Alternative Treatments For Organ Failure - 1346 Words

Bioartificial Kidney Introduction One of the ideal treatments for organ failure in most of the cases is an organ transplant, which will help restore the function of the organ. Studies have shown that patient with kidney failure that are on a long-term dialysis have a higher mortality rate than patients with kidney transplants. However, there is a shortage of organ donors worldwide. According to the united network for organ sharing, as of October 30, 2015 there are 101,237 people on the kidney transplant waiting list and on the average there are over 3000 new patients added to the list each month. In the year of 2014, 4270 patients died while they were waiting for a kidney transplant. â€Å"Kidney regeneration is likely to provide an inexhaustible source of tissues and organs for immunosuppression-free transplantation. It is currently garnering considerable attention and might replace kidney dialysis as the ultimate therapeutic strategy for renal failure.† In spite of that, the anatomy of a kidney is very comp lex and that makes it difficult to regenerate the entire kidney. The kidneys plays a critical role maintaining electrolyte homeostasis and body water. It is also responsible for blood filtration and urine production, as well as the control of endocrine functions via erythropoietin and vitamin D. Dialysis is a therapy that replaces these kidney functions by removing the waste products and excess electrolytes from blood using natural or artificial semipermeable membrane.Show MoreRelatedEuthanasia Organ Donation And The Effects On Organ Shortages1679 Words   |  7 PagesENG106 Professor Tiedt Euthanasia Organ Donation and the Effects on Organ Shortages â€Å"The shortages in transplantable organs worldwide not only leads to unnecessary death, but also to grave human right abuses though illegal methods of procuring organs† (Statz, 2006, p. 1).With the decrease in solid organs available, the demand for organs increase and fail to meet the needs of patients facing organ failure. The only options to receive an organ includes receiving an organ from a family member, begin turningRead MoreStem Cells Research The Regeneration Of Medicine. Stem1526 Words   |  7 Pagesresearched and passionately argued. The web page of National Institute of Health (NIH) describes that stem cells are unspecialized cells that are capable of renewing themselves through cell division and they can also be induced to become tissue or organ-specific cells with special functions. Stem cells have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. Many individuals believe that there are ethical concerns with s tem cell research because they comeRead MoreManaging Renal Condition Of Renal Insufficiency991 Words   |  4 Pagesvena cava. (Gbobbo, 2008) Circumstances Surrounding the Issue Gbobbo (2008) explains the complications surrounding renal insufficiency as the kidneys are the major excretory organs of the body. The skin, liver, lungs and intestine eliminate some waste products, but if the kidneys fail to function, these other excretory organs cannot adequately compensate. Severe ischemia associated with circulatory shock, resulting from sympathetic vasoconstriction of the renal blood vessels can cause necrosis ofRead MoreTreatment Of Hepatic Disorders : Treatment1642 Words   |  7 PagesTreatment of hepatic dysfunction:- Treatment goal is to realization of comprehensive of metabolic and stability of blood circulation, the idea which likes the therapy will be more improve the conditions for the renewal of the liver and reduce the risk of the complication. (1) Early recognition of the patients who will not survive with the medical treatment alone is great operation importance for identifying possible candidates for the transplantation. Since the development of multiple organ failureRead MoreTissue Engineering Research 1371 Words   |  5 Pagesin a broken world, people become subjected to devastation and times of hopelessness. Some encounter this through job struggles or family disputes. Others encounter it while waiting at death’s door, waiting for an organ transplant. On January 8, 2014, 120,990 people were waiting for an organ transplant, wondering if they will be added to the 3,381 people who died last year waiting for a new kidney or wondering if they will become one of the 26,000 people in the United States who die each year from end-stageRead MoreAdvantages And Disadvantages Of Renal Replacement Therapy1518 Words   |  7 PagesEffectiveness of Renal Replacement Therapy (Haemodialysis vs. Kidney Transplant) Kidneys are organs which are located at the back of the abdominal cavity; they are necessary because they filter waste products such as nitrogen from the bloodstream, reabsorb necessary products (e.g. sodium and water) and remove the waste as urea via the ureter. The specific part of the kidney that filters waste products is called the nephron. There are millions of these filters within the kidney tissue, which takeRead MoreAnimal Testing. Brandon Sandlin. Psychology 1010. Professor1437 Words   |  6 Pagesrights activists believe it is an inhumane, harsh, and unnecessary flaw in science. The argument can go back and forth but I believe animal testing should not be used in today’s technically advanced era. The laws are flawed, the failures are evident, and the available alternatives prove that animal testing should be indefinitely banned for future science experiments. Animal Testing is nothing new, it has been going on for hundreds of years and has killed millions of animals. I’m sure when you hear aboutRead MoreA Research Study On Animal Research961 Words   |  4 Pagesrights and animal protection organizations. Despite the undying efforts of these groups, using animals in science is a fundamental part of biomedical research that must be continued in order to advance the future of medicine. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (PETA), was founded in 1980 and organized â€Å"the first World Day for Laboratory Animals protest in the U.S.† (PETA s Milestones). Organizations such as PETA and the ASPCA have made this a topic of great magnitude by advocating that,Read MoreWomen With Homozygous Sickle Cell Disease928 Words   |  4 Pagesocclusion, pain, and organ infarction (McCance Huether, 2014). Acute splenic sequestration crisis is a type of anemic crisis, characterized by acute enlargement of the spleen secondary that traps a considerable red cell mass, leading to acute anemia. Patients whose spleens have not yet developed fibrosis are more susceptible to this disorder. The pathogenesis is not well known. The triggering event may be an acute obstruction of the splenic venous flow with sudden enlargement of the organ, which leadsRead MoreKidney Failure Essay1507 Words   |  7 PagesKidney Failure And Treatments By Andrea Sands 6/21/10 Professor Noahleen Betts The kidneys are important organs in your body to help filter waste. Sometimes organs may fail and cause further problems within your body. There are treatments available for kidney failure including dialysis and a kidney transplant. Both treatments do involve life changes and the patient must stay healthy. It is important to learn about your body and learn the signs and symptoms of when something goes wrong

Tupac Amaru Shakur s Change Essay - 1307 Words

The cry of injustice has become louder and louder and those people who are knowledgeable about their ancestral history, feel hopelessness in the midst of this unfortunate rebirth of the New Jim Crow. Their hopelessness is further fed and satisfied by the powers that be who arrange for African-Americans to be unable to escape the extreme cycle of poverty forcing them to adapt the best way they can to their current situation; whether that be murdering someone like yourself or selling narcotics. Tupac Amaru Shakur, wrote the famous song â€Å"Changes† in 1992 but it was released after he was murdered, in October 1998. Tupac exposes the reality of commonly ignored societal ills such as racism, classism, and discrimination and establishes that unity is the only way out. Through the use of juxtaposition, allusion and call to action, Tupac illustrates his thoughts on racial desperation and its correlation to overarching racism during the period of social unrest in the United States and the importance of establishing a united front to fight back. Although written more than twenty-four years ago, currently we are facing a heightened cultural climate in the United States and the relevancy of Tupac’s song â€Å"Changes† is more than necessary. Tupac has become a spokesperson of not only his generation, but current American society. Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971 in East Harlem, New York, in the United States. Tupac was the top rapper of his time, not only for his music, but alsoShow MoreRelatedTupac Shakur: a Hip Hop Inspiration1236 Words   |  5 PagesTupac Shakur: A Hip-Hop Inspiration Music is a cultural journal that expresses the realities and emotions of life in a poetic way. For the African American culture, music has always been a statement for many controversial topics such as racism, religion, politics, education, crime, and violence. In the 1990’s, Hip-Hop became the newest cultural and artistic voice for the African American population. Genres such as jazz, blues, rock-n-roll, and gospel that once dominated the musical cultureRead MoreAnalysis Of The Los Angeles Drought On The Nba855 Words   |  4 Pagesbachelor s degree from California State University, Long Beach. Some future plans of mine are to release a mixtape and become a personal trainer. Some of my most intriguing articles include; UntitledK.dot (2011), 24-08 (2007), and my most recent, The Los Angeles Drought: A take on the NBA (2015). In the following essay, you will understand the meaning behind one of Tupac Shakur s most infamous songs, â€Å"Souljahs Revenge.† Tupac Amaru ShakurRead MoreThe Rap Song By Tupac Amaru Shakur Essay1552 Words   |  7 Pagescan be revealed by different kinds of artworks such as literature and songs. One of the most famous hip hop artists Tupac Amaru Shakur (Stage Name 2Pac), who experienced shooting and incarceration, produced most of his songs which revolved around controversial issues such as crime, drug and racial discrimination in the inner cities in America society in the 1990s. The rap song â€Å"Changes† that was released in 1988, two years after Tupac’s death, reflected the social discrimination towards African AmericanRead MoreMissy Elliott1638 Words   |  7 PagesTimbaland with whom she received her first production credit on Ramp;B singer Ginuwine’s199 6s album Ginuwine The Bachelor. Elliott is an only child who experienced intense personal conflict as a child. Elliott was the victim of sexual abuse by an older cousin when she was eight years old, and she frequently witnessed her father physically abusing her mother. She recalled to Entertainment Weekly s Rob Brunner: I never wanted to go stay at my friends houses because I always thought my fatherRead MoreEssay on Tupac Shakur Biography2090 Words   |  9 Pages Tupac Shakur 1971-1996 Born: June 16, 1971 in New York, New York, United States Died: September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Ethnicity: African American Occupation: Rap Musician, Musician, Actor quot;Dont shed a tear for me ... / I aint happy here / I hope they bury me and send me to my rest / Headlines readin murdered to death.quot;--from quot;If I Die Tonightquot; on Me against the World (1995) BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY With his tattoo-splattered physique, piercing deep-set eyesRead MoreAnalysis Of The Song Keep Ya Head Up He Addresses Equality And Respect For Women 1826 Words   |  8 Pagesblack mother in the â€Å"GHETTO†. Tupac Amaru Shakur was ( born June 16, 1971 Died September 13, 1996) in Las Vegas. His mom Alice Faye Williams AKA Afeni Shakur born (January 10, 1947 died May 2, 2016) was a civil rights activist and one of the only female leaders in the Black Panther party raised Tupac and his sister Sekyiwa Shakur on her own standing proud as a strong independent black women.She named Tupac after a Revolutionary south American Tupac Amaru II whom was a leader of the SpanishRead MoreEssay about The Life of Tupac Shakur2954 Words   |  12 Pages Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971. Named after an Inca Chief, Tupac Amaru means â€Å"Shining Serpent† referring to wisdom and courage and Shakur meaning â€Å"thankful to God†. Shakurs mother, Afeni Shakur, was a leading member of the Black Panthers, a radical wing of the civil rights movement, with support for hardcore ghettos as well as white patronage. When Tupac’s mother was pregnant with Tupac she was s pending time in the Woman’s House of Detention in Greenwich Village for conspiringRead More Music - The Hip-hop Movement Essay1650 Words   |  7 Pageshas become quite popular all over the world. Hip-hop began in the 1970s in New York City where it has its origins in the African-American community. However, because of music videos, Hip-hop culture has become accessible to everyone in society and has merged into mainstream pop culture. Hip-hop culture may not have been as popular if it was not for the accessibility of this new media. The Hip-hop movement began in the 1970s in the Southern Bronx of New York City. There are endless controversiesRead More A Modern Black Arts Movement through the Instrument of Hip-Hop3322 Words   |  14 PagesRenaissance marks the beginning of this essential philosophy contributing to the 1960’s Black Arts Movement and the Civil Rights Movement; continuing to be evident in current forms of black art, such as within the lyrics of hip-hop music. These revolutionary Ideals of reform have been voiced in the lyrics of many rappers of urban realism, like the New York M.C.’s Rakim, Run-D.M.C. and west coast rapper Tupac Shakur. Though this form of expression is opposed by most academic elitists and fundamentalRead MoreIn Our Society, There Has Been Several Issues But One Of1213 Words   |  5 Pagesyears we have had music shown express violence in our black communities. One of the artist that really expressed or explain the community in his songs was Tupac Amaru Shakur. Dur ing Pac’s era, there was much forms of police brutality but he took a different approach of showing the world what problems were being faced. He wrote a song called ‘’changes’’ in the song he talks about personal experience and poverty in his community. Recently, it has been a movement that has been used to catch people’s attention

