One of NBA’s Greatest Starters

Saying Kobe Bryant sucks at basketball, is like saying Napoleon Dynamite isn’t funny. He is, and Kobe for sure doesn’t! In May of 2008 he got his â€Å"Most Valuable Player Award† for the first time ever in his career. (Naik, par. 5) He has won many awards in his career, and helped the Lakers win the playoffs 3 years in a row. By the ending of 2007, he was the youngest player to reach 20,000 points in his career. He’s a hard working basketball player who deserves all the praise he gets. Kobe had an easy early life, with his dad being an NBA player himself. Except his dad wasn’t exactly a star. Jellybean Joe† was one of the players no one wanted. He was drafted to the Warriors, but they didn’t like his contract demands, so he was traded to Houston. After a year with Houston, the Bryant family packed their bags for Europe, where Joe signed a contract with a team in Reti, Italy. It only took a couple of months for Kobe and his two sisters, Shaya and Sharia, to learn the Italian language. (Stewart, par. 7) Joe was the reason Kobe developed the love for basketball. In Italy, Kobe would go to practices with his father, and would hardly ever miss a game of his. He would often entertain fans during halftime by shooting some baskets. When the Joe decided to move back to the US, Kobe was just starting High School. It took him to his junior year to really get the hang of things and get used to living in America again. When they moved back to America, Kobe was one of the best players on his summer league at Sonny Hill. When he started high school, he made the varsity basketball team. (Stewart, par. 16) His junior year, he averaged 31 points and 10 rebounds and 5 assists. He was named the Pennsylvania Player of the Year award. (par. 9) When Kevin Garnett went pro right out of high school, Kobe knew he wanted to go pro straight out of high school. So he knew he needed to step his game up to be good enough to. His dad scheduled that he practice with the 76rs that summer. The practice really paid off because his senior year he helped his team win its first state title in 42 years. That summer, Kobe decided to go pro immediately after high school. On Draft day, he was picked at #13 by the Charlotte Hornets, except when Jerry West of the Los Angeles Lakers talked to the coach of the Hornets, and got Kobe Bryant at the 25th pick. He signed a 3. million contract lasting 3 years with the Lakers. He averaged 25 points on their summer league. He was only 18 years old, and was the youngest starter in the NBA (par. 35). His success didn’t end there, though. Kobe helped the Lakers win in the Championships 3 years in a row. In 2002, he was named Most Valuable player of that year’s All-Star Game (Naik, 3). But in 2003, he came back into the spotlight for something other than basketball. He was at a resort in Colorado, where he accused of sexually assaulting a 19 year old who worked at the resort. Kobe admitted to having sexual contact, but it was a mutual agreement on doing it. He turned himself in, and he was arrested but then released on a $25,000 bond. The case was dropped though, and he got away free of charge. In 2008, when he played in the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, he won gold in the Men’s Basketball division. Later that year he won his first ever NBA Most Valuable Player Award (par. 5). Something recently happened to Kobe Bryant lately, though. Kobe has had a pretty successful past year so far. In 2010, he and the Lakers won the Play-offs. He is currently working really hard on helping the Lakers get to the Play-Offs again this year. His current point average is 25. ; it’s gone down, but not by much. In January of 2009, he was the youngest player to reach 27,000 points in his over all career. On April 13, 2011, he was issued a $100,000 fine for an â€Å"offensive and inexcusable† comment during the night before’s game. His comment was â€Å"such a distasteful term† that â€Å"should never be tolerated† says NBA Commissioner David Stern (Stern, par. 1). He is one of the highest scoring players in the NBA. Some rumors have been going around saying Kobe is retiring after the 2010-11 season is up, so he and Phil Jackson (his coach) can retire at the same time. Kobe Bryant has been very successful in what he does. He’s one of the best players out there. The Lakers are very lucky to have him on their team. But my question is, what is the basketball world going to be with out Kobe Bryant playing? Who’s going to take his place when he retires? But anyways he is a very, very, very successful basketball player, and he really does deserve praise and honor of what he does. He’s the best of the best, and the best should be recognized. Some may say that he’s not good at what he does, but I say he really is the best, and they are all just jealous of the skills he has.

Fair-value accounting change Essay

The role played by the financial market in determining the levels of performance that can be recorded by the economy is not in doubt.   The 2008 economic crisis is a vivid reminder to all policy makers and even governments to ensure that issues that affect the economy are objectively addressed. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) which is a key player in the financial sector appears to be oblivious of its role in the economy and has once again used its mandate to develop a standard that is not relevant to business let alone accounting.   The move to adopt the mark-to-market accounting standard is a dark mark in American accounting history that may in fact lead to poor practices within the financial systems that have proven to be potent to the economy. It took America nearly 15 years to develop its constitutions; strategic management specialist have time and again pointed to the close relationship that exists between rapid change and failure and the FASB has for years taken months in seeking suggestions and deliberating upon them before making any proclamation that may affect the nature of the business environment[1].     All these are events or standards that the business world and America as a whole has come to accepted as being reflective of factors that affect the business environment. The speed with which the mark-market standards moved from proposal to being a standard brings about questions on objectivity[2].   A look at the last two times that America has found itself in crisis it has been the financial systems that duped to investors by inflating their performance or potential.   It is unlikely that such a hurried process which eliminates systems that have protected American investors will be of any good. FASB’s modification of its rules is often waited upon with anticipation by all players in the business world.   The change in the fair value rules or standards is the main area of controversy in FASB’s changes.   While the banking and financial institutions have praised the move as an effort to reduce the negative effect that previous standards had on developing a ‘clear picture’ of their performance[3], investors are worried stiff on the effect that it will have on disclosures by banking and financial institutions that are traditionally known for overvaluing their assets and even performance. The fair value accounting rules had been blamed by a number of financial institutions that are notably under pressure from the 2008 economic crisis for being irrelevant to inactive markets. The mark-to-market accounting system that has been presented by FASB allows companies to use their judgment to gauge prices of some investments and backed securities.   Analysts were quick to note that the measures could in fact impact on the net income and affect bank write downs.   Pro mark-to-market standard institutions have hailed the changes with statements like ‘the mortgage and market was not working and something had to change’.   This is reflective of the true objective behind the move.   Investors who have been defrauded by American institutions in a number of occasions are wary of the changes that place them in a position where they are susceptible to exploitation by the financial community. The integrity of a development is largely dependent on the process that culminated in its existence.   Under this consideration, investors are innocent of ‘unnecessary suspicion developed from poor past experiences’.   The series of event that culminated into the existence of the mark-to-market standard is a reflection of the negative effect that the congress can have on effective decision making.   In his presentation on March 12th the chair of FASB did not mince his words in pointing out the faults that are inherent of the mark-to-market standards that the financial community was pushing for. The definition presented by Herz which should be presumed of FASB’s definition of fair value is that it is the worth of an asset being exchanged between two informed parties[4].   In ending his statement the chair stated that America is in a challenging time that requires improvements in nearly all sectors and by trying to suppress financial information offered to investors there is little that will have been done to change the conditions.   His statement is a pointer to the misinformed objective that the change may affect the position that America currently is in and the existence of fair value system within financial practices. Whatever happened between 12th March and April 2nd is best left to Americans’ imagination.   The congress’ pressure has especially been cited by the media and being central to the changes that FASB made in fair accounting standards.   The same rule which had been dimmed lacking in objectivity became relevant to the American dilemma in a space of three weeks.   The hurried implementation of the change is the unspoken variables that belie its objectives. A pro derived from the development is the awareness that America is in a desperate position which needs to be addressed with immediate effect.   Moreover, the negative effect that bad performance within financial institutions had on the stock market may soon be historical events as financial agencies have been given a leeway to confuse investors and hide poor performance.   Profits that have not been evidenced since the likes of Enron went down may soon be usual and the same can be said of the pain that investors underwent in the turn of the century. The cons are clear especially sidelining of the effects that the operational environment has on operations.   The development allows for businesses to operate in a manner suggestive of independence from the operational environment while investors who may be aware of the prevailing environment are subjected to these daydreams.   The results may be increased wrangles within management boards, unethical practices within financial institutions and reduced confidence on financial disclosures which goes against their objectives. If any one thought that the FASB is perturbed by the controversies surrounding the development then they are in for a big surprise.   The FASB has practically done nothing and has sat back with some postulating that the next step they take may involve providing organizations with an environment where they can alter the value of all their assets at will. The standards used by investors and   financial players under the environment developed by the mark-to-market standards is non-uniform and may lead to a number of upheavals and even miscommunication that negatively affect value generation. It is evident from Herz’s speech on March 12th that the mark-to-market standard is a non-objective measure to curb the effects of the 2008 crisis.   The pressure placed on the FASB by the congress whose affiliation to financial heavyweight is not a mystery is central to the change.   This is not the first time such a development is being recorded for the French President played a pivotal role in some controversial changes made by the GAAP[5]. Investors should only worry for the short term for such subjective developments have historically proven to be uneventful.   It is only a matter of time before the follies in the mark-to-market standard that are actually known to all parties in the business fraternity manifests in the practical environment with dire results.   Changes that are appreciative of the operational environment will then be the only way out.

