Friday, September 6, 2019
Training Program And HR Order Essay Example for Free
Training Program And HR Order Essay Introduction            We are in the epoch of organizational reform and innovation. Our time is marked with rapid changes in the demography of workforce, changing corporate culture, and changing institutions. In the light of the rapid shift in today’s organizations, the skills required of human resource managers, beginners in the profession and even aspiring students in the discipline, rest on the foundation of knowledge on the whole gamut of human resources and organizational development. Corporate America is not without its complications. When the company â€Å"succeeds,†there is with it (the success) a corresponding notion of responsibilities and liabilities. Organizations thrive today because of the policies and guidelines they have managed to fixed firmly in their set-up and translated into their day to day affairs. Big businesses have the competitive edge over others – i.e., over small entrepreneurs, because they have arrived at their positions in the market place by securing certain parameters in the many facets that comprise their organizations. This is especially true on government laws and regulations (McKenna, 2000).            Company policies reflect the company’s intentions of not only looking into employees’ benefits and/or plight, but its willingness to comply with authorities. Safety must be of prime importance in each organization and cooperation between employees and the imposed restrictions must be monitored and regulated. Any accident prevention program can only be effective and successful with the combined efforts of the management, supervisors, foremen and employees. This is where motivating the employees to participate is also critical and the constant and proper communication channels are employed in the organization. Government’s monitoring should also be unceasing because the tendency for institutions to make lapses and/or company support to be negligent with their duties can oftentimes occur (McKenna, 2000; Clement, 1981). Discussion ~ Training Programs: its purpose and efficacy            Training and training programs instituted by an organization requires that the management realizes the need for a systematic program for employee training and development through the formulation of company policy and its implementation by specifying who should be responsible. Management must therefore consider training as one of its major functions. It must realize this need because training is a continuous activity and requires management’s attention and support. Without management’s continued backing, financial, and moral, the program will fail (Clement, 1981).            Regardless of the sophistication and predictive validity of a selection program, it is almost always necessary to expose newly hired employees to some kind of training before they can be maximally effective on a new job, even if the employees are already experienced with the tools utilized in the workplace. The purpose of which is to increase the employee’s productive efficiency and to enhance organizational goals. Training requirements are made more complicated when the workers have had little actual job experience or are being hired for a type of work they have never performed (Baron, 1983). The organization’s selection procedures ideally ensure that new employees have sufficient intelligence, aptitude, and attitude to learn the job. The effects of a training program are in some cases tangible and in other cases, intangible. In the case of the former, empirical measurement of effectiveness is relatively easy; but in the case of the latter, it is not so. For example, the effectiveness of a training program, such as one for operator training, work study or inventory control, can easily be measured in terms of increased productivity or reduced cost, after the trainees have completed the program. But in the case of a program on human relations or leadership, the benefits cannot be measured in terms or units; they are seen and felt over a period of years. The effectiveness of such programs can also be measured from the point of view of objectives of the program by conducting in depth interviews of the participants, their superiors and subordinates (Baron, 1983). ~ The HR Manager’s role to make training effective            The HR manager should determine, in consultation with the different line departments, what training activities are needed, arranged according to priorities. He should evaluate the training programs and submit to management annual reports on the status of each program, their effectiveness, and the quality of the training activities. He should continually sell the training programs to all supervisors and managers and integrate the programs with other personnel actions, such as promotions or transfers. He should also extend technical aid to the supervisors and managers at all levels in determining training needs, selecting instructors or demonstrators and evaluating results (Landy, 1985; Baron, 1983; Clement, 1981).            Another important role of the HR manager is to evaluate whether the training conducted met what was intended for and if further follow-up or reinforcements are needed, there are contingencies that are also in place. Management, furthermore, as a rule wants to know whether or not the expense involved in the training and development of its employees will be a profitable investment. In evaluating the effectiveness of training there is a need to define what one wants to get from that particular training to be able to evaluate its results. The usual approach of relating the effects of training to gross changes in the organization in terms solely of the attitudes and behavior of workers is not enough as these are not all the effect one gets out of training. There are intangible benefits that a trainee acquires which broaden his outlook in life through his contact with society at large, boost his morale and motivation towards his work, and develop his pride to belong to his organization. Quantification should be in terms of identifiable units as psychomotor skills, knowledge and information gained and specific behavior patterns instilled (Landy, 1985; Baron, 1983; Clement, 1981).            Effectiveness is measured in terms of the application of what the learners have acquired during the training course. This application in turn is affected by various factors, the most important of which is the organizational framework and climate within which to apply the ideas learned from the course. Training is not transferred until it is well-integrated and successfully applied in a given job for which it was intended. Not all knowledge or skill can be used immediately in all situations but the learner will have it ready for his use when the need arises (Landy, 1985; Baron, 1983; Clement, 1981). Conclusion            The rapid technological and environmental changes which have engulfed the world in increasing proportions have drastically transformed the placid face of the earth. Organizational as well as industrial behaviors have evolved towards dynamic materialism thereby elevating worker’s and customer’s demands and expectations. Trends show that: 1) there is a great and growing shortage of high talent managers; 2) there will be an increasing need for better managers; 3) the manager’s job will be more demanding; 4) there will be increasing competition for managers. This reality is sustained up to the next decades. Hence, the manager himself constantly must undergo training and advanced schooling for him to remain in the competitive edge. He can also pinpoint to the staff in the workplace the significance of training when he himself refreshes in the profession he is involved in (Clement, 1981).            