History and Purpose of the Commonwealth of Nations

History and Purpose of the Commonwealth of Nations As the British Empire began its process of decolonization and the creation of independent states from former British colonies, there arose a need for an organization of countries formerly part of the Empire. In 1884, Lord Rosebery, a British politician, described the changing British Empire as a Commonwealth of Nations. Thus, in 1931, the British Commonwealth of Nations was founded under the Statute of Westminster with five initial members - the United Kingdom, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, and the Union of South Africa. (Ireland permanently left the Commonwealth in 1949, Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, and South Africa left in 1961 due to apartheid but rejoined in 1994 as the Republic of South Africa). Commonwealth of Nations Rebrand In 1946, the word British was dropped and the organization became known as simply the Commonwealth of Nations. Australia and New Zealand adopted the Statute in 1942 and 1947, respectively. With Indias independence in 1947, the new country desired to become a Republic and to not utilize the monarchy as their head of state. The London Declaration of 1949 modified the requirement that members must view the monarchy as their head of state to require that countries recognize the monarchy as simply the leader of the Commonwealth. With this adjustment, additional countries joined the Commonwealth as they gained independence from the United Kingdom so today there are fifty-four member countries. Of the fifty-four, thirty-three are republics (such as India), five have their own monarchies (such as Brunei Darussalam), and sixteen are a constitutional monarchy with the sovereign of the United Kingdom as their head of state (such as Canada and Australia). Although membership requires having been a former dependency of the United Kingdom or a dependency of a dependency, former Portuguese colony Mozambique became a member 1995 under special circumstances due to Mozambiques willingness to support the Commonwealths fight against apartheid in South Africa. Policies The Secretary-General is elected by the Heads of Government of the membership and can serve two four-year terms. The position of Secretary-General was established in 1965. The Commonwealth Secretariat has its headquarters in London and is composed of 320 staff members from the member countries. The Commonwealth maintains its own flag. The purpose of the voluntary Commonwealth is for international cooperation and to advance economics, social development, and human rights in member countries. Decisions of the various Commonwealth councils are non-binding. The Commonwealth of Nations supports the Commonwealth Games, which is a sporting event held every four years for member countries. A Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday in March. Each year carries a different theme but each country can celebrate the day as they choose. The population of the 54 member states exceeds two billion, about 30% of the world population (India is responsible for a majority of the Commonwealths population).

How to Make Managing Multiple Marketing Clients Easy - CoSchedule

How to Make Managing Multiple Marketing Clients Easy Managing multiple clients  is no easy task for any agency marketer. You might have two clients at once ask for last-minute requests. Or, you could have the opposite problem, where clients completely fail to communicate. An account manager might overpromise your capabilities, leaving you to  work some miracles (and a few all-nighters). No matter what your situation looks like, though, youre under pressure to deliver quality work.  If you’re not on your A-game at all times, a lot of things can go wrong. Fast. When they do, its easy to make excuses. Sometimes, it might be tempting to say, If we had more budget, wed have fewer problems. Or, If this client would just see things our way, we could actually start getting sh* done. Heres an insider secret, though: Excuses are for losers. So, what should busy agency teams struggling with client management do instead? Start by putting the right workflows and tools in place to help you (and your clients) work happily and successfully together. If you feel like you’re struggling to keep your head above water with all you need to do, this post is for you. Youll learn: How to establish positive routines and workflows to more done, faster. Better work in less time? Its not only possible, but realistically achievable. How to keep all your content and deadlines organized.  Theres an old saying that goes, Hell hath no fury like that of a client whose agency blew their deadline. So, maybe thats not exactly how that quote goes. Well show you how to hold yourself accountable to deadlines, is what were saying. How to get things done right the first time and keep clients happy. The fewer revisions work needs to go through, the faster you can get it all done (while burning less budget). Sound good?  Lets roll up our sleeves and un-suck your client management woes. How to Make Managing Multiple Marketing Clients EasyFirst Things First: Manage Multiple Clients Easily With Have you been looking for a way to ditch those endless email threads hit every deadline (for real) and maybe even keep some of that hair youve been pulling out? for Agencies is our newest Growth + Agency Pack plan- built exclusively for agencies. ^^^ And its gonna give you all of those benefits plus some. Manage All Your Clients In One Place Eliminate the need for spreadsheets, email threads, and multiple platforms! Get all your clients under one roof. Make it easy for you, your clients, and your team to collaborate, manage projects, and get err done. Simplify Your Team’s Workflows Collaboration Easily facilitate real-time collaboration with your clients, stay on track with client tasks, and execute on projects faster. Get Organized With An All-In-One Client Dashboard: Get a snapshot of all your client projects in one place. Stay on top of project timelines, see upcoming deadlines, follow up with specific teams. Reuse Workflows Without Rebuilding Everything From Scratch: Create the perfect template for your client workflows! Eliminate mistakes and move projects forward with task specific templates. Recycle your task template for future clients and iterate on them as you continue to improve the process! Get Social Media Approvals Without The Endless Back-And-Forth: Collaborate in real time with ’s social approval workflows. Keep the entire conversation in one place, stay on track with client promotion, and execute on campaigns faster. Customize To Fit Your Clients Needs is designed for flexibility. And as your clientele grows, so should your tool. With the Agency pack, youll get s Multiple Calendars feature; allowing you to create unique calendars analytic reports for every client. Improve Client Retention With Data Driven Results No more warm fuzzies! Prove the value of all your hard work with real data! Utilize ’s Social Engagement Report to measure your success and improve client retention. Ok, now: Lets teach you how to manage multiple clients with some step-by-step guidance, shall we? Next: Download Your Free Client Management Template Bundle Manage multiple clients more easily with these five free templates: Daily Task Planning Template to keep all your work organized day-to-day. Content Marketing Project Checklist to prioritize tasks for every client assignment. Content Calendar Template to plan and manage project deadlines. Marketing Project Management Template to document outlines and requirements for every client project. Content Writing Template to create and share content for client review prior to publishing.Getting Organized: Start With Yourself You can’t always control your clients. You can, however, control yourself. So, that’s where we’ll start. Plan Out Your Morning Routine A good morning routine can set your pace and mindset for the whole rest of the day. So, spend your