Psychological contract breach effects and violation on employees

Psychological contract breach effects and violation on employees Abstract The goal of this study is to examine the influence of personality on the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation and its respective impact on employees work-related outcomes such as turnover intentions and counterproductive work behaviors. In this paper, personality was assessed on the basis of the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990) that is comprised of the following dimensions: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability and Openness to Experience. Introduction In difficult times when companies must adapt to different changes in the global economic climate work behaviors are of great interest to organizations. In trying to retain the best employees, managers are interested in reducing turnover and preventing counterproductive behaviors. In order to understand employee responses and reactions to the work environment, contracts become vital as they create a behavioral guideline for both the employee and the organization. The psychological contract is a major element of any employee organization relationship, and consists of an employees beliefs concerning the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between that focal person and another party (Rousseau, 1989, p.123). Employees often feel that their organization has not fulfilled at least some of the promises it has made; and when they do their psychological contract is said to have been breached (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). Numerous studies have analyzed the consequences of psychological contract breach on employees work-outcomes and generally conclude that there is a positive relationship between psychological contract breach and job dissatisfaction and turnover intentions (Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, Bravo, 2007; Bal, de Lange, Jansen and Van der Velde, 2008). Psychological contract violation has been defined as feelings of betrayal and deeper psychological distress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [whereby]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the victim experiences anger, resentment, a sense of injustice and wrongful harm (Rousseau, 1989, p129). While psychological contract breach may not always lead to undesirable work-related attitudes, it is expected that employees who experience intensely negative feelings might take different measures against the organization they work for (Suazo et al., 2005). This is why in this paper we focus on the role of psychological contract violation as the mediator between psychological contract breach and employees work-related outcomes. But do all people have the same reactions to contract breach or could it be that there are individual differences in personality that lead some employees to react more strongly to psychological contract breach than others? Many authors have investigated the relationship between personality traits and job related outcomes (Judge, Heller and Mount, 2000; Tallman and Bruning, 2008), but there is little research on the relationship between personality and psychological contract breach and violation. Raja, Johns and Ntalianis (2004) is one of the few articles that report on the impact of personality on psychological contracts. These authors found that people high in neuroticism and low in conscientiousness are the ones that are more likely to perceive psychological contract breach. Moreover, the paper revealed that some personality traits moderated the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation. People high in neuroticism tended to perceive a stronger relationship between breach and violation than people high in locus of control. The main focus of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the psychological contract breach and violation relationship by analyzing whether this relationship is moderated by the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990).The study tries to fill in a gap in the existent psychological contract literature by examining the extent to which personality can explain changes in employees attitudes. Compared to other studies in the field, this study focuses on all five personality traits of the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990). This study is structured as follows: the next section describes the current state of the art with respect to psychological contract breach and violation; section three includes the research method and data collection; results will be discussed in section four and the main findings and implications for study and practice along with limitations and suggestions for future research in section five. Literature review and hypotheses The psychological contract As explained in the introduction, the term psychological contract is used to explain the relationship between an employee and an employer and the promises they have made to one another. Many researchers have explained the psychological contract in terms of social exchange theory. This theory (Blau, 1964; Robinson and Morrison, 1995) suggests that individuals enter relationships which consist not only of economic exchanges but also of more diffuse social obligations. These obligations change over time, but research has shown that individuals feel most comfortable when they are in a balanced exchange environment (Gouldner, 1960; Wayne, Shore and Liden, 1997), an environment where they feel that there is a fair equilibrium between what they offer the organization and what they receive in return. When the organization fails to fulfill its promises, employees might feel that there is inequality in the employment relationship (Lester, Turnley, Bloodgood and Bolino, 2003) and might as a result be inclined to take actions to rebalance their work situation, by for example reducing their contribution to the organization (Rousseau, 1995). Psychological contract breach and violation The psychological contract is a subjective perception, so the employee and the organization can possess radically different views of what are the obligations or promises that they have made to one another (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). This is why often employees feel that their psychological contract has been breached and that the organization has failed in keeping its promises (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). Although both the employee and the employer can feel that the contract has been breached by the other party, in this paper, as in many investigations on the psychological contract (cf. Zhao et al., 2007) the focus is on the perspective of the employee. In the early phases of research into the psychological contract there was not a very clear distinction between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation and researchers used these terms interchangeably (Suazo, Turnley, Mai, 2005). In 1997, Robinson and Morrison made a clear distinction between the two. These authors defined psychological contract breach as a cognitive perception, while psychological contract violation was defined as the emotional or affective reaction that can sometimes arise from the perception of a breach of the psychological contract (Morrison and Robinson, 1997). Research has shown that not all breaches lead to emotional reactions on the part of employees (Morrison and Robinson, 1997; Turnley and Feldman, 1999a) because these emotional reactions can be influenced by different individual differences such as personality (Raja et al., 2004) or fairness perceptions (Morrison and Robbinson, 2000), but in those cases where emotional reaction do es occur the employee may have feelings of anger, injustice, resentment and distrust toward the organization that has not honored its promises (Raja, Johns and Ntalianis, 2004). Several studies have linked psychological contract breach to violation. Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, Bravo (2007) have summarized these studies and report a meta-analytic correlation of 0.52 (p In line with research findings and with social exchange theory, it is proposed here that psychological contract breach is positively related to psychological contract violation. Hypothesis 1: Psychological contract breach is positively related to psychological contract violation. Psychological contract breach and employees responses Previous studies have linked psychological contract breach to negative work outcomes (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994; Robinson and Morrison, 1995). When psychological contract breach occurs, employees start reducing their contribution to the organization as they feel that the organization has failed them (Robinson, 1996). Turnover intentions and counterproductive behaviors are employee possibilities of reducing their efforts and contributions towards the organization they work for. Zhao et al. (2007, p.651) define turnover intentions as the subjective probability that an individual will leave his or her organization within a certain period of time. The meta-analytic study shows that there is a positive correlation between psychological contract breach and turnover intentions (r=.42, p Hypothesis 2a: Psychological contract breach will be positively related to turnover intentions. Counterproductive behavior can be seen as destructive reactions toward an organization (Kickul, Neuman, Parker, Finkl, 2002). When employees feel that there psychological contract has been breached their level of commitment and trust in their organization decreases (Ball, Trevino, Sims, 1994) and they might react destructively toward the organization (Kickul et al., 2002). This reaction may be characterized by a set of different deliberate acts that harm the organization or even the organizations stakeholders such as clients, owners or supervisors (Spector and Fox, 2005). Counterproductive behavior is a very broad construct which contains behaviors ranging from theft or sabotage to violence against others (Gruys and Sackett, 2003). Each one of these actions create great problems to the organization and are also economic threats as organizations need to spend money to protect themselves against such actions (Bennett and Robinson, 2000). The employees counterproductive actions may even escalate until the level where they interfere with co-workers jobs or where they give a disrespectful treatment to their supervisors (KicKul