CHAPTER 1 Essays , Research Papers

CHAPTER 1 Mini-Exercises |1-1|(1) B, (2) D, (3) A, (4) C*, | | |(5) B, (6) D, (7) A, (8) D. | | |* Dividends paid in cash are | | |also subtracted in the | | |Financing section of the | | |Statement of Cash Flows..| |1-2|(1) SE, (2) A, (3) R, | | |(4) A,| | |(5) E, (6) A, (7) E, | | |(8) L, (9) A.. | |1-3|(1) CPA: Certified Public| | |Accountant | | |(2) GAAP: Generally Accepted | | |Accounting Principles | | |(3) AICPA: American Institute | | |of Certified Public| | |Accountants. | | |(4) SEC: Securities and | | |Exchange Commission| | |(5) FASB: Financial Accounting | | |Standards Board | Exercises |1-1 |(1) K, (3) I, (5) A, (7) | | |J, (9) C, (11) H, (13) N | |1-2 |(1) A, (3) R, (5) L, (7) | | |E, | | |(9) E, (11) A, (13) L, (15) | | |E| |1-3 |(1) L, (3) L, (5) SE, | | |(7) A, (9) E, | | |(11) R, (13) E, (15) A,| | |(17) E.| |1-4 |Total Assets = 11,819 (in| | |billions of Yen). | |1-5 |Req. 1: Total Assets = | | |$179,350 | |1-6 |Net Income is $25,100. | |1-7 |Net Income is $522 (in | | |millions). | |1-8 |Net Income is $50,180. | |1-9 |(A) Stockholders' Equity = | | |$74,200. | |1-10|(B) Total Liabilities =| | |$241,600. | |1-11|Net Income = $75,500. Total | | |Assets = $196,250.| |1-12|Ending Retained Earnings = | | |$40,100. | |1-13|(1) I, (3) F, (5) O, (7) I| |1-14|Cash flow from operating| | |activities = $95,000. | Problems |1-1|Req. 1: Net Income = $32,060.| | | | | |Req. 3: Total Assets = | | |$157,000. | |1-2|Req. 1: Net Income = $4,925. | |1-3|Req. 1: (d) Income = -$2,900, | | |Cash = -$10,500. | |1-4|Req. 4: Stockholders Equity = | | |$29,000| Alternate Problems |1-1|Req. 1: Net Income = $20,050.| | | | | |Req 3: Total Assets = | | |$117,050. | |1-2|Req. 1: Net Income = $9,120. | |1-3|(d) Income -$36,000, Cash | | |-$30,000| Cases |1-1|(7) Total Liabilities = | | |$554,645,000.| |1-2|(2) Net Sales = | | |$1,834,618,000. | |1-3|(1) At the end of the most | | |recent year, American Eagle | | |Outfitters had total assets of | | |$1,963,676,000. Urban | | |Outfitters' had total assets = | | |$1,329,009,000. Clearly | | |American Eagle Outfitters is | | |the larger of the tow companies| | |in terms of total assets at the| | |end of the most recent year. | |1-4|Req. 2: Total Assets = | | |$142,000. | |1-5|Req. 1: Assert the need for an| | |independent audit of the | | |financial statements each year,| | |because this is the best way to| | |assure credibility -| | |conformance with GAAP, | | |completeness, and absence of | | |bias. | |1-6|(4) There is an ethics | | |violation in this case because | | |she would audit statements that| | |covered a period of time where | | |she was responsible for the | | |accounting operations of the | | |company. This is a problem both| | |in appearance and in fact.| |1-7|The solution to this case will | | |depend on the company and/or | | |accounting period selected for | | |analysis. | CHAPTER 2 Mini-Exercises |2-1 |(1) C, (2) H, (3) G, | ||(4) A, (5) I.| |2-2 |(1) D, (2) C, (3) A, | ||(4) I, (5) B.| |2-3 |(1) Y, (2) N, (3) Y, | ||(4) N, (5) Y, (6) N. | |2-4 |(1) CL, (3) NCA, (5) SE, | ||(7) CA, (9) NCA, (11) CA, | ||(13) SE, (15) CL. | |2-5 |(b) Cash -$7,000. Notes | ||Receivable +$7,000. | |2-6.1|Assets: Debit: increases; | ||Credit: decreases.| |2-7.2|Liabilities: an Increase is | ||recorded as a Credit; a| ||Decrease is recorded as a | ||Debit.| |2-8 |(d) Equipment (+A) | ||15,000| ||Cash (-A) | ||6,000| ||Notes Payable (+L)| ||9,000| |2-9 |Cash has a $6,800 debit| ||balance. | |2-10 |Total Assets = $44,700.| |2-11 |2007: Current Ratio = 1.50 | ||2008: Current Ratio = 1.18 | |2-12 |(a) F, (b) I, (c) F, | ||(d) I, (e) F..| Exercises |2-1 | (1) E, (3) B,(5) | | |K,(7) S,(9) I, | | || | |(11) O, (13) C, (15) D, | | |(17) N, (19) T.| |2-2 |Req. 1: (k) Received: | | |Investments (A); Given: Cash | | |(A) | |2-3 |(3) Taxes Payable: CL,| | |credit balance. | |2-4 |(c) Cash +9,000. Notes| | |Payable +9,000. | |2-5 |Req. 1: (c) Liabilities: | | |Dividends Payable +121.4. | | |Stockholders' Equity: | | |Retained Earnings -121.4| |2-6 |(e) Land (+A) | |

Sales Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sales Management - Essay Example The examples can be a deafening silence, beautiful ugly, constant variable etc. The use of oxymoron for sales ethics puts forward the meaning that sales and ethics are two opposite concepts. To explore this in detail, the phrase sales ethics is an oxymoron means that in sales there is no place for ethics. The sales persons cannot be ethical if they have to get their work done properly. The sales force has to maneuver facts, figures and details in order to sell their product and beat competition. The corporate race these days compels the companies and their sales representatives to speak positive about their product and make it appear larger than life in order to attract customer attention. In this era of increasing prices, fierce competition, the firms cannot add too much value to their products but are compelled to show a luring picture so that their sales graphs go up. These days it is all about graphs number and profits, goodwill, loyalty has taken a back seat. Having mentioned th e above general perception regarding sales and ethics, let us validate and form an opinion based on concepts and analysis. For centuries the great writers and philosophers have been trying to come up with the definition of ethics. The word ethics is a complex concept and its complexity is derived from the lack of a universal definition. Ethics is different for different people, what I believe to be ethical may be unethical for someone and vice versa. â€Å"Ethics, in fact, is all about fairness and equity, and a fine balancing act, the balancing treatment of the two parties involved, sharing of benefits and losses, and sharing of the good and bad consequences or misery imposed by calamities, natural events etc.† (Madhavan 2008, 4) The field of ethics is very subjective; it is a personalized value system and judgment that varies from person to person. It deals with a person’s emotional values along with the logical benchmark; anything below that line of ethics is unethi cal and wrong. But the fine line between being ethical and unethical has blurred over the years. More and more firms are entering into marketing gimmicks and tricks and trade of the sales games and calling it ethical because of its commonality. Having talked about personal or individual ethics let us now explore business ethics. In any organization the value and opinions are formed by the people working in it. How well an organization carries out its value and conveys it to its customers depends upon the conduct of its employees. â€Å"Business ethics is the study of business situation, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed.† (Crane and Matten 2007, 5) The firms need to establish a morally right and wrong criteria as an ethical value system in the organization. Every individual in the organization should work towards the good of the organization and individual selfish gains should be avoided for the firm and society to prosper in an ethical m anner. However, the real world of business posses several ethical confusions and issues to the sales force putting them into an ethical dilemma.†Anyone who wants to succeed in sales should be aware of the ethical issues that can arise. For a number of reasons, activities related to sales seem to have a greater frequency and level of ethical issues.†

Argue for Johnny F.Sale Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Argue for Johnny F.Sale - Essay Example In order to claim his benefits, Sale should work hard to progress from an amateur level to professional level. As such Sale would take advantage of his pictures, jerseys, videos and other promotional items that would generate him individual revenue. Briefly, NCAA is a none-profit organization that generates its revenues from television contracts, game events and so forth. Research shows that, NCAA primary source of revenue is television contracts. For example, in fiscal year 2006 – 2007, television and marketing revenue accounted for approximately 81.9 percent of the NCAA’s total revenue. This statement indicates that NCAA receives a lot of money from revenue generated from selling of player’s pictures, jerseys and other promotional items. Though making a lot of profit, players are not shareholders or beneficially. NCAA incurs its expenses through its operation activities that include staff wages, events organization just to mention but a few. NCAA has set forth rules for protecting its revenue. However, this paper presents a case where an Amateur player â€Å"Johnny F. Sale† demands a share of the revenue generated from his pictures, jerseys that contain his name, videos and so forth. According to NCAA rules, Sale being an amateur does not qualify to enjoy any share or revenue generated by NCAA. Such privileges are for professional players. NCAA rule state that for a player to qualify to professional level, he needs to do two of the following: (1) Try playing for a professional team and one is responsible for his expenses. Contrary, for expenses in a period of up to 48 hours, one can receive a reimbursement. (2) One may also look for a job at a hockey school. The wages for teaching are not a violation of NCAA rules. The two rules simply mean a student is not a beneficiary of the revenue generated from promotional items bearing his name, picture or video clip. Sale felt that he had the potential to benefiting from revenue generated f rom the selling of his name, pictures and video clips on NCAA website despite being a student. As a result of restrictive NCAA law, the organization has faced numerous cases in court for not complying with a player grievance. Summary of Facts In fact, NCAA benefits from the players’ names, pictures, videos clips and other promotional items. On the other hand, players do not benefit, and NCAA has put in place rules that restrain the players from benefiting until they attain professional status. This clearly shows a violation of their right to earn a living from their sporting activities while still under training. As a result, Sale would like to sell his own pictures, name, video clips and likeness. However, as per the existing rules, should he choose to do so, he will be violating NCAA rules hence becomes ineligible to compete in intercollegiate athletics. His long-term focus is to continue playing under amateur level. Moreover, he was intending to benefit from pictures of hi s own and other promotional items that concern him. Sports being in the business industry like any other business should earn the participants income from the activities they carry out while in that industry. Therefore, there are Sports law set forth to provide policies for players, sponsors and training institutions. Policies that concern players are in three categories namely; amateur, professional and international sports policies. There is

