Reviews on Financial Risk Management Essay Example for Free

Reviews on Financial Risk Management Essay The definition and types of financial risk III. Risk management and the theoretical foundation IV. The process of financial risk management V. The challenges faced by the modern financial risk management theories ?Abstract? Financial risks are exposures of uncertainties for those participants in financial market. Financial risks can be divided into four categories: market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk and operational risk. Risk management has become more and more crucial for a market participant to survive in the highly competitive market. As the development of the global financial market, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by traditional financial risk management theories. These phenomena have accelerated the development of behavioral finance and economic physics. The financial management theories have already improved a lot over the past decades, but still facing some challenges. Therefore, this report will review some important issues in the financial risk management; introduce some theoretical foundation of financial risk management, and discuss the challenges faced by the modern financial risk management. I. Introduction Financial risk is one of the basic characteristics of financial system and financial activities. And financial risk management has become an important component of the economic and financial system since the occurrence of financial in human society. Over the past few decades, economic globalization spread across the world with the falling down of the Bretton Woods system. Under above background, the financial markets have become even more unstable due to some significant changes. Many events happened during the decades, including the â€Å"Black Monday† of the year 1987, the stock crisis in Japan in 1990, the European monetary crisis in 1992, the financial storm of Asia in 1997, the bankruptcy of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, and the most recent global financial crisis triggered in the year 2008. All these changes brought enormous destruction of the smooth development of the world economy and the financial market. At the same time, they also helped people realized the necessity and urgency of the financial risk management. Why did the crisis happened and how to avoid the risk as much as possible? These questions have been endowed more significant meaning for the further development of the economy. Therefore, this report will review some important issues in the financial risk management; introduce some theoretical foundation of financial risk management, and discuss the challenges faced by the modern financial risk management. II. The Definition and Types of Financial Risk The word â€Å"risk† itself is neutral, which means we cannot define risk a good thing or bad. Risk is one of the internal features of human behavior, and it comes from the uncertainty of the future results. Therefore, briefly speaking, risk can be defined as the exposure to uncertainty. In the definition of risk, there are two extremely important factors: first is uncertainty. Uncertainty can be considered as the distribution of the possibility of one or more results. To study risk, we need to have a precise description about the possibility of the risk. However, from the point view of a risk manager, the possible result in the future and the characteristic of the possibility distribution are usually unknown, so subjective factors are frequently needed when making decisions. The second factor is the exposure to uncertainty. Different human activities were influenced at different level to the same uncertainty. For example, the future weather is uncertain to everyone, but the influence it has over agriculture can be far deeper than that over finance industry or other industry. Based on the above description about risk, we could have a clearer definition of financial risk. Financial risk is the exposure to uncertainty of the participants in the financial market activities. The participants mainly refer to financial institutions and non-financial institutions, usually not including ndividual investors. Financial risk arises through countless transactions of a financial nature, including sales and purchases, investments and loans, and various other business activities. It can arise as a result of legal transactions, new projects, mergers and acquisitions, debt financing, the energy component of costs, or through the activities of management, stockholders, competitors, foreign governments, or weather. (Karen A. Horcher). Financial risk can be divided into the following types according to the different sources of risk. A. Market risk. Market risk  is the  risk  that the value of a portfolio, either an investment portfolio or a trading portfolio. It will decrease due to the change in value of the market risk factors. The four standard market risk factors are stock prices, interest rates, foreign exchange rates, and commodity prices. The influence of these market factors have over the financial participants can be both direct and indirect, like through competitors, suppliers or customers. B. Credit risk. Credit risk  is an investors risk of loss arising from a borrower who does not make payments as promised. Such an event is called a  default. Almost all the financial transactions have credit risk. Recent years, with the development of the internet financial market, the problem of internet finance credit risk also became prominent. C. Liquidity risk. Liquidity risk  is the risk that a given security or asset cannot be traded quickly enough in the market to prevent a loss. Liquidity risk arises from situations in which a party interested in trading an  asset  cannot do it because nobody in the  market  wants to trade that asset. Liquidity risk becomes particularly important to parties who are about to hold or currently hold an asset, since it affects their ability to trade. D. Operational risk. Operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or from external events. Nowadays, the study and management of operational risk is getting more attention. The organizations are trying to perfect their internal control to minimize the possibility of risk. At the same time, the mature theory of other subjects, such as operational research methods, are also introduced to the management of operational risk. Overall, financial risk management is a process to deal with the uncertainty resulting from financial markets. It involves assessing the financial risks facing an organization and developing management strategies consistent with internal priorities and policies. Addressing financial risks proactively may provide an organization with a competitive advantage. It also ensures that management, operational staff, stockholders, and the board of directors are in agreement on key issues. III. Risk Management and the Theoretical Foundation Financial market participant’s attitude towards risk can be basically divided into the following categories. A. Avoid risk. It is irrational for some companies to think that they can avoid the financial risks though their careful management because of the following reasons. First of all, risk is the internal feature of human activities. Even though it doesn’t have direct influence, it could generate indirect influence though the competitors, suppliers or customers. Moreover, sometimes it might be a better choice for the manager of the company to accept risk. For example, when the profit margin of the company is higher than the market profit margin, the manager can increase the value of the company by using financial leverage principle. Obviously, it will be harder to increase the value of a company if the manager is always using the risk avoidance strategy. B. Ignore risk. Some participants tend to ignore the existence of risks in their financial activities, thus they will not take any measures to manage the risk. According to a research of Loderer and Pichler, almost all the Swedish multinational companies ignored the exchange rate risk that they are facing. C. Diversify risk. Many companies and institutions choose to diversify risk by putting eggs into different baskets, which means reaching the purpose of lower risk by holding assets of different type and low correlation. And the cost is relatively low. However, as to small corporations or individuals, diversifying risk is somehow unrealistic. Meanwhile, modern asset portfolio theory also tells us that diversifying risk could only lower the unsystematic risk, but not systematic risk. D. Manage risk. Presently, most people have realized that financial risk cannot be eliminated, but it could get managed though the financial theory and tools. For instance, participants can break down the risk they are exposed to by using financial engineering methods. After keeping some necessary risk, diversify the rest risk to others by using derivatives. But why do we need financial risk management? In other words, what is the theoretical foundation of the existence of financial risk management? The early financial theory argues that financial risk management is not necessary. The Nobel Prize winner Miller ;amp; Modigliani pointed out that in a perfect market, financial measures like hedging cannot influence the firm’s value. Here the perfect market refers to a market without tax or bankruptcy cost, and the market participants own the complete information. Therefore, the managers do not need to worry about financial risk management. The similar theory also says that even though there will be slight moves in the short run, in the long run, the economy will move relatively stable. So the risk management that is used to prevent the loss in short term is just a waste of time and resource. Namely, there is no financial risk in the long run, so the financial risk management in the short run will just offset the firm’s profits, and therefore reduce the firm’s value. However, in reality, financial risk management has already roused more and more attention. The need for risk management theory and measures soar to unprecedented heights for both the regulator and participants of the financial market. Those who think risk management is necessary argue that the need for risk management is mainly based on the imperfection of the market and the risk aversion manager. Since the real economy and the financial market are not perfect, the manager can increase a firm’s value by managing risk. The imperfection of the financial market is shown in the following aspects. First, there are various types of tax existing in the real market. And these taxes will influence the earning flow of the firm, and also the firm’s value. So the Modigliani ;amp; Miller