When the HR manager thoroughly knows his stuff and had done his research, studies and analysis into the problems and challenges of his workplace, it is no wonder that the training provided for the organization is appropriate and fitting for the members of the organization. His job seems to be continuous and he updates himself constantly to pull the rest of the organization to a level of competence. Reference: Baron, R. 1983. Behavior in Organizations: Understanding and Managing the Human Side of Work, Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Clement, R.W. 1981. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Management Training. Human Resources Management. Vol. 20, pp.8-13. Landy, F.J. 1985. Psychology of Work behavior. 3rd Ed. Dorsey Press. McKenna, Eugene, 2000. Business Psychology and Organizational Behavior: A Student’s Handbook. 3rd Ed. Psychology press: Taylor and Francis Group.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Formal Informal Social Support Systems Health And Social Care Essay
Formal Informal Social Support Systems Health And Social Care Essay Realising that it is the natural right that all those who labour should enjoy to the fullest extent the fruits of their labour the Colonial Government of the Gold Coast initiated a package for public service workers who went on retirement after serving in the public service for over 30 years, passed an ordinance as part of the reforms in the colony. That ordinance came to be known as CAP 30. The following category of workers were entitled to enjoy this package, Ghana Armed Forces, Police Service, Fire Service, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Civil Service etc. However, by 1972 the law was amended to allow another body, SSNIT to take responsibility of some category of workers contribution towards their retirement. After 1972, employees of the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, and Judiciary Service amongst others were directly under the SSNIT Pension Scheme with the exception of the Security Services. The Social Security Pension Scheme was established under the PNDC Law 247 of 1991. The Scheme is administered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to cater for Civil and Public Servants, Employees in the private sector, Professionals, Traders, Artisans, Farmers and also the self-employed. The Social Security Scheme is the only basic Social Security Scheme that insures a worker against the following contingencies: Old Age, Invalidity and Death. The worker contributes 5% of his/her basic salary and the employer adds 12.5% of the workers basic salary, making a total of 17.5% which is paid to SSNIT. The rate of Contribution for Self-Employed or Voluntary Contributor is 17.5% of declared income. It would interest you to know that Government Pension or cap 30 attracts a huge sum of money than the SSNIT pension which is relatively lower. This disparity in the pension administration has brought about workers agitation for fairness in their retirement benefits. In the public sector a person qualifies for full pension at the age of 60years and you must have made a minimum contribution of 240 months in aggregate but can voluntarily go on retirement at age 55years for reduced pension and must have made a minimum contribution of 240 months. As a result of ill-health one qualifies for invalidity pension. In that case you must have made contributions for not less than 12months in aggregate within the last 36 months and you must have been declared permanently invalid and incapable of any normal gainful employment by a qualified and recognized medical officer and certified by a Regional Medical Board on which a SSNIT Medical Officer is represented. Since 1957 when the country gained independence expatriate officers in the Ghana Civil Service opted to retire and many vacancies occurred. This created the opportunity for Ghanaians who were on pension to be re-engaged in the Civil Service on contract. These officers enjoyed their pension in addition to their remuneration as contract officers. However, in 1968, the Government of Ghana ordered the cessation of the payment of the pension package in addition to the salaries attached to the contract appointment. This measure obviously did not go down well with the affected pensioners who considered it a stab at the back and a breach of faith. ( Tachie-Menson, 2003). In Accra, a group of pensioners engaged the services of lawyers to fight their cause for them. They succeeded and thus the emergence of the Ghana Government Pensioners Association for Accra which also assumed a national status. The way was then opened for branches in all the regional capitals to register members and make payment of part of their monthly dues to Accra. In Wa the pensions Association was formed in 1986 to cater for retired workers in the municipality. Pensioners under the Government Pensions Association are over six hundred as the number keep dwindling due to death. Pensioner with the SSNIT, as at February, 2010 stood at one hundred thousand four hundred and fifty eight with a retirement rate of 0.65%. It was my doubt that some retired public service workers would live uncomfortable lives after long years of contributing meaningfully to mother Ghana as those kinds of assumptions, suggestions, and my personal experience of my aged parents that prompted me to undertake this proposal in this area. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM There is a general perception out there that retirement from active service in Ghana renders one jobless and with nothing to do which often leads to frustration and early death in life if one does not plan life properly. This is attributed to the fact that people on retirement who do not plan well use their benefits to find shelter for themselves after which they end up living on their meager monthly allowance. It is claimed because most workers are not able to put up shelter during their working lives before they go on retirement. This has been the situation over the last decade and more and has rather impoverished retirees. Such claims are not hard to find in the municipality if one visits these retired workers at their homes. Therefore retired workers whose family members are not there to support them are left to their fate or are forced to put up with neighbours. It is also worrying to find frail looking pensioners go to their banks every fortnight to struggle for their allowance s. In some situations those