Darkness in Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and Dickinson Essay

E. A. Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and E. Dickinson’s works contain similar elements and images which can be related to the theme of darkness. These authors used these motives as their main subject throughout their works. Some of them led very gloomy and dark life so they used those experiences to utter their feelings by putting them on the paper. These poems and works can come across as kind of morbid at first sight so they will be thoroughly explained in the further text. E. A. Poe was labelled as immoral, crazy and depressive by his contemporaries partly because of his most famous poem â€Å"The Raven†. Many of them considered Poe’s behaviour insane when actually he was just a version of Romantic period moody hero like Byron, Keats and Shelly, yet today those â€Å"insane† people are called artists. His works were marked as spooky, spine-tingling and most importantly dark. Furthermore, a solid comparison can be made between 19th century horror writer Poe and 21th century horror writer Stephen King. Although centuries have passed the motif of darkness stays present. The Raven is a poem filled with dark, lonely and melancholic symbols. One of them to begin with is Gothic setting of the poem. â€Å"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore†. â€Å"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;/ And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. † It’s almost like today’s readers can see in films. One can picture a small cabin deep in the woods on a cold December night with nothing but one candle and a man like shadow which can be seen through the window. Nevertheless, it is a perfect prelude to a horror movie or in this case to a horror poem. In addition to dark setting there is a dark protagonist, a young man suffering a great amount of pain, more precisely loss of a loved woman. Any human would start to question himself and talk to himself as he did in all of that loneliness and misery, but the only reply he got from the raven is â€Å"Nevermore†. That word is pretty devastating for the man on the edge. The Raven itself is a bad omen, dark one since it gives volume to a dark, spooky, ghostly atmosphere. His black feathers are traditionally considered to be a magic sign of something evil, rotten and ill. For the tone Poe is looking for, the raven is perfectly suitable bird. It looks just like the night it came out of. Yet again the night is another motif in poem which is entirely dark in physical and psychological sense. Night represents mysterious and slightly dangerous power of nature and it fits perfectly in the poem. Poe does not choose to write a horror of a sunny afternoon’s setting. One of the first things one can notice while reading The Scarlet Letter is enormous amount of hypocrisy. The society itself is hypocritical, nothing is white or black, people lie and everyone wears a mask, so that can be interpreted as dark motif. There are many examples of collision of light and darkness throughout the novel. Light is used to describe and emphasize good qualities of a human within or present state of emotions. And on the other hand, dark is obviously opposite of that. For example there is a scene when Pearl turns her head away from bright sunlight after stepping out in her mother’s arms from the dark, gloomy prison. This shows the contrast between light and dark and also evokes pity for the baby and her mother’s imprisonment. â€Å"She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its existence, heretofore, had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison. † There is another example of light and dark in Hester’s description of Chillingsworth. She describes him as a devil-like figure with a black soul and eyes burning red like fire. Light and darkness represent change of behaviour and personality in a character and this is one of the best examples of that change. Chillingsworth becomes literally and figuratively dark and continues tormenting Dimmesdale. The forest in the novel is described as dark several times especially in comparison with the town. Everything happening outside of the town is considered to be dark which means sinful. For example, Hester who is a sinner in the eyes of society lives on the outskirts of town in the woods. Society dismissed her and marked her as an outcast. The fact she is living on a border of town and forest shows how certain people thought of her in certain situations. During the night she found refuge in the woods with Dimmesdale and during the day she was a sinner in the eyes of society in the town. The forest was seen as the place of evil by townsmen because it was unknown and mysterious. The wilderness of the forest is compared with the Hester’s moral wilderness. â€Å"She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest. In Bartleby the Scrivener by Melville one can use doubling as a dark motif. The first example of doubles is Nippers and Turkey. They act like one person which is shown in the way they live their lives. Turkey is off in the morning because of the alcohol he drank the night before and Nippers is off in the afternoon because of his indigestion due to the lunch he had not so long before. They act like two faces of a coin. The second example and most important one is Bartleby. Melville is evoking him as a kind of phantom double. Descriptions of him represent him as either ghostly or a corpse, â€Å"cadaverous†. His indifference toward anything makes The Lawyer feel guilty and the act of understanding and helping Bartleby is just a way of satisfying his conscience. Isolation is also a dark motif in Bartleby the Scrivener. During the day Bartleby stares at the window facing the wall and during the night he sleeps in his office. In fact, this is a perfect picture of Wall Street and people who were really emotionally imprisoned because of their work. The last author to be explained is Emily Dickinson. She was beyond her time, left all alone in her world with nobody there to understand her. Her life was lonely and that, among all else, resulted in two nervous breakdowns. The poetry she wrote was full of dark and mysterious motives. One of her many poems called â€Å"I’m Nobody, who are you? † can explain the core of Dickinson. Although this poem has element of comic sense to it, it’s not quite as comical as it seems. Here Dickinson has a light tone, childish voice and she invites reader to come to her dark side. The main thesis in this poem is the loss of identity and personality. „I’m Nobody! Who are you? / Are you – Nobody – too? / Then there’s a pair of us! / Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know! â€Å" She is explaining that there is a pair of them, nobodies and outsiders. The speaker fears to reveal their identity because they will not be anonymous free-thinking â€Å"nobodies† that they have chosen to be. It is not arguable that all of these authors were lonely and filled with pain due to certain tragedies but some of them felt it more than others. If every aspect of their lives is taken in consideration one should give a gold medal in darkness and despair to Poe and Dickinson. Nevertheless, all of them were human with real human emotions and their way of coping with pain was by writing it on a piece of paper. No matter how morbid and depressing these works are, they are works of art. It is important to remember how difficult it is to share your emotions publically and let every individual to interpret it in its own way, maybe even comparing it to its own life experiences. That is the beauty of it.

Judaism and Final Project Essay

What religion would you like to consider for your final project? Describe the place of worship you will visit. I I plan on studying Judaism for my final project. I might visit a synagogue if I find one nearby/ I What do you already know about this topic? * Judaism’s sacred documents are called Haftra ; Torah. * I know some of their major holidays like Passover and Hanukkah for example, and I also know the significance of the Sabbath or Saturday services. * I know the Ten Commandments Judaism religion goes by. * They believe that every person was created in the image of God. * Judaism is a monotheistic faith meaning they believe in only one god. I What resource will you use to find a place of worship for this religion? I I will use the internet along with a local newspaper. I What are some sources you could use to gain more knowledge about this religion? I Different online sites and library resources. I What type of materials do you expect to review for this project? I Articles and Interviews. I How will you gain access to the materials you need? I The internet, the public library, the temple I visit, and a religious bookstore so I can purchase a copy of Torah. I What difficulties do you anticipate in conducting an interview with someone of this faith? I I don’t anticipate any major difficulties coming up but I do recognize the fact that it may be awkward feeling to discuss faith with a person that I don’t share the same faith with. I Create a list of 10 questions you would like to ask during the interview

Palestinian Statehood Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Palestinian Statehood - Research Paper Example The statement to which I agree is that the situation in terms of peace and prosperity shall be better than it is now. In order to gauge the complete understanding of the situation in Palestine, it is highly important that we look at it in context of its history and not just in isolation. The land of Palestine is the one region in the world which has experienced probably one of the most troublesome times. Throughout the various eras which have passed, it has been at the core of conflicts between various elements, with each believing that the land rightfully belongs to them as per their history and religion (Weiner 1999). Looking through the last century which has gone by, this land was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. However, after the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was broken and parts of it were given over to the victorious countries for administration by the League of Nations. The lands of Palestine were awarded to the Great Britain for their services during the First World War. From 1939 to 1945, the Second World War raged across the globe, during which the holocaust occurred. By the time the war ended, thousands of Jewish people had been displaced from Germany and were spread all around the region. The Great Britain gave up on its hold of Palestinian land, dividing it between the Jews, Egypt and Jordan. Thus, in the year of 1948, the independent and sovereign State of Israel was established (Quigley 2010). By the end of the â€Å"Six Day War† between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt Jordan and Syria, Israel had captured and taken full control over the lands of Palestine which had been given to Egypt and Jordan. These areas included the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza strip from the Egypt, the West Bank, Jerusalem from Jordan, while the Golan Heights were snatched from the Syrians (Quandt 1992). In 1988, the Palestinians announced that they were not just a piece of land, but officially the state of Palestine. This statement came from the Palestine National Council, which is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This proclamation by the Palestinians was based primarily based on the norms of the international law, relying on the right of the self determination. This is a primary right which is awarded to the people to chose their political status (Quigley, Palestine's Declaration of Independence: Self-Determination and the Right of the Palestinians to Statehood 1989). Till date at least 130 countries have formally recognized Palestine as a state, with over 150 of them maintaining diplomatic relations with the Palestinians in one or another form (AFP 2011). This makes about 2/3 of the member countries of the UN General Assembly. Those countries which do not recognize the status of Palestine as a nation or a state, call these lands, the â€Å"Palestinian Occupied Territory† (Neff 2011). Despite this every time this comes under consideration, this is vetoed out by the United States of America, which has explicitly refused the Palestinian bid to attain the full membership of the United Nations (Mohammed 2011). Despite the international pressure from various countries such as China, the United States maintains its stance stating that only negations with Israel would achieve the Palestinians to form a state (Johnson 2011). In order for an entity to be recognized as a state, there are certain conditions which are in place and need to be fulfilled. These criteria of