et al., 2002). Bordia et al. (2008) found that the psychological contract breach was positively related to both minor offenses (ÃŽÂ ²=0.44,pË‚.001) and major offenses (ÃŽÂ ²=0.49, pË‚.001) of the employees at the work place. Following on their results, we propose that psychological contract breach will be positively related to the employees counterproductive behavior. Hypothesis 2b: Psychological contract breach will be positively related to counterproductive behavior. Psychological contract violation Prior to 1977, the terms psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation were used as synonyms, so much of the existent literature focused on the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees responses. Only after the paper of Robinson and Morrison (1997) the two became the separate concepts as we know them now. In this part of the paper we introduce psychological contract violation as a mediator of the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees reactions. As not all contract breaches results in feelings of violation and not all employees respond negatively to their psychological contract being breached (Morrison and Robinson, 1997; Rousseau 1995, Turnley et al., 2003) we believe that it would be interesting to test whether psychological contract violation could have a mediating effect on the psychological breach employees reactions relationship. One paper that focuses on the mediating role of psychological contract violation is the meta-analysis of Zhao et al. (2007). The authors use affective events theory to explain the relationship between psychological contract breach, affect (violation and mistrust), job attitudes and individual effectiveness. Following this theory, a negative event at the workplace causes negative emotional reactions, which in turn are taught to cause negative work attitudes (Bal et al., 2008). In their study, the authors find psychological contract breach to be a negative event leading to emotional reactions and job attitudes. The authors found that psychological contract violation fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intentions to quit. While psychological contract breach may not always lead to undesirable work-related attitudes, it is expected that employees who experience intensely negative feelings (psychological contract violation) will take some measures (such as leaving the organization or working less) against their organization (Suazo et al., 2005). Based on the affective events theory we expect that psychological contract violation will mediate the relationship between psychological contract breach and employee responses toward the organization they work for. Hypothesis 3a: Psychological contract violation will mediate the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees turnover intention. Hypothesis 3b: Psychological contract violation will mediate the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees counterproductive behavior. 2.5 The moderating role of personality Robinson and Morisson (2000) showed that attributions and fairness perceptions moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation. The authors explain that when employees felt that they were treated unfair there was a stronger relationship between the breach of the psychological contract and an emotional reaction to it, so lower levels of fairness were predicting violation. Other papers suggested that organizational influences and also employees personal dispositions may be predictors of psychological contracts (Rousseau, 1995; 2001). But only little research has been conducted on the relationship between personality and psychological contract breach (Raja et al., 2004; Tallman and Bruning, 2008) even though there are a lot of papers that emphasize the importance of personality on work attitudes such as job performance or job satisfaction (Barrick and Mount, 19921; Judge and Bono, 2001). The focus of this study is to analyze whether personality might moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation. We consider that personality could significantly influence this relationship because personality can explain how people differ in their social interactions, reaction to perceived injustice and attachment of importance to various extrinsic and intrinsic outcomes (Raja et al., 2004, p354). Zhao et al. (2007) also state that future research should focus on personality as a moderator when studying psychological contract breach and outcomes. The personality dimensions used in the paper are derived from the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990) and consists of 5 personality types: Extraversion, Neuroticism (Emotional Stability), Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience. We chose this model of personality because it has been used in a variety of studies (Barrick and Mount, 1991; Judge, Heller and Mount 2002, Raja et al. , 2004) and have been related to numerous work attitudes and behaviors (Costa and McCrae, 1992). Raja et al. (2004) article is one of the very few studies that established a connection between personality and psychological contract breach. These authors studied only the effect of Neuroticism, Extraversion and Conscientiousness, because they were unable to establish a reliable level of measurement for the Agreeableness dimension and considered Openness to Experience to be a too controversial structure. Still, in a more recent study of Tallman and Bruning (2008) the authors were able to measure all of these personality dimensions with the help of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory questionnaire, so we decided to also focus on all five personality aspects and their relation to the psychological contract breach and violation. The authors (Raja et al., 2004) found that employees personalities are related to their contract choice, as people high in neuroticism will tend to choose transactional contracts, while people high in conscientiousness or extraversion prefer relational ones. Transactional contracts are characterized by short-term economically focused attitudes and relational ones by a set of long-term attitudes that include features like loyalty or security (Raja et al., 2004). The authors also found that people who were more sensitive to equity issues (equity sensitivity dimension) were more likely to feel negative emotional reaction when there psychological contract was breached, than people who were more internal (external locus of control dimension). Tallman and Bruning (2008) extended the study of Raja et al. (2004) and the research on the relationship between psychological contracts and personality, by studying the link between employees personality and their beliefs regarding the employees obligations and organizational behavior. The authors linked personality to nine employee psychological contract obligation dimensions: commitment to the organization, commitment to the job, stewardship behaviors, showing initiative, serving the needs of the organization, support in the job, growth, support as a person and existence and their results showed that employees personality explained the variance for 4 out of 9 dimensions. Even more, they found that each of the Five-Model Personality dimensions was related to at least one of the dimensions, indicating that using all the 5 personality types was important for the study. As research has showed personality is an important factor in employees beliefs regarding their psychological contract; this is why we believe that personality might moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, influencing the extent to which employees perceive there psychological contract being violated and not only breach. The next part of this chapter will be divided according to the Five-Factor Model: Extraversion (1), Neuroticism (Emotional Stability) (2), Conscientiousness (3), Agreeableness (4) and Openness to Experience (5). Extraversion (1) Extroverts are highly sociable, talkative, energetic, ambitious and assertive (Costa, McCrae, 1992). The assertiveness of extroverts is associated with a desire for increased status and salary (Cattell, 1981). Extraversion is associated with high job performance, job satisfaction and team performance (Judge and Ilies, 2002; Judge and Bono, 2000; Kickul and Wiesner, 1997). Previous studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between extraversion on the one hand and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002) and organizational commitment (Erdheim et al., 2006) on the other. Even though extroverts are seeking for monetary rewards they tend to form long-term relationships, because in these ones they can develop themselves and have better opportunities to gain a better status and a better income (Tallman and Bruning, 2008). Tallman and Bruning (2008) found that there was a positive correlation between the extroversion personality dimensions and the perceived obligation extrovert people felt organization towards them in fulfilling their growth needs (ÃŽÂ ² = .25, p Extroverts are high performers and they are committed to their organization (Tallman and Bruning, 2008), in addition they are assertive, so they will tend to stand up for their rights. Breaching the psychological contract of extroverted people will probably lead to stronger negative emotional feelings toward the organization they work for than when comparing to introverted people. This is why it is proposed here that extroverts will be more likely to react emotionally to their psychological contract being breached than non-extroverts. Hypothesis 4b: Extraversion moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation, so that the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation is stronger for extroverts than for introverts. Neuroticism (2) People high in neuroticism are anxious and lack trust in people, and it is said that they are more prone to perceive failures in life (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, Barick, 1999). They have a greater tendency to pay attention to the negative side of a situation than other people who have a more balanced view of things (Ho, Weingart, Rousseau, 2003). They are usually poor team performers and they fear change (Kichuk and Wiesner, 1997). Previous research has shown a negative relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002). Other authors have linked neuroticism to a preference for transactional psychological contracts (Raja et al., 2004) because these contracts