Power and Politics in Organization Free Essays

Power and Politics in Organizations: Public and Private Sector Comparisons Joseph LaPalombara Wolfers Professor of Political Science and Management School of Management Yale University A chapter for the â€Å"Process of Organizational Learning† section of the Handbook of Organizational Learning, ed. Meinolf Dierkes, A. Berthoin Antal, J. We will write a custom essay sample on Power and Politics in Organization or any similar topic only for you Order Now Child I. Nonaka. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming. DRAFT: Please do not cite without author’s permission. Power and Politics in Organizations: Public and Private Sector Comparisons Joseph LaPalombara Yale University Political Organizations and Their Milieu Organizational learning derives most of its knowledge from research on organizations in the private sector, particularly from the study of the firm. Its rich interdisciplinary quality is reflected in the range of social sciences that have contributed to the field’s robust development. The contribution from political science, however, has been minimal (reasons are suggested in the chapter on ‘politics’ by LaPalombara in this volume). The mutual failure of political scientists to pay more systematic attention to organizational learning and of organizational learning specialists to extend their inquiries into the public/political sphere is unfortunate in at least three senses. First, a general theory of organizational learning is unlikely to emerge unless and until what is claimed to be known about this phenomenon is shown to be the case (or not) in the public/political sphere as well. Second, sufficient evidence in political science—even if not gathered with organizational learning as the central focus—shows that organizations in the public/political sector do differ in significant ways from those in the private sphere. And third, considerations of power and its exercise are so ubiquitous in public/political-sector organizations, indeed they are so central to an understanding of these bodies, that one wonders why such meager attention has been paid to this concept in the literature on organizational theory and organizational learning. The present chapter is intended to show that the integration of political science into the field of organizational learning will be improved and that knowledge about organizational learning itself will be deepened if increased attention is focussed on two general questions: What characteristics of organizations in the public/political sector distinguish them from organizations in the private sector? And what are some of the implications of these differences for the overall field of organizational learning? The Normative Dimension The answer to the first question must be that one and perhaps the most salient distinguishing characteristic of public/political-sector bodies is that they are normative at their core. For organizations in the private sector, utility and efficiency are universally accepted as primary values. Theories about them are naturally based on the assumption that these bodies are organized and behave according to rational principles that reflect these values and not other considerations. This assumption, however, remains so central to writing about management that, as shown below, it actually serves to impede almost any serious attention to power and politics in private-sector, for-profit entities. To be sure, any portrayal of private-sector, for-profit entities as monolithic structures exclusively and rationally oriented to the market and the so-called bottom line is much too stark and oversimplified. Even when this flaw is recognized or conceded, however, organizations in the public/political sector are quite different, so the logic and rationality that may apply to a private-sector body cannot easily be extrapolated to them. These differences are also reflected in the ways in which public-sector organizations relate to the learning process. The fact that they typically carry very heavy and distinctive normative baggage is only one of many dimensions along which differences may be assessed. Normative considerations are endemic to public/political-sector organizations, first because they are directly or indirectly involved in what Easton (1953) once called ‘the authoritative allocation of values’(p. 129). This phrase is a shorthand way of describing a government’s vast organizational apparatus that engages in a wide range of activities over people. These activities typically include matters over which even the meekest of persons affected will argue and fight with each other, sometimes violently. These contrasts, or differences in preferences (i. e. hat government should do or not do), apply not just to the ends of government but also to the means chosen to bring these ends to fruition. In Lasswell’s (1936) brutally unvarnished observation, politics is about ‘Who Gets What, When, How’. Where organizations are constrained or hemmed in by normative considerations, appeals to logic and rationality do not travel far or reach many recept ive ears. Even when political issues appear to be settled and consensus is reached, say, on the desirability of a given policy, normatively driven questions will arise over the mode or method of policy achievement. Because these policies involve things that happen (or do not happen) to human beings, considerations of expediency and efficiency will often take a backseat to normative ideas about goal achievement. In Etheridge’s (1981) words, such normative matters also raise the issue of ‘what should government learn and what should government not learn’ (p. 86). To put it bluntly, learning things about goal-setting or policy implementation that may be rational and efficient but that are palpably unfeasible politically is not only a waste of resources but also a one-way ticket to political bankruptcy. This and other aspects of public/political-sector organizations to be discussed below make for a good deal of messiness—in organizational boundaries; in the specification of organizational missions and authority; in the functional, territorial, and hierarchical division of labor that relates to policy-making and policy execution; and so on. This messiness cautions against a too-easy extrapolation to the public sphere of agency theory or concepts such as principal–agent relationships. These theoretical frameworks may work quite well for the private sector, where one finds much clearer statements of urpose or of means and ends and where the boundaries demarcating organizations, their authority, and their responsibility are much more unambiguously delineated than in the public political sphere. To cite the most obvious example (see Mayntz and Scharpf 1975, for example), in the public sphere it is not easy to separate, say, the legislature (as ‘principal’) and the bureaucracy (as ‘agent’) for the simple reason that in many circumstances the bureaucrats not only administer policies but also de facto make policies. In fact, the fabric of public policy-making and its administration is typically a seamless admixture of official and unofficial bodies interacting together in ways that make it next to impossible to distinguish principals from agents. This aspect is in part what I mean by messiness. Other Dimensions of Differentiation. It will help clarify the above exposition if one considers some of the additional dimensions that differentiate organizations in the public/political sphere from those in the private sector. The distinctions drawn are not a matter of black or white but rather one of degree. In every instance, however, differentiation is at least a caution against thinking that differences between the private and public/political spheres are superfluous, misleading, irrelevant, or nonexistent. The dimensions are the organization’s (a) purposes or goals, (b) accountability, (c) autonomy, (d) orientation to action, and (e) environment. Purposes and Goals Political organizations are typically multipurpose. The public policies they are expected to make or administer will often be quite vague, diffuse, contradictory, and even in conflict with each other (Levin and Sanger 1994: 64–8). What governments do is so vast and touches on so many different aspects of organized society that it would be astonishing if these policies did not have such characteristics. Even where single agencies of government are concerned, their purposes, goals, specific marching orders—to say nothing of their procedures and actual behavior—will rarely be coherent or logically consistent. Not only are the mandates of government normally quite vague and diffuse (Leeuw, Rist, and Sonnichsen 1994: 195; Palumbo 1975: 326), they may not be known to many of the people who make up the organizations designated to carry them through. It is not unusual for such organizations to have no goals at all (Abrahamsson 1977), or to have goals that appear to be quite irrational (Panebianco 1988: 204–19; 262–74). For this reason rational-actor models, in which it is assumed that preferences are ‘exogenous’ to the organizations themselves, rightly draw criticism when applied to public/political organizations (Pfeffer 1997). Accountability In the private sector, a timeworn cliche is that those who manage publicly held firms are accountable to their shareholders. As Berle and Means (1933) long ago established, this claim is largely a myth. If the ensuing decades have changed this situation at all, it is only in the influence now exercised over the firm by some of the rather large institutional investors as well as by some stock analysts. Occasionally, even the mass media may influence what a corporation does. The corporate community’s relatively recent references to management’s accountability to stakeholders does not make the publicly held firm similar to public/political organizations. In comparison with those who are in public office or who manage governmental and other political organizations, corporate managers live in splendid freedom. Paying attention to stakeholders is, like many other aspects of corporate policy, a matter of management’s choice. In the public/political sphere, accountability to a wide spectrum of individuals and organizations is an inescapable fact of organizational life. People in the public/political sphere who fail or refuse to understand this fact spend very little time there. Public-sector officials, especially those who occupy governmental office, whether appointive or elective, wisely pay attention to and worry about many constituencies, all of which are more or less ready and able to apply sanctions if their wishes or advice are not followed. The vaunted autonomy of the executive branch is much more limited than one supposes (Levin and Sanger 1994: 17). In all democratic systems, what the executive does is subject to oversight by legislatures and to challenge in the courts. And the latter two institutions are themselves subject to checks by still others. All of them are under continual scrutiny by outsiders prepared to intervene. In addition, many activities that are considered legitimate, and even praiseworthy, in the private sphere would subject public office-holders to arrest, prosecution, and possible imprisonment were they to practice them (Gortner, Mahler, and Nicholson 1987: 60–4). Consider, for example, the public’s quite different reactions to words like ‘broker’ and ‘influence peddler’—or the variety of meanings ascribed to a term like ‘corruption’. As noted by Child and Heavens (in this volume), the universal condition of governmental and other public-sector organizations is that they are subject to constitutions, laws, administrative regulations, judicial decisions, executive orders, and so on. The actions of these persons called upon to manage these organizations are constrained by external and internal de facto rules, and limitations (Rainey and Milward 1981). Comparable examples of accountability in the private sector are rare. Public/political-sector organizations are also for more ‘porous’ than private firms are. The former are easily permeated by organized outside interest groups determined to pull these organizations, and therefore their leaders and managers, in