Managerial Report on the Real Estate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Managerial Report on the Real Estate - Essay Example This, they accomplish by collecting on site data, monitoring information relative to the sale and purchase of condominiums. The number of days it takes for each condominium to be sold is also taken into account and recorded for analysis and reference. The Gulf Real Estate Properties has classified the condominiums by separating those present on the areas of the Gulf from those present elsewhere such as on the bay or a golf course. The data relative to the recent sales of Condominiums both on and off Gulf, which is in thousands of dollars, has been selected. Statistical analysis of the acclaimed data would reveal facts which would be accommodated within a managerial report. The data comprise of three variables namely list price, sale price and days to sell for both the categories of condominiums that are â€Å"Gulf View† and â€Å"No Gulf View†. The sample size for former is 40 while for the latter it is 18. The price values are given in thousands of dollars. The data is acquired from condominium sales reported in the Naples MLS (Coldwell Banker, June 2000). The data is appended below as Table 1.1 under Appendix A. The subscripts that are used to indicate the statistical figures of both the â€Å"Gulf View† and â€Å"No Gulf View† categories in this report are 1 and 2 respectively. The descriptive statistics regarding each of the three variables for the 40 â€Å"Gulf View Condominiums† and for the 18 â€Å"No Gulf View Condominiums† is presented in Table 1.0 below. The descriptive statistics highlight multiple factors that would assist a real estate agent comprehend the real estate market. The sample mean of days to sell variable for Gulf View Condominiums (= 106 days) is comparatively lesser than the sample mean of No Gulf View Condominiums (= 135 days).

Research Case 3 - Operating Segments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research Case 3 - Operating Segments - Essay Example North America and Eurasia/Africa segments accounted for the highest revenue growth registering increases of 36% and 23% respectively. The two leading segments in profit margins were Europe and Latin America with 67% and 62% profit margins respectively. In 2010, the most important segments for GE were Technology Infrastructure and GE capital as they accounted for 26% and 31% of the total revenue respectively. NBC universal and Home & Business solutions recorded the highest revenue growth of 9% and 2% increases respectively. Energy infrastructure and Technology Infrastructure were the most profitable segments recording 20% and 17% profit margins respectively. In 2010, the two most important segments for Oxford Industries were Tommy Bahama and Lanier Clothes as they accounted for 66% and 17% of the total revenue. Tommy Bahama and Corporate/Other segments had the highest changes increase in revenue with growths of 10% and 64% respectively. Tommy Bahama and Lanier Clothes were the most profitable segments with 13% and 14% profit

Using Technology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Using Technology - Assignment Example en dealing with problems involving quadrilaterals, I will create an applet showing the processes of constructing a quadrilateral on an area equal to a given quadrilateral. Secondly, I will use the GeoGebra Software when introducing the concept of function. Here, I will include a GeoGebra applet to identify changing and unchanging quantities in addition to determining the relationship between two varying quantities. Third, I will use the software in investigating the coordinates of points. I will use GeoGebra’s point tool to locate various points, interpret the coordinates and make generalizations. One of the challenges facing users of the GeoGebra Software is complexity. Learners have difficulties using the program to achieve effective learning of mathematics. Overcoming this challenge involve teaching students basic mathematics of the topic before teaching them how to use the software. Secondly, using GeoGebra Software is sometimes time-consuming because I will need to train learners on how to use it after teaching them the fundamental concepts of the topic. To overcome this problem, teachers should encourage constant practice among learners. The third challenge constitutes the possibility of developing negative attitudes towards the software by students. This challenge can be overcome by demonstrating the necessity and effective use of the software in achieving the objectives of learning mathematics. The GeoGebra software is critical in learning mathematics. The Software helps in linking the topics of calculus, algebra, and geometry to enhance understanding by learners. The challenges facing users of the software include complexity, time constraints, and negative attitudes by learners. Teachers should strive to overcome these challenges in order to enhance the applicability of GeoGebra in teaching/learning

Potential Impacts of Terrorists Aattacks Term Paper - 1

Potential Impacts of Terrorists Aattacks - Term Paper Example The researcher states that the terrorist attack on September 11 has caused enormous devastation to the society. Nevertheless, the administration had taken serious actions to avert such terror campaign performances but it did not handle to put off the terrorist assault. The management did not have retort systems to aware people of the assault. This was quite difficult for the society to avert the attack. The attack of September 11 strained the government to build up ways to put off terrorism actions like cultural profiling and enrichment of safety measures. Communities have opted to oppose terrorism initiatives to avoid the coming terrorism attacks. The community counter terrorism proposal focussed in avoiding any terrorist assault in the society. Terrorist proceedings have become very familiar in the public like bombing. Terrorists have regularly bombed many constructions leading to deaths. The counter-terrorism plan will assist to stop the bombing of many buildings in the district. The programme stated the methods to be used to oppose the terrorist harassment. The attacks of terrorism have unfavourable effects on humanity and on the nation itself. Such attacks lead to have psychological, behavioural, and neurobiological shock to the civilization. Moreover, such terrorist attacks root to have cognitive effects on the community. It also influenced elderly and disabled people. Vivid research has been done to establish the shock of terrorism on kids, aged people and other people in the community. Researchers disagreed that terrorism like other tragedies has caused gloominess among the victims and their families. The sufferers suffer out of huge losses as a result it becomes very difficult for them to come out of the loss and pain and to live again a normal healthy livelihood.

The project of creating Windows as the driving force for Microsoft Essay

The project of creating Windows as the driving force for Microsoft Corp - Essay Example allowed it to come into the market of software for personal computers and in a great extent to create this market. So project of creating Windows became the driving force for Microsoft Corp. The most efficient structure is when activity of the organization consists of project, and every project consists of operations; in this case some projects may be endless. Project managers define human, technical, financial and other resources they need for their projects; then all these needs are summarized and put to the organizational plan and budget. So needs of the projects determine organizational needs and priorities. Also it often happens that very important goals of organization (i.e. new market penetration, getting a state construction contract, getting a software development tender) depend on projects. Sometimes a successful project can save a company from a bankruptcy or irretrievably crush competitors. Project may not be an organizational driving force when it contradicts the organizational goals or is badly planned and doomed to failure. In this case the project draws human, time, technical, financial and other resources from the organization and gives nothing instead. For example, IBM spent a lot of time and effort on development of operating system OS/2, but the project was not successful. IBM is the greatest hardware vendor, but it failed with operating system development. The human factor is important because... The project manager must be able to exert interpersonal influence in order to lead the project team. By Hendrickson, the project manager often gains the support of his/her team through a combination of the following: Formal authority resulting from an official capacity which is empowered to issue orders. Reward and/or penalty power resulting from his/her capacity to dispense directly or indirectly valued organization rewards or penalties. Expert power when the project manager is perceived as possessing special knowledge or expertise for the job. Attractive power because the project manager has a personality or other characteristics to convince others. (Hendrickson, 1998, chap.2) So I will use these issues in my relations with the team. The members of the project team must work together, whether they are assembled from different divisions of the same organization or even from different organizations. Some problems of interaction may arise initially when the team members are unfamiliar with their own roles in the project team, particularly for a large and complex project. These problems must be resolved quickly in order to develop an effective, functioning team. Also I need to explore two important subjects: why the previous project manager was so popular and why the project is about to fail in spite of the great love of the team to him. Maybe his management style was too soft and democratic and work conditions were too hothouse. If so, I would say to the team, "Guys, it was very good, but now it's finished. Let's work together, and let's work hard, because it's the only way for our company to survive. I don't need your love, I need the work done." Also it may be good decision to rebuild