do not require much initiative or confidence (Raja et al., 2004). Tallman and Bruning (2008) showed that neuroticism is positively related to the organizations obligations to provide support for the employees and to stewardship behavior. Because people high in neuroticism are more worried and anxious we believe that their reaction to a psychological contract breach would be stronger than that of people emotionally stable. This is why we propose that people high in neuroticism will have stronger emotional reaction and will tend to perceive their psychological contract as being violated. Hypothesis 4a: Neuroticism moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation, so that this relationship is stronger for people high in neuroticism than for those low in neuroticism. Conscientiousness (3) Conscientiousness is related to an individuals degree of self-control, need for achievement, order and also persistence (Costa, McRae Dye, 1991). Conscientious people tend to be more concerned with tasks accomplishment than with the task rewards (Stewart, 1996) and are interested in forming long-term employment exchange relationships (Zhao and Chen, 2008). Research has shown that there is a positive relationship between conscientiousness and work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002) or commitment (Erdheim, 2006). Orvis et al. (2008) tested the hypothesis that conscientiousness moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and work outcomes. In their study, the authors showed that lower levels of conscientiousness led to a higher level of perceived psychological contract breach and lower levels of job satisfaction, organization loyalty and higher levels of intentions to quit. Raja et al. (2004) also found that there is a strong relation between conscientiousness and psychological contract breach: people with higher levels of conscientiousness perceived lower levels of psychological contract breach. Thus, it is expected here that it is unlikely that conscientious people will feel that their psychological contract has been violated upon perceiving a breach of their psychological contracts. Hypothesis 4c: Conscientiousness moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, so that the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation is stronger for people low in conscientiousness than for those high in conscientiousness. Agreeableness (4) The agreeableness personality dimension refers to a persons preferences for interpersonal interactions that can range from compassion to antagonism (Costa McCrae, 1992). One of the few papers that investigated the relationship between agreeableness and psychological contract breach and work-related outcomes is the paper by Tallman and Bruning (2008). In their research, the authors show that there is a positive correlation between the agreeableness personality dimension and that perceived obligation agreeable people feel their organization has in supporting its employees (ÃŽÂ ²=.20, p Agreeable people value their interpersonal relationships and are characterized as being very interested in maintaining positive relations with the people that surround them (Ho, Weingart, Rousseau, 2003). The fact that agreeable people are more prone to maintaining long-term and pleasant relationship with others might have an effect on their perception of their psychological contract being breached. Because the psychological contract is an agreement made between two parties and involves an interpersonal element, agreeable people might be more tolerant and forgiving so it might make agreeable people feel fewer negative emotional reactions to breach than other personality types. Hypothesis 4b: Agreeableness moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, so that this relationship is stronger for people low in agreeableness than for those high in agreeableness. Openness to Experience (5) Openness to Experience represents open-minded individuals, who are imaginative, inventive, creative, curious and unconventional (Costa and McCrae, 1992). Open people have a high need for autonomy and tend to be creative and adaptive to change (Costa and Mcrae, 1992). Furthermore, open employees are less likely to feel that they must serve the organization or their managers and will look for organizations that will allow them enough freedom to try new ideas and approaches in their activities (Tallman and Bruning, 2008). Because open employees will look for interesting and challenging jobs, we would consider that they will also seek an organization that supports their decisions and that allows them to grow and satisfy their needs (Tallman and Bruning, 2008). This is why we expect that they might feel strong negative emotions when their freedom is limited or when they dont feel their organizations support. Hypothesis 4e: Openness to experience moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, so that this relationship is stronger for people high in openness than for those low in openness. Research model In the previous sections four sets of hypothesis were established. As shown in the figure, the principal relation in the paper is the one between psychological contract breach, violation and employees responses (turnover intentions, counterproductive behavior), while personality traits are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between breach and violation. Figure 1. Research model 3. Method 3.1 Sample The study was conducted in the Netherlands and used 3 data sources: full-time or part-time employees in the Netherlands, their supervisors and one of their friends. The questions related to psychological contract breach, psychological contract violation and turnover intentions were answered by the respondent, the questions regarding counterproductive behavior were answered by the respondents supervisor and personality was assessed by obtaining ratings from the respondents friend. We consider that the employee is the best source of information when considering psychological contract breach or violation as he is the only person who knows exactly what were his expectations and beliefs regarding his psychological contract. For the turnover intentions we use the employee as a respondent for similar reasons: he is the only one who can tell about his thoughts on leaving the company he works for. In what concerns the measurement of counterproductive behavior we expect that employees will be more reluctant to state the situations were they were acting accordingly, so we consider that their direct supervisor will give more objective responses. Supervisors ratings were previously used to assess counterproductive behaviors in Bordia et al. (2008) or anticitizenship behaviors in Kickul et al. (2001). We also ask one of the respondents friends to fill in the personality survey because employees might distort their personality scores (Rosse, Stecher, Miller and Levin, 1998) and answer the questions the way they think that they should be answered (Mahar, Cologne and Duck, 1995). The respondents were approached through a press release and invitation which were available to them through different websites like: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The total number of questionnaires spread among the employees was à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ from these, only a number à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ participants responded. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. In the beginning the employees were sent an email with the link for completing the survey and after 1 week they also received a reminder. The supervisors and friends were approached through the employee, who received a separate link to forward to its supervisor and friend so that they could participate at the survey. X% of employees were male, X% were female, Y% completed their university education, Y% their secondary education programThe average age of respondents was from à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, X% of them were working X hours a week, Y% of them were working Y hours a weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ X% of employees reported an organizational tenure of X%, Y% of employees reported an organizational tenure of Y yearsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Y% of the supervisors were male and Y% were female, Y% completed their university education, Y% their secondary education program The age of ranged from supervisors was from à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, X% of them were working X hours a week, Y% of them were working Y hours a weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The average organizational tenure of supervisors was T%. The frequency of contact between the supervisor and employee was for X% daily, for Y% weeklyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Z% of the friends were male, Z% were female. Their age range was from X to Y years, X completed their university education, Y% their secondary education program. 3.2 Measurement of variables Control variables The results of this study were controlled for the effects of: gender, age and organizational tenure. Gender was controlled for because employees might be evaluated differently according to gender (Turnley, Bolino, Lester and Bloodgood, 2003). Age was controlled for because age could affect work behavior or could also influence the kind of job people choose and finally, organizational tenure was necessary as a control variable because the length of employment might be related to the number of psychological contracts breaches an employee might experience (Turnley at al., 2003). Psychological contract breach The scale of Robinson and Morrison (2000) was used to assess psychological contract breach (Cronbachs ÃŽÂ ± = .92). The scale consisted of five items that assessed the employees perception of psychological contract breach. An example item is: I feel that my employer has come through in fulfilling the promises made to me when I was hired. Thr

Importance in policy developments