theory does not work for the real economy. Secondly, there is transaction cost in the real market. And the smaller the transaction is, the higher the cost. Last but not least, the financial market participants cannot obtain the complete information. Therefore, firms can benefit from risk management. First, the firm can get stable cash flow, and thus avoid the external financing cost caused by the cash flow shortage, decrease the fluctuation range of the stock and keep a good credit record of the company. Secondly, a stable cash flow can guarantee that a company can invest successfully when the opportunity occurs. And it gets some competitive advantage compared to those who don’t have stable cash flow. Thirdly, since a firm possesses more resource and knowledge than an individual, which means it could have more complete information and manage financial risks more efficiently. If the manager of a firm is risk aversion, he can improve the manager’s utility through financial risk management. Many researches show that the financial risk management activities have close relation to the manager’s aversion to risk. For example, Tufano studied the risk management strategy of American gold industry, and found that the risk management of firms in that industry has close relation to the contract that the managers signed about reward and punishment contracts. The managers and employees are full of enthusiasm about risk management is because that they put great amount of invisible capital in the firm. The invisible capital includes human capital and specific skills. So the financial risk management of the firms became some natural reaction to protect their devoted assets. In conclusion, although controversy is still going on about the financial risk management, there is no doubt that the theory and tools of financial risk management is adopted and used by market participants, and continue to be enriched and innovated. IV. The Process of Financial Risk Management The process of financial risk management comprises strategies that enable an organization to manage the risks associated with financial markets. Risk management is a dynamic process that should evolve with an organization and its business. It involves and impacts many parts of an organization including treasury, sales, marketing, tax, commodity, and corporate finance. Company’s financial risk management can be divided into three major steps, namely identification or confirmation risk, measure risk and manage risk. Let’s illustrate it using the market risk as an example. First, confirm the market risk factors that have a significant influence to the company, and then measure the risk factors. At present, the frequently used measure of market risk approach can be divided into the relative measure and absolute measure. A. The relative measure method It mainly measures the sensitivity relationship between the market factors fluctuations and financial asset price changes, such as the duration and convexity. B. The absolute measure methods It includes variance or standard deviation and the absolute deviation indicator, mini max and value at risk (VaR). VaR originated in the 1980s’, which is defined the maximum loss that may occur within a certain confidence level. In mathematics, VaR is expressed as an investment vehicle or a combination of profit and loss distribution of ? -quantile, which stated as follows: Pr ( ? p ;lt;= VaR ) = ? , where, ? p said that the investment loss in the holding period within the confidence level (1 –? ). For example, if the VaR of a company is 100 million U. S. ollars in 95% confidence level of 10 days, which means in the next 10 days, the risk of loss that occurred more than 1 million U. S. dollars may of only 5%. Through this quantitative measure, company can clear its risks and thus have the ability to carry out the next step targeted quantitative risk management activities. (Guanghui Tian) The last step is management risk. Once the company identified the major risks and have a quantitative grasp of these risks through risk-measurement methods, those companies can use various tools to manage the risk quantitatively. There are different types of risk for different companies, even the same company at different stages of development. So it requires specific conditions for the optimization of different risk management strategies. In general, when the company considers its risk exposure more than it could bear, the following two methods can be used to manage the risk. The first way is changing the company’s operating mode, to make the risk back to a sustainable level. This method is also known as â€Å"Operation Hedge†. Companies can adjust the supply channels of raw materials, set up production plants in the sales directly or adjust the volume of inflow and outflow of foreign exchange and other methods to achieve above purpose. The second way is adjust the company’s risk exposure through financial markets. Companies can take advantage of the financial markets. Companies can take advantage of the financial markets wide range of products and tools to hedge its risk, which means to offset the risk that the company may face through holding a contrary position. Now various financial derivative instruments provide a sufficient and diverse selection of products. Derivative products are financial instruments whose value is attached to some other underlying assets. These basic subject matters may be interest rates, exchange rates, bonds, stocks, stock index and commodity prices, but also can be a credit, the weather and even a snowfall in some ski showplace. Common derivatives include forward contracts, swaps, futures and options and so on. V. The Challenges Faced by the Modern Financial Risk Management Theory Over the recent years, as the focus of risk management hifts from a control function to one of global financial optimization, the concern shifts from modeling the behavior of engineered contracts in selected markets to modeling the evolution of the entire economy. This change of focus calls for a vastly improved ability to model the time evolution of economic quantities. (Sergio Focardi). While those who do risk management are interested in predicting if assets will go up or down, the over-riding interest is in the relationship in movement to different assets. Though linear methods such as variance-covariance help to understand the co-movements of markets, a different set of tools is necessary to better manage risk. (Jose Scheinkman). Paradigms such as learning, nonlinear dynamics and statistical mechanics will affect how risk – from market and credit risk to operational risk – is managed. While the first attempts to use some of these tools were focused on predicting market movements, it is now clear that these methodologies might positively influence many other aspects of economics. For instance, they could be useful in understanding phenomena such as price formation, the emergence of bankruptcy chains, or patterns of boom-and-bust cycles. Lars Hansen, Homer J. Livingston professor of economics at the University of Chicago, remarks that these new paradigms will bring to asset pricing and risk management at enhanced understanding once the implicit underlying fundamentals are better understood. He says â€Å"What needed is a formal specification of the market structure, the microeconomic uncertainty, and the investor preferences that is consistent with the posited nonlinear models. Commenting on the need to bring together the pricing of financial assets and the real economy, he notes that an understanding of what’s behind pricing leads to a better understanding of how assets behave. â€Å"For risk management decisions that entail long-run commitments,† he observes, â€Å"it is particularly important to understand, beyond a purely statistical model, what is governing the underlying movements in security prices. † Blake LeBaron, professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Medison, observes that there is now more interest in macro moves than in individual markets. But traditional macroeconomics typically provides only point forecasts of macro aggregates. In the risk management context, a simple point forecast is not sufficient; a complete validated probabilistic framework is needed to perform operations such as hedging or optimization. One is after an entire statistical decision-making process. The big issue is the distinction between forecasts and decisions. (Blake LeBaron) Arriving at an entire statistical decision-making process implies reaching a better scientific explanation of economic reality. New theories are attempting to do so through models that reflect empirical data more accurate than traditional models. These models will improve our ability to forecast economic and financial phenomena. The endeavor is not without its challenges. Our ability to model the evolution of the economy is limited. Prof. Scheinkman notes that unlike in a physical system where better data and more computing power can lead to better predictions, in social systems when a new level of understanding is gained, agents start to use new methods. Prof. Scheinkman says â€Å"Less ambitious goals have to be set. Gaining an understanding of the broad features of how the structure of an economic system evolves or of relationships between parts of the system might be all that can be achieved. Prof. Scheinkman remarks that we might have to concentrate on finding those patterns of economic behavior that are not destroyed, at least not in the short-run, by the agent learning process. VI. Conclusion The theory foundation of modern financial risk management is the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, which notes that financial market is a linear balanced system. In this system, investors are rational, and they make their investment decision with rational expectations. This hypothesis shows that the changing of the future price of financial assets has no relation with the history information, and the return on assets should obey normal distribution. However, the study of economic physics shows that financial market is a very complicated nonlinear system. At the same time, behavioral finance tells us that investors are not all rational when making decisions. They usually cannot completely understand the situation they are facing unlike hypothesized. And most times they will have cognitive bias, when they use experience or intuition as the basis of making decisions. It will lead to irrational phenomena like overreaction and under reaction when reflected on investment behaviors. Therefore, it will be meaningful to study how to improve the existing financial risk management tools, especially how to introduce the nonlinear science and behavior study into the measurement of financial risk.