first few minutes at the office productively. Make a short checklist of things to get done. Here are some ideas: Get your coffee (of course). Catch up on emails you may have gotten overnight. Write out your task checklist for the day. Establishing an easily repeatable routine helps build positive habits that drive more productivity. For a deeper dive into the psychology of how habits work (and how to harness them for the power of good), we highly recommend reading Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit. If you need a TL;DR version, this short video with the author (an esteemed New York Times writer) is fantastic: Build Yourself a Clear File Structure Store all your client documents in clearly labeled folders. Create one for each client. Then, add in subfolders for each campaign, project, or type of work you do for them. A hypothetical folder structure might look like this: This way, you'll waste less time hunting down files and client projects. Establish a Consistent File Naming Convention Trying to decipher someone else's file names can be difficult. Worse than that, if  all the moving parts of your campaign use multiple file-naming structures, people can quickly get confused. Is the right file "cool-content-project-sally.V2.doc" or "v.2-project-design-sally"? Avoid miscommunication by using an agreed-upon file naming convention. If your team needs help in this area, follow this detailed guide from Stanford. This doesn't need to be overly complicated, as long as everyone on your team (and your clients) can quickly identify the correct documents they need without having to open them up first. Stay on Top of Your Email For a lot of folks, â€Å"inbox zero† is a mythical state of being that seems unattainable. While messaging tools like Slack and HipChat have helped alleviate some of that pain, it’s important to keep your email organized whether or not you’re using those services. To keep emails from clients clearly separated, consider color-coding messages that come from certain email address. That way, you can quickly glance at your inbox, and know what came from whom. If you use Gmail, you might also consider using multiple inboxes to keep client communication organized. This guide from PC World will show you how. #Email tip: Use multiple inboxes in @gmail to manage communication from multiple clients:Pick Your Tools Wisely Marketers have never had more selection for tools than they do now. With so many options out there, however, it can be easy to feel paralyzed. The need to use tools that are multi-client friendly just adds more complexity. With any set of tools you use, keep these things in mind: Do any of our current tools duplicate functionality? If you can get something done with one tool instead of two, consider cutting the one you don’t absolutely need. Are any of our current tools more of a hindrance than an asset? If a tool is frustrating to use, don’t stick with it just because it’s what you’ve always had available. Shop around and get something that works for you, or make the case to your boss that it’s time for a change. Are the tools you’ve chosen likely to be ones your clients will want to use, too? Sometimes, there are advantages to choosing tools that are considered industry-standard options versus competitors. Use the tools that work best (and are within your budget), but keep flexibility in mind. Next, let’s break down the types of tools you’re likely to need. Project Management Tools This is a big one. Effective project management is essential for client success. It’s also essential for not wanting to tear your own hair out. Having the right tools here can make or break this process. Although there are a lot of tools available, we're biased toward . What's your favorite productivity tool for managing multiple marketing clients?Communication Tools You'll likely need two different types of communication tools: those for communicating internally, and for communicating with your clients.  For internal messaging, we recommend chat apps like Slack or HipChat (which we use here at ). The advantage to these kinds of messaging tools is they cut down on email. While we recommend using email when necessary, chat apps are great for quick questions and informal communication. For client communication, you might choose to use a chat app. However, it's much more likely you'll need to use email or some sort of shared project management solution. Fortunately, also makes it easy to talk to team members and clients within your content calendar: Execution Tools The tools you use to execute projects may vary depending on what you do. Here are some common options most will need: Word processors. Cloud-based options like Office 365 or Google Docs work well for collaboration. Design tools. Photoshop and Illustrator are considered industry standards. Social media management platforms. There are tons of tools that can help you manage your social media networks. We’re biased toward , but if you’re doing social marketing, use something. Content management platforms. These include WordPress, Joomla, Expression Engine, and other popular options. SEO monitoring tools. These include Moz, Raven Tools, Positionly, and tons more. Reporting Tools Clients will expect you to prove the value of your work. Here are some tools you might consider: Google Analytics. This one is a no-brainer. It's free, powerful, and should be on every site and blog you manage. Cyfe. This is a useful all-in-one data dashboard app. Klipfolio is another popular alternative to consider. And plenty of others. For more options, check out this list from HubSpot. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Analytics to Create the Best Content Should You Be Flexible With Which Tools You Use? Different clients may have different processes or tools they prefer to use. Being mindful of this can definitely help your working relationship. However, unless you have limitless patience and money to spend, there may be times where you need to tell your client up front which tools you’ll be using. Otherwise, you can easily end up with five project management tools, four social media platforms, six content management systems, and so on down the line. This can make it difficult for your staff to learn how they all work, and it adds unnecessary cost and complexity. Clients are paying you for your expertise. If you think a tool works better than what a client is currently using, make a case for why they should switch. Above all, try to keep it simple. Should clients dictate which #content #marketing tools you use?Establish Consistent Workflows People are creatures of habit. If you fall into an unproductive rut, it can be difficult to dig your way out. Establishing processes that encourage productivity from the get-go can help you get more done, more consistently, with less stress (and late nights at the office). And if you’re juggling the needs of multiple clients, this is essential for being able to pace yourself over the long term without burning out. In the aforementioned  The Power of Habit, Duhigg says, When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit- unless you find new routines- the pattern will unfold automatically. So, build your workflows in ways that encourage habits that are productive. That way, efficiency becomes automatic. Here’s how to plan out a simple workflow for a given task: Determine How Flexible Workflows Can Be Having a consistent process for receiving and delivering work to and from clients makes life a lot easier. At an agency, this work is typically handled by a project or account manager (and so it’s likely you’ll never need to worry about it). If you’re working on your own, however, you’ll need to determine how you’ll handle this. While different clients may have different preferences, you may want to be careful not to let them dictate how you work too much. If you get push back, explain why you do things the way you do. When you have multiple clients to manage, the more streamlined your processes can be, the