AbstractionThe construct of hazard has assumed extreme importance in policy developments is several subjects. There is a broad scope of literature on hazard in several Fieldss runing from scientific disciplines to humanistic disciplines. This construct means different things to different people depending on how it is perceived. Risk perceptual experience is a consequence of several factors and this has deductions for policy development. This paper attempts to specify the significance of hazard and its building in some contexts. It besides explores a few instance surveies on how human perceptual experience, prejudice, communicating and civilization can hold impacts on the effectivity of hazard direction.IntroductionIn the last two decennaries, public concern about the construct of hazard of has been given extended media coverage with frequent contentions. Every twenty-four hours we are warned about unseeable jeopardies, clime alteration, diseases and toxic waste etc. We worry about da ngers in the workplace, in our places and even about the nutrient we eat. Most human existences engage in several signifiers of unsafe ventures and this fact has prompted research workers to try happen out how people understand hazard. Everyone seeks to pull off hazard because we do non cognize for certain what the result of events will be ( Adams 1995 ) This merely means that in any given state of affairs, an inauspicious result may or may non go on and causative factors skew the chances of diverse results ( Graham and Rhomberg 1996 ) Based on this, hazard appraisal has become a moneymaking subject affecting a web of complex and controversial procedures of measuring uncertainnesss, pass oning information about possible hazards and developing controls or extenuation steps. The rating of hazard requires interpretative opinion in the face of technological and scientific and societal contentions. The construct of & A ; lsquo ; hazard ‘ has become important to the field of policy development within several subjects such as Agriculture, Medicine, Business and Natural Hazards etc. Broad footings like hazard direction presume an appreciable degree of apprehension of the construct of hazard and how it can be measured. I t besides assumes some degree of understanding on how it should be managed. These decisions are based on bold premises. There exists huge literature on hazard covering a broad scope of Fieldss in both scientific disciplines and humanistic disciplines. All these angles can and make lend to a better apprehension of how hazard is constructed, perceived and managed by experts. This paper attempts to research the assorted definitions of the significance of hazard, and how hazard is constructed and used in some context in order to hold a better apprehension of how human perceptual experience, prejudice, heuristics, communicating and civilization impact on the effectivity of hazard direction. Hazard is a really wide construct so and its enormousness should non be underestimated. Hazard touches on the most profound facets of Psychology, Mathematics, Statistics and History. Literature on hazard is monumental and each brings up new countries of involvement ( Bernstein 1996 ) The designation of cardinal issues relevant to policy shapers and interest holders interested in issues associating to put on the line analyses and hazard direction is really of import. Effective hazard direction requires appraisal of inherently unsure events and fortunes, typically turn toing two dimensions: how probably the uncertainness is to happen ( chance ) , and what the consequence would be if it happened ( impact ) . While unambiguous models can be developed for impact appraisal, chance appraisal is frequently less clear. This is peculiarly true for undertakings where informations on hazard chance from old undertakings is either non available or non relevant. The credibleness and value of the hazard procedure is enhanced if informations are collected with attention, taking the clip and utilizing the tools that are needed decently to develop information based on judgemental inputs. Conversely, the procedure is undermined when chance appraisal appears to be entirely subjective. It is hence of import to be able to measure chance with some grade of assurance.DEFINITIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF RISKHazard is a normally used term. It has been technically and convent ionally defined as a combination of the chance, or frequence, of happening of a defined jeopardy and the magnitude of the effects, should that jeopardy or event occur. This definition attempts to inquire how frequently a peculiar potentially harmful event is traveling to happen and the effects of the happening ( Harding 1998: 167 ) This definitions appears rather simple. However, the definition of the construct of hazard has been and is still contested. In recent old ages, the construct of hazard has assumed more importance than was antecedently the instance. Hazard has been defined in figure of ways but is frequently seen as the likeliness that a individual will see the consequence of danger ( Short Junior 1984 ) Economists view hazard as a manifestation of lower incomes or higher outgo that expected. This can be a consequence of several factors. For illustration, the sudden hiking in the monetary values of natural stuffs used for production, the backsliding of a deadline for the building of a new installation, breaks in the procedure of production, the loss of cardinal forces, the alteration of a political government or even natural catastrophes etc ( Luhmann 1996: 3 ) Hazard is besides seen as the combination of the likeliness of an happening of a risky event or exposure and the strength or badness of the impact that can be caused by the event or exposure ( OHSAS 18001 2007 ) . That is Risk = ( Probability of event happening ) ten ( Impact of event happening ) . This attack to the construct of hazard has become common today in Fieldss like atomic power and the chemical industry. The term & A ; lsquo ; Risk Society ‘ was proposed by Ulrich Beck in 1992, in placing a signifier of catastrophe hazard associated with industrialisation and utmost extremely improbable, risky events. This place assumes that we are in a state of affairs of really low chance of earnestly awful events. ( Douglas and Wildavsky 1982: 39 ) . This conceptual displacement it peculiarly important because it has deductions for policy shapers if the more negative perceptual experiences of the term hazard, assume widespread social position. Another angle of perceptual experience sees risk as being a map of the chance of the specified natural jeopardy event and the exposure of cultural entities ( Chapman 1994 ) . It has besides been seen in industry as being equal to the merchandise of frequence and effects. This definition suggests an outlook of system failure. Risk direction on the other manus is about guaranting that events that happen frequently must hold low effects, or events that have serious effects must be rare. ( Ballad 1992: 100 ) This attack is consistent with the construct of a preset degree of hazard which can be managed. The assorted positions and perceptual experiences of hazard lend acceptance to the fact that hazard is non something that can be subjected to objective quantification or a individual definition, but is instead socially constructed. It can be referred to as a human construct borne as a consequence of the demand to understand and get by with the dangers and uncertainnesss of life. Although these dangers are existent, there is no such thing as existent or nonsubjective hazard. For illustration the atomic applied scientists risk estimation of a atomic accident is likely based on theoretical theoretical accounts with subjective construction and inputs based on sheer premise. There are several angles from which hazard can be viewed. Let us see an attack that considers a three tier system of identifying, measuring and incorporating hazard. This method assumes that hazards exist out at that place and are to be found and dealt with. Management of hazard here involves taking the right stairss and theory helps in this way. This can be said to be the hypotheses behind both traditional and the more recent critical literature and it believes that the designation of possible hazards is the critical first measure in pull offing them. ( Smith et all 2001 ) Another school of idea believes this nonsubjective construct of hazard is erroneous and is endangering in its rigidness. This nonsubjective position of hazard supposes that hazard can be wholly controlled. It besides suggests that on completion of the digest of the list of hazards, the theoretical undertaking is complete and the direction facet is following in line. The combination of these factors leads to the creative activity of a false sense of security that may take to redundancy of the portion of directors which in itself constitutes an even bigger hazard. The societal school of idea believes hazard is socially constructed depending on societal understandings and on different perceptual experiences. It should nevertheless be ascribed to peculiar scenes or state of affairss to do it existent. Sociological literature sees hazard as a construct developed through human actions and that there are dangers that could be avoided. Hazards are consequences of actions that are neither necessary nor impossible ; they are contingent and depend on human actions. ( Thompson 1985 ) All constructs of hazard have a common factor, which is a differentiation between world and possibility. The nature of hazard becomes clearer when one differentiates it from related constructs of uncertainness, danger and opportunity. Uncertainty refers to the deficiency of cognition of the hereafter, merely put, it is unknown. Uncertainty is closely related to hazard and theories ‘ associating to behaviour, uncertainness in psychological footings is seen to be a critical spell between of human response in state of affairss of unknown results. Uncertainty is psychologically constructed and it exists merely in the head of a individual whose cognition is uncomplete. Afterall, if cognition was complete so there would be no uncertainnesss. The contrast between danger and hazard is based on the fact that danger is seen to be out of the control of the determination shaper while hazard can be affected to an extent. A clear differentiation is that hazard refers to action while dangers are nonsubjective entities beyond human control. ( Somen 1993: 130 ) Opportunity is seen as portion of hazard and can stand for potentially positive developments. This merely means hazard is taken with the cognition that the consequences could convey about possible benefits or losingss. The rating of the construct of hazard and the ensuing action depend on the perceptual experience of hazard. ( Lytinen et all 1998: 235 ) The degree of control that