PM2.5: Measuring the Human Health and Economic Impactson China’s largest cities. Dongcheng, Beijing: Greenpeace, 2013. Print.

Phys.org. “Smog-blanketed Beijing urges residents to stay indoors.” 30 Jan 2013. 2013<http://phys.org/pdf278741284.pdf> .

Qioing, Li. Air pollution: top concern in Beijing. 01-29-2013. 21 Nov. 2013<http://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20130129/103339.shtml>.

Wang, Jin-Feng, et al. “Estimation of citywide air pollution in Beijing.” PloS one 8.1 (2013):e53400. Web.<http://www.researchgate.net/publication/234134928_Estimation_of_citywide_air_pollution_in_beijing/file/d912f50f932ab97688.pdf>.

Wang, Tao, et al. “Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: secondary pollutants andregional impact.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 10.16 (2010): 7603-7615. Print.

Wu, Q. Z., et al. “A numerical study of contributions to air pollution in Beijing duringCAREBeijing-2006.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 11.12 (2011): 5997-6011.Print.

Meta-analysis

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Although the advantages of using meta-analysis seem obvious, critics have been raised. The critics entail the possibility of introducing bias into sampling findings and placing emphasis on personal effects. There are various disadvantages associated with meta-analysis as witnessed in this research. This paper analyses a meta-analysis of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Outcomes. It evaluates the Effects of Research-Specific Procedures.

The first weakness of DeCoster (2009) paper analysis is personal bias in choosing and including existing studies in the analysis. In the DeCoster (2009), there is no database that includes all empirical studies on the topic of interest. It is also true that not every computer assisted search can identify all journal articles on the chosen topic. Many good studies are not available simply because they were never published. There might be a publication bias; to mean, important results are more likely to be published, whereas non-significant results are neglected into file drawers.  Meta-analysis researchers in DeCoster (2009) paper need to set a clear and consistent standard for including all valid studies that meet this standard and to make a great effort in including all valid studies that meet this standard.

In the recommendation, DeCoster (2009) paper researchers also must avoid personal bias in deciding which studies from the literature to include in the analysis (Joel et al., 2012).

The second drawback of meta-analysis in DeCoster (2009) originates from the huge variation of present studies. Even on the same research topic and question, existing empirical studies may vary considerably in theoretical foundations and methodological issues, such as sampling strategy, measurements of interested variables, data analysis techniques, and the reporting formats and contents. It is evident that there exist considerable changes among various studies.

Evaluation of Meta-analysis

Various scholars have argued in defending meta-analysis by stating that it helps in synthesizing disparate researches. Various scholars have arguments that even though past research varies in their methodology, a meta-analysis which is well designed considers variations by treating them as moderator variables. Meta-analysis researchers ought to be careful in the aggregation of various studies with different participants and sampling methods. They should also consider operationalization and measuring variables of interests which was not carried out in DeCoster (2009) paper. When joining studies, scholars should be attentive to appropriate moderator variables that can result to alterations in research outcomes (Joel et al., 2012).

The other drawback of meta-analysis in DeCoster (2009) paper is its dependence on personal effects on various predictors on a dependent variable. In DeCoster (2009) paper, Meta-analysis methodically measures only personal relations between dependent and independent variables and cannot give a broad picture. Rosenthal and Dimatteo (2001) argue that this sample, systematic approach is essential in most research domains, stating that individual effects and correlations provide a foundation of building a comprehensive model that integrates many individual variables. In addition, meta-analysis tends to be a powerful tool for examining the combination and interactions of individual predictor variables. Such analysis is an essential condition for realizing multi-level and multi-factorial models. Meanwhile, meta-analysis scholars in DeCoster (2009) paper ought to be aware of the loss of information when they concentrate on particular impacts at a time in the analysis, also taking into consideration probable interactions among predictor variables.

Internal Validity

Although the list of threats to validity in DeCoster (2009) may seem devastating there is good reason to continue (Joel et al., 2012). Unlike the pilot’s checklist, on which any item overlooked could spell disaster, it is generally agreed by which any item overlooked could spell disaster. It is generally agreed by even the most finicky statisticians that a meta-analysis is not automatic failure. Suppose it has a shortcoming or two in validity; to fail, its validity problems must be serious or multiple. Nevertheless, after looking at the validity threats to meta-analysis, one can only agree with Ingram Olkin that doing a meta-analysis may be easy but doing one well is hard.

Whether the implementation of the primary studies and the meta-analysis justify the claims the researchers are making should be assessed. That is, whether the primary studies and meta-analysis actually test what the researchers say is being tested. Over a dozen threats to internal validity have been identified in DeCoster (2009) paper. In primary studies, most can be avoided by the use of proper methods, with random assignment of subjects to treatment and control conditions being the most obvious. In meta-analyses, scholars can protect against majority of the key threats to interior validity by using only principal studies, an action that was not carried out in DeCoster (2009) paper. The studies use randomization or make statistical modifications compensating for its lack.

Two other significant fears to the interior validity of meta-analysis in DeCoster (2009) paper comprise unfinished literature searchers, which produce samples of studies, and untrustworthy information coding from various studies. These threats can be guided against by more complete methods of collecting studies and by checks on coding discussed earlier, an action that was never carried out.

Number of studies

Piot, (2003) points out the possibility that poorly conducted studies included in his previously published meta-analysis could have artificially inflated or decreased the magnitude of the aforementioned effects sizes. However, due to a limited number of studies in the 2001 meta-analysis, Piot, (2003) was unable to statistically test the impact of study quality on effect size. To address this issue, Jones, (2006) re-analysed the now larger video game literature and identified studies that contained few methodological flaws. In order to identify methodologically sounds studies, Kimball, (2006) made use of a nine-item coding scheme. Included within this scheme were the following weaknesses: a nonviolent video game condition that involved the paying of a game that actually contained violence; a violent video game condition that contained little violence; difference between the violent and nonviolent conditions in terms of difficulty, frustration level, or generated interest, and so on. When Owens 2006 limited the revised meta-analysis to best practice studies, the effects sizes for aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognitions, and hostile affects and physiological arousal all increased. This indicates weaknesses of meta-analysis and so their applicability in DeCoster (2009).

The measurable process of DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis can be employed in addressing the challenges imposed by the presence of diverse research finding on a particular question. It allows researchers to combine numerical results from a number of studies, to accurately estimate descriptive statistics. The researchers are also able to explain the inconsistencies of findings in the literature, and to discover moderate variables for a dependent variable of interest (Rosenthal & DiMatteo, 2001). The major strength of DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis comes from its capacity to help researchers reach accurate and credible conclusions that other research approaches cannot provide(Joel et al., 2012). Such as one single primary study and qualitative or narrative literature review. Meta-analytic research strategy nonetheless has both benefits and drawbacks.

Moderator check

Lastly, the other drawback of meta-analysis as evident in DeCoster (2009) paper is its inadequate capability of including other variables that are melodramatically dissimilar from the current theory (Yang, 2002). Meta-analysis researchers cannot form new hypothetical ideas past the variables and study qualities that have not been involved in current studies. Although researchers may be able to discover different effects unless existing studies have reported relevant features (Joel et al., 2012). Consequently, a meta-analytic approach to theory building tends to be more applicable to a “research-analytic approach to theory” than “theory-than-research” strategy of theory building. Meta-analysis, consequently, has its constraints in mounting and validation of pioneering theory.

Reliability check

The principal difficulty of meta-analysis as witnessed in DeCoster (2009)is individual bias in choosing and including present studies in the analysis. In DeCoster (2009), there is no one database that entails all experiential studies in the examination. Not all computer-helped searches can classify all journal articles on the research topic. Various researches are unavailable since they are unpublished there can be a publication bias. That is, the importance in results has higher chances of being published, while non-important outcomes are relegated into file drawers (Rosenthal, 1979). Meta-analysis scholars are to set a perfect and reliable standard for containing experiential studies and to create a pronounced effort in entailing all valid studies that attain these conditions. Researchers should also evade individual bias in determining the studies from the past research to contain in the analysis.

