Andrew Carnegie Essays - Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel Of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie Essay written by [emailprotected] A man of Scotland, a distinguished citizen of the United States, and a philanthropist devoted to the betterment of the world around him, Andrew Carnegie became famous at the turn of the twentieth century and became a real life rags to riches story. Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835, Andrew Carnegie entered the world in poverty. The son of a hand weaver, Carnegie received his only formal education during the short time between his birth and his move to the United States. When steam machinery for weaving came into use, Carnegie's father sold his looms and household goods, sailing to America with his wife and two sons. At this time, Andrew was twelve, and his brother, Thomas, was five. Arriving into New York on August 14, 1848, aboard the Wiscasset from Glasgow, the Carnegies wasted little time settling in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where relatives already existed and were there to provide help. Allegheny City provided Carnegie's first job, as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory, working for $1.20 a week. His father also worked there while his mother bound shoes at home, making a miniscule amount of money. Although the Carnegies lacked in money, they abounded in ideals and training for the ir children. At age 15, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in Pittsburgh. He learned to send and decipher telegraphic messages and became a telegraph operator at the age of 17. Carnegie's next job was as a railroad clerk, working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He worked his way up the ladder, through his dedication and honest desire to succeed, to become train dispatcher and then division manager. At this time, young Carnegie, age 24, had already made some small investments that laid the foundations of his what would be tremendous fortune. One of these investments was the purchase of stock in the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company. In 1864, Carnegie entered the iron business, but did not begin to make steel until years later. In 1873, he built the Edgar Thomson works in Braddock, Pennsylvania, to make Bessemer steel. He established many other steel plants, and in 1892, he merged all of his interests into the Carnegie Steel Company. This act from Carnegie is fitting with one of his most famous quotations, ?Put all of your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.? This firm became one of the greatest industrial enterprises in America. Carnegie later sold it to J.P. Morgan's United States Steel Corporation in 1901 for $400 million, which would be a little over $4 billion today! After retiring, Carnegie's fortune was estimated to be as large as half a billion dollars. From that time on, with the philosophy that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their money, he devoted himself to philanthropy. Although ironic, this man of great fortune strongly believed in the merits of poverty for the development of character and work ethic, and determined that wealthy men should not leave their fortunes to their children, but should give it away, claiming ?The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced.? The picture of community service, Carnegie is quoted as saying, ?Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy, and cannot be torn out. I can never be one hair's breadth less loyal to her, or less anxious to help her in any way, than I have been since I could help anything. My treasure is still with you, and how best to serve Pittsburgh is the question which occurs to me almost every day of my life. Colonel James Anderson, who Carnegie believes to be his childhood benefactor, established a public library in his hometown of Allegheny City. This library was the first opportunity for Carnegie to take advantage of free information, and he developed a vast interest for knowledge, checking out at least one book a week, and developing himself as a young boy. With Colonel Anderson's generous contribution to his society molding Carnegie's childhood, and his beliefs on how large fortunes can be used for the betterment of society, it becomes obvious that Carnegie would focus particularly on promoting education, establishing 2,811 free libraries

Elements for a Pacific War essays

Elements for a Pacific War essays Japan had several reasons to declare war on the US and several other countries, both diplomatically and militarily. Here I will discuss a few of them. Oil: Oil was very important to the Japanese. With their small surface area and lack of natural resources, Japan needed outside sources to get its raw materials. Having accomplished getting rich coal mines in Manchuria in the 1930s, the United States placed an embargo on oil and other resources vital to Japan on the country until they pulled out of Manchuria. This never happened so Japan just decided to acquire French IndoChinas oil fields. Food: Once again Japans limited surface area prevented the country from growing much food to feed its rapidly growing population. China seemed the obvious answer to this problem. With extensive rice fields and proximity to home, Japan saw China as a way to feed hungry mouths around the country. Stability threats: The threat of the United States jumping in and stopping Japan from taking over its neighbors and taking their resources was just too great for the Japanese military commanders to let nothing be done about it. They decided that a surprise attack against the Pacific naval fleet along with fast attacks against other targets would suffice enough to be able to repel any counterattack the Allies may have. Tradition: The Japanese have always lived up to a moral code called Bushido or way of the warrior. This made the Japanese more ready and more prone to conflict and fighting. They were soldiers who didnt have fear whenever they went to fight a battle because to them dying in battle meant you went to Heaven. Opportunity: No country would attack another unless they were either suicidal or they thought they had a very good chance of winning. Japan was a little of both, they were ready to fight to the death and they saw an opportunity to gain more territory ...

Embedding Core Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Embedding Core Skills - Essay Example According to Moser report (1998), one in five people were found to be functionally illiterate. The more recent Leitch report (2006) also discovered that a third of adults are not equipped with the basic school-leaving qualifications. Chances of functioning or success are undermined without this minimum core level. The two reports were funded by the government that was concerned that learners were not being equipped with the required level in core subjects like information and communication technology, mathematics and literacy. Embedding core skills in vocational subjects with emphasis on transferred skills that could be applied to workplace was considered. That’s why screening assessment like the BKSB are very important especially at the start of a course as a section of their opening assessment. It is very essential to know the level that your learners are operating at for their functional skills. Knowing where your students are, makes it possible for you to make out what they need to be taught. Having this knowledge will help in building towards where the students need to be. Embedding is the term mostly used to refer to the inclusion of these functional skills. Embedding, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (2012), refers to fixing an object deeply and firmly in a surrounding mass. Additionally it refers to implanting a feeling or an idea for it to become ingrained in a certain context. This indicates clearly that trainers and teachers have a responsibility of incorporating functional skills at any available chance. Beginning with planning, by writing lesson plans and schemes of learning which take into consideration core elements, showing details how ICT, numeracy and Literacy will be included to some degree in every lesson, helps in finding creative solutions. Therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to find actively out chances of

Characteristics of japanese schooling Research Paper

Characteristics of japanese schooling - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that there is a large number of people who want the system to be more flexible to the students because the current level of strictness has caused many to send their children to schools in addition the regular public schools children attend during the daytime. Japan conventionally follows a strict layout of curriculum and coursework for education at all levels and room for modification in curriculum or the educational trends in Japan is little, despite the fact that it contrasts with the diverse level of competency among the Japanese students. This paper makes a conclusion that increasing general reliance of people on part-time educational institutions like jukus and yobikos has paved way for many businessmen to adopt this as their profession since the practice guarantees huge monetary benefits. However, an in-depth analysis of the routine of students that go to these institutions suggests that these students spend a major portion of their day in schools. This is adversely affecting their social life as they do not get enough time to socialize with their friends and family. This may result in the production of a silo-minded generation in which the individuals lack bondage. In addition to that, people’s trust in jukus and yobikos more than on public schools speaks bad of the role of formal educational institutions in the overall academic nurturing of students in Japan.

