Soft Thinking and Intellectual Capital

{draw:frame} University of Glamorgan MSc International Logistics and Transport Programme/Strategic Procurement Management STRATEGY AS PRACTICE Soft Systems Thinking and Intellectual Capital Assignment 1 *Student No: *08193738 Assignment Date: 5 April 2009 *Submission Date:* 15 May 2009 Module Lecturer: Paul Davis Word Count:* * *2,* 600 Critically evaluate the role that Soft Systems thinking can play in promoting organisations Intellectual Capital. To evaluate the benefits of Soft Systems Thinking (SST) in promoting an organisational intellectual capital it is necessary to understand the concept of Soft Systems Methodology and how this methodology can be used to foster teamwork, communities of practice and social learning, and whether these learning outcomes adds knowledge to employees, and leads to improved professional practice and efficacy. So what price do you put on learning – and as an intangible asset does it need to be measured to promote Intellectual Capital (IC) to support the â€Å"effective delivery of strategic goals by focusing management activities and processes†. Andriessen (2004). Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) advocated by Checkland and Scholes (1990) is a methodology based on applying systems thinking to non system situations. It is a holistic way of dealing not with the problem but the â€Å"situation† in where there are â€Å"social, political and human activities† Checkland and Scholes (1990). As opposed to â€Å"hard system methodologies, which can be quantified, measured and are technology orientated. Soft Systems takes a group of â€Å"actors† through a process of a shared â€Å"problem† appreciation. Learning about the problem, then formulating a root definition of interrelated systems, these examine the relationships of the relevant subsystem: which are the stakeholders, such as customers, employees, the worldview (weltanschauungen) and the management who are â€Å"all active in the system and take collective action to improve the situation† Checkland (1981) Senge (1990) also describes systems thinking as having five learning disciplines, personal mastery, me_ntal models, shared vision, team learning, and the overarching discipline of systems thinking. Therefore, soft systems thinking is a tool that helps in the solving of problems involving human activities where the outcome is learning. Soft systems thinking can enable subjective perceptions of problems and potential solutions. Checkland and Scholes (1990). There are a number of different issues and approaches that can be used to develop a framework for the application of systems thinking for promoting the intellectual capital of any organisation. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) advocated by Checkland and Scholes (1990) helps to achieve a clearer understanding of organisational issues and problem â€Å"situations†, as it approaches issues holistically. â€Å"System thinking is a discipline for seeking wholes, recognizing patterns and interrelationships, and learning how to structure those relationships in a more effective and efficient way † Senge and Lannon-Kim (1991. Therefore, managers having a range of skills and knowledge can add value to any improvement initiative. Rose and Haynes (2001) developed and used the methodology in a number of settings in the NHS and Iles and Sunderland (2001) cited the potential of SSM as an aid to implementing organisational change initiatives at King’s College Hospital London. (Iles and Sunderland, 2001:35) Soft systems thinking can help organisations to develop new perspectives, as it accounts for factors that otherwise would be ignored. A human activity system, can compliment strategic frameworks, such as the â€Å"Balance Scorecard† to co-ordinate business activities and improve internal and external communications. Kaplan and Norton (1992) However, humans view problems differently because they come from different backgrounds, and have different cultural roots, experience, and education, and as a subsystem, different personalities and philosophies to life. Therefore; if a group of managers at different management levels and different departments are all involved in a complex â€Å"problem situation†, SST maybe an excellent tool to create a conceptual understanding of a problem, but it does not represent the real world, but by using system rules and principles it allows thinking to be structured, to develop some models, and the situation can be expressed as a rich picture Checkland, (1981); Checkland and Scholes (1990) Although, Checkland (1999) contrasts with the emphasis on reductionists thinking on obvious problems with definite solutions. People interpret problem situations from particular standpoints and in terms of distinctive interests. Fortune and Peters (1995) speaks about ‘complex discursive’ networks challenging the understanding of systems, problems and solutions to problems. This system of relationships between people, activities, and the world is defined by Lave and Wenger (1991), as a Community of Practice, (CoP) ‘which develops over time’ and ‘in relation to’ other central and overlapping communities of practice’ and is a fundamental condition for the existence of knowledge. The approach focuses on the â€Å"social interactive dimensions of situated learning†. As people in the group interact with each other, establishing a relationship through mutual engagement and a sense of joint enterprise. Wenger (2000) describes three modes of belonging to a social learning system, as â€Å"engagement, imagination and alignment†. These cannot be formed, but have to evolve overtime, as new members join and others leave. So how can organisations like the NHS establish communities of practice? Brown and Duguid (2001a) suggests managers can seek to structure spontaneity, structuring fragmented practice across the organisation, they can encourage alignments of changing practices between communities thereby assisting the transfer of knowledge across the organisation. (Brown and Duguid 2001a). An equally important view has emerged under the banner of ‘the knowledge-based view of the firm' (Grant 1996), emphasises the necessity of organisations to develop and increase the knowledge and learning capabilities of employees through knowledge gaining, knowledge sharing, and knowledge transfer, to achieve competitive advantage. To take it further Lave and Wenger (1991) saw the gaining of knowledge as a social process, in which people participated in communal learning, but at different levels depending on their authority in the group. It is the shared commitment that binds the members of the CoP in a single social entity, and although members of the CoP build up tangible communal resources, such as written files, procedures, processes and policies, (hard knowledge) intangible resources are also being built up such as experiences rituals and idioms (soft knowledge). Hildreth and Kimble (2002) argued that the underlying problems of managing this knowledge was that Knowledge Management (KM) failed to recognise that knowledge itself consists of both hard and soft knowledge, much like the Chinese concepts of Yin and Yan and are mutually interdependent. â€Å"Knowledge by itself produces nothing; only when it is integrated into a task does knowledge benefit society. (Drucker 1992) Hislop (2004) examined three cases studies of CoP’s in large European organisations and concluded that only one was successful in sharing knowledge between communities. The other two failed to do so because they did not share the same identity. So it could be concluded that although CoP’s are self controlled and self directed, and maybe of value to the business organisation, the actual benefit and contribution to the organisation could also be uncertain. Maybe, because group solidarity in human communities, is often at the price of hostility/non-cooperation towards non-group members. â€Å"There appears to be a natural human inclination for dividing the world into friends and enemies that is the basis of all politics. † (Fukuyama, 1995) So knowledge maybe personified tacitly in the experiences of a community of practitioners in an organisation or explicitly in the written files, but Knowledge Management (KM) is a critical task for any organisation. Reducing tacit knowledge into numbers the organisation stands to lose money, although knowledge can be safely stored on computer systems – the actual value could be lost if an employee leaves with the tacit knowledge on how to use the explicit knowledge. Employee retention/turnover is important as downsizing and retirement can cause a loss of shared knowledge and knowledge could be transferred to competitors and be damaging to an organisations competitive advantage. (Stovel and Bontis (2002). Stovel and Bontis (2002) also advocate that â€Å"productivity will drop for a time due to the learning curve involved as new employees’ gain the knowledge of the tasks involved and understands and learns from the organisational culture. Information and data can be stored but it is not until it has been processed in the minds of an individual and is communicated to others does it become knowledge (Alavi and Leidener 2001) so to make tacit knowledge explicit, there has to be knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer within and between organisations is not a one-way activity, but a process of trial and error, feedback, and mutual adjustment of both the source and the recipient (Von Krogh, 2003: 373). There have been a number of studies which have shown that some of the benefits of knowledge sharing/transfer can help solve problems and increase performance, adaptation, collaboration and innovation. (Constant, Sproull and Kiesler, 1996; Brown and Duguid, 2000). However, there is a great deal of literature on knowledge management and innumerable definitions of knowledge and what knowledge is, Blackler (1995) describes knowledge as â€Å"multifaceted and complex, being both situated and abstract, implicit and explicit, distributed and individual, physical and mental, developing and static, verbal and encoded. † While Fowler and Pryke’s (2003) views the more human element of knowledge â€Å"as much the perception arising from information and refracted through the individual’s personal lens†. Whereas, Knowledge Management Systems refers to information systems, particularly with the use of technology, which is adopted and designed to support employees, there is an emerging awareness that there is a social element to the area of knowledge management, which focuses on a more human centred approach, as a means of managing knowledge in organisations (Hildreth et el 1999) It is now recognised that the performance of any organisation, private and public is very much dependent upon the knowledge of the employees. But, it is the social element or the concept of â€Å"social capital† and its role in knowledge management for developing and gaining competitive advantage, and more broadly intellectual capital (IC) popularised by Stewart in Fortune magazine (1994) which has relational elements and comprises of human capital, structural capital, and organisational capital (Edvinsson and Malone, 1997; Stewart, 1997; Sveiby, 1997; Guthrie and Petty, 2000) and is viewed also as being central to the sustainability of competitive advantage. Edvinson and Malone (1997) defined human_ capital_ as the value of everything that ‘leaves the company at five p. m. † That is to say that only the shared knowledge assets or the _structural _capital only remains, when employees walk out through the door. Social capital can be defined as a set of informal values or norms shared among members of a group that permits them to cooperate with one another. â€Å"If members of the group come to expect that others will behave reliably and honestly, then they will come to trust one another. Trust acts like a lubricant that makes any group or organisation run more efficiently. † (Fukuyama, 1999, p16) With trust and the co-operation in groups and the social interactions based on informal communication, the building of networks can have economic benefits, with the creation of business opportunities through networking as trust reduces the costs of contracts and legal actions and shared values can make negotiations more successful. Social capital may also create business opportunities by facilitating and exchanging semi – confidential information and mutual ncouragement. (Glaser, Edward L. , Laibson, David, and Sacerdote, Bruce 2002), Intellectual Capital is the intangible economic value of organisational capital (structures, processes and culture) and human capital (skills, behaviour and knowledge) and it is the intangible asset of knowledge that is now being added to the classical production factors of land labour and capital. Growth and innovation are now rel ying on the intellectual capital /knowledge of an organisation, and how it uses the knowledge to compete in the market (Kim and Mauborgine (1999). The field of intellectual capital stems from the need of organisations to have to quantify assets. So efficient management of intellectual capital is directly linked to measurement and valuation (Andrieseen 2004) and has necessitated the introduction of reporting and valuations models for IC (Liebowitz and Suen 2000) and as the literature suggest the most popular measure of IC is the difference between the market value and the book value of a knowledge based firm (Brennan and Connell 2000. ) According to (Tuban and Aronson 2001) Knowledge is critically important because as an asset it appreciates rather than depreciates. Knowledge increases so intellectual capital is going to improve. So by using systems thinking to promote Intellectual Capital could be a powerful approach for understanding the nature of ‘problems situations’ and the way they are dealt with and how to go about improving results. The key benefit of the system is that it involves seeing the whole picture and creates insights to problems and can nurture the way that communities of practice can co-operate and learn through shared knowledge and experiences. System thinking is not an easy approach as it requires a substantial investment of effort, and thought, though the results can be more than worth the investment. Central to these ideas is that intellectual capital is ‘embedded in both people and systems. The stock of human capital consists of humans (the knowledge skills and abilities of people) social (the valuable relationships among people) and organisational (the processes and routines within the firm)’ (Wright et al 2001:716). But there are criticisms of Soft Thinks Thinking as the system is unable to deal with conflicting nature of social systems, and that it is a conceptual methodology and does not represent the real world, and the methodology implies that actors in a situation have the freedom to instigate change and that conflict does exist but the methodology relies on compromise. Douglas and MacGregor 1960 in his book â€Å"Human side of Enterprise â€Å"maintained that there are two fundamental approaches to managing people. Many managers tend towards theory x, and generally get poor results. Enlightened managers use theory y, which produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow and develop. Which demonstrates that you can’t legislate for human behaviour and those humans also by nature can be territorial and will protect their domain, by advocating knowledge is power. Lave and Wenger (1991) fail to explore the implications of the distribution of power when discussing CoP and Marshall and Rollinson (2004) suggests that Lave and Wenger ( 1991) discussions of meaning can be misinterpreted as ‘ excessively quiescent and consensual’ while in reality such activities are plagued by misunderstanding and disagreements. Without trust the members of the community of practice may be reluctant to share knowledge, and may become static in terms of their knowledge base be resistant to change. There are limitations to the communities of practice but, its does allow the means to explore the transfer of tacit knowledge management tools focused on the codification of knowledge. But a community of practice is one of a number of knowledge management tools, and different organisations require different tools. Other tools maybe needed to be developed to manage tacit knowledge as from the critic that soft thinking systems may not always be appropriate as a knowledge management tool. References Alavi, M. and D. Leidner 2001 Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues MIS Quarterly 25(1): 107-136 Andriessen, D. (2004). IC valuation and measurement: classifying the state of the art. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 5, 230-242. Blacker F (1995) Knowledge, Knowledge work and organisations: An overview and interpretation, Organisation Studies 16 (6) Bontis, N. 1998). Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. Management Decision, 36, 63-76. Bontis, N. (2002). Managing organizational knowledge by diagnosing intellectual capital: Framing and advancing the state of the field. ?n Nick Bontis (? d. ), World Congress on Intellectual Capital readings (13-56). Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Bontis, N. , Dragonett i, N. C. , Jacobsen, K. & Roos, G. (1999). The knowledge toolbox: A review of the tools available to measure and manage intangible Resources. European Management Journal, 17, 391-402. Brennan, N. and Connell, B. (2000) â€Å"Intellectual capital: current issues and policy implications†, _Journal of Intellectual capital_, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp206-240. Brooking, A. (1996). Intellectual capital: Core asset for the third millennium enterprise. London: International Thomson Business Press. Brown J S and Duguid P (2000a) Structure and Spontaneity; knowledge and organisation – In Nonaka, I and Teece D (Eds) Managing Industrial Knowledge London Sage, 44-67. Checkland, Peter B. , 1981. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Checkland, Peter B. , and Jim Scholes, 1990. Soft Systems Methodology in Action. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Constant, D. , Sproull L. , and Kiesler, S. (1996). The kindness of strangers: The usefulness of electronic weak ties for technical advice. Organization Science, 7(2): 119-135. Drucker P F (1992). The New Society of Organisations: 70(5):95-104 Edvinsson, L. (1997). Developing intellectual capital at Skandia. Long Range Planning, 30, 366-373. Edvinsson, L. and Malone, M. S. (1997), Intellectual Capital, Piatkus, London. Edvinsson, L. & Sullivan, P. (1996). Developing a model for managing intellectual capital. European Management Journal, 14, 356-364. Eisenhardt, K. M. and Santos, F. M. (2002) â€Å"Knowledge-based view: a new theory of strategy? in Pettigrew, A. (Ed. ), Handbook of Strategy and Management, London, Sage, pp. 138-64. Fukuyama, F (1991) The Great Disruption p16 New York Simon and Shuster Fukuyama, F (1995) Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1995), chapter 9. Glaser, Edward L. , Laibson, David, and Sacerdote, Bruce (2002), An Economic Approach to Social Capital, Nov. 112, pp 437-458 Grant, R. M. 1996. Towards a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17 (Winter Special Issue), 108-122. Hildreth P and Kimble C (2002) The Duality of Knowledge â€Å"Information Research 8(1) paper no 142 Hildreth P Wright P and Kimble C (1999) Knowledge management are we missing something? Information Systems – The Next Generation. Hislop D (2004) The Paradox of Communities of Practice: Knowledge Sharing between Communities. Guthrie, J. and Petty, R. (2000), â€Å"Intellectual capital: Australian annual reporting practices. † Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. no. 3, pp. 241-251. Handy, C. B. (1989). The age of unreason. London: Arrow Books Ltd. Iles V and Sutherlandk K (2001) Organisational Change: A Review of Health Care Managers, Professionals and Researchers, National Coordination Centre for NHS Service Delivery and Organisation R and D London. Kaplan, R. S. & Norton, D. P. (1992). The Balanced Scorecard – measures that drive performance . Harvard Business Review, January-February, 71-79. Kim, W. C. & Mauborgne, R. (1999), ‘Strategy, value innovation, and the knowledge economy’, Sloan Management Review Spring, 41–53. Lave J and Wenger E (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation Cambridge University Press Liebowitz, J. & Suen, C. (2000). Developing knowledge metrics for measuring. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1, 54-67. Rose J and Haynes M (2001) A Soft Systems Approach to the Evaluation of Complex Interventions in the Public Sector, Manchester Metropolitan University Press. Senge, P (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, Doubleday New York 1990. Senge, P. & Lannon-Kim, C. (1991). Recapturing the spirit of learning through a systems approach. Stewart, T. A. (1997), _Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of _Organizations, Doubleday/Currency, New York, NY. Sveiby, K. E. (1997), The_ New Organizational Wealth: Managing and Measuring_ Knowledge-based Assets, Berrett-Kohler, San Francisco, CA. Krogh von, G. 2003. Knowledge Sharing and the Communal Resource. In M. Easterby-Smith and M. Lyles, A. (Ed. ), Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management: 372-392. Malden, Oxford, Melbourne, Berlin: Blackwell Publishing. Mulgan G (2002) Policy-Making in the Global Commons Connect No 5 pp 6-18 Centre for Management and Policy Studies.