the determination shaper appears to hold about the result of an event is one factor that influences hazard perceptual experience. The more control he appears to hold, the less terrible the hazard is perceived to be. If hazards depend on perceptual experience, so they become subjective and so they become hard to exteriorize. ( Beck 1986: 103 ) The fact that we do non cognize what the hereafter holds weakens the constitution of a complete list of factors. A important displacement in the societal building of hazard is the fact that chance is now seen as portion of the construct of hazard. Some definitions discuss menaces and losingss while others that represent this displacement include chances in their definitions. ( Smith et all 2001 ) Based on these, hazard can merely be spoken of with mention to peculiar scenes. They can non be absolute but curious to peculiar scenes or state of affairss.RISK PERCEPTION AND MANAGEMENTThere has been a big sum of research carried out on the perceptual experience of hazard by worlds, how they live with it and pull off it. The angel of hazard perceptual experience finally determines the method of direction. This merely means hazard will be managed based on the position from which it is viewed. Hazard perceptual experience refers to the subjective opinions that people make about the features and badness of hazard. It is largely used in mention to natural jeopardies, environment and wellness. The major theories developed in the country of hazard perceptual experience are the psychological or heuristics, sociological and cultural attacks. The survey of hazard perceptual experience was borne out of the fact that experts and laic people likewise disagreed on how hazardous engineerings and natural jeopardies truly were. Risk perceptual experience appeared on the phase of policy development as a really of import construct in the 1960 ‘s. It was implicated as a chief determiner of public resistance to engineering, most notably to atomic engineering. This resistance was borne out of fright of dangers to the environment every bit good as catastrophes that the creative activity of radioactive barrens could convey approximately, but other early illustrations can be given every bit good ( Martin, 1989 ) . In Sweden and Norway, Parliamentarians now devote about three times every bit much attending to put on the line issues as they did in the first half of the 60 ‘s, as reflected in their submitted private measures. Several efforts were made to manage the hard state of affairs that the unexpected public resistance to the new engineering had caused. ( Sowby 1965 ) proposed that comparings should be made between different sorts of perceived hazard. His thought was that the hazard involved with, smoke, driving a auto or utilizing public agencies of conveyance was far higher than that of exposure to atomic accidents. This nevertheless had really small consequence in doing people accept atomic engineering hazard. A deeper probe of hazard perceptual experience revealed that people were willing to accept hazard to the extent that they were tied to benefits ( Starr 1969 ) . This attack gave rise to involvement in & A ; lsquo ; Risk Management ‘ and an waking up of involvements in how people perceive, tolerate and accept hazard. Risk perceptual experience now became an obstruction to determination devising, because people came to believe hazards existed where they truly did non. This was the positi on of the experts and the dissension between the populace and adept perceptual experience of hazard is the root cause of the jobs that have plagued hazard direction. Several bookmans have attempted to analyze hazard perceptual experience in greater item. In the 1970 ‘s, a group of psychologists became interested in happening out how people reacted with respects to put on the line. They carried out experimental surveies of chancing and in this field an effort was made to specify hazard as an abstract construct and to mensurate it by agencies of a psychological graduated table ( Lopez 1995 ) . This attack says something about how people react to lotteries but small or nil about inquiry of hazard policy that was the chief concern of determination shapers. Risk Management can be considered to be the designation, appraisal and prioritization of hazard followed by co-ordinated and economical application of resources to minimise, proctor and command the chance and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximise the realisation of chances ( Douglas Hubbard 2009 ) Hazards can come uncertainness originating from assorted beginnings such as undertaking failures, recognition hazard, natural causes or catastrophes, accidents etc. Risk direction has besides been defined as the civilization, procedures and constructions that are directed towards the effectual direction of possible chances and possible inauspicious effects ( Standards Australia 1994: 4 ) . Several hazard direction criterions have been developed including the Project Management Institute, National Institute of Science and Technology, ISO criterions etc. These criterions vary widely harmonizing to the whether the hazard direction method relates to project direction, security, industrial procedures, fiscal portfolios, public wellness etc. Risk direction schemes include turning away of hazard, reassigning hazard, cut downing the negative impacts of hazard and accepting all or some of the impacts of a peculiar hazard. In an ideal hazard direction procedure, a prioritization procedure is carried in which the hazards with the highest impact and chance of happening are dealt with first while those with a lower chance of happening are dealt with afterwards. Practically, this can be really hard to transport out. Balancing hazards of high and low chances of happening can be really tasking and is frequently mishandled. Intangible hazard direction on the other manus identifies risks with really high chances of happening but have non been identified due to a deficiency of cognition by the directors or determination shapers. In a state of affairs where insufficient cognition is applied to a state of affairs another type of hazard referred to as & A ; lsquo ; cognition hazard ‘ is borne. This state of affairs proves fatal to put on the line direction attempts. Another type of hazard arises as a consequence of uneffective coaction between directors and or determination shapers and is referred to as & A ; lsquo ; relationship hazard ‘ Certain facets of criterions developed for hazard direction have come under unfavorable judgments because they are believed to hold no mensurable effects on hazard even though there has been a pronounced addition in assurance in determinations. Risk direction is seen as a critical portion of effectual direction. However, due to the deficiency of communicating and corporation between practicians in assorted Fieldss, a common apprehension of this construct is nonexistent. This has lead to a multi dimensional apprehension of the construct ( Kloman 1996 ) . This poses a large job for the development, constitution and acceptance of hazard direction as it is a really wide topic with several diverse subjects and subjects ( Lipworth 1996 ) . The development of a hazard direction frame work in isolation is likely to be uneffective unless determination shapers are committed to the integrating of the model to all concern activities and maps. This is done through the acceptance essentials elements like construction, scheme and civilization ( Smallman 1996 ) . This construction provides a general and consistent model for any organisation to develop a hazard direction map. The AS/NZS hazard direction frame work is a good illustration of such a models It is really of import here to advert that attention should be taken in the acceptance of a peculiar hazard appraisal or direction attack. Standardization should non direct or order peculiar methods as this would be unwanted, unrealistic and finally hamper wider credence ( Kloman 2000 ) . Several factors can straight impact on the effectivity of the procedure of hazard direction. The most outstanding of these factors are civilization, which to a great extent shapes perceptual experience and prejudice, heuristics and communicating. Culture is a wide term with a broad scope of definitions. However for the intent of this paper, we will specify civilization as the entirety of the ways of life of a people. With respects to an administration, civilization can be seen as a construct that describes the shared corporate values within an administration which influences the attitudes and behaviors of its members. Safety civilization is a portion of the overall civilization of the administration and is seen as impacting attitudes and beliefs of members in footings of wellness and safety public presentation ( Cooper 2000 ) . From several surveies, it has emerged that direction was the cardinal influence of an administration ‘s safety civilization. It was found that employees ‘ perceptual experience of direction concern towards safety, production and planning was the most utile agencies of mensurating an administration ‘s safety clime. This depends mostly on the interaction between direction and employees ( Thompson 1998 ) . A good illustration of how safety civilization can impact on effectual direction of hazard can be seen in the atomic power works detonation that occurred in Chernobyl, Soviet Union in April, 1986. This event demonstrated the ruinous hazards involved in the most advanced engineerings of all time created by worlds. Harmonizing to probes carried out, it was discovered that the detonation was as a consequence of human action ( Reason 1987 ) . A hapless safety civilization was prevalent at the works and this was reflective of the Soviet society at big. Both the Chernobyl works and its institutional context operated a civilization that had become unsighted towards the jeopardies inherent in atomic engineering. Communication with mention to put on the line refers to a procedure of sharing and interchanging information about sensed hazards between assorted cognition holders, determination shapers including research workers, technicians, directors, members of the populace, governments, media and involvement groups. The exchanged information can associate o the being, nature, signifier, likeliness, chance, badness and steps of response or other facets of hazard. Risk communicating is largely required when determination shapers do