incapacitated to the extent that they cannot make the journey to the bank would not have access to their money unless they prepare an authority note to be endorsed by the Association and countersigned by the Accountant Generals representative for the bank to effect payment, a process quite laborious. Calculation of retirement benefits of Government Pension which was originally based on the pension constant of 1/960th of ones terminal salary multiplied by the number of years served in months was reviewed in 1946 by the Harragin Salary Commission to 1/600th and has since been increased to 1/480th. The amount arrived at is spilt for 25% to be paid as gratuity and the remaining 75% as pension which is spread over 20 years and is payable monthly. On the death of a pensioner what is due him/her from the remaining period out of the twenty years is paid to his/her beneficiaries as commuted pension. (Tachie-Menson, 2003) For beneficiaries of a deceased pensioner to claim the unexpected portion of the twenty years pension there are three approaches towards that end:- (a)The nomination form filed with his Department while a civil servant in which he indicated his beneficiaries is the first to be used as authority for disbursement. However, the nomination forms can be revised at any time that the person wishes. (b)The will is the next authority to be used for disbursement, if it super cedes the nomination form. (c)In the absence of the two above, Letters of Administration prepared jointly by the head of the pensioners family on one side and the wife and children on the other, must be obtained from the Law Courts with which to claim the commuted pension. As the years roll by for inflation to set in adjustments are made to salaries by the grant of allowances in various forms to the basic salaries of Civil Servants. However, when allowances are added to the basic salaries to mitigate the effect of the rising cost of living, it does not reflect in the pension calculation. This prompts the Ghana Government Pensioners Association to enter into serious negotiations with the Government for pension to be increase. When the consolidated salary was introduced pensioners were left in the lurch. The Associations negotiating machinery was put to the test with the bargaining power of the Public Services Workers Union of which the Association is a Division; Government then consented to the grant of 50%. Therefore to address the issue of social support for the retired public sector workers in the municipality, it is important to know that the enormous concern of this essay is focused on the poor adoption of measures on the part of local authorities and community members to provide additional welfare resources and other social interventions to support the retired. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: This research would give an in-depth knowledge of the formal and informal social support systems of retired workers and to know the plight of retired workers so as to come out with remedies to assist these aged citizens. It would also contribute to prepare would- be retirees to adequately plan for their future retirement. Furthermore, before a research of this nature is meaningfully carried out in the municipality of Wa, it is imperative to have some knowledge about what the area under study is made up of. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study are as follows: Specific objective: A. To evaluate the adequacy of available formal and informal support and welfare resources to the retired persons at the community level. The investigation will be directed toward the identification of social support systems that would meet the growing and changing needs of the retired. GENERAL OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine, in some Ghanaian communities, social support systems for elderly persons. 2. To study both support providers and the beneficiaries comprehensively in order to understand how poverty and the needs of the retired are distributed, and how they are dealt with in practice. 3. To determine the degree of success of formal interventions of support provision to the elderly. 4. To ascertain the social pattern of relief and support, and to draw the social implications of the existing and changing patterns so that appropriate and adequate social policies may be formulated. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: These specific objectives above will be framed around the following specific and general questions: How adequate are the formal and informal social support and welfare resources of retired public sector workers? GENERAL QUESTIONS: 1. What are the general cultural expectations about the retired person in the community and how are these changing? 2. What resources are available to them? 3. To what extent do retired persons avail themselves of the community resources and at what cost? 4. What factors encourage or discourage utilization of such resources? 5. To what extent do the resources available complement one another to meet the needs of the retired and what needs are left unmet? 6. What are the principles of reciprocity involved in these various support arrangements in the family and the community? LITERATURE REVIEW: In reviewing literature, the study will triangulate conceptual and theoretical frame work of the topic understudy. The operational definition of key concepts include the terms formal, informal, social support systems and public sector workers. I am interested in defining formal as the official government situation in the line of events. Informal means private and unofficial initiative. Social support system means social interventions to the vulnerable. My construct of these concepts is similar to other concepts that are in use. However, in the past Social welfare protection, in the form of insurance and assistance programmes, emerged in Europe in the 1800s in order to provide citizens with an economic safety net during periods of illness, economic hardship, and other shocks as discussed (Palacios Sluchynsky, 2006). Today, nearly every country has some form of social protection developed to provide economic support in times of need (International Social Security Association, 2005). Assistance comes in the form of old-age pensions, survivor benefits, family allowances or other supports. In Africa, the author suggests that social welfare programmes were originally developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a safety net for white workers (Dixon, 1987). Employer-based contributory pensions were the dominant model. Still today, these pensions primarily serve the wealthiest workers who live in urban areas and have secure careers in the public sector (Palacios Sluchynsky, 2006). Those who are excluded from these benefits are left to rely upon the traditional safety net of family aid, mutual support, and communal living. For example, in Kenya, the clan system has operated as a labour union world, pooling resources and providing extra support during vulnerable periods (Dixon, 1987). This informal system has eroded. However, as countries have developed and urbanized, sources of livelihoods have