different policy directions. The mass media (often the instruments of powerful interests in civil society) also often make quite explicit and sometimes contradictory demands on them. Because these organizations are presumably representatives of the public and are expected to behave in its interest, the press is expected to be especially vigilant on behalf of the public. Above all, public-sector organizations in democracies are subject to the influence of political parties. These parties have their own preference orderings of issues and their own sense of the public policies required to deal with them. Their agendas are essentially normative; rarely do they brook qualification or interference on grounds of efficiency or similar considerations (Gortner et al. 1987: 65–9). Members of governmental organizations, even when protected by civil service laws, defy political parties at considerable risk. This exposure may be extreme in the United States, but it is endemic to European and other parliamentary systems as well. Autonomy This condition of multiple accountability, formal and informal in nature (Cohen and Axelrod 1984), implies that political organizations are considerably less autonomous than private-sector organizations. Not only are the formal chains of command multiple and complex, but informal influences and pressures often limit, sometimes drastically, the degrees of freedom open to persons in these organizations. Although managers in the private sector are also not free to act exactly as they might prefer, their organizations (as long as they operate within the law) are immensely more autonomous than public/political sector organizations are. Two additional characteristics relating to autonomy are worth noting. First, not only the goals of these organizations may not only be dictated from the outside, they may also be dependent on other external bodies to achieve them. Lawmakers need the executive branch, as do the courts, to have their policies enforced. Central governments need regional or local governments. A single policy may require the coordination and collaboration of different governmental bodies, many of which are in competition or conflict with each other. And, as I noted earlier, successful goal achievement may in part also lie in the hands of political parties and interest groups. Furthermore, governmental bodies or agencies often disagree about goals and policies. Evaluations of how well or poorly organizations are doing will be driven not by objective criteria (assuming they are available) but rather by political ideology and partisanship. Even within the same government, existing organizations will be in conflict over policies, such as in the case of ministries and departments that spend money while others have to worry about deficits, exchange rates, inflation, and so on. Even in highly authoritarian or dictatorial political systems, such factors make organizations in the public/political sphere, if not radically different in kind from their counterparts in the private sector, then certainly different in the valence of the factors that I have been enumerating. To summarize, the missions of these public/political bodies, their membership, the resources provided for operations, the rewards and punishments for good or bad goal achievement, and often the sheer survival of the organization itself are all matters that typically lie outside the organization itself. Hence, before taking initiatives, persons in political and governmental organizations will make careful internal and external assessments. First, they seek to discover how their superiors or immediate colleagues may feel about a policy or mode of policy implementation. Second, they look to how this policy or mode of implementation will sit with those internal or external forces that can impinge on their professional careers, their economic well-being, or the welfare of the organization itself. Third, they make assessments about what will lie in the way of their ambitions, including, perhaps, their desire to make and enforce given policies. This basic pattern suggests that these organizations are under enormous pressure to engage in learning. Attention will certainly be paid to other governmental agencies, political parties, labor unions, trade associations, religious or ethnic groups, the courts, the mass media, professional associations, the corporate community, and other political and governmental jurisdictions at home or abroad that may affect the organization’s well-being. The list is very long of constituencies that wield enough power, formal or otherwise, to either dictate or veto certain policies or facilitate or nullify their successful implementation (Dean 1981: 133). Failures to perform calculations of this kind and to learn about these things—and at a reasonably high level of competence—will hobble or defeat the persons or organizations involved. The corporate community has taken to engaging in somewhat similar scanning in recent years, largely because of the internationalization of the firm. When managers extend their operations abroad, they come to appreciate the value, indeed the necessity, of scanning these new environments for aspects that are not, strictly speaking, directly related to the market. As noted above this scanning has also been practiced at home, for national and local governments have come to exercise jurisdiction over matters that affect the life and particularly the profit or loss of private enterprise. One can generalize this tendency by noting that managers are increasingly impelled to engage in scanning whenever gaps begin to appear between a corporation’s policies and its actual performance. Failure to catch sight of such gaps before the media do can carry severe consequences. Orientation to Action The conditions described above do not encourage much initiative by public/political-sector organizations. Action tends to be reactive, not proactive, and prophylactic, not innovative. Fresh ideas are typically viewed as threats to a delicate equilibrium between internal and external forces. Few people wish to risk taking steps that might trigger chain reactions with unknown consequences. Conservatism, not risk-taking, becomes the modal orientation to action. Persons in the private sector, and the mass media, lament attitude, sometimes stridently. They overlook, perhaps, that they themselves are partly responsible for the shortcomings that they criticize. Conservatism also grows out of the fact that these organizations are much more tied to tradition and more deeply institutionalized than is true in the private sector. These traits, too, make them extremely resistant to change. Whether legislatures (Cooper 1975), political parties (Panebianco 1988), or bureaucratic agencies (Powell and DiMaggio 1991; Scott 1995) are meant, the length of time they have been around will greatly condition what the organization is capable of doing, including its capacity to learn and, on this basis, to change. Max Weber’s (1958) reference to bureaucracy’s ‘dead hand’ (p. 228) suggests that this type of conservatism is brought about by the very same characteristics that he associated with legal-rational authority systems. Some writers have labeled this phenomenon ‘strong institutionalization’ (Panebianco 1988: 53). Others have called it the embeddedness of values, or norms, that affect the cognitive systems of organizations (Herriott, Levinthal, and March 1985), the governmental sphere, therefore, endless examples show that efforts to reform these organizations fail more often than not (Destler 1981: 167–70). This pattern does not mean that the bureaucrats who run these organizations are beyond anyone’s control or that change is impossible (Wood and Waterman 1994). It does mean, however, that organizational change is extraordinarily difficult to carry off, given the magnitude of inertial forces (Kaufman 1981). The budget process and goal displacement in the public/political sphere are additional factors that impinge on an orientation to action. For instance, not only are public budgets controlled from outside the organizations that depend on these allocations, in the short and medium terms, they can be modified and redirected only minimally, and at the margins. This circumstance is one reason why political scientists who wish to identify the most powerful groups and organizations, within government tself and within civil society, will profile public budgetary allocations over fairly long periods of time. Goal displacement occurs when the personal interests and expediency of organizational leaders and members come to dominate and replace the purpose(s) of the organization itself. This tendency is ubiquitous in the political sphere. Cooper (1975) nicely summed it up in his observation on the U. S. Congress: He found that institution ‘quite vulnerable to the deleterious effects the pursuit of residual goals [of its members] involves. These self-regarding goals] distort policy orientations and block institutional reforms by making individual self interest or collective partisan advantage the focus of attention and the criterion of action’ (p. 337). Mayhew (1974) found that the best explanation for the action orientation of members of Congress is the strength of each member’s the desire be reelected. In extreme form, and in many different types of organizations, these characteristics actually result in a transformation of the organization itself (Perrow 1972: 178–87). The Environment Because the environment of organizations in the public/political sphere is so strongly normative, the policies enacted there are not only temporary but also contested in their implementation every step of the way both inside and outside government. Knowing about these aspects of their environment, the managers of public/political organizations engage in a predictable type of environmental scanning and learning. For example, they learn whether to pay more attention to the legislature or to the executive office (Kaufman 1981). In order to be at least minimally effective in their environments, the organizations involved must learn the ways and means of overcoming the kinds of constraints that I have been summarizing (Levin and Sanger 1994: 66–8, 171–6). Indeed, considerations of organizational efficiency may be and often are entirely irrelevant to decision-making and choice in the political sphere. Successful ‘entrepreneurs’ in this context are the ones who learn how to survive and/or help their policies survive in an environmental landscape full of dangerous surprises and subject to frequent and radical change. The basic knowledge to be internalized is that this struggle will remain continuous and that space for freedom of action will not last long. It is these qualities—ambiguity, messiness, and continuous struggle and conflict—in the political and governmental environment that lead political scientists to give considerable attention to power and its distribution both among and within organizations. That attention remains intense, notwithstanding that power is an elusive concept invariably laden with all sorts of normative claims about to what type of power is legitimate and what type is not. In political science there is fairly broad agreement (Dahl 1968) that power is the ability, through whatever means, of one to person make another do his or her bidding, even and particularly in circumstances in which doing so is not what the other person wishes or prefers. Power and Organizations The Role and Anatomy of Power Struggles Power, and the struggle over it, describe the essence of the political process. Rothman and Friedman (in this volume) note that scholars writing on organizational learning rarely take conflict and conflict resolution into consideration. They add that organizational conflict, even in the hands of authors as skilled as March and Olsen (1976), is not mentioned as one of the factors that may inhibit the successful development of a learning cycle (see also March 1966). This neglect stems in part from the tendency, widespread in both the corporate community and management literature, to consider conflict itself as something highly undesirable and potentially pathological and, therefore, as something to be defeated (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 627–8; Pfeffer 1981: 2–9). It cannot be without negative consequences, either for the theory of organizational learning or for attempts to apply it in the workplace, that such organizations are almost never studied from the vantage point of power and of the competition that takes place to create and maintain control of it or wrest it from others (Berthoin Antal 1998; Dierkes 1988; Hardy and Clegg 1996: 631). One author (Kotter 1979: 2) noted that the open seeking of power is widely considered a sign of bad management. Indeed, the authors of management literature not only skirt the behavior associated with power struggles but also condemn it as ‘politicking’, which is seen as parochial, selfish, divisive, and illegitimate (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 629). Kotter (1979) found, for example, that in 2,000 articles published by the Harvard Business Review over a twenty-year period, only 5 of them included the word ‘power’ in their titles. This finding is astounding. It suggests that power is treated like a dirty little family secret: Everyone knows it’s there, but no one dares come right out to discuss it. One might imagine, though incorrectly, that the situation has changed for the better in recent decades. An examination of the Harvard Business Review with Kotter’s same question in mind shows that only 12 of more than 6,500 articles published in the period from 1975 to mid-1999 contained the word ‘power’ in their titles and that 3 contained the word ‘conflict’. ‘Leadership’ appeared in nine titles. In a sample of abstracts of these articles, one finds, as expected, the term ‘power’ somewhat more often than in the article’s titles. But the term is almost never treated as a central concept that orients the way the researcher looks at an organization or develops propositions about its internal life. This finicky, keep-it-in-the-closet attitude toward power is puzzling. For political scientists, the question of power in organizations is central for many reasons: because power is held unequally by its members, because there is a continuous struggle to change its distribution, because these inequalities and efforts to change them inevitably lead to internal tensions. A persistent quest in political science, therefore, is to illuminate the structural aspects of public/political management that permits those involved to confront and handle power confrontations without defeating the purpose of the organization itself. Is There a Power Struggle? The puzzle of inattention to power in the fields of organizational theory and organizational learning is all the more intriguing given that leading organizational theorists, such as Argyris and Schon (1978, 1996) and Perrow (1972), have certainly addressed this matter. For example, Perrow treated organizational traits such as nepotism and particularism as means by which leaders of economic and noneconomic organizations maintain their power within them. Because these organizations are the tools of those who lead them and can be used to accumulate vast resources, a power struggle typically occurs over their control (pp. 14–17). And because of goal displacement that may accompany such power struggles, organizations may well become ‘things-in-themselves’ (pp. 188–9). It is possible that leading theorists such as Argyris and Schon (1978, 1996) and Senge (1990) have themselves been excessively reticent in treating phenomena such as power struggles within the firm (Coopey 1995). It may be that corporate managers are in denial and therefore loathe to acknowledge that even they, like their counterparts in politics, are playing power games. Firms, and the literature about them, stress the beauty of teamwork and team players. Plants are organized around work teams and quality circles. Mission statements are endlessly reiterated. Human resource managers expend enormous energy instilling the firm’s culture as a distinctive way of doing things. People who excel at the approved traits are rewarded with promotions and stock options. All these practices might be cited as evidence that corporate behavior is instrumentally rational and that the search for power, especially for its own sake, is alien to the firm. This way of thinking and describing things leaves little room for attention to the power games that lie at the center of most organizational life. Thus, making decisions about corporate strategic plans and the budgetary allocations that go with them; defining of core businesses and the shedding of what is not ‘core’; effecting mergers, acquisitions, and alliances; and carrying out radical corporate restructuring that may separate thousands of persons from their jobs and yet dazzlingly reward others would typically be seen by political scientists as behavior that is quite similar to the kind of power struggles that take place every day in public-sector organizations. Behind the veil of corporate myth and rhetoric, managers obviously know about this aspect of their environment as well. So do writers for the financial newspapers, where words such as ‘power struggle’ appear much more frequently than they do in the management journals. How could it be otherwise when the efforts at leveraged buyouts, struggles to introduce one product line and abolish others, and differences over where and how best to invest abroad take on the monumental dimensions reported in the press? It would be astonishing if the persons involved in these events were found to actually believe that considerations of personal and organizational power are not germane to them. Nevertheless, as Hardy and Clegg (1996) noted, ‘the hidden ways in which senior managers use power behind the scenes to further their position by shaping legitimacy, values technology and information are conveniently excluded from analysis. This narrow definition obscures the true workings of power and depoliticizes organizational life’ (p. 629). Attempts to correct the queasy orientation to the reality of conflict and power struggles have been relatively rare. One reason is that not just the actors in the corporate community but also students of such things come to believe in the mythologies about empowered employees, concern for the stakeholders, the rationality of managerial decisions, and the pathology of power-seeking within organizations. Their belief is a pity in that, without doubt, the structure of power, explicit or implied rules about its use, and the norms that attach to overt and covert power-seeking will deeply affect the capacity of the organization to learn (Coopey 1995). In any case, there can be no doubting the fact, however much it may continue to be obscured in the corridors of corporate power, that struggles of this kind deeply affect corporate life its external behavior; and who gets what, when, and how within these institutions (Coopey 1995: 202–5). The Benefits of Power Struggle Power struggle, of course, is not the only aspect of organizations worth study, and the world of politics is not just Hobbesian in nature. Cooperation is the obverse of conflict. How power is defined and whether the definition reflects left-wing or right-wing bias makes a difference in thinking about or conceptualizing the salience of power in organizations (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 623–5). In particular, it is essential that one avoid any definition or relatively broad conceptualization that does not take into account that, in any organization the existing ‘rules of the game’ even if they are considered highly rational and ‘legitimate’, constitute in themselves the outcome of an earlier (and typically ongoing) struggle over control of an organization’s resources (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 629). When the ubiquitous existence of power struggle within organizations is acknowledged and put into proper perspective, when power-seeking (even when the impulse is entirely ego-centered and not driven by organizational needs) is accepted as normal behavior, and when it is recognized that no existing organizational structure is entirely neutral, only then can one hope to clarify what kind of single-loop or double-loop learning is likely to occur. For example, Coopey (1995) argued, correctly in my view, that where the distribution of power within an organization is hierarchical and asymmetrical, the type of organizational learning that proceeds in such contexts will tend to buttress the status quo. Their reasoning makes sense not just because, for example, the learning process tends to favor senior managers but also because the kind and quality of information to which those managers have access becomes, in itself, an instrument for exercising and preserving one’s favorable position in the power hierarchy. In the public sector, double-loop learning is even more impeded and therefore rarer than in the private sphere. The reason is that politics, in both the organizational environment and political organizations, actually infuses every aspect of what public-sector organizations are and what they do. The more important the sphere of action or the issues treated by these bodies and the more public attention they draw, the more difficult it will be to reach consensus. And once consensus is reached, the more improbable it will be that anyone will either want to modify it or succeed in doing so—no matter what the feedback about the policies and their efficacy may turn out to be (Smith and Deering 1984: 263–70). Double-loop learning in the public sphere is impeded also by the formal separation of policy-making and policy implementation, as for example between legislative and administrative bodies. As noted earlier, policies are infrequently the choices of the organizations called on to implement them. In this setting, endemic to governmental systems, certain types of impediments to organizational learning tend to materialize. On the principal’s side, there may not be sufficient time, or technical competence, or interest to learn what is actually going on with policy implementation. The probability is low, therefore, that those who make policy and set organizational goals will ever get information that might encourage a realistic articulation of goals and a rational specification of the means to be used in goal achievement. Organized interest groups are well aware of this gap. As a consequence, their typical strategy is to keep fighting for what they want, not only when alternative policies are up for consideration but also (sometimes particularly) after an unwanted policy has formally been adopted but must still face the vagaries of being carried out. On the agent’s side, whatever is learned about policy implementation that might urge a change of methods or of the policy itself may never be articulated at all, for to do so might upset an existing political equilibrium. Not only are these equilibria difficult to obtain in the first place, they often also involve an unspoken, symbiotic relationship—often dubbed the ‘Iron Triangle’ (e. g. Heclo 1978: 102)—between a specialized legislative committee, a bureaucratic agency responsible for administering the specialized policies, and the organized interests that benefit from particular policies, particular ways of implementing these policies, or both. Potential learning that would upset this balance of forces finds very rough sledding. The treatment of whistle-blowers, who sometimes go public with revelations of misguided or distorted policies or of bad methods used in their administration, is eloquent evidence of this problem. One way to overcome the stasis implied by these tendencies is to encourage power struggles, not to obscure them (Lindblom 1971: 21–42, 64–7). Nothing will galvanize the attention of politicians and bureaucrats more than learning that organized groups with a vested interest in a given policy and large numbers of faithful voters are unhappy about a particular aspect of public policy. When these groups lie outside the Iron Triangle, they are far less inhibited by considerations of equilibria then when they are inside it. This single-issue focus is indeed one of the reasons why even small and not well-financed public advocacy groups can sometimes be very effective in bringing about change (Heclo 1978). The trick is to maximize transparency, to encourage more group intervention as well as prompt the media to provide more, and more responsible, investigative reporting than they usually offer. Today it appears that the Internet is quickly becoming an important instrument for the timely, accurate, and detailed exposure, now on a global scale, of conditions that require correction. The organizational learning implications of this development are potentially enormous. Increased transparency implies, if nothing else, a more democratic, capillary diffusion and sharing of information (see also Friedman, Lipshitz, and Overmeer in this volume). In an organizational context, whether in the private or the public sphere, this fact alone modifies the form, quality, and spread of learning; it also brings about a modification of the organizational power structure itself. Such modifications also mean that the structure and configuration of conflict will change. In political science this kind of transformation, which widens and deepens competition, is considered to have healthy implications for the overall political system in which competition takes place. That is, benefits are expected to derive from the fact that the ‘market’ becomes, in comparison to the more dirigiste state, more Smithian, less concentrated, and less dominated by a handful of competitors who, rhetoric aside, rarely pursue the general welfare but rather much narrower considerations. At the very least, increased transparency and the broadening of the competitive sphere clearly require that political managers develop a set of skills that permit them to meet such challenges and function well within these constraints. New Signals from the Private Sector Something similar to this attitude about encouraging conflict may be developing in the private sector. Gortner et al. (1987) lamented that theories of the organization ‘simply do not deal with the issue of politics, and . . . [that these theories] interpret power as an internal phenomenon usually related to the area of leadership’ (p. 76). But change may be afoot in this respect for at least two reasons. Contributors to this volume as well as writers such as Pfeffer (1981, 1997), Coopey (1995) and Hardy and Clegg (1996) may well succeed in their efforts to raise self-consciousness and broaden and refine theories of the organization and organizational learning to include attention to power and politics. Second, variations and abrupt changes in the environment of business are ubiquitous today and likely to intensify tomorrow. It could not be otherwise in an era of globalization of the firm, in which, more than ever before, firms venture into a wide variety of cultural settings. In addition, managers increasingly come from a wide variety of cultures and professional backgrounds where values and norms are not necessarily carbon copies of each other. An organization’s capacity to read signals about politics and power distributions, outside as well as inside the firm, and to make quick, constructive adaptations to them will represent not just a luxury but also a necessary condition for establishing a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. In limiting cases, this capacity may actually become a necessary condition for survival. Power-driven behavior within the firm not only is endemic to such organizations but remains salient irrespective of the degree to which the firm succeeds in creating an internal environment that is homogeneous, harmonious, and collaborative—an environment peopled by those who share corporate values and a corporate culture and who stress collective over individual goals (Handy 1993: 123–49). By definition, the firm is typically an organization that places high value on the competitive spirit. That spirit is an aspect of human behavior everywhere and that can scarcely be divorced from the impulse to obtain and hang on to disproportionate shares of power. Improved understanding of the structure of such internal competition also illuminates the relationship between these kinds of patterns and corporate learning (Coopey 1995: 197–8; Hardy and Clegg 1996: 633–5; Kotter 1979: 9–39). Increased attention to power (even if the term itself is not used) is implicit in the corporate community’s recent encouragement of internal open expression of objections to existing policies and of open competition between units of the company and between its members. Bringing these universal underlying conditions to the surface may be inevitable, given how much more variegated today’s large-scale companies are from those in the past, not just in technology, product lines, and personnel but above all in the great diversity of markets and cultures in which they now operate. The less homogeneous the international firm becomes, the more difficult it will be to mask the fact that corporate life, like political life, involves a good deal of organizational and individual struggle over power. Power Linkages and Networks Because conflict and power struggle in public-sector organizations are both internal and external, their managers are impelled to search the environment for opportunities to form alliances. Sometimes such alliances are of the Iron Triangle variety, but they are certainly not limited to this form. The idea is to create structural linkages that will improve one’s chances of prevailing. As public policies become more salient for the firm, the firm too, will experience increased need to expand its own networks beyond those that already exist in the marketplace. Linkages with public bodies, for example, cannot be optimized (as once may have been the case) through the use of consultants and lobbyists. Structures and capabilities consonant with the establishment of direct networks come to replace or supplement these older approaches. Multinational corporations that operate abroad, where public policies represent new risks for the firm as well as new opportunities as well, have often moved in exactly this networking direction. One indicator of this change is the proliferation not just of equity joint ventures (as opposed to the once-dominant fetish of the wholly owned subsidiary) but also all manner of other interfirm alliance, designed to optimize, in overseas local markets, the use of firms and their managers who have extensive experience there. In the case of U. S. companies, this type of change was also spurred by the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act a generation ago. At home, one immediate consequence of this legislation was a sharp increase in the number of in-house attorneys employed by American firms. Overseas, it led to a much more intense search for the ways and means of finding arrangements that can somehow enable overseas U. S. firms to engage in corporate behavior that was unexceptional abroad but suspect or even outright unacceptable at home. The globalization of enterprise, the growth of networks in which the firm becomes involved at home and abroad, also brings about a considerable extension of learning methods and horizons, if not a new type of organizational learning in the private sector. The international firm becomes more sensitized to power configurations and power equilibria. The search is broadened as well as intensified in order to identify aspects of the environment that might impinge on corporate success. The quality of intelligence relevant to business operations at home and abroad is improved, as is the knowledge about the location and means of access to points in the decision-making process that relate to public policies affecting the foreign investor. A keen sense that each environment has its unique aspects as well as dimensions that are general to any environment impels the firm to sharpen its analytical instruments and thereby try to improve its learning. Efforts to create a total quality system come to include not just the production, distribution, and servicing of a firm’s products but also the firm’s ability to recognize power and power struggles for what they are and to attune its learning methods to profit from this new capability. Types of Power Distributions and Equilibria Although power equilibria are never permanent, they tend to last for a long time. The reform of governmental bodies tends to be greatly resisted because, even when reforms are relatively mild, they threaten existing equilibria (Seidman 1977). As a rule, unless quick and deep change is the goal, it is better for an organization (inside or outside the public/political sphere) to learn how to operate within an existing equilibrium than to make efforts to change it. Indeed, it is almost axiomatic that, where a radical departure in public policy is intended, creating a new organization is far preferable to seeking achievement of these new goals through the existing system (Levin and Sanger 1994: 172–3). Events of this kind, though rare, provide highly fluid opportunities to achieve first-mover advantages as new networks and a new equilibrium are established. In this regard, it makes a difference whether the overall configuration of the political system is monocratic or pluralist, unitary or federal, highly centralized or characterized by broad delegation or devolution of powers. That is, power equilibria at the microlevels will be influenced in no small measure by the configuration of the larger system in which these equilibria are embedded. Pluralism Pluralist systems tend to maximize not only the number of individuals and organizations able to intervene in the policy-making and policy implementation processes but also the number of channels through which the interventions occur. Pluralism implies minute and fragmented representation of interests. The underlying assumption is that equality of opportunity, central to democratic theory, should also apply to the policy-making process. It will obviously make a difference which groups prevail in these efforts to exercise influence. It is equally important whether and what kinds of groups can bring some order to the process by aggregating a number of small groups under a single organizational umbrella. Pluralism also invites much debate. In theory, when consensus is achieved, it is expected to be very strong, precisely because of widespread opportunities that interested parties have for being consulted and hearing the views of others. Again in theory, this system of broad participation should also optimize the discovery both of best solutions and of innovative ideas about public policies and how best to achieve them. It is behind such policies, according to pluralist democratic theory, that one can expect the strongest collective effort to emerge. And given all of these assumptions, consensual policies are likely to be well administered and widely accepted as long as they achieve expected aims. Within this rich mosaic of interactive participation, organizational learning is presumably optimized, as are the efficacious making and implementation of public policies. There are also negative sides to pluralism, and they are well known to organizational theorists. A plethora of communication channels easily degenerates into information overload. This overload in turn can lead to never-ending debates that wind up in stalemates or paralysis. There may be too much talk, too many options raised, and little inclination, or indeed ability, to reach closure. An even more notable objection to this mode of decision-making is the raised probability that it will produce only lowest-common-denominator outcomes. The need to balance competing forces and to find acceptable compromises implies that only in extreme emergencies can pluralist systems adopt radical measures. Pluralism and the forceful, timely management of issues do not sit easily side by side. Hence, it seems valid to presume that such systems will not work well within a corporate structure that, almost by definition, is expected to be hierarchical and unitary (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 622–6). Monocratic and Unitary Systems Monocratic and unitary systems are highly centralized. If they permit a broad representation of interests, it is likely to be within a framework that is much more disciplined than that of pluralist systems. Monocratic and