Decline of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW)

Decline of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) Introduction What does labor want? It wants the earth and the fullness thereof. There is nothing too beautiful, too lofty, and too ennobling unless it is within the scope and aspiration of labors aspirations and wants. We want more schoolhouses and less jails more books and less arsenals more learning and less vice more constant work and less crime more leisure and less greed more justice and less revenge in fact, more of the opportunities to make childhood more joyful womanhood more beautiful and manhood more noble. (Samuel Gompers, 1893) Organizations that deal with corporations, firms and other organization for the benefits of the workers on the behalf of members of union are generally termed as union. There are present different types of unions for example trade union, represent workers who do a specific type of job e.g. the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Then there is industrial union that indicates workers in a specific industry. United Auto Workers (UAW) is a good example of industrial union (Brent Radcliffe, 2011). A large number of economists consider union as monopolies in the labor market. They believe that the rise in the wages of members, at the expense of unorganized labor is the main impact of union. These researchers analyzed the negative impact of unions on the productivity, employment, and the subsequent crowding of the nonunion zone. In addition there are present another group of economist who believe that unions have positive affecting both politically and economically. These skilled analysts noted that unions could increase retention of skills and developments. When a market is national or international, with output produced in one plant competing with that produced in other plants, independent bargaining by individual locals would lose unions their monopoly power, as locals would compete for jobs through lower wages. . . . The result would be a reduction in wages to more or less competitive levels. Unions can help in the achieving higher productivity and better management by increasing morale of workers, reducing labor turnover, and cooperation. Unions also help in providing well-organized workplace for better results. This is very much true that unions reduce profit (Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff, 1984). In todays globalized world, there is great need of union for number of reasons e.g. there is great increase in compensation, workers are hired according to their ranks, the gap between labor and management decreases both in terms of wages and in representation. There are present different viewpoints on the necessity and efficiency of unions. The problems faced by UAW at General Motors had raised the issue on the importance of unions in the future and in the modern society. In 1998, a harsh fight raged between the company and union. To remain competitive in the market the companies needed to change their strategies and increase their competence. Lower-cost outsourcing is very usual in the companies. Outsourcing involves the selling off business divisions in order to have a more focused and profitable company. United Auto Workers struggled for the union jobs.UAW were against the outsourcing (Korey Harlyn Coon, 1999). In the United States, the workers who have a stab to make unions are usually fired. If the management saw workers engaged in any collective activities, they are consistently harassed and stressed. The workers are permanently replaced if found in such activities like struggling for their rights (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). Stipend earners or salary earners has started an organization for the protection of their combined interests while dealing with their company and this organization is known as labor union. Generally, in the industrialized countries the unions are widespread. In the last 30-40 years, in most countries, there is large decline in the unions (representing workers). In 1950s, the unions of the United States represented about one-third of all workers but today less than 15 percent of the workforce represents the unions. In the private zone the labor force is less than 10 percent (in the late 90s the unions represented 30-40 percent of public sector workers). In the past decade s the workers union was considered as very strong force in the United States but these days the situations are opposite (Comstock, 1994). The industrial unions of the United States have large number of unionized workers. The workers of the industrial unions have large variety of occupation (within one or more industries). United Automobile Workers (UAW) is an excellent example of industrial union. The most important American automobile companies have both skilled and unskilled workers and in these companies, UAW has separate contract for workers. However, the industrial unions started by arranging workers in the single industry or set of