diversified, family sizes shrunk, and the population aged. Moreover, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, poverty has further destabilized households, changed demographic patterns and orphaned enormous numbers of children (UNICEF, 2006). Vulnerable populations face a social protection vacuum when both formal programmes and informal practices fail to provide the safety nets that families need to survive, even though social protection is a proven component in fighting poverty and responding to families overwhelmed by disease or other shocks (Barrientos DeJong, 2004; Bourguignon, Ferreira, Leite, 2002; Chronic Poverty Research Centre, 2005; Skoufias di Maro, 2006). Throughout Africa, social protection programmes could well be mechanisms that enable families to economically survive and help children reach their potential. The reality that social welfare schemes in Africa exclude more people than they cover, has been established (Dixon, 1987; Fultz Pieris, 1999; Taylor, 2001) and yet there are important reasons to revisit this topic. He argues that in the last decade, a growing number of countries have expanded or developed new programmes in an effort to reduce poverty as well as to invest in human and economic development. Evidence of the growing momentum around social protection schemes include the Livingstone Call For Action (2006) where thirteen Eastern and Southern African governments pledged to draft costed national social transfer plans within two to three years. In a related situation, the African Union is driving and supporting efforts to promote the development of better social welfare systems; while heads of states throughout the world, have committed to building, where needed, and supporting the social security systems that protects the aged (United Nations General Assembly, 2006). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of existing social welfare policies in Ghana and countries throughout Africa. These policies are described and the characteristics of existing social welfare schemes are analyzed in order to facilitate dialogue on how governments, supported by the international community, can improve current welfare schemes and build new systems that are better aligned with the needs of vulnerable populations, in order to provide a meaningful social safety net. METHODOLOGY: In order to examine the characteristics of government and employer provided social support schemes to retired workers, the research must conduct an enquiry aimed at increasing knowledge based on facts. Therefore to achieve this, a systematic method and instruments of collating and collecting data should be used since the appropriateness of these methods and instruments to a large extent determine the validity and reliability of the data. Also the sample used should be a true representation of the population as well as the instrument utilized in the research. STUDY AREA The Wa Municipality is one of the oldest districts in the region, and the biggest of the nine districts. It is the capital town of the region. The estimated population of Wa Municipality for 2008 is 124,476 as against 105,065 in 2000, an increase of about19%. The population density of the area is 38 persons per square kilometers. It has about 32 communities. Because Wa doubles as the Municipal and Regional capital, it has a high population growth rate of 4% per annum with a greater proportion of the total population of the Municipality and the Region concentrated in it. Wa Municipality covers the Southwestern parts of the region. It stretches from longitude 1Ù’Â °40N to 2Â ° 45N and from latitude 9Â ° 32W to 10Â ° 20W. It covers an area of approximately 5899.30 square kilometers, which is about 32% and 2.56%of the region and the nation respectively. To the South, Southwest and Southeast, Wa Municipality shares common boundaries with Wa West/Wa East, Wa West and Wa East Districts respectively. To the north, Wa Municipality is bordered by Nadwoli District. It has more retired civil and public servants and also suitable in terms of providing sufficient sample sizes of retired persons. TARGET POPULATION The target population for this research is the retired civil and public sector workers in the municipality and their families. Retired civil and public sector workers are of two categories. The first category is made up of pensioners under Government Pension scheme and the second category is made up of pensioners under SSNIT Pension scheme. SAMPLE A number of samples will be drawn for the study. Unlike Census, where the entire population is covered by the study, sampling enables a researcher to study a relatively small part of the target population and yet obtain accurate and detailed data that are representative of the whole at a lower cost (Sarantakos, 2005). . The first sample of respondents will be made up of community members who are 60 years and above. The second respondents will be made up of family members, kin relationship and local authorities. SAMPLING PROCEDURE A snowball sampling procedure will be used. By this method a retired public sector worker is identified within the community and interviewed. This first respondent then leads the researcher to the next respondent who also falls with the target group. The process is continued until the required number of respondents is interviewed. CHOICE OF RESEARCH METHOD Considerable interest is shown in the choice of research methods to use in this research proposal. There is the quantitative data and method approach which often is associated with positivism, the prevailing paradigm in recent times. Under this approach scientific methods can more or less readily represent and measure concepts which seek to predict and explain causal relations among key variables. However, some critics are of the view that positivistic methods reduce the contextual meanings in the process of developing quantified measures of phenomena. Though the issue of empirical approach to research has been justified by its success in measuring quantitative research, in more recent years, scientists have been challenged to explain phenomena that defy measurement and their inability to quantitatively measure some phenomena, and the dissatisfaction with which the results of measurement of other phenomena have led to an intense search for other approaches to study human phenomena. A modern approach, which came to be known as post positivism, is a recent evolution of positivism which focus has been on qualitative methods, and is modeled on positivistic methods and experimental designs (Miles and Huberman, 1993). This approach has led to the acceptance of qualitative research approach which does not need empirical data to discover knowledge. However, one cannot help but to stuck by the success of qualitative research methods in the market place of academic ideas (Atkinson, 1995, p. 117). The tradition of using qualitative methods to study human phenomena is grounded in the social sciences. The tradition came about because aspects of human values, culture, and relationships were unable to be described fully using quantitative research methods. More recently, the practice of