unitary systems are able to act even when broad consensus may be wanting or impossible to bring about. Participation from the ground up, so to speak, is not so loose or permissive as to actually tie the hands of or paralyze those at the center. Compared to pluralist systems, monocratic arrangements tend to be less democratic (not to be confused with undemocratic). They may involve broad, well-articulated participation in policy-making and implementation, but within limits. They tend to be more intolerant of inputs that are judged to be dysfunctional. They are immensely more suspicious of interventions in the formal decision-making and policy implementation process by groups and organizations that are not official, or not officially approved by the government. The tensions between pluralistic/democratic and unitary/monocratic arrangements are not unlike those found within corporations that move in the direction of empowerment of those located toward the bottom of the pyramidal hierarchy. As I have suggested, this pyramid is not just one of positions and authority but also of command and control. That is, as long as the pyramid remains a pyramid, even slightly, it is a power arrangement governed by rules that, with rare exceptions, are themselves the outcome of a power struggle. Serious efforts to empower persons who have not had very much power, or who through empowerment will come to exercise more of it than in the past, clearly imply a widening and deepening of participation in decision-making both in the making of corporate policies and in their implementation. It is no wonder that changes of this kind, as well as those designed to bring stakeholders meaningfully into such processes, are fraught with complications and that they usually degenerate into not much more than lip-service platitudes (Coopey 1995). Monocratic and unitary political systems, such as those typically found in Europe and elsewhere outside the United States (and to some extent outside Great Britain), accord very high status to the state writ large. Those who manage the state are more inclined to redirect, minimize, and, if necessary, override interference from civil society when this interference threatens to paralyze government. Reasons of state, as the justification is often called, will lead to closure of debate and then to public action, presumably in favor of the community as a whole. In monocratic systems, popular sovereignty and broad participation by the masses or by organized groups will not be permitted to place the state and its overriding welfare at risk. This attitude is similar to the posture of senior corporate managers who are scarcely about to tolerate modes of empowerment or participation that might cast serious doubt on the company’s mission, the rationality of its basic long-term strategy, or the company’s very survival. Nevertheless, in the corporate sphere, as in the sphere of the state, the powers available to managers must be and often are used to end an aura of legitimacy not just to existing rules and policies but also to the outcomes that derive from them (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 630). Federalism Federalism adds another facet to this discussion. As a political concept that stands in opposition to that of unitary structures, federalism implies a division of power on the basis of territory. A much-touted advantage of federalism is that it permits the bringing together, under one central authority, of territorial units that differ quite markedly from each other in many ways. This would include, say, the size of their population or territory; their racial or linguistic make-up; and a wide range of social, economic, and even political conditions. Federal systems represent ways of organizing and managing diversity. In the realm of politics, experience has shown that these systems are therefore much more viable means of managing large nations than are highly centralized unitary systems. In fact, most of these nations are of the federal, not the unitary, variety—even the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China in their so-called totalitarian heyday. Federalism also maximizes the amount of experimentation (with different laws, institutions, electoral arrangements, administrative organizations, and the like) that can take place under a common political roof. This umbrella-like structure permits, indeed encourages, the search for best practice in institutional form and relationships and in policy-making and implementation. This feature of federalism encourages, permits, and, indeed encourages self-conscious learning. In the United States, for example, there are formal organizations designed to provide the individual states and major cities with information about the potentially innovative or effective approaches that each may be taking to, organizational procedures or public policy. Similar information-sharing institutions also exist at the international level. This institutionalized learning is designed in the broadest sense to raise the quality and lower the cost of governmental services. In a federal setting the political center shares a number of powers with other territorial units. Except in estricted areas, it cannot pretend to be the exclusive holder or exerciser of power and authority. Even where in formal terms the political center’s authority may be exclusive and where policies are expected to be uniformly administered throughout the system’s territories and subunits, considerable local variation must be permitted. Unitary systems, by contrast, permit much less flexibility of this type. The central authority within such systems exercises nearly exclusive authority to make system-wide policies, and it is also expected that these policies will be uniformly administered everywhere. Any deviation from centrally established policies, indeed any policy-making within subnational units, proceeds only with some sort of authorization by the center. As often said in France, if one wishes to know exactly what children might be doing at a certain hour of any school day, it is sufficient to consult the manual issued by the appropriate ministry in Paris. The unitary form is highly analogous to the world-wide business firm, including firms organized by product group or division, in which authority and control are concentrated in a single, central organization. The preceding, post-war development of the multinational corporation, at least in the United States, proceeded for the most part on the basis of this model. It was thought that the revolutions in jet travel and electronics made such centralized control both desirable and feasible. That is, these changes in the speed and facility of travel and communication were said to make possible the global extension of the so-called Sloan model of the corporation, a model that had worked so well within the United States. Feedback and Learning No matter whether the basic structure is pluralistic or monocratic, federal or unitary, the need for feedback from which the center can presumably learn is universal. Federal systems, because they produce many streams of information, may be more open but less efficient than unitary systems. Unitary systems, although in theory narrower and easier to control than federal systems are in terms of information-producing channels, are at high risk of having information delayed, distorted, or misdirected. It is apparent, however, that the center often deludes itself into believing that, with a highly disciplined and centralized organizational weapon at its disposal (like the Communist party under Stalin in the USSR or the Chinese Communist party under Mao), it can both learn and control what transpires at the periphery (Hough 1969). The fallacious assumption in this instance is that a centralized and highly disciplined organizational instrument, such as the Communist party, can prevail irrespective of whether the overall system is of the federal or unitary configuration. Pluralism and Federalism in the Firm? A pluralist and federal model of the polity ill fits the generally held image of the firm and of other private-sector organizations. Decision-making of the kind represented by the typical firm can scarcely follow a pluralist model to the letter, at least not without a rethinking of a great many well-established notions of what a world-scale company should be and how it should be run. Within the firm great emphasis is placed on clear lines of authority, both horizontal and vertical. The global firm still tries to instill a single corporate culture so that the hierarchy of values, the operational norms, and the modus operandi will be essentially the same wherever its branches and units may be located. This model leaves little room for pluralist inputs and local diversity. Pluralist democracies and federal systems thrive (most of the time) on their multicultural dimensions. Rather than eliminate diversity, it is honored and encouraged. In the corporate world, much of what is claimed about decentralization, ‘planning from the bottom up’, and individual empowerment often is spurious. Senior managers in the corporate world are rarely able or inclined to practice the decentralization or the broad and deep participation that they may preach. More often than not they use the considerable powers at their disposal not to encourage debate that leads to consent but rather to mobilize consent itself (Hardy and Clegg 1996: 626). In the public/political sector, a key test of how seriously the center wishes to encourage diversity and favor empowerment lies in the practice of devolution, as opposed to decentralization. Devolution, typically practiced on a territorial basis, substantially reduces the powers of the center over the periphery, sometimes drastically. The strongest indicator of this reduction is the empowerment of the periphery not only to make policies but also to tax or otherwise raise capital in connection with these policies. Such transfers, in turn, encourage high levels of competition between the subnational units of federal systems, sometimes creating very difficult problems at the center. Devolution increases pluralism. When hierarchy is replaced by something composed of rather free-acting units, managers need to develop skills that are germane to these changed circumstances. It is one thing when a person’s position makes it possible to mobilize consent and conforming behavior; it is quite another story when both of these things must be generated within the context of a relatively open, participatory, and fluid system of reaching consensus on what should be done and how best to do it. It is possible that the globalization of enterprise will force an increase in genuinely federal arrangements on the firm, a shift that would certainly imply moving away from a strict unitary, hierarchical model and award one that is genuinely more participatory, even if more difficult to manage. Charles Handy (1996) stated that such a change may be taking place (pp. 33–56), although even he suggested that the application of federal principles to the corporate world will, perhaps inevitably, be imperfect (pp. 109–12). The creation of similar federal structures, even ones remaining distant from devolution, requires a new look at many of the most canonical ideas about how best to organize and manage the profit-seeking enterprise. On close inspection, the sometimes spectacular downsizing and other changes in corporate structures since about 1990 do not appear to have brought about radical operational changes in hierarchical structure. In both the public and the private sectors, centralized control of organizations dies hard. Nevertheless, the federal thrust in many of today’s global firms should not be underestimated. In the truly global firm, where multinationality is not just a label, traditional arrangements for strategic plans, corporate finance, and capital budgeting—which are still basically monocratic and unitary in nature—will gradually be revised. It is misleading to think, as so many corporate managers still do, that the continuing electronic and information technology revolutions will permit efficient global control from a single, geographically dis How to cite Power and Politics in Organization, Papers