better. When you have multiple clients to manage, the more streamlined your processes can be, the better.How Will You Work With Clients With Varying Budgets? Typically, the more a client can spend, the more you can do. If you’re able to staff a full team of writers, coders, designers, and project managers, then the scope of work you can complete isn’t limited by much. If, however, you’re working solo (or if the client can’t afford to spend much), you may need to learn to stretch your available resources. Recommended Reading: How to Do the Best Content Marketing on a Limited Budget Consider building out service packages new clients can choose from. You can allow for some flexibility, but laying out what you can do at which price points can help set accurate expectations up front. Your internal plan should include: Which services each package includes. Which tools you can use at each level. Some room for clients to grow into a higher-priced plan as they grow with you. Getting to Know Each Client Every client is going to be different. Their needs, personalities, and working styles are all likely to be unique. Plus, they’re also likely to have different customer bases, which will have different needs and expectations from the work you’ll produce. Develop Clear Personas for Each Client’s Industry If you don’t know a client’s industry inside and out, user personas can be immensely useful. They’re essentially character sketches of your client’s average customer or audience member. Recommended Reading: Spark Your Persona to Life With These Nine Tools Establish Style Standards for Each Client Switching between work for different clients can be a mental challenge. If you’re writing content about, say, power tools one minute, and then a clothing brand later that same day, it can be tricky to switch from one mindset to the other. In addition to user personas, documented style standards can help. You don’t necessarily need to refer to them consistently when doing client work, but they can helpful to lean on. MailChimp's content style guide is an excellent example to consider following: Set Up Introductory Meetings With New Clients When onboarding new clients, bring everyone who will be working on the account into a meeting with your stakeholders. This gives everyone a chance to talk through ideas and learn what each side expects from one another. It can also give your team members insight into how your client prefers to work and what their needs are. Managing Your Work for Multiple Clients Alright, so now you have all your preparation in place. Now, how do you manage your actual day-to-day work for multiple clients? How do you manage your actual day-to-day work for multiple clients?Be Realistic When Estimating How Long Your Work Will Take Delivering your work on time and at budget is important for building client trust. Estimating how long creative work will take to complete is tough. Regardless, you have to figure it out. If this is something you struggle with, get a timer, create a productivity spreadsheet, and track how long tasks and projects take to complete. Simply create sections for days, with rows and columns for time and tasks: To save you some time, we’ve included an Excel version of this template within this post. You can use this in two ways: To plan how long you’ll spend on tasks each day ahead of time. To keep track of what you accomplish each day retroactively. This is kind of like keeping a personal record of your timesheets so you can calculate an average of how long different types of work typically take. If you’re using this sheet to plan ahead, start by blocking out time for each task you’ll complete. Prioritize them based on when they’re due (we’ll get into deadlines in a bit). Do your most pressing work first, then move on. Setting priorities this way can help you know what to work on when multiple projects are competing for your time. Multiple projects competing for your time? Set priorities and stick to them.Over time, you’ll be better able to provide clients and project managers with accurate time estimates. That can make it much easier to negotiate project timelines that allow you to produce great work while balancing multiple clients (and without losing your mind). Establish Clear Project Deadlines Whoever’s responsibility this is, make sure deadlines are always clear between your organization and your client. For your own team, make sure internal deadlines for smaller pieces of bigger projects are laid out too (if necessary). And make sure those deadlines are on your content calendar! Which leads us to our next point. Recommended Reading: How to Meet Deadlines When You're Sick and Tired of Missing Them Set Up Your Clients With Content and Social Media Calendars Doing content marketing without content calendars is like driving a car without a steering wheel. Like a plane without wings. Like a boat without a rudder. Insert your own favorite vehicle-based analogy here. Managing multiple calendars for clients isn’t necessarily easy. You might also need a calendar for promoting your own business to prospective clients, too. So, do you put everything on one? Or, do you set up multiple calendars? We’d make the case for multiple calendars here. Give your client a shared calendar you can both use and update. That way, you’ll remove all ambiguity around deadlines and when things are due. This helps keep both sides accountable and avoids frustration over unmet expectations. Managing multiple #content #marketing clients? Use multiple #calendars:Setting up your editorial calendars in Google Sheets is an easy way to do this for free (and you can use the free template we’ve included in this post). If you’re using , the multiple calendar functionality available in the Growth + Agency Pack plan makes this easy. All your clients can have their own calendar. Plus, with built-in project management and team communication features, you can keep all your correspondence straight (no more â€Å"sorry I missed your email† nonsense). Plus, automation features save tons of time (which is extremely important for maximizing efficiency with multiple clients). For a real-world example of how works, The Barbell CEO was generous enough to create this demo video: Make Client Management Easy With for Agencies! Let's say you choose to set up a calendar for each client. Awesome! With for Agencies, we've made doing just that super easy. Here's a quick rundown of what our multi-calendar agency plans can help you do: Manage every client in one place. No more messy spreadsheets. No more insane email threads. No juggling multiple platforms. Use to organize everything. Manage workflows that actually... flow. Delegate, approve, communicate, and take over the world. Prove your work generates results. Use ’s most advanced analytics to measure your success and improve client retention†¦.(without all the tedious data collection). Which means you can stop jumping from screen to screen, manage all your clients on one platform, and get your agency super organized in the process. Determine How to Provide Deliverables Content docs. Proposals. Reports. Whatever kinds of deliverables you provide clients, templates are key to saving time. Use one set of templates for every client so you can spend less time preparing deliverables and more time getting your work done. We’ve even included a few in this post to help you out (they’re in the downloadable bundle you should see as a circular pop-up to the left). Set up a clear process too so nothing gets delivered late. Whether you’ll deliver work by email, Dropbox, or some other method, make it consistent and let clients know exactly when and how they can expect to get what they’ve paid you for. Recommended Reading: How to Quickly Build Social Media Proposals That Win Clients (Free Template) What Are Your Top Client Management Tips? If you’ve found success juggling multiple clients (either in an agency or as a consultant), are there any tips you’d add? Leave a comment below and help get the conversation started!