Summary of ‘Villa for Sale’

A  for sale is a drama written by Sacha Guitry. In this drama Juliette puts up her villa for sale. some customers come to see the villa but they do not buy it. after almost a month, Juliette gets a call saying a lady will come to buy it. a french couple Gaston and Jeanne come to take a look at the villa. while waiting for the owner of the villa, gaston indicater that he has no intention of buying a villa. Juliette enters and gives a complete discription of the villa. after much bargaining Juliette reduces the price from 2,50,000 francks to 2,00,000 francks. aston doesn ‘t agree and is about to leave when Jeanne wants to have a look around the villa. Jeanne wants to see the upper floor Gaton doesn ‘t joins them. Mrs al Smith arrives to look at the villa. she mistakes Gaston as the owner of the villa. She buys the villa for 3,00,000 francks. When Jeanne returns after looking at the top floor,she indicates that she has lost the idea of buying the villa but Gaston desires t o buy the villa for 2,00,000 francks. Juliette is still unaware that Gaston has sold the villa to mrs al smith. Gaston ‘s ingenuitnity is later discovered by Jeanne. Villa for sale is nothing but just about a woman( Juliette) who sells her house to a couple in hastiness,and Mr. Gatson who buys the house sells it to another american who assumes Gatson to be the husband of juliette when his wife Jeanne and Juliette go to inspect the top floor of the house. it is all about the tricky minded Gatson. ] n my point of view – the whole drama itself is a satire (wrote with one intention, to ridicule a person in the form of a poem or a play). Here Gaston is a witty character and throughout the drama he does not agree with Jeanne thinking that this villa is impossible. His words are short but very thoughtful. He is extremely witty and clever in his replies. â€Å"On the principle of people who like children and haven't any can always go live near a school† As the summary we can conclude that the use of a character like Gaston enhanced the thoughts of the writer thus helping the reader visualize what the real story is about. By another post I have described all the the characters of Villa For Sale. Because I haven't putt it in here I thought it is boring read a such long post at once.