Capital Budgeting Decision

Question: Describe about the Capital Budgeting Decision? Answer: Net Present Value (NPV) Defining theNPV methodis simple; the present value of cash inflows minus the present value of cash outflows, which arrives at a dollar amount that is the net benefit to the organization. To compute NPV and apply the NPV rule, the authors of the reference textbook define a five-step process to be used in solving problems (Ang and Chng, 2013): Identify all cash inflows and cash outflows. Determine an appropriate discount rate (r). Use the discount rate to find the present value of all cash inflows and outflows. Add together all present values. (From the section on cash flow additively, we know that this action is appropriate since the cash flows have been indexed to t = 0.) (Holland and Torregrosa, 2008) Make a decision on the project or investment using the NPV rule: Say yes to a project if the NPV is positive; say no if NPV is negative. As a tool for choosing among alternates, the NPV rule would prefer the investment with the higher positive NPV (Di Bella, 2011). The Internal Rate of Return The IRR, orinternal rate of return, is defined as the discount rate that makes NPV = 0. Like the NPV process, it starts by identifying all cash inflows and outflows. However, instead of relying on external data (i.e. a discount rate), the IRR is purely a function of the inflows and outflows of that project. The IRR rule states that projects or investments are accepted when the project's IRR exceeds a hurdle rate. Depending on the application, the hurdle rate may be defined as the weighted average cost of capital (McMillan, 2010). Advantages and disadvantages While useful NPV and IRR methods are useful methods for determining whether to accept a project, both have their advantages and disadvantages (Peterson Drake and Fabozzi, 2002). Advantages: With the NPV method, the advantage is that it is a direct measure of the dollar contribution to the stockholders. With the IRR method, the advantage is that it shows the return on the original money invested. Disadvantages: With the NPV method, the disadvantage is that the project size is not measured. With the IRR method, the disadvantage is that, at times, it can give you conflicting answers when compared to NPV for mutually exclusive projects. The 'multiple IRR problem' can also be an issue, as discussed below (Quiry, 2009). Under what circumstances might net present value method be preferred overinternal rate of return method? Each of the two rules used for making capital-budgeting decisions has its strengths and weaknesses. The NPV rule chooses a project in terms of net dollars or net financial impact on the company, so it can be easier to use when allocating capital. However, it requires an assumed discount rate, and also assumes that this percentage rate will be stable over the life of the project, and that cash inflows can be reinvested at the same discount rate. In the real world, those assumptions can break down, particularly in periods when interest rates are fluctuating. The appeal of the IRR rule is that a discount rate need not be assumed, as the worthiness of the investment is purely a function of the internal inflows and outflows of that particular investment. However, IRR does not assess the financial impact on a firm; it only requires meeting a minimum return rate (Zhao, Al Bahar and Chang, 2013). Discuss the possible impact that an individual managers performance criteriamay have on capital investment decision-making. Capital investment decisions also can be called capital budgeting in financial terms. Capital investment decisions aim includes allotting thecapital investment fundsof the firm in the most effective manner to make sure that the returns are the best possible returns. Assessing projects as well as the allocation of the capital depends on the project requirements are some of the most crucial capital investment decisions aspects. There might be many different criterias for choosing the appropriate and right capital investment decision. For e.g., a company might stress on projects that assure for prompt returns while a few other companies might assert on projects which ensure for a growth in the long term. The important aim of capital investment decision is increasing the firms value by taking on a good project at the perfect time. The power to study as well as take capital investment decisions permits an individual as the manager or owner of a particular business to make sure that their resources which are limited are apportioned to the project(s) which would best accomplish their strategically goals (thus they also are at times denoted as strategic capital investment decisions). Capital investment decisions mostly are regulated by the procedure of rating and identifying the organization's capital investments. The company ought to decide as to which of the capital investments that are given, would ensure the maximum value to their business and thus they can make their capital investment decision (Di Bella, 2011). In the capital investment appraisal process risk and uncertainty are viewed as acompany-wide risk. Are there any differences and similarities between the riskand uncertainty? Explain. Risk and uncertainty both relate to the same underlying conceptrandomness. Risk is randomness in which events have measurable probabilities, wrote economist Frank Knight in 1921 in Meaning of Risk and Uncertainty. Probabilities may be attained either by deduction (using theoretical models) or induction (using the observed frequency of events). For example, we can easily deduce the probabilities of the possible outcomes of a game of dice. Similarly, economists can deduce probability distributions for stock market returns based on theoretical models of investor behavior. On the other hand, induction allows us to calculate probabilities from past observations where theoretical models are unavailable, possibly because of a lack of knowledge about the underlying relation between cause and effect. For instance, we can induce the probability of suffering a head injury when riding a bicycle by observing how frequently it has happened in the past. In a like manner, economists estimate probability distributions for stock market returns from the history of past returns. References Ang, R. and Chng, V. (2013). Value Investing in Growth Companies. Hoboken: Wiley. Di Bella, G. (2011). The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Microfinance and Policy Implications. Washington: International Monetary Fund. Harris, P. (2013). Profit Planning. Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Ltd. Holland, J. and Torregrosa, D. (2008). Capital budgeting. [Washington, D.C.]: Congress of the U.S., Congressional Budget Office. McMillan, E. (2010). Not-for-profit budgeting and financial management. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Peterson Drake, P. and Fabozzi, F. (2002). Capital budgeting. New York, NY: Wiley. Quiry, P. (2009). Corporate Finance. John Wiley Sons. Zhao, J., Al Bahar, S. and Chang, S. (2013). Advances in civil engineering and building materials. Leiden, The Netherlands: CRC Press/Balkema.

Googles Strategy in 2009

Idioms dont travel well - Emphasis

Idioms dont travel well Idioms dont travel well When writing anything for a global audience, its best to leave idioms out of it. Idioms are groups of words whose meaning is usually metaphorical and cannot necessarily be deduced from looking at each component word. Unsurprisingly, this can make them problematic for anyone who may be attempting to translate word by word. What might you make of these turns of phrase? Spanish: I have an aunt who plays the guitar. (Yo tengo una tà ­a que toca la guitarra.) French: Its the end of the beans! (Cest la fin des haricots!) Arabic: The sky doesnt throw chicks. (El samaa la tohadef katakeet.) Spanish: To leave Guatemala and arrive in worse cornstalks. (Salir de Guatemala y meterse en guatepeor.) [Youll find the answers at the foot of this blog post.] Talking nonsense Not that English idioms are any more sensible. On the face of it, theres no obvious reason why feline nightwear (Its the cats pyjamas, for our readers who speak English as a second language) should indicate the highest of standards. Nor is it clear why a taut top lip (Keep a stiff upper lip) is a desirable feature in the face of adversity. Every country has its own idioms, which tend to reflect back on the culture they come from. Spend long enough studying translations and you might be able to hazard a guess at the meaning of other countries sayings, and sometimes find the odd crossover. Spanish: Everyone has their own way to kill fleas. (Cada quien tiene su manera de matar pulgas.) English: Theres more than one way to skin a cat. German: From a mosquito make an elephant. (Aus einer Mà ¼cke einen Elefanten machen.) English: Make a mountain out of a molehill. The question is: do you want or expect your reader to take that time? Can you be sure they wont dismiss your communication as gibberish rather than work out you dont want them literally to push an envelope, put a project in their bed or extract something from a horses mouth? Dont make work for your reader And much of the time, we dont even know where our own languages idioms came from, or why they mean what they do. We use them based on the context weve heard them in and out of habit. Little wonder, then, that they so easily trip up international readers. In the UK, we may talk of taking a rain check. But how many of us know the expression is borrowed from baseball in the US, where a rain check is the receipt from a ticket, which may be reused if rain prevents play? Lets get literal So lets not beat around the bush. When writing for global audiences, being as literal as possible is the best method by a long chalk. Anything else just wont cut the mustard. Answers: Whats that got to do with the price of tea in China? Thats the last straw! Money doesnt grow on trees. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Does sildenafil citrate reduce the natural rate of follicular atresia Essay

