Female Correctional Officers

Female Correctional Officers Jordan Beth Stevenson Introduction to Corrections October 25, 2012 Saeler Abstract This research paper consists of brief history of how female correctional officers came to be in the system and the court cases that hindered and helped their process. It also consists of the stereotypes and struggles the officers are faced with in this line of work; such as weaknesses and home life association. Sexual harassment and discrimination is a problematic topic that is unavoidable. Statistics will also be mentioned and explained throughout the paper.Being a female correctional officer is extremely difficult and is not encouraged, but it is possible. Female Correctional Officers Women have been involved in the criminal justice system since the beginning. Females have been trying to work side by side with men in every aspect of finding and controlling justice in society. However, women have not been able to work in all of the areas of the system. The correctional off icers of prisons are extremely necessary aspects since the Walnut Street jail in the criminal justice system, yet only men were able to fill that position until the 1970s.Going through the history of how women came to be able to work as correctional officers will give an insight of the challenges and struggles they went through and still fight today due to the stigma of being a woman. The stereotypes that follow female officers cause hiring and retaining issues amongst the work ethic and daily activities of the officers. Overcoming these problems had been a difficult task and still is being tackled in institutions today. Discriminations are also a problem, especially from the male coworkers.Women face possibility of sexual harassment everywhere they go. Working in a male offender facility increases those possibilities. Dealing with the differences between males and females as well as competing for the same position as a man causes tension in the workplace and in society. All of thes e aspects are large parts of the career for female correctional officers. History Women have been in the correctional system since the early 1930s working in the administrative department and as secretary-like positions.The idea of a woman doing more than just paperwork was unheard of and it was looked down upon when a woman tried to excel in anything more. In 1977 though, the U. S. Supreme Court heard a case that forced them to address the issue of women in the correctional system as a working officer. The case of Dothard v. Rawlinson stated that a woman was denied a position as a correctional officer at a male institution in Alabama. It stated she was denied the position because of the conditions of the prison and the predatory nature of the male inmates (Seiter, 2011, p. 406).Women were not seen as equals to men, especially in this department. After this case was publicized, organizations began forming in order to change the law so women could hold the positions they wanted and d eserved. The Public Service Employment Act had only hired men to work in male facilities and women to only work in female facilities. In 1977, The Public Service Commission announced that they were going to review the justification for the restriction and try to overturn it. The commission wanted to have the opportunity for all candidates to be equal in being hired.Certain human right acts also tried to help gain equality by auditing some government agencies to assure there was no discrimination. The Employment Equity Act was formed to enforce compliance for the employment standards (â€Å"Women Correctional Officers,† 2012). With this act, women were able to fight back against the department for the chance to be hired as equals to men. In 1979, a case was presented to the U. S. District Court of Iowa, Gunther v. Iowa, which stated that inmate privacy was not a valid reason to not hire women for the positions of correctional officers (Seiter, 2011, p. 06). When this case was determined, it forced all facilities to consider all candidates for the correctional officer positions. And, if they refused to still not hire females simply because of their gender, they could face being sued and having a bad reputation. It was problematic for most institutions at the time because there was a strong stigma against women, claiming they were not able to perform as well as men. Although women are statistically proven to not be as physically strong as men, it is not proven that they are not as good of workers as men.This logic was flawed and deservingly overturned. Stereotypes and Discriminations Women have stereotypes in every aspect of life. Stereotypes sometimes have a dominating affect on the hiring process and retaining the position. Although credentials and producing good work during your hours is what should count, it does not always take prevalence. It is proven that men are physically stronger than women. That does mean that women do not know how to fight or p rotect themselves. Women are trained the same as men in order to become a correctional officer.According to MacDonald (2012), the fact that women go through a menstrual cycle and have PMS can play a role towards their ‘weaknesses’ of being a woman. Many employers see this as a weakness and that it leaves a window of weakness during that time of the month due to the typical symptoms of a menstrual cycle and PMS. Symptoms such as fatigue, headaches or migraines, menstrual cramps, aggressive behavior and mood swings are the mentioned ones. What is not mentioned is that only 30 to 40 percent of women have PMS (Premenstrual syndrome facts, 2001).So putting this stereotype on all women is statistically wrong. Not only are aspects of every woman seen as weaknesses, but there are a few extreme females who make a title against all other women harder to stand by. A woman who plays the ‘poor helpless female’ or uses the fact that they are good looking to their advanta ge has a ripple effect in opinion of all women. If a male employer falls for the act and then the female employee is not an efficient worker; he stereotypes all women to be like that one bad employee. Women also get the stereotype of being promiscuous, especially if they are attractive.If a romance were to form at work, if a coworker hears of how you act with a boyfriend, or if she is single and flirts with one male coworker, it could get manipulated into that woman being a ‘slut’. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work to eliminate that stigma. All of these features are signs of weakness to the men they work with (MacDonald, 2012). Women can be and are as professional as men can be. In fact, it is more likely for a man to be promiscuous because the hormone in which cause sexual arousal is testosterone. Men naturally produce 4 to 7 milligrams of testosterone a day.Women produce only a tenth of that daily (Kryger, 2011). So, the overall biological sex drive is much higher in male then females. On the other hand, there are the unattractive or just want to do their job and not be social, they are labeled to be a lesbian most of the time. Female correctional officers also struggle with having balancing a home life while working the long and sometime odd hours of a correctional officer. Women are reprimanded for not being more involved with their children or families lives because of the mentality the older generation still has of the women should be a stay at home mother (MacDonald, 2012).Sexual Harassment Female Correctional Officers are faced on a daily basis with the possibility of sexual harassment. When working in a male facility, women are in very close quarters with sexually deprived offenders, including sexual offenders. The sexual tension among the men is going to be high but when a woman is mixed into the tension, the situation could easily escalate. There are three main models of sexual harassment that have been found in male prisons a gainst female officers. The first model is the natural-biological model.It is best explained as harassment that is not harmful but rather brought out simply by natural sexual attraction. Just by placing female correctional officers in the facility increases this type of harassment. The next model is the sociocultural model and is power driven. Men typically feel as they are better and stronger than women both mentally and physically. So, the differences between genders in any workplace could bring out this type of harassment. The last type is the organizational model. This model is best explained by the hierarchical relations.By having a woman in power, such as a correctional officer, the male in a less powerful position want to be in power so they try to use sex to bring the female down to their level or lower. It is a manipulative attempt (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). All three of these types of sexual harassment are unacceptable and instead of offering more readily availa ble programs to help sexual offenders, the solution is to take the women out of the correctional facilities. The question then lies; what happens to the women on the streets or in the homes of the offenders once they are released from prison?The inmates can find several ways to harass the female officers from simply calling them names like â€Å"sexy†, among other names on much worse levels, to actually masturbating and ejaculating on to the officers as they walk by. Some inmates will act ill or as if they are in trouble to lure the officers into or close to the cell for a chance to grab at the officer in a sexual manner (Monthly law journal, 2010). Even though the name calling seems minor and almost unimportant compared to physically being harassed in some way, both actions take a toll on the mentality of the officer.The mentality strength of both men and women are about equal. This says that if a man in a female facility were to undergo similar harassment, they too would fe el the mental stress and damage being done. Yet, men are still in female prisons and have been since the first female institution was established. Statistics Female correctional officers make up 22. 3% of all employees in the department in the United States (Ronquillo, 2008). Female correctional officers are typically single, either never married or divorced.The stress on both the woman and the spouse is higher than most careers due to the high risk of the job. It has also been shown that women are more likely to have attained a higher education than males (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). With more education, it opposes a larger threat on the males working along their sides because they could more easily get a better position or be promoted. A higher education also gives an advantage as to adaptation and flexibility to a variety of different careers, including moving up from a correctional officer to a warden.Females also tend to view their job differently than men. Women are l ikely to choose a corrections position with the interest in human service or rehabilitation, whereas men primarily will seek the career of law enforcement or other security aspect (Savicki, Cooley and Gjesvold, 2003). The mindset of women, although different from most men, is still fitting for the position of correctional officer. Conclusion For women living in and trying to compete in a male dominated world seems impossible.Female correctional officers have many difficulties and challenges to overcome by not only the inmates, but by their coworkers and administrative personnel. It was a struggle to initiate being in the field of corrections and it is still a struggle today to get a position and retain that position. Stereotypes, sexual harassment and the severity of the job alone are factors a female correctional officer has to conquer. To keep the position they have to fight harder than men. It is not an easy career to maintain but that makes it even more rewarding when one does s ucceed. References 2001). Premenstrual syndrome facts, disease nutritional support strategies. Retrieved from http://www. healingwithnutrition. com/pdisease/pms/pms. html Kryger, D. (2011, February 13). Women and testosterone. Retrieved from http://www. wellnessmd. com/index. php? option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=106 MacDonald, J. (2012). Women in corrections. Retrieved from http://desertwaters. com/? page_id=733 Monthly law journal article: Civil liability for sexual harassment of female employees by prisoners. (2010). Retrieved from http://www. aele. org/law/Digests/jail137. htm