Sexual harassment in the workplace Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sexual harassment in the workplace - Assignment Example According to the Equal Rights Advocates, sexual harassment is defined as â€Å"unwelcome verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is severe or pervasive and affects working conditions or creates a hostile work environment.† When reading this definition it is difficult to understand how people would do this within the workplace, but it is important to understand that this happens on a regular basis. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states that in 2008, 13,867 cases of sexual harassment were received by them and 11,731 of those cases were resolved; 15.9% of these cases were filed by men. The Alliance Training and Consulting group found that in 2010, there were 11,717 cases filed with the EEOC and the eventual resolution of cases cost companies $48.4 million in damages. These statistics show that sexual harassment is not only a problem for the people who experience sexual harassment, but it also is very costly to the companies that are in volved. The challenge for many companies is that they do not know that there is training available for their employees which can help them resolve some of these issues before they begin. According to Pamela Mahabeer, a writer for AOL Jobs, although seminars are done to teach people about sexual harassment, it still is happening. ... Ellie Mystal, a writer for Above The Law, states that many men file sexual harassment claims when they are fired from a job because they are seeking a reason for their firing; many of these cases claimed that men were sexually harassed by other men. Another issue with sexual harassment is that it can be claimed that it creates a hostile work environment. In order to claim that this happens, it must meet two criteria: First, what is going on must be â€Å"subjectively abusive† to the person or persons affected and it must be â€Å"objectively severe or pervasive enough† to create an environment that other people would also find abusive (â€Å"Preventing†). This can happen in many instances and this often indicates that there are many incidences of sexual harassment that are being ignored, or that it is a constant harassing that happens over time. Sexual harassment is a very important issue in the workplace that needs to be challenged when it happens so that everyo ne can be in a safe environment when they are working. Works Cited Alliance Training and Consulting. â€Å"Harassment Statistics the Latest EEOC Statistics.† 2010. 29 June 2011. http://www.alliancetac.com/index.html?PAGE_ID=2702 Equal Rights Advocates. â€Å"Know Your Rights: Sexual Harassment at Work.† 2011. 20 June 2011. http://www.equalrights.org/publications/kyr/shwork.asp Mahabeer, Pamela. â€Å"Sexual Harassment Still Pervasive in the Workplace.† AOL Jobs. 8 January 2011. Web. 11 June 2011. http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/01/28/sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace . Mystal, Ellie. â€Å"Sexual Harassment: It’s Not Just for Women Anymore.† Above the Law. Web. March 24, 2010 http://abovethelaw.com/2010/03/sexual-harassment-men

Medical Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Medical Sociology - Essay Example Moreover, if they are practicing medicine while being drunk or under the influence of alcohol, the said practice will more likely endanger not only themselves but the patients and the people that they attend to. In this case, one might ask and wonder, "if the Doctors know the negative implications of alcoholism to one's health, why is it that some of them tend to become addicted to it" This kind of problem raised concerns and alarmed the bell with regards to the people who are being affected by these kinds of irregularities. There are cases and instances that their family (of Doctors who are under the influence of alcoholism), the patients and the people who are in need of their personal and medical attention are being affected by this kind of irregularity. In this case, such practitioners are being classified as a "group" with regards to their profession. In this regard, they are being classified as a group because they represent a certain portion of medical doctors and practitioners which are considered as the "Alcohol-dependent" ones. In this case, this kind of group creates a distinction to one's profession. Of course, one can never conclude that the entire practitioners do the same thing that is why they are considered as group. In dealing with this, obtaining a percentage from a group as a point of study is needed to further understand why such things happen and why such a phenomenon occurs. Of course, it is an established fact, that like anyone, medical practitioners are still human and still is susceptible to addiction. If there are individuals or medical practitioners who are being classified under the addiction of alcoholism, then they form a sociological distinction among their macro group as a whole. If they form a sociological distinction, then they have similarities with each other and in this case, the occurrence why su ch an addiction has started on their physiological and psychological system and why such addiction is still present do share common determinants. In dealing with this, it is very important to know the factors on why these kind of dependence occur. In order to be guided with this topic, mapping different situations, factors and other related elements are important in order to know and determine the factors and norms why a certain group has a smaller group which practices things that are in contrary to what they are advancing. In knowing and determining such things, dealing with different factors as a consideration is an important thing to do, in order to track down and determine the issues revolving alcoholism in medical practice. Among the controversial factors that are being considered by different experts is the theory of having this kind of problem in medical practice, according to some experts has something to do with genetics. In this case, if genetics has been the issue, then the main concern here is the genealogy of the individual is the reason why he experience such a thing and not because of the profession a certain individual is practicing. Goldman (1999) further added that "The genetic evidence base for alcohol policy includes the genetic epidemiology of this clinically-defined disorder as well as an emerging understanding of the role of specific genes and gene/environment interactions. Although alcoholism and alcohol use are

Organisations succeed when they develop competitive advantages Essay

Organisations succeed when they develop competitive advantages - Essay Example Competitive advantage is gained when companies can provide a better quality of products than other players in the same industry. Companies should consider strategies to deal with the markets that involve new routine and tact. Strategies like setting trend don’t are not likely to kick off well if there are other companies in the market already while imitating the already existing trends may not work especially if other organizations have turned to differentiating their own products. Depending on the specific products an organization is bringing into the market, it is important to realize other companies with the same product and differentiate them. Differentiating products by branding and advertising is a major step in peering through competition (Coker, 2000). It is also important to look into the different ways of expanding on the same product a firm is creating to be at a level ahead of the competition; for example when an aviation company extends to creating a school of avi ation to offer courses and training that is especially for their firm. It is also useful to consider taking your consumers’ needs into account and seeking their expectations, for example how they like to have their coffee, with creamer or not. This will enhance on further differentiation of products according to customers’ needs and aids with winning their loyalty. ... Organizations should also take advantage of public documents like analysts reports for public companies and into market analysis. When other rival companies experience certain challenges, they become opportunities for these companies. When those companies makes successes they yet open an opportunity to think of better unexploited chances that may extend from those of their counterparts. In strategizing, it is important to come up with a plan that works around your competitor’s weaknesses as well as their strengths. One should identify other companies’ weaknesses to make adjustments to them so they can be a step ahead and give their customers a reason to prefer their products. Knowing your counterparts strengths on the other hand, helps you realize how further than them you can get ahead when you use those strengths and upgrade them where you can. They should work around what the other firm is selling, what their resources are and how easy they obtain those resources. In situations where the resource availability is not favorable to the competitors for example raw material location favors your own company. This would be an opportunity to trade with your competitor and gain a little control over them. In other situations where companies have sole control of resources that are either rare or are delicate to handle or are too expensive to manage for example while dealing with precious stones like gold and diamond (Adcock, 2000). It is also important to consider the population of the market, how many people are being targeted for a particular product. If possible a large population of consumers only improve on the quantity of units sold and helps the companies establish a base of consumer loyalty. This base allows

The session of learning the digital content Essay

The session of learning the digital content - Essay Example The best part of this class was that I got to learn the usage of Google docs with the coworkers and students. Part of the studies also contained the lessons regarding proper usage of software like Skype and PBLs/Podcasting. I was provided with the strong basic and essential knowledge about the strengths and weakness of this software. We learnt their everyday application, in both personal and professional contexts. This learning, particularly, proved to be very beneficial for us as we had to use such parts of the information system for our routine communications as well. Then, the studying and understanding regarding the use of content specific software and screen capturing through Voki opened our minds to the entirely new world of IT advantages and benefits. With each passing session, I kept on learning more and more about the computer sciences which have been introduced for the ease and benefits of the mankind. Learning Wikis was also a major part of our course during the semester. We learnt the application and benefits of all the elements of Wikis and had also developed an extensive lesson plan on it. Using Wiki spaces opened another broader era of knowledge for our minds through the course of computer sciences. We prepared lesson plans by including the application, which was extremely content specific and collaborative in every aspect. This lesson plan was made at the end of many sessions and classes and it served the purpose of depicting our understanding of the content that we were taught in the class.

Psychology (mental illnesses) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Psychology (mental illnesses) - Essay Example In the process of analyzing the obscure emotions of the patient, the therapist can link them to the actual relationships that they cause, for example one's animosity to food or alcohol. The other technique is introduced by Carl Rogers. He is the founding father of the Person-centered approach, the most widely used technique in modern clinical psychology. This concept explores the healing of the psyche through empathy, active listening, and "mirroring" of the patient. This therapeutic intervention is focused on the immediate conscious experience rather than attempting to solve the unconscious. The transformative impact of Roger's therapy is that there is an unconditional positive attitude to the client "not as a scientist to an object, but as a person to a person (Rogers 22)". The theory of person-centered therapy suggests that the resources for someone to heal himself lie inside them. In today's global world where our daily activities mix with the technologies, telephone or internet therapy is something acceptable and understandable. The mental health programs where the treatment is conducted via internet or phone provide instant support and availability to patients in emergencies. However, the quick access advantage adds to other disadvantages.

HEALTH , SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS Essay

HEALTH , SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS - Essay Example Although this decision might have been informed from the principle of Best Available Techniques Not Entailing Excessive Cost (BATNEEC), it is noteworthy that this concept carries with it potential environmental impacts in all their forms. In terms of emissions, the company is likely to emit toxic or harmful gases as by products in the overall process of manufacturing the various detergents. This is attributed to the fact that the company has opted to integrate both automated mode of production and manual one in which case there is bound to an increase in the air pollution when using the latter. As is outlined by Environmental Protection Act 1990 and 1995, this company is therefore tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that its production activities do not interfere with the overall air quality according to RTPI, (2002). In this regard, the best practicable environmental option is through the use of appropriate technology which reduces the emission of any toxic gases to its bordering community. In particular there is the danger of Sulphur dioxide being released since the company uses Sulphate as one of the ingredients for making its detergents. This is also enshrined in the aforementioned acts based on the princi ple of producer responsibility. On the other hand, the company structures have a negative visual impact owing to their height with its effects on the aviation industry. With respect to the issue of water discharge options, Thomas Hedley Company shall have integrated its water disposal into the city’s sewage system. However, the company shall be tasked with the responsibility of treating its effluents before they are discharged into the city’s sewage disposal system. The other feasible option available to this company is the option of recycling its waste water for use in the production process. The third option available to this firm

The Cost Accounting System of Bagalot PLC Coursework

The Cost Accounting System of Bagalot PLC - Coursework Example On the overall analysis, it can be stated that the cost system in Bagalot PLC is not appropriate and it requires certain changes. To justify this, light can be thrown on the findings of the internal team, which is appointed to study the overhead costs in both the plants. The findings can be summarised and demonstrated as follows: The above outcomes signify the importance of the production and post-production related activities. If the overhead cost of a product is calculated based on the production-run direct labor, then the other activities will be surely ignored. It implies that the adopted mechanism for the cost calculation is not effective as it takes into account only the partial costs. Based on the above explanation, it can be recommended to the Bagalot management to bring certain transformation in the host system or to change the method of the cost estimation. In this note, the management can be proposed to adopt ‘Activity-Based Costing’ (ABC). In this case, one question can crop up that whether both the plants should adopt the technique or not. It is true that variations in the activities are less in the Bath plant, but the mechanism of estimating overhead expenses is similar. Therefore, it will be better if ABC method can be applied to both the plants. There are several activities in Bristol plant and few activities in Bath plant. The activities are ‘receiving and production control’, ‘packaging and shipping’, ‘plant management and facilities’ and most importantly ‘set up labor’. By implementing ABC method, the organization will be able to monitor each activity that has a contribution in direct overhead. It will result in effective cost structure as well as transparent mechanism. In the last part, cost of each product of Bagalot has been calculated according to the activity-based costing method. In this portion of the paper, the profitability of the Briefcases based on the new approach (ABC method) will be computed. A comparative analysis of the old and new methods can be presented in a tabular format to figure out the best approach.