PRINCE2 Scenario 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PRINCE2 Scenario 1 - Essay Example n would help in tracking processes, generating exception reports in case of failures, taking corrective actions for corresponding sub-processes and rendering appropriate feedback to authors. Proper format would also help in logging in explanations for different sub-processes, understanding the relationships between them and thereby determine what inputs and outputs each process require. 6 The Department of Education and Training (DET) is one of the largest departments of Queensland Government. Prime objective of this department is to enrich the life of the people of Queensland by involving them in a lifelong learning process by the means of education and training. The department wants to be the renowned among the Queenslanders as the prime service provider. The department also wishes to provide more advanced and attractive service to the people and want to become the first point of contact of students, parents, jobseekers, employers and community support organizations. The Department of Education and Training, in order to achieve all above mentioned objectives, has selected online media to introduce all its services and to provide all required information to the people of Queensland. The main objective of choosing online media is department want to provide an integrated view of all its activities and priorities to the internet clients. Currently the department’s websites provide all the information regarding the old Department of Employment and Training. Presently there are two websites of the department. These are http://web.archive.org/web/20020926093202/http://www.det.qld.gov.au/ and http://web.archive.org/web/20021122174416/http://www.tafe.net/. In order to modify and change this web presence department has decided to invest a lot in technology, with the objective of improving the usability, functionality of the websites. A project board has been established; where the practice manager of the department named Jason Kennelly is the executive. Department

Person centred reviews in adult services

Person centred reviews in adult services The underlying principles for this assignment are to critically evaluate my professional development in a practice placement setting and record reflections for future learning. Within this essay, I will include my reflections on the social work process of assessment, planning, intervention and review, and will critically analyse what I feel was successful and unsuccessful in each process, with efforts to identify what could be changed to enhance future practice. I will also include my knowledge, skills and values incorporated into my practice with two service users and my group work, while explaining my efforts to promote anti-oppressive practice. Throughout my assignment I will endeavour to portray my learning journey from the beginning to the end of my placement and conclude with future learning needs, to enhance my practice as a social worker. Introduction: The practice placement I acquired was a Court Childrens Officer (CCO), based at the Belfast Family Proceedings Court. It forms part of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. My role as a CCO, formerly known as a Child Welfare Officer, was to use my training and experience to ascertain the wishes and feelings of children and their families in private law matters. The role falls within family and child care services and determines that the childs interests remain paramount in court proceedings. As a CCO my role was to deal with cases where assistance was needed to help parties focus on the needs of their children, as opposed to continuing the incriminations as to who was responsible for the breakdown of their relationship. As a CCO I was then asked to present the information to court in oral or written report format. The CCO is used if other efforts to get the parties to reach a decision in the interests of their children have failed. This is to prevent the court process itself cont ributing to a lengthy breach in contact before it reaches a decision. As a CCO I was also responsible to act as liaison officer between the court and HSS Trusts, or other agencies (e.g. NSPCC etc) in respect of the courts decisions. Although employed by the Trust, I was responsible to the court. Before commencement of this placement I had limited understanding of the court process, and the legislation involved in private law cases. I was excited about the prospect of the experience I would gain having undertaken law and court modules, and attended court for certain flexible learning days, but I was also anxious about identifying the social work role within such a specific placement. I feel nervous and uncomfortable. Im finding the role intimidating being surrounded by legal professionals and legislation (being just a student). Im worried about having to provide oral and written evidence to the court, and perhaps having to disagree with the legal representatives views in court. I feel deskilled and anxious (PPDW: 21/01/10). After this initial anxious stage I began researching private law and knowledge, and used my practice teacher and on site supervisor to ask questions. Having completed a practice placement last year I already knew of the benefits of using reflection as a crucial aspect of my practice and learning. Thompson (2005) explains that it is important that practitioners use not only established theories, but use their own knowledge and experience to meet the needs of service users. He claims that reflective practice should help us to acknowledge the important links between theory and practice and to appreciate the dangers of treating the two elements as if they were separate domains (Thompson, 2005: 147). I was anxious to identify the social work process within my placement, as it was not evident on commencement. I was already familiar with the process of assessing, planning, intervention and review having had a previous placement with adults with learning disabilities. Within a court, however, this was very different, as a direction of the court determined my involvement with service users. Schà ¶n (1987) identifies that more than a process is needed with service users practitioners need to incorporate experience, skills and intuition for outcomes to be successful. The knowledge and skills that I identified, within my Individual learning plan, were skills in working with children, assertiveness skills, report writing and presenting skills, organisational skills, and group facilitation skills. I also wanted to enhance my value base as my previous placement helped me challenge issues around learning disabilities and the current placement is a very different setting. I wanted to devel op my values around childrens feelings about parental separation, and also working in partnership with children to ascertain their wishes and feelings about contact issues. I have outlined below the three cases I intend to use that will help identify my professional development within my placement setting. I will use these to provide an analysis of how my knowledge, skills and values have been developed through the social work process. Family C: Polish origin Child C (Age 7) currently resides with her father. The parental relationship lasted for seven years. Mother (Ms C) moved out of the family home to gain alternative accommodation when the relationship broke down. Ms C and the childs contact have been very sporadic since. Contact has not taken place since December 2009. Mr C is concerned with Ms Cs new accommodation being unsuitable for the childs safety staying overnight claiming alcohol misuse and the child coming home smelling of smoke. Ms C requires an interpreter and is seeking a Contact Order. As directed by the court I carried out an assessment of Ms Cs home, and also used mediation and counselling when meeting with the parties to focus on the childs best interests. The childs wishes and feelings were also ascertained. Family E: Child E (14) currently resides with his father (Mr E). Mother (Ms E) is seeking a Residence Order. Father currently resides with the child in a family hostel provided by the Belfast Housing Executive, which Ms E is concerned about. Court direction stipulated me to ascertain the childs wishes and feelings about residence with his father and contact with his mother. In addition to this I used mediation as an intervention to try to help the parties reach agreement about the child. I concluded my work with the family using a Person Centred Review with Child E to determine if the plans implemented earlier in my practice were working, and what he would like to change when his case was due for review in court. Group Work: My group work consisted of working with teenage girls at a high school in North Belfast; they were aged 14/15. I worked alongside the Health for Youth through Peer Education (HYPE) team who regularly visit schools to promote sexual health awareness. I co-facilitated this group and worked to educate the group about sexual health and relationships. This was to promote the need for the provision of accurate information to prevent teenage pregnancies and STIs, which have been highlighted as statistically higher in this area of Northern Ireland. Preparation of placement As indicated above, to prepare for this placement, I began by developing my knowledge base around the court setting and private law, so that I could be accountable to the court and the Trust for my actions. Trevithick (2000:162) claims to be accountable denotes professionalism by using knowledge, skills and qualifications, and adhering to values and ethics when serving a client. I began to tune in to the placement setting using knowledge, skills and values, with legislation such as The Children (NI) Order 1995, The Family Law Act (NI) 2001 and The Human Rights Act 1998. I tuned into the court setting and the rights of the service users who used it. Article 3 of the Children (NI) Order 1995 claims that the court should act in the best interests of the child, and I was interested in seeing if this occurred or if parental interests were considered higher. I tuned into the effects that divorce and separation have on children, and focused on gaining knowledge on how to minimize the negative impact this may have on children. The issue of contact in private law proceedings is a complex subject which raises questions of rights, responsibilities and ownership of children (Kroll, 2000: 217). I was initially interested in researching if children knowing both parents were in their best interests, and why. Having had a placement with adults and learning disabilities last year I had reflected on the medical model versus the social model of disability, this placement was very different in that it would be the a legal context versus the social work role. I found this initially difficult as the legal obligations of the court over-shadowed the social work process. Court directions dictated the aspects of work to be done, which I found difficult as service user needs were not necessarily established and met. Assessment: Ms Cs assessment required me to meet with her, discuss issues regarding contact with her child, and investigate her living environment to determine if it was suitable for the child to have contact in. Prior to Ms Cs assessment it was necessary for me to tune in to contact disputes between parents. I recognised that there is significant animosity with both parties, but that having contact with both parents is in the childs best interests to promote for attachment, identity and positive relationships. To initiate Ms Cs assessment I had received court directions, a referral and met with her legal advisor. I was at this time I was informed that Ms C was Polish and required an interpreter. The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 both stipulate that an interpreter should be provided for health services to promote anti-discriminative practice and equal opportunities. I was then required to make a referral to the Trust interpreting service, and they informed me that they would make initial contact with Ms C. I found this unnerving, as