The Narrative of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer of an expedition from Spain was shipwrecked and was ultimately forced to trek several miles by natives of Hernan Cortes. Cabeza de Vaca survived by learning the language of the natives and serving them as their physician. After eight years of living with them, he imbibed the culture of the native people in the area, developed an affinity with them such that his rescue from them was not quite a welcome treat for him.He and his 600 men meandered along the interior of New Spain but they ended up to only 4 men on the journey. This compassion for the natives is quite interesting as we see how he changed his ways and some beliefs about. There are many answers to this question. Some say that maybe De Vaca truly began to respect the natives’ ways. But in the context of the work, I believe this is nothing more than an extended case of Stockholm syndrome.It shows more the changes that he experienced with the natives over the course of his years in America s uch that he has been smitten by the natives (Societal Stockholm Syndrome). What is Stockholm Syndrome? This term was used during the early 70s to denote the different reactions of bank employees to the people who hostaged them. This happened when three women and one man was hostaged in one of the largest banks in Stockholm. Instead of completely resisting these ex-convicts, the captives even resisted the government’s efforts to rescue them.They had developed an affinity with the men. It may seem puzzling at first, but when one looks at this to explain what Cabeza de Vaca experienced with the natives, one can readily say that it was largely due to the fact that the Cabeza had developed compassion to the natives who also showed him kindness while they kept him prisoner (Societal Stockholm Syndrome). In sharing of himself and what he knows as a physician, his giving was also his receiving. At such time, giving is its own reward.He was with the natives at those times in a way he will never forget, even if they were to meet again after being separated. Sharing with love and caring comes when one gives freely of himself and what he has, and one reciprocates the kindness. This is gleaned all over his writings as illustrated in one of the Chapters where he recounts. â€Å"Then, supporting us under our arms, they hurried us from one to another of the four big fires they had built along the path.At each fire, when we regained a little warmth and strength, they took us on so swiftly our feet hardly touched ground. † (Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America). This seemed like being pampered guests instead of being captives. In any relationship, there are things one appreciates. If the relationship has much depth, such as what transpired in the narratives of Cabeza de Vaca, then, it was but natural for the Cabeza to be so involved with the activities of the natives. Telling them of his fears is as much a gift as telling them of h is appreciations.Sharing these feelings opened up the natives’ innate inclination toward elasticity and trust. Genuine concern for the welfare of the people in one’s life never takes the form of violence towards them as lived by the Cabeza. He did not use violence to gain his own ends and he even convinced himself that â€Å"it’s good for them† as when the natives initially became oppressive. It is difficult for one to acknowledge acts of violence and oppression for they are statements of one’s own feelings of incompetence.Perhaps the Cabeza knew that violence ultimately leads, in most cases, to results just the opposite of those it was intended to produce.REFERENCES Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. Translated by Cyclone Covey. Retrieved May 29, 2007 at: http://www. ibiblio. org/eldritch/cdv/rel. htm#c19Castaway: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cageza de Vaca. University of California Press. September 23, 1993. So cietal Stockholm Syndrome. Retrieved May 29, 2007 at: http://web2. iadfw. net/ktrig246/out_of_cave/sss. html

Does America Want an Unmotivated Society Essay

I. Introduction Marijuana is the name given in the United States to the drug produced from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. The use of cannabis derivatives under such names as hashish, charas, bhang, and ganja is widespread throughout the world. The most active ingredient of the plant derivative is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The potency of this chemical is indicated by the fact that the average street sample of marijuana contains less than .5% THC. Some samples are considerably higher in THC content; thus, effects from the drug vary according to its quality, meaning its THC content. The flowering parts of the plant contain the greatest amounts of THC (Goode 567). These are usually dried and smoked, but they may be made into a drink somewhat like tea or blended into various cooking recipes. Somehow, marijuana has been used for some medications but it is not a valid ground to legalize it because it has negative effects to human bodies. Moreover, marijuana is still illegal in most places. Under federal law a person can be sentenced to up to one year in jail or a $5000 fine, or both, for simple possession of marijuana. Every year about 400,000 people are arrested for possession; about 80 percent are under age 26. Marijuana is being used as legal medical therapy for several conditions. Careful studies have shown that it is effective in treating severe nausea in cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy. Older patients seem to respond less than younger patients do and complain more about side effects, including feeling â€Å"stoned.† The purpose of this present study is to scrutinize whether marijuana should be legalized or not. It will also tackle how marijuana will greatly affect the individuals that our country needs most, like the workforce or the man- power. II. Background Marijuana has been used for thousands of years, both as a medicine and for its intoxicating effects. In the form of tablets, marijuana is frequently prescribed to relieve the nausea and vomiting that often accompany chemotherapy. Its non-medical use, however, is illegal in the United States and most other countries. The penalties for possessing or using marijuana are, in many states, as severe as those imposed for the possession or use of much more potent drugs. Many argue that marijuana is no more harmful than cigarettes and liquor and should be legalized. Most marijuana used in United States is smoked—either as cigarettes or in pipes. Its effects vary with its strength, and to a great extent with the state of mind of the user (Earleywine 149). Typically, a sense of well being is experienced. In large countries, marijuana is considered as hallucinogen—a drug that produces hallucinations. Although marijuana does not produce a physical dependence in the user, there is evidence that it can produce psychological dependence. Research indicates that marijuana has serious effects on the body. It can impair memory, speech, and learning. It exposes the lungs to high levels of tar and to over 150 other chemicals. Many of these can irritate the lining of the lungs, causing inflammation and bronchitis in some cases. Marijuana decreases the production of male and female sex hormones and may cause infertility n some individuals. Pregnant women should refrain from smoking marijuana since it can cross the placenta and affect the fetus (Earleywine 150). Some authorities believe that the heavy use of marijuana may harm the body’s immune system by impairing the development of monocytes, cells that stimulate antibody production and kill foreign cells. Although no direct cause-and-effect link between found, a person who consistently uses marijuana may be likely to abuse other, stronger drugs. The use of marijuana can be dangerous to a person taking part in any activity in which quick reflexes and clear thinking are necessary (Goode 575). III. Discussion A. Effects of Marijuana Many perceptual and emotional effects follow marijuana smoking. Sensory experience may become more intense; smells are richer, textures feel more sensuous, objects are seen as more beautiful, sounds are more brilliant, and ideas flow more freely, although they may be disjointed. The person may experience an emotional high in which he or she feels joyful, tranquil, and happy. The effects of marijuana, however, are like those of other drugs; they very much depend on the person and the setting. Taken in a pleasant, relaxed social situation, marijuana can be quite unpleasant (Earleywine 123). Also, people who are naturally paranoid, suspicious, or aggressive may become more so under the influence of marijuana; the calm, better-adjusted users are more apt to experience a euphoric high. Moreover, most people use marijuana for the altered states it produces. These states are a little easier to control than those produced by other hallucinogenic drugs, unless the dosage is very high. At low to moderate dosages, hallucinations are not present. Instead, the person typically reports of calmness, increased sensory awareness, changes in space and time, and increased appetite, often with a craving for sweets. At higher dosages, the person may experience thought disturbances, rapid emotional changes, a loss of attention, and a sense of panic. Marijuana has been one of the most researched drugs in the history of pharmacology, and there is still considerable disagreement about its short-term and long-term effects (Belenko 34). It was made an illicit drug in the United States, and many states have established harsh penalties for those convicted of possession of even small amounts. In the recent years, there has been a move toward decriminalization of marijuana. Although this policy would not legalize the drug, it would establish more appropriate punishments, for example, fines instead of imprisonment for possession of small amounts for personal use (Belenko 66). The growing consensus of research on marijuana would suggest that it is not a safe drug. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any drug taken frequently by choice is advisable. Many researchers have concluded that smoking marijuana is no more dangerous, and perhaps even less so, than smoking cigarettes or using alcohol. The issue, though, is frequency of use. The literature on chronic users of marijuana—that is, people who use it a lot and over a long period of time—suggests rather strongly that there are serious deficits in some cognitive abilities such as memory. In addition, heavier users experience some undesirable personality changes, problems with sleep, deficits in psychomotor abilities such as driving, and changes in motivational levels that produce apathy and a lack of striving for achievement. Finally, there are a number of factors that influence the effect of a particular drug (Earleywine 145). There are factors associated with the drug, including its purity and the method of its purity and the method of its administration. Subject variables that are important include body weight, metabolic rate, whether or not the person has eaten, general state of health, and previous experience with the drug. In trying to predict how any one person will react to a drug, these factors, and many others, must be taken into account. But there is another important variable that plays a major role in drug reactions, and too often its effects are overlooked ( Baron 119).   That variable is the user’s expectation of the drug’s effect. Research has shown that the experience many drug users will have is not just a result of the physiological and biochemical changes produced by the drug, but also depends on how they think they are supposed to respond, or how they see others around them responding. These factors must also be considered when evaluating the reasons for altered states of consciousness through drug use. a.)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Respiratory effects: Because marijuana smoke is deeply inhaled, retained in the lungs, and contains many of the same harmful ingredients as tobacco smoke, users show signs of impaired lung functioning when compared to nonusers. Like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke contains carcinogenic agents, but since many pot smokers also tobacco, it has been hard to isolate marijuana’s impact on lung cancer. At this point, the evidence is merely suggestive (Earleywine 156). b.)  Ã‚     Immune system: Animal studies have suggested that marijuana can dampen the body’s resistance to disease, but no studies have been done to confirm or refute this danger in human beings (Earleywine 156). c.)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mental effects: While there is no evidence that marijuana causes the brain to shrink, it can lead to a motivational syndrome, which researchers define as a mental dulling, emotional blunting, and loss of drive and goal-directedness (Earleywine 156). IV. Why should it be legalized? Marijuana is being used as legal medical therapy for several conditions. Careful studies have shown that it is effective in treating severe nausea in cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy. Older patients seem to respond less well than younger patients and complain more about side-effects, including feeling â€Å"stoned.† Researchers are continuing studies of marijuana’s possible usefulness in reducing pressure within the eye in glaucoma and in treating muscle spasticity (Goode 575). Marijuana has been used for thousands of years, both as a medicine and for its intoxicating effects. In the form of tablets, marijuana is frequently prescribed to relieve the nausea and vomiting that often accompany chemotherapy. Its non-medical use, however, is illegal in the United States and most other countries. The penalties for possessing or using marijuana are, in many states, as severe as those imposed for the possession or use of much more potent drugs. Many argue that marijuana is no more harmful than cigarettes and liquor and should be legalized ( Julien 489) V. Conclusion Marijuana serves as a hindrance for people to achieve high and be successful. Due to its ill effects it stops them from being an achiever and it causes them to be ill motivated. They will see things in a different outlook because of the side effects of marijuana. Yes, Marijuana could help medically but let us consider how greatly it will exploit the individual’s body. At low moderate doses, marijuana acts somewhat like alcohol and some tranquilizers, and like alcohol, the drug takes effects within minutes. Unlike alcohol, marijuana at low doses does not dull sensation but may cause slight alterations in perception, so that it is unsafe to drive a car for as long as 4 to 6 hours after a single joint. After the thorough studies, I therefore conclude that marijuana should not be legalized because it has more negative effects than positive. If our nation legalized the use of marijuana, many people including young and old suffer the above mentioned negative effects. On the other hand, the use of marijuana should be case to case basis and should only be used for medications. Generally, Marijuana does not do any good to the people. It only destroys them and eventually it will be bombarded to our economy because they are the one’s working, the citizen of a country and if the usage of Marijuana will be legalized it will just give a detrimental effec t to a country’s economy.