Discuss the Effect of Islam upon West Africa Essay Example for Free

Discuss the Effect of Islam upon West Africa Essay Change Over Time Essay Assignment #1The camel, with its ability to travel long distances without water and carry heavy loads, facilitated trans-Saharan communication. During the seventh and eighth centuries CE, Islamic conquerors had added North Africa to the dar al-Islam. By the end of the eighth century CE, Muslim merchants had crossed the Sahara and initiated commercial relations with Sub-Saharan West Africa and by the beginning of the second millennium, Islam had become entrenched in West African life. Islam dramatically changed West Africa culturally, politically, and economically in the time period between 1000 CE and 1750 CE, but many staples of West African society remained the same. Economically, Islam ushered a new era of economic prosperity into West Africa. The adoption of Islam by West African states provided them with common ground upon which states such as Mali greatly expanded their gold trade to encompass Arab and Mediterranean nations. Established Muslim trade routes facilitated the huge increase in the volume of African trade. Commercial cities sprung up across West Africa, with commerce increasing Timbuktus population to 100,000. In the twelfth century, Muslim merchants introduced cotton, rice, and citrus fruits to West Africa; by the sixteenth century cotton was the main textile produced in West Africa. European demand for cotton textiles ensured that West Africa would remain economically prosperous. Islamic merchants expanded the African slave trade to a continental level, providing Europeans with a framework upon which to build the catastrophic Atlantic slave trade, replacing small scale tribal slavery with huge state economies built entirely around capturing slaves and selling them to foreign nations. However, despite these huge changes in economic methods and volume, West African states relied heavily upon trade as the principle form of economic support throughout periods of Islamic influence. The increase in trade with Islamic merchants between 1000 and 1750 led to the permeation of Islamic culture among West African peoples. Islamic rulers built large mosques and universities where people could learn about Islam, as well as other areas of knowledge. These universities spread literacy within West African society. Islam was generally tolerant of traditional values, such as polygamy. This allowed it greater popularity than  Christianity, and decreased resistance to conversion. Islam was not forced upon citizens by their kings, but rather was voluntarily encouraged. Despite this, many people adopted Islam, especially those who interacted with Muslim merchants. However, many of those who adopted Islam did not adopt Islam in its original form, but rather combined it with traditional religious beliefs to create a syncretic religion. There was much social turmoil among purists, such as the Fulani, and those who practiced syncretic Islam. Despite the large Islamic influence in the area, many chose not to adopt a syncretic faith and rather kept their traditional beliefs. The integration of Islamic culture into West Africa, as well as the economic prosperity that Islamic trade brought West Africa, led to the creation of large centralized states. As opposed to the small kingdoms, such as the kingdom of Ghana, that the first Islamic merchants encountered in West Africa, by the fifteenth century two large centralized empires had emerged. Islamic influence played a large part in the creation of these large empires. Firstly, the revenue created by integration of West Africa into Islamic trade allowed West African rulers to create and support large standing armies. These armies ensured that these empires could protect their peoples and sources of income, as well as exert their influence. Secondly, Islamic law, known as Sharia, introduced to West Africa allowed for unified rule. Previously, varying tribal laws had caused disorder and fragmentation, as well as discontent. Islamic law facilitated and demanded the creation of large centralized empires. However, Islam itself did not necessarily become the exclusive religion of these empires; many, indeed most, citizens of these empires clung to and practiced their traditional pagan religious beliefs. Following the collapse of these two empires, West African political structure returned to the small regional kingdoms that had been West African norm before Muslim merchants crossed the Sahara. Overall, the Islam greatly, sometimes even completely, changed cultural, political, and economic environments in West Africa between 1000 CE and 1750 CE. Examples of this change include the introduction of centralized kingdoms, trans-Saharan trade, and Muslim values. Despite this great change, many elements of West African society, such as popular religion, dependence  on trade, and basic values remained the same despite Islamic influence up through 1750 CE. Near the end of that period, Africa began to be colonized by European nations, and fell under European influence.

Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK

Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK Social enterprise is an active and sustainable business form of choice which is able to bring economic, communal and environmental benefits to the UK. It operates across all sectors of the economy, serving individuals in the private, public and third sectors. Through out this research will identify the increase levels of understanding of the role and value of Social Enterprise, given that a lack of understanding of the role and value of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of the business model. The purpose of this research will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome to achieve sustainability. Chapter 1: Introduction A brief overview of social enterprise is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the purpose of the study will be next discussed which will end with a specific research question. In the end of this chapter the contribution of this research is also presented. A Brief Overview of Social Enterprise Social enterprise is a business structure that aims to distribute across a range of economic, social and environmental outputs which refer as‘ Triple bottom line. Within this business structure, anyone can develop a business and considers social and environmental impact as central part objectives. It can bring wealth as well as empowerment to disadvantaged communities which may be otherwise suffering exclusion. Social enterprises are organisations that supply goods and services to communal economy sector. These comprise a collection of organisations that subsist between the traditionally private and public sectors and have a stronger association with the community and non-profit sector. This sector has a key function to take part in achieving many of its goals, including overcoming social injustice and exclusion. Fundamental ethos are most often used by social enterprise organisations themselves, emphasises following three general features: †¢ Enterprise oriented like any other business, social enterprise is capable of generating income from production of goods and services to a market. As far as viable trading concerns, they are also able to make surplus from their trading. †¢ Social aims they are driven forward by unambiguous social aims. They are capable of creating new employment opportunity, training skills development and provision of local public services. They are responsible to their members and the larger society to increase its effectiveness and financial sustainability with the ultimate goal of creating social, environmental and economic impact or change. †¢ Social ownership they are self-governing organisations with an authority and the ownership structures are based on participation by stakeholder groups for example users or clients and local community groups and by trustees. Profits or surplus are disseminated as profit sharing to stakeholders or are used for the benefit of the community. In the United Kingdom, social enterprises are gradually becoming a well-known sector of the local and national economy. The organisation which is operating in this sector is conscious about the most important factor that becoming sustainable businesses is the path to independence both financially and in mission. However, this emerging sector is struggling for further growth and eventually it leads to have impact negatively on their sustainability. Social Enterprise should be supported and encouraged to grow both as a sector and as individual organisations so that these will become more sustainable organisations. Purpose of the Study My paper has been developed to explore how the term social enterprise has acquired meaning in the United Kingdom and to demonstrate how practitioners, policymakers and academics influence each other in the development of new sustainable ideas, given that a lack of understanding of the role and significance of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of this business model. These challenges come in many forms. Some are the same as those affecting any other business including access to business support and finance, a lack of affordable premises and finding skilled staff. However, social enterprises also face one huge barrier that seriously affects their ability to assume a position within the market. That barrier is a lack of understanding of how social enterprises work and of their potential value. This lack of understanding exists across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. Often its been very difficult to secure contract and mainstream funding support as there are plenty of confusion surrounding the social enterprise business model. So my dissertation will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome in order to achieve sustainability. It examines critical incidents that have shaped the meaning of social enterprise in England and reflects on these incidents to draw conclusions about the future sustainable development of social enterprise practice. Through out this paper, I will also study the possible circumstances for the sustainable development of social enterprise. The purpose is to notify both policy-making and the wider argument about social enterprise: what its potential might be and how that potential can be realised in different settings. Structure of the Report: This research is divided into six chapters; the first chapter is an introduction with purpose of the study. In the second chapter, literature based review of definitions of social enterprise, roots of social enterprise, discussion relevant to the sustainability of social enterprise, the nature of their contribution and their sponsors and sources of funding. The third summarises the background information of social enterprise in the UK and the fourth and fifth chapter contain the methodology and the summary of the main findings of the study with implications for policy. Finally, the sixth chapter is giving the idea about possible areas that further research could be conducted with the limitations of the study of this research paper. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter will give an overview of literature and models that are related to the research problem presented in the previous chapter. This chapter will introduce the roots and concepts of social enterprise in order to give a clear idea about the research area. 2.1 Roots of social enterprise Scott specified (2006, p.50) mentioned â€Å"The roots of social enterprises and community enterprise overall can be found in the mutual, self help and co-operative sector which goes back, in the UK, at least to the Fenwick Weavers in Ayrshire 1769 and Dr William King of Brighton in the 1820s with earlier antecedents.† Local community based organisation played vital role within the development of this movement and empowering disadvantaged poor community to move forward labour market. Grass root social worker Harry Cowley campaigned between first and second world war for housing needs and employment opportunity for returning service people and capacity building support for small business. He also advocated â€Å"job creation† programme from the local public service authority for unemployed people and eventually had some success. 2.2 General Discussion on Social Enterprise Social Enterprises combine the requirement of successful businesses with communal aims. They seek to qualify as businesses by setting up a market share and making a profit and draw attention to the long-term benefits for employees, consumers and the community. Todays competitive business world stated that defining the social enterprise is a challenging task. According to OECD (1999, p.9) â€Å"there is no universal, commonly accepted definition of social enterprise.† On the other hand, the OECD (1999, p.10) has described social enterprise as: â€Å"any private activity conducted in the public interest, organised with an entrepreneurial strategy but whose main purpose is not the maximisation of profit but the accomplishment of certain economic and social goals, and which has a capacity of bringing innovative solutions to the problems of social exclusion and unemployment†. Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) mentioned in their article that social enterprises are organizations which are seeking business solutions to social crisis. These are needed to be distinguished from other socially-oriented organizations. These also need to take initiatives that can promote to communities but which are not seeking to be â€Å"businesses†. In this esteem, these latter organizations remain dependent on endowments and donations rather than build up true paying customers. According to DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6), social enterprise is such kind of business which reinvests its surpluses in the business or in the community rather than increases profit for shareholders or owners. Drucker (Gendron, 1996, p.37) argued that social entrepreneurs are those who altered the performance capacity of society but Henton et al. (1997, p.1) mentioned that ‘civic entrepreneurs are a new generation of leaders who built new, powerfully productive connections at the intersection of education, business, community and government. Somers (2005, p.46) stated â€Å"Social enterprise emphasise creating social and environmental value at all stages of their production process, as an intrinsic part of their identity†. Following Figure: 1 describes the production process of social enterprise. Laville and Nyssens (2001, p.325) argue that when the roots of social enterprises are based in reciprocity and in this way these are part of the third system, their force is based in their ability to valve into all three economic principles and systems. They are different from private and public enterprise. In terms of private enterprise they do not only maximize profit to benefit owners, they also develop market activities and generate profits. With the comparison to public enterprise, they are independent from direct control by public authorities but they benefit to a greater or lesser extent from public subsidy. In this way, they mobilize market relations to sell services or goods and use redistributive relations by utilizing government funding to finance their services. Their long-term sustainability depends on their ability to ‘continuously hybridise the three poles of the economy so as to serve the project. 2.3 Discussion Relevant to the Sustainability of Social Enterprise According to Asefa (2005, p.1), â€Å"Sustainable development is the concept of a relationship between economic growth and the environment. The term was first used in 1987 by the world Commission on Environment and Development .Although the term has been around for almost two decades, different interpretation have kept it from being a useful guide for development policy†. Bornstein (2004, p.3) mentioned that over the last decade there has been unprecedented growth of social enterprise world wide. This business model has been getting attention from both government and corporate sector though sustainability remains the major concern. According to 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, a survey was conducted of social entrepreneurship activity in the UK. These data suggested that latest ‘social activates are emerging at a faster rate than more conventional, commercial endeavours. Within local and global level there are three areas to focus on sustainability in business activity and they are environment, economy and community. (Harding and Cowling, 2004, p.5) Environment It ensures that business is engaged in the appropriate and careful use of limited supplies and the management of waste so that it will be able to minimize the negative and maximize the positive impact of human activity. Economy It ensures that business is financially viable and it engages in good employment practice. Finally it is beneficial to the whole economy. Social It ensures that business is overall of advantage to communities, their customs and does not cause danger to them. Schulyer (1998, p.3) described that social entrepreneurs are those who have a powerful visualization for social change and who have the strong financial resources to support their ideas. That means they should reveal all the abilities of conquering business people and a compelling aspiration for social change. On the other hand, Catford (1998, p.96) argued that â€Å"social entrepreneurswill only flourish if they are supported by the right environment, which will be created largely by governments together with the private sector†. 2.3.1Financial Sustainability Social Enterprise looks for surplus generation in order to achieve financial sustainability. This is a fundamental need to social enterprises. Emphasizing financial sustainability in addition to profit distribution becomes a way to account for all activities the organization engages in, including advocacy and in support of bono work. Sacrificing one cause and effect chain for another can have significant implications for both the quality of work and social enterprises financial sustainability. Whilst many may rely on combination of grant and trading income, ultimately, if an organisation is not financially sustainable, it cannot deliver its social and environmental impact. Fig3. Shows how the profit of social organisation is distributed to the organization itself and community. 