Report investigating the London Olympic Stadium 2012 programme Essay

Report investigating the London Olympic Stadium 2012 programme - Essay Example The stadium provides a seating arrangement for 80,000 viewers and has been made to scale the seating arena to a smaller 25,000 seated stadium. This requires an in-built flexibility and it maximises the potential of the stadium to meet needs of the community and arrange smaller national sports events in the stadium. The designer, Rod Sheard, and his team introduced ingenious designs and used 3D computer graphics, time-lapse photography and conducted persuasive interviews with the key personnel of this programme so as, to receive advices and feedback on the work done. The roof of the stadium is one amazing piece of art and scientific architecture; it is a cable-net roof of more than half kilometre circumference, and is erected as one enormous piece of roofing. The lighting arrangement is equally amazing (Channel5, 2012, Megastructures: London's Olympic Stadium). Lighting pads are attached to each individual seat which when lighted produces a magnificent effect. Also the administration team has taken care of the environmental issues. The entire structure has been created to minimize waste generation right from the structure of the building to the transportation and food facilities, procurement of raw materials and checks on carbon emission. All these have helped the building to achieve a successful seat in modern architectural development. Program management Programme management refers to an approach that is integrated into the approach of project management and streamlines the effect of project management principles implemented for the proper delivery of different projects (Gray, 1997). Programme is a group many portfolios of separate projects (Shehua and Akintoye, 2009; Ferns, 1991; Reiss, 2003). These projects are managed in a synchronized manner which creates certain benefits that would not have been earned had the projects been administered independently. When the cost benefit analysis is made while planning a mega event, nalysts must calculate long term cost s and benefits. These affect the economy of the host destination and also influence the performance of the programme in the long run (Jago, et al., 2010). In this paper the business objective of the London Olympic Stadium built for the 2012 games would be evaluated according to the academic theory of risk management and PRINCE2 methodology. The architectural design would be studied to assess the long term performance of the programme. Risk management Mega-events as the World Cup in football or cricket or the Olympic Games are special events that require rigorous practice for risk management. Although mega-events take place for a limited time span, they cast long-term impacts on the host cities. Hosting of such mega events require the creation of large infrastructure that often entail long-term debts and necessitate long-term programming (Roche, 1994). It requires efficient analysis of the probable security risks and their proper management of security risks. It involves substantial interdependencies among the different projects within the large programme and provides a wide scale of resource commitments. Apart from the consequences on the host nation, these events are of

Radiography Diagnostic Imagery Program Scholarship Essay

Radiography Diagnostic Imagery Program - Scholarship Essay Example When a person gets an illness there is no greater relief than knowing what disease you are suffering from. This way the medical community can immediately put a treatment plan into action. obtaining the bursary award would greatly help in my aspiration to graduate from the Radiography Diagnostic Imagery program. This program is a tremendous opportunity for me. I know that upon completion of the program I will have all the necessary skills and abilities to succeed in the real world. This career will enable me to become financially independent. The median salary of a radiographer in the United Kingdom is over 38,440 pounds per year. I would like to gain experience to eventually open up my own clinic. One of my aspirations upon graduating from this program is to go back to my homeland of Africa and give back to the community.In the current global medical environment, there is a shortage of talented professionals across the world. The shortage of manpower is evident in both develop and un derdeveloped countries. In the underdeveloped parts of the world such as Africa, the need for healthcare professionals is greater than any other part of the world. One of the problems in the African region is that there are very few educational institutions, thus the country is not graduating enough professionals to keep up with the demand for these services. Due to the fact that the salaries in Africa are very low in comparison with the United Kingdom or other parts of the world, it is hard for Africa to recruit talent. This is one of the reasons why supporting my educational goals can benefit society. I want to go back to Africa upon graduation in order to help out the community. I am a very giving person that believes in the value of helping others. Before the industrialized world took over our lives our ancestors lived in a society in which everyone depended on the efforts of each other. In order for the world to become a better place, more professionals have to dedicate themsel ves to social causes. I want to help others as much as possible. In the past, I have been involved in various volunteer and community service initiatives including scorekeeping at junior basketball games. Now that I’m about to become a resident of the United Kingdom I plan on reaching out to the local churches, non-profit organizations, and governmental institutions in order to find volunteering opportunities. The bursary award would be a blessing for me because I am in need of financial assistance in order to finance my graduate studies. I am not a native resident of the United Kingdom since I was born in South Africa. This fact implies that I am not eligible for the financial assistance scholarship and loan programs United Kingdom residents are entitled too. This places me at a competitive disadvantage in comparison with British residents. The tuition expenses to enroll in the university are very high and for me, the costs are much higher because I’m an international student. When I save money for tuition the economic laws hurt my position because the currency of South Africa is extremely devalued in comparison with the British pound. The conversion rate between the British pound and the South African rand is currently valued at one pound to 11.15 rand.