The assignment is to develop an advertising strategy for a franchise Coursework

The assignment is to develop an advertising strategy for a franchise of your choosing - Coursework Example The company is defined by its unlimited milestones in the world of innovation and customer service. The marketing strategies of this franchise are dependent on customer satisfaction, environmental sustainability, and the utter need to expand beyond the current dimensions. Therefore, a diverse and cumulative marketing strategy is necessary to ensure that the franchise expands. The marketing strategies will involve finding the customers, maintaining their brands, networking, and selling of the product to the market. The Intercontinental Hotels Group is mainly concerned with customer satisfaction in order to oversee the final revenues of the franchise. The group should maintain the customer loyalty. This may be done through the provision of the best services to the customers to win their trust. The specific needs of the customer are taken into consideration. The customer is the basis of any business transaction. The staff at the franchise ensures that customer satisfaction is a necessit y. The mission of the franchise is to ensure that the customer gets an excellent service. All the other protocols of the franchise ensure that this mission is set to ensure that the customer loyalty is retained. The customer complaints are dealt with amicably and efficiently. Part of the marketing strategy is the introduction of the wireless network in the hotel rooms. This tends to give the customer a unique undertaking compared to the other competing hotels. All this improves the customer satisfaction and thus making the revenues increase eventually. Advertising techniques are also necessary for the marketing of this franchise. The company is widespread all over the world, and thus the large market stretch the hotel must serve. The provision of the best advertisement techniques deems the group successful in the management and customer service. The hotel provides five star services to its customers to try outdo other competitors in the same market. The best technique of advertising is the online advertising. The hotel provided the enigmatic service of online booking of rooms. The potential customers identify with the networking form of marketing. Currently, many people can access the social media through sites such as twitter, Facebook, and other sites. The ability of the group to prioritize the use of these services is a bold step in ensuring the culmination of the standards of advertisement in the marketing sector. Therefore, their marketing structure should ensure that customer appeal is portrayed. The group has been on the forefront of technology in the super positioning of better online technology measures in the franchise. The hotels have secured and simplified the private and public clouding network. This has the advantage of ensuring the provision of a favorable virtual network all over its hotels, including the resources in the software-defined networks. This has provided the cloud security and thus ensuring for the efficient communication to ensure a unified consumer satisfaction (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). The customers can also access the services the hotels provide using the online means without being conned. Customer confidence is boosted since they can migrate around the private, public or hybrid cloud environments easily. Videos are posted online, and the customers can watch and make choices on the best services they want. Therefore, a larger target market is reached via the

Product Liability Suit - The Case of Toyota Essay

Product Liability Suit - The Case of Toyota - Essay Example However, there are several reports of untoward incidents that are caused by safety-related defects of products. The failure of most companies to be responsible for their products resulted to product liability lawsuits. As a consequence, severe damage on the profit and sales can be experienced with a tainted reputation from the consumer perception. The case of Toyota Motor is an example of how product liability can make or break the success of a multinational company. This paper will examine the product liability suits of Toyota and their actions taken to face and mitigate the adverse effects of the staggering market complaints. Keywords: product liability, defects, Toyota, reengineering, Lean strategy Introduction With the continuous evolution of customer needs and satisfaction, quality and safety of products are becoming more diverse and demanding. The emphasis on quality products always goes hand-in-hand with customer safety and health. These are some of the deciding factors that m aintain customer loyalty, establish reputation and considerably reduce liability for the company. Our society is becoming more litigious and very particular with performance, reliability, durability, and other value added benefits. However, there are sheer number of cases where products resulted to untoward incidents like injury and death which drive most companies to bring product liability to the spotlight. It is imperative to all companies that the heaviest responsibility for their products in the market rest on their shoulders. Failing to meet this responsibility will obviously result to legal actions and even threaten the company’s existence in the long run. The liability of manufacturers of products for harms caused to consumers has great prominence mostly in United States. It has already resulted to thousands of liability cases filed annually including some class actions of millions of individuals as plaintiffs (Polinsky and Shavell, 2009). The case of Toyota Motors ha s shown the world how a successful multinational company can be devastated with product liability suit within several years. Toyota is facing the biggest recalls in its history after uncovering widespread problems with its vehicles. Before we directly examine the events that caused Toyota Motors to recall millions of cars in different countries, let us first take a look on the beginnings and success of the company until the major outbreak of customer dissatisfaction and lawsuits regarding the failure of their products. The History of Development and Innovations The beginnings of Toyota Motors Company can be traced back from its founder Kiichiro Toyoda in Aichi, Japan. Established in 1937, the Toyota was previously branded as Toyoda which literally means â€Å"fertile rice paddies† in Japanese. The new name represented a convenient break from associating the company with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the "Toyota Motor Company (Toyota Motors Company, 1988) The Toyota Global (2012) website indicated that April 1936, Toyoda’s first passenger car was the Toyoda Standard Sedan AA. From September 1947, Toyota’s cars were sold under the name â€Å"Toyopet†. In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged into one company, the Toyota Motor

Cross culture communication and negotiation Essay - 1

Cross culture communication and negotiation - Essay Example The author point out how both native and non-native speakers should make their approach in order to understand each other and co-construct the conversation in intercultural communication in an age when English is becoming a global language. 5. Dovidio, J.F., Hebl, M., Richeson, J.A. & Shelton, J.N. 2006. Nonverbal communication, Race, and intergroup Interaction. [Online] Available at: http://www.yale.edu/intergroup/Dovidio_Hebl_Richeson_Shelton_2006.pdf In this article, the authors analyses the importance of nonverbal communication in cross cultural communication and negotiation process. It says that members of majority and minority groups in general may differ in the types of nonverbal behaviors they display regularly. It also analyses Social Identity and Nonverbal Behavior in Intergroup Interaction. 6. Rudlin, P. 2008. Indirect communication: I see what you mean. MultiLingual, Jun2008, Vol. 19 Issue 4, p49-51, This article focuses on the importance of non-verbal communication in Ja pan. It says that Japanese prefer to use eye contact, teeth sucking and head movements to avoid confrontation and disagreement with others. Listeners and speakers are expected to understand the real meaning of their movement and vague expressions to convey that it is not necessary to talk about it. 7. Mandal, M.K., Harizuka, S., Bhushan, B. & Mishra, K.C. (2001). Cultural variation in hemifacial asymmetry of emotion expressions British Journal of Social Psychology (2 001), 40, 385–398 The authors of this article argues that emotions such as happy, sad, fear , anger, surprise, disgust etc are displayed differently by people of different cultures after analysing the emotions of Japanese, Oriental Indian and...All these developments result in increased cross cultural communication and business negotiation processes. Cross cultural communication and negotiation are vital in determining the success and failures of international business. Stuhlmacher & Citera (2005) pointed out that â€Å"Negotiations are often categorized as distributive (win-lose) and integrative (win-win)† (p.24). Even though everybody wants to conduct negotiations to yield a win-win result, in most of the cases, it results in win-lose results. Both the parties argue their points strongly while doing negotiations. Such arguments often end up in conflicts. The success of business negotiation rests in the abilities of the parties in solving such crisis. While doing international business, the negotiators belong to different cultures, and hence it is quite possible that the ideas conveyed by one by one person may not be perceived properly by the other person. It should be noted that verbal as well as nonverbal communication are important in communicating the ideas of one person to another. In cross cultural business negotiations, the negotiators are from different cultures and hence their verbal as well as the nonverbal means of communication could be entirely different.

Learners with cognitive, behavioral and learning disabilities Article

Learners with cognitive, behavioral and learning disabilities - Article Example Thus, issues central to the current interests of educational psychologists have been the subject of discussion throughout the centuries. To understand the characteristics of learners in childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, educational psychology develops and applies theories of human development. "Often cast as stages through which people pass as they mature, developmental theories describe changes in mental abilities (cognition), social roles, moral reasoning, and beliefs about the nature of knowledge"1. "The most influential of these developmental theories is Jean Piaget's theory of development, according to which children mature through four stages of cognitive capability"2. Piaget also proposed a developmental theory of moral reasoning in which children progress from a naive understanding of morality based on behaviour and outcomes to a more advanced understanding based on intentions. Piaget's views of moral development were elaborated by Kohlberg into a stage theory of moral development. The basic underlying concept of both Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories is that these developmental theories are presented not as shifts between qualitatively different stages, but as gradual increments on separate dimensions. These two theories represent the basis for further research and the practical application of the gained knowledge in the field of educational psychology. ... chology to create effective theories and practical application of those theories to assist learners that have cognitive, behavioural and other learning disabilities. When dealing with learners with such problems, there are 2 main aspects to consider: the student with the problem, and the teacher involved in the educational process. Lately, educational psychologists have been focusing more on the teachers, rather on identifying the students with the problems, since in the previous centuries there has been extensive research in that area. Psychologists mostly explore the perception of the teachers of the students, and how teachers adapt to the needs of the student accordingly. This is believed to be the first step towards improving the educational program concerning students with learning disabilities. With the research done by Sheila O. Walker and Robert Plomin, teachers' perception was shown concerning genetic and environmental influence on personality, intelligence, behaviour proble ms, learning difficulties, and mental illness. For these five domains of behaviour, the percentages of teachers who reported that genetics were at least as important as environment were .87, .94, .43, .94, and .91, respectively. They also found that 80% of teachers reported no coverage of genetics during teacher training. (The Nature & Nurture Question: Teachers' perceptions of how genes and the environment influence educationally relevant behaviour; volume 25, Number 5 / October 2005, Educational Psychology). In a another research, which deals with the behaviour problems that high school teachers find most troublesome, found that similar behaviours were reported as troublesome in the secondary school classroom compared with the primary classroom, although differences were demonstrated