non keep all the information about the hazard in inquiry in order to do informed determinations. The motive for hazard communicating may change. It may be that determination shapers require more information in order to do determinations or that the public being cognizant of the hazard pro actively engage determination shapers in an attempt to acquire more information on doing informed determinations. There is an pressing demand to understand how members of the public perceive hazard in order to efficaciously pass on information refering to hazard. In the instance of terrorist act for case, communicating is really of import because any major information must be accompanied by instructions which must be followed by the generalization of the populace. Public hazard perceptual experience is greatly influenced by trust and as such credibleness is possibly the most important factor of hazard communicating ( Heldring 2004 ) . Trust is even more of import when communicating information about jeopardies or hazards that the percipient has really small cognition about. Possibly one of the greatest challenges confronting hazard communicators is integrating or showing the uncertainness in hazard estimations. Hazard comparings are typically given as point estimations, with really small or no indicant of variableness or uncertainness involved in the estimations of hazard. Harmonizing to most risk communicating counsel, hazard messages should non minimise uncertainness or information spreads, and countries of dissension among experts should be mentioned. The degree of assurance in hazard estimations should besides be discussed ( NRC 1989 ) . In the instance of the September 11 bombardments for illustration, unequal communicating may hold been the most powerful individual factor responsible for this incident. American security bureaus fed the populace with what they felt they needed to cognize alternatively of really affecting them in the determination devising procedure. In most instances, information passed to the populace may hold been manipulated to warrant determinations made by authorities and security bureaus. Naturally, this may hold built up misgiving in public perceptual experience about the existent presence of the hazard of terrorist act.Hazard REGISTERA hazard registry is a tool used within hazard direction for undertaking planning and hazard appraisal in the designation, analyses and direction of hazards. It contains information on identified and collected undertaking hazards identified by the undertaking squad in the appraisal of sensed hazards. It comprises a broad scope of contents and recommendations hav e been made by different professional organic structures such as Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK ) amongst others. Individual administrations besides provide their ain tools used as hazard registries because it is developed in relation to a specific activity or program. Typically, a hazard registry comprises, a hazard description, the impact should it happen, the chance of its happening, inside informations of planned response, extenuation steps or stairss taken in progress to cut down chance and or impact should the event occur and the ranking of hazards harmonizing to perceived precedence. There is nevertheless no standard list of constituents to be included in a hazard registry as contents can depend on the program of the squad, administration or individuals involved. It is recommended that a hazard registry be reviewed on a regular footing most particularly when come oning to the following phase of the hazard appraisal undertaking. The creative activity, care and use of a hazard registry are advantageous to project direction. A & A ; lsquo ; hazard evaluation matrix provides ‘ a speedy overview of hazard appraisal information derived from a hazard registry. An illustration of a hazard registry used by my group for a hazard appraisal undertaking is attached. The affiliated registry was developed by my group in the appraisal undertaking carried out to describe sphere specific edifice jeopardies, menaces and hazards in relation to the Lanchester library of Coventry University. The assessment attack used was considered equal based on the fact that group members agreed on both the contents of the hazard registry and on sensed hazards in different section associating to the edifice. It must be mentioned nevertheless that different hazard appraisal attacks work good in different state of affairss. Each of these attacks has its strengths and failings. This fluctuation displays the broad assortment of sentiments on hazard appraisal. There is a broad assortment of hazard hiting systems from qualitative to quantitative which efficaciously address a assortment of hazard appraisal attacks. There is nevertheless no indicant that one hazard appraisal attack is better than the other.DecisionRisk direction can no longer be viewed as an independent tool associating merely to fiscal or concern activities. It is most valuable when applied across several disciplined in a holistic mode. Bringing together all hazard appraisal attacks with common foreparts and using them in a robust mode. Institutions and administrations manage their personal businesss on a day-to-day footing and hazard direction is frequently seen as non adding value. Its application is now deriving more evidenc es as administrations now identify a sense of intent by doing usage of hazard appraisals. This has lead to its acceptance in the internal control systems of such administration and has greatly assisted direction in informed determination devising, improved communications and better apprehension of the hazards in and controls in their concern. The existent challenge nevertheless, lies in the integrating of the hazard profile into the strategic and be aftering corporate rhythm of these administrations.MentionsAuditor General Victoria ( 2003 ) & A ; lsquo ; Managing Risk across the Public Sector ‘ . Government Printer, Melbourne. Kloman, H.F. ( 1996 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk direction criterions ‘ . Risk Management Reports [ online ] 23, ( 2 ) Available from[ 10 January 2010 ] Kloman, H.F. ( 1996 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk direction: approach of age ‘ . Risk Management Reports [ online ] 23, ( 3 ) Available from[ 10 January 2010 ] Lipworth, S. ( 1996 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk direction at the bosom of good corporate administration ‘ . Executive Accountant 23, ( 4 ) 7-8 McNamee, D. , Selim, G. ( 1999 ) & A ; lsquo ; The following measure in hazard direction ‘ . The Internal Auditor 56, ( 3 ) 35-8 Standards Australia ( 1999 ) & A ; lsquo ; Standards Australia AS/NZS 4360 Risk Management ‘ Standards Australia, Sydney. Sj & A ; ouml ; berg, L. ( 2000 ) & A ; lsquo ; Factors in hazard perceptual experience ‘ . Hazard Analysis 20, ( 1 ) 1-12. Lyytinen, K. , Mathiassen, L. , Ropponen, J. ( 1998 ) & A ; lsquo ; Attention Shaping and Software Risk- A Categorical Analysis of Four Classical Risk Management Approaches ‘ . Information Systems Research 9, ( 3 ) 233 – 254 Smith H. A. , McKeen J. D. , Staples D. S. ( 2001 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk Management in Information Systems, Problems and Potentials ‘ . Communicationss of the Association for Information Systems, 7. Beck, U. ( 1992 ) Hazard society: towards a new modernness Theory, civilization & A ; society. London: Sage. Bernstein, P.L. ( 1996 ) Against the Supreme beings: The singular narrative of hazard. John Wiley: New York. Thompson, Paul B. ( 1985 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risking or Bing Willing: Hamlet and the DC-10 ‘ . The Journal of Value Inquiry 19, 301- 310 Douglas, M. , Wildavsky, A. ( 1982 ) Hazard and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers. University of California Press: Berkley Harding, R. ( 1998 ) Environmental decision-making: the functions of scientists, applied scientists and the populace. The Federation Press: Sydney Wikipedia ( 2008 ) Risk Register [ online ] available from[ June 2008 ]

The Island of Damar

I looked down at the tiny island in the distance. The island that was about to turn my life completely upside down. It's name, Damar. It is a small island in Indonesia. It has a population of 23 people, everyone of these people archaeological diggers. My dad, Jay, was flying out to join them. There was some kind of dig on the go and my dad was called for. Me, being Rhia, had to go with him. Most kids of my age would stay at home with a relative. Unfortunately, I have none. My mum died about four years ago in a tragic car accident. She drove her car into a ditch and no one found her until the next morning. I don't know of any other relatives that i have. The only other family member I have is my twerp of a brother. He is 9 years old and is extremely annoying. His hair is like barbed wire, it is impossible to brush using any comb. My dad must have bought about 20 different sized combs to try and brush it and about 50 different shampoos. It is blondish-brown in colour and is kind of centre parted. He doesn't care in the slightest about his appearance and most of the time he just wears a pair of tracky bottoms and a pole shirt. His name is Pete. Any way, less of that twerp, back to me. I am 19 years old and currently do not have a boyfriend. I have blondish-brown permed hair just past my shoulders in length and have big, blue, dazzling eyes. Unlike my brother I care ALOT about my appearance. Everything has to be colour co-ordinated. My dad is always fussing at me, he says I have loads of clothes and hardly any of them are worn. It had been a long, tiring journey and a boring one at that. If I had been able to bring my friend Chazza, it would've been a right laugh. I was suffering from toothache because the cheesecake that we had for lunch hadn't been properly defrosted and I really hurt my tooth. Damar was getting bigger and bigger so I knew we were soon to land. From what I could see from above, it just looked like a floating rain forest. There were huge trees but I could not spot any houses or apartments for us to stay in. It was hammering it down with rain. I knew this because I could hear the rain drops bouncing of the roof of the plane. Touchdown. We had landed. We floated along the surface for some time before we came to a complete stop. I looked out of the cabin window and stared amazingly at a huge cliff that towered above the left hand