2.4 Policy Reform and Good Governance DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6) describes the three key goals for government: creating an enabling environment, making social enterprises better businesses and establishing the value of social enterprise. Thompson et al. (2000, p.328) describe â€Å"people who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet, and who gather together the necessary resources (generally people, often volunteers, money and premises) and use these to ‘make a difference†. Brown and Murphy (2003, p.57) mentioned on Bank of England report that â€Å"Social enterprises, like all businesses, need access to a range of financial products appropriate to their activity and stage of development†. A HM Treasury report on Enterpriseand Social Exclusion (1999, p.108) came to the conclusion, arguing that social enterprise was â€Å"less understood and rarely promoted in a consistent way by the existing infrastructure for business support†. It is more constructive to judge and expand social enterprise capabilities rather than expertises and capacity building. The fact that social enterprises need to combine commercial objectives with social mission as well as internal governance means that a â€Å"capabilities approach† is more comprehensive. This is a useful way of recognising factors additional to individual skills that inter-play to determine the effectiveness and impact of a specific enterprise. It also moves away from limited considerations of a key person or group within the organisation, and their specific skills, towards a more holistic view of what the organisation is capable of doing, irrespective of the location of particular skills. Catford (1998, p.97) articulated the problems and gave one probable way out: â€Å"Traditional welfare-state approaches are in decline globally, and in response new ways of creating healthy and sustainable communities are required. This challenges our social, economic and political systems to respond with new, creative and effective environments that support and reward change. From the evidence available, current examples of social entrepreneurship offer exciting new ways of realizing the potential of individuals and communitiesinto the 21st century†. Academic writing about modern social entrepreneurship skills is relatively limited, compared to mainstream business or charities. The concept of ‘social enterprise has been quickly appearing in the public, private and non-profit sectors over the last few years. Todays increased competitive not for profit sector there is extensive needs for the improvement of organisation effectiveness and sustainability even though securing funding is harder to meet the criteria of funding body. There is a good opportunity to tap in to corporate social responsibility programme by utilising better communication and marketing strategy in order to tackle complex social problems. Chapter 3: Background Information of Social Enterprise This chapter will give the idea about the social enterprise in the UK along with the impact, barriers and access to finance. Social Enterprise in the UK The UK government has been at the front position of enabling and encouraging the increase of social enterprises as part of both welfare services delivery and community regeneration at the policy level. The impacts and influence of public, private, and citizen are empirically proven and exhibit that these conventional sectors of society are playing a part in re-evaluating the value creation opportunities offered by market (or quasi-market) mechanisms. DTI research suggested that there are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, and combined turnover of  £27billion per year. These social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees and the contribution to GDP is approximately  £8.4 billion, around 0.7% of the total economy. Cabinet Office mentioned on their website that in the year 2004-2005, the charity sector in the UK had a overall income of about  £27.6 billion which was raised over  £800 million from the previous year. It stand for about 2% of the UKs GDP. The data obtained from the Cabinet Office website in social sector showed that, 67% of them expected activity to grow in the next three years compare to 56% in the year 2003-2004 of third sector organisations reported an increase in activity in the previous year. Positive aspects of Social Enterprise: Social enterprise is a diverse activity and can contain a range of organisations working on different extents and at different stages of trading. They can work in commercial markets or in public services. Some work nationally, while others work at community level. They often work in the most deprived areas and work with the most underprivileged groups. Some organisations work only as a social enterprise while in other organisations social enterprise is often a part of their activity. It works in a number of key priority areas for the UK economy- these include: employment and training adult care services childcare and health transport financial enclosure recycling rural enhancement renewable energy and community regeneration According to Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) the common characteristics for a Social Enterprise are: They have a social rationale and yields and surpluses are not shared out to shareholders. Reinvested income can be utilized to provide training and improvement opportunities for workers. They use assets and capital to generate community benefit. It gives assurance that resources provide value for money where a public-sector agreement is essential for the activity. Members or employees can also take part in decision making. The SE model could make new structures of entrepreneurship and employment within a society. The enterprise is responsible to both its members and a wider community. Social enterprise can propose goods and services to its consumers in an elastic and inventive way. Often the market has failed or the private sector does not want to go in this area. The potential of earnings and returns stream could unleash organisations from the oppression of fundraising and grant applications. There is either a double or triple-bottom line concept. The assumption is that the most effective social enterprises show signs of healthy financial and social returns rather than high profits in one and lower profits in the other. Social Enterprise adopted enterprising solutions to deal with social and environmental issues following evidence of the beneficiaries of social enterprise activity is shown in Figure.3 (IFF, 2005). According to IFF (2005, p.28), a survey of social enterprises was conducted in 2004 for the Small Business Service (SBS), the UK Government, is showed on the following figure.4. It shows 19% beneficiaries were people with disabilities; 17% were children and young people; 15% were elderly; 12 % were people on low incomes and the unemployed. Social enterprise has been playing vital role to tackle these targeted disadvantaged group and moving forward them in the labour market, predominantly in poor areas with soaring levels of poverty and joblessness. Barriers of social enterprise According to UK Government, there are mainly four significant barriers to accessing appropriate business support and finance for social enterprises throughout the region. 1. Cultural barriers between those setting up social enterprises and mainstream business advisors. 2. Lack of transparency about where to access business support at the local level, largely due to the huge diversity of routes into starting up social enterprises. 3. Limited numbers of qualified technical specialists in key business advice areas where social enterprises require specialist support, for example on legal structure, potential investors or taxation. 4. Limited sources of affordable equity and loan finance of all sizes. Bank of England (2003, p.25), took the survey of Social enterprise and it stated that 32% of social enterprises mentioned the problems in obtaining external finance and 25% problems in getting grants as major barriers to expanding their trading activities. However, other problems are lack of qualified staff (14%); lack of appropriate premises (16%); and lack of cash flow (10%) Low (2006, p.381) cited in his journal according to the source of DTI â€Å"†¦often have boards of directors or trustees who come from a voluntary sector rather than a business background. This can lead to a lack of business focus and prevent social enterprise from truly reaching their potential† The Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success(2003, p.68) concluded that there is little hard substantiation to show the impact and added value of social enterprise. According to the report, the main reason is that social enterprises generate a variety of social and environmental impacts, beyond their financial return that are difficult to measure. Policy makers, business support providers and finance providers find it difficult to assess the value of targeting social enterprises or of including them in their activities due to lack of information on their social and environmental, as well as financial impact. Access to Finance The key factor in an enterprises development is access to appropriate sources of finance. Social enterprises have been rejected more for finance compared to the SMEs. In addition, a large minority of social enterprises perceive access to external finance as a major barrier to expansion, including some of those that have successfully accessed finance in the past. There is no clear reason to account for the higher rejection rates among social enterprises but possible contributory factors are: lack of obtainable security and private financial stake; use of organisational structures and grant funding streams with which lenders may be unfamiliar, and which may result in lengthy arrangement times; low levels of investment readiness among some social enterprises depends on some elements of credit and behavioural scoring and reputational risk to the lender. For example creating â€Å"venture philanthropy† organisation will ensure long term financing of charities infrastructure, proact ive management support and capacity building support. Dees (2004, p.18) mentioned that â€Å"Businesses fail all the time and many donor-dependent nonprofits have been around for many decades, even centuries. Social entrepreneurs look for the strategy, structure, and funding mechanisms that are most likely to ensure effective and efficient social performance given specific mission objectives and a particular operating environment†. Chapter 4: Methodology This chapter will present detailed idea about the research were conducted. This includes the research design, sample selection methods and data collection methods. At the end of this methodology part validity and reliability issues will be discussed to follow the quality standards of the research. 4.1 Research Design The present study endeavoured to explore the sustainability of social enterprise for the development of the UK. Exploratory research is selected as research design as little information exists about the social enterprise of the UK. The aim of exploratory research is mainly to gain enough information before doing more thorough research. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.21) mentioned that we basically start by gathering as much information about the object as possible and with a vague impression of what we should study. Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening, to seek new insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light. It is particularly useful if researcher wish to clarify the understanding of a problem. According to Saunders et.al. (2003, p.360), there are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research and these are: a search of the literature, talking to experts in the subject, conducting focus group interviews. Qualitative interviews would be best in achieving and addressing the questions that I am looking forward to address in this dissertation paper. The research requires data that is both rich and varied as I am keen to extract the opinions and insight about practices, insights and expectations of leaders and beneficiaries in the social sector. Adopting this methodology, I will extract this data without limiting the responses of the respondents; I am mostly interested in their innate insights, opinions and organisational beliefs. Anastas (1988, p.19) mentioned that when there are the cases of sensitive subject issue and difficult decision-making procedures, individual in-depth interviews give a far more valuable tool and create a situation where participants would be likely to speak more explicitly and freely. According to Sokolow (1985, p.28) , there are several other advantages of one-to-one in-depth interviewing which include the support of individual thought, respondent thoughtfulness to questions and the offering the capability of the interviewer to sense non-verbal opinion. 4.2 Sampling Cooper and Schindler, (2003, p.44) stated in their book that selecting some of the elements in a population is the fundamental idea of sampling and researcher may draw conclusions about the entire population. There are a number of convincing reasons for sampling, including: lower cost, greater correctness of result, greater speed of data collection and accessibility of population selection. The sample would be randomly selected nationally from Social Enterprise and are actively fund raising. It is easier to make some comparison and a fairer analysis of the data because the similar size of organizations most likely to follow related trends and they are also affected by the same factors. Due to the complexity of the sector, the samples would be drawn from the wider UK region; this is to widen the organisation from which to select the qualifying sample. 4.3 Data Collection The major form of data collection was based on the semi-structured interview process with senior managers, policy officer and research development officer of the 7 selected Social enterprises operating in the UK. The interviews were designed to gain an understanding of Social Enterprises potential sustainability issues and further research needed to achieve sustainability. Therefore, interview procedures needed semi-structured interview process which is relatively informal; relaxed discussion based around a predetermined topic. Whilst conducting a semi-structured interview first of all I provided the background information regards to the research programme and its objectives to the interviewee. My interviews questions are based on open question where the interviewees had the opportunity to express opinions through its discussion. To keep momentum of discussion with the interview it is important to prepare easy to understand approach when building question with a logical sequence. In terview questions were tested among prior to interviews. Semi-structured interview was highlighted by Leech (2002, p.665) as â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦one that can provide detail, depth and insiders perspective, while at the same time allowing hypothesis testing and the quantitative analysis of interview responses†. For collecting secondary data participant social Enterprises annual report, various books, websites, newspapers, annual reports, monthly reviews and significant articles were chosen. Also for collection of primary data in-depth interviews with a range of designated professional, related to this field, were taken. I contacted with Business Links and DTI to obtain the list of social enterprise operating in the UK. 4.3.1. Validity Saunders et. al. (2003, p. 109) emphasised validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Validity defined as the extent to which data collection method or methods accurately measure what they were intended to measure. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.71) believe that validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to measure. There are two major forms: external and internal validity. The external validity of research findings refers to the datas ability to be generalized across persons, settings, and times. Internal validity is the ability of a research instrument to measure what is purposed to measure. To ensure the validity of the study numbers of different steps were taken: †¢Data was collected from the reliable sources, from respondents who are more experienced senior management position within Social Enterprise; †¢Survey question were made based on literature review and frame of reference to ensure the validity of the result; †¢Questionnaire has been pre-tested by the responded before starting the survey. Questionnaire was tested by at least ten persons; †¢Data has been collected through four weeks, within this short period of time no major event has been changed with the related topic. 