Fashion Designer Term Project Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Fashion Designer Project - Term Paper Example The paper "Fashion Designer Term Project" discovers such designers as Tommy Hilfiger and Kenneth Cole. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger born 1951 is an American citizen. He is also the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation which is a first-class lifestyle brand. At 25, Hilfiger set up a shop called the peoples place in New York City. Tommy Hilfiger is considered great because the designer designs clothes for men, women and children. Furthermore, he designs accessories too. On the other hand, Tommy Hilfiger has a positive and powerful reputation internationally because his designs are classic and trendy at the same time. Due to this, majority of his designs are preferred by the elite class. This has made his designs ironically to be very popular since people admire the high quality of his designs. Tommy Hilfiger’s anesthetic characteristic that I like the most is his use of color. Tommy choice of colors is playful but serious at the same time. This is because most of his labels are all in red, blue and white. The store has some contemporary designs that were inspired by these colors and are on display. Most of the color printing done on the shirts and dresses was inspired by Tommy Hilfiger. In some respect, I assume is a representation of his country that he is so proud of, but I think it is a statement decision. The color red is bold, sexy and passionate; a statement which I think Tommy wants the client to feel when purchasing the clothes. The color blue is cool, calm and assuring a feeling.

HR's Role in an Organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

HR's Role in an Organization - Essay Example Huge responsibility is laid on medical staff, whom we entrust with the most important thing that we have – own health. In this respect, the process of choosing and recruiting the right employees becomes the most initial for medical establishments. Effective and correct work of personnel influences on the customer’s satisfaction, which in its turn affect competitiveness, reputation and profits of the hospital. Sometimes one little mistake of medical employee is able to cause drastic and destructive consequences, which also not always can be remediable. For avoiding such situation and providing clients with highly qualitative treatment, it is recommended to take the recruitment, development and training of human resources into careful consideration. It is important to realize the significance of appropriate personnel, which is able to become the biggest competitive benefit of the organization only on conditions that a company implements various programs of constant develo pment and improvement of workers’ productivity. ... Human recourses as competitive advantage Today more and more companies start to realize that human is the most significant factor for pushing own business to effectiveness and profitability. However, only few of them pay much attention at personnel development, considering such action as money-loosing. In reality numerous practical examples show that the more entrepreneur spends up on own staff the bigger return comes later on. Competition can be rather unsteady phenomenon, which depends on various elements. The most considerable of them is highly professional service that makes clients content and creates customer’s loyalty. Frequently one detail of personnel’s work can affect customer’s attitude to the whole company. And with a help of word of mouth one unsatisfied consumer is able to influence on groups of people, which in own turn can proceed the chain of negative review. But if a company has a qualified team of real specialists, who posses deep knowledge alo ng with good interpersonal skills and comprehend the significance of customer’s satisfaction, then such enterprise will be in demand on the market. That is why effectively used human resources can become a huge competitive advantage that manages to attract new customers and affect the financial results of company’s performance later on. Despite developed equipment and new techniques used during medical procedures, the personnel of Laurel Surgery and Endoscopy Center guarantees a good old-fashioned patient care. Medical staff of the center looks after each client extremely attentively, ensuring pre- and post-operative treatment, the questions about which potential patients may find out from the

IP5- Relations in trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

IP5- Relations in trade - Essay Example Through these policies, the actual people behind businesses and the production of market prodcuts have a sense of need for their efforts. They do not feel cheated and they feel the essence of their contribution to society. Two of such policies are fair trade and free trade. In the contest of Content Cow Dairy, this write-up seeks to delve into the meaning of these two terms; fair trade and free trade by drawing the distinction between them. It also seeks to identify how fair trade is achieved and run. What is more, the write-up seeks to explore some of the preferred corporate management strategies that would work best for Content Cow Dairy. Finally the write-up would identify problems faced by the organisation’s foreign affiliates and success ways of remeding the situation. Fairtrade and Free Trade – the Similarities and Differences Fairtrade and free trade are commercial policies that are directed towards the betterment of producers of market produce and their trading counterparts. Accordong to the Fairtrade Foundation (2011), fairtrade is a policy that requires â€Å"companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price).† The idea and need for starting fairtrade was born out of giving a fair deal to producers. â€Å"A fair deal includes a fair price for goods and services, decent working conditions, and a commitment from buyers so that there is reasonable security for the producers† (Tribes & Fair Trade Travel, 2009). This is to say that fairtrade is generally focused towards ensuring that prodcuers of market produce are not cheated – as far as the sale and purchase of their produce are concerned. Writing on freetrade however, the Greenpeace International (2011) observes that â€Å"the act of opening up economies is known as "free trade" or "trade liberalisation."† Simply put, free trade is about businesses and companies having the opportunity to trading and opening up new branches in other coutries without much restrictions. Similarly, both free trade and fairtrade are concerned with the betterment of people who put their efforts in doing business. However there is some level of difference in the sense that whereas fairtrade targets the producer and makes sure that the producer gets what he or she deserves, free trade focuses on the marketer (perhaps the one who buys from the producer) to ensure that the marketer is not limited in his or her attempt to trade off his or her products. Fairly traded Products and Reasons for their Selection The initiative of fairtrade was of course focused on specific products and not all other products. In the United Kingdom alone, The Fairtrade Foundation (2011) argues that â€Å"The Fairtrade Foundation has licensed over 3,000 Fairtrade certified products for sale through retail and catering outlets.† These 3,000 products have been categorised into components with each having minor set of products under it. These major pr oducts are listed under food and non-food products. Under the food products, the products include; Bananas, Cocoa, Coffee, Dried Fruit, Fresh Fruit & Fresh Vegetables, Honey, Juices, Nuts/Oil Seeds/Oil, Quinoa, Rice, Spices, Sugar, Tea and Wine (Fairtrade Foundatio

Chapter 7 Reaction Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chapter 7 Reaction Paper - Essay Example Stereotypes end up dehumanizing a whole group of people, essentially pigeonholing them without giving them any chance to prove their own unique identity. When talking about the â€Å"accuracy† of stereotypes, I did not like the fact that the author mentions that some stereotypes are â€Å"accurate.† The fact that he goes on to mention very objective terms (like the income of a certain group of people), further augments my point. Stereotypes, I feel are based on subjective terms and not objective ones, and that is precisely why they are so damaging. However, I did like the idea the author then goes on to say how, even though we cannot get rid of stereotyping all together, we need to recognize them for what they are so that they can be productive and not destructive. In this regard the chapter itself contains certain stereotypes, which the author also admits. However, I would have liked it if there had been mention of stereotypes causing prejudices to be formed. I liked h ow the article relays the idea that we need to acknowledge that people are different, or that certain groups of people will be different as a collective. However, if that is true, then, perhaps, there is a premise for stereotyping to be an effective social tool. Nonetheless, it need not be so if we refrain from making rigid assumptions about a whole group of people and applying them on individuals as well.