The other drawback of meta-analysis in DeCoster (2009) comes from the huge alteration of present research. Although similar research theme and question, current experiential studies may fluctuate considerably in theoretic foundations and organizational issues, for example sampling approach, measurements of concerned variables, data analysis methods, and the reporting setups and subjects (Joel et al., 2012). It is evident that there are substantial differences among published researches considering quality of research. Subsequently, some scholars have argued against the practice of meta-analysis for mixing good and bad studies.

The other critics have been raised concerning the contrast of various kinds of studies as being same to mixing different research designs (Hunt, 1997). Rosenthal (2001), though, have dissimilar studies. The arguments are that even though studies change methodologically, a meta-analysis well designed considers such variances by considering them as moderator variables. When uniting studies, researchers are to pay attention to appropriate moderator variables that can cause variances in research outcomes.

External Validity

Hall and Rosenthal (1995) suggest three basic principles to guide meta-analysis, certain processes are vital to meta-analytic study. A typical meta-analysis has the following steps:

Define variables of interest, and formulate the research questions. This is evident is DeCoster (2009) paper.

Search the literature, and identify adequate empirical studies in a systematic way. Though there is a thorough literature search in DeCoster (2009), but the search is biased.

Construct validity has to do with whether the measure used to appraise the outcome is a trustworthy indicator of effect or if it distorts the true intervention-outcome connection. DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis, for example, examined how well a mental test of job abilities correlated with individuals’ actual job performance. Of the measures used in the primary studies, the mental test was known to be fairly reliable, while the job performance rating, based on a single supervisor’s opinion in each case, was generally unreliable.

The last group deals with threats to statistical validity in DeCoster (2009). These include errors in the way data are analysis is carried out. At the chief level of study, such error comprise in the way data are analyzed. At the principal level, such errors comprise using numerical tests that are unsuitable for the kind of data, exploiting on chance, and not recording statistical tests that were done. At the meta-analytic level, statistical drawbacks include unsuitable suppositions when effect sizes must be assessed, bias in changing effect sizes, and failing to weigh the studies’ results by samples size and other situations.

One of the most widely cited meta-analytic studies on media violence is Anderson, Berkowitz, (2003) systematic review of over 215 empirical studies. Each of the individual studies included in this meta-analysis assessed the negative effects of violent imagery seen in movies and on television on aggressive behaviour. Meta-analysis in DeCoster (2009) proved to be an important piece of work, as the impact of violent television and movies on aggressive behaviour produced medium-sized effects sizes, far larger than many critics had suspected. More recently, Funk et al., 2002 conducted a systematic review of the impact of violent video games on aggression and aggression-related constructs using 35 independent research projects. The results of this meta-analysis provided empirical support for the contention that violent video games influence aggressive behaviour, one of the most widely cited meta-analytic studies on media violence is Funk et al., 2002 systematic review of over 215 empirical studies. This shows strength of meta-analysis and so their applicability in DeCoster (2009)(Joel et al., 2012).

The other demerit of meta-analysis in DeCoster (2009) and other areas is in its dependence on personal effects on various predictors on a dependent variable (Joel et al., 2012). Meta-analysis methodically measures only personal relations amid dependent and independent variables and cannot afford a broad picture. Rosenthal (2001) argue that this is easy, methodical approach is important in majority of researches, stating that personal impacts and associations give a foundation for erecting a complete model that assimilates many personal variables.

Theoretical contribution

One advantage of DeCoster (2009) meta-analytic design is its capacity to integrate and synthesize current empirical studies for a research question. DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis allows researchers to integrate the existing empirical studies for a research question. Meta-analysis lets investigators to assimilate the present findings with some erudite tools for instance combined tests. Because different existing studies may come from various empirical areas, a combined test tends to cumulate the existing findings in a scientific way and thus to present the results with more generalizability (Joel et al., 2012). Researchers understand that it is crucial to conduct a literature review, yet they often get inconsistent or even conflicting findings. Qualitative or narrative review of the literature cannot deal with such findings, and thus sometimes such a review can be quite confusing.

DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis provides a cumulative view of a specific research topic by carefully analyzing similarities and differences of methodologies and findings across many studies. In other words, meta-analysis aims at getting a whole picture. By coding existing studies quantitatively, meta-analysis researchers can keep track of a large amount of potential information and then conduct a more detailed analysis (Joel et al., 2012). DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis can easily summarize multiple variables from hundreds of studies that most narrative reviews cannot handle and so its advantage. In addition, meta-analysis allows researchers to examine a wider range of relationships, interactions, and other such complex analyses that are normally not permitted under qualitative research techniques.

Moderator

The second benefit or strengths of DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis for getting good research outcomes originates forms its nature of analyzing the analysis. DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis does not only cumulate outcomes from personal studies but also can be using test multifaceted theories entailing various variables (Joel et al., 2012). Since social and administrative phenomenon seems to be complicated, diverse theories from different domains have been put in place to assist explain such phenomena. There might be various competing philosophies or hypothetical frameworks in one research domain. For instance, scholars can recognize various predictors for the efficiency of training in firms, including design of training, various methods of training, ability or task features, and evaluation features (Arthur et al., 2003). DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis gives essential method of estimating the relative effects of present predictors on the dependent variable and this gives aggregated experiential results for studying and judging present studies.

The other strengths of DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis employing meta-analysis is its ability to offer strategies for selection of variables and designing the research in coming studies. Meta-analysis uses the chosen literature with experiential evidences. Such outlook has various utility. For instance, investigators can use such data to reflect on the present design and determine some hopeful variables for future research. They researchers in DeCoster (2009)used meta-analysis in developing new theoretical and hypothetical ideas founded on experiential evidence shown in meta-analysis permits researchers to improve and validate new theoretical philosophies based on experiential evidence revealed in meta-analysis for example moderators and interactions impacts(Joel et al., 2012). In summary, meta-analysis permits researchers to improve other theoretical ideas basing on likely attributes and features of all imaginable current studies. This is to say, meta-analysis can follow a research then theory strategy of building theory (Reynolds, 1971). Comparing with other strategies, the chief advantage of meta-analysis is that it is based on a number of proven empirical studies as witnessed in DeCoster (2009). For instance, meta-analysis is based on published works and not only one piece of research.

The other advantage of employing meta-analysis as research method originates from its function in the continuous development refinement of present theory. Through discovering and examining the important moderators and likely interactions impacts, meta-analysis gives solid conclusions about entailing other proven variables or discarding old, less significant variables in the present theories and theoretical models. Even though the demerits of employing meta-analysis are obvious, critics have been raised, entailing the possibility of introducing bias into findings sampling (Joel et al., 2012). Meta-analysis researchers ought to be alert of drawbacks in connection with this method.

When adding up the current developments in the field of individually controlled learning on one hand, and the strengths and restrictions of meta-analysis on the other, some implications for additional research become deceptive.

The outcomes of DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis alone do not give enough bases for creating entire recommendations for an intercession. Obviously, other evidences not included in DeCoster (2009) are also needed (Joel et al., 2012). Succeeding chief research should be the re-evaluation of the integrative outcomes of the meta-analysis in an experimental setting. An intervention research ought to be established, which considers the outcomes of the meta-analysis of training studies dealing with the improvement of the educational self-regulation. In such a research, intervening with perfect characteristics ought to be assessed.

In the same way, DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis ought to be considered as an experiential study which synthesizes personal experiments quantitatively on the base of previous study objectives. Because meta-analyses are founded on a bigger sample size, the analysis tends to be more exact and dependable than any of the principal studies that they assess.

With regards to further exploration of the concept of self-regulated learning, it would be interesting to conduct a meta-analytical evaluation of the training studies. The evaluation should be aimed at fostering self-regulated learning. Furthermore, the evaluation should also be designed to synthesize on a smaller scale the experimental research on how learners acquire self-regulated learning skills. The main aim is in investigating single strategies more in depth, an action that was thoroughly carried out in DeCoster (2009). This is one of the greatest strengths of DeCoster (2009) meta-analysis (Joel et al., 2012).