The Role Of The Financial Analysts In The Financial Sector Essay

The Role Of The Financial Analysts In The Financial Sector - Essay Example They communicate the financial risks involved in the business investments. This paper will discuss the purpose, summary and some of the essential functions of a financial analyst. The financial analyst is an essential profession in the enhancement of financial management in the financial sectors. The financial service industry is competitive in the market and tough to break. Therefore, acquiring the services of a financial analyst can enhance the ability of an investor to venture into the sector with limited risk. The financial analyst niche is, therefore, a core unit in the financial sector as it streamlines the financial performance of an organization. It gives the investor the pros and cons of the undertaking or failing to undertake certain decisions in their operations. Therefore, it serves to enlighten the investors on the most plausible and feasible decisions in their businesses. The financial analyst job is responsible for maintaining order and smooth running of a financial service organization. Rather than venturing into an unknown sector for investors, the financial analysts create awareness of the sector to the investors. They research macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions of a financial institution in order to aid in decision making. The fundamentals of the company require being known for them to provide recommendations for the business, sector and the industry. They recommend the course of action to their bosses such as whether to sell or buy stocks from a company based on its current financial strength. The financial analyst also makes projections of performance by financial institutions hence making it easy to invest in profitable companies. Therefore, the analyst must always be aware of the current developments in the sector of their specialization. This aids in preparing the financial models for predicting the economic conditions in the future for any variables.

Cross Cultural Cummunication Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cross Cultural Cummunication - Movie Review Example Hence, it would not be wrong to say that culture happens to be an integral aspect of the vantage point from which a person views, interprets and understands the world. An individual shapes one’s roles and relationships in a social setup in the light of the dominant cultural influences that one subscribes to. Even, in the current times when the world is getting diverse, it is astonishing to acknowledge that it is quiet impossible to separate a person from the culture in which one is born and brought up (Irvine 64). Therefore, culture is the lens through which an individual perceives the things and ideas. Yet, the thing is that the relationship between an individual and the culture one owes loyalty to happens to be quiet confusing. If on the one side the culture helps a person to adapt to the society in which one is born, on the other side it really makes it difficult to adapt to and adjust to the societies which have a different culture. Hence, in a way an individual happens to be both the beneficiary as well as the victim of culture. In the light of these facts the video under consideration does present many relevant and practical ideas regarding culture, how the varied cultures tend to differ from one another and as to what can people do to adjust to cultures that are different and foreign. The message conveyed by the video that in the current times when the varied cultures could not help being influenced by each other owing to the globalized trading of goods and services, influence of technologies like the internet and the ease of travel made possible by air travel, culture still continues to play a vital role in the human interactions, is indeed true and important. People do feel proud of the culture in which they are born and really appreciate if the individuals from other cultures do recognize their cultural peculiarities and traits (Allen 4). In the light of this fact the definition of culture given by this video that culture is, â€Å"A pattern o f learned and shared human behavior embodied in thought, speech and action transmitted to succeeding generations through the usage of tools, language and abstract thought† is indeed true and relevant. It is indeed an undeniable fact that the relationship between an individual and one’s culture happens to be complex in the sense that it is very ancient, unavoidable and to a large extent necessary to help a person adjust and adapt to the society in which one is born. One simply cannot deny one’s culture. The best option is always to accept and understand the culture in which one is born. This goes a long way in advancing a person’s understanding of other cultures as well. The further information conveyed by the video as to the associated important aspects of a culture that are values, attitudes and beliefs indeed goes a long way in enabling an individual understand as to what culture actually is and what does it practically involve. As per the video, values do represent the actual conscience of a particular culture and are an important guiding influence as to how the people in a culture think and behave. Attitudes affiliate to the emotional makeup of a particular culture and determine as to how people in a specific culture think about and react to particular people, places or things. Beliefs associate with the

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Essay Example What differentiates Hermione from many intelligent children is that not only does she learn the magical spells, she practically has the capability to recall from her memory the most appropriate spell that applies on a particular situation whenever required, and thus, serves as the ultimate rescuer for Ron and Harry. Not many brainy children are as practical as Hermione is. Her practicality also reflects in the way she practically indulges in every act with Ron and Harry at every stage till the end of the story. Hermione Granger is indeed, a true friend to Ron and Harry. It is not wrong to state that her friends possess her. She knows the meaning of friendship and can practically go to any lengths to help her friends out of the trouble. She is the very â€Å"friend in need† as they call it. She is the kind of person most parents would like their child to be friends with, given she is very optimistic and hardworking. Hermione Granger is a muggle born witch who is able to display excellent magical qualities contrary to the fact that none of her parents come from the magical world. Hermione Granger has been presented as a â€Å"know-it-all† kind of girl whose attitude is not quite welcomed by Ron Weasley particularly in their initial encounters at Hogwarts. In the start of the story, one might even start to think of her as a cheap character that shows its knowledge off to depress others. However, one later gets to realize how genuinely is she interested in learning magic and applying it to assist humanity. At the age of 11, she prefers learning â€Å"Transfiguration Charms† upon trying shades of lipstick. She is a genuine learner placed in the â€Å"Gryffindor House† because of her extreme bravery, although she was also suitable for â€Å"Ravenclaw House† because of her smartness. Hermione Granger fits best in the Stage VI of the Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral

With reference to Britain OR the United States in the period Essay

With reference to Britain OR the United States in the period 1880s-1920s, critically examine the waysin which the child saving movement shaped the evolution of systems of care and control for the deliquent - Essay Example Accordingly, since the onset of Victorian era ideals surrounding the ability of society to handle juveniles who are behaving in a delinquent manner, much attention has been given to the issues surrounding youth crime, youth violence and overall juvenile delinquent behavior. Significantly, the child saving movement of the 19th century paved the way for a reevaluation of the conditions of child poverty and stimulated important changes with respect to the ways in which the state interacted with poor children. Seeking to address the issues associated with juvenile delinquency in the 19th century with respect to how juvenile delinquent behavior was understood with reference to the norms and expectations of the era, the following hopes to provide a thorough and concise analysis of perceptions of juvenile delinquency before, as well as after, the 19th century. This essay will ask, how did the child saving movement shape the evolution of systems of care and control for the delinquent? Follow ing this, we turn to an overview of antecedents to reform in the United States and the fundamental changes undertaken during this period. We then explore the changes and conclude with an overview of the issues discussed in this analysis of juvenile delinquency and the child-saving reform movement during the middle half of the 19th century (Lawrence, 2007; RouÄ ek, 1958). During the height of the 19th century, many children lived and worked in miserable social conditions. Accordingly, renowned theorists such as Karl Marx sought to address the horrific living conditions of the working poor and child labor was an important feature of this early industrial period of economic development. Child savers were at the forefront of change in the living and working conditions of young people as they pushed for important reforms in child labor laws, public education for all and important

Draftsmans Duty Of Care In The Preparation Of A Will Essay

Draftsmans Duty Of Care In The Preparation Of A Will - Essay Example In this context the common law development of rules which gives the draftsman's duty of care in preparation of a will has been discussed within the context of cases. The analysis is focused on identifying the solicitor's duties and responsibilities in preparing a will for the clients. Various aspects of preparation of a legal document highlight the significant role of the solicitor who has the duty to adequately represent the testator's intentions and wishes through the legal document. The various types of the draftsman's duties in preparation of a will are discussed in the changing contextual situations of family businesses, mutual or joint will, and breach of duty such as errors or delays. Identifying grammatical and omission errors, providing legal advice to clients, severing joint tenancy and adequately representing a testator's wish in preparing a will are some of the broad issues of draftsman's duties in preparing a will. This discussion is focused on identification of the various types of errors, issues concerning negligence of duty on the part of the solicitor and the possible contextual factors that can lead to these errors or failure t o perform the duties. The methodology adopted for this purpose include sear... Databases such as lexisnexis, bailli, zetoc and westlaw were searched with terms as 'draftsman' 'common law' 'preparation of will' 'solicitor duties' and several cases were located and have been included in this study. The studies obtained were then selected to adequately represent the research focus on identifying the draftsman's duties and responsibilities in preparing a will. The studies were analysed using a qualitative analytical approach from the Kerridge and Brierley (2003) framework of draftsman's errors and legal provisions of family law (1992). The aim of the study is to delineate the general rules of draftsman's duty of care in preparation of a will and the various legal aspects that defines a solicitor's responsibilities and the way he carries out these responsibilities. Draftsman's Duties in Preparation of a Will In preparation of a will, in addition to a general common law framework, trust law, succession law and tax law may have to be considered. A critical appraisal of the client's needs and the words that would meet the client's demands are considered in legal construction and consequences. A new trust deed may begin by choosing a precedent which appears to be the closest to what is required2. If a will or a trust does not meet client's needs, then new words will be required. In case of divorce, the divorcing spouse is a beneficiary and also the children in case of deceased. There has been in recent years an increased emphasis on understanding of law relating to revocation or cancellation of wills. Wills can be lost or misplaced, and this may be a problem if the testator has died in any way. It should also be evident that the will has not been destroyed as given in the case Hacquoil v Imperial Cancer Research (2003 JRC 163).