the interpreter would be making first contact with the service user, and I would have liked the opportunity to explain my role. Having carried out previous assessments, I knew that communication was essential for the assessment and central to the process of gathering information and empowering service users (Watson and West, 2006), therefore to not be able to make initial contact with a service user I found to be restrictive and stressful. On initial contact with Ms C (and the interpreter) communication was difficult to establish. I found that by communicating through an interpreter I was limited in gathering information. I found it difficult to concentrate on Ms C, especially observing body language and tone of voice; instead I focused on the interpreter and actively listening to her. Ms C came across as frustrated and disengaged, showing signs of closed body language. I felt empathetic to Ms C because of the court process she was involved in, and the fact that she had to go to court to gain contact with her child. I felt the initial meeting with Ms C was not as successful as I had hoped, I was not able to discuss the issues affecting her, and unable to establish an effective working relationship due to the barrier on an interpreter. I left the meeting feeling deskilled and questioning my practice. On reflection, I should have provided more time to Ms C due to the language obstacle and gathered more information on her issues. I should have focused on Ms C and not the interpreter, and used the interpreter more effectively to establish a relationship. For future learning I will endeavour to use these reflections. The next part of Ms Cs assessment was her home assessment. I was initially reluctant to carry out a home assessment, as I had no previous experience, and did not know what was classed as an unsafe environment for children. I began tuning in and identified that a home assessment required strong observational skills for child protection concerns. I also discussed the home assessment with my practice teacher and on site supervisor for aspects I should be concerned about within the home. It was indicated that a safe environment for a child did not have to be overly clean, just safe considering where the child sleeps, fire hazards, is there evidence of drug or alcohol use, or smelling of smoke (as Mr C alleges). On entering Ms Cs home, as the interpreter had not arrived yet, I was reluctant to try and converse with Ms C. Ms C spoke limited English, and I did not want to confuse or alarm her by trying to discuss the case issues. However, I did try to use body language and facial expressions to reach for feelings and try to build a rapport by asking general questions about weather and work etc. I feel this helped our relationship, and helped me empathise about how difficult it must be to not be able to communicate effectively. By the time the interpreter had arrived I felt more at ease with Ms C, and addressed her (as opposed to the interpreter) with non-verbal cues such as nodding and body language. I felt more comfortable talking with Ms C, I felt more able to understand her frustrations at the court process, her ex-partner and his allegations. Prior to the assessment of the home I had gained stereotypical perceptions about Ms Cs home. I thought that the house, as it was in a working class area, would be unclean and neglected. However, the assessment of the home, using observational skills, indicated no child protection concerns, a clean environment for a child, and Mr Cs allegations unfounded. On reflection of my perceptions I feel I was oppressive to Ms C having been so judgemental, and I felt guilty about my opinions having been class discriminatory. Throughout the assessment with Ms C I found that by using an interpreter Ms C was able to stay informed and in control over her situation (Watson and West, 2006). I feel that by working with Ms C has helped my challenge my future practice with individuals who are non-English speakers. It will help me consider the needs of the service user, before judging them solely on language or their country of origin to provide equal opportunities. I now feel interpreters are required for a balance of power between the worker and service user, and promote anti-discriminatory practice. Planning: According to Parker and Bradley (2008: 72) Planning as part of the social work process is a method of continually reviewing and assessing the needs of all individual service users. It is based upon the assessment and identifies what needs to be done and what the outcome may be if it is completed. Prior to the beginning of placement I had limited experience of planning, or group work. It was important for me understand the facilitation and communication skills needed for successful group work, and help to develop my understanding of group dynamics, group control, and peer pressure for this age group. The key purpose of planning the group was to enable the young people to develop their knowledge and skills to be able to make informed decisions and choices about personal relationships and sexual health. I began preparing for the planning stage of the social work process by meeting with the HYPE team and researching their work. I was interested in the sexual health training for young people at school, as my own experience at school showed that the information was often limited, and I was interesting in finding out if it had been challenged. I then began by tuning in to how I wanted to proceed through the planning process, and researching the topics of the different sessions as I considered I had limited knowledge on sexual health awareness. As I had to plan every week separately it was important to tune in to each and use knowledge, such as group work skills to inform my practice. During initial sessions I noted how group members were quiet and withdrawn, this was important to note as the subject of sexual relationships may have been embarrassing for them to discuss. I too felt uncomfortable discussing the material, as I had limited understanding of sexual health, but it was important for the group to overcome these anxieties and work through them together. I identified that ice breaking techniques were required to facilitate trust and partnership. As the sessions progressed, one of the main challenges found was that peer influence was a major issue, with some of the participants controlling other quieter members. I felt it was necessary to include all members and encouraged participation using games. However, it was important not to push individuals when they became uncomfortable, as this could cause them to withdraw and disengage, disempowering them. Another challenge was that despite time management of the sessions, inevitably there had to be flexibility. Some of the group monopolised more time than others and it was necessary to be able to alter the plans according to time restraints. I also needed to be aware of my own values when planning sexual health awareness training, as it is still regarded as a controversial issue, especially in Catholic schools with teenagers (www.famyouth.org.uk). I considered sexual health awareness to be a great benefit in schools, but obviously due to religious considerations many Catholic schools continue simply to teach abstinence as the only form of contraception. This was important to consider as the group was facilitated in a Catholic school and many of the members or their teachers could have had religious views and opinions on the sessions, creating tension or animosity. Reflecting on this parental consent had been provided for the group, but the group itself were required to take part during a free period. I consider this to be an ethical dilemma as the childrens views werent regarded as highly as their parents. If undertaking this group in future, I feel it would be necessary to ask the group if they wish to take part, and gi ve the opportunity to withdraw promoting anti-oppressive practice. Intervention: Prior to this practice placement I had limited experience using intervention methods. My previous placement focused on task centred work with service users, but in the court childrens service this could not be facilitated due to the time restrictions of the court. I had also previously used Rogerian person centred counselling which I found I could use some of the theory and apply it to this setting. After gathering a range of information from the court referral, C1 and other professionals, I began to tune in to Es case. I had been directed by the court to ascertain his wishes and feelings in regards to residence and contact arrangements, and mediate between his parents to find agreement about the childs residence. As Child E is fourteen, I felt it was necessary to research levels of development for this age group and understand, according to psychologists, what level Child E would be at emotionally, physically and psychologically. I found that Child E should be at a level of becoming more independent, having his own values, and being able to make informed choices. One of the most important issues, through mediation, was challenging my own values and becoming aware of my own stereotypical views on adults who have separated, and the effects on their children. I had to challenge the idea that Child E just wanted to reside with his father as he was the less disciplined parent, or that Child E would most likely be playing his parents off against each other to get his own way. However, by challenging these views, and working with the parties through mediation, I came to realise that E had strong views about living with his father and had a stronger attachment to him. By reflecting on my values I realised that it was oppressive to consider the child as manipulating and could have affected my work with him. I found that having to be a neutral third party in mediation was difficult, I found myself having a role as a witness, a referee and a peacekeeper trying to find common ground. Despite this I feel a third side was necessary to help the parties work through issues. I found the most difficult aspect of this role to be impartiality as I found myself empathizing more with the mother (as the child refused to live with her). However, I also understood the childs reasons behind his decision. During mediation, and in court, I also challenged my judgements on gender and the notion that the mother is the nurturer or primary care giver in the home (Posada and Jacobs, 2001). The child clearly stated that he wanted to reside with his father, and when using questioning skills to probe about this, he claimed he had a stronger bond with his father, and that his mother was continually ridiculing him. I found myself having to alter my views about attachment and mother being the primary care giver and focus on what the child wants. As the intervention progressed I used family mediation session to work through issues. I found that effective communication was principal in ascertaining Child Es wishes and feelings, and helping the parties consider his views, as opposed to their own relationship incriminations. This not only empowered E by promoting partnership, but also gave him the knowledge that the court would be considering the information he provided. Within the meeting I felt I could have paced the meeting better and made better use of silences with E, as I dominated the conversation. I consider mediation to be successful as it helped the parties focus on the needs of the child, and helped them realise that they had a childs feelings to consider instead of the adversarial relationship built from court. Review: Prior to the review process I had experience of carrying out person centred reviews (PCR) through my previous practice placement. I had previous training on PCRs and found them to be more effective than traditional reviews, due to the service user involvement. A PCR is an example of a person centred approach and the information from a review can be the foundation of a person centred plan (Bailey et al., 2009). Within the family proceedings court the purpose of reviews are to reassess interim plans, and either change them, or confirm they are working for the