Further, in order to advance the scope of the research in DeCoster (2009)’s field, conclusions established in adjacent research areas. The meta-synthesis of Hattie (2009), for instance, discovered that the effect of tutors on learners is bigger when equating the collaborative inspirations of learner, educator, instructional, and school factors. The outcome should be considered in the research on learners’ attainment of individual-regulation by examining the effect of educator feedback on learners’ individual regulation. In the assessment of training program, these issues should be combined into the involvements meant to foster individual-regulating learning.

Meta-analysis is no longer a new method. Among the main difficulties associated with meta-analysis is its dependence on the main studies involved. The information as reported by the authors is often not complete. For instance, information on certain important decisions taken may not be revealed(Joel et al., 2012). One way of solving this problem could be that authors provide the meta-analysis with their raw data when their study is being published (see e.g., Glass, 2000; Hattie et al., in press). This would allow the reviewers to work with these primary data and carry out additional analyses, whereby at least some of the limitations of meta-analyses as mentioned earlier could be overcome.

Until more sophisticated methods are established to synthesize literature, DeCoster (2009)meta-analysis approach can offer an important overview of the state of the art in a particular research field. They can also provide useful information about the effectiveness of interventions or, in more general field and provide useful information between two variables under investigation as witnessed in DeCoster (2009). Especially in a growing and evolving research field such as the area of self-regulated learning, procedures are needed that can structure the existing body of evidence and help to find comprehensive answers, while also facilitating the formulation of new hypotheses for future studies.

Interpretation of findings

In analysing the meta-analysis for validity, Rosenthal and Rubin ensured that their outcomes would not leak away under close examination. The validity of meta-analysis refers to the soundness of the original studies and the processes used in combining the data, and a minimum of three dozen possible validity leaks were identified in the processes. Studying all the likely faults, one can feel that the entire enterprise in DeCoster (2009) paper is desperate, but the condition is not bad, to alter metaphors, than that of an aircraft pilot reading a preflight (Joel et al., 2012).

References

Yang B., 2009.Research in Organizations c.21.Business & Economics / Management Science. Publisher Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Swanson, R., 2005. Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods of Inquiry. The Berrett-Koehler Organizational Performance Series. Publisher Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Diana B. 1999. Meta-Analysis, Decision Analysis, and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis : Methods for Quantitative Synthesis in Medicine: Methods for Quantitative Synthesis in Medicine. Volume 31 of Monographs in Epidemiology and Biostatistics.Publisher Oxford University Press.

Polit, Denise F., Cheryl T., 2013. Essentials of Nursing Research: Appraising Evidence for Nursing Practice. 8th Edition.Revised Publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Ringquist E., 2013. Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy.Publisher John Wiley & Sons.

Harris M. Cooper, Larry V. Hedges, 1994. The Handbook of research synthesis, Volume 236.The Handbook of Research Synthesis.Publisher Russell Sage Foundation.

Joel M., Marc J., and Allan A., 2012.A Meta-Analysis of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Outcomes.Evaluating the Effects of Research-Specific Procedures.

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Evaluation essay

Introduction

People have differing views regarding the characteristics of a musician. For one, an accomplished musician should have superiority technical and aural skills. Additionally, an accomplished musician should be able to blend with the audience and create a rapport. However, the most notable characteristics of a god musician are to be able to control his game.

Controlling the audience

An accomplished musician should be in control his concerts. On of the most outstanding things is that an accomplished musician should not be moved emotionally by the audience. James can make his audience cry, joyously or frighten them; however, he must able to control his emotions. He does not feel any of these during performance. He is moved by his performance and consummated by the flow of the performance. , be he controls everything. It may be detrimental for a musician to be emotionally moved by the crowd. James Morison has fire in his voice but ice in his veins. This is what keeps him going even when the audience is dropping. During his launch of one life track, he moved women to cry, men dropped, and pandemonium broke loose. He kept on singing until the end of the shows, not moved a bit himself.

Technical and aural skill

While a talented musician should be proficient at playing a number of instruments, the policy of division of labor is easy; one does what he does best. Specialization is tremendously valuable. It is necessary for players to be able to know than to play the right tunes, by playing the right tune at the right time. This is mostly demanded in the orchestra, but it applies to all fields. Once a player knows when to play the right tune, they can do it naturally. The only examples on point are Elvis princely and James Morison. Both of these players never went to a music school; they play the guitar with a natural gusto. In his hit single, “You Give Me Something”, James set the tempo with his syrupy backing track of the guitar, piano and the brass, He knows how to set the tempo with his guitar riffing. He can easily improvise notes and tunes without creating discourse in his performance

Ability to create a rapport

For a musician to excel in his performance, he must know how to blend with the crowd. The audience is extremely significant factors in the success of a musician, for one, the musician must be able to determine the mod of the crowd and leverage it to his advantage. Rapport is extremely valuable. Once James has built a rapport with his audience, he knows which tracks to start with to set the mood, and while on gear; he introduces other lines to create a mood swing in his audience. The chemistry is just not imaginable and practical, so it is never rehearsed before the concert, it comes naturally. His may be something to do within his extroverted nature, but this does not lie on personality characteristics, but on psychology.

Choice of chords and style

Musician hold be able make the right choice of chord to be able to capture the crowd, however, the style of accompaniment is also noteworthy. Though tin is a matter of personal taste. It is also necessary to choose the right backing, a mixture if common chords may not move the audience, but if chosen well, is likely to endear the crowd. One can decide to use the common three chord trick, but additional voicing and relevant minor, in addition to modal chords is particularly appropriate in music.

Decision criteria

While the criteria are many, the choice of the best criteria is manly dependent on the who is evaluating whom. If it is the crowd evaluating the signer, then the ability to create a rapport is much more valuable. This is because; the singer easily identifies with the audience and provides them with exactly what they want. Just the right chemistry to keep them busy and committed. Some of the self confessed diehard fans of James Morrison say that they love him because, of the chemistry between him and his audience.

On the other hand, if an event management company carries out the evaluation, then the ability to control the audience is extremely beneficial because the event management team is much more interested in ensuring that the audience are moved. If an artist moves the audience, this may ensure longevity of contracts and shows. However, if the artist is self evaluating, he is likely to consider rapport, the technical and aural skill as well as the ability to control the crowd. The more, the artist can easily exploit the audience’s emotion, the better because at the end of the day, the audience is the x factor.

Conclusion

Ability to create and develop a rapport with the audience or crowd is the most notable in criteria for selecting the best artist. The audience is the reason why the showbiz is on; the revenue comes from the audience, and this makes the rapport the most significant criteria.

Evaluation Of Methods And Introduction Of Complementary Research Devices To Improve Research Robustness

Abstract

According to Kisfalvi (2003), Entrepreneurship has been conceptualized in a number of ways in literature, common ground has still not been found. Social scientists have embarked to study effects and reasons of entrepreneurial actions to find the essence of entrepreneurship, (Kisfalvi, 2003). Research on ‘true’ entrepreneurial behavior is scarce though, researchers agree that investigating this field could help solidify entrepreneurship theory, its delimitation from management and lay groundwork for studies on entrepreneurial efficacy and competence.