Medical law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Medical law - Essay Example ng or refusing medical treatment was set out in the case of Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbeck Area Health Authority.2 In this case, a young girl under 18 was held to be legally competent to consent to contraceptive treatment and advice because she had enough intelligence to understand the nature of the treatment. This case has set out a test that assesses the young person’s level of understanding and maturity in regard to the treatment that is being proposed. There is no fixed age at which it is possible to say that a child is mentally capable of understanding the nature of medical treatment and therefore capable of providing consent. The competence to consent is thus to be based upon the level of understanding demonstrated by the child. Hence, under this test, minors are effectively presumed to be incompetent unless they fully understand the nature of treatment and its effects, as also the consequences of refusing such treatment. According to Lord Scarman, the children must demonstrate both understanding of the treatment, as well as the maturity to understand its other implications, such as moral and emotional ramifications of the decision3. Such an evaluation of minors to assess whether they are Gillick competent requires a medical practitioner to determine if the minor is mature enough to provide consent and autonomy in decision making can be allowed only when a minor can demonstrate such understanding of the nature and effects of treatment4. However, in contrast to Lord Scarman’s views, Lord Fraser stated that a young person is capable of consenting to medical treatment if he or she is able to understand what is being proposed and can express his or her views clearly in this regard. However, this was to be subject to the medical practitioner deeming such treatment or refusal of treatment to be in the patient’s best interests.5 In the case of Re S (A Minor)(Consent to Medical Treatment)6the patient S was suffering from thalassaemia, yet continually

The Gospel of John Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Gospel of John - Essay Example They had a small conversation before the baptism rites. Then immediately after the baptism, the Holy Spirit came to Him in a form of a dove and God's voice from heaven was heard saying that Jesus is his beloved Son and with whom he is very happy. The narration is the same with Mark's Gospel with regard to the descent of the Holy Spirit (in a form of a dove) and the voice from God. However, the conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist is omitted. For Luke's Gospel, the narration is same with the first two Gospels in terms of the descent of the Holy Spirit and God's voice from heaven. The baptismal rites in Luke's Gospel involved groups of people who were also baptized with Jesus. On the other hand, the narration in the Gospel of John is different from the first three Gospels. Jesus' baptism was mentioned by John the Baptist to have happened before. Meaning the actual baptism of Jesus is not narrated by John but it is mentioned through the testimony of John the Baptist to Jesus. The descent of the Holy Spirit is symbolized in John's Gospel as the sign that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Another is that, John did not directly mention that John the Baptist is the one who baptized Jesus. As quoted in John's Gospel, John the Baptist mentions the manifestations of Jesus' divinity: "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky a... Works and Miracles of Jesus John DePoe describes Jesus as a paradoxically Messiah because Jesus performs his miracles as manifestation of him being the Messiah. However at the same time, he commands his apostles and believers not to speak with them. The author asks this question: "Why does he bother with proving himself as the Messiah, if he is only going to hide it" (DePoe, p.4) In the gospel of Mark, the Messianic secret is seen. On Mark Chapter 8, verses 27 to 30, Jesus asked his disciples on their way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi who do the people think he is. His disciples answered him by saying that he is John the Baptist, Elijah, and one of the prophets. Then, Jesus asked Peter of who he thinks Jesus is. Peter answered that he is the Messiah. Upon hearing it, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone about it. Another occurrence of the Messianic secret is seen on Mark Chapter 1, verses 40 to 45. A man with leprosy approached Jesus and asked him to heal his sickness. Jesus responded by touching the leper and healed his illness. Before the leper left, Jesus warned him by saying that he must not tell anyone, anything but asked him to show to the priests and present an offer for his cleansing. However, the cleansed man still spread what Jesus as done to him which prevented Jesus from entering a town because of lots of people who seek for his miracle deeds. (The New American Bible, Gospel of Mark) On the other hand, John the Evangelist shows the Jesus' marvelous deeds through the Seven Signs. In John Chapter 2, verses 1-12, Jesus did his first miracle in the Wedding at Cana. Even if Jesus was not ready to perform miracles, the request of his mother, Blessed Virgin

Undocumented, Indispensable by Anna Quinden Essay

Undocumented, Indispensable by Anna Quinden - Essay Example The primary claim of the author that immigrant issue has already assumed a proportion that has to be addressed seriously was well positioned. Quinden did not put her main argument nonchalantly or straightforwardly but rather, she used colorful descriptions and analogies that engage the readers. She used the description of geologic earthquake and comparing the march to the other important marches such as march about Vietnam War and feminist rallies. After engaging the reader about her claim, she then conditioned the reader to her arguments that there side of the arguments that were not considered about immigrants such as their contributions through the taxes they pay that they may in fact be the one helping to keep the system afloat. It also helped to mention that they are being demonized as social costs when in fact they work and also contribute to the social security yet not entitled to full benefits. In essence, Quinden humanized the issue that immigrants are not devils or social s ecurity malaise that drains our resources but rather as individuals who helps to keep our way of life. They may have kept wages down but they also keep the prices our homes cheap and ensure that our foods are cheap. Such, many employers who are also campaign contributors turn their eyes the other way about the immigration status of their worker. And perhaps they may be doing this because they are waiting for immigration laws to be more responsive to the reality of the times. Immigrants are workers and therefore are taxpayers.

Relflection Paper Essay Example for Free

Relflection Paper Essay When enrolling into a new class, it is normal to have expectations. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I understand that the upcoming semester will provide many challenges I will have to face. I am excited to see how I will grow academically over the course of the semester. I find myself eager about learning new things and refreshing my knowledge on things I have forgotten. It has been a long time since I have studied the growth and development of humans. I have strengths to bring to this class as well as weaknesses that I plan to work on during this class. By the end of this course I expect to be able to apply what I learn in counseling and become a better writer. While this class will be more stimulating than what I have been used to I hope that with the help of my classmates and my professor I can make this class a positive learning experience. During my undergraduate career, I took many psychology classes involving the human development. In one of my undergraduate classes, Lifespan Development, we went through the lifespan of people from birth until death. I took this class online and the class involved a lot of self-teaching. Because the class was online, assignments consisted of mostly online tests. While I learned a lot, I do not feel as if I learned all that I could. I am looking forward to taking this class on a more challenging level and having a deeper understanding in human growth and development. One of my biggest weaknesses is engaging in class discussions and presentations. Although I have an extroverted personality, I am very shy when it comes presentations. It takes time for me to get comfortable speaking in front a group of people. While doing presentations and engaging in class discussions, I get very nervous. In this class, a big part of my grade comes from this. Therefore, in this class I expect to get over my fear of public speaking. I hope that with the help of my professor I gain confidence about speaking in front of groups of people. I want to be able to take what I have learned in this class, apply it to counseling and also have a better understanding of what I have learned. This class will be an introduction of what to look forward to for the next three years. I am not used to writing papers and having to do so much reflective thinking. I believe this experience will help me become a better writer. In order for me to achieve all of my expectations, it is important that my professor help me when I need it, challenge me and give me constructive critism. In addition, if I want to take all that I can from this class it is imperative for me to give this class all that I have and spend time reading and completing my projects. I know that during this semester, there will be challenges but with the instruction of my professor, I plan to grow in my profession.

Biblical allusion Essay Example for Free

Biblical allusion Essay The Stranger, Shawshank Redemption Existentialism The philosophy of Existentialism described in The Stranger by Albert Camus, and Shawkshank Redemption by Stephen King and Frank Darabont.What is unique about these two stories is the fact that the veiwer can view Existentialism in the lives of two men who are opposite in personality, yet do similar actions. Even though there are many varietes of existentialism can be categorized into six major themes: existence before essence, reason is impotent to deal with the depths of human life, alienation or estrangement, fear and trembling anxiety, the encounter with nothingness, and freedom. Both stories contain much of this existence before essence which in simple terms means we gotta live we cant just is. Like in the beginning of the two stories both characters expressed the same bland and dull emotion. When Andy Dufresne, Shawshank, was at his trial and when he arrived at the prison for being accused of murdering his wife and lover. The emotion that he expressed was as if at the time he was simply ising and not living. Similar to that of Monsieur Meursault or M. from The Stranger, who also showed the exact emotion for when his mother died and his trial later on. These examples are probably the best because it clearly shows that at the time, they didnt really care about anything in life which is what existence before essence is. Other prime examples would be when M. and marie are getting ready to leave for the beach, Marie is all cheerful and excited, while M. doesnt look very thrilled (pg.47). For Andy, it would be when he was getting sexually assualted his first two years in prison. At the time even though he resisted a few times, he still didnt know his purpose in life. Even though they sound similar there was one thing that made them different and that was that when M. was to be executed he was fine with it because he had the mentality of my life is now meaningless. While for Andy, if he didnt do what the warden said, he was going to the hardest of time than anyone else. Andy had much time to think about his next move. One day while speaking with ,Red his best friend, he said to him get busy livin or get busy dyin' Andy managed to escape that same day. During the opening scene of the film, Andy was shown sitting in his car in  front of what was believed to be his wifes lovers house. At this time Andy was destroyed by the fact that his wife had been cheating on him and takes his gun and bullets out of his cars glove compartment. Without any thought we then see Andy get out of his car and smash a bottle of liqour and then see him make his way to the house. After that the scene fades out and leaves us wondering if Andy really did shoot them both out of grief. This leaves us off that Andys emotions got the best of him instead of sitting down and reasoning with what approach he should take for his current situation. Raymond friend of M, had done a similar action. Raymond too committed a crime of passion for when he beats his girlfriend for also believing she was cheating on him. Instead of confronting her about it, he instead beats her like a punching bag and pays the price. In my opinion this probably the greatest example for reason is impotent to deal with the depths of human because it happens so often and its easy to understand. M. the perfect person to think of when talking about one who alienates himself. M. was an interesting fellow because he hated to be around people, but at the same time loved to watch society from hisbalcony with wine and a cigarette in hand. There were countless times when he just perfered to be alone, awkwardly enough that was one of the main reasons he didnt mind being in jail. Even at his own mothers death, instead of sitting next to her friends from the Home, he sat across from them and just hated the idea that they were some sort of jury judging him. Andy too isolated himself from the other inmates when he first arrives to jail. Smart of him to do so. The last thing you want to do is piss someone off while youre in the same place as them 24/7. But once he got the hang of how things worked, Andy was more social and interactive in his new home. Old Salamano, friend and neighbor of M. was so scared for his dog who was missing. Salamano was scared and nevous for his old companion, he had no one else in his life besides his best friend. the thought of the police getting a hold of him made matters even worse, Salamano knew the dog was in terrible condition and if someone were to find him they would just kill him. Thoughts like these are what makes people go mad and end up committing suicide just like Brooks, from Shawshank. Brooks, an elderly man who had spent most of  his lifetime behind bars finally got the news he had been wanting for a very long time, his release date. When Brooks first got news of his release he feared of the outside world. He had been locked up for so long that he ended up depending on the walls themselves. With such fear and anxiety of the thought of him leaving everything he knows and loves, he gets a sharp object and about kills a man just so he can be there longer. Eventually his friends talk him out of it and ends up leaving. Later on we see Brooks depressed and ends up hanging himself in his apartment building. The encounter with nothingness, people who feel that are left with nothing. The reason why M. was ok with his execution. M. had felt as if there was just nothing for him to be in the world and was ok with his death. Throughout the time of the death of his mother M. has this what is left attitude. Even Andy, pondering his thoughts while he was thrown in the hole for two months. Wondering what he would have left if he didnt obey the warden. Throughout movie and part of the book it has that feel of once youre in prison you dont really have anything left, they practically own everything about you. Freedom, the word that has many meanings. Freedom can mean a variety of things but for the movie it meant escaping jail for the most part. As for Brooks, freedom meant finally being at peace with himself. For Andy, it meant escaping that terrible place and following his long dream of going to Zihuantanejo and opening a small hotel. Even if it meant that he had to escape throught a 500 yard long sewer. Red, the man who thought he would never see the outside world again, saw freedom when he walked out the gates of Shawshank and met up with long time friend, Andy. As for M. it meant dying also. M. felt that he was never going to be free until he took full responsibility for his actions and faced death. For this Existentialism can be seen in many ways, fashions, symbols and through innovations in conventional form.