Personality psychology Essay Example for Free

Personality psychology Essay Freud said that the goal of therapy was to make the unconscious conscious. He certainly made that the goal of his work as a theorist. And yet he makes the unconscious sound very unpleasant, to say the least: It is a cauldron of seething desires, a bottomless pit of perverse and incestuous cravings, a burial ground for frightening experiences which nevertheless come back to haunt us. Frankly, it doesnt sound like anything Id like to make conscious! A younger colleague of his, Carl Jung, was to make the exploration of this inner space his lifes work. He went equipped with a background in Freudian theory, of course, and with an apparently inexhaustible knowledge of mythology, religion, and philosophy. Jung was especially knowledgeable in the symbolism of complex mystical traditions such as Gnosticism, Alchemy, Kabala, and similar traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism. If anyone could make sense of the unconscious and its habit of revealing itself only in symbolic form, it would be Carl Jung. He had, in addition, a capacity for very lucid dreaming and occasional visions. In the fall of 1913, he had a vision of a monstrous flood engulfing most of Europe and lapping at the mountains of his native Switzerland. He saw thousands of people drowning and civilization crumbling. Then, the waters turned into blood. This vision was followed, in the next few weeks, by dreams of eternal winters and rivers of blood. He was afraid that he was becoming psychotic. But on August 1 of that year, World War I began. Jung felt that there had been a connection, somehow, between himself as an individual and humanity in general that could not be explained away. From then until 1928, he was to go through a rather painful process of self-exploration that formed the basis of all of his later theorizing. He carefully recorded his dreams, fantasies, and visions, and drew, painted, and sculpted them as well. He found that his experiences tended to form themselves into persons, beginning with a wise old man and his companion, a little girl. The wise old man evolved, over a number of dreams, into a sort of spiritual guru. The little girl became anima, the feminine soul, who served as his main medium of communication with the deeper aspects of his unconscious. A leathery brown dwarf would show up guarding the entrance to the unconscious. He was the shadow, a primitive companion for Jungs ego. Jung dreamt that he and the dwarf killed a beautiful blond youth, whom he called Siegfried. For Jung, this represented a warning about the dangers of the worship of glory and heroism which would soon cause so much sorrow all over Europe and a warning about the dangers of some of his own tendencies towards hero-worship, of Sigmund Freud! Jung dreamt a great deal about the dead, the land of the dead, and the rising of the dead. These represented the unconscious itself not the little personal unconscious that Freud made such a big deal out of, but a new collective unconscious of humanity itself, an unconscious that could contain all the dead, not just our personal ghosts. Jung began to see the mentally ill as people who are haunted by these ghosts, in an age where no-one is supposed to even believe in them. If we could only recapture our mythologies, we would understand these ghosts, become comfortable with the dead, and heal our mental illnesses. Critics have suggested that Jung was, very simply, ill himself when all this happened. But Jung felt that, if you want to understand the jungle, you cant be content just to sail back and forth near the shore. Youve got to get into it, no matter how strange and frightening it might seem. Biography Carl Gustav Jung was born July 26, 1875, in the small Swiss village of Kessewil. His father was Paul Jung, a country parson, and his mother was Emilie Preiswerk Jung. He was surrounded by a fairly well educated extended family, including quite a few clergymen and some eccentrics as well. The elder Jung started Carl on Latin when he was six years old, beginning a long interest in language and literature especially ancient literature. Besides most modern western European languages, Jung could read several ancient ones, including Sanskrit, the language of the original Hindu holy books. Carl was a rather solitary adolescent, who didnt care much for school, and especially couldnt take competition. He went to boarding school in Basel, Switzerland, where he found himself the object of a lot of jealous  harassment. He began to use sickness as an excuse, developing an embarrassing tendency to faint under pressure. Although his first career choice was archeology, he went on to study medicine at the University of Basel. While working under the famous neurologist Krafft-Ebing, he settled on psychiatry as his career. After graduating, he took a position at the Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital in Zurich under Eugene Bleuler, an expert on (and the namer of) schizophrenia. In 1903, he married Emma Rauschenbach. He also taught classes at the University of Zurich, had a private practice, and invented word association at this time! Long an admirer of Freud, he met him in Vienna in 1907. The story goes that after they met, Freud canceled all his appointments for the day, and they talked for 13 hours straight, such was the impact of the meeting of these two great minds! Freud eventually came to see Jung as the crown prince of psychoanalysis and his heir apparent. But Jung had never been entirely sold on Freuds theory. Their relationship began to cool in 1909, during a trip to America. They were entertaining themselves by analyzing each others dreams (more fun, apparently, than shuffleboard), when Freud seemed to show an excess of resistance to Jungs efforts at analysis. Freud finally said that theyd have to stop because he was afraid he would lose his authority! Jung felt rather insulted. World War I was a painful period of self-examination for Jung. It was, however, also the beginning of one of the most interesting theories of personality the world has ever seen. After the war, Jung traveled widely, visiting, for example, tribal people in Africa, America, and India. He retired in 1946, and began to retreat from public attention after his wife died in 1955. He died on June 6, 1961, in Zurich. Theory Jungs theory divides the psyche into three parts. The first is the ego,which Jung identifies with the conscious mind. Closely related is the personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is like most peoples understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. But it does not include the instincts that Freud would have it include. But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all others: the collective unconscious. You could call it your psychic inheritance. It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences. There are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that youve been here before), and the immediate recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious. Grander examples are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times, or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature. A nice example that has been greatly discussed recently is the near-death experience. It seems that many people, of many different cultural backgrounds, find that they have very similar recollections when they are brought back from a close encounter with death. They speak of leaving their bodies, seeing their bodies and the events surrounding them clearly, of being pulled through a long tunnel towards a bright light, of seeing deceased relatives or religious figures waiting for them, and of their disappointment at having to leave this happy scene to return to their bodies. Perhaps we are all built to experience death in this fashion. Archetypes The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. Jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordial images, and a few other names, but archetypes seems to have won out over these. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way. The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an organizing principle on the things we see or do. It works the way that instincts work in Freuds theory: At first, the baby just wants something to eat, without knowing what it wants. It has a rather indefinite yearning which, nevertheless, can be satisfied by some things and not by others. Later, with experience, the child begins to yearn for something more specific when it is hungry a bottle, a cookie, a broiled lobster, a slice of New York style pizza. The archetype is like a black hole in space: You only know its there by how it draws matter and light to itself. The mother archetype The mother archetype is a particularly good example. All of our ancestors had mothers. We have evolved in an environment that included a mother or mother-substitute. We would never have survived without our connection with a nurturing-one during our times as helpless infants. It stands to reason that we are built in a way that reflects that evolutionary environment: We come into this world ready to want mother, to seek her, to recognize her, to deal with her. So the mother archetype is our built-in ability to recognize a certain relationship, that of mothering. Jung says that this is rather abstract, and we are likely to project the archetype out into the world and onto a particular person, usually our own mothers. Even when an archetype doesnt have a particular real person available, we tend to personify the archetype, that is, turn it into a mythological story-book character. This character symbolizes the archetype. The mother archetype is symbolized by the primordial mother or earth mother of mythology, by Eve and Mary in western traditions, and by less personal symbols such as the church, the nation, a forest, or the ocean. According to Jung, someone whose own mother failed to satisfy the demands of the archetype may well be one that spends his or her life seeking comfort in the church, or in identification with the motherland, or in meditating upon the figure of Mary, or in a life at sea. Mana You must understand that these archetypes are not really biological things, like Freuds instincts. They are more spiritual demands. For example, if you dreamt about long things, Freud might suggest these things represent the phallus and ultimately sex. But Jung might have a very different interpretation. Even dreaming quite specifically about a penis might not have much to do with some unfulfilled need for sex. It is curious that in primitive societies, phallic symbols do not usually refer to sex at all. They usually symbolize mana, or spiritual power. These symbols would be displayed on occasions when the spirits are being called upon to increase the yield of corn, or fish, or to heal someone. The connection between the penis and strength, between semen and seed, between fertilization and fertility are understood by most cultures. The shadow Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jungs system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow. It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we werent self-conscious. It is the dark side of the ego, and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there. Actually, the shadow is amoral neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesnt choose to do either. It just does what it does. It is innocent. But from our human perspective, the animal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes something of a garbage can for the parts of ourselves that we cant quite admit to. Symbols of the shadow include the snake (as in the garden of Eden), the dragon, monsters, and demons. It often guards the entrance to a cave or a pool of water, which is the collective unconscious. Next time you dream about wrestling with the devil, it may only be yourself you are wrestling with! The persona The persona represents your public image. The word is, obviously, related to the word person and personality, and comes from a Latin word for mask. So the persona is the mask you put on before you show yourself to the outside world. Although it begins as an archetype, by the time we are finished realizing it, it is the part of us most distant from the collective unconscious. At its best, it is just the good impression we all wish to present as we fill the roles society requires of us. But, of course, it can also be the false impression we use to manipulate peoples opinions and behaviors. And, at its worst, it can be mistaken, even by ourselves, for our true nature: Sometimes we believe we really are what we pretend to be! Anima and animus A part of our persona is the role of male or female we must play. For most people that role is determined by their physical gender. But Jung, like Freud and Adler and others, felt that we are all really bisexual in nature. When we begin our lives as fetuses, we have undifferentiated sex organs that only gradually, under the influence of hormones, become male or female. Likewise, when we begin our social lives as infants, we are neither male nor female in the social sense. Almost immediately as soon as those pink or blue booties go on we come under the influence of society, which gradually molds us into men and women. In all societies, the expectations placed on men and women differ, usually based on our different roles in reproduction, but often involving many details that are purely traditional. In our society today, we still have many remnants of these traditional expectations. Women are still expected to be more nurturant and less aggressive; men are still expected to be strong and to ignore the emotional side of life. But Jung felt these expectations meant that we had developed only half of our potential. The anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men, and the animus is the male aspect present in the collective unconscious of women. Together, they are referred to as syzygy. The anima may be personified as a young girl, very spontaneous and intuitive, or as a witch, or as the earth mother. It is likely to be associated with deep emotionality and the force of life itself. The animus may be personified as a wise old man, a sorcerer, or often a number of males, and tends to be logical, often rationalistic, even argumentative. The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicate with the collective unconscious generally, and it is important to get into touch with it. It is also the archetype that is responsible for much of our love life: We are, as an ancient Greek myth suggests, always looking for our other half, the half that the Gods took from us, in members of the opposite sex. When we fall in love at first sight, then we have found someone that fills our anima or animus archetype particularly well! Other archetypes Jung said that there is no fixed number of archetypes which we could simply list and memorize. They overlap and easily melt into each other as needed, and their logic is not the usual kind. But here are some he mentions: Besides mother, their are other family archetypes. Obviously, there is father, who is often symbolized by a guide or an authority figure. There is also the archetype family, which represents the idea of blood relationship and ties that run deeper than those based on conscious reasons. There is also the child, represented in mythology and art by children, infants most especially, as well as other small creatures. The Christ child celebrated at Christmas is a manifestation of the child archetype, and represents the future, becoming, rebirth, and salvation. Curiously, Christmas falls during the winter solstice, which in northern primitive cultures also represents the