child(ren). In Child Es case a review was necessary to indicate if living with his father was working, and to discuss if he wanted to change anything about his interim plans, which were introduced three months earlier. Within the court childrens team a review is fundamental to consider what is in the childs best interests, assess what is working and what is not working, and how to progress (considering the childs wishes and feelings). Child centred preparatory work with Child E was fundamental to the review success as it established what was important to him (Smull and Sanderson, 2005). Reflecting on my person centred work last year; I recognised that it was important to have preparatory work with Child E as it promoted choice and options to explore. I had also recognised that the information gathered from the preparatory work could be the foundations of the review itself, especially if Child E felt embarrassed or shy speaking out in front of his family on the day of the review (Smull and Sanderson, 2005) I conducted the review with Child E and his parents present, but reflecting on this it could also have been useful including his school teacher or other friends to have a holistic approach. Throughout the review I feel I was able to engage the participants successfully using goals to focus on, and we were able to create a person centred plan for Child E. During the preparation for the review Child E had expressed that he felt he was having too much contact with his mother, and would like to limit this, he also expressed that this was an awkward subject to discuss with his mother present. I identified this in the review as child E did not wish to. I used skills such as facilitation and communication to show that Child E felt strongly about this issue, and both parents claimed they understood his view point. The review was also useful in presenting the information in court, as the child could not be present and I could advocate on his behalf. On reflection of Child Es review I feel it was a successful measure to determine what was working and not working since plans were implemented from the last court date. I had confidence in facilitating the review, but I did feel I perhaps dominated the conversation as both parents were hostile towards each other, and Child E was shy and unassertive about expressing his feelings. During future reviews I will endeavour to promote communication between parties, while empowering of the child. I will use better use of silences and encourage active involvement. Conclusion: No matter how skilled, experienced or effective we are, there are, of course, always lessons to be learned, improvements to be made and benefits to be gained from reflecting on our practice (Thompson, 2005: 146) I feel this PLO has provided me with learning opportunities and identified my learning needs. It has encouraged me to reflect on my knowledge, skills and values and ensured that I used my reflections to learn from my practice. At the beginning of placement I was concerned I would oppress the service users by having limited understanding of the court process, and unable to work effectively as a result. However, through training, help from my practice teacher and knowledge, I soon realised that the placement was about providing support, not being an expert. I feel I was able to establish a balance of the legal requirements of court and social work role, which has contributed to my learning experience and future knowledge. As my placement progressed I used tuning in and evaluations to analyse my practice, and use them to learn from. My placement has enabled me to improve my court report writing skills, presentations skills and legislation knowledge, which I consider to be invaluable for the future. In terms of future professional development, I will endeavour to challenge my stereotypical assumptions about service users, I will seek advice and guidance from more experienced members of staff, and I will use knowledge and theory to inform my practice prior to meeting service users. Future learning requires me to continue to develop skills in working with children, to use silence as a skill, as listen actively to what the service user wants. Having an opportunity to work within the court system has been invaluable, but I would also like the opportunity to have more experience working with children to enhance my knowledge, skills and values further. References: Bailey, G., Sanderson, H., Sweeney, C. and Heaney, B. (2008) Person Centred Reviews in Adult Services. Valuing People Support Team. Kroll, B. (2000) Milk Bottle, Messenger, Monitor, Spy: Childrens Experiences of Contact. Child Care in Practice: 6: 3 Parker, J., and Bradley, G. (2003) Social Work Practice: Assessment, Planning, Intervention and Review. Learning Matters Ltd. Posada, G and Jacobs, A. (2001) Child-mother attachment relationships and culture. American Psychologist. 56(10), 821-822. Schà ¶n, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Smull, M and Sanderson, H. (2005) Essential Lifestyle Planning for Everyone. The USA: Learning Community Thompson, N. (2005) Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Trevithick, P. (2005) Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook (2nd Ed). Buckingham: Open University Press. Watson, D and West, J (2006) Social Work Process and Practice: Approaches, Knowledge and Skills. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan Williams, P (2006) Social Work with People with Learning Disabilities. Learning Matters Ltd Webpages: http://www.famyouth.org.uk/pdfs/CondomControversy.pdf accessed 24/4/10

John Stuart Mills Philosophy of Happiness Essay -- John Stuart Mill P

John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of Happiness Along with other noted philosophers, John Stuart Mill developed the nineteenth century philosophy known as Utilitarianism - the contention that man should judge everything in life based upon its ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. While Bentham, in particular, is acknowledged as the philosophy’s founder, it was Mill who justified the axiom through reason. He maintained that because human beings are endowed with the ability for conscious thought, they are not merely satisfied with physical pleasures; humans strive to achieve pleasures of the mind as well. Once man has ascended to this high intellectual level, he desires to stay there, never descending to the lower level of existence from which he began. In Chapter 2 of Utilitarianism, Mill contends that â€Å"pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends† (Mill, 7). Before addressing his argument, Mill defines the topic, â€Å"The creed which accepts as the foundation of moral s, ‘Utility’, or the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure† (Mill, 7). Like a true philosopher, Mill proposes objections to the utilitarian principle, which he then attempts to refute. Pleasure, according to Mill, has rather arrogantly been regarded as being little more than attempting to keep a pig satisfied. Because man has the intellectual capacity for reason, he should aspire for something more. Mill argues that is exactly what man does. He does not merely attempt to seek momentary pleasure, but in utilitarianism, has the option to choose that which provides him with the most pleasure. According to Mill, â€Å"Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure† (Mill 8). Many have refuted Utilitarianism’s ideals and declared that man can live just as well without happiness. Mill acknowledges that this may be true in theory, that men do not conduct their lives in total pursuit of happiness, they still need a gauge with which to measure morality. Happiness ... ... This, however, being a fact, we have not only all the proof which the case admits of, but all which it is possible to require that happiness is a good† (Mill 27). Simply, the normal rules concerning one’s desire for happiness do not apply. Happiness may mean different things to different people but as long as the quest of these desires do not inflict pain on others, this is an acceptable means to an end. Mill is ultimately successful in that he points out that contrary to popular belief, utilitarianism is not a completely selfish motivation that does not take into consideration the desires of others. Virtue, while not completely synonymous with happiness, is a constituent of it. Thus, it is an attribute desirable to society as a whole. One who causes pain in others cannot be described as virtuous. In the final analysis, John Stuart Mill successfully proved his view by noting that happiness is not a completely comprehensive term. It is comprised of many components and represents different things to different people. Whether one is intent on wealthy, famous, or vituous, he is merely exercising different means to the same end which includes pleasures and freedom from pains. John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of Happiness Essay -- John Stuart Mill P John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of Happiness Along with other noted philosophers, John Stuart Mill developed the nineteenth century philosophy known as Utilitarianism - the contention that man should judge everything in life based upon its ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. While Bentham, in particular, is acknowledged as the philosophy’s founder, it was Mill who justified the axiom through reason. He maintained that because human beings are endowed with the ability for conscious thought, they are not merely satisfied with physical pleasures; humans strive to achieve pleasures of the mind as well. Once man has ascended to this high intellectual level, he desires to stay there, never descending to the lower level of existence from which he began. In Chapter 2 of Utilitarianism, Mill contends that â€Å"pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends† (Mill, 7). Before addressing his argument, Mill defines the topic, â€Å"The creed which accepts as the foundation of moral s, ‘Utility’, or the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure† (Mill, 7). Like a true philosopher, Mill proposes objections to the utilitarian principle, which he then attempts to refute. Pleasure, according to Mill, has rather arrogantly been regarded as being little more than attempting to keep a pig satisfied. Because man has the intellectual capacity for reason, he should aspire for something more. Mill argues that is exactly what man does. He does not merely attempt to seek momentary pleasure, but in utilitarianism, has the option to choose that which provides him with the most pleasure. According to Mill, â€Å"Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure† (Mill 8). Many have refuted Utilitarianism’s ideals and declared that man can live just as well without happiness. Mill acknowledges that this may be true in theory, that men do not conduct their lives in total pursuit of happiness, they still need a gauge with which to measure morality. Happiness ... ... This, however, being a fact, we have not only all the proof which the case admits of, but all which it is possible to require that happiness is a good† (Mill 27). Simply, the normal rules concerning one’s desire for happiness do not apply. Happiness may mean different things to different people but as long as the quest of these desires do not inflict pain on others, this is an acceptable means to an end. Mill is ultimately successful in that he points out that contrary to popular belief, utilitarianism is not a completely selfish motivation that does not take into consideration the desires of others. Virtue, while not completely synonymous with happiness, is a constituent of it. Thus, it is an attribute desirable to society as a whole. One who causes pain in others cannot be described as virtuous. In the final analysis, John Stuart Mill successfully proved his view by noting that happiness is not a completely comprehensive term. It is comprised of many components and represents different things to different people. Whether one is intent on wealthy, famous, or vituous, he is merely exercising different means to the same end which includes pleasures and freedom from pains.