allied industries. In the tractor and earthmoving equipment industry (Caterpillar and John Deere), UAW also represents workers. At the end of 1990s UAW across the country added different groups such as Graphics Artists Guild (3,000 members), the National Writers Union (5,000 members), and various service, technical, and graduate student employees at more than 20 colleges and universities. Decline of Union The history of union membership in the United States has noticeably changed. In US for almost 200 years, the unions (in some forms) have been in existence. Until 1930s, the unions membership did not gained significant position. In 1953, the union membership rose from 3 percent to 26 percent of the labor force in United States and in 1962 declined to 21 percent. The most ingenious and flourishing auto industry, the United Auto Workers (UAW) had faced tremendous decline by losing thousands of members in the 70s and 80s. At that time there were hardly six percent union workers who were engaged in product manufacturing (subtracting non-manufactures like nurses, civil servants, police, teachers, etc) because without base membership is not retained (David Macaray, 2008). In United States (1953), the union membership increased from 3 percent to 26 percent and declined to 21 percent in 1962. The quick expansion in employment in the nonunion organizations (governmental, finance, trade etc) is one of the factors responsible for decline of union. During the great depression, 1929-1933, another half million union members were dropped. The new deal era (1933- 1939) brought new legislation which helped in increasing members. The Auto Workers and the Machinists unions were top ranked that showed largest increase in the members of union during wartime but after the war (Leo Troy, 1965). In shaping the union, the legislation plays a key role. The workers can perform their work without any fear of wages any other problem. UAW played a significant role after World War II, in increasing labor movement, job security, and health care. Many researchers think that cause of decline is both external and internal. In the American economy, there is elementary shift from industrialized to service-based jobs. Globalization has made capital more mobile. Through this, employees got the opportunity to shift from lower to higher wages job. In addition, the political environment favored the economy. Labor law premeditated to protect the rights of labors. Some workers have the thought that by negotiation with the employers they can get better chance of work place. The workers have the feeling that negotiation is better than bargaining. This is because the workers have lost confidence in the ability of unions (Yates, 1998). The internal causes of labors decline are believed to be the willingness of workers to enter into a cooperative relationship with capital in the years following World War II. During the war period, t he unions did their best to establish peace between labor and corporate leaders. The labor also agreed that they would not interfere in the decisions of management. UAW president Bob king said that The UAW was able to win tremendous contracts with employers in the auto, aerospace and agricultural and construction equipment sectors because all three sectors were almost completely unionized, The United Auto Workers Union (UAW) was established in 1935. At this time it had 600,000 members representing the three main auto industries (General motors, Ford and Chrysler). In 1970s, there was great decline in the membership of UAW for some time. The decline indicates that there is great downfall in employment in the automobile and related industries. The UAW was struggling for the jobs of the future generation and not for their own jobs. To achieve their goals they did many strikes. These strikes showed the great decline in the power of the union. UAW chart.png graph1: Decline in UAW membership (source Dale Buss, 2011) The above graph shows the decline in UAW membership from 1979 to 2009. It is very clear that in 1979, the membership was at its peak that is 1.5 million and in 2009; UAW membership fell by 18 percent. According to the annual report submitted by US department of labor the main cause of decline was cut down in jobs (Jerry White, 2010). Union Busting The worlds leading automakers, the General Motors and Delphi (biggest auto parts suppliers of the world) had started union busting attack against the United Auto Workers (UAW). In the past decades, the US workers saw the biggest decline in the actual wages. The Delphi, auto parts supplier to GM, went bankruptcy. The company decided to cut the pays of workers from $27.00 to $10.00 per hour. At the same time, the bosses of GM claimed huge givebacks from UAW. Globalization Globalization is very important in several aspects. Over the past few years, the international competition has been enormously increased due to globalization especially in the economy sector. The higher prices on the imports have been cut down. Also due to increased