future and rebirth. People used to light bonfires and perform ceremonies to encourage the suns return to them. The child archetype often blends with other archetypes to form the child-god, or the child-hero. Many archetypes are story characters. The hero is one of the main ones. He is the mana personality and the defeater of evil dragons. Basically, he represents the ego we do tend to identify with the hero of the story and is often engaged in fighting the shadow, in the form of dragons and other monsters. The hero is, however, often dumb as a post. He is, after all, ignorant of the ways of the collective unconscious. Luke Skywalker, in the Star Wars films, is the perfect example of a hero. The hero is often out to rescue the maiden. She represents purity, innocence, and, in all likelihood, naivete. In the beginning of the Star Wars story, Princess Leia is the maiden. But, as the story progresses, she becomes the anima, discovering the powers of the force the collective unconscious and becoming an equal partner with Luke, who turns out to be her brother. The hero is guided by the wise old man. He is a form of the animus, and reveals to the hero the nature of the collective unconscious. In Star Wars, he is played by Obi Wan Kenobi and, later, Yoda. Notice that they teach Luke about the force and, as Luke matures, they die and become a part of him. You might be curious as to the archetype represented by Darth Vader, the dark father. He is the shadow and the master of the dark side of the force. He also turns out to be Luke and Leias father. When he dies, he becomes one of the wise old men. There is also an animal archetype, representing humanitys relationships with the animal world. The heros faithful horse would be an example. Snakes are often symbolic of the animal archetype, and are thought to be particularly wise. Animals, after all, are more in touch with their natures than we are. Perhaps loyal little robots and reliable old spaceships the Falcon are also symbols of animal. And there is the trickster, often represented by a clown or a magician. The tricksters role is to hamper the heros progress and to generally make trouble. In Norse mythology, many of the gods adventures originate in some trick or another played on their majesties by the half-god Loki. There are other archetypes that are a little more difficult to talk about. One is the original man, represented in western religion by Adam. Another is the God archetype, representing our need to comprehend the universe, to give a meaning to all that happens, to see it all as having some purpose and direction. The hermaphrodite, both male and female, represents the union of opposites, an important idea in Jungs theory. In some religious art, Jesus is presented as a rather feminine man. Likewise, in China, the character Kuan Yin began as a male saint (the bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara), but was portrayed in such a feminine manner that he is more often thought of as the female goddess of compassion! The most important archetype of all is the self. The self is the ultimate unity of the personality and is symbolized by the circle, the cross, and the mandala figures that Jung was fond of painting. A mandala is a drawing that is used in meditation because it tends to draw your focus back to the center, and it can be as simple as a geometric figure or as complicated as a stained glass window. The personifications that best represent self are Christ and Buddha, two people who many believe achieved perfection. But Jung felt that perfection of the personality is only truly achieved in death. The dynamics of the psyche So much for the content of the psyche. Now lets turn to the principles of its operation. Jung gives us three principles, beginning with the principle of opposites. Every wish immediately suggests its opposite. If I have a good thought, for example, I cannot help but have in me somewhere the opposite bad thought. In fact, it is a very basic point: In order to have a concept of good, you must have a concept of bad, just like you cant have up without down or black without white. This idea came home to me when I was about eleven. I occasionally tried to help poor innocent woodland creatures who had been hurt in some way often, Im afraid, killing them in the process. Once I tried to nurse a baby robin back to health. But when I picked it up, I was so struck by how light it was that the thought came to me that I could easily crush it in my hand. Mind you, I didnt like the idea, but it was undeniably there. According to Jung, it is the opposition that creates the power (or libido) of the psyche. It is like the two poles of a battery, or the splitting of an atom. It is the contrast that gives energy, so that a strong contrast gives strong energy, and a weak contrast gives weak energy. The second principle is the principle of equivalence. The energy created from the opposition is given to both sides equally. So, when I held that baby bird in my hand, there was energy to go ahead and try to help it. But there is an equal amount of energy to go ahead and crush it. I tried to help the bird, so that energy went into the various behaviors involved in helping it. But what happens to the other energy? Well, that depends on your attitude towards the wish that you didnt fulfill. If you acknowledge it, face it, keep it available to the conscious mind, then the energy goes towards a general improvement of your psyche. You grow, in other words. But if you pretend that you never had that evil wish, if you deny and suppress it, the energy will go towards the development of a complex. A complex is a pattern of suppressed thoughts and feelings that cluster constellate around a theme provided by some archetype. If you deny ever having thought about crushing the little bird, you might put that idea into the form offered by the shadow (your dark side). Or if a man denies his emotional side, his emotionality might find its way into the anima archetype. And so on. Heres where the problem comes: If you pretend all your life that you are only good, that you dont even have the capacity to lie and cheat and steal and kill, then all the times when you do good, that other side of you goes into a complex around the shadow. That complex will begin to develop a life of its own, and it will haunt you. You might find yourself having nightmares in which you go around stomping on little baby birds! If it goes on long enough, the complex may take over, may possess you, and you might wind up with a multiple personality. In the movie The Three Faces of Eve, Joanne Woodward portrayed a meek, mild woman who eventually discovered that she went out and partied like crazy on Saturday nights. She didnt smoke, but found cigarettes in her purse, didnt drink, but woke up with hangovers, didnt fool around, but found herself in sexy outfits. Although multiple personality is rare, it does tend to involve these kinds of black-and-white extremes. The final principle is the principle of entropy. This is the tendency for oppositions to come together, and so for energy to decrease, over a persons lifetime. Jung borrowed the idea from physics, where entropy refers to the tendency of all physical systems to run down, that is, for all energy to become evenly distributed. If you have, for example, a heat source in one corner of the room, the whole room will eventually be heated. When we are young, the opposites will tend to be extreme, and so we tend to have lots of energy. For example, adolescents tend to exaggerate male-female differences, with boys trying hard to be macho and girls trying equally hard to be feminine. And so their sexual activity is invested with great amounts of energy! Plus, adolescents often swing from one extreme to another, being wild and crazy one minute and finding religion the next. As we get older, most of us come to be more comfortable with our different facets. We are a bit less naively idealistic and recognize that we are all mixtures of good and bad. We are less threatened by the opposite sex within us and become more androgynous. Even physically, in old age, men and women become more alike. This process of rising above our opposites, of seeing both sides of who we are, is called transcendence. The self The goal of life is to realize the self. The self is an archetype that represents the transcendence of all opposites, so that every aspect of your personality is expressed equally. You are then neither and both male and female, neither and both ego and shadow, neither and both good and bad, neither and both conscious and unconscious, neither and both an individual and the whole of creation. And yet, with no oppositions, there is no energy, and you cease to act. Of course, you no longer need to act. To keep it from getting too mystical, think of it as a new center, a more balanced position, for your psyche. When you are young, you focus on the ego and worry about the trivialities of the persona. When you are older (assuming you have been developing as you should), you focus a little deeper, on the self, and become closer to all people, all life, even the universe itself. The self-realized person is actually less selfish. Synchronicity Personality theorists have argued for many years about whether psychological processes function in terms of mechanism or teleology. Mechanism is the idea that things work in through cause and effect: One thing leads to another which leads to another, and so on, so that the past determines the present. Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideas about a future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on. Mechanism is linked with determinism and with the natural sciences. Teleology is linked with free will and has become rather rare. It is still common among moral, legal, and religious philosophers, and, of course, among personality theorists. Among the people discussed in this book, Freudians and behaviorists tend to be mechanists, while the neo-Freudians, humanists, and existentialists tend to be teleologists. Jung believes that both play a part. But he adds a third alternative called synchronicity. Synchronicity is the occurrence of two events that are not linked causally, nor linked teleologically, yet are meaningfully related. Once, a client was describing a dream involving a scarab beetle when, at that very instant, a very similar beetle flew into the window. Often, people dream about something, like the death of a loved one, and find the next morning that their loved one did, in fact, die at about that time. Sometimes people pick up he phone to call a friend, only to find that their friend is already on the line. Most psychologists would call these things coincidences, or try to show how they are more likely to occur than we think. Jung believed the were indications of how we are connected, with our fellow humans and with nature in general, through the collective unconscious. Jung was never clear about his own religious beliefs. But this unusual idea of synchronicity is easily explained by the Hindu view of reality. In the Hindu view, our individual egos are like islands in a sea: We look out at the world and each other and think we are separate entities. What we dont see is that we are connected to each other by means of the ocean floor beneath the waters. The outer world is called maya, meaning illusion, and is thought of as Gods dream or Gods dance. That is, God creates it, but it has no reality of its own. Our individual egos they call jivatman, which means individual souls. But they, too, are something of an illusion. We are all actually extensions of the one and only Atman, or God, who allows bits of himself to forget his identity, to become apparently separate and independent, to become us. But we never truly are separate. When we die, we wake up and realize who we were from the beginning: God. When we dream or meditate, we sink into our personal unconscious, coming closer and closer to our true selves, the collective unconscious. It is in states like this that we are especially open to communications from other egos. Synchronicity makes Jungs theory one of the rare ones that is not only compatible with parapsychological phenomena, but actually tries to explain them! Introversion and extroversion Jung developed a personality typology that has become so popular that some people dont realize he did anything else! It begins with the distinction between introversion and extroversion. Introverts are people who prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings, fantasies, dreams, and so on, while extroverts prefer the external world of things and people and activities. The words have become confused with ideas like shyness and sociability, partially because introverts tend to be shy and extroverts tend to be sociable. But Jung intended for them to refer more to whether you (ego) more often faced toward the persona and outer reality, or toward the collective unconscious and its archetypes. In that sense, the introvert is somewhat more mature than the extrovert. Our culture, of course, values the extrovert much more. And Jung warned that we all tend to value our own type most! We now find the introvert-extravert dimension in several theories, notably Hans Eysencks, although often hidden under alternative names such as sociability and surgency. The functions Whether we are introverts or extroverts, we need to deal with the world, inner and outer. And each of us has our preferred ways of dealing with it, ways we are comfortable with and good at. Jung suggests there are four basic ways, or functions: The first is sensing. Sensing means what it says: getting information by means of the senses. A sensing person is good at looking and listening and generally getting to know the world. Jung called this one of the irrational functions, meaning that it involved perception rather than judging of information. The second is thinking. Thinking means evaluating information or ideas rationally, logically. Jung called this a rational function, meaning that it involves decision making or judging, rather than simple intake of information. The third is intuiting. Intuiting is a kind of perception that works outside of the usual conscious processes. It is irrational or perceptual, like sensing, but comes from the complex integration of large amounts of information, rather than simple seeing or hearing. Jung said it was like seeing around corners. The fourth is feeling. Feeling, like thinking, is a matter of evaluating information, this time by weighing ones overall, emotional response. Jung calls it rational, obviously not in the usual sense of the word. We all have these functions. We just have them in different proportions, you might say. Each of us has a superior function, which we prefer and which is best developed in us, a secondary function, which we are aware of and use in support of our superior function, a tertiary function, which is only slightly less developed but not terribly conscious, and an inferior function, which is poorly developed and so unconscious that we might deny its existence in ourselves. Most of us develop only one or two of the functions, but our goal should be to develop all four. Once again, Jung sees the transcendence of opposites as the ideal. Assessment Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers found Jungs types and functions so revealing of peoples personalities that they decided to develop a paper-and-pencil test. It came to be called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and is one of the most popular, and most studied, tests around. On the basis of your answers on about 125 questions, you are placed in one of sixteen types, with the understanding that some people might find themselves somewhere between two or thre.