Analyzing Garret Harding’s Article Essay Example for Free

Analyzing Garret Harding’s Article Essay This paper seeks to analyze the article â€Å"The Tragedy of the Commons† by Hardin (1968). The first part summarizes the main thesis by identifying the principle or principles that Hardin used to explain the Tragedy as he defines it. The second part describes how Hardin’s thesis would apply to production of smog pollutants in California. 2. Summary and Application 2. 1. Summary The paper article talks about the tragedy of the commons which has contradicted the â€Å"invisible hand† that was described by Adam Smith that would managed things for people by just allowing man’s selfishness to keep on profiting without realizing that the same could be helping people in the process. The tragedy of the commons is therefore preventing the operation of the market or certain individuals from fully attaining what is good for these individuals because of the inevitable overpopulation. However the author has also acknowledged ways or factors under which the tragedy of commons could be neutralized such the existence of private property in support of that man’s selfishness in accordance with Smith’s theory. He also mentioned other factors that may have either supported to weaken the tragedy of commons. He therefore still sees a solution to the tragedy, which is the relinquishment of freedom to breed by the commons. Such can be done by some intervention of those who have the power like the state. The thesis of the Hardin (1968) further asserts that the problem on overpopulation has no technical solution for there is nothing to maximize. He noted the fact the people are concerned about the problem of overpopulation and that the same people would try the ways to avoid the evils of such situation but without giving up the pleasure that they have now. The author asserted the fact the people would want to make everything possible where plans could be growing or developing any source of food that will solve the problem caused by the overpopulation. Hardin asserted about the absence of technical solution to the problem as in winning the game of tick-tack-toe. He concluded that the simplest summary of the analysis of man’s problem in population is that the commons could justify their existence only under conditions of low-population density. Thus he argued that given the fact the population has increased, these commons have to be abandoned in one aspect. According to Hardin, the first way to abandon them can be done food gathering, enclosing farm land, restricting pastures and in hunting and fishing areas. He also saw the commons as a place for waste disposal that would justify their abandonment. Since the author also values human freedom preservation, it was his position that to preserve and nurture the more important kinds of freedom, the solution is to give up the freedom to breed from these commons as soon as possible. 2. 2 Application to the Production of Smog Pollutants in California This part of the paper will define â€Å"Commons† in the case of the smog pollutants in California as those people that may be part of the creating the problems of smog pollution in California, who may or may not be aware of the solution or cause of the problem. Individuals or non-commons may be those that are not part of the common which could be exemplified by the group described by Hardin which espouses the relinquishment of freedom to breed in order to arrest the tragedy of overpopulation caused and who believes that there are no technical solutions to problem. Since the case of pollution is related to overpopulation which according to Hardin has caused the problem, the non-commons extends their argument in this part that opt to give up still the freedom to breed for commons. This part describes also the problem in terms of the different view from the commons, the non-commons or individual In terms of the commons, the problem of smog Production is a problem that could be technologically solved. Hence these commons would argue for the need for the production of cars that would be equipment of the capability of reduced or smog pollutants (Vannijnatten and Lambright, 2001; Dooley, 2002)). This could be evident in the case of what is being required now of new cars from California. Newer cars starting with 2009 model will be required to have label that contains a level as to tier ranks in terms of environmental impact. The information is designed to provide consumers with the practical information that could contribute to their being responsible decision makers in the use of environment friendly vehicles while satisfying or meeting the needs of these people to move around (Environment News Service, 2009). The label used for environmental performance will include a scale of 1-10 for global warming scores and smog score. The higher score on both scales will show that the car is more environment friendly car. With average normal score of 5 on both scales, the values of the decision makers will also show how they will value the environment will also be reflective of scores recorded (Environment News Service, 2009). Electric cars are noted to earn higher ratings than non-electric cars on both score thereby indicating the role of technology (Environment News Service, 2009). This would provide a strong argument against that of Hardin (1968) that there is no technical solution to the problem. It could be argued that electric cars evolved from gasoline cars and therefore consumers may be deemed to have become more responsible to the environment. In terms of the individual interests, as espoused by Garrett Hardin (1968), the solution is non-technical that one can never minimized or maximized that point where there could acceptable smog pollutant level. From this view, the problem comes from the commons in the case of production of smog pollutants and not from non-commons which do not see themselves as part of the problem. Hardin’s viewed that there are indeed people causing smog pollutants in California which may not be prevented from having better cars due to the bias that there is no technical solution to the problem. The solution could not be found therefore under the principle developed as viewed by commons that more efficient cars could be produced but rather in stopping the freedom to breed commons which will prevent the problem created in the production of smog pollutant in California. Hardin under his own view would rather therefore go for stopping the breeding of the commons who keep on violating the rights of individuals because of the enclosures or certain advantages or favors given to these commons. The solution could include calling for government actions to deny seeming shout for more rights and liberties by the commons. In the article on Tragedy of the commons, Hardin (2008) also attacked the fact that every favor given to the commons is a deprivation of somebody’s personal liberty. He argued that while infringements made in the past could be accepted by him and the believers of his cause, he could only now see the abuse of infringement made because of the cries for rights and freedom are made by commons. He saw the benefits given to the commons are a way of robbing against the non-commons. He further saw only universal ruin if the logic of the commons would continue to be upheld. For this purpose the author saw only the need for true freedom that is based on recognition of necessity. If this principle is applied to the smog pollutants in California, Hardin would see hopeless of having smog free cars and that the cost of regulation for smog free cars could only be caused by the commons. If Hardin’s position is to be sustained, this would amount to prohibiting rather the commons to not having cars any more by government actions since these non-commons would not want to share life with the commons who will eventually cause overpopulation. Hardin (1968) also argued in the article that the most important aspect of necessity is the present need to recognize the necessity of abandoning the commons in breeding. Since he saw the absence of technical solution to the problem the misery of overpopulation would necessarily come along with all related evils. He posited that freedom to breed will bring ruin to all. In effect, Hardin would want to address still the issue of overpopulation since all the issue of pollution according to him is also cause by population. In terms of collective interest, people need to co-exist together whether commons or non-commons because they only live in one land surface the earth which provides life for everybody. The right of co-existence happens because the ethical theory of social justice demands that one must practice what is just and fair to everybody concerned. To have peaceful-coexistence, there must be an intention of each of the commons or the individuals to sacrifice some of their rights for the survival of both. The resulting conflict, if not solved, will put humans into a level of what is contentious as instinctively, the instinct for survival is as old as life itself (Fikes, 2001). Each person whether common or non-common has rights and obligations to discharge if each is to live together harmoniously. While it is true that smog production would be dangerous to the environment and the common may occupy a bigger share in the total number of the population, it could be easily accepted that they could be wipe out on earth so that only the non-common shall live. To determine whether indeed a technical solution is possible, there is a need to understand the nature of smog which is a kind of air pollution caused them the petrochemical reaction of sunlight with volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen when released into the atmosphere. The same is therefore normally observed in automobile operation. To attain smog free objective, California used smog score by ranking each vehicles pollutant’s levels in terms of non-methane organic gases and oxides of nitrogen in relation to other vehicles within the current model year. Within the scale of 1 to 10, the California scale assigns 10 to be the cleanest while the average score 5 (Environment News Service, 2009). This could therefore testify to the creation of technical solutions that would solve the problem of smog production in California. This again will provide strong argument against the position taken by the Hardin (1968) on the absence of technical solution. Another proof of this evolution in technology is in the light of the belief that car model before 2006 would fall below the smog score of one. An action for more stringent standards must be viewed as a way of creating solution that would satisfy the collective interest of both commons and non-commons. The fact of smog inspection involves knowing whether Hydrocarbons, Nitrous Oxides or Carbon Monoxides (SmogTips, Inc, 2009) are present since these chemicals are identified for the production of smog. The fact the human knowledge has identified these chemicals from a long list of other known chemicals must speak further as evidence of technical solution to the problem of pollution. 3. Conclusion This paper concludes that the thesis of Hardin (1968) on lack of technical solution to the problem of smog pollutants in California is not rue. This paper has found moves in California to control the production of smog pollutants. The thesis may have raised some points that consider in effect the tragedy caused by the commons where the author has even attacked the theory of universal human rights. The view of the author is in favor individualist orientation and subscribes to the ideal of selfish genes. However, as society has evolved, the individualists have lived together with the commons for centuries and although the position of Hardin may be logical at some points, this paper takes exception to the assertion that there is no technical solution to problems. There is a solution because humanity is forever looking for ways to solve its problems whether the scientist may come from commons or not. References: Dooley, E. (2002) Fifty Years Later: Clearing the Air over the London Smog; Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 110 Environment News Service (2009) New California Cars Display Smog, Global Warming Scores, {www document} URL, http://www. ens-newswire. com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-02-092. asp, Accessed January 29, 2009 Fikes, T. (2001) Evolutionary Psychology as Computational Theory in the Cognitive Sciences; Journal of Psychology and Theology, Vol. 29 Hardin, Garrett (1968) â€Å"The Tragedy of the Commons†, {www document} URL http://www. sciencemag. org/cgi/content/full/162/3859/1243, Accessed January 29, 2009 SmogTips, Inc (2009) How to pass the California emissions test. 3-Part Test. , {www document} URL http://www. smogtips. com/passing_inspection. cfm, Accessed January 29, 2009 Vannijnatten and Lambright (2001); North American Smog: Science-Policy Linkages across Multiple Boundaries Canadian-American Public Policy