qualitative research has expanded to clinical settings because empirical approaches have proven to be of limited service in answering some of the challenges and pressing clinical questions, especially where human subjectivity and interpretation are involved (Thorne, 1997, p. 28). However, the use of qualitative research has its own flaws as well. It is unable to study relationships between variables with the degree of accuracy that is required to establish social trends. For the purpose of this proposal a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methodology would be used to analyse data. However qualitative method has a more flexible approach in pr ocedure to construction of research design in the sampling, data collection and processing and reporting. DATA COLLECTION Data will be collected from a variety of sources within the selected community, from families, kin, neighbours, educationists, legal and health practitioners, from neighbourhood and community associations, religious groups, welfare agencies, specialised groups such as trade unions, from local councils and other organised groups. Further information gathered will come from retired persons themselves, from their families/kin, extra familial networks, neighbourhood, their community and from state agencies. The material gathered from these levels will be in a complementary relationship to one another in order to approximate a high degree of reliability and validity. The principal data that will be gathered include the followings: (a) Community profile: geographic, demographic, historical, political-social and economic conditions of the community, placed within the national context. (b) Prevailing cultural norms and the expectations concerning the retired persons and their care, conceptions about reciprocity and exchange, family and kinship relationship etc. (c) Inventory and detailed descriptions of indigenous informal support systems and of formal support systems available within the community. Another source of data collection will be a historical review of formal and informal support systems available in the community and local levels. At the formal level, data will include the public services and programmes instituted by the government at different levels. At the informal level, data will include information on the traditional supporting roles played by family, kin, patrons and others. Data collection will proceed by means of primary sources of data such as interviews, questionnaire, and focus group discussions. Secondary data through existing literature will be used by the researcher. In terms of priorities, it is expected that questionnaires will be constructed and pretested. INTERVIEWS The interview is a face to face meeting between a questioner and a respondent, or an oral presentation of an opinion or attitude scale (Zikmund, 1994). Structured interview will be used for meeting the respondents. It will however be inter space with unstructured interviews when interacting with non pensioners. QUESTIONNAIRES A questionnaire is a written instrument that contains a series of questions or statements called items that attempts to collect information on a particular topic. It is useful for large scale surveys that involve collection of data from literate respondents. Questionnaire will be administered to pensioners as well. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION Another source of data collection will be focus group discussions. This third phase about 9-12 pensioners will be grouped for discussions about their personal experience before and after active service. The selection of participant will be balance in terms of sex to give it a fair representation. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION In recording the information or data gathered, I will employ both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Data will be described and in other cases subjected to quantitative analysis regarding trends in each dimension of the topic. Correlations between aspects of the topic and a series of other variables to establish more detailed results will be conducted. Beyond this, the researcher is expected to explain behaviours more extensively and more accurately. Where data needs empirical analysis quantitative model will be used and where it needs description and collection and analysis occur simultaneously, qualitative model will be suitable. INTENDED BENEFITS The Government under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare is seriously considering the development of a national policy for the aged. Local authorities should compliment government effort by initiating social and community activities to engage the elderly in the community as well as supplement government efforts of finding welfare resources for them. The results of this study should identify and address gaps in existing interventions. My contribution to the study is to draw to attention that every worker dreams of going on retirement one day. Therefore adequate preparations should be made for the aged who have live most of their life working to develop the country so that they dont retire and still wallow in poverty. My motivation stern from the very experience of having to handle my aged parents who were once public servants and are now on retirement and in addition to relations and friends who are affected in one way or another of their aged relatives. The intention of spending time and money on this exercise is to bring about an improvement of the status quo. TIME PLAN PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 FROM TO FROM TO FROM TO DATA GATHERING METHOD 1 use of questions 2 interviews 3Focus grp Dis. June-July. Pre test Decem.-Jan. Retired workers. June-July Cap 30 Retired Workers Oct. Nov. August-September Commty. profile Feb-Mar. Families Kin. Commty mmb August Sept. SSNIT Retired Workers Octob.- Novem. Prevailng cul. Norm April.-May edu, Leg., Health workrs ANALYSIS METHODS 1 Qualitative Mainly descriptive analysis of data. Often collection and analysis will occur simultaneously. METHODS 2Quantitative Mainly statistical analysis of data. Correlation between aspects of the topic and a series of variables will be established. BUDGET. Activity Quantity/number Frequency Unit Cost Total Cost GHÂ ¢ Internet Browsing Browsing and printing 20.00 Documents acquired 40.00 Travel expenses Fuel for local movement 20.00 Feeding accommodation Rent for two years and food GHÂ ¢ 120.00 240.00 Printing and photo copying questionnaires 15 pages 100 respondents 100.00 Printing 80 pages 8 copies 60GP 384.00 Binding of books 8 copies GHÂ ¢10.00 80.00 Grant Total GHÂ ¢884.00
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Sophocles Antigone - Creons Mistakes :: Antigone essays