Poverty and Homelessness Essay Example for Free

Poverty and Homelessness Essay Over the years , we as a society have become insensitive to the major issues faced by the mankind and homelessness is one of those major issues. Millions of people, including children, families , babies ,veterans and elderly live day after day without food, water or a roof over their heads. People who are mentally ill also have it tough on the streets, which can be extremely confusing to them and dangerous to the rest of society. As the con side of this argument, it can be understood as a problem that must be solved soon and therefore should be addressed as major crises affecting the society. At the same time, I argue that it is not as big problem as it is made out to be. There are various reasons for why people are homeless and some of those reasons ,along with their effects as well as solutions are mentioned in this essay. The majority of homeless people are adult men. Many of these men choose to be homeless because that is the free lifestyle they want to live. Same is the case with many women and children. Homelessness life is not always as bad as it seems. Homelessness people have all the time in the world, they are free to do whatever they like without any restrictions. They can read books, take walks, go for hang outs and enjoy nature. There are the drawbacks of diminished health, alcohol and drugs and looks of disdain from other people, but any homeless people just live in their own world and enjoy it. According to my thought, homeless should just be allowed to live their lives. Second reason that can be considered as important for homelessness is that there are those people who do not make the choice of becoming homeless, but are forced of becoming homeless because of economic issues. For example, as the population is increasing at a very fast pace , it is getting difficult for everyone to find a job and as a result, unemployment prevails which directly leads to the issue of becoming homeless. There are the people that we need to help out financially. Thirdly, there are some people who make the choice of being homeless because they simply do not want to support themselves, these are the people that need to receive professional medical help. Our society can be seen as adversely affected by the problem of homelessness. Having no home can make it extremely hard for adults to get or keep work, being one of the causes of poverty which in addition to helping to maintain homelessness also helps turn households trying to be useful rospering citizens into victimized anti-social problem households breeding further poverty, drug addiction, alcoholism and crime. Homeless young people are much more likely to be not in education. In other words, the homeless people can not get access to a better education because they do not have the resources to fulfill their basic needs. Poor qualification, in turn, act as a barrier in finding job, as a result, future of the homeless people is spoiled. Poverty and desperation means some homeless people turn t o crime. This further decreases the chances of them finding work and escaping their situation. Homeless young people are more likely to be the victims of crime. Their situation puts them at risk of exploitation, particularly if they become homeless at a very young age. Homelessness has a huge effect on an individual’s both physical and emotional health. Homeless men and women suffer from cold that they can not get rid of because they have no access to medicine, food and warm housing. They also are more at risk for dependency on drugs and alcohol and contracting HIV. They suffer from vitamin deficiencies and often don’t get adequate sleep. Homeless people have no housing to protect themselves from physical violence and even rape. These can lead to emotional breakdowns that lead them to become institutionalized. In sum, homelessness is not a big issue for those who desires to be homeless, for instance , people who do not want to have social contacts with others , but , for the persons who are forced to become homeless ,it is a huge problem and needs to be solved. There seems to be two main elements in saving a homeless person. The government needs to help homeless people get back on their feet. They need to make sure also that homeless people do not abuse systems such as social security and housing. Also, homeless need to get up on their own two feet, for themselves. Finding jobs, such as selling â€Å"Homeless Newspapers† seems to be a common first step. To illustrate, a vendor gets the papers for free or low cost, sells them for something like a dollar and keeps 55 cents, or a little more than a half, for each sold. The homeless can then use this money to pay for food, shelter and other basic necessities. Many shelters exist whose primary goal is to provide homeless with a job and home. We help these people everyday without knowing as a proportion of our taxes go back to the community in many forms and one form is helping out the homeless. One can also help the homeless by volunteering at shelters. So if the government is willing to help get the homeless roused into the wanting of a better life, and they wish to follow through, then I suppose we could find a better, faster way to end the nation’s problem of homelessness.

Professional Athletes and Steriod Use Essay -- Professional Sports

Steroid is a name given to drugs that are manufactured from testosterone, a reproductive hormone found in men. Some athletes normally use anabolic steroids because these drugs improve one’s capacity to compete and train, yielding high results. Steroids work by reducing exhaustion during training, and also reduce the length of time an athlete needs to recover from exhaustion. In addition, steroids enable the growth of tissues and muscles in an athlete’s body by instructing the body to produce extra proteins. During the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, the first rumors of athletes using steroids emerged. The problem of athletes using steroids was again reported in 1954 during weight lifting championships. The Soviet athletes recorded a very impressive performance at all levels of weight lifting. Later on, the team’s physician admitted that the Soviet athletes were being injected with testosterone in order to increase their muscle mass and strength after being question ed about how they achieved their success. WHO (World Health Organization) in 1968 was the first party to complain about incidents of athletes using steroids, these sentiments were later backed by IOC (International Olympic Committee). This paper is going to give reasons why professional athletes should not be allowed to use steroids (Yesalis 25). Professional Athletes Should Not be allowed to Use Steroids Winstrol and Dianabol are the most frequently used anabolic steroids by professional athletes. The main disadvantage of using steroids in sports is that the use of these substances amounts to cheating. This is because steroids give unfair advantage to athletes that use them. Use of steroids has made some prominent athletes to rise and fall during their careers. In all ... ... Beamish, Rob. Steroids: A New Look At Performance-Enhancing Drugs. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011. Print. Canseco, Jose. Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, And How Baseball Got Big. New York, NY: Harper, 2005. Print. Goldman, Bob, Patricia J. Bush, and Ronald Klatz. Death in the Locker Room: Steroids & Sports. South Bend, IN: Icarus Press, 2004. Print. Mohun, Janet and Aziz Khan. Drugs, Steroids, and Sports. New York, NY: F. Watts, 2008. Print. Lau, Doretta. Steroids. New York, NY: Rosen Central, 2008. Print. Sterngass, Jon. Steroids. New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2011. Print. Stevens, Sarah. Steroids. New York, NY: Crestwood House, 2001. Print. Yesalis, Charles E. Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2000. Print.