Diversification within UK Private Real Estate Portfolios

Diversification within UK Private Real Estate Portfolios A Critical Appraisal of the Literature on Diversification within Private Real Estate Portfolios in the United Kingdom   Abstract One of the two major ways in which institutional investors can invest in real estate is private real estate. Private real estate is to purchase un-securitized real estate directly through property pools, commingled real estate funds (CREFs), syndications or separate accounts that are managed by professional real estate portfolio managers or investment advisors. This form of ownership will henceforth be referred to as private real estate. There are different drivers of investing within the private real estate portfolios, including markets, sectors, management, area/building specific, scale, diversification, liquidity, tax and governance risks. The private real estate has a low level of linear dependence on equity, so private real estate requires the diversification of its portfolios. This paper provides a critical appraisal of the literature on diversification within private real estate portfolios. Does a U.K. market need to do the diversification within private real estate portfolios when British people need it? Not really. Literature Review Investment in private real estate offers considerable advantages: it is a tangible asset with low volatility; and it generates an attractive income stream and long-term capital appreciation and particularly strong diversification benefits to stocks and bonds. Thus, there is extant literature showing that private real estate has a significant place in the U.S. mixed-asset portfolio: see Ziobrowski and Ziobrowski (1997); and Firstenberg, Ross Zisler (1998); among others. Researchers conducted several studies on real estates role as a component of asset-only portfolios, specifically focusing on real estates diversification benefits. These studies compensate for some of the issues with real estate data, in particular, that of valuation smoothing. Most of these studies conclude that the allocation to real estate should be from 10% upward. The results indicate that limited diversification benefits can be gained from international investments in pure office strategies, particularly for multi-asset investors seeking to reduce risk stemming from the capital markets. Existing empirical evidence is generally consistent with firm owners portfolio diversification having a positive impact on their firms risk taking (e.g., Amihud and Lev (1981) and Faccio, Marchica and Mura (2011)). The general theme in the existing literature is that firm riskiness can be reduced primarily by means of choosing safer investments, i.e. investments that result in lower cash flow volatility or stock return volatility (e.g., Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015) and Faccio, Marchica and Mura (2011)), or lower correlation with the rest of the firm decision makers cash flows (e.g., Amihud and Lev (1981) and Gormley, Matsa and Milbourn (2013)). The association between private (constrained) firm owners portfolio diversification and investment is negative and significant in most cases (Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura, 2015). Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015) study possible endogeneity of firm owners portfolio diversification and of firms private status does not seem to drive their results. The inclusion of owner fixed effects does not impact the qualitative relation between owners portfolio diversification and private firms capital investment (Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura, 2015). However, the fixed-effects results may still be affected by self-selection: better-diversified owners may select to invest in companies with higher investment rates, which better their risk preferences. Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015) suggest the firms capital investment depends on portfolio diversification of their controlling owners; the effect of owners portfolio diversification on firms investment levels depends crucially on firms financial constraints: the investment-diversification relation is positive for relatively unconstrained firms and is negatively for relatively constrained ones. Owner fixed-effects, a quasi-natural experiment, and instrumental variable analysis suggest that this result is not driven by potential endogeneity of owners diversification. A matched-sample analysis, selection model, and an alternative measure of financial constraints show that Lyandres, Marchica, Michaely, and Mura (2015)s findings are also not driven by the endogeneity of their proxy for financial constraints. The analysis builds on and extends that of Hoesli et al. (2004) but broadens the length of the time series and the depth of analysis as they pertain to the real estate portfolio. They concluded that both domestic and international real estate contribute with risk diversification, and therefore portfolio efficiency, to the multi-asset portfolio and that the data support an allocation to real estate of between 15 and 25%, depending on risk preferences and the investors country of domicile. The purpose is to investigate how the composition of a real estate portfolio affects the ability to achieve risk diversification when management costs are taken into account and after removing the assumption that investors can only by a real estate market portfolio. The analysis contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring how the type of underlying tenant demand type affects the portfolio composition problem for real estate investors and thus how real estate strategies should be fashioned to more effectively support overall portfolio objectives. Hoesli and Lizieri (2007) report correlations close to zero for private real estate in the UK. Lizieri (2013) finds that the correlation of the private real estate varies significantly over the market cycle, tending to increase in periods from 1995 to 2010 of poor stock market performance. Lizieri (2013) finds that the correlations of private real estate with equities and bonds changed in the last five years of the sample from around zero to 0.4 and -0.5 respectively. This would indicate that the diversification benefits from real estate disappear when they are most needed. However, it is also found that when the variance is decomposed, a high proportion of private real estate variance cannot be explained by wider capital market factors, which indicates substantial diversification benefits. Even though data construction issues for private real estate cannot be ruled out, Lizieri (2013) concludes that the results support the diversification role of the private real estate. Ang (2012) explores the characteristics of real estate in the context of its real asset characteristics along with real estates role in the asset allocation puzzle. Ang (2012) concludes that real estate is different from other asset classes in several respects: the idiosyncratic risk, the heterogeneity of the assets and requirement to actively mange real estate holdings. Ang (2012) also points out the difficulty of including real estate in any asset allocation model on par with stocks and bonds because direct real estate total returns are not returns in the same sense as are total returns for the other asset classes. This is because real estate total returns are not transaction based nor is there a way to measure the whole market. Ang (2012) does not say that real estate has no role to play but rather that the only return derived from real estate measured on the same frequency as the return on mature asset classes is the income return. Diversification of the Private Real Estate Portfolios with Equity REIT shares An examination of resulting efficient frontiers and their corresponding optimal portfolio weights across various levels of expected return reveals that the ability of public real estate to rebalance and diversify private real estate only portfolios, using either long or short positions, is very much in doubt (Seiler, Webb and Neil Mye, 2001). Private real estate helps reduce the risk of a portfolio because it has less than a perfect correlation with stocks, bonds and all other assets. Qualitative Analysis Standard Markowitz portfolio selection model assumes jointly normal and symmetric distributions. If that holds, then mean, variance and covariance are sufficient to define effective diversification strategy. Traditional diversification strategies no longer provide desired level of protection in bear markets. Portfolio risk and expected value fall in bear markets are systematically understated. Traditional notions of risk-return trade-off are systematically overstated. Frequent portfolio rebalancing needed to maintain target level of risk, leading to higher transaction costs. For example, Stichting Pensioenfonds X: Asset Mix is an archetypical private real estate portfolio. 9% property allocation is reasonable for a well funded and growing scheme if assume under-performs equities and out-performs bonds and adds some diversification. Higher portfolio diversification reduces the variance of owners portfolio return and its covariance with the firms cash flow. As a result, higher portfolio diversification of firm owner lowers the risk avoidance incentives and leads to increased risk taking by the firm. The direct effect of higher owners portfolio diversification on an unconstrained firms capital investment is through the reduction in the variance of owners wealth and the resulting decrease in his or her risk-avoidance incentives. A more diversified owner is less concerned with higher cash flow volatility resulting from higher operating leverage, and chooses a higher level of capital investment. The result is a positive relation between owners portfolio diversification and firm investment for unconstrained firms. The mechanism behind the negative relation between a constrained firms investment and its owners portfolio diversification is different. A constrained firm cannot increase its capital investment level in response to an increase in firm owners portfolio diversification, as its investment is determined by the investment capacity constraint. The only channel the constrained firm can use to alter its cash flow volatility is the riskiness of its investments. The scale/diversification of assets depends upon the genuine efficiency from scale, diversification and impact on equity rising and the decrease of the default. The portfolio of loans demands diversification during the debt and credit crisis. High correlation among portfolios means diversification across sectors relatively little impact on risk reduction in UK historically compared to specific risk. The degree of portfolio diversification of a firms controlling owner may influence its choice of riskiness of firm strategies. The reason is that an expected-utility-maximizing risk-averse owner takes into account the variance of the private real estates overall wealth when making decisions on behalf of the firm the CEO controls. Drivers of diversification from equities Drivers of rents Demand-GDP, business and financial services, consumer spending, distribution, general price inflation, technology, profitability and other investment sentiment drivers. Supply-Construction, planning, obsolescence Drivers of yields Interest rates/term structure, credit availability, credit sentiment (high grade versus low grade), property sentiment. Other factors Tax/political risks, property specific (e.g. lease structures) The earlier studies revealed real estate, with all its illiquidity, management intensity and information asymmetry, does exhibit characteristics that complement the multi-asset portfolio by contributing diversification (Lekander, 2015). But the findings go further to suggest that diversification objectives in low-risk overall strategies are best achieved via types of real estate in which the tenant demand is less affected by global factors, whereas diversification strategies for higher overall risk strategies are best supported by real estate strategies focusing on globally dependent real estate (Lekander, 2015). When accounting for the cost of liquidity, by defining the market value as the mean of the buyer reservation price distribution, a different return pattern emerges. This has implications on the correlation characteristics of real estate, reducing the real estates diversification potential. A similar bias affects investment indices through the population of transactions available to the appraiser to determine price evidence. As such, there is a risk that the return indices measuring private real estate performance are based on market evidence that suffers from selection bias and appraisal smoothing, thus skewing the characteristics of the private real estate returns. A form test of the superiority of economic-based diversification strategies for real estate portfolio diversification was undertaken by Mueller (1992). Mueller (1992) showed that a diversification strategy based on his own classification, which relies solely on economic base, provided even greater risk-adjusted return possibilities. Data and Quantitative Analysis Model The estimates produced and updated are based on a two-quadrant approach looking at private real estate (holdings of funds and other private investors) and private real estate debt (lending by banks and other institutions). I consider a situation in which a firms controlling owner is entitled to a proportion of the firms cash flow. In addition, the firms owner is endowed with initial wealth x outside of the controlled firm, which is invested in an imperfectly diversified portfolio with a normally