4.3.2 Reliability: To ensure the reliability of the study numbers of different steps were taken: In order that responders could concentrate more on each question questionnaire was divided into three parts; The Ground Theory that has been selected for the study was clearly described and research question has been formulated based on the previous theory. Data has been collected based on the frame of reference that was drawn from the discussed theories. The objective is to make sure t Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK Social Enterprise Potential for Sustainability in the UK Social enterprise is an active and sustainable business form of choice which is able to bring economic, communal and environmental benefits to the UK. It operates across all sectors of the economy, serving individuals in the private, public and third sectors. Through out this research will identify the increase levels of understanding of the role and value of Social Enterprise, given that a lack of understanding of the role and value of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of the business model. The purpose of this research will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome to achieve sustainability. Chapter 1: Introduction A brief overview of social enterprise is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the purpose of the study will be next discussed which will end with a specific research question. In the end of this chapter the contribution of this research is also presented. A Brief Overview of Social Enterprise Social enterprise is a business structure that aims to distribute across a range of economic, social and environmental outputs which refer as‘ Triple bottom line. Within this business structure, anyone can develop a business and considers social and environmental impact as central part objectives. It can bring wealth as well as empowerment to disadvantaged communities which may be otherwise suffering exclusion. Social enterprises are organisations that supply goods and services to communal economy sector. These comprise a collection of organisations that subsist between the traditionally private and public sectors and have a stronger association with the community and non-profit sector. This sector has a key function to take part in achieving many of its goals, including overcoming social injustice and exclusion. Fundamental ethos are most often used by social enterprise organisations themselves, emphasises following three general features: †¢ Enterprise oriented like any other business, social enterprise is capable of generating income from production of goods and services to a market. As far as viable trading concerns, they are also able to make surplus from their trading. †¢ Social aims they are driven forward by unambiguous social aims. They are capable of creating new employment opportunity, training skills development and provision of local public services. They are responsible to their members and the larger society to increase its effectiveness and financial sustainability with the ultimate goal of creating social, environmental and economic impact or change. †¢ Social ownership they are self-governing organisations with an authority and the ownership structures are based on participation by stakeholder groups for example users or clients and local community groups and by trustees. Profits or surplus are disseminated as profit sharing to stakeholders or are used for the benefit of the community. In the United Kingdom, social enterprises are gradually becoming a well-known sector of the local and national economy. The organisation which is operating in this sector is conscious about the most important factor that becoming sustainable businesses is the path to independence both financially and in mission. However, this emerging sector is struggling for further growth and eventually it leads to have impact negatively on their sustainability. Social Enterprise should be supported and encouraged to grow both as a sector and as individual organisations so that these will become more sustainable organisations. Purpose of the Study My paper has been developed to explore how the term social enterprise has acquired meaning in the United Kingdom and to demonstrate how practitioners, policymakers and academics influence each other in the development of new sustainable ideas, given that a lack of understanding of the role and significance of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of this business model. These challenges come in many forms. Some are the same as those affecting any other business including access to business support and finance, a lack of affordable premises and finding skilled staff. However, social enterprises also face one huge barrier that seriously affects their ability to assume a position within the market. That barrier is a lack of understanding of how social enterprises work and of their potential value. This lack of understanding exists across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. Often its been very difficult to secure contract and mainstream funding support as there are plenty of confusion surrounding the social enterprise business model. So my dissertation will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers could potentially be overcome in order to achieve sustainability. It examines critical incidents that have shaped the meaning of social enterprise in England and reflects on these incidents to draw conclusions about the future sustainable development of social enterprise practice. Through out this paper, I will also study the possible circumstances for the sustainable development of social enterprise. The purpose is to notify both policy-making and the wider argument about social enterprise: what its potential might be and how that potential can be realised in different settings. Structure of the Report: This research is divided into six chapters; the first chapter is an introduction with purpose of the study. In the second chapter, literature based review of definitions of social enterprise, roots of social enterprise, discussion relevant to the sustainability of social enterprise, the nature of their contribution and their sponsors and sources of funding. The third summarises the background information of social enterprise in the UK and the fourth and fifth chapter contain the methodology and the summary of the main findings of the study with implications for policy. Finally, the sixth chapter is giving the idea about possible areas that further research could be conducted with the limitations of the study of this research paper. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter will give an overview of literature and models that are related to the research problem presented in the previous chapter. This chapter will introduce the roots and concepts of social enterprise in order to give a clear idea about the research area. 2.1 Roots of social enterprise Scott specified (2006, p.50) mentioned â€Å"The roots of social enterprises and community enterprise overall can be found in the mutual, self help and co-operative sector which goes back, in the UK, at least to the Fenwick Weavers in Ayrshire 1769 and Dr William King of Brighton in the 1820s with earlier antecedents.† Local community based organisation played vital role within the development of this movement and empowering disadvantaged poor community to move forward labour market. Grass root social worker Harry Cowley campaigned between first and second world war for housing needs and employment opportunity for returning service people and capacity building support for small business. He also advocated â€Å"job creation† programme from the local public service authority for unemployed people and eventually had some success. 2.2 General Discussion on Social Enterprise Social Enterprises combine the requirement of successful businesses with communal aims. They seek to qualify as businesses by setting up a market share and making a profit and draw attention to the long-term benefits for employees, consumers and the community. Todays competitive business world stated that defining the social enterprise is a challenging task. According to OECD (1999, p.9) â€Å"there is no universal, commonly accepted definition of social enterprise.† On the other hand, the OECD (1999, p.10) has described social enterprise as: â€Å"any private activity conducted in the public interest, organised with an entrepreneurial strategy but whose main purpose is not the maximisation of profit but the accomplishment of certain economic and social goals, and which has a capacity of bringing innovative solutions to the problems of social exclusion and unemployment†. Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) mentioned in their article that social enterprises are organizations which are seeking business solutions to social crisis. These are needed to be distinguished from other socially-oriented organizations. These also need to take initiatives that can promote to communities but which are not seeking to be â€Å"businesses†. In this esteem, these latter organizations remain dependent on endowments and donations rather than build up true paying customers. According to DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6), social enterprise is such kind of business which reinvests its surpluses in the business or in the community rather than increases profit for shareholders or owners. Drucker (Gendron, 1996, p.37) argued that social entrepreneurs are those who altered the performance capacity of society but Henton et al. (1997, p.1) mentioned that ‘civic entrepreneurs are a new generation of leaders who built new, powerfully productive connections at the intersection of education, business, community and government. Somers (2005, p.46) stated â€Å"Social enterprise emphasise creating social and environmental value at all stages of their production process, as an intrinsic part of their identity†. Following Figure: 1 describes the production process of social enterprise. Laville and Nyssens (2001, p.325) argue that when the roots of social enterprises are based in reciprocity and in this way these are part of the third system, their force is based in their ability to valve into all three economic principles and systems. They are different from private and public enterprise. In terms of private enterprise they do not only maximize profit to benefit owners, they also develop market activities and generate profits. With the comparison to public enterprise, they are independent from direct control by public authorities but they benefit to a greater or lesser extent from public subsidy. In this way, they mobilize market relations to sell services or goods and use redistributive relations by utilizing government funding to finance their services. Their long-term sustainability depends on their ability to ‘continuously hybridise the three poles of the economy so as to serve the project. 2.3 Discussion Relevant to the Sustainability of Social Enterprise According to Asefa (2005, p.1), â€Å"Sustainable development is the concept of a relationship between economic growth and the environment. The term was first used in 1987 by the world Commission on Environment and Development .Although the term has been around for almost two decades, different interpretation have kept it from being a useful guide for development policy†. Bornstein (2004, p.3) mentioned that over the last decade there has been unprecedented growth of social enterprise world wide. This business model has been getting attention from both government and corporate sector though sustainability remains the major concern. According to 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, a survey was conducted of social entrepreneurship activity in the UK. These data suggested that latest ‘social activates are emerging at a faster rate than more conventional, commercial endeavours. Within local and global level there are three areas to focus on sustainability in business activity and they are environment, economy and community. (Harding and Cowling, 2004, p.5) Environment It ensures that business is engaged in the appropriate and careful use of limited supplies and the management of waste so that it will be able to minimize the negative and maximize the positive impact of human activity. Economy It ensures that business is financially viable and it engages in good employment practice. Finally it is beneficial to the whole economy. Social It ensures that business is overall of advantage to communities, their customs and does not cause danger to them. Schulyer (1998, p.3) described that social entrepreneurs are those who have a powerful visualization for social change and who have the strong financial resources to support their ideas. That means they should reveal all the abilities of conquering business people and a compelling aspiration for social change. On the other hand, Catford (1998, p.96) argued that â€Å"social entrepreneurswill only flourish if they are supported by the right environment, which will be created largely by governments together with the private sector†. 2.3.1Financial Sustainability Social Enterprise looks for surplus generation in order to achieve financial sustainability. This is a fundamental need to social enterprises. Emphasizing financial sustainability in addition to profit distribution becomes a way to account for all activities the organization engages in, including advocacy and in support of bono work. Sacrificing one cause and effect chain for another can have significant implications for both the quality of work and social enterprises financial sustainability. Whilst many may rely on combination of grant and trading income, ultimately, if an organisation is not financially sustainable, it cannot deliver its social and environmental impact. Fig3. Shows how the profit of social organisation is distributed to the organization itself and community. 