Formal and Informal Communication: an Organizational Approach

Formal and Informal Communication: An Organizational Approach By: Masayu Shahnaz Winarko Student Number: 43005860 Faculty of Economics, Business and Law University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2012 Abstract This paper concentrates on the discussion of formal and informal communication and its usage in organizational approach. Although both formal and informal communication support the well-Â ­being of organizations, studies suggest that informal communication has taken a big part in determining the productivity in organizations and it has derived many benefits and many challenges. Managers should know how to deal ith such thing and optimize the advantages that will create value added for the company and overcome the obstacles it might create. Many researches have studied and given results on this matter and its application in businesses worldwide. 1. Introduction Communication occurs in every single section in life, from personal to professional issues. It is inevit able that it supports the flow of social life and company’s workflow. It has been taking an important role in organizations; therefore, many studies concentrate in the discussion of organizational communication. It is believed that both formal and informal communication affect rganization’s productivity (Litterst & Eyo). However, unlike formal communication, informal communication is less controllable and unstructured. Informal communication plays a strong role in determining the result of scientific field by generating new ideas or improving the existed idea (Hagstrom). FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 1 APPROACH Since informal communication has a strong impact on organizational performance, managers should be able to manage the flow of not only formal, but also informal communication. As business grows and the requirements needed in surviving within the competition keep adding on, xecutives should make the most effective use of every resource avai lable and by improving the flow of communication is one of the ways. This study will provide an analysis in dealing with managerial challenges regarding controlling the flow of informal communication and what managers should do to make the best of it. 2. Literature Review 2. 1 Communication Communication is the activity to convey messages through different channels, such as words, symbols and signs. Based on Duncan and Moriarty (1998), communication is a human activity that links people together and creates relationship. In order to create a successful communication, t requires three elements; they are the sender, the message and the receiver. Both the sender and the receiver have to share the same understanding so that the message can be fully transmitted. The success of communication is determined by how the message is understood by the receiver. As defined by Gamble and Gamble (2002), communication is the transfer of meaning and there are seven essentials of communication, which are people, message, channels, noise, context, feedback and effect. Although there are 126 different definitions on communication (Ruben & Stewart, 2006), but many scholars defined it as an exchange of information.Ruben & Stewart (2006) also stated that success in one’s career may well depend on communication. Not only in the individual performance, communication also determines organization’s performance. This present study will point out the importance of formal and informal communication and its applications within an organization. 2. 2 Formal Communication Formal communication is an organized and structured communication within an organization. The communication occurs in many flows. Upwards 2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH communication indicates the communication from employees to executives. Downward ommunication represents the flow of communication from executives to lower level employees. Horizontal communication shows the flow o f communication within the same level of company, for example the communication flow of brand manager and finance manager. The last one is diagonal communication, which represents the communication of the upper level of a particular division with the lower level employees in another division. The types of formal communication within an organization that are commonly used are meetings, conference, phone calls, company bulletin and interview. 2. 3 Informal Communication Informal communication is nevitable in every organizational entity. By communicating with other people, employees can find similarity in hobbies, opinions and experiences, which result in being friends. Informal communication is based on social relationship among people (Litterst & Eyo, 1982). Informal communication is relaxed, casual and spread through word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth. Informal networks are communication links between individuals and sections that bypass the formal structures in an organization (Smith, 2011) . There are four flows in communication networks; the first one is single strand in which one person tells another person, the second one is gossip hain in which one person tells the others, the third one is probability chain in which one person tells another person who pass the news to someone else and the fourth one is the cluster chain in which one person tells other two or three people who spread the news to other two or three people as well. There is another important term in informal communication, which is grapevine. Grapevine is best described as the way gossip travels through organizations. Robbins and colleagues (2008) indicate the characteristics of grapevine: it is not controlled by management, it is more believable and reliable for the employees and it serves he self-Â ­? interests of those in the group. 2. 4 Differences between Formal and Informal Communication FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 3 APPROACH No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Elements Definition Fl exibility Degree of control Evidence Discipline Formal Communication Informal Communication Takes place through Passing formal channels Flexible by Cannot be controlled No documentary proof is not followed formal channels Not flexible Controlled management Has documentary proof Official discipline are highly maintained is Discipline Flow of information Flows upwards, Flows freely to all downwards, horizontal directions and iagonal 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 2. 5 Differentiation and Complimentary Studies have attempted to determine which one between formal and informal communication has the most impact in organizations. Research suggest that formal communication takes role in the authority in organizational hierarchy (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987), differentiation of labor and specialized tasks (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987) and mechanism for coordination of work (Dow, 1988). Meanwhile, business communicators strongly believe that informal 4 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATION AL APPROACH Speed Secrecy Rumor Distortion Time MisunderstandingCost Mistakes Slow Can be maintained occur Not distorted Requires much time misunderstanding Expensive Very low Very fast Difficult to maintain Small chance of rumor to Rumor can occur Can be distorted Less time occur Less expensive Very high Not much chance of Misunderstanding may communication plays an important role in increasing innovations within organizations (Johnson, 1990). Johnson, Donohue, Atkin and Johnson (1994) conducted a study on the means of formal and informal communication within an organization through three main perspectives: salience, channel factors and channel usage. The research suggested that the employees erceive informal communication as more effective and better used in achieving company’s mission. However, in terms of cultural means, formal communication is perceived as a more appropriate way to communicate. 