Creon's Mistakes in Antigone In the awe-inspiring play of Antigone, Sophocles introduces two remarkable characters, Antigone and Creon. A conflict between these two obstinate characters leads to fatal consequences for themselves and their kindred. The firm stances of Creon and Antigone stem from two great imperatives: his loyalty to the state and her dedication to her family, her religion but most of all her conscience. The identity of the tragic hero of this play is still heavily debated. This tragedy could have been prevented if it had not been for Creon's pitiful mistakes. Creon's character possesses an infinite number of glitches in his personality, but his excessive pride was the root of his problems. His pride leads him to make accusations, before he considers the wise advice of others. Creon's pride also fills him not just as a king superior to the Gods, but also a man superior to women. The issue of Antigone being condemned to die becomes more than just a person who disobeys Creon; instead, the punishment is given even more eagerly, because it is a woman who disobeys a man. Creon's intelligent son warns Creon the people of Thebes sympathize with Antigone, but Creon accuses Haemon of being a "woman's slave" (line 756). Even though he is suppose to be loyal to the state and her citizens, he defensively questions if "the town [is] to tell [him] how [he] ought to rule?"(Line 734)The Theban king is too prideful to obey even the wisest of prophets, blind Teresias, insisting that "the whole crew of seers are money-mad" (line 1055). C reon finally puts his pride aside and listens to the Chorus' wise advice. It is difficult even then, and he obeys only because he fears the punishment that he might receive. "To yield [for Creon] is terrible" (line 1095) meaning to swallow his pride and admit that he is wrong is a very difficult thing for him to do. When Creon loses his wife and son, Creon's pride disappears, and he admits that he made a terrible mistake by not listening to anyone's advice. Antigone, a resolute and heroic female protagonist, pits her individual free will against the intractable forces of fate and against the irrational and unjust laws of tyrannical man like Creon.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Henry Hyde: From Henry To Hyde - Two Different Types of Leaders :: Essays Papers
Henry Hyde: From Henry To Hyde - Two Different Types of Leaders Henry Hyde was preaching to a small constituency during the Impeachment trial. Though the information spread through the internet and mass media, those who supported Hyde’s views remained the minority throughout the Impeachment process, and if anything, his support only decreased. Because Hyde felt that Clinton’s lying under oath about his relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones was morally wrong, he took steps to punish Clinton for those actions. However other people, from all across the political spectrum, felt differently, and due to the divisive nature of issue, the only people who listened to and supported Hyde was the small conservative Republican constituency that had elected him and the other House Managers initially. For Hyde his core Catholic beliefs formed the basis for his political agenda. Those consisted of Catholic, family values issues, primarily pro-life ones. For example, he was on the Advisory Board of the Illinois Citizens for Life. Therefore the way that Hyde related to his audience was through a mutual agreement that family values, especially monogomy between spouses, were very important concerns, amplified by their percieved degredation of American culture. Clinton had a wife and a daughter, and during both campaigns ran as a women friendly president. Therefore the House Managers, who were all similar in ideology to Hyde conspired together to make the Impeachment a political statement. There were so many other reasons that they wanted to convict him and ruin is career, ranging from that fact that he had smoked pot to needing to discredit the Democrats before the 2000 election, that the Managers pursued Clinton ruthlessly. Often they were vindictive and bitter, as exemplified by Hyde’s rejection of the Joint Resolution of Censure which would have been politically advantageous to the Republicans offensively and diverted the thrashing they later took in the polls. However during his closing argument before the Senate, Hyde spoke venerably and grandfatherly, and limped up to the podium with the support of a cane, as if America had wounded him. It was during this speech that Hyde introduced his Henry V analogy, comparing himself to Henry V and the Managers to the English longbowmen as they prepared to die in defense of their country. Hyde saw himself and the Managers as protecting America from Clinton and what would happen if he was acquitted. If Clinton won, the president would have defeated America’s saviors and snaked his way out of punishment and justice, forever damning American culture and making a mockery of its system of justice. Henry Hyde: From Henry To Hyde - Two Different Types of Leaders :: Essays Papers Henry Hyde: From Henry To Hyde - Two Different Types of Leaders Henry Hyde was preaching to a small constituency during the Impeachment trial. Though the information spread through the internet and mass media, those who supported Hyde’s views remained the minority throughout the Impeachment process, and if anything, his support only decreased. Because Hyde felt that Clinton’s lying under oath about his relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones was morally wrong, he took steps to punish Clinton for those actions. However other people, from all across the political spectrum, felt differently, and due to the divisive nature of issue, the only people who listened to and supported Hyde was the small conservative Republican constituency that had elected him and the other House Managers initially. For Hyde his core Catholic beliefs formed the basis for his political agenda. Those consisted of Catholic, family values issues, primarily pro-life ones. For example, he was on the Advisory Board of the Illinois Citizens for Life. Therefore the way that Hyde related to his audience was through a mutual agreement that family values, especially monogomy between spouses, were very important concerns, amplified by their percieved degredation of American culture. Clinton had a wife and a daughter, and during both campaigns ran as a women friendly president. Therefore the House Managers, who were all similar in ideology to Hyde conspired together to make the Impeachment a political statement. There were so many other reasons that they wanted to convict him and ruin is career, ranging from that fact that he had smoked pot to needing to discredit the Democrats before the 2000 election, that the Managers pursued Clinton ruthlessly. Often they were vindictive and bitter, as exemplified by Hyde’s rejection of the Joint Resolution of Censure which would have been politically advantageous to the Republicans offensively and diverted the thrashing they later took in the polls. However during his closing argument before the Senate, Hyde spoke venerably and grandfatherly, and limped up to the podium with the support of a cane, as if America had wounded him. It was during this speech that Hyde introduced his Henry V analogy, comparing himself to Henry V and the Managers to the English longbowmen as they prepared to die in defense of their country. Hyde saw himself and the Managers as protecting America from Clinton and what would happen if he was acquitted. If Clinton won, the president would have defeated America’s saviors and snaked his way out of punishment and justice, forever damning American culture and making a mockery of its system of justice.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Essay --