Referring to ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Edmondson</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>809</RecNum><record><rec-number>809</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>809</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Edmondson, Amy C.</author><author>McManus, Stacy E.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>METHODOLOGICAL FIT IN MANAGEMENT FIELD RESEARCH</title><secondary-title>Academy of Management Review</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Academy of Management Review</full-title></periodical><pages>1155-1179</pages><volume>32</volume><number>4</number><keywords><keyword>MANAGEMENT science</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT literature</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT</keyword><keyword>QUALITY control</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>EXPERIMENTAL design</keyword><keyword>DATA analysis</keyword><keyword>METHODOLOGY</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2007</year></dates><publisher>Academy of Management</publisher><isbn>03637425</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=26586086&amp;loginpage=login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>Edmondson & McManus (2007), this paper provides that a research design based on field methods, in meticulous methods of observation, can be used to study and consequently code and evaluate behavioral scenario in entrepreneurship. A method to studying managerial behavior postulated by Henry Mintzberg’s (1968) proves a valuable starting point, however, an evaluation of the method based on Yin (1998) and ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Gibbert</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>821</RecNum><record><rec-number>821</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>821</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Gibbert, M. </author><author>Ruigrok, W.</author><author>Wicki, B.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>What passes as a rigorous case study?</title><secondary-title>Strategic Management Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Strategic Management Journal</full-title></periodical><pages>1465-1474</pages><volume>29</volume><number>13</number><dates><year>2008</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>Gibbert et al. (2008) shows apparent lack of rigor in his proceeding. Consequently, the research design is updated and remedies as well as complimentary methods are introduced. These measures are integrated into a research approach which enables the generation of reliable and valid data on entrepreneurial behavior.

Table of Contents TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733400” Table of Contents PAGEREF _Toc229733400 h ii

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733401” List of Abbreviations PAGEREF _Toc229733401 h iii

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733402” 1Introduction PAGEREF _Toc229733402 h 1

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733403” 2Conceptual foundations PAGEREF _Toc229733403 h 3

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733404” 2.1The job of the entrepreneur as research focus PAGEREF _Toc229733404 h 3

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733405” 2.2Methodological fit of systematic observation in entrepreneurial settings PAGEREF _Toc229733405 h 4

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733406” 2.3Key concepts of scientific observation PAGEREF _Toc229733406 h 6

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733407” 2.4Using observation to generate data PAGEREF _Toc229733407 h 7

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733408” 3Evaluation of Mintzberg’s observation approach PAGEREF _Toc229733408 h 8

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733409” 3.1Internal validity PAGEREF _Toc229733409 h 8

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733410” 3.2Construct validity PAGEREF _Toc229733410 h 9

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733411” 3.3External validity PAGEREF _Toc229733411 h 10

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733412” 3.4Reliability PAGEREF _Toc229733412 h 10

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733413” 3.5Attainments of Mintzberg’s work PAGEREF _Toc229733413 h 11

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733414” 4Measures to improve rigor of systematic observation PAGEREF _Toc229733414 h 12

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733415” 4.1Clear definitions, epistemological foundations as well as pattern matching to improve internal validity PAGEREF _Toc229733415 h 12

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733416” 4.2Social learning theory as theoretical foundation for the research approach PAGEREF _Toc229733416 h 13

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733417” 4.3Multi-rater methods, in particular Delphi processes to code behaviour PAGEREF _Toc229733417 h 14

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733418” 4.4Methodological triangulation to enhance construct validity PAGEREF _Toc229733418 h 15

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733419” 4.5Larger sample size and clear rationale for case selection to enhance external validity PAGEREF _Toc229733419 h 16

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733420” 4.6Comprehensive and comprehensible documentation to improve reliability PAGEREF _Toc229733420 h 17

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733421” 4.7Overview of approach to studying entrepreneurial behaviour with systematic observation PAGEREF _Toc229733421 h 17

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733422” 5Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc229733422 h 18

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733423” 5.1Summary PAGEREF _Toc229733423 h 18

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733424” 5.2Directions for future research PAGEREF _Toc229733424 h 19

HYPERLINK l “_Toc229733425” References PAGEREF _Toc229733425 h 20

List of AbbreviationsAbbreviationFull term

e.g.exempli gratia (for example)

et al.et alteri (and others)

i.e.id est (that means)

p.page

pp.pages

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to analyze, evaluate and improve methodological rigor of field research for deployment in entrepreneurial settings. According to Edmondson and McManus (2007), Field research is defined as “systematic studies that rely on the collection of original data in real organizations” ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Edmondson</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>809</RecNum><Pages>1155</Pages><record><rec-number>809</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>809</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Edmondson, Amy C.</author><author>McManus, Stacy E.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>METHODOLOGICAL FIT IN MANAGEMENT FIELD RESEARCH</title><secondary-title>Academy of Management Review</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Academy of Management Review</full-title></periodical><pages>1155-1179</pages><volume>32</volume><number>4</number><keywords><keyword>MANAGEMENT science</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT literature</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT</keyword><keyword>QUALITY control</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>EXPERIMENTAL design</keyword><keyword>DATA analysis</keyword><keyword>METHODOLOGY</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2007</year></dates><publisher>Academy of Management</publisher><isbn>03637425</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=26586086&amp;loginpage=login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Edmondson & McManus, 2007). This paper mainly focuses on systematic observation techniques as well as complimentary research devices to gather original data and a scientific process to generate activity categories. These methods fit the study of a research gap in entrepreneurship particularly well (see Section 2.2). Systematic observation has been used to explore and analyse a variety of subject matters, such as educational, healthcare and military institutions as well as political and economic actors (Sulsky & Kline, 2007; Yukl, 2005).

Henry Mintzberg pioneered the deployment of direct systematic observation in his seminal PhD thesis on managerial behaviour “The manager at work – determining his activities, roles and programs by structured observation” ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Mintzberg</Author><Year>1968</Year><RecNum>721</RecNum><record><rec-number>721</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>721</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Thesis”>32</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Mintzberg, Henry</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Manager at Work – Determinig his Activities, Roles, And Programs by Structured Observation</title></titles><dates><year>1968</year></dates><pub-location>Boston</pub-location><publisher>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</publisher><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Mintzberg, 1968). Since then, researchers have repeatedly relied upon systematic observation as a method to study and understand managerial behaviour ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Kotter, 1982; Kurke & Aldrich, 1983; Luthans, 1987; S. Tengblad, 2001a). ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA Brown & Hanlon, 2004; Gartner, 1989; Schwehm, 2007 , argue that entrepreneurship is a young discipline whose actual activities, tasks and behaviours of entrepreneurs have not yet been studied comprehensively, leaving a research gap which could be addressed by systematical analysis of data from systematic observation ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Brown & Hanlon, 2004; Gartner, 1989; Schwehm, 2007).

The incorporation of typical advantages of case study research, like the coverage of events in their natural context, in real time, and the generation of detailed, voluminous evidence (Yin, 1998) have not saved the situation because still observation approaches have been criticized for several reasons in the literature. ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA Brown & Hanlon, 2004; Hales, 1986; Martinko & Gardner, 1985 denotes that limitations of observant research relate normally to problems of validity, lack of reliability checks, subjective coding methodology and a number of other conceptual problems ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Brown & Hanlon, 2004; Hales, 1986; Martinko & Gardner, 1985). The underlying research question for this chiefly methodological paper is thus:

R: How can we address the limitations of observational field research while preserving its methodological advantages?