Uk Supermarket Price Competition And Non Price Competition Economics Essay

Uk Supermarket Price Competition And Non Price Competition Economics Essay The British supermarket is dominated by four main suppliers, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison which formed a large retail market chain in the UK for several years. This is called oligopoly market [Oligopoly Watch, 2003]. According to 123helpme.com (2009), an oligopoly is a market controlled by a few number of bulky firms which are interdependent. First of all, four main groceries in the UK have high degree of concentration. For example, in 2003, four supermarkets together have approximately three fourths market share in the retailers market which can be seen in the diagram. [Oligopoly Watch, 2003]. Moreover, based on the huge economics of scale and enable lower the price to consumers, the barriers to entry for other suppliers in the market are high. It is believed by Climate Change Crop (2006), consumer research told them that price, quality and convenience were the key criteria for the mass of shoppers. Therefore, the UK leading firms in supermarket chain begin the high competiti ons in price rivalry and non-price strategies. This essay will concentrate on analyzing both price competition and non-price competition among Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison, and then evaluates the advantages and disadvantages for the customers. Grocery market share Tesco  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   27.1% Asda  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   16.9% Sainsbury  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   16.1% Morrison/Safeway  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12.4% Sept 2003 rankings, Source: The Guardian Consumers have benefits for saving money because of immense high competition and low-price strategy among the main retailers in the UK. Those oligopoly firms such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison are interdependence. It can be easy to lead to price rigidity among major UK supermarkets which assumes that oligopoly market have cooperation in setting stable price in similar products. In addition, if one firm increases its price while other companies stay constantly, the firm who increase the price will lose market share because consumers do not want to purchase high price if they can also buy in original price in other groceries. This is called kinked demand curve theory. [Revision Guru, 2010]. As can be seen in the following diagram, P equals to price. Q equals to quantity. MC equals to marginal cost and MR is for marginal revenue. Demand curve is more elastic for a price rise than for a price fall. MC1 then a rise in costs to MC2 would result in stable price. Kinked demand curve theory [Revision Guru, 2010] Furthermore, it is reported by 123helpme.com (2009) that an action of one firm contributes to the change of other competitors. For example, rivals will be compelled to prevent to loss market share if a retailer lower its price. In UK supermarket chain, apart from Sainsbury which focus on produce quality and outstanding value to meet consumers need, other three retailers include Asda, Tesco and Morrisons are mostly low-priced based. To be more specific, Asda offers the cheapest price of the three companies [Thinking Made Essay, 2009]. Consequently, an ardent competition happens as a result of lowering price of those three rivals. Consumers are in favour of choosing the cheapest one to buy because they can save money. However, when competitors stay their products in high price, customers should have a positive aspect in charging more money. Both branded and qualitative products can satisfy consumers needs but should be paid in higher price than unbranded products. Owing to the effectiveness of the advertising and marketing which made by large firms, customers are willing to pay more money to buy branded products to satisfy their psychological needs. The Leading firms in the UK supermarket tend to produce branded products to attract more attentions from consumers and then increase sales. Morrisons, for instance, has eight different categories for food selling which consist of The Best a premium range; Eat Smart, a healthy range; Bettabuy, economy products; Organic and the free-range Free From collection [Whitwell, 2006]. These strategies are also barriers to those companies which want to come into the market. As a result, more consumers make their first choice to the branded products. If the companies want to obtain more market share among those competitors, they must also produce products which are in good quality. Ther efore, the fixed and variable cost cause the mark-up of the qualitative and branded products higher than other plain products. Even though consumers spend more money to buy these products, they also obtained the quality guarantee of the production [Tutor 2u, 2010] Other price competition such as discount by these UK groceries results in more money cost by consumers. In oligopolistic market, because major firms want to maximise their profit, they would get together and make a same agreement on product quantity or price which means collusion [S-cool.co.uk (2010)]. According to Oligopoly Watch (2003), Asda, Tesco and Morrisons built their reputations as discount chains to gain market share quickly, this lead to the decline of Sainsbury which has been the biggest retailers since 1995. However, those three large supermarket chains hope their discount can stimulate their consumers spend more money on other profitable products. This price strategy leads to the revenue of the chain increase sharply. The whole things cost costumers much more money than they spend as usual because of the discount on cheap products. Though the price strategies help a lot on increasing consumers expenditure and reputation, non- price competitions which concentrate on other strategies for rising market occupancy are also an essential part of attracting more purchasers. Consumers have power to change the shopping place if they do not think the service and quality of the original retailers satisfy them [Biz/ed, 2005]. Non-price competitions comprise numerous strategies such as mass media advertising and marketing, home delivery systems, innovative use of technology and internet shopping for consumers [Tutor 2u, 2010]. According to Thinking Made Essay (2009), the proportion that make consumers switch to other brands are correspondingly low. The leading UK supermarkets use non-price competitions to hope customers finish shopping and continue to purchase in the next time. Therefore, each of them focus on good service to shopping people because consumers may alter their choice to other grocery if they consider the one t hey buy usually do not content them. In summary, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison use different price strategies such as price stability and discount and non-price competition such as service. Consumers in the UK retailer chain have both positive and negative aspects. Owing to the interdependence of oligopoly, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison use price rigidity to control the market. Consumers have benefits for low-price strategy. Furthermore, the retailers use loss leader strategy; concentrate on good value but high price to consumers who may spend more money on those qualitative products. Whats more, customers can choose the best service supermarket because every groceries use non-price strategies to attract consumers attention. Nevertheless, price competition such as discount may cost more money in other profitable things. References Section: Biz/ed.co.uk (2005) Supermarkets and Oligopolies http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/news/2449.htm Climate Change Crop (2006) UK supermarkets Waking up to sustainability marketing http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4503 Oligopoly Watch (2003) British grocery  oligopoly http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2003/10/13.html Revision Guru.co.uk (2010) Oligopoly http://www.revisionguru.co.uk/economics/oligopoly.htm S-cool.co.uk (2010) Other features of oligopoly http://www.s-cool.co.uk/alevel/economics/market-structure-2/the-kinked-demand-curve-model.html Thinking Made Essay, 2009 Strategic Analysis of Morrison, Asda and Tesco http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/07/strategic-analysis-of-morrison-asda-and-tesco.html Tutor 2u.net (2009) Oligopoly http://tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/monopoly/oligopoly_notes.htm Whitwell Stuart, 2006 Stretch potential: the supermarket brands http://www.intangiblebusiness.com/Brand-services/Marketing-services/News/Stretch-potential-the-supermarket-brands~390.html 123helpme.com (2009) First 1500 characters of UK supermarkets Oligopolistic competition http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=97935]

Internet of Things in the Public Sector