The number of children who enter foster care is rapidly growing; however, there are not enough foster parents for these children. Children are placed into foster care because of neglect, abuse and many other reasons. Foster parents are single individuals or married couples who become licensed to serve as caretakers for foster children. Foster parents are very important because they help the child grow and by providing love and affection, and even stability while they are away from birth parents. The purpose of this review is to increase the awareness about foster parenting and finding ways to recruit parents to create successful foster placements. A research study shows that twenty-two licensed foster parents at a parent training session with the Louisiana Department of Social Services was compare to the role perceptions of White and African American foster parents, (Nabusti, York, & Sandell, 2004). This study found that there are some differences and similarities in White and African American foster parents. They collected data from 128 African Americans and 65 White foster parents. This study proved that African American parents are likely to take care of children who are related to them; nonetheless, they isolate themselves from child welfare agencies, (Nabusti et al., 2004). In this study, foster parents revealed they were responsible for creating a relationship between the foster child and birth parents, assisting the child with social and emotional development, helping the foster agency operate easier, providing the child with traditional parental roles, and establishing spiritual relationships with the child (Nabus ti et al, 2004). This study proved that African American foster parent think it is extremely important t... ...t that we understand the foster care system and its process as well. Finding ways to recruit foster parents is very important. All of the studies discussed above have found ways to recruit foster parents, give advice to foster parents to make foster placement successful, and even compared the African American and White foster family perceptions on foster care. The foster care system is very serious and proper foster placements are very much needed. While researching recruiting foster parents, I noticed that church or organizations have not hosted a foster recruitment day to increase interested families awareness on how to become a foster parent. Hosting an educational seminar on the importance of foster families and explaining to the audience on how to become foster parents would be an effective way to increase the awareness of interested foster families.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Moral Sainthood Essay
The concept of moral sainthood quickly becomes a negative one, simply because no one can be perfect. When we hold high expectations for people, they will inevitably fail to meet these criteria for perfection. When this occurs, individuals who hold high expectations of their moral saint will experience a huge let down. Also, a mere onlooker may get the wrong idea, and value the immoral decisions that this person made, or at least view their mistake as acceptable behavior. One of the main arguments against moral sainthood is that there is a limit to how much morality we, as humans, can take. A true moral saint would carry through with their virtues to an excess. You would not be able to make a negative assessment to an immoral person, or a positive one to moral one. A true moral saint can not gain any skills, or glean any joy from non-moral events, like winning a football game, or finishing a painting. â€Å"The normal person’s direct and specific desires for objects, activites, and events that conflict with the attainment of moral perfection are not simply sacrificed but removed, suppressed, or subsumed†(Wolf 350). These would be pointless attempts at folly. Moral perfection is not only impossible, it’s not desirable socially. The qualities that a true moral saint would possess, if saints did exist, are qualities that are unattractive to society. A true moral saint cannot go through the normal social experiences we go through, like developing a sense of humor, or getting into an intimate relationship. A moral saint would not conform to any of the molds society creates. Given many of these molds may be inappropriate or immoral, there are some you can not overlook as necessary. Your overall characteristics as a person would suffer as well, seeing how the well-rounded qualities we all need would not be present. These moral saints can often cause tension among ‘average citizens’ because of the uncomfortable feeling they may bring to the table. These people of ‘perfection’ highlight the natural flaws we, as humans, all have. A small mistake soon becomes a huge ordeal, and these ‘higher beings’ are eventually making us feel inferior, instead of people we should be looking up to, and aspiring to be. Humans are not willing to condemn themselves, so this process of being frowned upon is, well, frowned upon. When people develop into role models, they attain the admiration of others. Although media portrayal may transform these everyday people into super heros, they are not. When we value other people’s morals and opinions instead of considering our own, we are being shallow. Although some may say we base our role models on our own morals, we have a certain expectation for role models that, as humans, they can not always fulfill. These people many hold as role models, are individuals we do not even know personally. Athletes and movie stars are people that we do not know on a personal level, so we don’t even know if their behaviors are worth valuing. These heroes are being judged based on how the media portrays them. When we judge a person based on their media presence, we choose to view them only in the light, not the dark. As humans, we are often afflicted with an obsession of power. This obsession with power causes us to create heroes out of everyday people with ordinary characteristics. When we put them on a pedastol and look up to them, this undue admiration is given out far too easily. These ‘leaders’ we establish will eventually conform to the group they’re in charge of and act the way they think people want them to act. Expectations then soon lead to pressure, and this will cause the person to act differently. What people fail to realize is that there are ordinary individuals who are doing better things, achieving higher standards, and living their life more ethically and morally than those we call super heroes. People such as movie stars, sports stars, and the rich and famous person will, in our society, be more of a hero than the ordinary person, until they make a mistake. The process of becoming a moral saint simply does not work within our society. Social norms do not lend themselves easily to one seeking unattainable qualities of moral sainthood.