To answer this question in the context of management and entrepreneurship, three main objectives subside. First, direct, systematic observation has been widely used to study managers but not to study entrepreneurs ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Brown</Author><Year>2004</Year><RecNum>817</RecNum><record><rec-number>817</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>817</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Brown, Travor C.</author><author>Hanlon, Dennis</author></authors></contributors><auth-address>U Newfoundland</auth-address><titles><title>Developing Behavioural Observation Scales to Foster Effective Entrepreneurship</title><secondary-title>Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship</full-title></periodical><pages>103-116</pages><volume>17</volume><number>2</number><keywords><keyword>Human Capital</keyword><keyword>Skills</keyword><keyword>Occupational Choice</keyword><keyword>Labor Productivity J240</keyword><keyword>Firm Performance L250</keyword><keyword>New Firms</keyword><keyword>Startups M130</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2004</year><pub-dates><date>Winter</date></pub-dates></dates><isbn>08276331</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://www.ccsbe.org/jsbe/</url><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=ecn&amp;AN=0743863&amp;loginpage=login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Brown & Hanlon, 2004). therefore, identification and address of the methodological issues in the scientific observation of managers can bring about research designs which, could make valid and reveal significant aspects of administrative or entrepreneurial behaviour ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Gartner</Author><Year>1989</Year><RecNum>731</RecNum><record><rec-number>731</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>731</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Gartner, William B.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>&quot;Who Is an Entrepreneur?&quot; Is the Wrong Question</title><secondary-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</full-title></periodical><pages>47-68</pages><volume>13</volume><number>4</number><keywords><keyword>ENTREPRENEURSHIP</keyword><keyword>BUSINESSMEN</keyword><keyword>ORGANIZATION</keyword><keyword>BUSINESS</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>PSYCHOLOGY</keyword><keyword>PERSONALITY</keyword></keywords><dates><year>1989</year><pub-dates><date>Summer89</date></pub-dates></dates><publisher>Blackwell Publishing Limited</publisher><isbn>10422587</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=5331834&amp;loginpage=Login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite><Cite><Author>Schwehm</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>850</RecNum><record><rec-number>850</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>850</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Book”>6</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Schwehm, M. O. </author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Entrepreneurship im internationalen Vergleich: Erfassung, Beobachtung und Erklärung</title></titles><dates><year>2007</year></dates><pub-location>Marburg</pub-location><publisher>Books on Demand GmbH</publisher><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Gartner, 1989; Schwehm, 2007). Second, this paper aims at enhancing rigor of direct behaviour observation and behaviour coding approaches by methodically identifying weaknesses and strengths to consequently put in place measures to improve and advance the methodology for future fruitful use in the social sciences. Third, a gradual research framework shall be devised which can be applied in bridging a concrete research gap in entrepreneurial setting basing on the evaluation and development of systematic observation methods.

After the introduction, Section II will lay the foundation for the remainder of the paper. To substantiate the identified research gap, current issues in entrepreneurship theory will be reviewed briefly. Thereafter, methodological fit of an approach, in particular systematic observation and subsequent activity coding procedures to address the research gap shall be assessed. Finally, observation approaches as deployed in field research in management will be introduced as scientific methodologies. Subsequent to the fundamental groundwork laid out in Section II, Section III will evaluate the rigor of studies relying on structured observation by deploying Yin’s (1994) and Gibbert et al.’s (2008) suggested validity and reliability criteria. The analysis shall exemplarily focus on Mintzberg’s 1973 case studies on managerial behaviour, since they incorporate common weaknesses but also strengths of systematic observation and behavioural coding ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Brown</Author><Year>2004</Year><RecNum>817</RecNum><record><rec-number>817</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>817</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Brown, Travor C.</author><author>Hanlon, Dennis</author></authors></contributors><auth-address>U Newfoundland</auth-address><titles><title>Developing Behavioural Observation Scales to Foster Effective Entrepreneurship</title><secondary-title>Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship</full-title></periodical><pages>103-116</pages><volume>17</volume><number>2</number><keywords><keyword>Human Capital</keyword><keyword>Skills</keyword><keyword>Occupational Choice</keyword><keyword>Labor Productivity J240</keyword><keyword>Firm Performance L250</keyword><keyword>New Firms</keyword><keyword>Startups M130</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2004</year><pub-dates><date>Winter</date></pub-dates></dates><isbn>08276331</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://www.ccsbe.org/jsbe/</url><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=ecn&amp;AN=0743863&amp;loginpage=login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Brown & Hanlon, 2004). Based on identified methodological and conceptual shortcomings, Section IV will suggest incremental remedies and complementary research devices to advance research designs featuring observation as a method to generate valid and reliable data on entrepreneurial behaviour for research and practice. Section V concludes the paper by providing a summary as well as directions for future research.

Conceptual foundationsThe job of the entrepreneur as research focusEntrepreneurship, although being a relatively young discipline, has been conceptualized in a number of different ways over the last decades ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Gartner</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>724</RecNum><record><rec-number>724</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>724</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Gartner, William B.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Entrepreneurship Hop</title><secondary-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</full-title></periodical><pages>361-368</pages><volume>32</volume><number>2</number><keywords><keyword>ENTREPRENEURSHIP</keyword><keyword>NEW business enterprises</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT science</keyword><keyword>STUDY &amp; teaching</keyword><keyword>RHYMING slang</keyword><keyword>HIP-hop — Influence</keyword><keyword>RAP (Music) — Social aspects</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2008</year></dates><publisher>Blackwell Publishing Limited</publisher><isbn>10422587</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00230.x</url><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=30033421&amp;loginpage=Login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Gartner, 2008). More recently, its definition in literature has been predominantly processual: According to Fueglistaller et al. (2008) Entrepreneurship is a process which is initiated and executed by individuals to identify, evaluate and exploit opportunities. The entrepreneur is hence an individual performing these processes, succeeding with new products or production methods in the market and establishing new economic structures ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Blanchflower & Oswald, 1998; Gartner et al., 1994) .

However, academic discourse about the terms and concepts entrepreneurship and entrepreneur has not settled ADDIN EN.CITE ADDIN EN.CITE.DATA (Fueglistaller et al., 2008; Gartner, 2001, 2008; Schwehm, 2007). as a result, researchers have embarked in a variety of directions to explain and conceptualize entrepreneurship phenomena, which can be summarized under the following three questions ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Stevenson</Author><Year>1990</Year><RecNum>823</RecNum><record><rec-number>823</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>823</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Stevenson, Howard H.</author><author>Jarillo, J. Carlos</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>A PARADIGM OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP: ENTREPRENEURIAL MANAGEMENT</title><secondary-title>Strategic Management Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Strategic Management Journal</full-title></periodical><pages>17-27</pages><volume>11</volume><number>4</number><keywords><keyword>ENTREPRENEURSHIP</keyword><keyword>BUSINESS literature</keyword><keyword>STRATEGIC planning</keyword><keyword>NEW business enterprises</keyword><keyword>INDUSTRIAL management</keyword><keyword>BUSINESS</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT science</keyword><keyword>BUSINESS planning</keyword><keyword>MANAGEMENT — Research</keyword></keywords><dates><year>1990</year></dates><isbn>01432095</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=12496733&amp;loginpage=login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Stevenson & Jarillo, 1990)

What happens when entrepreneurs act? (Results of entrepreneurial action)

Why do entrepreneurs act? (Predispositions of entrepreneurial action)

How do entrepreneurs act? (Behaviours / actions of entrepreneurs)