Internet of Things in the Public Sector Abstract Context and Objective The Internet of Things (IoT) is not merely a step along the path to digital transformation, it is the driving force to the way we live today, and our future. Many items in our daily lives, whether at home or work will interact with each other, enabling   us to use them in different and new ways (Goerlich, K, 2016). The objective of this paper is to analyse to what extent charities, social enterprise, public sector organisation and public-private partnerships use (IoT)? how has (IoT) helped their business to grow? or does (IoT) need to be implied within their organisation and how? Framework, Model and Analysis For this assignment an Evaluation framework is going to be used. This ecosystem approach will emerge in the form of an (IoT) software platform (Iansiti, and Levien, 2004). This represents a set of reusable components, modules, and other building blocks that are shared by multiple applications and products (Baldwin and Woodard,2009). The use of Secondary data analysis is the chosen method for this study, as this method includes both qualitative and quantitative and will be significant for this study (Saunders et al., 2016, p316-318). Rationale and Findings The chosen three case studies will be on Oxfam, Google and Microsoft for this research. This is due to their present or lack of activities within the (IoT). Although Microsoft and Google have accomplished (IoT) within education, Oxfam still needs to consider the (IoT) element which can help the less fortunate countries that they work with. Working together will enable a great partnership. Contributions Contributions of this paper could lead to organisations adapting their approach to the IoT, and give an insight to how we can significantly improve our lives and future by understanding more about the IoT. Introduction The aim of this paper is to investigate   how far charities, public private partnerships and public sector organisations use IOT and to what extent do they use IOT in their business. A research will be conducted to see how IOT has helped these businesses grow. In order to do so three companies have been chosen for this paper. Kobie (2015) highlights that the Internet of Things (IoT) has been present for decades, in which, the core aim reflects on the connection of devices with the use of internet. Technology will enable the connected systems to develop fundamental areas, for example education (Greengard, 2015, p. 1). The internet everlastingly developing has become a fundamental asset to everyday life (Dutton, 2014). Kevin Ashton (cited in Buyya Dastjerdi, 2016) quotes that things aspect of the way we interact and live within the physical world that surrounds us needs serious reconsideration, due to advances in computing, Internet, and data-generation rate by smart devices. IoT is considered as a way of performing jobs with the support of everyday objects that are linked to sensors and networks (Wà ³jcik, 2016). This paper will look into how the three companies use or potentially can use IoT technology by looking at the literature review and research method, including appropriate theoretical framework, whilst aiming to improve the wellbeing of students in education. Background The chosen organizations for this assignment are Oxfam, Google Inc. and Microsoft.They have been chosen for numerous reasons that will be discussed subsequently. All three make use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in different ways, which have diverse impact and repercussions. Oxfam is a charitable organization that deals with a multitude of projects mainly against poverty and the factors that cause it. This organization represents a global drive with millions of people that believe we live in a society with abundant means and resources, thus, hardship and poverty should not be an everyday issue or anticipated (Oxfam, 2017). IoT plays a key role in this association because it is the means by which the society exposes its work, statistics and achievements to the public. Additionally, the company receives its donations online; therefore the web is vital for the life of the organization. Through the Internet the company gives numbers and facts regarding the work they do, and raise awaren ess through various social media profiles they possess. In this way, Oxfam uses the Internet as a tool for education regarding their activities and regarding many realities in the world. For this, people are more conscious and ultimately responsive towards the association. Google Inc. is an American search engine company, which was established in 1988. More than 70% of online researches are monitored by this organization, and this company today offers over 50 online facilities and products (Hosch and Hall, 2015). The Internet is at the heart of this company as the original nature of Google Inc. is of an online search engine. Also, in 2011, 97% of Googles revenue originated from online advertisements further demonstrating the importance of the IoT for the existence of this company. Google conveys in educating through the web by making any information easily available to the public. Also, it has established many more tools such as Google Scholar, Docs and Slide which ease the search of original documentation and the sharing of any type of document, further helping education. Microsoft Corporation is an American software company, founded in April 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen with headquarters in Redmond, Washington in the USA. The companys business is based on developing, manufacturing, and licensing software products, including operating systems, server applications, business and consumer applications, and software development tools, as well as Internet software, technologies, and services (Advameg, 2017). Literature Review DISCUSSION OF FRAMEWORKS It is essential to have clear understanding of IoT as it is forever developing and has a huge role in many lives. When looking into education, experts have been looking at new ways to help students get the most from their studies and succeed. The framework for Smart Buildings with cloud computing has been introduced in order to create smart environments with full use of resources (Carrillo et al, 2015). Carrillo et al (2015) also states that the framework includes the integration of Microsoft Azure, which is the main virtual database, and has control to manage the Smart control units. Microsoft Azure is also known to help education by providing a cloud-based service which includes managing applications, using tools and frameworks (Microsoft Azure, 2017). In comparison, the framework for evaluating internet of things platforms in relation to application provider viewpoint supports design and implementation which is the starting point of the device, and operations which supports three core areas; fulfilment, assurance and billing (Mazhelis and Tyrvainen, 2017). (Figure 1) An IoT application combines multiple software components that are dispensed across numerous redistribution points (nodes) that interconnect with each other (Figure 1). The Evaluation Framework was fabricated based on the service providers processes as defined in the TM Forums Business Process Framework à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and then utilised to evaluate the selected platforms (Mazhelis and Tyrvainen, 2014). As suggested by Mazhelis and Tyrvainen (2014), the initial analysis indicate that none of the platforms provide the comprehensive support for the application providers. However, with the assumption that all components remain mandatory and represent separate physical entities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The application provider will need to implement and integrate the software for each component or factor (Mazhelis and Tyrvainen, 2014). The framework, differentiates between the processes dealing with the design and development of the service And the core operations processes, which include the fulfil ments, assurance and billing processes (Figure 2) (Mazhelis and Tyrvainen, 2014). In order to prioritise and create strong values it is important to identify the most suitable (IoT) use cases as this can vary from service, IT, operations and many more (IoT Use Cases, 2017). IT and operations focus on creating a new technology project in which the product and asset connectivity includes the easy connectivity of devices to cloud services (PTC, 2017). When looking at the service aspect of (IoT), this includes areas such as remote services, which involves transferring files (IoT Use Cases for Service and Support, 2017). When looking into the education system, (IoT) will have a significant impact allowing schools to save money and help students develop high-tech skills (Augur, 2016). There are areas in which can be looked into that influence (IoT) in relation to education, for example, pupils can monitor their attendance on a wearable device, personalised learning materials, automatic purchases of stationery, data transfer including students receiving information on le ssons as soon as they enter the classroom (The internet of things for education: A brief guide, 2016). Melola (2016) states that the benefits of (IoT) includes safety of schools, tracking of resources and accessing information creating smart lesson plans.   MICROSOFT GOOGLE Despite the presence of cutting-edge technology influencing mainly specialists and enthusiasts, there is a lack of comprehensive engagement targeting the wider society (Mazhelis and Tyrvainen, 2017).   