Cyber Threats Essay Example for Free

Cyber Threats Essay Before we get into the major cyber terrorism threats that we all have to deal with I wanted to first define what cyber terrorism is. According to the U. S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, cyber terrorism is any premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which results in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents Unlike an annoying virus or computer attack that results in denial of service, a cyber terrorist attack could lead to physical violence or extreme financial harm. According to the U. S. Commission of Critical Infrastructure Protection, possible cyber terrorism targets include the banking industry, military installations, power plants, air traffic control centers, and water systems. Cyber terrorism is often referred to as electronic terrorism or information war. Based on recent reports and the information presented to congress, America has a long way to go before security threats are adequately addressed. Almost half of 2,131 U. S. ompanies polled had no formal security policies in place, and most relied primarily on user passwords and multiple logons for protection. Only 49% of U. S. companies had plans to raise user awareness of policies and procedures in the next 12 month. Unbelievably only half of 150 companies surveyed by InformationWeek Research one week after the terrorist attacks said that they plan to reassess the security of their facilities in light of those events. We need more people to be doing more creative thinking about compute r security, than those who are trying to attack us. In December, 2000 the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (aka The Gilmore Commission) released their second annual report which stated two possible cyber terrorist scenarios. First, It is easy to envision a coordinated attack by terrorists, using a conventional or small-scale chemical device, with cyber attacks against law enforcement communications, emergency medical facilities, and other systems critical to a response. Second, it is conceivable that terrorists could mount a cyber attack gainst power or water facilities or industrial plants for example, a commercial chemical plant that produces a highly toxic substance to produce casualties in the hundreds of thousands. The report adds that the most likely perpetrators of cyber-attacks on critical infrastructures are terrorists and criminal groups rather than nation-states. Denning, 2003 So, what can be done proactively to prevent cyber terrorism and cyber crime attacks? The first and easiest thing for you to do is harden and secure your systems by establishing secure configurations. Next you can prepare for intrusions by getting ready for detection and response. You also need to make sure you detect intrusions quickly when they do occur. You also need to respond to intrusions quickly to ensure you minimize the damage to your systems. Lastly you need to improve your security to help protect against future attacks. There are thousands of ways to help protect against cyber terrorism threats but I think the following are the simplest and most effective ways to start, Make sure all accounts have passwords and the passwords should be unusual, difficult to guess. Be sure to change the network configuration when defects become known. Constantly check with venders for upgrades and patches that can be installed to help strengthen your defenses. You can also choose to audit systems and check logs to help in detecting and tracing an intruder.