2.4 Policy Reform and Good Governance DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6) describes the three key goals for government: creating an enabling environment, making social enterprises better businesses and establishing the value of social enterprise. Thompson et al. (2000, p.328) describe â€Å"people who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet, and who gather together the necessary resources (generally people, often volunteers, money and premises) and use these to ‘make a difference†. Brown and Murphy (2003, p.57) mentioned on Bank of England report that â€Å"Social enterprises, like all businesses, need access to a range of financial products appropriate to their activity and stage of development†. A HM Treasury report on Enterpriseand Social Exclusion (1999, p.108) came to the conclusion, arguing that social enterprise was â€Å"less understood and rarely promoted in a consistent way by the existing infrastructure for business support†. It is more constructive to judge and expand social enterprise capabilities rather than expertises and capacity building. The fact that social enterprises need to combine commercial objectives with social mission as well as internal governance means that a â€Å"capabilities approach† is more comprehensive. This is a useful way of recognising factors additional to individual skills that inter-play to determine the effectiveness and impact of a specific enterprise. It also moves away from limited considerations of a key person or group within the organisation, and their specific skills, towards a more holistic view of what the organisation is capable of doing, irrespective of the location of particular skills. Catford (1998, p.97) articulated the problems and gave one probable way out: â€Å"Traditional welfare-state approaches are in decline globally, and in response new ways of creating healthy and sustainable communities are required. This challenges our social, economic and political systems to respond with new, creative and effective environments that support and reward change. From the evidence available, current examples of social entrepreneurship offer exciting new ways of realizing the potential of individuals and communitiesinto the 21st century†. Academic writing about modern social entrepreneurship skills is relatively limited, compared to mainstream business or charities. The concept of ‘social enterprise has been quickly appearing in the public, private and non-profit sectors over the last few years. Todays increased competitive not for profit sector there is extensive needs for the improvement of organisation effectiveness and sustainability even though securing funding is harder to meet the criteria of funding body. There is a good opportunity to tap in to corporate social responsibility programme by utilising better communication and marketing strategy in order to tackle complex social problems. Chapter 3: Background Information of Social Enterprise This chapter will give the idea about the social enterprise in the UK along with the impact, barriers and access to finance. Social Enterprise in the UK The UK government has been at the front position of enabling and encouraging the increase of social enterprises as part of both welfare services delivery and community regeneration at the policy level. The impacts and influence of public, private, and citizen are empirically proven and exhibit that these conventional sectors of society are playing a part in re-evaluating the value creation opportunities offered by market (or quasi-market) mechanisms. DTI research suggested that there are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, and combined turnover of  £27billion per year. These social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees and the contribution to GDP is approximately  £8.4 billion, around 0.7% of the total economy. Cabinet Office mentioned on their website that in the year 2004-2005, the charity sector in the UK had a overall income of about  £27.6 billion which was raised over  £800 million from the previous year. It stand for about 2% of the UKs GDP. The data obtained from the Cabinet Office website in social sector showed that, 67% of them expected activity to grow in the next three years compare to 56% in the year 2003-2004 of third sector organisations reported an increase in activity in the previous year. Positive aspects of Social Enterprise: Social enterprise is a diverse activity and can contain a range of organisations working on different extents and at different stages of trading. They can work in commercial markets or in public services. Some work nationally, while others work at community level. They often work in the most deprived areas and work with the most underprivileged groups. Some organisations work only as a social enterprise while in other organisations social enterprise is often a part of their activity. It works in a number of key priority areas for the UK economy- these include: employment and training adult care services childcare and health transport financial enclosure recycling rural enhancement renewable energy and community regeneration According to Doherty and Thompson (2006, p.362) the common characteristics for a Social Enterprise are: They have a social rationale and yields and surpluses are not shared out to shareholders. Reinvested income can be utilized to provide training and improvement opportunities for workers. They use assets and capital to generate community benefit. It gives assurance that resources provide value for money where a public-sector agreement is essential for the activity. Members or employees can also take part in decision making. The SE model could make new structures of entrepreneurship and employment within a society. The enterprise is responsible to both its members and a wider community. Social enterprise can propose goods and services to its consumers in an elastic and inventive way. Often the market has failed or the private sector does not want to go in this area. The potential of earnings and returns stream could unleash organisations from the oppression of fundraising and grant applications. There is either a double or triple-bottom line concept. The assumption is that the most effective social enterprises show signs of healthy financial and social returns rather than high profits in one and lower profits in the other. Social Enterprise adopted enterprising solutions to deal with social and environmental issues following evidence of the beneficiaries of social enterprise activity is shown in Figure.3 (IFF, 2005). According to IFF (2005, p.28), a survey of social enterprises was conducted in 2004 for the Small Business Service (SBS), the UK Government, is showed on the following figure.4. It shows 19% beneficiaries were people with disabilities; 17% were children and young people; 15% were elderly; 12 % were people on low incomes and the unemployed. Social enterprise has been playing vital role to tackle these targeted disadvantaged group and moving forward them in the labour market, predominantly in poor areas with soaring levels of poverty and joblessness. Barriers of social enterprise According to UK Government, there are mainly four significant barriers to accessing appropriate business support and finance for social enterprises throughout the region. 1. Cultural barriers between those setting up social enterprises and mainstream business advisors. 2. Lack of transparency about where to access business support at the local level, largely due to the huge diversity of routes into starting up social enterprises. 3. Limited numbers of qualified technical specialists in key business advice areas where social enterprises require specialist support, for example on legal structure, potential investors or taxation. 4. Limited sources of affordable equity and loan finance of all sizes. Bank of England (2003, p.25), took the survey of Social enterprise and it stated that 32% of social enterprises mentioned the problems in obtaining external finance and 25% problems in getting grants as major barriers to expanding their trading activities. However, other problems are lack of qualified staff (14%); lack of appropriate premises (16%); and lack of cash flow (10%) Low (2006, p.381) cited in his journal according to the source of DTI â€Å"†¦often have boards of directors or trustees who come from a voluntary sector rather than a business background. This can lead to a lack of business focus and prevent social enterprise from truly reaching their potential† The Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success(2003, p.68) concluded that there is little hard substantiation to show the impact and added value of social enterprise. According to the report, the main reason is that social enterprises generate a variety of social and environmental impacts, beyond their financial return that are difficult to measure. Policy makers, business support providers and finance providers find it difficult to assess the value of targeting social enterprises or of including them in their activities due to lack of information on their social and environmental, as well as financial impact. Access to Finance The key factor in an enterprises development is access to appropriate sources of finance. Social enterprises have been rejected more for finance compared to the SMEs. In addition, a large minority of social enterprises perceive access to external finance as a major barrier to expansion, including some of those that have successfully accessed finance in the past. There is no clear reason to account for the higher rejection rates among social enterprises but possible contributory factors are: lack of obtainable security and private financial stake; use of organisational structures and grant funding streams with which lenders may be unfamiliar, and which may result in lengthy arrangement times; low levels of investment readiness among some social enterprises depends on some elements of credit and behavioural scoring and reputational risk to the lender. For example creating â€Å"venture philanthropy† organisation will ensure long term financing of charities infrastructure, proact ive management support and capacity building support. Dees (2004, p.18) mentioned that â€Å"Businesses fail all the time and many donor-dependent nonprofits have been around for many decades, even centuries. Social entrepreneurs look for the strategy, structure, and funding mechanisms that are most likely to ensure effective and efficient social performance given specific mission objectives and a particular operating environment†. Chapter 4: Methodology This chapter will present detailed idea about the research were conducted. This includes the research design, sample selection methods and data collection methods. At the end of this methodology part validity and reliability issues will be discussed to follow the quality standards of the research. 4.1 Research Design The present study endeavoured to explore the sustainability of social enterprise for the development of the UK. Exploratory research is selected as research design as little information exists about the social enterprise of the UK. The aim of exploratory research is mainly to gain enough information before doing more thorough research. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.21) mentioned that we basically start by gathering as much information about the object as possible and with a vague impression of what we should study. Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening, to seek new insight, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light. It is particularly useful if researcher wish to clarify the understanding of a problem. According to Saunders et.al. (2003, p.360), there are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research and these are: a search of the literature, talking to experts in the subject, conducting focus group interviews. Qualitative interviews would be best in achieving and addressing the questions that I am looking forward to address in this dissertation paper. The research requires data that is both rich and varied as I am keen to extract the opinions and insight about practices, insights and expectations of leaders and beneficiaries in the social sector. Adopting this methodology, I will extract this data without limiting the responses of the respondents; I am mostly interested in their innate insights, opinions and organisational beliefs. Anastas (1988, p.19) mentioned that when there are the cases of sensitive subject issue and difficult decision-making procedures, individual in-depth interviews give a far more valuable tool and create a situation where participants would be likely to speak more explicitly and freely. According to Sokolow (1985, p.28) , there are several other advantages of one-to-one in-depth interviewing which include the support of individual thought, respondent thoughtfulness to questions and the offering the capability of the interviewer to sense non-verbal opinion. 4.2 Sampling Cooper and Schindler, (2003, p.44) stated in their book that selecting some of the elements in a population is the fundamental idea of sampling and researcher may draw conclusions about the entire population. There are a number of convincing reasons for sampling, including: lower cost, greater correctness of result, greater speed of data collection and accessibility of population selection. The sample would be randomly selected nationally from Social Enterprise and are actively fund raising. It is easier to make some comparison and a fairer analysis of the data because the similar size of organizations most likely to follow related trends and they are also affected by the same factors. Due to the complexity of the sector, the samples would be drawn from the wider UK region; this is to widen the organisation from which to select the qualifying sample. 4.3 Data Collection The major form of data collection was based on the semi-structured interview process with senior managers, policy officer and research development officer of the 7 selected Social enterprises operating in the UK. The interviews were designed to gain an understanding of Social Enterprises potential sustainability issues and further research needed to achieve sustainability. Therefore, interview procedures needed semi-structured interview process which is relatively informal; relaxed discussion based around a predetermined topic. Whilst conducting a semi-structured interview first of all I provided the background information regards to the research programme and its objectives to the interviewee. My interviews questions are based on open question where the interviewees had the opportunity to express opinions through its discussion. To keep momentum of discussion with the interview it is important to prepare easy to understand approach when building question with a logical sequence. In terview questions were tested among prior to interviews. Semi-structured interview was highlighted by Leech (2002, p.665) as â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦one that can provide detail, depth and insiders perspective, while at the same time allowing hypothesis testing and the quantitative analysis of interview responses†. For collecting secondary data participant social Enterprises annual report, various books, websites, newspapers, annual reports, monthly reviews and significant articles were chosen. Also for collection of primary data in-depth interviews with a range of designated professional, related to this field, were taken. I contacted with Business Links and DTI to obtain the list of social enterprise operating in the UK. 4.3.1. Validity Saunders et. al. (2003, p. 109) emphasised validity is concerned with whether the findings are really about what they appear to be about. Validity defined as the extent to which data collection method or methods accurately measure what they were intended to measure. Cooper Schindler (2003, p.71) believe that validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to measure. There are two major forms: external and internal validity. The external validity of research findings refers to the datas ability to be generalized across persons, settings, and times. Internal validity is the ability of a research instrument to measure what is purposed to measure. To ensure the validity of the study numbers of different steps were taken: †¢Data was collected from the reliable sources, from respondents who are more experienced senior management position within Social Enterprise; †¢Survey question were made based on literature review and frame of reference to ensure the validity of the result; †¢Questionnaire has been pre-tested by the responded before starting the survey. Questionnaire was tested by at least ten persons; †¢Data has been collected through four weeks, within this short period of time no major event has been changed with the related topic. 4.3.2 Reliability: To ensure the reliability of the study numbers of different steps were taken: In order that responders could concentrate more on each question questionnaire was divided into three parts; The Ground Theory that has been selected for the study was clearly described and research question has been formulated based on the previous theory. Data has been collected based on the frame of reference that was drawn from the discussed theories. The objective is to make sure t