The technology industry giants Microsoft and Google are known to have engagement in (IoT) especially in education. On the other hand, there are companies such as Oxfam that do not involve with (IoT), however have the potential to do so to support those in education. Microsoft has introduced Microsoft Intune for Education which is a cloud-based service for teachers and students offering them a technological learning environment (Microsoft in Education, 2017). The virtual service allows schools to have access on applications and resources on any device, whilst ensuring that the data is secure (Microsoft Intune, 2017). The application is tailored for schools and integrated with Office 365 Education allowing teaching to become efficient, affordable, and safe (Microsoft, 2017). Google has also adapted to the use of (IoT) in which the Google Cloud Platform encourages secure, global, high-performance, cost-effective and constantly improving infrastructure (Google Cloud Platform, 2017). The service provides a wide range of benefits from computing to storage and development (Rouse, 2016) Oxfam Oxfam does not utilize (IoT) currently, however it could benefit from its use and definitely has the potential to do so. An (IoT) technology that Oxfam could use is smart buildings for education. Smart buildings are structures that use automated processes to automatically control the buildings operations including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security and other systems(Tracy, 2016). This is done through the use of actuators, sensors and microchips that collect and manage data for smart solutions. Oxfam could use this for a variety of projects as smart buildings enable the improvement of thermal comfort air quality, physical security [and] sanitation at lower costs and environmental impact (Tracy, 2016). For this, Oxfam could use such technologies in constructing new homes or improving existing ones and in educational buildings such as schools. This would improve the quality of education and create more affordable options for people in need. Microsoft could help O xfam with the use of (IoT) technologies with its public cloud-computing platform called Microsoft Azure. This platform is used for things such as computing, data storage, analytics and helping users capture, monitor and analyse (IoT) data (Rouse, 2012). Therefore, this platform could not only help with data from educational buildings but also help educational institutions process, share and store files for students and teachers. Research Method Our research method will consist of data collection from secondary data. For this report, the secondary data will be based on (IoT) and how it is used in the three companies and how they use (IoT) in relation to education. The secondary data will mainly come from books, journals, articles and internet search. In order to analyse the three companies for this assignment a business framework will be used and secondary data will also be used in order to analyse how (IoT) is being used in the three companies and how its being used in education. The reason for why Google, Microsoft and Oxfam are being used for this report is due to the fact that these three companies already use (IoT) in their companies and in the sector that we would like to focus which is education. The Internet of Things is not exceptionally another innovation; however, the Internet of Things is progressively an advancement since a wide range of existing advances will be consolidated.When looking at the report the primary focus is to look at (IoT) and how it is being used for education and this will include looking at what the three companies have created that is currently being used in education or is in creation. The education sector was chosen due to the fact that (IoT) is used in schools, universities, colleges. (IoT) these days makes teachers and students jobs easier. For teacher, there able to use learning platform to be able to research, and then upload their class materials in order for students to see online, this allowing time for the student to study and get ready for their class. However, this is just the beginning because students can now take notes without leaving the classroom, or they can be taking their notes on their iPads or their laptops. Students can now also assess books through their mobile phone or laptop, saving them carrying the books with them and also allowing them to be able to learn and study at their own pace. The surge in connected technology means that instructors do not need to manually grade tests on paper or perform other routine tasks. (Meola, 2016) For instance, Microsoft in Beijing they have created a connected classroom which is a new innovative classroom software which connects to students devices and allows them to see what is being written on the whiteboard, the software also allows teachers to see who is connected. (IoT, 2014). Universities now also have their own learning platform such as blackboard or Moodle. These platforms allow the university to see who is accessing the database and how often and are able to monitor your learning. (Meola, 2016).Google have created a G Suite which offers schools to a email, calendar, and also give students and teachers access to spreadsheets, documents and students can also create projects and the teachers are able to have access to this and see how the group work is going (Rochelle, 2016). As Rochelle (2016) says : G Suite for Education is the same set of apps that you know and love-Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, and more- but designed with new intelligent features that make work easier and bring teachers and students together. In this paper, the framework that is being used is the evaluation framework. The evaluation framework is used to evaluate (IoT) platforms and how they are developing and how the (IoT) platforms are improving, this is done by using openly accessible data about the platforms and the platform features and what services they have that support this (Mazhelis and Tyrvainen, 2017).The framework will be used to analyse Microsoft and Google as companies and what platforms that they currently have and analyse how they can use these platforms to help Oxfam. Analysis Increased numbers of institutions continue to embrace (IoT) platforms in the running of various operations with the objective of achieving efficiency. The new age has seen the popularity of (IoT) applications in organisations increase. Through (IoT), organizations can employ one intelligent network infrastructure to improve operations; increase safety and security and thirdly, gain valuable data insight to streamline automation. This trend has been the case for many companies cutting across the different industries from technology, transport, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and service among others. The different companies have employed this platform to streamline different activities or operations leading to better productivity. It is critical to note that the Internet of Things (IoT) is not exceptionally another innovation; however, the Internet of Things is a progressive advancement since a wide range of existing advances will be consolidated. The Internet of Things (IoT) can be defined as the interconnection of physical devices, sensors and actuators with the Internet through uniquely identifiable IP addresses. This interconnection is structured in ways to allow data to be gathered and communicated through connectivity technologies and (IoT) platforms (Nicole, 2017). This infrastructure can be seen as an additional layer of interaction and transaction of information and users of that information courtesy of the development of new devices, which have advanced capabilities including those of sensing, analyzing and communicating data by use of internet protocols. Ultimately, the development of the (IoT) comes to play a key role in bridging digital and physical realities through enhanced information-driven automation in various processes, critical to businesses and daily human lives.As noted, various companies have employed (IoT) apps to run their operations; while still more companies will in the future embrace (IoT) platforms to run their businesses. Among the top applications of the (IoT) is in the education sector; where various technology companies have developed (IoT) applications that allow their users to interact with new information in an effective manner. The cases include those of Google and Microsoft technology companies. These two giants in the technology sector took a lead in embracing (IoT) applications in facilitating their education services to the users of their service. Both companies employ (IoT) for education purposes. The application of (IoT) for education purposes in these companies has been exemplary due to the way thei r platforms have been tailored for the benefits of the users. Analyzing the case of Microsoft; it is evident that the company has taken a lead in the development and application of (IoT) platforms for education. According to Microsoft, the company envisioned a case where smart sensors would act as a mini-database with embedded machine learning algorithms. This today is a success due to its application in the creation of a connected classroom. Microsoft Company developed an (IoT) platform-Connected Classroom currently being applied in Beijing. This is a new program (software) that connects the students devices, and allows each learner to see what is being written by the instructor on the white board. This software further allows the teachers to see and follow up with who is connected (IOT, 2014).   