Does sildenafil citrate reduce the natural rate of follicular atresia in luteal phase - Essay Example The research findings demonstrated different effects on the basis of the amount of follicles and sildenafil citrate, duration and intervals applied on the patients during menstruation, which also endorses the certain impacts of sildenafil on AFC. The study elaborates the reason behind subfertility affecting approximately 10% of the couples (Beurskens et al., 1995), and discusses the ovarian characteristics and challenges. According to the study, human ovary carries ~7*10 non-growing follicles, which declines with growing years, leading to menopause ultimately (Faddy & Gosden, 1966). The research has also elaborated the follicular dynamics and their role during menstruation. Moreover, follicular apoptosis, survival factors, endocrine and paracrines factors, and angiogenesis have always been evaluated by elucidating their relationship with subfertility and blood flow. The study has specifically discussed the follicular survival factors in details by drawing out their association with the entire fertility and pregnancy phenomena, including the comprehensive outlook of DNA in fertility and during pregnancy. Furthermore, the notion sildenafil, its mechanism of action, (PDE 5 inhibitor) as well as sildenafil’s role as an an tiapoptotic agent has been an essential part of the study. Sildenafil citrate has turned out to be a highly effective factor with regards to fertility, where there could be noticed significant ovarian response in the wake of applying sildenafil to the patients undergoing subfertility. In addition, three-dimensional ultrasound, its comparison with two-dimensional sono AVC, and its extra advantages have also been ascertained by paying heed to ultrasound technique and its necessity during research process and treatment of patients as well. Despite the reality that sono AVC contains several benefits in its nature and scope,

RCT Appraisal Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

RCT Appraisal - Article Example The study explores the various support services that are offered within the hospital to parents who have lost their child during or after birth. The hospital staffs play a vital role in helping the parents especially the mother to fully understand the cause and significance of the death of their child which would greatly help them to come to terms with the loss. The study analyses the current services that are being offered and also provides recommendations to improve the quality of support provided to mother who have lost their children due to stillbirth or neonatal death. This is an exploratory research as there is no evidence of prior research conducted on the experiences of bereaved mothers at Gauteng. The interviews were conducted by the one of the study authors and the respondent details, requirement of support, services that is being provided at the hospital including formal services such as counseling and suggestions for improving the present services were collected. No conflict of interest has been identified. The purpose of the study was to analyze the support services that are being offered to mothers who have lost their child due to stillbirth or neonatal death by hospital staff and to determine whether these services are sufficient. To include any recommendations provided by the mothers included in the study and other suggestions to improve the quality of hospital services in such cases. The study design included both quantitative and qualitative approaches with the quantitative approach more dominant than the later. A one-shot case study was employed by which a single group of mother who had the same experience were selected and research was conducted through as series of semi-structured personal interviews on the nature of the support services that are provided with the hospital and their suggestions to improve the present services were also incorporated. As the interviews were structured the quantitative data

Reflection Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflection - Coursework Example These skills include professionalism, networking through social media and brand development. Having a good brand will enable me to sell my personal traits, skills and expertise to potential employers. I will use these skills to develop myself through learning how to sell my personality to the employers, thus enhancing my employability. I will also learn how to conduct myself during interviews and to develop some transferable skills, which include emotional intelligence at level one, self-responsibility at level two and leadership skills at level three (Cottrell 2010). Moreover, I also need to develop my professional skills in my area of training or specialization and do proper goal setting to create a focused target of my career growth and development. Finally, I need to perfect my role-playing skills. These skills enable me to know, understand and master my position in the business dynamics. For me to get a good job, learning presentation skills is important especially during interviews, and learning how to articulate complex information relating to my

Becoming an Assertive Nurse | Reflection

Becoming an Assertive Nurse | Reflection Lorna Bennett The Assertive Nursing Student In this reflection paper, I will relate my experience of an incident that helped me to be more assertive, compassionate, and confident in my skills. I will be using the Gibbs model of reflection to write this paper. Gibbs model (1988) refers to the key processes within reflection itself, rather than as reflection as a process within general learning. The cyclical model, or more accurately a functional framework for reflective study, assumes repetitive experiential contexts and is split into six key areas. These areas are event description, feeling, and thoughts; evaluation, analysis; conclusion and action plan (Gibbs, 1988) Event Description In my second clinical placement, I was working in a general medicine unit of Grey Nuns Hospital. I was assigned to care for Karl (pseudonym). Karl was a delightful 82-year-old male, admitted with AECOPD (Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Karl’s eldest daughter, Lisa (pseudonym) had dedicate her life to perform the duties of the primary caregiver and is an active participant with medical care and planning his daily needs. Both Karl and Lisa had no hesitation in welcoming me as a student to participate in Karl’s care. During my head to toe assessment, Lisa was constantly commenting on what she thinks was the â€Å"best way† to perform nursing tasks for Karl. That left me feeling bullied and distraught, as Lisa was always questioning my head to toe assessment and nursing care. She did not allow me to perform my assessment and nursing care because she was always intervening by directing negative comments about my skill and offered clues on how it should be performed instead. I tried to explain to her my role and the importance of the head to toe assessment, but she kept telling me an expert such as a Doctor or Registered Nurse and not a Student Nurse in his second year should do the assessment. This feeling of inadequacy arose partly because of Lisa’s strong assertion of being the patient’s daughter and sole primary care giver. Feeling and Thoughts Nurses are responsible for providing safe, competent, and ethical nursing care to patients, when conflict arises between families and nurses; building trust through relational practice approach becomes difficult in developing the nurse-patient relationship. I found it difficult to provide care as my beliefs and values were tested, I felt as if I did not belong in that situation and that nursing was not the profession for me. Mitchell (2001) suggests that nurses need to examine their own moral development and the theories that guide their practice. She further explains that when nurses choose theories that enhance their ethical practice, â€Å"the confidence that comes from that choosing will help nurses have the courage to act according to the realities that each person and family brings to the situation† (p. 113). I told my buddy nurse about Lisa’s assertive and demanding behavior. My buddy nurse also talked to Lisa about my concerns and told her that I should be treated with respect just as everyone in the health team and that I was of great help to Karl. I also spoke to my instructor on what had transpired during my first meeting with the patient, and how Lisa made me feel as though I lack self-confidence in my skill level. She suggested that we speak to Lisa about it together. My instructor talked to Lisa quietly in Karl’s room, and asked her why she was so uncomfortable with me doing the assessment and providing care for her dad. Lisa looked quite upset, she said she feels that a second year nursing student should not conduct such an assessment, as we are not experienced to identify certain health issues. My instructor discussed the importance of the head to toe assessment with her, and told her I was competent to perform the assessment, as I was educated in school to do so. I also strived to incorporate a holistic approach to the patient, in which the health care team, family, and the patient can benefit from the best nursing care possible. However, for once in my nursing career, I felt as though my practice was not safe, competent and welcomed. Evaluations. The incident was extremely challenging for me. I thought that I should have acted on my critical thinking skills earlier. However, I am pleased that Lisa had partially agreed with me to perform the skills. This incident has taught me the importance of acting assertively and not to be bullied into one’s beliefs and values and to focus more on the patient’s concerns. On reflection, I realized that I was practicing from the stance of my nursing skills, while at the same time concentrating on not making mistakes; I strayed from my relational connection with Karl and Lisa. Though I tried my best to create a rapport with Lisa, I find it challenging to pursue as she was focused on her beliefs and values rather than the care myself and the health team are providing. She commented negatively on every aspect of nursing care performed by myself. I realize that her negativity stems from her lack of knowledge of medical terms, AECOPD, and the rationale on why care is being provided. Valentine (1995) states, â€Å"This disappointment and vulnerability can be particularly severe when bullying is involved, and the victims of bullying need high levels of assertiveness to allow them to resist the associated stress. Hence, in general nurses use conciliation and escape as methods of coping with bullying and conflicts (p. 145). Analysis During that week of practicum, I felt that I became more confident in my assessment. However, when I was confronted during my first head to assessment with Lisa, I was unable to provide a clear rationale on why I was performing my assessment the way it was, despite being competent in my skills. This affected my confidence because I was focused on doing my assessment correctly and lacked assertiveness when it mattered. Lisa was consistently critical of my head to toe assessment. I had sought out both my buddy nurse and instructor to confirm that my skill level was acceptable. I realized that lack of confidence was not skill related, but my inability to communicate the evidence-based reason to perform my assesment skill under constant pressure from Lisa. That placed me into a position where I looked like I was incompetent to perform my head to toes and other nursing care. Conclusion During, this ordeal, I was able to reflect on my practice, identify my weakness in confidence, and be proactive to seek out assistance from my buddy nurse and instructor in allowing me to develop my skill level as a student. I was also able to be more assertive when confronting Lisa. Assertiveness is a means, which can be used to work against bullying, improve stressful situations, and enhance empowerment (Fulton, 1997). Through a collaborative effort with my buddy nurse and instructor, I was able to clarify that my assertiveness, not my assessment skill level or knowledge base was not the reason rather my inability to effectively communicate when put under pressure, which in turn led to a lack of confidence in my skill and knowledge. Action Plan I recognize that assertiveness is an important aspect of nursing practice and has a huge impact on ensuring the well-being of the patient is maintained. It is evident that my lack of confidence in my own ability when pressured by Lisa contributed to my feelings of being bullied and incompetentence. I have learned to be more assertive after that incident by implementing critical thinking and effective communication. That experience has made me more assertive when interacting with staff, patients, and families in this current rotation in Nurs 277. References Fulton, Y., 1997. Nurses’ views on empowerment: a critical social theory perspective. Journal of Advanced Nursing 26 (3), 529–536. Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford Further Education Unit, Oxford. Mitchell, G. J. (2001). Struggling in change: From the traditional approach to Parse’s theory- based practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 3 (4), 110-116. Valentine, P.E., 1995. Management of conflict: do nurses/women handle it differently? Journal of Advanced Nursing 22 (1), 142–149.