Impact of Recession on Banking and Housing Industries

Impact of Recession on Banking and Housing Industries In late 2000s financial market collapse and the resulting, global recession have left an urgent need for knowledge and research about unemployment-financial markets, poverty and much more. It will be expected from the social scientist to examine the reasons and causes of the crisis, the resulting economic and social trouble, and solid solution. It is very important to look back in the previous recessions-to find out what happen, what policy can be learned from the past, and how can we avoid some of the worst results of the past. This is very challenging research, but we are not definitely exploring it from the start There are some other issues like people happiness and wellbeing stable life, we can also think about it (which were not actually on the researcher parameters in the previous recessions but have drawn a noticeable attention in recent years. This survey will provide a broad overlook of finding social and finical research on impact of recession on housing industry and banking industry, its causes, consequences and immediate policiesIts aim to be of what we already know and what we need to know about it. It is very important to find and answers for the future prosperity Theory of economic suggest that how recession can lead towards the vulnerable financial conditions of any sector and it can triggered or worsen the conditions A case study on the impact of recession on the banking as well as housing industries and how it affected the UK economic market Rationale Theory of economy suggest that when economy goes through different cycles and call decreasing gross national product(GDP) of the country is called recession, but in terms of economic recession many expert consider that significant decline in the economic progress throughout the country. Global recession is the period when global economy is slowdown. It is very difficult to defining a global recession because it is expected from the developing countries that have a higher GDP than developed countries. This case study is about a UK business market and its adverse result on the UK economy. Recession is not a new thing in 21st century, UK already have seen an adverse result in late 70s and 1990sRecession had fatal effect on all over the world. But researcher thinks that developed countries are more affected than developing countries. In 2010, the government officially announced that recession is over. Should we accept it now? Is it true? Or it is simply a made-up story? It is particular believe that recession started in Dec 2007 in US and spread out globallyBritain is a most affected country by recession. In late 2000s recession, the financial market collapse and it had a worse impact on jobs, on people lives and on business. This recession was very cruel on many sector of economy, financial institutions. Britain has now in recession for over a three years and. the British economy was officially announced to be in recession January 2008. In present time banks operate almost every business. Because of their wrong strategic plan, modern world has seen the worst economical disaster. Unregulated financial activity created valueless economical boom. But in final stage they paid the big price for it. Investor lost millions. People lost their savings. Some critic says, because of greedy bankers, working class people facing the bad situations. Even ex-prime minister Mr Brown supported critics statement. He said, because of some greedy bankers we have been passing through the most drastic situation Banks are the finance provider to the other sectors to the growth of economy. This late 2000,s recession worsen the condition .mortgage rate was high they cut back loans and redundant people. The problem was clear in late 2000s recession when the international investors and domestic holders withdrawing their deposits and banks were cutting back loans. It was really hard for the client to find out a good mortgage deals. In economical crises, property market is the most effected sector. It started in the USA in mid 2007. Property market mainly gets support from bank. But in financial crises, banks and mortgage firms was facing the significant problem. Therefore it was very hard for buyers to find a suitable property for buying. We would take a look at what were the changes that were made with the finanical downturn and what attempts were made to survive in the business world. We would also look through the critical and analytical point of view that how we will be able to come out from this scenario? 4 Literature review. This dissertation will also discuses the financial crisis in UK and what is the economic condition now? It will also highlight what are the main causes and what are the affect of 2000s recession? AS we know that recession could cause crises theory, currency crisis and financial crisis. Recession affects are very disastrous it could be a reason of bankruptcies, unemployment, credit crunch or foreclosure. In this dissertation a researcher would like to throw a light on two big giant sectors that is housing sector and banking sector. These two sectors rely on each other and late 2000s recession badly affected them. Housing market The painful drop in economic output and continuously rise in the unemployment had bad affect on housing prices and demand for buying houses. There are two main causes of this sharp decline, unemployment .It also contributed to rise in repossession. The, lower financial output led to a big cut in interest rate. It lowered mortgage interest payments. Banks are struggling to raise finance and the result is insufficiency of mortgage credit. Banks were overcautious about lending money and it is caused a shortage of buyers . It is noticeable that lower mortgage rate is attracting somehow but the financial companies have a big lost. They have to suffer for it. In gernal sense housing market is direct centre of crisis. Financial disaster was started in USA and spread out to UK .Three years ago when northern rock a mortgage bank was teetering on the edge, the financial authorities carried out keeping it a float with undeclared emergency lending. The main objection at that time came from the financial services authorities that a listed company should have to disclose the emergency lending to avoid misleading the business market. The economist (2009) in their journals identifies that commercial property values in central London are fallen by as much as 50% since the financial crises hit. It was in the news that Dubai was delaying repayments of some of it $60 billion (Â £36billion) in debt. The main purpose of this report was to unveil the dark side of the 2000s recession. When a giant overhang of the loans and it cause the economical disaster as well. Banking sector Banks are like a backbone of any prosperous country and the regulation of economic growth.2007- present; the financial crises are worsening the banking system. In the result many large financial insinuations are collapsed. Late 2000s recession is more like comprising with the 1930,s recession. Actually all the major economies are facing hardest time in economic growth in UK. In their report told that the governor of the bank of England Mervay king has warned that the UK is in a deep recession in 2009 and said rate cuts may no longer work Allen(1994) in his book financial crisis and recession in the global economy comments about recession and global economy in his chapter 1, 2 and 3.this research study is about 1982 world recession.1987 stock market crash Northern rock a British bank was one of the first victim of finical crisis. Northern rock requested a security to the bank of England. The investors were panic and bank run in September 2007.In February 2008 British government failed to find a buyer from a private sector and it was taken into the public hands. Northern rock bank proved initial stage problem. The companies affected those directly related to mortgage lending and home construction e.g. countrywide financial and Northern rock because they could not find financing through the credit market. In the result more than 100 lenders went bankrupt during December 2007-2008, another investor bank Bear Stearns collapsed in 2008 because of the fire sale to JP Morgan Chase. Financial crisis hit it peak in September and October 2008 Research Questions The dissertation will aim to find answers the following research questions through the analytical techniques and the data collections. What causes an economic recession? What are the effects of an economic recession on the financial sector? What is the current scenario and what is the future of financial sector state of UK? Some of the financial companies are not affected by recession? What are the strategies they adopted? What is the short term and long term strategies adopt by a business in the recent recession. Research Methodology The main objective of this analysis would be to examine the main cause of recession. The dissertations will discuses the economic condition of UK banks and housing market. It will also analyse that what are the strategies that have been adopted by the financial sector. For the research methodology it is important bringing in related knowledge towards the UK recession and its impact towards the financial sector. Negatively or positively from within the case study interviews to be given by some UK small medium enterpriser and multinational corporations, interviews will be of no less than hundred, these are the ones who are effected by recession regarding their loss of jobs and the status from their employment from the UK business sectors. Types of Data The main type of Data will be collected for this purpose of this report is as follows. Primary Data Primary data is the information which is collected by the researcher from his own primary data and analysis. This could be questionnaire-interviews observation, case study or critical incident. The primary data, which is collected from the different source, could be either qualitative which looks at the explanation behind the given responses or quantitative which is in the form of numbers and which can represent in the form of a graph or table. Questionnaires A research question is a kind of survey where the information is collected with the intension of arriving at the different conclusions on an issue. This kind of survey will help the researcher to get impartial result and if required the researcher can predict an issue or advice changes. Question will be divided to the employees, managers of big financial companies of random banks, mortgage companies and the housing sector. The question will be targeting a most specific issue of the discussion and each response would be analyse against each other. Survey may be deal with a variety of media (paper-electronic-verbal). Different kind of method can be used internet, face to face, telephone and mails.. The population will be divvied in managers employees and customers. Interviews Interview will be held on the spot with the people of different sectors. It could be either on phone or face to face. When the respondent meets the interviewee over the phone or directly and answer some circumstantial questions relating to circumstantial issue. This kind of interviews is more advantageous since not only respondent can convey themselves and interview can ask to elucidate the answer. Secondary Data Secondary data is a information that is already available. This could be including books, reviews, press releases, newspaper, news bulletin or reports etc. Again secondary data collected could be either quantitative or qualitative. It depends on the source and type of the information collected. Sampling method Stratified sampling Stratified sampling is a method where the population are based on groups. For the dissertation purpose, we will divide the populations. Managers of the companies This will include managers who are in direct contact with financial departments, including policy and decisions makers. Staff This group direct to those who help apply the strategies or changes. their opinion is indispensible as they are indirectly related with the running of business The big advantage of stratified sampling is that question will be related to the details. The interviewer wants to be answered and there will be less chance that the respondent will simply guess an answer that theses interviewer are in position to give answer to the questions. Simple random sampling This is a method where a small group of samples are selected from a large group.. 4.Data analysis There are two major approaches to analysis the data and collect an information qualitative and quantitative research method. Sometime required information is already available require only be pull out. However, in the analysis sometime information must be collected. This kind of research will call back the second approach. The research needs to be collected and it is not already available. The research mainly relies on the primary data. The nature of the problem, which researcher will explore in this report is suitable for both research methods. The secondary data in this research will be gathered from, reports, and books journals-journals-internet websites-companies websites, articles and every other written source of data. As primary data will be collected through interviews and questions, then all of the collected data will be analysis to accomplish the objectives and aims of the dissertation Qualitative Research Technique Qualitative research means to know why, not the, how, which is collected by many methods like interviews, feedback, forms-emails. Qualitative research is used to understand how people feel and they think-depth interviews or group discussions are two common methods to use for collect qualitative information. Quantitative Research Technique Quantitative research technique where a research method depends less on interviews-questions, observations but it is more focused on the numerical data and statistic collection and analysis. Information collected from the financial sectors, banks, mortgage companies will be combined together and put into tables and graphical charts to view the opinion on different topics and to review overall responses. Limitations of the Study Validity and reliability Validity directs to the truthfulness and accuracy of the research. Research data may be mislead if a question will be misinterpreted or misunderstand. Reliability is a various statistical tests. There is another way to test the reliability is to ask a same question with different wording in the research survey. It will help to collect a right data. Data may be misleading if the interviewee gives a judgment instead of straight facts. Therefore respondent will be bound in many ways from freely expression views with the help of close ended questions. Interviewing It may b challenging to finding the right person at the right time. Because of the current economic condition. a financial sectors would be face with the different challenges and then an interview for an academic research could end up a long way wait. Confidentiality As the business market is very competitive and the fact is that bit information about the company can give a rise to the competitors, a company might not want to share data. Although a confidentiality agreement will be signed and disclaimer will be issued. Response times The response time to the questionnaire and interview setting mostly rely on how busy the management and staff are at the research time. This might make collection process more lengthy Recent external factors Economical changes have a direct impact on the financial sectors and therefore theses changes have impact on their staffs as well. It is possible that feed back could be more a response to the recent external changes and not because of the business to ensure employees are happy and content.