side of the sea plane, I could not see the top of it. There was nothing else to be seen. My dad rose from his seat and turned round o face us, â€Å"Well then, we're here,† he said as if we were to be really excited. Me and my brother both looked at him as if to say ‘woopey-doo! ‘ My dad turned back round and headed towards the door and begun to open it. Once this was done he grabbed his binoculars which he had been looking through most of the journey whilst making notes, he looked into the distance. It was sometime before he shouted, â€Å"I can see them, they're coming straight for us! † Meanwhile Pete was taking all the cases from the overhead lockers and was placing them in a pile at the front of the plane. I looked out of the plane window once more nd spotted a small, yellow, rubber boat fighting against the treacherous waves to make its way to the plane. In it was a man dressed in a orange kagool. After some fighting, the boat reached the entrance to the plane. â€Å"You must be Doctor Shaw? † asked my dad loudly, competing against the noise of the waves. â€Å"Yes, that's right. Climb aboard,† shouted the strange looking man. My dad jumped aboard and almost lost his balance as a huge monstrous wave came from behind the boat. Pete tossed all our luggage to my dad who was piling them up in one corner. Once this had been done, Pete himself jumped aboard. I walked esitantly towards the door and stood for a moment watching the rain hammering into the sea. I turned round and faced Sam, the pilot, who I had become quite friendly with. â€Å"Good bye then†, he said, trying not to laugh, â€Å"and good luck! † I smiled at him, turned round and daintily made my way on board the boat. That was it, there was no way of turning back now. I turned and looked at the plane, taxiing into the dull fog which had fallen. â€Å"What? † I bawled at the top of my v oice. â€Å"This is your home for the next 10 weeks. † I looked down at a pile of raw materials: wood, palm leaves and a huge sheet of tarpaulin. You and your dad will have to build a shelter. † That was it, I'd had enough. Not only did I discover that there was no TV, computer or telephone on Damar, but now I have to build my own shelter. My dad had lied. He told me the complete opposite. I decided enough was enough i needed to get away from my dad before all hell broke out. I walked over to the shore and looked out at the waves smashing against the rocks. I was dripping wet and freezing cold. I made a huge X out of pebbles in the sand and walked to the left of me. As long as I kept to the shore line, I could turn round at any time and walk back o the X and then I'd know I was back at camp. It felt as if I'd been walking for miles. The shore line was rocky and in some places sandy. After some time I came to a stop and sat down on what looked to be a makeshift bench at the top of the cliff that I first saw when I had landed. I was there for a long while. The rain had got worse and it had begun to hail, they were not huge hail stones but big enough. â€Å"Hi there, I'm Jak! † called a voice from behind. I jumped up, scared stiff. I didn't know whether to turn around or not. Before I could, the person named Jak appeared at the side of me. He held his hand out as if aiting for me to shake it. I pulled my hand out of my jeans pocket and held his hand. I couldn't move it, it was as if they were frozen solid. â€Å"They're freezing,† he shrieked, â€Å"here, take my gloves. † I took the gloves from his held out hand and struggled to put them on. â€Å"I'm Doctor Shaw's son. You? † asked Jak. â€Å"I'm Rhia. Rhia Langton,† replied Rhia politely. â€Å"Oh, your new here aren't you? † â€Å"Yep, I just arrived today. † The conversation seized while we looked each other up and down. He was gorgeous. He had short black hair and had huge, dark brown eyes with long eyelashes. He looked about early 20's and had a well tanned body. I've been here 6 months now,† he said. â€Å"Really. † â€Å"Yeah. How long are you planning to stay? † â€Å"I think my dad said about 10 weeks. † â€Å"Cool, I'll have to get to know you more then. † â€Å"Likewise. † â€Å"I think I'll start by telling you about me then,† said Jak, â€Å"I'm 22 and i'm a dentist. Well at least I will be, when I get back to England. I've been offered a job. † â€Å"Oh really, lucky you,† said Rhia, shocked, † Well I'm 19 and currently have a job at McDonald's. Slightly different to you eh? † Jak trying not to laugh replied, â€Å"yeah! well it's better than nothing? † â€Å"I suppose so, it's only until I find another job. † We spoke for some time and we had got to know each other extremely well before Rhia decided to make her way back to camp whilst holding Jak's hand. When i arrived back at camp, my dad and brother had built their hut and were both sitting round a red hot fire at the foot of the hut. Jak however had already made his way back to his hut after a kiss at the edge of the shore. â€Å"You're back then? Finally over your little tiff? † asked Jay. I walked slowly towards the logs that surrounded the fire which had been used for benches and sat down. â€Å"So, do you want the guided tour? † asked Pete. â€Å"Sure! † replied Rhia. I couldn't sleep that night. Not only was it because of the rain gushing down on the tarpaulin but my tooth was still hurting from the frozen cheese cake on the plane. I had never felt so much pain in my life. After a long wait, I finally drifted into a restless slumber. Two weeks have gone now. The weather is at its hottest and my tan is coming along great. The island wasn't as bad as I though it was when I first arrived. In fact, I love it. I'm getting on really well with Jak now and we're going out. The only problem is he has spoken about taking our relationship a little further. I don't know if I'm ready for it just yet. I haven't as yet been down to the dig, my dad oesn't want anyone going down until he's given it the all clear (safety wise. ) Well, today's the day. I can finally go down and see what all the fuss about Damar is all about, I'm going down to the dig. â€Å"Come on then! † shouted my dad. I knelt down and picked up my bag and some of my dads digging equipment and followed him into the dark wilderness. My tooth was at its worst today. I wasn't really in the mood to go into a cramped, humid cave full of archaeological diggers and have to dig all day. My dad and Pete were some amount of metres ahead of me but didn't know how far I was walking behind. I stopped, and ropped my bags on the floor. Jak wasn't going down to the dig today so I wasn't really that bothered about going. He was spending the day on Karachi beach. I've decided that I am ready to take our relationship a little further but it has to be at the right time in the right place. I decided to make my way to the beach to see if I could see him. â€Å"Hi, how are you? † asked Jak â€Å"I'm fine now I'm here with you. My dad wanted to take me down to the dig today but I'm not really that bothered. I'd rather be sun- bathing on a beach with the one I love! † replied Rhia. I looked out at the sparkling blue water. I could see the fish swimming around legantly below the surface. It was perfect. â€Å"How's your t ooth? † â€Å"It's even worse today! it's really beginning to bug me! † â€Å"Give it time, it'll drop out soon, trust me, I'm a dentist! † He sat looking at me for some time as if he thinking before he said, â€Å"Wait here, I'll be back in a bit. † I knew what was about to happen, after all we were in the perfect place for it. I tried to calm myself but it wasn't working. Some time later he returned with a smug look on his face. He sat next to me and wrapped his arms around my body. â€Å"Lay back and close your eyes† he whispered softly into my ear. I did as he said and waited for him to say omething. He did the obvious. Before I let him go any further I asked him, â€Å"will it hurt? † â€Å"Of course not,† he replied, â€Å"it's just a simple process† â€Å"I'm rather frightened, I've never done this before. † He urged to continue, â€Å"It won't hurt much more, just relax. † I was in a great deal of pain but dared not show it. I felt tears come to my eyes. It's hurting something awful. â€Å"Calm yourself Rhia, open a little wider so I can fit more in! † Suddenly with a jerk I gave a screeching shout. â€Å"Now that's it, all over with,† he slowly pulled it out. â€Å"Well what a relief, I think I'll enjoy my holiday even more now that rotten tooth's out! â€Å"

Analytical Essay Sample on Internet Censorship Key Concerns

Analytical Essay Sample on Internet Censorship Key Concerns Nowadays, Internet is commonly regarded as the most widely used source and the fastest way to exchange information and knowledge all over the world. However, the freedom and democracy on Internet, being one of its greatest beauties and drawing features, is apparently abused by the population online. Pornography and hate literature are commonly used to lure Internet surfers attention and to generate profits. Representing the rights of the public and the power of a country while owning and operating the Internet, the government has the absolute responsibility to censor the internet so as to protect its own citizens from harmful and false information, thus in order to prevent any possible decay of social and moral values, though the extent of Internet censorship should be carefully measured to ensure the freedom of speaking of people. Since the invention of ARPANET in 1962 by the Department of Defenses Advanced Research Project Agency in United States, Internet has developed tremendously during the past half century with the improvement in modern technology with government sponsoring the researching program. It had formerly been made only for military and research purposes, where in 1974, the general public gets its first vague hint of how networked computers can be used in daily life as the commercial version of the ARPANET goes online. Hence it is quite obvious that without the financial investment and political support from the government, Internet, being such a new technological invention at that time would never achieve as great a success as what it has achieved by today; it is apparently wrong to say governments did not build neither did they own the Internet. As a result, being counted as partially a property of the government, Internet should absolutely under governments control. Besides to exchange information and knowledge and to facilitate communication, the most important role of Internet is to enrich people intellectually. This