distributed return, whose mean is and whose standard deviation is . Our model abstracts from the reasons for imperfect diversification of the firms owner, which is a feature consistent with the data. The focus is on the effects of imperfect diversification of owners portfolios on controlled firms investment strategies. I assume that the firms controlling owner is risk-averse and that the CEO maximizes the expected utility of his or her terminal wealth, . This utility is given by , where is the firm owners Arrow-Pratt coefficient of absolute risk aversion. Assuming that the firms cash flow (discussed below) is normally distributed, investors expected utility maximization simplifies into the mean-variance criterion: . The model shows that in order to understand the impact of firm owners portfolio diversification on firms investment strategies, it is crucial to consider simultaneous choices of both the level and riskiness of firms investments. The analysis focuses on the relation between owners portfolio diversification and firms investment level, extends and complements the existing literature that focuses on the riskiness of firms investment. The interaction between these two decisions results in a non-trivial and somewhat surprising relation between owners portfolio diversification and the level of her or his firms capital investment. Comparative statics Lemma 1: If the investment capacity constraint is not binding in equilibrium, then the firms equilibrium level of capital investment and its riskiness, and respectively, are given by the following system of equations: , subject to . I am interested in the effects of controlling owners portfolio diversification on the choice of the level and riskiness of capital investment of constrained and unconstrained firms. In what follows, we present comparative statics of the firms investment level and its riskiness with respect to the standard deviation of the owners portfolio, . I also graphically illustrate these comparative statics using the numerical example to help explain the intuition. Totally differentiating the unconstrained equilibrium conditions in (3) and (4) with respect to owners portfolio standard deviation produces the following result: Proposition 1 For a firm whose capital investment is unconstrained in equilibrium, , equilibrium level of capital investment and its riskiness, and respectively, are decreasing in the standard deviation of firm owners portfolio, . The owners objective function is: subject to Maximizing the owners expected utility in (5) with respect to , while assuming that the investment capacity is binding, i.e., that , leads to the following result: Lemma 2 If the investment capacity constraint is binding, , then the firms equilibrium riskiness of investment, , is given by the following equation: Data The UK data are from the Investors Chronicle Hillier Parker (ICHP) Index and comprise 32 semi-annual observations from 1977 to 1993. The UK data are available disaggregated by three property types (offices; industrial; and retail) and by 11 regions (London, South East, South West, East Anglia, East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside, North, North West, Scotland). The data exclude shopping centres, mixed use buildings, and business space. Data for the U.K. 11 regions were also aggregated to produce three super regions as suggested by Key et al. (1994). These regions are London, South and North. Quantitative Analysis Results The estimated correlation matrices for the three UK property types and three UK regions are shown in Table I and II. As the number of regions differs from the number of property types, there is no test for the UK 11 region data comparable with the one undertaken above. It is, nonetheless, informative to analyse this data. This is done by calculating the correlations between all market segments, in which a market segment is defined as one property type in one region. The full matrix is given in Table III. In the UK it is a conventional wisdom that retail property offers least scope for regional diversification: retail sales tend not to have strong regional differences and the supply response of the retail property market does not differ significantly across regions. In contrast, in the office market, as the London market is driven by the financial sector has a strong international dimension; opportunities should exist for regional diversification within the office market. Table I. UK correlations based on semi-annual returns for 11 regions and three property types (1977-1993) In conclusion, the results show that the scope for diversification within a region varies from region to region and is greatest the further from London, while the diversification within property type is generally limited but is better for office and industrial property. Retail property is poorly correlated with either industrial or offices. Thus, full diversification by both property type and region is to be preferred. Table II Insignificant correlations between market segments by property type, based on semi-annual returns, UK, 1977-1993 IPD/MSCI Data to Explore the Most Important Characteristics of Diversification in Private Real Estate MSCI IPD is the only global provided of appraisal-based total return indices for private real estate across a number of different geographical markets. In this subsection, we look at the main factors affecting the performance of financial investments, i.e. economic growth, inflation and interest rates. These are the most important characteristics in driving differences in performance across the private real estate market over the past few decades. Also, the impact of these factors is partially overlaid with endogenous dynamics of real estate markets resulting from lagged responses of supply and demand. This subsection mainly suggests a specific real estate factor may exist that drives real estate returns but is not common with the drivers of equities or bonds, indicating the existence of long-term diversification benefits of private real estate. Table III: Comparison of key statistics for selected total return indices in the UK UK (1990-2014, monthly) Average return Standard deviation Sharpe ratio Private RE (smoothed) 7.46% 3.76% 0.69 Private RE (unsmoothed) 7.46% 7.49% 0.37 Private Re (trans.-based) 10.39% 8.84% 0.06 Source: IPD and EPRA. IPD data available since 1987 but presented since 1990 to align with other indices. Sharpe ratio calculated relative to three-month T-bills. Table IV: Overview of average annual returns and volatilities for selected international private real estate indices Table IV summarizes the risk-return statistics of the IPD and NCREIF indices across a number of countries. Whilst we are aware that the statistical significance of comparisons based on only few observations is low, it is striking that the UK market is among the most volatile ones. The broad market opinion that the UK real estate market observes tends to see stronger cyclical movements. On the other hand, the UK private real estate market offers higher liquidity and market depth. Changes in the levels and volatility of returns from commercial real estate investments in the UK over a rolling ten-year view is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1: Rolling ten-year average returns and return volatilities in the UK The risk-return profile of the UK market shows a regime shift following the financial crisis. Also, for the UK, unsmoothed real estate indices show Sharpe ratios comparable or slightly above the levels measured for equity and bond indices. However, one needs to consider that risk-return profiles may not be stable over time. Also, the risk-return profiles of investments may be different for long-term investors, although there is no conclusive evidence that the reduction of the effective volatility should be higher for real estate than for other types of assets. However, the fact that a high proportion of the return is derived from income may indeed favor real estate in the long term. Real estate factor The existence of a specific real estate factor is highly relevant for the construction of investment portfolios based on fundamental factors. Recent research supports the existence of such a factor for commercial private real estate. In order to verify the existence of a real estate factor, I ran a factor analysis for the UK following the reasoning of Mei and Lee (1994). Monthly data were used in the UK. A higher absolute value for a loading means that the factor has a higher impact, positive or negative, on the returns of the index, while a value close to zero indicates no significant impact. Table 5: Factor loading of stocks, bonds and alternative real estate index returns Source: my own calculations. The highest absolute loading for each index has been highlighted in bold in Table 5. While the levels of the loadings are not directly interpretable, the regularity in their relative values is striking. Factor F1 loads highly on stock market indices and on pubic real estate indices. In fact, it appears to represent mainly listed real estate, while pure stock indices are also influenced by F3. Factor F2 loads very highly on all private real estate indices, both smoothed and unsmoothed, as well as transaction-based indices. Factor F3 loads most strongly on bond indices and to a lower extent on stock indices. It appears justified to label F1 as a stock market factor and F2 as a real estate factor, while F3 could be associated with monetary factors such as interest rates. The above results represent a strong indication that the factor that drives direct real estate returns may indeed differ from the one that drives the returns of equities or bonds. While it is impossible to conclude on t he basis of this analysis what particular risks or drivers this factor might reflect, they seem to be different to the risks and drivers behind the equities or fixed income, which should create diversification potential. Conclusion The sections above have provided a critical appraisal of the literature on diversification within private real estate portfolios. For the UK, the opposite result was obtained for retail property and diversification across both property types and regions was to be preferred for the other two property types. The results offer some insights into real estate performance and may offer some input into the determination of a diversification ion strategy for a real estate portfolio. There are two major qualifications on the results. The first is that they are historical results and they may not be a good proxy for the future correlations. Historical returns are unlikely to be a good proxy for future returns and that probably also holds for the correlations calculated between real estate categories. The second qualification is that investors have objectives, which are more complex than just the trade-off between the level of period return and volatility of period return. Behind the analysis of regional economic base is the reasonable presumption that similarity in economic structure and performance should lead to similarity in real estate performance. However, such analyses, which focus on demand proxies, ignore supply or, at best, assume no differences in supply responses across property type or region. Testing the economic base ideas with highly disaggregated returns data is therefore very important. The UK data allow comparisons of the economic similarity of regions and the similarity of property performance. It would then be possible to infer from the UK results whether the proxying of real estate performance with economic performance is valid and perhaps at what spatial scale. Table III Real Estate Portfolio Diversification References Amihud, Y. and Lev, B., 1981. Risk reduction as a managerial motive for conglomerate mergers.   The bell journal of economics, pp.605-617. Ang, A., 2012. RealAssets. Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 12-60.   Faccio, M., Marchica, M.T. and Mura, R., 2011. Large shareholder diversification and corporate   risk-taking. Review of Financial Studies, 24(11), pp.3601-3641. Firstenberg, P.M., Ross, S.A. and Zisler, R.C., 1988. Real estate: the whole story. The Journal of  Portfolio Management, 14(3), pp.22-34. Gormley, T.A., Matsa, D.A. and Milbourn, T., 2013. CEO compensation and corporate risk:   Evidence from a natural experiment. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 56(2), pp.79-101. Hoesli, M., Lekander, J. and Witkiewicz, W., 2004. International evidence on real estate as a   portfolio diversifier. Journal of Real Estate Research, 26(2), pp.161-206. Hoesli, M. and Lizieri, C., 2007. Real estate in the investment portfolio. A report for the   Investment Strategy Council of the Royal Ministry of Finance. Key, T., Zarkesh, F., MacGregor, B. and Nanthakumaran, N., 1994. Understanding the property   cycle. Main report: Economic cycles and property cycles. London: RICS. Lekander, J.R., 2015. Real estate portfolio construction for a multi-asset portfolio. Journal ofProperty Investment Finance, 33(6), pp.548-573. Lizieri, C., 2013. After the fall: Real estate in the mixed-asset portfolio in the aftermath of the   global financial crisis. The Journal of Portfolio Management, 39(5), pp.43-59. Lyandres, E., Marchica, M.T., Michaely, R. and Mura, R., 2015. Owners Portfolio   Diversification and Firm Investment: Evidence from Private and Public Firms. Mueller, G. and Ziering, B., 1992. Real estate portfolio diversification using economic   diversification. Journal of Real Estate Research, 7(4), pp.375-386. Seiler, M., Webb, J. and Neil Mye, F., 2001. Can private real estate portfolios be   rebalanced/diversified using equity REIT shares?. Journal of R