According to ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Timmons</Author><Year>2002</Year><RecNum>3</RecNum><record><rec-number>3</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>3</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Timmons, Jeffrey A.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>New Venture Creation – Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century</title></titles><keywords><keyword>1080 Ent – Manage start-ups</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2002</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite><Cite><Author>Gartner</Author><Year>1989</Year><RecNum>731</RecNum><record><rec-number>731</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>731</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Gartner, William B.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>&quot;Who Is an Entrepreneur?&quot; Is the Wrong Question</title><secondary-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</full-title></periodical><pages>47-68</pages><volume>13</volume><number>4</number><keywords><keyword>ENTREPRENEURSHIP</keyword><keyword>BUSINESSMEN</keyword><keyword>ORGANIZATION</keyword><keyword>BUSINESS</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>PSYCHOLOGY</keyword><keyword>PERSONALITY</keyword></keywords><dates><year>1989</year><pub-dates><date>Summer89</date></pub-dates></dates><publisher>Blackwell Publishing Limited</publisher><isbn>10422587</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=5331834&amp;loginpage=Login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote> Gartner, (1989); Timmons, (2002) the first two questions are investigated in the disciplines of economics and psychology / sociology respectively. While The third question, is best to be examined in the field of business management research ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Timmons</Author><Year>2002</Year><RecNum>3</RecNum><record><rec-number>3</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>3</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Timmons, Jeffrey A.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>New Venture Creation – Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century</title></titles><keywords><keyword>1080 Ent – Manage start-ups</keyword></keywords><dates><year>2002</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite><Cite><Author>Gartner</Author><Year>1989</Year><RecNum>731</RecNum><record><rec-number>731</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>731</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Gartner, William B.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>&quot;Who Is an Entrepreneur?&quot; Is the Wrong Question</title><secondary-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Entrepreneurship: Theory &amp; Practice</full-title></periodical><pages>47-68</pages><volume>13</volume><number>4</number><keywords><keyword>ENTREPRENEURSHIP</keyword><keyword>BUSINESSMEN</keyword><keyword>ORGANIZATION</keyword><keyword>BUSINESS</keyword><keyword>RESEARCH</keyword><keyword>PSYCHOLOGY</keyword><keyword>PERSONALITY</keyword></keywords><dates><year>1989</year><pub-dates><date>Summer89</date></pub-dates></dates><publisher>Blackwell Publishing Limited</publisher><isbn>10422587</isbn><urls><related-urls><url>http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=buh&amp;AN=5331834&amp;loginpage=Login.asp&amp;site=ehost-live</url></related-urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Gartner, 1989; Timmons, 2002). Stevenson and Jarillo (1990) suggest that management researcher should put into consideration what entrepreneurs do behaviourally and how they succeed as entrepreneurs. little has been published on this topic to this day despite almost 20 years having passed, recent research by Schwehm (2007) still claim for a focus on direct contemplation of entrepreneurs ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Schwehm</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>850</RecNum><record><rec-number>850</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”0azr0ttfyztxvuevse659fwe5dsvddazpf0v”>850</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Book”>6</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Schwehm, M. O. </author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Entrepreneurship im internationale

Ahmaud Arbery’s Murder Case

Institutional Affiliation

Date

Abstract

Ahmaud Arbery’s murder, the selected case, is a recent crime event that has drawn significant national attention across the United States. His fatal shooting last year has sparked heated debates on gun rights and the limits of self-defense. Besides, the delayed arrest of the culprits has triggered nationwide discourses and criticisms over racial profiling in the country (Ellis, 2020; Wootson & Brice-Saddler, 2020). With the trial over Arbery’s death commencing more than one year after his murder, the media coverage of this case has been instrumental in broadcasting live trial updates to the public, illuminating what transpired in this case.

Ahmaud Arbery’s Murder Case

The Crime in Its Historical Setting

This section highlights the incidence, evidence, arrest, and events influencing the court involved, law enforcement agencies, and the media.

The Incidence

Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Africa American man, was killed on February 23, 2020, in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, while out jogging (Fausset, 2021). The main murder culprits were two white men who chased Arbery acting as vigilantes (Vila et al., 2021). They suspected that Arbery had perpetrated theft or burglary in Satilla Shores, thereby assuming that he was responsible for burglaries witnessed and reported earlier (Wootson & Brice-Saddler, 2020). Evidence later showed that these two white men were Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael (Mckay, 2021).

The Evidence

Two pieces of evidence are critical to the historical setting of Arbery’s murder. The first is a half-minute long videotape on William “Roddie” Bryan’s cell phone. Bryan, the third murder perpetrator, used his cellphone to record Gregory and Travis, armed and in one vehicle, chasing and shooting at the unarmed Arbery. Bryan made this video recording while also pursuing Arbery in his own truck. In this video, Travis was seen opening the driver’s side door, exiting the vehicle, wielding the shotgun, engaging in a conformation with Arbery, and eventually shooting him (Fausset, 2021). This evidence has been crucial in the culprits’ trial because it shows Arbery was unarmed, besides revealing that Gregory and Travis indeed ambushed him (Ellis, 2020; Kasakove & Heyward, 2021). The second evidence is police interview transcripts, showing that Gregory confessed to initiating the pursuit after seeing Arbery run past his home and suspecting he was a burglar (Sayers & Pamela, 2021).

Influential Events

Three major events have influenced the court, the murder case’s media coverage, and law enforcement actions. The first is the circulation of the viral video detailing how Gregory, Travis, and Bryan pursued and shot Arbery. The second encompasses the public outcry, widespread national protests, community outrage, and demonstrations after Bryan’s video was leaked and publicized (Kasakove & Heyward, 2021; Laughland, 2021). The last event was the alarm raised by legal experts, activists, and politicians across the country over the delayed culprits’ arrest.

The Arrest

Following the public outcry, justice activism, and video evidence review, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Travis, Bryan, and Gregory for the murder (Kasakove & Heyward, 2021). Currently, the Bureau is investigating some local prosecutors (include Tom Durden) and law enforcement agencies for failing to make the initial arrest obtaining the video evidence (Ellis, 2020; Wootson & Brice-Saddler, 2020).

Crime Event’s Theoretical Analysis

The assemblage theory helps conceptualize and analyze Arbery’s murder case.

The Theory’s Premise

Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze originally developed the assemblage theory in the 1980s, positing that social constructions are assemblages of complex configurations of discrete, contingent, heterogeneous, partial, and unstable social elements that sequentially play roles in other, more extended configurations (Rey, 2012). Based on this proposition, a stable ontology for the social world is nonexistent. Since its development, the assemblage theory has been adopted in various social structures, fields, and formations such as race and racialization, explaining them as machinic and enunciative assemblages. While machinic assemblages relate the appropriations, utilizations, and transpositions of social elements, enunciative assemblages deal with the laws and transformations associated with social elements (Yu, 2013).

Within the racialization context, Alexander Weheliye adopted the assemblage theory to develop his concept of racializing assemblages. He held that race encompasses sociopolitical processes that anchor political hierarchies in human flesh to discipline humanity into complete humans, nonhumans, and not-quite-humans (Conley 2017; White, 2018). Accordingly, race is a social construction where an assemblage of stereotypical hardships, indignities against African Americans, their racial profiling, and other racism elements culminate in racialization (Vila & Avery-Natale, 2020; Vila et al., 2021). Scilicet, racialization occurs via a complex race-centered process that immanently emerge as a social assemblage’s outcome. In this assemblage, affects and emotions circulate to alter the assemblage’s elements, causing race materialization. These affects and emotions also dictate the enactment, materialization and performance of specific identitarian articulations that deny racialized groups certain privileges and capacities (Vila & Avery-Natale, 2020).

Theory Application in Arbery’s Case

Arbery is only one among many cases of Whites murdering Blacks in America under unclear circumstances. The assemblage theory and its linkage with the concept of identitarian articulations provides useful tools to better comprehend the occurrence of this crime event. Particularly, Travis, Bryan, and Gregory operated in a Neighborhood Watch assemblage that only anticipated that a Black individual in that vicinity only qualified to be felonious (Vila et al., 2021). When Arbery entered this assemblage during jogging, his overly racialized role as criminal constituted the identitarian articulation of his victimization. Since this identitarian articulation emerges as arrangements of bodies, identifications, objects, affects, and emotions that collectively actualize race on bodies (Vila et al., 2021), his identification by the culprits as a black body only articulated him as a racialized object. Accordingly, the perpetrators’ emotions of hate against the minority materialized their notion that he was a burglar, and tragically, death via murder became this assemblage’s capacity.

Media Involvement and Coverage of the Case

Numerous media outlets across the U.S. and other parts of the world have expansively covered this case since its occurrence. Examples include the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, and the USA Today, which have covered the case’s stages from investigation to disposition.

Role of Media Coverage in Case Disposition

The accounts and reports given by different authors and editors affiliated with these media outlets show considerable consensuses about how this crime started, transpired, and advanced to the final verdict. Their coverage also demonstrate unanimities in their reporting of the case facts, investigations, ongoing trial the jury’s deliberations and reasoning, validations for the verdict and determinations, and other criminal case prosecution phases. For instance, most of the media channels covering this case agree that during investigations that led to the arrest of Gregory, Travis, and Bryan, the video recording by the latter played a key role in the arrest, trial, and convictions (Fausset, 2021; Kasakove & Heyward, 2021; Mckay, 2021; Kennedy & Diaz, 2021). Indeed, the video evidence was central to the arraignment, indictment, and preliminary hearing, together with the trial and sentencing of the three, who were found guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, with life imprisonment possibilities after federal trial in February 2022. The media exposure of this evidence was crucial in affirming to the public that the victim did not pose any imminent threat to the three because he was unarmed.