requires a clean and abundant source of information on the cyberspace that is provided to the public; it should be apparently free of indecency and obscenity that may cause any social problems, which eventually attributes to the decay of moral values. Human beings live in communities where easy access to indecency stimulates many people to adopt these lower moral values, as seemingly it is quite normal and perfectly okay to do so; the idea of Everybody does so and Everybody says so exerts a detrimental influence on peopleÐ ±Ã ¿s minds and that is what people are libeled to believe when the exposure to indecency becomes so common. What draws even more concerns of ours is of the children. We all know that children can easily be scarred and manipulated by all kinds of information. Parents can have some control over which books their children read as they can easily tell what the books are about; they do not have worry that their children will turn a page and be confronted with obscenities or other forms of indecency. While with the Internet, there is a whole different scenario. Anyone can flick a page and be presented with porn, denigration, discrimination, fraud and misinformation. As parenting is not only about chaining a child to a parental censor but about creating a safe environment for children to grow up in at the same time, an uncensored Internet is apparently not a safe environment for children. Due to the above reasons, it is my opinion that the flow of information should be filtered from anything that contradicts any of the abovementioned reasonable purposes. This includes filtering indecent expressions and obscene materials from access to the Internet. As a result, only the government has the power to take such actions so as to ensure the Internet is not over polluted by indecent garbage. However, it is very difficult to take modest steps in this sensitive issue of Internet censorship. Some people may say that certain information on the net, which might be viewed as obscene or indecent, are actually useful and helpful to people who are mature enough. This includes those obtained from adult sites. Though young people are not ready to get access to such information that may lead to their moral decay, mature adults certainly do not encounter the same problem. However they may be banned from acquire what they need from the net due to the possible existence of government censorship. Moreover, as community standards vary from community to community, it is not possible to find a guideline for the decisions of what is acceptable to be made upon; neither is it easy to be implemented. Furthermore, nobody is able to take full responsibility on such issues. Some people may argue that teaching children to deal with indecencies may shield them better and prepare them for the real world. And that the rights of free speak should never be violated. Yet that does not mean that we can do nothing about the existing and possibly occurring problems on net; government censorship is still necessary at this point of time and may have to go on for a certain period of time. In order to make sure desirable results can be seen, what seems to be necessary is the corporation and communication between the government and Internet surfers. General guidelines of censorship can be discussed and decided with efforts of both parties to reach a compromise. Feedback sites and forums can be set up to serve such purposes online. Eventually, the issue of Internet censorship is always controversial as the interests and concerns of different persons can never be the same as others; it can only be eased with internet surfers carrying out their social responsibilities. I think for government to step into the problem currently and help censor the accessibility of certain websites containing things such as adult materials is a modest measurement of control over Internet.

Essay on Drugs

Essay on Drugs Drugs addiction is a problem faced by many people of the world, it is a topic that interests many writers, and they wish to write an essay on drugs for this topic. Drugs are very harmful and keep the capability of dragging an individual towards death and destruction. People all over the world want to eradicate the adverse situation of drug addiction from this world and this is the reason why they are busy in writing essays on drugs. Essays on drugs are of many types such as war on drugs essay, essay on performance enhancing drugs in sports, essay on drug abuse, essay on illegal drugs, essay on drug addiction, essay on drug use, essay on drugs and alcohol and essay on drug testing, etc. The essays on drugs should be initiated by bringing in the information related to the topic of the essay on drug.You should know what drugs are. In an essay on drugs, you will have to write about drugs, their affects and the reasons due to which people use them, you have to include the information about why the drugs are so famous and how harmful are they. A persuasive essay on drugs will be one, which will be according to the topic of the essay on drugs. It should have a full-fledged introduction, which should introduce the topic completely. The introduction should also have a thesis statement that should be the main idea of the essay on drugs. A thesis statement should be based on the essay question to which your essay on drugs is an answer. A thesis statement of an essay on drugs can be one sentence or more than one sentence but it is suggested that it should be only one sentence. Essays on drug abuse or essays on drug addiction should be written by arranging the ideas in a format that should be understandable. You should divide your ideas in different paragraphs for an essay on drug abuse or for war on drugs essay. One paragraph should contain one idea and should not go towards a second idea, as it will reduce the comprehensiveness of the paragraph of essay about drugs. The essays on drugs should be written by researching the topic of drugs thoroughly so that the writer can depict information knowledgeably. If you feel disturbed by an exercise of writing an essay on drugs, you can also get plagiarism free essays on drugs from custom writing websites, which are there for your assistance and support in terms of writing essays on drugs.

Sociology - write an essay about the main theoretical perspectives

Sociology - write an about the main theoretical perspectives. Compare and contrast the explanations offered by the different theoretical perspectives with regard to the family - Essay Example Similarly sociology can be studied from a majority/minority perspective wherein the issues and problems faced by minority communities are given special attention. Ultimately, all these approaches have one thing in common, namely, the identification of pressing social problems and devising of ways to alleviate them. While these conceptual analyses are usually applied to large groups of people such as the inhabitants of cities, counties and states, the family could be considered the fundamental unit of society. Hence a good understanding of these interpersonal human interactions at the level of the family is essential for grasping the broader picture. The rest of this essay will delve further into various prominent theoretical perspectives with regard to the family. â€Å"Simply put, a theory is an explanation of a fact pattern. Social scientists generally do not develop theories to explain individual cases or incidents. Rather, theories are developed to explain how and why certain things happen, particularly when those things happen repeatedly. For example, scientists and therapists realized that a lot of couples who get divorced exhibit certain patterns of destructive conflict. Scientific theories serve a number of useful functions. Perhaps the most basic function of a theory is to explain how and why a phenomenon occurs or operates. A related function of theories is to predict when a phenomenon might or might not happen.† (Segrin, 2005) Hence, from the above definition of a sociological theory one can see its importance in resolving family issues and alleviating interpersonal conflict between family members. An important theory relating to the institution of family is called the Family Systems theory which was derived from the broader General Systems Theory (GST), â€Å"which is a theoretical perspective developed for explaining how elements of a

Marketing for Events Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Marketing for Events - Coursework Example ined by expertise, market statements and the added worth.1 the customer basis has to be defined clearly and the intent of the company in meeting the customers’ requirements. For Samsung to emerge top in the smartphone market it needs to focus on its key strengths and core company networks. Currently Samsung is the top manufacturer of smartphones in Europe. The tallied figures from 2012 revealed Samsung’s share of the market at 32.3% after overtaking Nokia. Samsung has set goals to attain by the year 2020 and it is reflected in its vision statement ‘Inspire the world, create the future.’ Taking focus on its key strength: creative solutions, new technologies and innovative products. In order for Samsung to reach its $400 billion revenue goal by the year 2020, there are three strategic moves that must come into play. They include: creativity, partnership and talent. Being an innovation leader is essential to Samsung, enough time has been spent being an innovation follower.2 This refers to the blend of product, evaluating, advertising and distribution approaches meant to satisfy exchange within the target market.3 the marketing mix incorporates the four Ps. Product, price promotion, and place. Over the past years, Samsung products have proven to be of standard quality in terms of performance. Choosing to market on this in the development of new products is a brilliant strategy because there is the quality assurance that the customers have. This is a strong hold especially in the Smartphone products. In the launching of the galaxy S4, there is no doubt that the customers are expecting a high performance quality device. Product portfolio is therefore a strongpoint that Samsung can boast of. With the wide range of products that Samsung has to offer, each commodity is accompanied by a unique pricing strategy. Taking into consideration at the complexity of this matter, price change due to outside change should be expected and therefore dealt with at the initial