Public Reactions to the Qantas Grounding Crisis

Despite a growing number of studies on crisis communication, there is very little research that examines corporate crises from a consumer perspective, particularly for crisis case studies within Australia. Using Yin’s (2002) framework for case study research methods, this research group conducted a qualitative content analysis of 1121 audience comments attached to three news articles on the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis.Using Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) and the qualitative content analysis software; Leximancer, we used these comments to deconstruct audience perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate different emotional, attitudinal and behavioural responses. Our first major finding indicated that the majority of audience members attributed the cause of the Qantas crisis to managerial decisions or union action. Working Conditions and Government policy was also found to be secondary factors to the crisis cause.We also found these four causal factors to be st rongly associated with audience’s responsibility judgments. The four key responsible stakeholder groups that emerged from our analysis were Alan Joyce (Qantas Management), Unions, Employees and the Labor Government. Another important focus of this study examined audience’s crisis emotions. Anger was found to be the predominant emotion that emerged from our analysis and was largely directed towards management and union stakeholders.Sympathy also emerged as a secondary emotion but was largely directed towards employees and management. Our final research finding uncovered a number of behavioural intentions within the audience comments. While the majority of these behavioural intentions centre around avoidance and negative purchase intentions, a few increased investment intentions also emerged. Although our Leximancer analysis was restricted by a number of technical limitations, these research findings indicate that Weiner’s Attribution Theory can be successfully ap plied to a real life crisis case study.Despite a growing number of studies on crisis communication, there is very little research that examines corporate crises from a consumer perspective, particularly for crisis case studies within Australia. Using Yin’s (2002) framework for case study research methods, this research group conducted a qualitative content analysis of 1121 audience comments attached to three news articles on the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis. Using Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) and the qualitative content analysis software; Leximancer, we used these omments to deconstruct audience perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate different emotional, attitudinal and behavioural responses. Our first major finding indicated that the majority of audience members attributed the cause of the Qantas crisis to managerial decisions or union action. Working Conditions and Government policy was also found to be secondary factors to the crisis cause. We also found these four causal factors to be strongly associated with audience’s responsibility judgments.The four key responsible stakeholder groups that emerged from our analysis were Alan Joyce (Qantas Management), Unions, Employees and the Labor Government. Another important focus of this study examined audience’s crisis emotions. Anger was found to be the predominant emotion that emerged from our analysis and was largely directed towards management and union stakeholders. Sympathy also emerged as a secondary emotion but was largely directed towards employees and management. Our final research finding uncovered a number of behavioural intentions within the audience comments.While the majority of these behavioural intentions centre around avoidance and negative purchase intentions, a few increased investment intentions also emerged. Although our Leximancer analysis was restricted by a number of technical limitations, these research findings indicate that Weiner’s A ttribution Theory can be successfully applied to a real life crisis case study. Abstract Tamara Dorrington (s4177314) | Sarah Natasha Raziff (s4275762) | Jasmine Soriano (s4272997) | Kate Fitzpatrick (s4201686) | Roxanne Lim (s4256084) Supervisor: Lyn McDonald The University of Queensland, 2012Tamara Dorrington (s4177314) | Sarah Natasha Raziff (s4275762) | Jasmine Soriano (s4272997) | Kate Fitzpatrick (s4201686) | Roxanne Lim (s4256084) Supervisor: Lyn McDonald The University of Queensland, 2012 Public Reactions to The Qantas Grounding Crisis, A Qualitative Content Analysis A corporate crisis often poses an unpredictable threat that can have resounding effects on an organization and its stakeholders (Coombs, 1999, 2010). These effects are largely dependent on how effectively the crisis is managed (Coombs, 2010) and upon stakeholder’s perceptions of the crisis cause (McDonald, Sparks & Glendon, 2010).To date there has been very little research on consumer reactions to corpora te crises (McDonald, et al. 2010), especially for crises  outside the United States (Lee, 2004). In order to understand the implications of this research project on crisis communication, one must first gain an understanding of the Qantas grounding crisis. As one of Australia’s leading domestic and international airline brands, Qantas has a well-established reputation for upholding â€Å"excellence in safety, operational reliability, engineering, maintenance and customer service† (Qantas, 2012, pp. 2).On October 2011, the company faced one of the largest corporate crises in its 95 years of history, a crisis that had widespread negative impacts on its reputation. After months of failed negotiations between management and union representatives, around 4000 Qantas employees took part in an organized strike, demanding greater job security, better wages and fairer working conditions. Qantas management responded by grounding its entire domestic and international fleet, lock ing out staff involved in the action and stranding around 68,000 passengers worldwide (Sydney Morning Herald, 2011).The Federal Government also became involved in the dispute, threatening to terminate strikes under the Fair Work Act if negotiations between union members and management proved unsuccessful (new. com. au, 2011) Our case study analysis adds to existing crisis research by analyzing 1121 audience comments attached to three news articles on the Qantas grounding crisis: 734 comments from the Sydney Morning Herald article (Live: FWA orders Qantas dispute terminated, 2011), 171 comments from the ABC article (Qantas grounds its entire fleet, 2011) and 216 comments from the news. om. au article (Qantas crisis: Who won and who's to blame). Using Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) as a theoretical framework, we used the comments from these three articles to deconstructed audience perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate audience member’s different emotiona l, attitudinal and behavioral responses. While studies into crisis communication are a popular area of research, much of the existing research has used experimental designs to examine the effectiveness of different types of crisis accounts or apologia.A case study analysis of audience reactions to the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis has many wider implications for crisis management strategies in future. First, by evaluating audience comments, this study provides an insight into stakeholder crisis reactions that may have greater generalizability than experimental studies. Second, knowledge of audience’s attribution processes will help future public relations managers to mitigate negative crisis outcomes and manage brand reputation more effectively. Literature ReviewTo date, there has been very little research on consumer reactions to corporate crises (McDonald, et al. , 2010) particularly for crisis cases outside the United States (Lee, 2004). The majority of existing literature has approached crisis communication from an organisational perspective, using experimental design to examine the relationship between different types of crisis accounts and consumer’s purchase intentions (Lee, 2004). Very little research has taken a content analysis approach, examining audience reactions to real life crises cases.In bridging this gap, it is relevant to examine real life audience perceptions of crisis cause their association with different emotional, attitudinal and behavioral responses. According to Lee (2004), taking a consumer orientated approach should provide valuable insights into how individuals understand and react to organisational crises. Such knowledge would help public relations managers to mitigate negative crisis outcomes and manage brand reputation more effectively.Theoretical Framework: Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1986, 1995) Our research was primarily guided by Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT), which examines the p sychological process by which individuals understand and react to external events. While WAT was originally used as a theoretical framework for examining interpersonal relationships, it has been successfully applied to the context of company crises (McDonald et al. , 2010). Adapting Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT) audiences bserve and interpret events, such as the Qantas crisis, making attributions about its cause along two causal dimensions: Locus (whether the cause was internal or external to the company) and Controllability (whether the cause was controllable or uncontrollable). The interpretation of crisis cause under these two constructs leads to a responsibility judgement that, in turn, results in emotions, which then influences behaviors (McDonald et. al. , 2010).Weiner (1995) also suggests that mitigating circumstances or personal relevance may also impact the individual’s responsibility judgement or the strength of their emotional reaction. The relationship between the various components of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) theoretical framework is depicted in the flow chart below. Mitigating Circumstances Mitigating Circumstances In order to successfully apply Weiner’s (1986, 1195) Attribution Theory (WAT) to the context of the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis, we first examined the individual components of this theoretical framework.A)   Attributions of Cause (Locus and Controllability) As previously discussed, Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT) suggests that audiences evaluate an event and make attributions about its cause along two dimensions. The Locus dimension refers to the location of the crisis cause as being either internal or external to the organisation (Lee, 2004). Controllability refers to whether the crisis cause is within the control of the organisation or not (Lee, 2004). According to Lee (2004) a crisis cause that is within the boundaries of an organisation (internal locus) is also ofte n perceived as controllable.Likewise, a crisis cause that judged to be outside the organisation (external locus) is often viewed as uncontrollable (Lee, 2004). However Coombs (1995) and McDonald et. al. (2010) both hypothesised that