Relevance of Media Coverage of Arbery’s Murder

The case’s coverage by diverse media outlets has been relevant in four aspects. Firstly, the media have shed more light on rising racial profiling incidents. While evidence existed for months to warrant the filing of charges against Bryan and the McMichaels, the media unmask the district attorney offices’ deliberately failure to make arrests. This sparked and fuelled public uproar countrywide for what has been publicized as racial profiling and racial injustice against Arbery’s family while the killers remained free since the early 2020 (Ellis, 2020; Kennedy & Diaz, 2021). Secondly, the media bring to light judicial bias and intentional discrimination in the justice process of handling murder cases involving minority groups. As reported by some media outlets (Kennedy & Diaz, 2021; Laughland, 2021; Yang, 2021), there were already substantial concerns at the trial’s onset because defense attorneys eliminated nearly all Black jurors, leaving an almost all-white jury of eleven white judges and only one Black judge.

Thirdly, the media draw a clear picture of traumatic and costly outcomes of assumptions-based decision making in citizens’ arrests. The defense attorneys have sustained that the culprits were attempting to enact a lawful citizen’s arrest (Fausset, 2021; Sayers & Pamela, 2021; Wootson & Brice-Saddler, 2020). However, the evidence presented and reported in the media clearly shows that the perpetrators based their decisions and actions principally on assumptions that Arbery was a burglar. Such assumptions cost a life due to mistaken identity of a regular jogger. Lastly, the media have highlighted what has been termed the public lynching of the accused (Kennedy & Diaz, 2021; Laughland, 2021). Defense attorneys have held that the case has been marred by mistrial, arguing that media coverage and the presence of outside activists are influencing court proceedings, amounting to contemporary public lynching (Yang, 2021).

Perspective on the Media’s Effect on the Case Outcomes

The media coverage of murder cases and trials is essential in exposing instances of judicial unfairness. In Arbery’s case, the media have been pivotal to this end, exposing the intentional discrimination in the trial where almost all Black jurors were eliminated from the trial panel (Fausset, 2021; Sayers & Pamela, 2021). Also, the media coverage was indispensable in guaranteeing adequate validation of evidence. Through the media circulation of video evidence that fuelled public unrest, Georgia Bureau of Investigation engaged in deeper investigations and established the factualness of the evidence, leading to the arrests and possibly impartial murder case administration. Lastly, the media coverage helps reflect on laxity and failures in the fight against the racism pandemic, seeing that allegations of intentional bias and racism have continued to surround this court case.

References

Conley, T. L. (2017). Decoding black feminist hashtags as becoming. The Black Scholar, 47(3), 22-32. Doi: 10.1080/00064246.2017.1330107.

Ellis, N. T. (May 7, 2020). Why it took more than 2 months for murder charges and arrests in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/05/07/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-video-prosecutor-arrest-mcmichael/3089040001/.

Fausset, Richard (November 24, 2021). What we know about the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html.

Kasakove, S., & Heyward G. (November 24, 2021). In the Arbery killing trial, video evidence once again played a crucial role. The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/us/arbery-video-evidence-murder-trial.html.

Kennedy, M., & Diaz, J. (November 24, 2021). 3 white men are found guilty of murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. NPR Special Series: America Reckons With Racial Injustice. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/11/24/1058240388/ahmaud-arbery-murder-trial-verdict-travis-greg-mcmichael

Laughland, O. (November 24, 2021). Ahmaud Arbery verdict: three white men found guilty of murdering Black man as he jogged. The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/24/ahmaud-arbery-verdict-guilty.

Mckay, R. (October 27, 2021). Factbox: Why a viral video is key evidence in trial of men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery. Reuters. Thompson Reuters. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/why-viral-video-is-key-evidence-trial-men-accused-killing-ahmaud-arbery-2021-10-25/.

Rey, P. J. (2012). Assemblage theory. The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. 10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog032.

Sayers, D. M., & Pamela, K. (November 10, 2021). Detective testifies that Gregory McMichael told him he did not see Ahmaud Arbery commit a crime. Cable News Network (CNN). Retrieved November 26, 2021, from http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_84b94e956775e785ec542f70c5eacd76.

Vila, P., & Avery-Natale, E. (2020). Towards an affective understanding of processes of racialization. Ethnicities, 20(5), 844-862. Doi: 10.1177/1468796820909453.

Vila, P., Ford, M., & Avery-Natale, E. (2021). Ahmaud Arbery: Murder as the outcome of an assemblage’s enactment. Social Identities, 27(6), 1-17. Doi: 10.1080/13504630.2021.1975536.

White, E. J. (2018, November). Alexander G. Weheliye. Habeas Viscus: Racializing assemblages, biopolitics, and black feminist theories of the human. In Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies (Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 541-543). University of Toronto Press. Doi: 10.3138/seminar.54.4.541.

Wootson, C. R., Jr., & Brice-Saddler, M. (May 9, 2020). It took 74 days for suspects to be charged in the death of a black jogger. Many people are asking why it took so long. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/outraged-by-the-delayed-arrests-in-killing-of-black-jogger-protesters-in-georgia-demand-justice/2020/05/08/8e7d212a-90a9-11ea-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html.

Yang, M. (November 24, 2021). Ahmaud Arbery murder: five key moments from the trial. The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/24/ahmaud-arbery-trial-key-moments-what-happened.

Yu, J. E. (2013). The use of Deleuze’s theory of assemblage for process-oriented methodology. Historical Social Research, 38(2), 196-217. Doi: 10.12759/hsr.38.2013.2.196-217.

Air Traffic Management: Air Quality around Airports

Name:

Institution:

Air Traffic Management: Air Quality around Airports

Air traffic management (ATM) encompasses all systems that assist aircrafts in taking off from airspace transit, and landing, including all aspects of aeronautical meteorology, controlling of air traffic, as well as air navigation systems. ATM continuously faces challenges in managing the increasing client demands for air transportation. Particularly, providers of air navigation services have the mandate of improving pertinent air control issues, enhancing safety of both workers and clients, as well as ensuring efficiency at reduced environmental costs. Air pollution has been associated with diverse health concerns as well as climate conservation challenges, making it an area of great importance in the management of air quality. It is therefore imperative that all relevant stakeholders including air transport leaders, manufacturers, as well as governments and governing bodies come up with mechanisms, including legislations, to ensure that air service providers focus on utilizing positive management practices for environmental conservation. Various pollutants, caused by aviation practices, affect the quality of air around airports posing a real health problem.

Overview of the Problem

Many aircrafts are designed to combust their fuel efficiently with very low emissions of smoke or non-combusted discharges. Most manufacturers fit aircraft engines with turboprop and turbofan to increase efficiency in fuel combustion (Thales, 2014). Despite all these improvements, the increase in air travel demand has overstretched the air transport industry with increased travel, making the realization of pollutant free airport environments a great challenge. Moreover, aircraft movements while on the ground, during landing and taking off, produce significant pollutant emissions, which affect the quality of air around airports (Thales, 2014). Road traffic, other machinery, such as forklifts, cranes, and other mechanical operations around the airport culminate into emission of high concentrations of harmful particulate matter and gases. This poses a health risk to communities living around the airport, including personnel and travellers. Moreover, this creates a significant threat to the surrounding natural environment and negatively affects the quality of air.