Public Engagement A New Paradigm For Public Relations Marketing Essay

Public Engagement A New Paradigm For Public Relations Marketing Essay Engaging with the public has always been a necessity for PR practitioners to succeed. However, due to the web 2.0, engaging with the public has opened up new channels of communication and therefore a new communication strategy needs to be put into place. As Public Engagement is a relatively new term, no studies have been carried out in this area. The author will look into what Public Engagement is and see if its fit into existing Public Relation models, how organisations engage with their audience , due to the digital web, and if a new Public Engagement model is needed. Paradigms of PR A definition of a paradigm in PR is narrow (Burrell and Morgan 1979). It is seen as a sign of discipline maturing and developing a range of different approaches; at the same time the process is not seen as advanced enough for a full blown paradigm struggle, or debate to be able to take place (Botan 1993, p.108). A paradigm can be thought of as a model (LTang Pieczka 2006) or worldviews (Grunig). Kuhn (1969) defined it a model or a way of thinking about and studying a problem. He stated that no paradigm is perfect and that facts and figures that do not fit the paradigm does not necessarily nullify the values of the paradigm. According to Kuhn a new paradigm can provide a perspective from which the subject can move on. ( As the term paradigm is still very much a vague area, the author will use the terminology used by academics to describe a paradigm as a model or theory and will find out whether Public Engagement fits into any of the original paradigms of Public Relations. There have been many communication models put forward and tested over the past 60 years by public relations practitioners. The principal ones being, the Shannon and Weaver model (1949), Shramms Interactive Model (1954) and Grunigs and Hunts 4 Models (1984). It is important to look at communication models to see whether Public Engagement is a new paradigm in the digital age or simply an extension of these. 1.3 Shannon and Weaver model Shannon and Wavers (1949) Mathematical theory of Communication is acknowledged as one of the most important models from which communication studies has grown (Johnson and Klare 1961), albeit biased towards the technical aspects of communication research (John Fiske 1982). This basic model was linear and did not represent reality where senders and receivers have an equal role. In contrast to the above models Schramm went on to create his model which emphasised two-way communication (1954) and introduced the concept of feedback. In problem solving scenarios open ended questions need to be asked in order to gain feedback and results. The model can be criticised as conveying the feeling of equality in communication. This could be rarely seen in practice and communication tends to be unbalanced. While this model was an important breakthrough in PR, it did little to listen to what the public actually needed. System theories / Four step and Excellence model System theorists are PR practitioners who develop a theory from experience/being in the organisation. They are concerned with the public in PR decisions. Grunig. J and Hunt.T (1984) are two of the earliest system theorists. From their observations they developed four models of public relations (Edward 2009). These were press agentry /publicist, public information, two-way asymmetric and two way symmetric communications known as the Four Step Model. 2.2i Four step model Press agentry (one way communication) is a way of communicating a biased message through media channels. (McQuail Windahl 1993) Public information (one way communication) similar to press agentry, but transparency in the message is vital; the message is truthful and informative. (McQuail Windahl 1993) Two way asymmetric (two way communication) is known as a persuasive tool. The purpose of this is to make the public think in the same way as the organisations. Feedback from the public is used to strength communication strategies. (McQuail Windahl 1993). The message is unbalanced , it is all about persuasion and is favoured by some advertising companies. Two way symmetric (two way communication) the two-way symmetric model, (Grunig and Hunt 1984) is probably the most popular and widely used in todays PR industry. This model is one that can build relationships and solve differences. Stakeholders engage with the organisation and can have some power over policies. This model employs research, listening, and dialogue as tools to promote relationships with both internal and external parties. Grunig put ethics the centre of symmetrical communication. (Grunig Hunt, 1984, p.22 and Grunig et al, 1992, p.55-61). According to Phillips and Young (2009), social media is causing a new communication paradigm. They believe that communication is shifting from the traditional hierarchical arrangement to an audience model encouraging horizontal discourse. Edelman in his interview Edelman (2009) agreed with this idea. In a survey of PR practitioners in charge of campaigns winning the 2002 Golden World awards from IPRA, it was found that when asked which of the four Public relations models they preferred, no one voted for press agentry model, 6.3% preferred the public information model, 18.8% the two way asymmetric model and the favourite model was the two way symmetrical model where 56.3% voted for it (Horn Neff 2008 and Okay PR from theory to practise book). 2.2ii Excellence model Gruig went on to complete a 10 year study Pr practice and developing a model for Excellent Public Relations ( Grunig 1992) It was found that the most successful Public Relations departments took part or contributed to the strategic decisions of the company. Once stakeholders had been identified, the study showed that successful Public Relation departments developed programmes to communicate with them. According to Grunig (1992) Excellence is the balance between an organisation and the public. It was seen as the management of communications on a level that aided the strategic management role whilst maintaining the attention and cooperation of the public. As such, the Public Relation role was enhanced and perceived in commercial terms whereby long term relationships could be forged between strategic parties. This model has been challenged by a number of academics. Philip and Younge (2009) argued that the new Public Relations challenges the Excellence model. LEtang (2006) was also critical and stated that the power imbalance between organisation and public was a weakness in the theory of two-way communication. Pieczka (2006) criticised the model as she felt that the study was biased to the two way symmetrical model. Pieczka not only critised his two way symmetry but questioned the and questioned the validity of his model. She believed that inconsistencies were apparent. It is clear that Grunig excluded conflicting viewpoints and academics have questioned the research carried out and pointed out that he chose paradigms to fit his model. Obviously Grunig based his model loosely on the systems theory but he did take on board these criticisms and the model was revised over the years (Grunig L, Grunig, JE Dossier, M, 2002). It is apparent the Excellence theory has had an impact on PR a leadin g body of work has developed around Symmetry/Excellence Theory which has probably done more to develop public relations theory and scholarships than any other single school of thought Botan and Hazleton (2006) (p. 6). As it was a model that was based on practise in a real life situation, it could be said that this is the model that is real to the industry. As PR has progressed and social media has become a large part in most cases, Public Engagement has taken on a new role, but nevertheless a new communication strategy could be easily adapted from the Excellence model. 2.2 Publics As audiences are needed for communication to take part it is necessary to look at different types of publics. Grunig and Repper (1992) propose two types of publics, the passive and the active. Active audiences go out of the way to find information on the company and respond. Passive audience do not want to engage with the company, but may if prompted to. This has led many practitioners to explore what methods of communication will prompt and engage these audiences. Grunig (1983) identified four basic publics: All issue publics: These publics are concerned with the organisation as a whole and are active on all issues. For example the media Apathetic publics: Are not aware or interested in the organisation as a whole (Smith 2005) Single-issue publics : Tend to be active in one area of the organisation Hot issue publics: are active on a issue that has received a lot of issue in the media These models all have uses and, they do not always consider what other factors affect why people engage in communication or how to attract the public who are unaware of their product. A further model is needed which could include attitudes, communication behaviour and personal behaviour which could help to recognise new stakeholders. ( Featherstone,Weitkamp,Ling and Burnet 2009 from journal Public Understanding of Science ) http://pus.sagepub.com/content/18/2/214.full.pdf+html This theory has been criticised by many. It lacks diversity and ignores the power dimensions of organisations and its publics (Lietch and Neilson 2001). Cutlip et al (2000) believe that PR practioneers should operate in an open system, whereby the external environment should be looked at in order for business change to suit their publics. There appears to be a new kind of publics at the moment and these are named the 21st century consumers and forming a relationship with them is crucial. They are more demanding than ever and want to receive information differently and share it with their own communities (Soli Breakenridge 2009) This new breed has been aided by social media. The social web allows people to communicate and share information and it is important for organisations to be aware of this and monitor conversations, if not, the public will still carry on talking and organisations may miss out . They have come to realise that listening is important. The relationship paradigm leads to trust It believes that two-way communication that attempts to accommodate both parties, while not abandoning the objectives of the initiative, will result in a much greater understanding of the needs and resources available to target publics (Martinez, Jr., Belio, n.d) (http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/7/2/1/7/pages172179/p172179-10.php ) 3.5 Rhetorical perspectives Rhetorical theory is based on persuasive through discussion. It is a two way conversation between groups with a common purpose and deals with choice. ( Nichols1963)Ethics goes hand in hand with it. Aristole, a Greek philosopher, wrote The Art of Rhetoric, which was the first formal book to define persuasion and the Greek society was governed by the principle of debate and persuasion. Agreement between parties is the ultimate aim but communication and agreement between both parties is necessary. More recently Heath (1980) ( Heath 1980 ; à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã‚   Rhetorics: New Rhetorics ; Rhetorical Studies ; Organization-Public Relationships said that rhetoric was at the front of an organizations relationship to its surroundings. Since then he has argued that it is the good organization communicating well ( Heath 2001 , 39; à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã‚   Public Relations Ethics ) Heath believes that PR practitioners and public are engaged in discussion and that rhetoric could be compared to G runigs symmetry model(Heath 2002 p49). Audiences can assess the credibility of all speakers by considering the values on which the message is built. Public relation practitioners role in the past has been seen as one that is there to persuade the public and change their attitudes. This has been common in PR and has been categorised as Grunigs asymmetrical model. Grunig argued that his model be best described as a way of getting what an organisation wants without changing its behaviour or without compromising leads to actions which are unethically, socially irresponsible and ineffective ( Grunig 1992 p39-( Public Relations Ch 18). Rhetorical Theory assumes multiple voices and if one view is acknowledged and preferred then others may not have the opportunity to put their opinion forward. Rhetoric can be seen as a way of asking individuals to think about different points of views (Bryant 1953) (from CH 13 Public Relations theory to practice) Rhetoric is not needed if there is agreement but as Heath (1992) points out communi cation is a wrangle of voices and not in isolation. It helps informs the public how to communicate and engage with each other but ultimately for organisations to be ethical. LEtang ( 1996) and Cheney and Dionisopoulos(1989)( Exploring Public Relations) http://www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/issue1/refereed_articles_paper3.pdf Heath 2002 pg 49 http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405131995_yr2010_chunk_g978140513199523_ss94-1 Postmodernists believe that because of their exsisting power, businesses and government will always enjoy a more profitable outcome than their publics when the two are in dialogue. Postemodernists recognise that the pr industry is changing due to audience segmentation, uncontrolled media due to the digital age, globalisation and a diverse audience. 3.6 Sphere of influence The sphere of influence was first put forward by Habermas ( 1989) He promoted the idea that a just society was at the centre of his theory and that discussion should be free and equal and defined it as the social space that mediates between the political sphere and the private sphere by providing space for discussion and negotitation . ( Weaver, Motion and Roper.- in Public Relations Critical Debates and Contemporary Practice 2006) However it seems that this approach could be seen to be too idealistic. It is more likely that communication is part of a strategic plan to control what the public listens to and the way in which it is disseminated. Jensen (2001) (Jensen I Public Relations and emerging functions of the public sphere. An analytical framework . Journal of Communication Management 6 :133-147). Moloney (2006) maintains that we do not live in a public sphere but a persuasive sphere and that Habermas utopia ideal does not exist. Again it appears that some scholars see his theory of public interest to be very similar to Grunig and Hunts (1984) model of two way symmetrical public relations. 