IT and the Business Cycle :: essays research papers

IT and the Business Cycle There is a regular business cycle, which lasts for about 9 years. The cycle is characterised by a period of growth, then strong growth and then recession. Unfortunately, the cycle isn't exact and it isn't dependable, or else you could make money out of it, by gambling on it. Sometimes it lasts 7 years, sometimes 10 or 11. In the later stages of the last business cycle some odd things were happening. Growth in the US economy was much higher than anyone expected and unemployment much lower. Productivity statistics from the US Government suggested that from 1996 productivity was improving at an average 2.2 percent per year, which was a dramatic improvement on the 1 percent average for the previous 25 years. The point at which productivity turned up coincided with the point at which the Internet started to become visible. That may have been a coincidence, but there was another strange quirk in the figures. Investment by US companies since 1990 has been static in every area except in IT, where it rose dramatically by a factor of 14 over the decade. And to cap it all, the bulk of the productivity improvement in the US economy was confined to the IT industry itself. In theory, IT should be counter-cyclical and it usually is. The benefit that IT is supposed to deliver is automation. It either cuts costs and/or improves productivity, accordingly. The figures from the US suggest that it was doing the latter in the glorious 90s and particularly in the later years. In the current part of the business cycle it will be cost cutting that matters. The heady days of optimism are over and the era of cautious IT investment has arrived. So what are the information technologies that will do well in this era? Here's one thought. Consider the anomaly of Moore's Law. This suggests that CPU power will double every 18 months and it has done just that for over 30 years. Actually Moore's law doesn't just apply to CPUs, but also memory, disk, buses and just about every aspect of a computer or network. One would think then, that it would have brought down the cost of computing as a matter of course. However, it didn't have that effect until recently, because most of the accelerated capability was delivered to the PC where its contribution to productivity was minimal.

The Overuse of Antibiotics :: Medicine Health Persuasive Essays

Thesis: With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming said, "The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."With the overuse of antibiotics today we have seen this very idea come to be.Over usage is caused most prevalently by a lack of education on the part of the patient.Thus stated, the way to overcome such a circumstance is to educate, not only the patient but also the physician. Generally in life, an overabundance of anything is thought of as a blessing.For instance, most people would say that there is no point where someone has too much money, or too much time; however, having and using too many antibiotics can be a problem.With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming warned that, "The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."[1]Following with Fleming's words antibiotics need to be prescribed in a judicious fashion, not of one with a careless action, "one third of the 150 million outpatient prescriptions are unnecessary."[2]With the overuse of antibiotics today we have seen this very idea come to be.Over usage is caused most prevalently by a lack of education on the part of the patient.Thus stated, the way to overcome such a circumstance is to educate, not only the phys ician but also the patient. Alexander Fleming started the history of antibiotics in the 1920's with his discovery of penicillin.When penicillin was first discovered and used widely, it was touted as a wonder drug, and consequently was used as one.Though not necessarily harmful to the patient penicillin was used for much more infections than it was able to combat.Today the same practice is observed in the medical profession, however at this point it is due more to the detriment of an uneducated public.Studies have been carried out that show the huge over usage of antibiotics.In the seventies Soyka et al, concluded, "60% of physicians surveyed gave antibiotics for the treatment of the common cold."[3], and by common knowledge the common cold is a virus, something that cannot be treated by an antibiotic.Nyquist

Do We Care? :: New Criticism Literature Essays

Do We Care? Many different forms of critical theory focus on the text, the circumstances surrounding the text, or the author, without acknowledging the subjective nature of literature. New Criticism proclaims that the â€Å"essential components of any work of literature, whether lyric, narrative, or dramatic, are conceived to be words, images, and symbols, rather than character, thought, and plot† (Abrams 246). New Historicism â€Å"is grounded on the concepts that history itself is not a set of fixed, objective facts, but, like the literature with which it interacts, a text which needs to be interpreted† (249). Psychological criticism â€Å"deals with a work of literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of the state of mind and the structure of personality of the individual author† (263). In these forms of critical theory, the response of the reader is less important than the author, the text, and whatever symbolism might be found in the text. While igno ring the importance of reader-response may be justified in academia, it also holds true that without the reader, the need for literature would not exist. What specific properties lend value to literature? Though style and structure are important components and should not be completely disregarded, the meaning of the text is dependent upon the individual reader, and as such, is highly subjective. In her essay, Contingencies of Value, Barbara Herrnstein Smith states, â€Å"the value of a work – that is, its effectiveness in performing desired/able functions for some set of subjects – is not independent of authorial design, labor, and skill . . . that what may be spoken of as the ‘properties’ of the work – its ‘structure,’ ‘features,’ ‘qualities,’ and of course, its ‘meaning’ – are not fixed, given, or inherent in the work itself but are at every point the variable products of some subject’s interaction with it† (Richter 148). This brings up an interesting point: if the reader’s interaction with the text proves to be less tha n what the reader expected or wanted, does it negate the value of the text as literature? And does the educational and cultural background of the reader have any kind of effect on this process? Smith believes it does: . . . there are many people in the world who are not – or are not yet, or choose not to be – among the orthodoxly educated population of the West: people who do not encounter Western classics at all or who encounter them under cultural and institutional conditions very different from those of American and European college professors and their students.