crises could be internal and controllable (neglected maintenance), internal and uncontrollable (employee sabotage), external and controllable (failure to comply with government regulations) as well as external and uncontrollable (terrorism sabotage). The graph below represents the causal matrix summarized by McDonald et. al. (2010) | Internal| External|Controllable| Neglected Maintenance| Failure to comply with government regulations | Uncontrollable| Employee Sabotage | Terrorism Sabotage| In the context of the Qantas crisis, this leads us to the following research questions: Research Question 1: What are the audience perceptions of the key contributing factors to the crisis cause? Research Question 2: Are these key factors internal and controllable or external and uncontrollable? According to Coombs (1995) the causal dimensions of Locus and Controllability have a direct impact upon an audience’s crisis response.A study by Folkes (1984) found that locus and controllability had separate effects on customers’ responsibility judgments, emotions and behavioral intentions. Lee (2004) also suggested that, in a crisis context, events that were perceived to be internal and controllable were viewed more negatively by audience members than those that were considered external and uncontrollable (Lee, 2004). Although separating these two constructs was challenging in analyzing audience comments, the following research questions aided us in mapping out ideas for our Leximancer data analysis.Research question 3: What crisis causes are associated with negative and positive crisis reactions? B)   Ã‚  Responsibility Judgment The next step in Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory is the process by which individuals attribu te responsibility. Social psychologists Fincham and Jaspars (1980) noted that, in an interpersonal context, individuals would often go beyond the attributions of causality to make judgments about who should be held accountable for an observed outcome.Likewise, audiences will assign crisis responsibility after a causal attribution (Lee, 2004). The direction and degree of responsibility judgment will therefore depend upon the audience’s attributions of crisis cause (Lee, 2004). Coombs and Holladay (1996, 2002) and Jorgensen (1994, 1996) both used Weiner’s (1986, 1995) causal dimensions of locus and controllability as the foundation for their studies into crisis communication. All found perceptions of crisis cause to be a major determinant of responsibility judgments and subsequent stakeholder reactions.Of particular relevance to our current study, Lee (2004) found crises that were perceived to be internal (locus) and controllable (controllability) were more likely to bri ng about responsibility judgments aimed at the company and its managers. On the other hand, audiences tended to attribute less blame to the company in situations where the crisis cause was viewed as external and uncontrollable, instead reacting with sympathy and support (Lee, 2004).In analysing audience comments through the use of the Leximancer program, we aim to uncover public sentiment and reveal what major stakeholder groups or individuals are held responsible for the 2011 Qantas crisis. This leads us to the following research question: Research question 4: What stakeholder groups are perceived to be responsible for the crisis? C)   Ã‚  Crisis Emotions According to Choi and Lin (2009) there is a strong need to explore a variety of crisis emotions, in particular the impact that crisis emotions have upon attitudes toward the company and upon subsequent behavioral intentions (McDonald et. l. , 2010). Several studies (e. g. Coombs ; Holladay; 1996, 2002, Jorgensen; 1994, 1996 and Lee; 2004) have used Weiner’s causal dimensions of locus and controllability, finding causal attributions to be a major determinant of stakeholder crisis emotions. McDonald et. al. (2010) found that crisis controllability was the single strongest predictor of anger, sympathy and negative attitude while Lee (2004) found that in cases where crises were viewed as uncontrollable, pity was elicited.In McDonald’s (2010) study, internal crises were found to correspond with fear and surprise while external crises were more likely to result in a sympathetic emotion response (McDonald et al. , 2010). These findings validate the concept within Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory that causal attribution precedes responsibility judgment, which in turn affects crisis emotions. This leads us to the following research question for our Qantas crisis analysis: Research question 5: What audience emotions have emerged? D)   Ã‚  Behavioral IntentionsWhile responsibility judgm ent affects emotions, emotions, in turn, impact upon behavioral intentions (Weiner, 1995). Several studies have investigated the relationship between crisis emotion (anger, fear, sadness, joy, surprise) and consumer’s behavioral intentions. A review of previous literature by McDonald et at. (2010) found that anger influences punitiveness (Jorgensen, 1996), negative purchase intentions (Coombs ; Holladay, 2007), negative word of mouth (Coombs ; Holladay, 2007) and indirectly lowers investment intentions (Jorgensen, 1996).Sadness lead to a higher reliance on emotional support while fear was associated with venting intentions or avoidance (Jin, 2009). Coombs and Holladay (2007) also found that dissatisfied customers were more likely to voice negative sentiments about a product or service than happy customers. This leads us to our final research question regarding the application of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory to audience’s Qantas crisis response: Resea rch Question 6: What audience behavioral intentions have emerged?Based upon the review of existing literature, the current case study examined how Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory can be applied to a current crisis case in Australia using actual stakeholder comments. In particular, we expect to uncover associations between Weiner’s (1986, 1995) causal constructs (locus and controllability), judgments of responsibility, emotions and behavioral intentions within the context of audience comments. Methodology According to Yin (1994), case studies involve a methodical way of looking at an instance or event within its real-life context.It is a process of collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results in order to gain a sharpened understanding of why a particular event occurred, and what might be relevant to future research in the area (Yin, 1994). This research project involved the development of a case study analysis that followed a reputation cri sis faced by the Australian national airline, Qantas, in October of 2011. By conducting a content analysis of 1121 audience comments, this group was able to deconstruct the crisis narrative and examine audience’s attribution process during the 2011 Qantas crisis.Yin defined the research design as a sequence that links data to the study’s research questions and findings. In order to address our research questions, this group adopted a variation of Yin’s (1994) case study design, collecting appropriate evidence, analysing the data and reporting on the findings. Step one of Yin’s (1994) case study research methods involved the collection of data for content analysis. Yin (1994) noted that data collection could rely on many sources of evidence, one of which includes documentation such as media articles.Following Yin’s (1994) data collection guidelines, this group collected 1121 reader comments attached to three news articles on the Qantas crisis, inclu ding 734 comments from the Sydney Morning Herald online (Live: FWA orders Qantas dispute terminated), 171 comments from the ABC website (Qantas grounds its entire fleet) and 216 comments from news. com. au (Qantas crisis: Who won and who's to blame). We then inputted the 1121 audience comments into an excel spreadsheet, organising them on the basis of media source and comment characteristics.The second step in Yin’s cases study research methods is data analysis. This involves examining and categorizing evidence that is relevant to the study (Yin, 1994). To achieve this, we conducted a content analysis, aided by the concept association software; Leximancer. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005) a qualitative content analysis is one of numerous research methods used to analyse text data. Qualitative content analyses go beyond a simple word association and instead involves an in depth classification of language into an efficient number of categories with similar meanings (Weber, 1990).Leximancer is a software program designed to perform this conceptual analyses of text data in a largely independent manner (Smith, 2003). It is able to analyse large volumes of comments and to statistically assess the association between words, identifying emergent themes in the body of text. The basis for Leximancer’s qualitative data analysis is a concept association matrix that is built from frequency data (Rooney, 2005). The result is a visual map and insight dashboard that identifies the relational characteristics of key concepts (Middleton, Liesch & Steen, 2011).However this raw Leximancer data requires further human analysis. By further analysing these Leximancer results we were able to analyse audience reactions to the Qantas grounding crisis under the construct of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) attribution theory. The final phase of Yin’s cases study research methods involves reporting the results and checking their validity. According to Yin (1994) conte nt analyses involve a danger of committing what has been called the narrative fallacy.This fallacy consists of a propensity to simplify data through a preference for compact stories over complex data sets (Yin, 1994). In case study research, the way to avoid the narrative fallacy is no different from any other error: the usual consistent checks for validity and reliability in how data is collected, analyzed and presented. Therefore it was important to conduct a thorough check of the Leximancer results, correlating Leximancer findings with contextual examples within the article comments and providing exemplar samples of audience statements. Research ResultsLeximancer is able to generate two types of sentiment analysis reports: a visual concept map showing a detailed assembly of prominent concepts, and an insight dashboard which provides quantitative rankings of concepts and their associated terms (Middleton, et al, 2011). The insight dashboard generates information about the data set by analysing the frequency, strength and prominence of reoccurring terms within the text. It then organises these terms into ‘categories’, which are groups of recurring sentiments, and ‘concepts’, which are ideas that bear a strong contextual link to these categories (Middleton, et al, 2011).Leximancer also automatically identifies ‘compound concepts’, which are two terms that are mentioned adjacent to one another within the context of a larger category (Middleton, et al, 2011). Leximancer analyses the data set using a default thesaurus which it uses to identify terms as ‘positive evidence’ towards a certain sentiment or category. The user can also adjust