Some emissions, for example from combustion of jet fuel have been associated with negative health impacts, such as nasal, throat, larynx, lung, and brain cancers (Mark J. & Mark W., 2000). Besides, emissions from aircrafts have a close association with the development of diverse infections that contribute to asthma, leukemia, lymphoma, and birth defects. This culminated into the European Commission proposing to bring air transport activities into EU Emissions trading Scheme in a bid to combat diverse climatic changes resulting from aircraft emissions (Keane, 2012). According to the commission, greenhouse emissions from the aviation industry increased by nearly eighty seven percent in the European Union alone, in the period between 1990 and 2006 (Keane, 2012). In fact, the commission proposed the taxation of air travel associated with emissions to ensure that total external aviation costs are taken into consideration.

Pollutants in the Environment Caused by Aviation

Of greatest concern is the emission of nitrogen dioxide around airport environments. Sources indicate this gas is the main environmental pollutant emission threat that has changed the global climate on an alarming scale (Owen et al., 2010). Usually, the emission of nitrogen dioxide follows increased ground activity by aircrafts, surface traffic, as well as other machinery operations within the airport. These produce nitrogen oxide, the precursor of nitrogen dioxide. In the lower atmosphere environment, nitrogen oxide contributes to ozone production. In the lower atmosphere, ozone is an important pollutant that greatly contributes to diverse unfavorable climates and global warming concerns. High altitude supersonic aircrafts produce nitrogen oxides that have been linked to the damage of the protective stratospheric ozone layer, which helps in the filtration of harmful solar radiations (Environmental Protection UK, 2012; Rojo, 2007).

Jet emissions contain particulate matter that affects the environment. According to studies, combustion of jet fuels culminates into the release of benzpyrene as a byproduct of incomplete combustion that normally comes out with soot (Rojo, 2007). This chemical is highly carcinogenic and has been shown to be a causative agent of many cancers as well as tumors in human beings culminating from skin and lung adsorptions. Besides, combustion of jet fuel has been associated with the production of high amounts of sulphur dioxide, a harmful gas that can cause severe irritation of the eyes and airway tracts. Literature indicates that jet fuel contains high concentrations of sulphur, nearly 1000ppm as compared to 10ppm in diesel (Mark J. & Mark W., 2000). During combustion, this is converted into the harmful sulphur dioxide, which is transmitted into the atmosphere thereby compromising quality of air.

Other harmful emissions include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon dioxide. VOCs can include, for example benzene, which is carcinogenic, and some forms of aldehydes that can cause forms of skin, eyes, and air tract irritation (Mark J. & Mark W., 2000). Volatile organic substances usually originate from vaporized fuel or incompletely combusted material that exits as exhaust gas. In some instances, the volatile compounds attach to particulate materials and escape into the air, culminating into compromised air quality around the airport. Carbon dioxide emanates from the combustion of organic fuels. It is a major contributor to climatic deterioration and global warming.

Sources indicate that this chemical is produced in large quantities from aircraft activities in the United States and other highly developed airports that have a lot of jet activity (Rojo, 2007). The resulting emissions find their way into the environment, adversely affecting the quality of air. This readily predisposes the populations living around airports, air travel personnel, and travellers, to dangerous environmental and health concerns. According to the Danish Ecocouncil (2012), jet emissions usually affect a radius of twenty-five miles around the airport area. This implies that communities, animals, and crop plants are dusted with toxic jet emissions within a distance of twenty-five miles away from the airport every day. Typically, airports spew toxic pollutants in hundreds of tons annually all over the world. Flow of air currents ensures that the toxic pollutants also reach water bodies where they negatively affect marine life.

Addressing Air Pollution resulting from Aviation

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is mandated with the setting up of international standards that govern the emission of certain pollutant gases and smoke for new aircraft engines. That notwithstanding, only minimal improvements have occurred in the aviation industry in the reduction of harmful gases and emissions, as compared to other sectors that also use fuel (ICAO, 2014). Consequently, there is a need for more proactive approaches to mitigate the problem. For example, the adoption of better engine types that encompasses selective catalyst reduction mechanisms and the recirculation of exhaust gas to ensure maximum combustion. Most gaseous and vapor emissions have been associated with incomplete combustion of fuels (Environmental Protection UK, 2012).

Therefore, increasing the number of recirculation cycles will ensure complete combustion and a reduced amount of harmful emissions.

It is also important to develop proactive policies that are consistent with specific concerns associated with air quality and environmental conservation similar to related approaches in other industries, such as automobile. Currently, policies governing aircraft activities and environmental concerns are less stringent than those that govern other sectors of the economy involved with fuel combustion, such as factories and the automobile industry (Kularatna & Sudantha, 2008). This could be partly because most pollution by aircrafts takes place in the higher atmosphere compared to automobiles and other engine activities on the earth’s surface. Integrating related aviation policies with those of the transport industry will achieve a common approach to environmental conservation.

Stakeholders, governments, and aircraft manufacturers should also review, develop, and adopt better aircraft technologies on a continuous basis to reduce the extent of air pollution and environmental concerns. In addition, plans should be in place to cater for expansion activities to reduce the overstretching of existing limited resources with increase in air travel demand.

Conclusion

Various pollutants caused by aviation practices affect the quality of air around airports posing a real health problem. Aircraft movements while on the ground, during landing and taking off, produce significant pollutant emissions, which affect the quality of air around airports. Besides, road traffic, other machinery, such as forklifts, cranes, and others, are also significant sources of air pollutants around the airport, posing a health risk to surrounding communities, air travel personnel, and travellers. Nitrogen dioxide, benzpyrene, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds are examples of harmful environmental pollutants caused by aviation. It is important to establish positive mitigation policies by all stakeholders, governments, and aircraft manufacturers to come up with proactive approaches aimed at air pollution reduction around airports.

References

Environmental Protection UK. (2012). Aviation pollution. Retrieved from: www.environmental-protection.org.uk/committees/air-quality/air-pollution-and-transport/aviation-pollution/

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). (2014). ICAO Strategic Objectives 2014-2016. Retrieved from: www.icao.int/about-icao/Pages/Strategic-Objectives.aspx

Keane, J. (2012). The aviation industry, the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme and Small and Vulnerable Economies: development-friendly frameworks. ODI Project Briefings 76. Retrieved from: www.odi.org.uk/publications/6749-aviation-industry-eu-development-friendly-emissions-trading-scheme

Kularatna, N., & Sudantha, B.H. (2008). An Environmental Air Pollution Monitoring System Based on the IEEE 1451 Standard. Sensors Journal, 8(4), 415-422.

Mark J. U., & Mark W. F. (2000). Acute health effects of ambient air pollution: The ultrafine particle hypothesis. Journal of Aerosol Medicine, 13(4): 355-359.

Owen, B., Lee, D.S., & Lim L. (2010). Flying into the Future: Aviation Emissions Scenarios to 2050 . Environmental Science & Technology 44(7), 2255-2260.

Rojo, J. (2007). Future trends in local air quality impacts of aviation. Retrieved from: dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39707

Thales. (2014). Air traffic management. Retrieved from: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/aerospace/air-traffic-management.

The Danish Ecocouncil. (2012). Air pollution in Airports: Ultrafine particles, solutions and successful cooperation. Retrieved from: www.ecocouncil.dk

Ahmed and Ali PLC, Certified Public Accountants

Suite 120

Dubai

231/23000

Independent Audit Report

To the stakeholders

Emirates Airlines

We have audited the accompanying with solidified budgetary explanations of Emirates Airlines, Walldorf and its backups (The Company”), which contain the merged explanation of money related position as of November 30, 2014, and the combined wage proclamation, the united articulation of extensive salary, the united proclamation of changes in value, the united articulation of money streams, and the notes to the united monetary articulations for the year then finished.

As per HGB, segment 322 (3) sentence 1, we proclaim that our audit of the solidified budgetary explanations has not prompted any reservations.

In our opinion, in light of our audit, the combined monetary proclamations give a genuine and reasonable perspective of the Company’s net resources and budgetary position as of December 31, 2012; and of its consequences of operations for the year then finished, as per IFRSS as received by the UAE, the supplementary procurements of United Arab Emirates law to be connected as per HGB, area 315a (1), and IFRSS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Ahmed and Ali PLC

December 15, 2014