3. Case Study First and Tomic (2011) conducted a research regarding the role of informal communication in creating company brand image and preferences. In this research, the object was an international turnkey contractor specializing in oil and gas industry. This company employed more than 38,000 employees all over the world at the time this research was conducted. This company operates in business market, so not many eople acknowledge this company’s existence. However, this company concerns about its brand image. They use formal approach in spreading its existence to college graduates by coming to the university and do presentations on its company profile. Nevertheless, formal communication only does so much. They also rely heavily on informal communication role to spread the word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth on the culture of the company. For example, people know from their acquaintances that this company gives high salary to their employees and this news draws them to working for this company. The second example of case study comes from the research ofAndr ea, Arnaldo and Romano (2011). The case was about Italian leading mineral water and soft drink company. In 2008, the company held 16% of the segment mineral water in Italy, 12% in soft drink and 19% in tea-Â ­? based drink. Its ROE was 18. 1% while its competitor was only 13. 8%. Its inventory turnover was 12. 6 compared to its major competitor whose inventory turnover was only 6. 15. The study focuses on determining the role of formal and informal communication in making this FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 5 APPROACH company a leader in its filed. The study was conducted in three steps. The first one is dentifying the units that engage in the process of purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. The second step is tracing the flow of formal and informal communication during those activities. The final step is to identify how both formal and informal communication improved over time that results in a synchronized workflow of the company. The study suggested that formal communication was highly important in achieving internal integration (Andrea, Arnaldo & Romano, 2011), while informal communication is important in problem solving because it occurs in real time (Pagell). 4. Conclusion Based on the present and former studies conducted y many scholars on various objects (focuses on organizations in this matter), it can be concluded that both formal and informal communication are important in the productivity of the company and its performance as a whole. Managers should identify in which field the communication should be optimized and which way to use. There are several differentiations in the work progress on which it is better to use either formal or informal communication and managers should be well aware of it so they would not imply the wrong method of communication. As in optimizing the informal communication, managers should use personal approach as it ravels fast and is more favorable by the employees. Moreover, informal communication can be used in building company brand and image, so managers should be really careful that only the good values of the company is transmitted through informal communication. 6 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH References Andrea, F, Arnaldo, C & Romando, P 2011, ‘Case study: understanding how formal and informal communication affect purchasing, manufacturing and logistics integration’, Advances In Management, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 22-Â ­? 32. First, I, Tomic, M 2011, ‘Formal and informal communication channels in creating Formal and Informal Communication: an Organizational Approach Formal and Informal Communication: An Organizational Approach By: Masayu Shahnaz Winarko Student Number: 43005860 Faculty of Economics, Business and Law University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2012 Abstract This paper concentrates on the discussion of formal and informal communication and its usage in organizational approach. Although both formal and informal communication support the well-Â ­being of organizations, studies suggest that informal communication has taken a big part in determining the productivity in organizations and it has derived many benefits and many challenges. Managers should know how to deal ith such thing and optimize the advantages that will create value added for the company and overcome the obstacles it might create. Many researches have studied and given results on this matter and its application in businesses worldwide. 1. Introduction Communication occurs in every single section in life, from personal to professional issues. It is inevit able that it supports the flow of social life and company’s workflow. It has been taking an important role in organizations; therefore, many studies concentrate in the discussion of organizational communication. It is believed that both formal and informal communication affect rganization’s productivity (Litterst & Eyo). However, unlike formal communication, informal communication is less controllable and unstructured. Informal communication plays a strong role in determining the result of scientific field by generating new ideas or improving the existed idea (Hagstrom). FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 1 APPROACH Since informal communication has a strong impact on organizational performance, managers should be able to manage the flow of not only formal, but also informal communication. As business grows and the requirements needed in surviving within the competition keep adding on, xecutives should make the most effective use of every resource avai lable and by improving the flow of communication is one of the ways. This study will provide an analysis in dealing with managerial challenges regarding controlling the flow of informal communication and what managers should do to make the best of it. 2. Literature Review 2. 1 Communication Communication is the activity to convey messages through different channels, such as words, symbols and signs. Based on Duncan and Moriarty (1998), communication is a human activity that links people together and creates relationship. In order to create a successful communication, t requires three elements; they are the sender, the message and the receiver. Both the sender and the receiver have to share the same understanding so that the message can be fully transmitted. The success of communication is determined by how the message is understood by the receiver. As defined by Gamble and Gamble (2002), communication is the transfer of meaning and there are seven essentials of communication, which are people, message, channels, noise, context, feedback and effect. Although there are 126 different definitions on communication (Ruben & Stewart, 2006), but many scholars defined it as an exchange of information.Ruben & Stewart (2006) also stated that success in one’s career may well depend on communication. Not only in the individual performance, communication also determines organization’s performance. This present study will point out the importance of formal and informal communication and its applications within an organization. 2. 