the focus of the output results by controlling a number of manual settings within the program. By adjusting these settings, results in answer to our research questions were analysed.Research Question 1 asked â€Å"what are the audience perceptions of the key contributing factors to the crisis cause? † In order to answer this research question, a preliminary Leximancer analysis, examining key causal factors, was conducted. The concept map in figure 1 was generated by inputting all 1121 audience comments into the Leximancer program and adjusting the thesaurus settings to recognise related terms (such as ‘Alan Joyce’ and ‘AJ’). The resulting concept map clearly illustrates the key causal categories and maps their association with surrounding terms.The main causal concepts that emerge from figure 1 are ‘union action’, ‘managerial decisions’, ‘working conditions’ and ‘industrial action’. These four terms appear as prominent categories from which smaller, related concepts stem. Figure 1: Leximancer concept map The concept map in figure 1 forms the foundation for the subsequent graphs 2 and 3, where these key concepts are examined in more depth using related data from the insight dashboard. Examining these four main causal categories and their related terms, we can begin to deconstruct the narrative surrounding the Qantas crisis.In particular, we can begin to analyse audience member’s attribution process in terms of Weiner’s theoretical framework. Figure 2 (below) is a pie chart, isolating the four main causal categories and their associated terms. The terms surrounding each main category represent the associated concepts that appeared with relative frequency and strength under each main causal category. Terms such as ‘pathetic’, ‘appalled’ and ‘abominable’ were linked strongly with Managerial Decisions, while Union Action was associated with concepts such as ‘bloody minded’, ‘bashing’ and ‘dominated’.Industrial Action was positioned within the context of government policy with related terms such as ‘Gillard’, ‘Fair Work Act’ and ‘Labor ’. Finally, ‘Working Conditions’ can be seen positioned alongside key terms like ‘employees’, ‘pay’ and ‘unreasonable’ Figure 2: Four key crisis factors and related terms Figure 3 shows a further breakdown of each of the four main causal categories. Each pie chart was generated using the quantitative data in the insight dashboard, which outlines the strength, frequency and prominence of the four key categories and their related terms.The first of the four pie graphs explores the category of ‘Managerial Decisions’. Here we can see that the two major concepts associated with the managerial decisions category are MGMT (an acronym for management) and Alan Joyce. ‘Brand’, ‘restructures’ and ‘failures’ are secondary concepts that also appeared in association with Managerial Decisions. The second pie graph depicts the breakdown of concepts associated with the category of Industria l Action. Here, industrial action is positioned closely with concepts such as ‘Gillard’, ‘Fair Work Australia’ and ‘Federal Government’.Therefore it is evident that this causal category refers to the impact of government policy on the Qantas crisis. In the working conditions pie graph, the strong association between terms such as ‘employees’, ‘afford’ and ‘earn’ with terms such as ‘pay rise, ‘wages, and ‘salary’ indicate that one of the causes of this crisis involved current pay schemes and unfair working conditions. Finally, ‘Union action’ is also identified as a main contributing factor to the crisis cause. This pie graph explores this category by highlighting some of its key associated terms.In particular, one can see the clear association between ‘unions’, ‘demands’ and ‘striking’. In the context of the Qantas crisis, union gr oups made a number of demands regarding current working conditions and this was responsible for a large majority of subsequent employee strikes. Figure 3: graphs exploring the compound categories of managerial decisions, working conditions, Industrial action, and union action Research Question 2 was concerned with the application of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) causal dimensions of Locus and Controllability.It asked whether the key causal factors in the Qantas crisis (identified in figures 1 – 3) could be classified as internal and controllable or external and uncontrollable. As previously discussed in our literature review, past studies on crisis communication have shown that crises can be either be internal and controllable (neglected maintenance), internal and uncontrollable (employee sabotage), external and controllable (failure to comply with government regulations) or external and uncontrollable (terrorist sabotage). If we adapt our understanding of McDonald et al. 2010 ) we can apply the following attribution matrix to the current Qantas case study. Figure 4: Qantas’ attribution matrix . Research question 3 asks â€Å"what crisis causes can be associated with negative and positive crisis reactions? † Figure 5 addresses this research question by using Leximancer insights to compare the appearance of favourable and unfavourable terms within the context of audience comments. To justify the results, Leximancer’s insight dashboard provides examples of each sentiment with comments directly from the data set.The graph below shows that audience comments carry both favourable and unfavourable connotations towards the concepts of management, industrial action, and employees. The balance of favourable and unfavourable terms for all four causal concepts (managerial decisions, union action, working conditions and industrial action) is consistent with our preliminary sample of audience comments. Figure 5: unfavourable vs favourable terms Fi gure 6 addresses research question 4 (What stakeholder groups are perceived to be responsible for the crisis? by using a Leximancer visual concept map depicting the major stakeholder groups identified in the audience comments. The main stakeholder groups that are identified in this visual concept map are: * Alan Joyce * Employees * Unions * Government * Qantas customers * Australians in general Figure 6: Responsible Stakeholder clusters Based on the information obtained in figure 4, we can take a step further and categorise these major stakeholder groups as either internal or external to the company. As the CEO and head of the Qantas company, Alan Joyce is identified as largely responsible for managerial decisions.Baggage handlers, ground staff and cabin crew are grouped under the stakeholder heading of employees, while the Australian Licenced Engineers Union (ALAEA), the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the Australian and International Pilots Union (AIPA) are grouped under the sta keholder heading of unions. Finally, the government is also identified as a responsible stakeholder group, with many audience comments citing the role of Julia Gillard, the Labour government and the Fair Work Act in failing to mitigate the industrial dispute. Figure 7: Responsibility JudgementFigure 8 is a visual representation of the crisis emotion that have emerged from our anlaysis of audience comments. This graph is based on the information taken from Leximancer’s insight dashboard about the strength, prominence and frequency of various sentiments. Anger was the predominant emotion that emerged from the data set and was directed toward all stakeholders, particularly ‘unions’ and ‘management’. While ‘sympathy’ emerged as another primary meotion, it was used to express empathy towards workers’ plights while ‘Sorry’ was used in relation to customers, employees, and industrial action. Support’ was also a prodom inant sentiment that emerged and was expressed toward all parties in relatively equal degrees. Figure 8: Audience emotions Due to the informal nature of comments and the variation in sentence structure, it was challenging to isolate behavioural intentions from the data set using the Leximancer software. However, a preliminary manual analysis uncovered a number of trends in consumer’s behavioural intentions. Major findings indicated that of the 4% of comments that implied a behavioural intention, most were negative, while a small number showed positive purchase or investment intentions.Figure 9 shows a cross selection of comments extracted from the data in response to research question 6. This conceptual depiction summarises the main behavioural intentions that emerged from the Qantas crisis. Figure 9: Behavioural intentions Figure 10 is based on a manual analysis of comments over all three news sites, and shows the frequency of behavioural intentions that have emerged from th e data set. The category ‘miscellaneous intentions’ refers to behaviours such as buying shares, venting action, or switching carriers.Figure 10: Behavioural intentions frequency Discussion This case study analysis uncovered a number of key findings that are relevant to crisis communication research. First, our research found that audiences perceived the key contributing factor to the Qantas crisis to be ‘union action’, ‘managerial decisions’, ‘working conditions’ and ‘industrial action’ with the majority of comments attributing the crisis to managerial decisions and union action.When analysing these key causal factors under Weiner’s dimensions of Locus and Controllability, managerial decisions can be interpreted as both internal and controllable to the company while ‘Union Action’ can be seen as both external and uncontrollable. If we analyse ‘working conditions’ in the context of its r elated terms, we can understand that this cause is about employees’ observations of their working conditions and the resulting strikes.In particular, this casual factor is about employees being unhappy with current circumstances and demanding better working conditions from Qantas management. While employees are internal to the company, their objections to their working conditions and the ensuing strikes can be understood as relatively uncontrollable. Finally, ‘industrial action’ in seen within the context of government policy and work place regulation. While the government is external to Qantas, the company’s compliance with government regulations is certainly within management’s control.Therefore we classify this causal concept as both external and controllable. These findings build upon previous research by Coombs (1995) and McDonald et. al. (2010) – that Locus and Controllability can have separate effects on audience’s attribution p rocess and that crises may not only be internal/controllable and external/uncontrollable but also internal /uncontrollable and external /controllable. The second major finding of this research project linked causal attributions to audience’s responsibility judgements.When audiences identified the major causal factor as ‘managerial decisions’ they also tended to attribute blame to Qantas management, in particular to Qantas CEO; Alan Joyce. The resulting emotions that emerged from this attribution were anger towards Qantas management and support for unions and employees. This sentiment is exemplified in the audience comment â€Å"As a QF F of 20+ years †¦ I wish to register my total support for the staff and crew at QF over their current legitimate and understandable attempts to prevent Management from destroying the airline which I hold so dear. This customer is sick and tired of being exploited by senior management and the board. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (ABC. net. a u, 2011). These findings are similar to those of Lee’s (2004) who stated that crises that were perceived to be internal (locus) and controllable (controllability) would bring about responsibility judgements aimed towards the company and its managers. Another key trend in the data identified ‘union action’ as the main cause of the crisis. These audience members tended to attribute blame to unions and employees involved in striking action.When union action, which we identified as external and uncontrollable, was attributed as the primary cause of the crisis, audience members tended to respond with anger towards unions and employees and sympathy towards the company and its managers. One example of this is conveyed in the audience’s comment: â€Å"Well done Alan Joyce. Striking is the lowest form of human behaviour in my opinion†¦. I hope all these lazy striking staff lose their jobs and are replaced by hardworking people, †¦ who unlike Qantas emplo yees appreciate their jobs, rather than expect that they are their god given right† (ABC. et. au, 2011). The third major finding in our case study uncovered a number of audience crisis emotions. While we anticipated finding negative audience emotions such as anger and helplessness, we also uncovered a number of positive emotions that expressed support and sympathy towards all stakeholder groups. One such comment that expressed empathy towards the Qantas brand was sourced from the Sydney Morning Herald (2011), â€Å"Qantas made the right decision and any company which has a strong union presence should do the same if their future is threatened by them.The Australian dollar is strong and to remain competitive globally, hard decision must be made. † This leads us to our final major research finding. As could be expected, positive audience emotions were found to be associated with favourable behavioural intentions while negative emotions were found to predict negative purch ase intentions. While 81% of behavioural intentions centred on avoidance, complaint and negative purchase intentions, another 14% of the behavioural intentions indicated that the audience intended to continue flying with Qantas, signifying the audience’s loyalty to the brand.An example of such positive behavioural intentions is evident in the following audience comment from new. com. au: â€Å"I have always flown Qantas and always will, and to those who say they will never fly them again, you know you will let all those FF perks go to waste Good on you Mr Joyce. † (News. com. au, 2011, pp. 8). Although the technical limitations of Leximancer restricted our study, our research project successfully applied Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory to audiences’ attribution process in a real life crisis case.These research findings provide valuable insights into how individuals understand and react to organizational crises in the real world. Knowledge of this type will assist public relations managers in creating effective reputation management strategies in the future. Limitations Although our case study can be considered largely effective, we did encounter several limitations that impeded the progress of our research. Most of the limitations we encountered involved the technical capabilities of Leximancer.Of particular relevance to our content analysis was Leximancer’s inability to comprehend tone and colloquialisms. This meant that a comment that Leximancer identified as positive might actually be a sarcastic remark meant as a negative. We also found that the informal nature of comments was problematic, since there were multiple ways of expressing a particular sentiment. The data set too was limited by the individual news site’s comment system. The anonymity of contributors made it hard to clearly identify an audience member’s level of involvement, unless it was explicitly mentioned in the comment.The anonymity m ay have led to audience responses phrased more assertively and argumentatively than they would have been if they were named. The news sites also censor the time frame of the comments. By identifying the time stamp attached to each comment, future studies could examine how audience crises responses changed over the crises lifecycle. This would be particularly important as it would reflect the dynamic nature of audience’s crisis response (McDonald et. al, 2009) – particularly in this study where the online commentary between the audiences is a highly interactive exchange.Conclusion Based on Yin’s (1994) case study research methods and the theoretical framework of Weiner’s (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory, this research project found that managerial decisions and union action were the two key contributing factors to the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis. We also identified the main responsible stakeholder groups to be Alan Joyce (Qantas management), employees, uni ons and the government. Our findings have shown that the primary crisis emotion that emerged was anger, and that this was targeted primarily towards the management and unions.This was followed by sympathy, which empathized with the worker’s plights, and sorrow which was used in relation to Qantas customers. However, contrary to expectations, â€Å"support† also emerged as a dominant emotion and was expressed towards all stakeholder parties involved in the crisis. These findings suggest that, despite the negative sentiment that has emerged from the grounding crisis, there is still an existing group of passengers who remain loyal to the Qantas brand. Qantas should also take a lesson from these findings in order to better safeguard the interests of their stakeholders in future.This may include being mindful of employee moral and considering the plight of the passengers before taking such drastic measures in the future. Acknowledgments Supervisor: Lyn McDonald Course Coord inator: Aparna Hebbani References ABC News. (2011, October 29). Qantas grounds entire fleet. ABC News. Retrieved from http://www. abc. net. au/news/2011-10-29/qantas-locking-out-staff/3608250 Ackoff, R. L. (1981). Creating the corporate future. New York: John Wiley & Sons Colgan, Paul. (2011, October 31). Qantas Crisis: Who won and who’s to blame? News. com. au. Retrieved from

Finding Forester †Written by Mike Rich

Finding Forester – Written by Mike Rich Free Online Research Papers Finding Forrester is a remarkable film written by Mike Rich. He portrays how completely different people can come together to help each other and in the end become like family. The plot of this movie has some important moral teachings. â€Å"Finding Forrest† is a very special story that tells people that anyone can be a part of your family if you open yourself to others. â€Å"Finding Forrester† opens with a sixteen year old African American boy, Jamal Wallace, waking from his sleep in his bed surrounded by stacks of books, to go play basketball with his friends. While playing basketball they begin to talk about an old man, William Forrester, that lives on the top floor of the building across from the schoolyard and regularly notice him watching them from his window, but they never see his face. One day after school, Jamal’s friends challenge him to sneak into the mysterious man’s apartment and take something. He accepts the challenge and sneaks in through the window of the apartment later that night. Jamal looks around the apartment for something to take to show his friends, while looking around, Jamal set his backpack down and he became mesmerized by all the books that were in the apartment. But his fascination was ended when Forrester yelled at Jamal, scaring the hell out of him and causing him to flee the apartment without hi s backpack. The next day Jamal approaches a man, who delivers supplies to Forrester in the apartment, driving a BMW and gives him a brief review of the history of BMW, which displays is gifted intellect. After the man leaves, Jamal finds his backpack on the street, which was tossed out of Forrester’s window. Jamal returned home and opened his backpack to make sure nothing was taken. As he was checking his books, he notices that his journals are covered with literal corrections. Jamal returns to Forrester’s apartment and knocks on the door. Forrester answers and asks what Jamal wants. Jamal responds by saying that he is the person that broke into his apartment yesterday night and then asks him if he could help him on his writing skills. But Forrester gives him a sarcastic response by telling Jamal to write a five thousand word paper on why he should stay out of his apartment. The next day Jamal returns to Forrester’s door with the paper he wrote. Forrester opens the door and lets Jamal to come in. Jamal walks in and he and Forrester began to talk. Jamal mentions to Forrester that he has scored high on his state required testing and have been given a scholarship to Mallor Callow, one of the top private schools. Jamal and Forrester came to an agreement; Forrester would help J amal on his writing but has to keep it a secret and no writing leaves the apartment. From this point on Jamal and Forrester will grow closer and closer as the film progresses. Toward the end of â€Å"Finding Forrester† Jamal and Forrester have become more than just friends, but became family. They have helped each other through there difficulties and have formed a family bond. Forrester helped Jamal become a phenomenal writer teaching him everything he knows in literacy. In return Jamal has helped Forrester overcome the blame that he has put on himself due to his brother’s death. Because of the guiltiness that Forrester feels, he has remained inside his apartment and hasn’t been outside for a long time. But Jamal has convinced Forrester to leave his apartment on his birthday. One of the places Jamal took Forrester was on the pitching mound in Yankee Stadium, which his brother helped them in. There on the pitching mound, Forrester opened up to Jamal about his feelings. Later in the day Forrester told Jamal that he enjoyed himself. Later in the story, Forrester helped Jamal prove that his story he entered in a writing contest was not pla giarized and that he wrote the story from his heart. At the end of the story, Forrester thanks Jamal for helping him find himself and then rides his bike into the crowded city street. This is a stunning part of the film to see someone who was afraid to leave his home at the beginning and in the end riding his bike through the streets of one of the busiest cities in the world. At the end of the movie, Jamal meets Forrester’s lawyer to discuss some important matters. The lawyer gave Jamal terrible news; he told him that Forrester died of cancer. Jamal was given everything of Forrester’s. But the most special thing that Forrester gave Jamal in his will was the forward in his final novel. To give someone a forward is an extraordinary honor. It shows that Jamal has had a very special impact on Forrester’s life. They are more than friends but an important member of each other’s lives. 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