Technology Infrastructure

The question is rather vague so not sure what other devices they loud want to share between the computers that are networked in this scenario. An enterprise level company wishes to set up a network to support several hundred business users as well as manufacturing equipment in a new building. Describe what network device or devices you would recommend they purchase and explain why. Note, you are not required to detail the media or topology utilized, but thinking about these will help you to choose and Justify your device choices.I would suggest the purchase of a rack system with two servers on large server to handle the few endured computers and users and the other to handle the manufacturing equipment. This would give them choices for backups and file sharing between one another. The servers would also help on reducing file and program redundancy among the systems. A few hundred workstations will need to be purchased as well along with any software that will be needed for daily work .I would also install a wireless feature so that the board rooms could have easier setups for laptops and meeting needs. File and print servers are typically combined on one server and perform as part of the network operating system. File and printer servers manage the storage of data and the various printers on the network. These servers regulate and monitor access to these resources. A few popular file and print servers Include: ;Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (Qualifying nonprofits can request Windows Server 2008 from Teachers Stock for a $40 administration fee. ;Mac SO X Server ;Redhead Linux Server ;Bunt Server Edition While Windows 2000 and XP operating systems have built-in file and print-server functionality, the server version of the SO gives you increased security as well as the ability to expand your network. Also, if your network consists of machines running on different platforms, you might want to investigate Samba, a free, open-source software solution that allows user s to share files among computers running Windows, Unix, and Mac. Groupware servers commonly incorporate different tools for helping users scheduling; and other operations.When used to manage email, groupware servers manage both local (within your network) and global (Internet-wide) electronic messaging. There are many examples of groupware servers, but some of the popular ones include: Microsoft Exchange Server (Qualifying nonprofits can request Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 from Teachers Stock for a $280 administration fee. ) ;Maillots Fusion In addition to the options listed above, many Linux SO distributions -? including the aforementioned Bunt -? have built-in groupware functionality. An analog value of intensity to produce the desired brightness at that point on the screen.Further, as the beam scans, the analog value changes. The video image, then, can be viewed as a time-varying analog signal. While many groupware servers offer the capability to serve an email listserv or mas s mail distribution, there are some servers that handle these tasks exclusively. Here are a few to look at: ;LISTSERV ;Lyrics ;Arrow Mailing List Server ;Mailman Also, a number of free Web-based services -? including Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, and Nonporous -? will allow your organization to set up a mass email distribution list free of charge.Setting up a network of four computer systems in my house two are up stairs and two are down stairs. I am doing this with a Links router and Ethernet cable run down through the walls of my house into each room that will have a computer networked. I am using the standard on board Ethernet connections' found on each computer; the upstairs office computer will be the one with the router that feeds off to the other three. All of these will be networked through a home server and will have a tape and hard drive backup so that documents and pictures can be saved and restored when needed.Each computer is running Microsoft Windows 7 Home and will hav e different permissions set on two of the four systems. Wireless DSL modem will be on the same computer as the router and the DSL modem will be run through the router o as to give all four systems the DDCD internet connection. I don't really need a separate router because I can use the DSL modem as a router to since it is a router as well as a modem and can except up to four network connects .Though I like to have the added security of using a standalone router which adds layers, it acts as double protection from the outside coming in. Parental settings will be applied to the one the kids will be using along with a strong firewall and antivirus program. The Ethernet cable has a barrier that shields it from interferences from outside signals ND noise though I will be adding some added protection by running the cable inside be ran the same way to ensure that the risk of interference with signal and transfer will be reduced.Identifying all network devices utilized and explain the purpo se of each in the network we have the DSL modem/router which not only provides the internet connection but also helps to network the systems. Then we have the router which Just adds a layer of security to the network and data. I am also adding a wireless printer so that all four computers will have access to print if the need arises. 13TH Technology Infrastructure unit 6 This depends on whether they have a wireless router or wired, if they have a wireless router then some internet ready televisions have wireless ability.Either way would work though running an Ethernet cable from the router into the back of the television would give the internet connect that is needed. Looking at the Viii (Voice over ‘P) I would suggest Peonage as the service carrier for phone. The phone adapter and software needed for the Viii is normally included with the purchase of Peonage A few popular file and print servers include: collaborate, including email; managing calendars and contacts; group meet ing Setting up a network of four computer systems in my house two are up stairs and two are down stairs.I am doing this with a Links router and Ethernet cable run down through the walls of my house into each room that will have a computer networked. I am using the standard on board Ethernet connections' found on each computer; the upstairs office computer will be the one with the router that feeds off to the other three. All of these will be networked through a home server and will have a tape and hard drive backup so that documents and pictures can be saved and restored when needed. Each computer is running Microsoft Windows 7 Home and will have different permissions set on two of the four systems.Wireless DSL modem will be on the same computer as the router and the DSL modem will be run through the router so as to give all four systems the DDCD internet connection. I don't really need a separate router because I can use the DSL modem as a router to since it is a router as well as a modem and can except up to four network connects . Though I like to have the added security of using a standalone router which adds layers, it acts as double protection from the outside coming in. Parental settings will be applied to a % inch PVC pipe within the walls.

Composing an Impartial Jury & Balancing Multi-Racial Representations Essay

The Due Process cla practice of the Fourteenth Amendment particularise abouts the right to attempt by board in conjure up court. This amendment makes the sixth and 7th amendments applicable to the states. The one and scarcely(a)-sixth Amendment to the fall in put ups Constitution grants a criminal defendant the right to a trial by an artless control panel of the State and leaveition wherein the wickedness shall have been committed. The Seventh Amendment provides a similar right in gracious shifts. The fall in States dogmatic Court has defined, an impartial board as a instrument panel drawn from a vox crosswise of the residential district in the district or division where the court convenes.The framers of the constitution desire to create an independent judiciary and to cling to the people against arbitrary action by that judiciary. The right to be tried by a jury of his or her peers safeguards a person acc utilise of a crime against a corrupt or fanati cal prosecutor and against a compliant, parti prised, or outlandish judge. The requirement of a jury chosen from a fair crosswise of the union is fundamental to the Ameri keep ar be givenment of legal expert it plays a pivotal role in ensuring impartiality. The first step in the sour consists of the creation and maintenance of a winner list from which the jury pool is drawn.This groundwork include antecedent lists such as elector enrollment, drivers freedom, state income tax files, unemployment records, and public assistance rosters. The endorse step is the endurance of the actual trial jury from the pool of citizens. last is the instillment of the trial jury as a non-biased and fair representation of the defendants peers. Notwithstanding the Sixth Amendments guarantee of the right to an impartial jury, there argon inherent flaws in the jury pickaxe process. It is the second step that is most believably to be the downfall of the third.Randomly selected pools of capability jury members do not unceasingly accu evaluately represent the entire corporation. These go forthy-nilly selected pools a great deal under represent some(prenominal) racial and ethnic minorities. The American keep out Association works to promote justice, sea captain excellence, and respect for the law. In doing so it has a natural stake in the choice of fair jury pools. The ABA is the bigheartedst voluntary professional association in the world. They provide numerous important resources including programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.In line with their standards for the ethical practices of jury trials, the ABA has established two goals in regards to the juror reach lists. The first is inclusion of all bailable citizens. The second is representation of all portions of the community, These goals often prove difficult to accomplish in practice. This paper will focus on three aspects o f a process, which together pee the explanation, selection, and empanelment of a fair and impartial jury. Lastly it will summarize these points and then subscribe to up a standard to aide in overcoming the shortfalls evident in the current systems. persona I lays the foundation for what constitutes an impartial jury. come out II identifies general racial stereotypes jurors whitethorn hold about defendants and address the immenseness of combating those stereotypes to insure impartiality. Part III highlights the delineate players in the empanelment of an impartial jury and the habituate up for collaborationism among them during the voir dread process. The report will also discuss placing limits on the voir grand process, including the possibility of eliminating it all together. Part IV, the summary, proposes a two-point ride that strives for both fairness and consistency.The wrapped is to preserve the role of the adversary system in jury selection. This should strengthe n the Sixth Amendments guarantee of an impartial jury. I. delimit AN IMPARTIAL JURY The Sixth Amendments reference to an impartial jury has served as the basis for the broadly accepted definition of a jury composed of the defendants peers. Additionally, an impartial jury is one that will locate the case on the render and law given to them by the judge. This must occur even if they personally disagree with the law.The process should be let go from the bias of either prosecution or defense, and the jury members should represent the class, race, and gender connive of the community where the defendant resides. Racial form within a jury has been a favored method in which to bring about impartiality and the idea of adjective fairness. This understanding is based upon the statement that novelty on the jury enhances its ability to aim a variation of perspectives in evaluating the evidence at trial, that ability is reduced when juries rat to reflect the diversity in the community from which they ar drawn. Although an adversarial process is an essential part of our legal system, the goal of empanelling an impartial jury may require to a greater extent collaboration and less competition at the voir dire stage. A jury derived from a source that excludes certain people based on race is non-representative and thus unconstitutional. Racial, ethnic or other stereotypes can lead to bias and a lack of impartiality among the jury members. There have been several models used over the years to create a jury panel that accurately represents the community and offers impartial fairness.The place destine model and the merger model are amongst them. The Blank Slate model assumes that all probable jurors arrive in court with no knowledge of the case, prior expectations, preconceived notions, or particular dispositions. The court instructed potential jurists to set aside all personal screw on entering the courthouse. However, courts and other genial scholars soon reali zed that it was not only impossible, but also unproductive to use jurors with no opinions available to them, aside from those presented in the court.It was recognized that jurors come to the courthouse with a variety of beliefs and experiences, but assumes that each juror who is selected to decide the case will put aside any biases, group allegiances, or predispositions in order to decide a case impartially. This model was also contrary to the selection of a cross-section of the community, lacking both diversity and cultural identifications. The United States Supreme Court observed, Impartiality is a group, alternatively than an individual, characteristic. This stance led to their approval of the Merger Model over the Blank Slate Model.The Merger Model focuses on the requirement that the pool of jurors itself reads to be a cross section of the community. It attempts to balance the need for everyday experience with the desirability of a blank slate with regard to the facts of the case. This model recognizes that while individual jurors may not be able to be impartial, the swop of viewpoints and opposing opinions in the jury board will result in an impartial jury. This balancing factor recognizes and respects the differences in jurist opinions, which stem from uncommon animateness experience, but allows impartial stems based on the checks and balances of a group system.Much as the ABA discovered concerning their stated goals, the model support by the Supreme Court is more difficult to defend in practice than it is on paper. Opponents of the model argue that the courts can not achieve the selections of a representative cross section of the community. A microscopical sample of twelve or a few, even one that is randomly drawn, and especially one that is molded by pardon for cause and preemptory challenges, is unlikely to mirror the composition of the community on race, ethnic background, and gender. A.The instrument panel The first step in piece an im partial jury is to ensure that the venire will draw from a cross-section of the community. Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote, when any large and identifiable segment of the community is excluded from jury service, the effect is to remove from the jury live qualities of human nature and varieties of human experience, the range of which is unknown and perhaps unknowable. Washington State selects jurors names at random from voter registration and drivers license and identicard records.The use of voter registrations in the digest of other states lists exclusively has created difference. In a majority of other states, present jury selection procedures often result in juries composed predominantly of persons who are white, tenderness-aged, members of the middle and upper socioeconomic classes, and from suburban or rural areas. This results in the exclusion of African Americans, the poor, the young, and various other nonage groups.The disparity created by use of voter registration is esp ecially clear in the poesy of minorities represented on the lists. The sole use of these records is therefore tantamount to willful doctrinal exclusion. According to a 1980s take and registration report completed by the Bureau of the Census, only 35. 5% of voter turnout age individuals of Hispanic origin in the United States registered to vote in the 1988 presidential elections.African Americans showed a higher rate of registration than the Hispanic population. However, in the United States they still had a lower registration percentage (64. 5%) than white voters (67. 9%). In areas where a sizeable minority population exists, as in calcium where the racial minorities together outnumber the tally Caucasian population, voter registration lists are likely to be inherently under-representative of a minority populace.