2 Formal Communication Formal communication is an organized and structured communication within an organization. The communication occurs in many flows. Upwards 2 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH communication indicates the communication from employees to executives. Downward ommunication represents the flow of communication from executives to lower level employees. Horizontal communication shows the flow o f communication within the same level of company, for example the communication flow of brand manager and finance manager. The last one is diagonal communication, which represents the communication of the upper level of a particular division with the lower level employees in another division. The types of formal communication within an organization that are commonly used are meetings, conference, phone calls, company bulletin and interview. 2. 3 Informal Communication Informal communication is nevitable in every organizational entity. By communicating with other people, employees can find similarity in hobbies, opinions and experiences, which result in being friends. Informal communication is based on social relationship among people (Litterst & Eyo, 1982). Informal communication is relaxed, casual and spread through word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth. Informal networks are communication links between individuals and sections that bypass the formal structures in an organization (Smith, 2011) . There are four flows in communication networks; the first one is single strand in which one person tells another person, the second one is gossip hain in which one person tells the others, the third one is probability chain in which one person tells another person who pass the news to someone else and the fourth one is the cluster chain in which one person tells other two or three people who spread the news to other two or three people as well. There is another important term in informal communication, which is grapevine. Grapevine is best described as the way gossip travels through organizations. Robbins and colleagues (2008) indicate the characteristics of grapevine: it is not controlled by management, it is more believable and reliable for the employees and it serves he self-Â ­? interests of those in the group. 2. 4 Differences between Formal and Informal Communication FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 3 APPROACH No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Elements Definition Fl exibility Degree of control Evidence Discipline Formal Communication Informal Communication Takes place through Passing formal channels Flexible by Cannot be controlled No documentary proof is not followed formal channels Not flexible Controlled management Has documentary proof Official discipline are highly maintained is Discipline Flow of information Flows upwards, Flows freely to all downwards, horizontal directions and iagonal 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 2. 5 Differentiation and Complimentary Studies have attempted to determine which one between formal and informal communication has the most impact in organizations. Research suggest that formal communication takes role in the authority in organizational hierarchy (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987), differentiation of labor and specialized tasks (Dow, 1988; Jablin, 1987) and mechanism for coordination of work (Dow, 1988). Meanwhile, business communicators strongly believe that informal 4 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATION AL APPROACH Speed Secrecy Rumor Distortion Time MisunderstandingCost Mistakes Slow Can be maintained occur Not distorted Requires much time misunderstanding Expensive Very low Very fast Difficult to maintain Small chance of rumor to Rumor can occur Can be distorted Less time occur Less expensive Very high Not much chance of Misunderstanding may communication plays an important role in increasing innovations within organizations (Johnson, 1990). Johnson, Donohue, Atkin and Johnson (1994) conducted a study on the means of formal and informal communication within an organization through three main perspectives: salience, channel factors and channel usage. The research suggested that the employees erceive informal communication as more effective and better used in achieving company’s mission. However, in terms of cultural means, formal communication is perceived as a more appropriate way to communicate. 3. Case Study First and Tomic (2011) conducted a research regarding the role of informal communication in creating company brand image and preferences. In this research, the object was an international turnkey contractor specializing in oil and gas industry. This company employed more than 38,000 employees all over the world at the time this research was conducted. This company operates in business market, so not many eople acknowledge this company’s existence. However, this company concerns about its brand image. They use formal approach in spreading its existence to college graduates by coming to the university and do presentations on its company profile. Nevertheless, formal communication only does so much. They also rely heavily on informal communication role to spread the word-Â ­? of-Â ­? mouth on the culture of the company. For example, people know from their acquaintances that this company gives high salary to their employees and this news draws them to working for this company. The second example of case study comes from the research ofAndr ea, Arnaldo and Romano (2011). The case was about Italian leading mineral water and soft drink company. In 2008, the company held 16% of the segment mineral water in Italy, 12% in soft drink and 19% in tea-Â ­? based drink. Its ROE was 18. 1% while its competitor was only 13. 8%. Its inventory turnover was 12. 6 compared to its major competitor whose inventory turnover was only 6. 15. The study focuses on determining the role of formal and informal communication in making this FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL 5 APPROACH company a leader in its filed. The study was conducted in three steps. The first one is dentifying the units that engage in the process of purchasing, manufacturing and logistics. The second step is tracing the flow of formal and informal communication during those activities. The final step is to identify how both formal and informal communication improved over time that results in a synchronized workflow of the company. The study suggested that formal communication was highly important in achieving internal integration (Andrea, Arnaldo & Romano, 2011), while informal communication is important in problem solving because it occurs in real time (Pagell). 4. Conclusion Based on the present and former studies conducted y many scholars on various objects (focuses on organizations in this matter), it can be concluded that both formal and informal communication are important in the productivity of the company and its performance as a whole. Managers should identify in which field the communication should be optimized and which way to use. There are several differentiations in the work progress on which it is better to use either formal or informal communication and managers should be well aware of it so they would not imply the wrong method of communication. As in optimizing the informal communication, managers should use personal approach as it ravels fast and is more favorable by the employees. Moreover, informal communication can be used in building company brand and image, so managers should be really careful that only the good values of the company is transmitted through informal communication. 6 FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPROACH References Andrea, F, Arnaldo, C & Romando, P 2011, ‘Case study: understanding how formal and informal communication affect purchasing, manufacturing and logistics integration’, Advances In Management, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 22-Â ­? 32. First, I, Tomic, M 2011, ‘Formal and informal communication channels in creating