competition, the domestic competitors were forced to give great benefits to their unionized workers. In unionized sector, the employment declines while in nonunion industries employment expanded. Moreover, the companies shut down or seal their plant, if union attempts to raise the profit of the workers and start new production in other country where costs are less. Globally the auto industry had become very competitive. In the 1980s, UAW responded to Asian and European growing challenges by abandoning any assault on jobs and on the living standards. Job Banks UAW in 1984 started a program called Jobs Banks,. The autoworkers get $31 per hour. Each year $70,000 to $85,000 are paid (for not to work) to UAW members. These workers are getting their full pay and all the benefits without working. They do not care about the loss of the company. This practice of allotting funds to the workers cost billions of dollars (approximately $4.5 billion) to the companies. Health Insurance The Negotiation of the union with the companies for the health benefits of members of union resulted in the decline of UAW, the auto industry. According to the survey of 2002, UAW wasted money as the big three (General Motors, Chrysler LLC, and Ford Motor) spent nearly $10 billion on health insurance. Roughly, each car pays the cost of $1,500 for health insurance. In this way, the money spent on health insurance is greater than the money spent on the steel for the construction of the car. In contrast to UAW, Toyota has less health insurance. Assault of Fund To fill the incursion funds The United Auto Workers (UAW) used nearly $ 1 billion dues of its workers. No other union performs such a pact to fill the strike funds. It was estimated that 30 percent from the pay of UAW member was given to fulfill the assault of fund. Other unions by negotiation with its member full fill this gap (without using the workers dues). Luxurious Resort UAW constructed luxurious resort, The Black Lake Resort and Golf club. The finance for construction was drawn from union dues. The UAW union members are allowed to visit the resort. The labor agreement between UAW and three big automakers In 2007, a historic negotiation took place between the Big Three automakers (General Motors, Chrysler LLC, and Ford Motor) and the United Autoworkers (UAW). Both the parties were aware of the significant of the agreement. They knew that to survive in this technical era and to compete with of global economy this agreement help them a lot. After the decline in membership, the main aim of the agreement was to protect the jobs and healthcare for the members of union. In addition, the big Three automakers (General Motors, Chrysler LLC, and Ford Motor) committed to lower the wages for some workers. To achieve the dynamic auto sales and to boom their market shares the agreement plays an important role. (John J. Lucas, and Jonathan M. Furdek, 2009) The recent economic slump had left bad impact on the US auto industry. The majority of Detroit autoworkers are represented by, United Auto Workers (UAW) union. They give allowances on its pay and benefits package. The UAW negotiates with the company to protect this package (Tony Escobar). The growth of non-union workers in the plant is also a cause of decline in UAW membership. Moreover the cars made by foreign companies (whether in the US or elsewhere) are account for more than half the cars sold in this country. It was analyzed that if UAW and other large unions did not get financial and regulatory support from government they will soon be vanished (Gary Becker and Richard Posner, 2008). A survey showed that only one third of UAW members are autoworkers and large percentage of work force is employed by state (includes colleges, universities and health care organizations (Dale Buss, 2011) Conclusion Union plays a very vital role in both political and business environment. They exit in many forms in industries. Unions help workers in obtaining better wages and working conditions. There are present two types of unions, federal and industrial. A large number of economists consider union as monopolies in the labor market. Unions can help in the achieving higher productivity. In industrialized countries, the unions are widespread. In the last 30-40 years, in most countries, there is large decline in the unions. In the past there was tremendous growth in the union membership but today its growth is not to that extend. The United Auto Workers (UAW) had faced tremendous decline by losing thousands of members in the 70s and 80s. In the beginning, there were 1.5 million members of UAW, which declined to 600,000 in 2009. In the past decades, the US workers saw the biggest decline in the actual wages. In 2007, a historic negotiation took place between the Big Three automakers (General Motors, Chrysler LLC, and Ford Motor) and the United Autoworkers (UAW). The recent economic slump had left bad impact on the US auto industry through the collective bargaining process the unions have reinvented themselves.