This new software by Microsoft has worked greatly in allowing universities in Beijing to provide education to learners in a more effective manner.Besides, other universities have come up to adopt this (IoT) platform to see who is accessing thei r database and how often they do that. This (IoT) platform is of great benefit to the learning institutions through allowing the educators/instructors to follow up and monitor the learning process. It has also made it easier for teachers to connect with the learners in remote areas or catch up with learners who may not have the convenience of literally attending their classes (PustisÃÅ'Å’ek, 2014). Other related (IoT) softwares that are similar to Microsoft (IoT) platform are   blackboard or Moodle, which are owned by universities. This platforms allows a university to see who is accessing the database and how often. Google is another technology company that has developed an (IoT) application-the G-Suite. This is a software application that allows schools to share data through email; program data in the calendar, and allows the users (teachers and learners) to access documents, and spreadsheets. In addition, the G-Suite allows students to create projects and share data. The application further allows the teachers to access data fed into it, observe the group work that takes place, and monitor the learning process (Google 2017). The G-Suite for education is an app that is designed to make the learning process interactive and seamless by bringing the teachers and students connected. Ultimately, this allows effective learning process. Google G-Suite for education and Microsofts -Connected Classroom software applications can be used to help Oxfam. Oxfam as a confederation of charitable organizations with the objective of alleviation of global poverty would greatly benefit from these two applications developed by Google and Microsoft. One of the ways to alleviate poverty is through education. Enhanced education allows more people to access better jobs or create their own employment; thereby earning good incomes that would allow them to have a better life. Googles G-Suite for education can be used by Oxfam to reach out to places where the company runs its operations and allow more people to have access to learning (Skiba, 2013). In addition, Microsoft shared classrooms can be used by Oxfam. It can be used to reach out to areas of need, such as India and China; where shared classrooms will increase the numbers of learners at any given time. Discussion of Findings It is clear that (IoT) will be used in most of our lives, especially in the near future, as companies like Microsoft and Google are working towards making education effective by creating a virtual presence that can be accessible on most devices. As well as education, it can also be beneficial when looking at businesses and social life too. Whilst these companies look at fulfilling educational needs, other companies like Oxfam have not yet introduced (IoT) in education, however do have the potential to. Microsoft and Google can work with Oxfam with engaging in (IoT) in education. This would surely benefit the less fortunate people that Oxfam is focused on helping, and additionally it would greatly improve the company by advancing it with new technologies. Therefore, Oxfams progression to IoT technologies would lead to great benefits for different groups of people. Conclusions Recommendations In conclusion, IoT technologies are a current advancement that numerous companies are integrating into their organization. Some examples of this are Google and Microsoft, which are making noticeable progresses due to these technologies. Furthermore, there are companies who have not yet integrated IoT tools but have the potential to do so, such as Oxfam. Google and Microsoft could help companies such as Oxfam to develop and integrate the use of these technologies in their organization. This would significantly improve the management of charity organizations in general for education but also for costs, organization and environmental impact. Moreover, further research in this area could be conducted by considering more companies that use IoT technologies and analyse the benefits these technologies have conveyed to. Also, any type of organizations that do not have IoT technologies could be considered and an analysis could be done for how these could use the technologies and benefit from them. References Augur, H. (2016, December 13). IoT in education: the internet of school things. IBM. Available from https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/iot-education   [Accessed 2 March 2017] Baldwin, C. and Woodard, C. (2008). The Architecture of Platforms: A Unified View. in Platforms, Markets and Innovation. Available from http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/09-034_149607b7-2b95-4316-b4b6-1df66dd34e83.pdf [Accessed 1 March 2017]. Buyya, R., Dastjerdi, A. (2016). Internet of Things: Principles and Paradigms. Morgan Kaufmann. Carrillo, E., Benitez, V., Mendoza, C., Pacheco. (2015, October 25). IoT framework for Smart Buildings with Cloud Computing. IEEE Digital Library. Available from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7366197/?section=abstract [Accessed 1 March 2017] Dutton, W. H. 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The Internet of Things (IoT). Education Perspectives, 34 (1), pp. 63-64. Meola, A. (2016) How IoT in education is changing the way we learn. Business Insider UK. Available from http://uk.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-education-2016-9?r=USIR=T [Accessed 28 February 2017]. Microsoft. (2017). Microsoft Intune for Education supercharges schools with incredible device management powers.Microsoft News Centre. Available from https://news.microsoft.com/europe/2017/01/27/microsoft-intune-education-supercharges-schools-incredible-device-management-powers/#sm.00002x5lsmqk2fj611i1acyye9iys#2fX5CuYZ1wwtKGvV.97 [Accessed 2 March 2017] Microsoft Azure. (2017). What is Azure? Microsoft Azure. Available from https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/overview/what-is-azure/ [Accessed 1 March 2017] Microsoft in Education. (2017, January 24). Introducing Microsoft Intune for Education. Youtube. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukrnCwcLvV8 [Accessed 1 March 2017] Microsoft Intune. 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Oedipus Is to Blame in Oedipus Rex Essay -- Oedipus the King Oedipus R

Oedipus Is to Blame In Sophicle's Oedipus The King, Oedipus plays the lead character in the play. Oedipus plays blindfolded throughout the play. His character that he betrays is typical of those who honestly believe they have no part in the situation that occurs. I agree with Bernard Knox that Oedipus is responsible for the tragic outcome of the play. Oedipus's investigation of the death of King Laius is the reason for the tragic ending. The scene where Oedipus opens the investigation is the first step toward his downfall. Oedipus covers up the murder and is nervous when he hears the news. It is Oedipus's continuous effort to find the murderer. He wants to find the murderers of the king, not knowing that he is the murderer. Oedipus is the head investigator for the murder of King Laius. Even though he tells the people of Thebes that, "I am ready to help." He promises the people that he would do anything t...

We Need Tough Laws to Protect the Environment Essay examples -- Enviro

With Adam Smith and Milton Friedman among its illustrious fathers, the theory of the free market is a widely accepted and respected one today in America. It advocates the concept of a market as a self-regulating entity. By the working of natural principles such as free competition, consumer sovereignty, and maximization of the individuals' self-interest, the market is able to decide the allocation, utilization, and distribution of resources most fairly and efficiently. This characteristic of the market, known as the "Invisible Hand", is constantly hailed as one of the most imperative mechanisms of a capitalistic economy. At the same time, it is recognized that the free market does have its few but important limitations, the most notable of which are the natural emergence of monopoly, the existence of positive and negative externalities, the need for public goods that would not be provided by the market. Such instances necessitate the interference from institutions outside of the market, most commonly the government. The degradation of the earth's environment belongs to the last two groups of market failure types. Most proponents of the free market acknowledge that a clean environment can be considered as a public good because it defies the exclusionary principle; and that conversely, environmental degradation is a negative externality. Thus, a certain reasonable degree of outside intervention is required for the cause of environmental protection. The definition of this "reasonable level of outside interference" may vary depending on personal beliefs, but generally it can be characterized as "the less, the better." Private organizations' efforts are emphasized and preferred to governmental regulations and restrictions. Even w... ... Environmental Racism. Crisis in American Institutions. Edited by Jerome H. Skolnick and Elliot Currie. Allyn and Bacon. 2000. Commoner, Barry. "Why We Have Failed." Crisis in American Institutions. Edited by Jerome H. Skolnick and Elliot Currie. Allyn and Bacon. 2000. "Free Market Environmentalism". Edited by Robert Knautz. Policy Spotlight. Volume 1. Number 5. May-June 1997. Gelbspan, Ross. The Heat Is On. Crisis in American Institutions. Edited by Jerome H. Skolnick and Elliot Currie. Allyn and Bacon. 2000. Inter Press Service. "Big Corporations are Getting Bigger and Personal". December 4, 2000. March 5, 2001. "Origins of Fossil Fuel Disinformation Campaigns". The Heat Is Online. March 5, 2001. Snell, Bradford Curie. "American Ground Transport". Transport. 1973. Ideas & Institutions in American Society Course Reader, New York University. Spring 2001.