1.2 Conclusion Although Grunigs fourth model is possibly the most well-known and the one that PR practitioners use in their day to day work, there appears to be a gap in communication models in regards to Public Engagement as a result of the digital age. It is now evident that a new model of Public Relations is needed. Public Engagement Public Engagement is a modern paradigm in the Public Relations context and sets out how professionals should be listening and engaging with their stakeholders in this digital age. Marshall Manson, Director of digital strategy at Edelman UK, describes Public Engagement as advancing shared interest moving from an influence pyramid to a world of cross-influence (Manson 2009, pg5). According to Edelman there are four attributes of Public Engagement; it aims to be democratic and decentralized, inform the conversation, call for engagement with stakeholders and finally make it clear how reputation is important. Public Engagement has to work in all four areas (Richard Edelman, 2008). Trust building both internally and externally, reputation management and transparency are the hallmarks of successful Public Relations initiatives. The term Participatory Democracy, a the precursor of Public Engagement was used by John Stuart MillsMills . Mills supported a representative government which included public participation of some kind but on a limited scale. It was apparent that participation could endanger political decision making and therefore democracy (Pateman 1970). Engagement in politics had been regarded as reactive but it is now perceived as proactive. Dialogue and engagement with all parties is important to prevent loss of public trust (Edward Andersson, Simon Burall Emily Fennell, Involve 2010). The Big Society introduced by David Cameron 19 July 2010 sought public dialogue and involvement in decision making. It is true that business and government rely on Public Relations to establish trust and dialogue and that Public Engagement, like any conversation, is all about listening. The world can be compared to a conversation and in order to be successful we need to listen (Richard Edelman 2008). The onset of the digital world has provided the public with means to engage in these conversations as never before. http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/edinburgh/ws22/zittel.pdf Arthur W Page Societys White paper(2007)is a good example of how Public Relations practitioners and company leaders must alter their approaches and business goals to be more trustworthy in todays world. The study looked at how CEOs saw their roles change with the culture of the environment. The environment is changing because of the advent of all things digital, a worldwide economy and a new class of stakeholders. However, it failed to provide a clear way to develop the role of the communication department in the future. The paper went on to say that some communication departments need to change their working practises. In order to move forward they must familiarise themselves with new technologies, publics and engagement models. Ivy Lee developed the first press release in 1906 after a train crash occurred in Atlantic city. He used a press release to invite journalists and photographers to the crash, as a way of promoting open dialogue with the media. He believed that Public relations was two way communication, and that PRs were responsible for making organisations listen to their publics and in return to communicate messages to them and engage with them. (Solis Breakenridge 2009). Prior to current publications on Public Engagement, the term was mainly linked to the scientific world. Demos (2009) stated that the UK was now perceived as a forerunner in Public Engagement within the science world. It argued that Public Engagement would only work when interest groups were included. Matthew C. Nisbet Dietram A. Scheufele (2007) argued that communication must be accessible to all sections of society. Advocacy, a term used by Public Relations Company Weber Shandwick, has been used as an alternative to PE and is defined as Public relations caught the first wave, the adoption of new technology to spread information   But that first wave, sharing information with more segmented audiences, is cresting.   A new one, a fundamental transformation of communication from information to advocacy, is rising (Jack Leslie, Chairman, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, n.d). It argues that engagement is necessary if communication with audiences is to take place. It is now evident that universities are becoming involved with the term Public Engagement. The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) is part of the Beacon for Public Engagement project. Their aim is to support and encourage universities engage with the public and their stakeholders. According to response source (2010) the ten most engaging brands in the UK are Google, Cadbury, amazon, BBC, facebook, MS, sony , Microsoft, the Olympics and Dove. Case studies- Olympics 2012 London 2012 logo was designed to attract and engage with the young. The aim of the project is to build community engagement and to bring people together through a national event; this would in turn go hand in hand with David Camerons Big Society. Campaigns have already begun, such as the Inspire programme, which has led to projects which have engaged the community. 1,000 projects have now been giving the 2012 Inspire brand to go ahead and is estimated to have reached over 10 million people in the UK with more to be expected (DCMS 2010). The Olympics will coincide with the big society by creating up to 70,000 game makers, who will volunteer around the game sites and will help out in their communities but during the games and after. The Olympics other aim is to change the perception of the disabled. TV broadcasting will be issued throughout the Paralympics games. Other areas of engaging with the community consists of: The new Sports Leaders programme this will train 40,000 sports leaders across the UK, they will have to volunteer 10 hours of their time to teach in the community. Engaging with the next generation of performers A London 2012 festival will be held with over 1,000 events to be released in the summer of 2011 Inspired by a project which helps disadvantaged young people around Britain http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/201210_Legacy_Publication.pdf Facebook In the run up to the 2010 UK election, facebook reminded their UK audience to register and vote and held online live debates between the candidates. They used a live tool on Facebooks democracy tool UK page, where the audience could say whether they liked or disliked what the politicians were saying. Facebooks intention was for their audience to engage with the tool. Facebooks Director of European Public Policy, Richard Allan said: 2010 is the UKs first ever social media election, and the dial test shows how voters can get involved on a scale never seen before. The dial test will provide a true barometer of the public mood and will define how the impact of the debates is interpreted. The tool gave facebook vital statistics on finding more information about their audience. (Wired article) More recently Face book was blamed by the Egyptian government for rallying Egyptians to meet and demonstrate against the President. The web proved so powerful a tool to engage the public that the internet was closed down by the government( The Telegraph 28th Jan 2011) The Police Gordon Scobbie a senior police officer wants to see police using social networks to engage with the public. He says that forces in Scotland should adopt virtual community policing, with officers going online and directly engaging with the public about local issues (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-11828502 ) BBC The BBC Trust set up Audience Councils in The British Isles to engage directly with their audiences and get their viewpoint on the programmes and services that the BBC offers. They represent all sections of society and as recently as the end of January 2011 invited viewers to join their organisation through the web and BBC TV Channels. They also hosted events for the youth and made home visits to gain an insight to the needs of the public. A Public consultation was carried out by the BBC Trust in 2010. They held three working lunches and invited organisations who had theory and practise in Public Engagement. They found that although the BBC website was very good at engaging with their audience, there is still a large population who do not have access to the internet. Face to face communication was seen as crucial to meet those with limited access to the internet. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/consult/audience_engagement/interest_groups.pdf http://www.mediawatchuk.org.uk/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=309Itemid=92 http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/ace/what/ Social Media in Public Relations Social media, a new paradigm for PR can be defined as being centred around the concept of a read-write Web, where the online audience moves beyond passive viewing of Web content to actually contributing to the content (Sweetser and Lariscy p. 179). From a communication viewpoint, social media creates an available access point for messages to be communicated to the public. Social media messages can be strategic and have many communication aims for organisations e.g. marketing and customer service (Avery, Lariscyb, Sweetser, 2010) Social media has developed over the past years and now consists of forums, message boards, pod casts, photo sharing, search engine marketing, video sharing, Wikis, social networks, professional networks and micro blogging.( Wright and Hinson 2002). Web 2.0 engages with consumers, new and old through these social media platforms and it has let organisations put the Public back into PR'(Solis Breakenridge 2009) Old style PR skills are still helpful in bringing about transparency when communicating with stakeholders (Schlesinger 2010) but the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies has changed the world of communications for Public Relations bringing individual relevancy to communication efforts and at the same time fulfilling marketing criteria and legal obligations. (Pavlik 2008, Philips Young 2009) Rubel (2008) also agrees that there is still a role in public relations for traditional media pitching in certain establishments. Web 2.0 had a great effect on public relations. Whereas before, the web was a place to find information, it is now a place for symmetrical communication (Phillips and Young 2009). According to Phillips and Young Web 2.0 is an evolution. It was observed that digital media has the potential to make the profession more global, strategic, two-way, interactive and socially responsible Grunig, J.E (2009, pg1). However, he adds that the new media is being used ineffectively by some practitioners. Some are using it, as they did with the old media, as a place to write messages rather than using it to interact with the public strategically. Grunig (2009) concludes that it can only be used effectively if social media is used to its full capacity. 1.1 Social media and stakeholder engagement From the eCircle 2010 the European marketing social media and Email marketing study of 1,045 Consumer in the UK, some interesting results showed: Fans and Followers are the new email subscribers. To successfully engage in digital dialogue, marketing experts must convert consumers into subscribers as fans and followers. Users of social networks want to be engaged by companies: 13% of fans and followers of company / brand profiles want to be called upon to do something. These should be used better by brands. When information is shared, it can have a wide reach: 43% of users of social networks have more than 100 friends of followers. On average, each shared message reaches 77 people. But companies only achieve this multiplier effect if the brand or product becomes part of the users private communication. Public Engagement has produced new networks of influences and online forums leading to a way of communication through Blog, Twitter and Facebook among many, which impacts on all walks of life (Edelman, 2009.) In 2009, 625 million people worldwide had access to the internet, and as a result many people are now choosing to share their content on popular social network sites, such as Facbook and My Space, rather than choosing a service which allows only one means of purpose such as Blogger (McCann 2009). In one of the most recent surveys across numerous industries, 78% of organizations reported using blogs, 63% online video, 56% social networks, and 49% podcasts (Gillin, 2008). A further research by PR company Burson-marsteller 2010 confirmed that major international companies were using all four media platforms twitter, facebook, youtube and corporate blogs to engage with the public . Wight and Hinson carried two research projects that were five years apart, into the impact of new technologies on PR. It concluded that although more people used these technologies between 2009-2010 there were fewer new media opportunities available, for example this was borne out in the fact that facebook had been the most used social network site and that twitter was the most popular micro blogging site. It was obvious from their results that technology was continuing to change public relations. In 2008 it was reported that 61% of those who answered their survey believed that blogs and social media had changed the way their companies had communicated. By 2010 this figure had increased to 75% and many believe that social media worked alongside traditional media. Many of the open ended questions from the study showed that technology was having a huge impact and moving PR into a two way communication by opening channels between companies and publics. It is evident that Public Relations practitioners are using social media tools, especially blogging, in recent years within the workplace. It was seen as a way of competing against others in the PR world (Porter, Sweetser Trammel, Chung, Kim, 2007). According to Rowse (2007) practitioners are actively using blogs. Engaging and starting a conversation with stakeholders through social media a very powerful tool(PR Week 4th Feb pg 20) It offers practitioners and journalist a means to have two way communication and great opportunities. According to McCanns Wave 4 report (2009), social media platforms are so common these days that it is the place where the public share and create. In his study he noted how they presented unique opportunities to listen and observe. One way messaging is now outdated and anyone understanding this new communication world will only succeed (Weber Shandwick n.d). There is a need to understand and integrate social media platforms to PR initiatives (Flanagan 2010) and organisations have to think carefully on how they are going to engage various stakeholders on problems and in the planning process in the changing technological environment (Goodman 2010). But not everyone has access to the internet. The elderly find it hard to learn new skills and the poorest of our society may not have access to a computer or the internet. As a result their ability to engage with each other or society can be limited and certain groups of society may be excluded (Warschauer 2003). It seems that Prs need todo more that just have use of the web. They need to be aware of conversations happening online, and they know that they should engage in a fully transparent dialogue with openness and honesty. This will help to develop relationships with their customers. One section of society that has been affected by the introduction of the digital world is PRs relationship with journalists. (Sweetser, Porter, Chung, Kim, 2008) Instead of the old means of PRs contacting journalists for pitching news stories, the roles are changing slightly. Media catching is increasing in popularity. Journalists are now contacting a number of PRs at one time and others looking for stories and information. One third of Americans constantly use blogs as a means of gaining information (Smith 2008). At this point it is necessary to understand that social media is vital within organizations, encouraging employee engagement. Enterprise 2.0 is a form of web 2.0 which is used for businesses only. They provide services such as Yammer, a corporate version of Twitter, and Chatter- a social-networking service (Economist 2010). According to Mashable (2010) the top five engaged brands in social media are Starbucks, Coca- Cola, Oreo, Skittles and Redbull. Starbucks has developed a digital platform solely so that the public can