Use of ICTs in Healthcare Delivery Systems

Use of ICTs in Healthcare Delivery Systems Literature identifies the growing innovation and use of ICT devices within the healthcare delivery system. However, there is a lack of exploratory qualitative research to investigate into the perspectives and experiences of patients that use ICT devices/tools for home care. Therefore, this research project suggests the qualitative method to investigate into this phenomena. Keywords: ICT, healthcare, technology, innovation NO CPT The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has benefited both developed and developing countries; especially in terms of the wide use of ICTs within the healthcare system. This is known as e-health system and with the rapid growth of e-health systems healthcare professionals (HCPs) are able to diagnose and treat patients, immediately (Qureshi, Kundi, Qureshi, Akhtar, Hussain, 2015). ICTs acts like an aid, which enables the hospitals, physicians, and nurses to work together either from home or the office visits and facilitates the transfer of patient data within the hospital (Salerno, 2015). Furthermore, the advancements in ICTs has resulted into a better and developed healthcare system, especially, in rural areas. The implementation of telemedicine has improved the health conditions of rural patients. Whereas the number of clinical services that provide awareness and help to rural poor patients is less. However, due to the presence of academic research centers, tel emedicine awareness and comprehension exists among the people of rural areas. These research centers also play an important role and provide tele-education, within the rural areas. On the other hand, the high rate of mobile phone usage, facilitates telemedicine, which eventually benefits the clinical practices (Mars, 2013). According to Qureshi et al (2015), the use of tele-health is rapidly increasing within the developing countries; such as mobile phones, computers, texting, video chat, and hotlines that provide immediate access to physicians. Thus, the use of ICTs has enabled an active and interactive role on behalf of patients and HCPs residing in different locations and working in different institutions and hospitals, respectively (Scholl Olaniran, 2015). This has resulted into the potential to save time and effort, reduce transportation costs and minimise drug stock-outs (Nilseng et al., 2014, p. 1). Moving on, the use of ICTs in healthcare delivery system requires a number of ICT skills and professional attitude because it influences the adoption and develops a positive attitude towards e-health by HCPs (Olok, Yagos, Ovuga, 2015). However, lack of ICT skills and motivation is considered as a barrier that hinder the effective use of e-health system by HCPs. Additionally, motivational barriers ex ists due to the association of high risk perceptions with social media (Dalton et al., 2014). Furthermore, the use of ICTs has resulted to increase the knowledge of HCPs and improves patient care on all the levels of healthcare system (Nilseng et al., 2014). Moreover, with the aid of ICT tools, HCPs can support patients suffering from chronic illnesses and can guide them to achieve healthcare while staying in their homes. This shows that, the roots of ICTs are strongly embedded within the healthcare system. And it benefits the patients through providence of increased accessibility to home care. Eventually, this results in gain of control over their chronic illnesses and promotes patients self-care. However, there is a need for qualitative studies to understand the use of ICTs at home from the perspectives of patients and their immediate or close relatives (Lindberg, Nilsson, Zotterman, Sà ¶derberg, Skà ¤r, 2013). Therefore, this research project proposes to investigate qualitatively upon the use of ICTs at home through the perspectives and experiences of patients. Whereas the findings of the study will be able to describe the patients accessibility to home care and promotion of self-care. Eventually, these findings will help the HCPs, businesses, ICT engineers, and patients to better understand the role of ICTs to provide support and gain control over chronic diseases, respectively. Relationship of the Topic to 699 Class Figure 1: Taken from AEHRC (2015) The above figure 1 represents the broader picture of the identified problem and the relevance of this project to the 699 class. The figure thoroughly describes the use of ICTs by the patients for home and self-care the HCPs mentor and keeps a track of the patients health. Through the use of ICTs and mobile applications. Eventually, this represents the use of ICTs in the form of an android application that enables the patients and the HCPs to keep a track of patients overall health that includes physical activities and on-time medications (Nilseng et al., 2014). Furthermore, the figure also represents patients data synchronisation, which are also one of the many benefits of ICTs (Salerno, 2015). Therefore, keeping these details in view, it can be seen that this project lies within the scope of 699 class. Definitions of Commonly Used Terms    Information and Communication Technologies- it is an umbrella term and it comprises of all means of electronic communication; such as computers, mobile phones, network, hardware and software, television, satellite systems, and long distance video chatting etc. (Rouse, 2014) Healthcare Delivery System- a system that comprises of all the medical help and support available and delivered to the patients Healthcare Professionals (HCPs)- represents as list of medical professionals; such as physicians, nurses, medical practitioners, midwives, and clinicians etc. Chronic Illnesses- diseases that last for long time or life time, for example, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type II diabetes etc. Telemedicine- patients diagnosis or treatment through ICT Tele-education- represents the use of ICT to spread education and knowledge A large variety of ICT tools are used by HCPs and patient for home care because there is an increase accessibility of the ICT tools (Lindberg et al., 2013). According to Kà ¶nig et al (2015), the designing of ICT tools in healthcare delivery system requires the input from patients, caregivers, clinicians, ICT engineers, and businessmen. Whereas all these work together in the form of a team. However, among this list, most important are the patient needs that is given a lot of attention and with the screening of patient needs the rest of the team (caregivers, clinicians, ICT engineers, and businessmen) co-design ICT tools through generation of ideas. Moreover, the process involves a prototype development it and the test of its easability and usage on the patients. Furthermore, patients suffering from life threatening diseases use ICT tools to overcome the different challenges, for example, the use of ICT tools has proven to facilitate Alzheimer patients, through early identification. Besides, ICT tools are cost-effective and save time therefore they are popularly used by clinicians (Kà ¶nig et al., 2015). Therefore, this research proposal seeks to answer; what are different perceptions and needs of patients using ICT tools at home? And in order to answer this questions, this research will adopt a qualitative explanatory research design because there is a need for qualitative studies to investigate into this phenomenon (Lindberg et al., 2013). Eventually, the findings of this study will provide better insight of the different perceptions and needs of the patients. Thus, this study comes into the domain of applied research as this information will be useful for the caregivers, clinicians, ICT engineers, and businessmen to co-deign better ICT tools for healthcare delivery system. Conceptual Framework Given below is the conceptual framework that describes the inputs and deliverables of this study: The above conceptual framework s self-explanatory and represent the research question that is to be investigated through this research project. A literature review conducted by Gurses Xiao (2006), indicates the vast advancements within healthcare delivery system. They reviewed published literature from 1990 to 2005 about ICT tools, necessary information required for the design of ICT tools, effect of ICT tools, and the different measure through, which ICT tools can be evaluated. The researchers started collection of published literature through investigation from the communication within the healthcare delivery system. And then expanded their research to the communication through ICT tools between patients and HCPs. Moving on, the researchers also defines the patient-centric information tools that are used by HCPs to keep a record of the patient history; such as medication lists, nursing flow sheets, and bedside patient monitoring devices etc. Additionally, the analysis of the review involves a successful categorization of the different use of ICT tools and the researchers analysed these tools to further assess and evaluate the effect of tools on the care and satisfaction of patients. Furthermore, the use of ICT has gone beyond just then just the treatment and diagnosis and this has been identified in another review by Blaschke, Freddolino, Mullen (2009). The researchers investigated the literature for the role of assistive technologies (AT) and ICTs to improve the physical and mental health and delay the onset of different diseases. Whereas the investigation in this review started through the evidence collection of different technological tools that are used by older adults. Moreover, the review also investigated to learn more about the effectiveness and utility of these ICT tools, within the healthcare delivery system. Additionally, the researcher extended the literature review scope and identified the importance of social work practice within the digital age and discussed the limitations and effectiveness of ICT tools. Furthermore, in another review the extended role and effectiveness of ICT was investigated within the field of nursing education. Now-a-days, m ore universities train and provide e-education to HCPs through the use of ICT tools. Eventually, this improves the overall role of ICT within the healthcare delivery system. The researchers conducted this literature review through analysis of the published articles between January 2001 and December 2012. These articles mainly focused upon the use of ICT within the healthcare education. The review was concluded with future directions that, the use of ICT tools are important for lifelong learning skills within the nursing students and other HCPs. And the healthcare delivery system should incorporate e-learning through the use of ICT tools (Button, Harrington, Belan, 2014). Moving on, in developing countries, ICT sustainability is a concern and requires a lot of attention. This has been identified in a literature review and the researchers attempted to develop a conceptual framework for a sustainable telemedicine information systems within Middle East countries. The literature review was conducted through identification of the need of telemedicine technologies within the developing countries; such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Syria. The review further identifies the different issues and barriers that does not support telemedicine information systems; such as lack of funding, IT trainings, doctors and patients resistance, less knowledge and education, and poor technological infrastructure. The reviews concluded with the importance and the need of telemedicine information systems to promote healthcare delivery systems. The review was able to identify the common barriers that hinder the growth of ICT in developing countries. Additionally, the resear chers also commented that, education and awareness are essential to promote the use of ICT in healthcare delivery systems (Jaber, Ghani, Herman, 2014). On the other hand, there a lot of risks, challenges, and potential harm associated with the use of telemedicine (telecare or telehealth) at home. This has been identified in literature review that was conducted from 6 different electronic databases. The literature review began with the initial focus on the patient safety issues that is associated with the potential risk of telemedicine home care. Moreover, the literature investigated into the different harm that telemedicine can cause to patients at home and was unable to identify any specific trainings that are provided to patient to identify patient safety issues. With the help of the systematic literature review, the researchers were able to identify the associated risk factors in the use of telemedicine at home and how these risk factors are highlighted within the patients telecare training. The paper concludes that, ICT tools should identify the different patient safety risks and reframe the different challenges that patients ca n suffer due to the implementation of ICT tools within the healthcare delivery system (Guise, Anderson, Wiig, 2014). According to Dalton et al (2014), HCPs also suffer from different challenges during the implementation of different ICT tools. For instance, in case of midwives the different barriers that exists are; material access, skills access, usage access and motivational access (p. 168). Similarly, in another systematic review, the researcher investigated the different factors that affect the adoption of e-health applications by HCPs. The review covered published articles from 4 databases published from the period of 2000 to 2014. The researchers began their investigation from the different perceptions of HCPs regarding the barriers and facilitators that occur during the use of ICT tools. The literature showed that, out of 4223 papers only 33 met identified the different barriers at individual, organizational, and contextual levels. Whereas the different factors that affect the use of ICT tools by HCPs are given as; perceived usefulness and ease of use, design and technical concerns, cost, ti me, privacy and security issues, familiarity with the technology, risk-benefit assessment, and interaction with others (colleagues, patients, and management) (Gagnon, Ngangue, Payne-Gagnon, Desmartis, 2015, p. 1). Focus of the Current Research Based on the above literature review, it can be analysed that less information and published peer-reviewed and scholarly articles available on this problem statement, due to the exploratory nature of the identified gap. Therefore, it is essential to expand the lens and focus of the search of the published articles throughout the different time periods to attain support from the literature. Moreover, it is important to search for different words that are used interchangeably for ICT tools; such as digital technologies, digital interventions, innovative technologies, and any name of device that helps patients with home care. Given below is literature review that has been attained through the increase of