Character analysis Essay
Priestley describes him in the opening stage directions as a ‘rather portentous man’, full of his own self-importance. In the play, he is certainly very concerned with his social position – he twice mentions that he was Lord Mayor as a way of impressing Gerald (pp.8, 11), and mentions the knighthood to him, even though it is far from definite. He is solely worried about how his family’s reputation will suffer at the inquest when he hears of Mrs Birling’s part in the girl’s death (p.45), and he is more concerned about how to ‘cover†¦up’ Eric’s thefts (p.54) than about how to put them right. He tries to use first Gerald’s family name (p.13) and then his friendship with the Chief Constable (p.16) as ways of bullying the Inspector; he obviously believes that others are as easily impressed by social connections as he is. (We know he is easily impressed because of his evident pride at Gerald’s family background ; he obviously believes he has made a good match for Sheila.) His key characteristic is his complacency. He is well-off (as the opening stage directions suggest), and he believes he always will be: that ‘we’re in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity’ (p.6). This success, however, has been at the expense of others – he threw the girl out of her job for asking for a modest rise, and intends in the future to work with Crofts Limited ‘for lower costs and higher prices’ (p.4), exploiting his power as a capitalist to profit at the expense of others. Birling does not believe he has a responsibility to society, only to his family: ‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’ (p.10). He is not upset, unlike Eric, at hearing the details of the girl’s death (p.12), which shows him to be a little heartless. He is suspiciously defensive when he thinks the Inspector is accusing him of causing it, and – like Mrs Birling – is relieved when he thinks the finger is no longer pointing at him. This is hypocritical because, as the Inspector says, ‘the girl’s [still] dead, though’ (p.18). He also has double standards: for he sees nothing strange in wanting to protect Sheila from the unpleasantness of the girl’s life and death, yet feels no guilt at not having protected the girl herself. Crucially, Priestley undermines this self-important, complacent man, who believes his only responsibility is to his family, right at the start of the play. He is shown as short-sighted and wrong: Prediction Reality ‘We’re in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity’ The Wall Street Crash (1929) and the Great Depression within a generation ‘There isn’t a chance of war’ World war within two years, with a second to follow within the same lifetime ‘In 1940†¦you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all these Capital versus Labour agitations’ The General Strike (1926) and the continued rise of the Trade Union Movement. The Titanic: ‘unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’ SS Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage This dramatic irony at his expense encourages us to question how many of his other beliefs are correct; Priestley, as a socialist, is not sympathetic to what this capitalist believes. He also undermines Birling’s relationship with his family, the only institution that Birling believes matters. In Act Two, both his children – who learn from the Inspector in a way Birling never does – behave badly in front of him (pp.32-33), and his heir Eric is later revealed as both an alcoholic and a thief. After the Inspector has gone, Birling simply wants things to return to the way they were. He cannot understand Sheila’s and Eric’s insistence that there is something to be learnt, and he is relieved and triumphant when he feels that scandal has been avoided and everything is all right. Right up until the end, he claims that ‘there’s every excuse for what both your mother and I did – it turned out unfortunately, that’s all’ (p.57). Birling is not the cold and narrow-minded person that his wife is; he simply believes in what he says. He is a limited man, who is shown to be wrong about many things in the play; it is the Birlings of the world whom Priestley feared – in 1945 – would not be willing or able to learn the lessons of the past, and so it is to the younger generation that Priestley hopefully looked instead†¦Ã‚ Mrs Birling Priestley describes her in the opening stage directions as ‘a rather cold woman’ (p.1). She expects Sheila to make the same sacrifices in marriage that she had to (p.3); she has a clear sense of her duty within the family.
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