Prejudice and Ethics in Counselling Essay

If a counsellor finds herself drifting into judgemental thoughts upon listening to a client describe a lifestyle in which she eats all day, while attempting to lose weight, it will be extremely difficult for me to keep the results of my emotional response to this judgemental attitude from reflecting in my voice and choice of words in working with the client. Clients may be dysfunctional, but they aren’t emotionally insensitive or unintelligent, and are very likely to hear the implied feelings of the therapist. Obviously, this will do little to establish or maintain the kind of trust necessary for effective counselling. I need to recognise this more in myself. I am sure that intellectually I try to have no prejudices; however I know that I do because I can tell by the tone of my voice or the little voice that may appear in my head. I know that I am hypocritical in several of these instances. For example, I may think that that unemployed people are lazy, and that fat people are lazy too, when I have been unemployed and not looking for work. Even though I don’t often think in prejudicial terms I can do if under pressure and stressed, and looking for someone to blame. Therapists are necessarily aware of and respect cultural, individual, and role differences, including those based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socio-economic status and consider these factors when working with members of such groups. Therapists try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on those factors, and they do not knowingly participate in or condone activities of others based upon such prejudices. Because of the tendency to generalize, rather than be specific, it is quite possible to encounter therapists who simply don’t see obesity as a disability, and therefore excuse themselves, internally, from their prejudice in this area, rationalizing that the person is not disabled, but simply lazy. There are therapists who within the privacy of their own thoughts, may feel the same way about alcoholics or drug addicts. These therapists may realize that their prejudice is counter-productive to the therapeutic process, and may attempt to avoid voicing their feelings around other therapists or in the presence of their clients, but while they may succeed in not overtly expressing these feelings in front of their clients, they are usually unable to keep from letting them slip in the presence of their friends. If they are lucky, they will receive productive feedback, who may assist them in overcoming their own prejudices. This, in fact, is the idea behind supervision in the therapeutic process, wherein a therapist is monitored and overseen by another therapist who has more experience. This provides the opportunity for the therapist to be made aware of any limitations being imposed on the therapeutic process due to prejudicial attitudes, judgements, lack of education with regard to a particular illness, and many other areas. Realistically not all therapists receive the benefits of adequate supervision, and it is quite possible to find those that are limited by the prejudices with which they, knowingly or unknowingly, view the world, of which their clients form a part. Specifically addressing areas: Religious Affiliation Many of those who seek counselling have had atypical experiences in their upbringing. This often leads them into exploring areas of belief which most people with a more conventional upbringing would never consider appropriate, even if they were exposed to the opportunity. One example is Wicca which many people, out of ignorance, associate with devil-worship or something equivalent. If a counsellor is a devout Christian, with no exposure to the truth behind various forms of paganism, and if the client’s belief in these things comes up in the course of therapy, it may be very difficult for the therapist to resist a little preaching or proselytizing, or to avoid associating the client’s religious beliefs with their coincidentally ‘different’, and likely dysfunctional lifestyle. Obviously, if the client gets a sense of this, they are likely to shut down and be less forthcoming with their thoughts and feelings. Class This comes under the heading of ‘socio-economic status’. There are some therapists who firmly believe in ‘dressing down’ when working with clients from a disadvantaged socio-economic background. This doesn’t mean looking sloppy or wearing torn jeans, but just dressing simply as in trousers and a t-shirt, rather than a suit. While there is some truth to the value of not unnecessarily emphasizing a visual difference between the therapist and the client there are other therapists who insist that they should dress according to status. I feel that a therapist should dress in whatever way makes them feel most comfortable, since it is this feeling of being comfortable that the client will notice. Of course, there are other ways in which the therapist can err in contrasting their social status with that of the client. The client may get them to talking about themselves, and the therapist may let it slip that they just bought a new car. This does little to assist the client, and may engender the feeling that â€Å"sure, the ideas you talk about work for you, but that’s only because your life and background is so much better than mine†¦ hey’ll never work for me in my situation†. For this reason, therapists are trained not to indulge in disclosure of their personal life beyond what might be useful in establishing rapport with the client. Ethnicity This is a prominent area in which prejudice is not tolerable. There is a difference between overcoming prejudice against someone, and being proactive for someone of a race with which you are not closely acquainted. It is one thing to avoid politically incorrect vocabulary, but quite another to be aware of appropriate role models for those of another race, based on a knowledge of their contributions to society. Of course a client of colour is very likely to pick up on such limitations on the therapist’s part. Age Ageism is one of the most recent entries into the area of prejudicial conscience. Factors contributing to this prejudice include fear of death and loss of control, an almost worshipful regard for youth and beauty, a societal sense of self-worth based on productivity, and a stereotype of the elderly as being institutionalized and in poor health – something which is simply not the case with the majority of seniors today. Counselling a senior in regard to their love life will obviously be a stretch for the counsellor who is not age positive. Seniors are especially likely to be aware of, and sensitive to, any indication on the part of the therapist that they view them in some judgemental way as they’ve learned a lot about reading people in their lifetimes. Gender Sexism can severely compromise the ability of a therapist to nurture the self-esteem and independence necessary for a client to progress. A female therapist who is unable to get past her own expectations that a male should be the strong, responsible provider in a relationship is not likely to be of much value to a male client who needs to take the time away from such responsibilities which will facilitate his ability to explore deeply repressed feelings. Also women who have had a bad experience with a certain type of chauvinistic male may then begin to see men as inferior and have difficulty dealing with an assertive male. A therapist who has herself experienced domestic violence may feel uneasy or threatened by a male who divulges that he is or was a wife-beater. The therapist must be able to compartmentalise her own feelings in order to treat the client. Sexual Orientation and Practices Prejudice against a gay male may be inseparable from prejudice against the practice of anal sex. It is also equally possible for a male therapist to resent a gay female. Contempt is a difficult emotion to mask, and a client with an alternate orientation, or the practitioner of an unusual sexual lifestyle, maybe more likely to keep this quiet. If this information is never disclosed due to fear of repugnance, it may hamper the progress of therapy. Mental Health Diagnosis Most therapists have been carefully trained to be cognizant of the very real stigma which a diagnosis of mental illness can cause in the experience of a client. When you consider that a large percentage of therapists initially enter the field of mental health either seeking to comprehend their own problems or out of the desire to help others which is based on having been raised in an emotional environment which promotes the dysfunctional beliefs of co-dependency, it is not hard to understand that they might a familiarity with the trauma of mental illness in the course of their own upbringing. Such a background can emerge during therapy as fear of, or repulsion by, certain symptoms or behaviours which might have been exhibited by family members during their own childhood, and caused them to experience their own