the scope of research to the use of ICT on different levels; such as different age groups and illnesses. A meta-analysis conducted by McLean et al (2016), on the use of digital technologies (ICT) by the asthma patients. The scope of the search was limited to patients aged 16 years or older. The use of different digital interventions and care with the use of comparator was observed. Whereas the outcomes indicated that the use of self-management digital technologies is cost-effective and improves asthma patients well-being and quality of life. Khosravi Ghapanchi (2016) also contributed and added that, the use of innovative technologies is cost-effective. However, less research is available to support the use and acceptance of innovative technologies in daily life by seniors. Therefore, in this review, the researchers collected information from different databases and investigated into the studies that looked into the assistive and innovative technologies in geriatric care (old age care). Moreover, the paper also enlists the different assistive technologies; such as general ICT, robotics, telemedicine, sensor technology, medication management applications, and video games (p. 17). Besides, the paper depicted that, a positive relationship exists between the use of assistive technologies and improved quality life in geriatric care. Moving on, ICT project not always attain success within the field of healthcare delivery systems. Therefore, it is important that businesses should implement a patient-centric modelling approach to better understand the challenges and changes within the healthcare delivery system. Keeping these issues in view, a review was conducted to check the implementation of circle of caring model (CCM) in three different case studies. And it revealed that with the help of CCM and application of patient-centric approach, ICT engineers and businesses are able to identify the gaps and improve the implementation of ICT. Furthermore, it is also suggested that, intervention of different approaches are also necessary along with the updated technology (Price, 2016). Eventually, this explains the necessity of the different components mentioned above in the conceptual framework. Furthermore, due to the increased life expectancy in western countries, there is an increased pressure on the community services, that is, caregivers. This has increased in the demand of technological advancements and innovations for home care older people in the form of personal emergency response system (PERS). The perceptions about the use of PERS was further investigated in a literature review and the review explored the different experiences of older people across different studies. The results showed that, the caring practices evolved across studies as the technology emerged and the older people played active roles. Besides, the literature also identified that telemedicine requires different abilities, resources, and attitudes for enhanced technological innovations. On the other hand, ICT also requires actors, networks, and contexts (Stokke, 2016). Regardless, of all the updated and innovative technologies, there is still a need for the society to get aware and educated about t he self-care patients can achieve from ICT devices. A review conducted upon the received e-health education indicated positive changes towards the attitudes of patients and resulted in decreased barriers, towards the use of ICT devices (Nwolise, Carey, Shawe, 2016). Another review conducted by Calvillo, Romà ¡n, Roa (2013), identified that the use of technology within healthcare delivery system has increased patient empowerment (PE). However, it is necessary that health literacy of patients, remote access to health services, and self-care mechanisms (p. 643) should be given more value because without these it is difficult to accomplish PE. Regardless of the updated technology, there is still a need to change the attitudes of patients, professionals, policy makers etc. (Calvillo, Romà ¡n, Roa, 2013). Therefore, it can be argued that the identified problem or research question is not investigated throughout the different time periods. It is depicted from the literature that, patients perceptions and experiences are assumed to be good due to the innovative technologies. However, no evidence exists in the literature. On the other hand, patient self-care management has been given a lot of importance for the effective implementation and use of ICT devices. Whereas patient self-care is also an integral part to accomplish patient empowerment. Other than this, stakeholders; such as businesses, HCPs, and ICT engineers needs to know the different perceptions and experiences of patient with the home self-care ICT devices. Thus, this need will be investigated through the future proposed exploratory research. A research paradigm or philosophy is a guideline that helps a researcher throughout the investigation because it is a framework that consists of assumptions and knowledge of nature. The two of paradigms that are mostly used by researchers are interpretivism and positivism (Collis Hussey, 2009). Therefore, in this research the primary focus is on interpretivism. Interpretivism- In the philosophy of interpretivism, a researcher plays an important role and acts like an investigator and a social actor. The researcher investigates a real situation and interprets it with the help of analysis of peoples thoughts and existing literature. Interpretivism involves investigation on behalf of researcher and is usually related to qualitative research (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2009). Moreover, this philosophy utilizes small sample sizes and results in the development of theories, texts, models, and useable information (data). Whereas the research findings are used to shape theories (Collis Hussey, 2009). According to Easterby-Smith, Thorpe, Lowe (2002), reality is non-subjective, therefore, after collection of data, different meanings can be interpreted. Furthermore, data collection is easier through the help of interpretivism approach and no additional focus is on writing style. Additionally, the findings of this approach is safe from researchers a nd participants/respondents biasness (Lee Lings 2008). Therefore, keeping these facts in view, it is better to implement this paradigm to investigate fully into the research question. Research Approach Research refers to the systematic investigation and collection of information, which is further interpreted through different methods (Saunders et al., 2009). Whereas research approach explains the different means through, which information is collected and further analysed. Moreover, research approach is based on different philosophical and theoretical assumptions (Collis Hussey 2013). According to Saunders et al (2009), inductive (qualitative) and deductive (quantitative) approaches are the two broad research approaches that are adopted by a researcher. However, a researcher can either pick of these two or can implement both together in the form of mix methodology. Besides, the requirements of the research decides the kind of approach that has to be adopted. Inductive approach Inductive approach is defined as, a theory building process, starting with observations of specific instances, and seeking to establish generalisations about the phenomenon under investigation (Hyde, 2000, p. 83). Furthermore, a research can investigate an identified gap and get to a conclusion with the help of inductive approach. And this further helps the researcher to collect the responses of respondents and generate theories (Collins Hussey 2009). Besides, the sequence of investigation in inductive approach follows a pattern of information from general observation to development of information patterns and these patterns are further refined into tentative information, which are later derived into theories. Because inductive reasoning is open-ended and exploratory (Trochim 2005). Therefore, based on this information, this research project will follow an inductive approach and will be qualitative in nature. Whereas no hypothesis will be tested, instead, the resu lts and conclusion of the study will result into a new hypothesis (theory generation), which is a characteristic of qualitative study. Data Collection Method This research project will follow semi-structured interview to investigate into the research question. With the help of semi-structured interviews patients perceptions, behaviours, and understandings of the ICT tools can be easily investigated. According to Matthews Ross (2010) the qualities of semi-structured interview will allow the researcher to follow a set of common questions and ask new questions during the interview. Moreover, the quality of semi-structured interview will also enable the patients to answer the questions upon their individual comprehension. Additionally, with semi-structured interviews the researcher can also observe and investigate into the attitudes, expressions, and body language of the patients. Furthermore, this study will conduct one-to-one interviews because Zikmund (2013) stated that, it will make the interviewee (patients) feel comfortable and they will be able to answer questions with honesty. Additionally, under the interpretive paradigm, interviews are concerned with exploring data on understandings, opinions, what people remember doing, attitudes, feelings and the like, that people have in common and will be unstructured (Collins Hussey 2009, p. 144). Therefore, this research study lies under the umbrella of descriptive exploratory research and it will follow an interpretivist approach to analyse the semi-structured interviews. Target Population This research study will select patients of any age group that use ICT tools provided by HCPs at the hospitals for home care and this will be done with the help of non-probability purposive technique because this sampling technique is suggested with the conduction of semi-structured interviews by Matthews Ross (2010). Furthermore, based upon the convenience of the researcher, the research will also follow non-probability convenience sampling and data will be collected from patients of Bryn Mawr Hospital and Chester County Hospital, Pennsylvania. Additionally, the patients using the ICT tools at home will be selected purposively either at the hospitals or at their home. According to Matthews Ross, the number of interview participants is dependent upon the saturation of data, that is, a researcher needs to conduct interviews until the data repeats. Therefore, the sample size of this research project will follow the rule of data saturation. Designing of Interview Questions- In this study, the interview questions were designed with the help of identified gaps from the literature review and from the developed conceptual framework. The procedure involved, identification of themes from literature review, which were further divided into dimensions and then into sub-dimensions (Collins Hussey 2009). Lastly, from these sub-dimensions, interview questions are developed. Whereas the researcher also developed new questions during interview process because of the quality of semi-structure interviews (Collins Hussey 2009). Data Analysis Method In qualitative research, the research plays an important role and acts like a primary tool for data analysis of raw social data. Moreover, the researcher stays involved in the whole process of data interpretation. Whereas with the help of memos and personal comprehension the researcher interprets the data and develop new themes. This process is known as Thematic Analysis (Matthews Ross, 2010). Thematic Analysis- It is defined as, a process of working with raw data to identify and interpret key ideas or themes, as a process of segmentation, categorization, and relinking of aspects of data prior to final interpretation (Matthews Ross 2010, p. 373). In this process, the researcher plays the primary role and looks for repetitive information, words, or meanings across different interviews. Eventually, this results in the interpretation and identification of social data and themes, which is further used to develop a thematic analysis map. Moreover, the identified themes are either represented in the tabular or in the graphical form (Matthews and Ross 2010). Therefore, this study will use the process of thematic analysis to interpret the social data. Validity According to Creswell (2013), there are two different method to increase the validity; such as the use of rich data and interviewee validation. With the use of these methods, researchers biasness and reactivity can be reduced. Moreover, systematic literature review investigation will increase the validity of the raw social data. And with the use of respondent validation, researchers biasness can be reduced. Eventually, with the implementation of these two will increase the validity and quality of this research paper. Given below is the propose work plan to implement the research project Chapter 1- Introduction 10 days Chapter 2- Literature Review 20 days Chapter 3- Methodology 20-25 days Chapter 4- Analysis and Evaluation 15-20 days Chapter 5- Conclusion, Discussion and Recommendations 10-15 days References and Bibliography 5 days Revision, Correction, and Submission Depends upon the time available. However, should not take more than 7 days This research proposal identifies the need for exploratory qualitative study to investigate into the perspective and experiences of patients upon the use of ICT devices for home care. Whereas this objective will be achieved through semi-structured interviews with the patients selected through researchers non-probability purposive sampling and convenience sampling methods. Moreover, the findings of this study will provide support to HCPs, businesses, ICT engineers, and patients. References AEHRC. (2015). Smarter safer homes platform. Retrieved January 14, 2017, from The Australian E-Health Research Center, https://aehrc.com/research/projects/smarter-safer-homes-platform/ Blaschke, C. M., Freddolino, P. P., Mullen, E. E. (2009). Ageing and technology: A review of the research literature. The British Journal of Social Work, 39(4), 641-656. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp025 Button, D., Harrington, A., Belan, I. (2014). E-learning information communication technology (ICT) in nursing education: A review of the literature. Nurse Education Today, 34(10), 1311-1323. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2013.05.002 Calvillo, J., Romà ¡n, I., Roa, L. M. (2013). How technology is empowering patients? A literature review. Health Expectations, 18(5), 643-652. doi:10.1111/hex.12089 Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2013). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave Macmillan. Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Dalton, J. A., Rodger, D. L., Wilmore, M., Skuse, A. J., Humphreys, S., Flabouris, M., Clifton, V. L. (2014). Whos a