Traditional Personnel Management and Modern HRM

Traditional Personnel Management and Modern HRM As the first step it is necessary to identify the difference between two functions with correct definition as follows; Personnel Management  Ã‚  this is a administrative function conducting operational level to maintain records. This is mainly conducting fair terms in general to manage the employees working as organization with proper records on individual departments. The ultimate purpose is to get organizational success efficient employees management. Human Resource Management  Ã‚  this is a modern practice of develop and implement personnel strategies to achieve corporate objectives of the organization. This is not just a management function and doing an additional strategic role. Mainly consider to maintain and develop the organizational culture, values, set objectives, good structure, motivation and perfect direction to achieve HRM objectives. (137410-difference-between-human-resource-development-traditional-personnel-management.html, 2010) Even though the concept has been changed still HRM is performing previous functional activities of the personnel management in advanced way such as job analysis, HR Planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, training and etc. Main Differences between Personnel Management and HRM Personnel Management Human Resource Management Highly considering the workforce (employees) of the organization such as recruiting, training, payments, explain the job responsibilities and drive them to functional activities. This is a resource oriented approach. Mainly focus the management function and drive the employees to the strategically / corporate objectives. It is properly organized approach. Not clear about the objectives of the management. Only target to achieve functional objectives such as daily performance to measure a person. This is a forecasting of the organizational requirement. Continuously measure and monitoring performance of the employees and take immediate actions to adjust the operation to reach objectives. This is basically an operational function which is focussing daily minor activities of the employees. HRM is  strategic  function with lot of responsibilities to continue the process throughout the entire process. This is maintaining and administrative activity to adjust the people in to right track. HRM is more  proactive develop people to be more accurate, innovative, effective and efficient in their responsibilities. Role of a HR Director In each and every modern organization there should be a person to look after employees with modern Human Resource Management functions. Generally Human Resource Manager is responsible for this activity. If the organization is having large number of employees need several defined layers as this organization. Many studies indicate that teams, and organisations, are at their most successful when people are emotionally engaged and believe in what the team as well as organisation is looking to achieve. As such it is crucial a team development and talent management plan is put together to ensure the high performance and cohesiveness of the new teams put in place and perhaps more importantly, gain the employees buy into the plan is the major responsibility. A key role in delivering this is the HR Directors role. The role is primarily to create value for the customers, the organisation, their team as well as other stakeholders within the company. The HR Director is also responsible for maintaining sales and safeguarding the brand from competition and other influential factors by creating customer oriented staff. 1.3 Line Managers Role All line managers have to play a vital role in Human Resource Management. As a result it is essential that team members are clearly briefed about the objectives that need to be achieved and met, what needs to be done, by whom, why, when and how to do them. The extent to which these need to be stressed by the line manager depends on the people that are involved in the work, the work context and the nature of the particular task. In instances where team members are delegated certain responsibilities, the managers need not brief them in great detail and entrust them to work independently as they see fit. It is anticipated that the majority of the current employees of the LOCOG team will continue within the new public private partnership. It is therefore considered that these employees should be transferred to their new employer under the same terms and conditions that they currently enjoy. An employee who is unwilling to accept such a transfer should be allowed to make that decision. The following objectives have been set in order to facilitate the development of the teams within the newly structured organisation and this is the main responsibility of each and every line manager. Increase the skills, knowledge and capabilities of the team members based on their job specifications and responsibilities. Increase the cohesiveness and coordination between team members and increase the level of transparency and communication. 2. Recruitment and Selection Process 2.1 HR Planning process for the London 2012 Olympics Initially need to do situational analysis about the current situation and future expectation. An analysis of the current skill levels, knowledge, capabilities, cohesiveness and performance level of the marketing team members are examined and evaluated as the first step to identify where they stand within the current organisation. From the analysis the following capabilities have been identified: LOCOG regularly funds staff training relevant to their areas of work/expertise. Strong emphasis to recruit people within LOCOG. Majority of employees have working experience for several years. Strong functional skills across trading, marketing, supply, operations, web, systems and finance teams. Limited horizontal movement between functions with staff employed to fulfil specific roles. Limited integration between departments due to isolation of skill sets. When looking to develop a team it is important to remember that the context in which a team operates will affect how the team performs and the relationship that develops as a result. People implement organisational strategies within the context of organisational structures and to fully understand how strategy may be implemented effectively it is important to consider management teams and team management within the new organisation. Belbin (2004) has identified nine important team roles and assigned individuals to these roles based on established personality theories. Each of these roles can be separated into three areas; action orientated roles, people orientated roles and task orientated roles. It is crucial to consider which areas people within the current organisation fall into when looking to form teams within the new organisation. Due to the current management approach employed within LOCOG the majority of employees will fall between action and people orientated roles. Having identified the roles necessary for a successful team to function it is also important to consider the various stages that will take place after the formation to the team. According to Tuckman there are five stages of group development that team performance goes through over a period of time; Forming (where the team members get together and the team is initiated), Storming (where the team members ideas and perspectives compete with each other), Norming (where group harmony increases), Performing (where the group starts working well with each other) and Adjourning (where the task is completed and the team is dispersed). Two factors the new organisation will need to focus on are the resolution of interpersonal relationships and of task activities to ensure the cohesiveness and high performance of the teams through the various stages mentioned. 2.2 Importance of a Structured HR planning process The implementation of a new structured HR Planning process in order to revise the role of marketing is a very significant change in culture for both the public and private sector. It will and can only work to the greatest effect if all marketing and promotional activity in the Island is either under direct control or can, to a great extent, be influenced by the new organisation. The new organisation must be a real partnership if it is going to be successful. This makes it imperative that private sector members, who will be making a contribution to the annual budget, are given a significant role to play in partnership with EDD who would continue to be the major source of funding. Throughout the organization, from its Board through to employees and members, individuals will need to subscribe to the partnership ethos and be empowered to adopt a commercial approach to marketing and promoting LOCOG as a best games hut to entertain participants from all around the world. 2.3 Selection and Retaining Methods Segmentation LOCOG need to segment the internal customers in order to define their buyer characteristics and their adoption mentality. Interview method is only one selection method of the LOCOG. But it is necessary to retain all these existing staff by motivating and creating skill full and talented staff. LOCOG is a special even and it is necessary to create suitable mind set of all employees. Criteria Employee Type Employee Type Manager Supervisor Front Line Support Staff Employee numbers 10 50 500 5,000 Buyer Characteristic DMU Adopter Adopter Adopter Location H/O based H/O and field based H/O and field based H/O based Customer Contact Influencer Contractor Contractor Isolated/Modifier Business Division All Departments Sales and Marketing Sales, Marketing, Customer service HR, Finance, production, distribution Access to communication channel High High High High Mentality Support Neutral Oppose Oppose Targeting The internal customers within the identified segments can be characterised under supporters, neutrals and opposes. Supporters will fully adopt the new changes within the organisation and embrace. The neutral employee has a central stance with regard change, and information on the short and long term benefits to themselves and the organisation will adopt and adapt to change. Oppose is fundamentally opposed to change and has a traditional approach to the organisations environment. Adoption mentality Internal Customer Supporter Manager Supervisor Front Line Support Staff Neutral Manager Supervisor Front Line Support Staff Opposes Manager Supervisor Front Line Support Staff It is important for LOCOG to target the supporters within the management segment first with the internal marketing plan. These individuals are responsive to change and quick to adapt and adopt new strategies. Their personal ownership of the new internal objectives will have a positive multiplier effect when member of the decision making unit adapt to the new changes. It is important to label the managers as opinion leaders within the business and therefore employees at the lower levels of the hierarchy such as the front line and support staff segments are influenced by management. In addition within each segment of managers, supervisors, front line and support staff there will be supporters, neutrals and opposers. We will therefore target the benefits of the internal marketing plan first on the supporters of change in each segment once the supportive managers have adopted the new innovative changes. Smith and Nephew will then follow a structured internal communication plan to target the neutral and opposers with each segment. Positioning The new internal marketing plan for LOCOG will be positioned to the customer in a customer orientation framework, focusing on the needs of the customer and the benefits the new plan can offer them. This will be conducted in a SIVA (solution, information, value, access) approach to customer orientation. This mix of benefits relayed to the workforce through internal communication will motivate staff and lead to adoption of strategies and adaption into wok processes. 2.4 Legal Process in basic Selection Process Within Government l legal legislation there is sometimes a conflict between the needs and wants of the employees, and therefore the role of HR and political and policy decision making. Not all decisions made by government are popular e.g. the research evidence into the benefits of minimum wages suggested an unpopular cause of action. This external conflict of public opinion and policy making can be alleviated in part through marketing, predicting and mitigating risk as well as targeting communications around insights. Each and every European country is having separate or similar labour legislation and judicial enforcement. This has been adjusted according to the social patterns and democracy of the country. UK operates a highly liberal labour market compared to other countries. This legislation standards with the minimum of legislative intervention and administrative red tape. Employment rights have taken shape around the common law of contract and onto this central pillar have been bolted a number of statutory constraints in such spheres as working time, maternity, union rights and minimum pay. The UK does not have a written constitution and its court system has grown in a rather piecemeal way. However, specialist employment tribunals are empowered to hear almost all individual disputes and they are an integrated element in the civil court structure. Official guidance on maternity provisions  (pdf) Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Employment Rights Act 1996 Protection From Harassment Act 1997 National Minimum Wage Act 1998 Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 Data Protection Act 1998 Employment Rights (Disputes Resolution) Act 1998 Human Rights Act 1998 The Employment Relations Act 1999 Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 3312 Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 3323 (natlaw.html) 3. Principles and procedures for monitoring and rewarding employees 3.1 London 2010 Projects job evaluation process Target Measured Performance Monthly Departmental Meeting Attendance Monthly Completion of training Monthly Developmental Objectives Mid and Year End Internal Marketing Awareness Monthly Motivation Survey Quarterly Talent Development Yearly In order to achieve the planned team and talent development of member of the LOCOG the above key performance indicators need to be measured on an agreed time scale that is both realistic and achievable for LOCOG the individual. Feedback In order to ensure employee motivation and job satisfaction, individuals will be required to complete a motivational questionnaire and survey on job satisfaction. This will initially be on a quarterly basis. As motivation and job satisfaction are directly linked to performance and retention this is an essential control mechanism for the success of the development plan. Performance The performance of the marketing department will be monitored against both marketing output such as the number and type of marketing communications will customers as well as against the overall sales of smith and nephew. Absenteeism and staff retention This will be closely measured against the previous year figures absenteeism and staff turnover and its success is associated with all other aspects of the development plan. A failure to reduce the factors will result in the evaluation of all other aspects of the development plan. Talent development plan This will be measure on the number of successful applicants filling internal vacancies within LOCOG upon completing the internal and external training of new skills and knowledge. 3.2 Reward systems and Impact on Employees Performance The HR Manager has a core role in monitoring and controlling the implementation of the plan and is supported by effective managing information systems. This rewording system plan also requires extensive cross functional communication and relies on a collaborative rather than competitive approach to resources. The more cross functional interaction, the more realistic the costs and the better the final external communications. Budgeting sets out a plan and clear goal that improves coordination and motivation through good rewording system. It also enables control functions to be established to ensure a systematic and agreed plan is fulfilled. Currently the HR budget is allocated top down, with HR being allocated an overall financial sum by policy functions based on overall affordability, influenced to a degree by historical spend. However, the recommendation going forward would be to have a bottom up planning and control approach once overarching objectives have been agreed with policy colleagues. Whilst a top down approach based on profit or effectiveness would be desirable for rewording system, the complexities of proving the contribution of marketing to road casualty reduction is challenging A bottom up approach would reflect marketing industry standard and enable the whole team to be involved in the budgeting process. It would also encourage efficiencies and value for money with less pressure to spend the allocated budget without the risk that this would have implications on the following years allocation. Agreeing a longer term strategy would be beneficial to gain greater stability and certainty of marketing budgets over a period of several years. With a focus on reducing overall communication spend across Whitehall competitive parity will be more evident than in previous years. Rather than competing for share of voice with other Government Departments overall spend will be down and any larger budgets will be under significant scrutiny. 3.3 Monitoring Performance Following Demings control cycle will ensure that the implementation of the plan is effectively monitored against targets with action taken to address and issues. As well as providing a framework for control and monitoring, adopting a quality model also encourages a quality mindset in the team which will improve outputs for both internal and external customers. The model will also set a standard and provide clarity for the internal customer base who have not historically worked with the marketing function. The balance scorecard approach can also be used to monitor outputs across the four key areas of financial performance, internal processes, innovation and learning and customers. Within each area goals, measures, limitations and frequency for review are identified. Examples of measures include: Increase in profits via more targeted/relevant communications Actual against forecast variance Meetings and events attended KPIS meet on service delivery Number of complaints Effectiveness of communications e.g. intranet page views Staff turnover Staff satisfaction Objectives and training and development plans in place Innovation against benchmark Customer satisfaction Customer retention Customer acquisition Performance benchmarking against other Departments Contingency planning should also be carried out given the limitations of marketing operating in this new way and in new environments. There are some influences on the effectiveness of this plan that we are unable to control, these should be identified and included within the risk analysis. Due to the significance and implications of decisions made by the Department, it is culturally very risk averse. This risk adverse culture must therefore be reflected in the planning and implementation of this programme of work. 4. Exit from the Organisation 4.1 Exit Procedures Employee Redundant However, where this occurs, such an employee should be considered to have voluntarily terminated his contract rather than transferring it and he would not, therefore, have title to any redundancy terms provided by the LOCOG after the event. Where, however, there are no equivalent roles for a LOCOG employee in the new public private partnership or where there are significant differences between the role that an employee currently undertakes and other roles that remain vacant within the newly created public private partnership, it would be inappropriate for the LOCOG to require that person to transfer. In these circumstances, the States should offer alternative suitable employment for those employees within the public sector or agree mutually acceptable redundancy terms. Clearly, it would not be fair and responsible to force employees into roles for which they are not suited, nor would it be sensible to place the success of the new public private partnership in jeopardy if such people were placed into roles for which they did not possess the relevant knowledge, skills and experience. An additional safeguard that will be provided to any employee who has transferred to the new public private partnership and which has been provided to other employees in similar circumstances is that these people will be circulated with all vacancies that arise within the public sector and would be able to apply for any such vacancies for a period of a year following their transfer. If they were to make a job application then they would be treated by the LOCOG as if they were a States employee, which would mean that they would have to undertake any of the recruitment processes that are applied on such occasions to internal applicants.