traumas. If these feelings haven’t been resolved, the therapist may resist the very presence of the client whose behaviours trigger unresolved emotions from their own past. It is hardly therapeutic for the therapist to feel threatened by the client when they are at their worst in terms of symptoms or behaviours. A therapist who is only comfortable with clients who are acting ‘normal’ isn’t much good. Physical Disorders Any disability which is not understood can engender fear and loathing, nervousness and uncertainty. A client with cerebral palsy in addition to a mental disorder may have to work at finding a therapist who has the patience, compassion and education about the physical condition needed to make any headway into the mental condition. In this sense it is also a responsibility of the client to interview the therapist to ascertain that the therapist is competent. Most therapists eventually realize that the nature of their occupation requires that they work on and resolve their own issues as diligently as they work on resolving the issues of their clients. Having removed the emotional blocks which might cause them to unconsciously stifle the feelings nd behaviours of their clients, they still need to educate themselves in the area of multicultural awareness so as to be able to provide motivation and proactive guidance to the clients in their charge regardless of age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, socio-economic status, or any combination of these. Other things that may induce prejudice are: †¢ Jargon – the use of specialized language, creating barriers which reinforce power differences. Stereotypes – terms use d to refer to people from different groups, i. e. older people as ‘old dears’. †¢ Stigma – terms such as ‘mental handicap’ carry a damaging stigma. †¢ Exclusion – this might be inadvertently asking a Muslim what his ‘Christian’ name is, rather than his ‘first’ name. †¢ Depersonalization – this relates to terms such as ‘the elderly’ rather than ‘older people’ and ‘the mentally ill’ rather than ‘people with mental distress’ Use of language with clients: I believe it is critically important to explore our use of language as therapists. Mindful of some of the settings in which counsellors work and the specific difficulties clients struggle with, we need to be sensitive to some of the words in common use and which are deeply offensive. Working with people who have dependency problem we must be aware not to term suffers as ‘drug user’, ‘drug abuser’, ‘drug pusher’ or ‘recreational drug use’, ‘alcoholic’, ‘alcohol abuser/misuser’ It is only in recent years that we have developed a language to describe the phenomenon of child sexual abuse. Previously there was no discourse and children’s distress went often unheeded. Burstow (1992: 202) refers to ‘eating disorders’ as ‘troubled eating’. She says ‘There is nothing more orderly than the precise regimen that women who are anorexic follow’. We hear of ‘date rape’ and somehow it is thought to be less traumatic or damaging than other rape. Burstow (1992) refers to ‘psychiatric survivors’ having been ‘psychiatrized’ by the system, and Wilson and Beresford (2000) use the term ‘people with madness and distress’ rather than the more sanitized ‘mental health service users’. It is important for the therapist to develop awareness of the social and political backdrop to their clients’ stories. Does this woman, for example, stay in a violent relationship because of her personal psychology, or do issues of poverty and powerlessness and lack of appropriate support services contribute to her problems. Is she a black woman? What would her (and her children’s) experience be of a refuge where all the other women, including workers, were white. And if she were a lesbian, how might she be received or understood by her heterosexual peers.

Examination Is Good or Bad for Students Essay

The news that mid-term exams have been cancelled in some primary schools recently has sparked quite a few controversies. Some people regard it as a big step in educational reform, while others question whether it is on the right track. Parents, teachers and students, the three parts involved, have all reacted a little bit pessimistically toward the new policy. Parents, always busy working to support their families, feel that they are losing an important quantified judgment for their children’s behaviour or performance at school and are more worried than relaxed about their children’s increased spare time. Most of them, I believe, prefer bookworms to idlers or addicts. Some parents have decided to pay more for after-school classes. Teachers, whose feet have been bound for a long time in teaching children, are beginning to lose their last control over the already spoilt students. How to check the teaching and learning effect? How to communicate with parents? How to keep students working hard to get good marks in the later, more important exams? Furthermore, maintaining their full work load, they are required to squeeze more of their meagre spare time to prepare additional lessons for â€Å"quality education†. On the other hand, the suddenly liberated students have to find ways to fill their time. They delay homework and sometimes become addicted to computer games or just wander the streets. Adopting a bad habit is much easier than forming a good one. Objectively, the exam itself is not bad. It is a most effective measure of a student’s knowledge, performance and ability. But people have made it into a disaster. Since when was our education caught in such a vicious circle? Textbooks have remained unchanged for many years and have become purely ornamental, while exam questions are changed from year to year. The only way to do this is to use more and more tricky questions. In fact, what we test our students on is much more difficult than what textbooks teach. To satisfy real needs, both teachers and students choose to be drowned in a sea of exercises and exams. On the other hand, years of cramming miscellaneous rules, formulae and information may have strengthened our students’ ability to imitate, memorize and take exams, but at the cost of their initiative and creativity, two of the most important qualities that a student should possess. That may well answer the question why there is no Nobel-prize winner in China. I interpret the purposes of abandoning these exams as follows: First, it is to answer the call of reducing students’ heavy burdens in their studies and return to them their happy childhood. For years, we have been appealing for students to be freed from mountains of homework and extra classes, to no avail. Students have to do that! Only through immersion in all kinds of exercises and classes can most of them get comparatively satisfying results in various exams. Therefore, the cancellation of exams is intended to remove a root cause of students’ toil and give them more play time. Second, it is to help relieve students of great pressure and protect their self-esteem. In fact, what frightens students are not exams, but the tremendous strain and high expectations behind them. Exams divide students into â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad†, leading some of them to a paradise of beautiful flowers and sweet compliments and others to a hell of bitter criticisms and severe punishments. Exams often bring parents ecstasy or plunge them into the abyss of misery. Exams determine students’ futures and are a crystallization of a single person’s success or failure and a whole family’s hope or disillusionment. Since their first school day, students have been preparing for a diversified exam. For that reason, the cancellation of exams seems to save most families from suffering. But I doubt whether the benefits could be realized – mid-term exams in primary schools are only one minor link in a whole chain of exams. Will all these exams, eg. inal-term exams, Secondary School Entrance Exams, College Entrance Exams, and broad after-school exams for certificates in social achievement be called off too? If not, students dare not shrug away their shackles and their fragile self-esteem will not last for long and their happiness is doomed to be temporary. On the other hand, if a student’s self-esteem totally depends on the cancellation of exams, it would be too weak to protect. Our society is neither an ivory tower nor a haven of peace. It is full of competition and struggles. Setbacks are inevitable and we need them to temper ourselves. Don’t be misunderstanding. I am not an exam advocator. The exam-oriented education stifles teachers as it does students. What I mean is that we cannot solve a problem by taking only a stopgap measure. The root cause lies not in exams, but in the whole educational system. The first thing we should do is to change our inherent educational ideas of talent cultivation and create an active, healthy environment of teaching and learning. It will be a long way. What we need is not the cancellation of a single exam, but an earthquake in our education.