The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited

The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited Great Eastern started to operate in 26 August 1908 as a branch office of The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited. It has the distinction of being the oldest life insurance company in Malaysia and Singapore and it is owned subsidiary of Great Eastern Holdings Limited (GEH) and its parent company is Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC). It was transferred to a locally incorporated public company, Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad. The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Great Eastern is Mr. Koh Yaw Hui. Great Eastern was certified as the â€Å"Oldest and Largest Life Insurer† in Malaysia by the Malaysia Book of Records in 1998. It is the largest and most established insurance company in the country with 24 branch offices nationwide and a strong service network of more than 17,000 agents. These locations include Alor Setar, Batu Pahat, Bintulu, Ipoh, Klang, Melaka, Penang and so on. The main office located at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Besides that they also expand their business to China, Indonesia and Brunei. According to statistic, Great Eastern is the largest group and market leader in Malaysia and Singapore with the total assets of $45 billion and 3million policyholder. Among the 16 insurance companies in Malaysia, Great Eastern is the largest in term of assets and biggest in term of market share compare to other competitor. The slogan of Great Eastern is â€Å"Life is great!† and the mission of Great Eastern is to make life great by providing financial security, and promoting good health and meaningful relationships and their vision is to be the leading financial service provider in Asia. As a company dedicated to the people business, it always provides solution on financial planning, protection and savings to meet their customers’ needs. Generations of individuals, families and businesses have been and will continue to be assured of their financial security with the companys full range of products such as life insurance plan, investment-linked plans, mortgage protection, business protection, employee benefits, medical insurance and group health benefit schemes. Great Eastern also offers full range of products to the potential customers whether individuals, families or organizations. Great Eastern offers flexible and affordable group health benefits and protection schemes to both the corporate and public sectors employees. Customers can purchase the products and services provided by the company according to their needs through the agents. Now a day, Great Eastern is on the track to becoming the leading financial service provider in Asia. Further, Great Eastern is ready to be the only choice of financial service provider in the region and beyond in accordance of integrity, initiative and involvement. Thus, Great Eastern has introduced a variety of products to meet consumer needs. Those products may classify into several categories as life insurance, health protection, investment-link, retirement planning and saving plan. Great Eastern continues to forge ahead through the greater use of proven leading-edge technologies to improve their business processes to create a unique customer service experience, and deliver greater value to their clients. On their website, they offer e-Connect facilities to allow policyholders to obtain their policy information on-line. It will reduce the cost for searching the information. In order to smoothen the operation and better manage their enormous customer base, Great eastern has adopts many Information technology (IT) and information system (IS) from the market-leading insurer and help to transform the company operation. Different system used by different department such as top management, middle management and operational management. Every department will used different information system according to the function and operations. The information systems adopted by Great Eastern are outsourcings also in-house development. It means that they purchase the relevant software and hardware from the market most of the time to save their cost and also develop the in-house software to perform the specific job and more easily to meet the business requirement. With the help of current IT and IS, the company are able to perform their business effectively and consistency. Besides that it will also resulted in higher level of performance, reliability and scalability of company and it delivers greater value to their clients. Senior Management Team 1. Loke Kah Meng Executive V. President Head Customer Management 2. Margaret Fong Senior V. President Head Operations 3. Lee Pooi Hor Senior V. President Head Information Technology 4. Michelle Tan Yee Ming Head, Group Audit 5. Koh Yaw Hui Chief Executive Officer 6. Cheong Soo Ching Senior V. President Head Risk Management 7. Nancy Lim Senior V. President Head Human Capital 8. Chan Choong Tho Chief Investment Officer 9. Yong Chee Keong Senior V. President Head Customer Acquisition 10. Bruce Lee Executive V. President Head Finance Corporate Affairs 11. Sophia Ch’ng Appointed Actuary 12. Liza Hanim Vice President Company Secretary b) Explore and analyze the current application of IT/IS Across different levels of management Across different functional units Great Eastern is a company that we going to do research. Great Eastern is the largest insurance company in Malaysia and the business had run over 100 years with the supporting from customers. There are over 3 million policyholders for the company. The company has used sophisticate system to run the business. Great Eastern using different information technology and information system to carry their business day-to-day and they used the information system to manage the company more effectively and efficiency. Basically the company used Oracle ERP system which is Oracle E-Business Suite to manage whole enterprise. The company consist of different departments such as Finance and Accounting department, Human Resource department, Sales and Marketing department and Customer Relationship Management department. Each department used different information systems for their operations but all the systems are linked to the Oracle E- Business Suite system. Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Human Resources Projects CRM SCM There are many systems used by the company and the main information system used by the finance department is Oracle Financials (OFIN). The main user of this information system is all the personnel in Finance department. Oracle Financials (OFIN) is one of a group under the Oracle E-Business Suite and it consists of five modules or also known as Oracle Applications. The five applications of the Oracle Financials are Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Assets and Oracle Cash Management. Besides using Oracle Financials (OFIN), the company also use other communication system and office system to run their daily business. The communication systems used by the company are E-mail, MSN, and Skype. The communication software allowed the personnel and manager interact with each other and the office they are using is Microsoft Office 2007 such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. The application of system and software will change when it com e across different level of management. By using Oracle E-Business Suite, it helps Great Eastern to reduce the cost of automating centralizing global transaction processes and produced streamline reporting across its branch offices in Malaysia. The management said that the information maintenance cost of the company have been reduced by 35% after implemented the system. Oracle provides new solutions that help financial institutions include Great Eastern to improve customer intimacy, build competitive advantage among competitor, reduce costs by automating and centralizing the transactional processes and mitigate enterprise risk and it continues to build its financial services leadership. Great Eastern use Oracle E-Business Suite Financials to support their business is because it can meets global financial reporting such as International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and tax requirements by using only one accounting, banking, tax and payments model. Besides that, it delivers pre-integrated financial and industry-specif ic processes and it makes Great Eastern easy to operate shared services across their businesses and regions. As it provides very consistent operation and financial information to the user, it helps the company make the correct decision on investment and business decisions with integrated performance management and business intelligence. The management of Great Eastern had divided into three categories which are executive management, middle management and operational management. The executive management includes the highest management positions in the company such as CEO and CIO, who is primarily responsible for strategic decision making also known as unstructured decisions that centre on the companys overall goals. Every decision is important and non-routine. They will determine the long term objectives, resources and policies of the organization such like where to invest, approve the capital budget and oversee the middle management. While the middle management of Great Eastern such as Finance Department manager is responsible for implementing the strategic decision such as develop a budgeting plan and investment proposal. They make semi-structured decisions which are short-range decision and will oversee operational management. The last layer in the enterprise are operational management includes all the personnel who involved in daily transaction. They need to determine how to carry out the specific tasks set by executive and middle management decision makers. They need to monitor the transaction carefully and ought to follow the procedure. In this case, the staffs of the Great Eastern need to record the transactions make by policyholders and make sure the data is correct. Oracle Applications is installed and link to the servers of a Great eastern. All the personnel from different levels of management in the company include CEO, department manager and normal employees will be given a user name and the password to link to the server. Basically, they connect to the servers in their LAN by using their browsers. The user will receive a menu to choose their responsibility before they proceed to receive another menu of functions to perform. The user may key in the data or what is happening at the company ground needs in a form in applications. In this situation the applications will not allowed to proceed further if there is any errors because the errors will be arrested at every step. The outputs will be a dozens of reports in a different format for Business Intelligence so that the users can make informed decisions based on timely information and for decision makers; they will understand better what is actually happening. The fives modules of Oracle Financials are Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Assets, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables and Oracle Cash Management. Oracle Financials 5 modules: Financials Assets (FA) General Ledger (GL) Receivables (AR) Payables (AP) Cash Management (CM) Oracle General Ledger Enterprise G/L Accounting Oracle General Ledger is the most scalable general ledger and the fastest in the market. It can post 40 million journal lines per hour and thus help the company cut down the time in preparing the financial report. It is the most important module which is used to manage the accounting and financial information of Great Eastern. The Oracle General Ledger will tell the company that how much profit they have generate, how much expenses they have incurred, how much assets and liabilities of the company. All the information flows from different modules into Oracle General Ledger module which manages the accounting and helps the management to make decision. Oracle General Ledger provides highly automated financial processing and real time visibility to financial results. Besides, Oracle General Ledger also can support different types of journal processing options. The system allows tailoring the chart up to 30 segments and 25 characters per segment. The user just can enter the segments they would like to enquiry then the system will show the results. Another feature of this system is the chart of account will be secured and prevent other people to access and retrieve the private data. Besides, Oracle General Ledger also can support different types of journal processing options. The user can combine journals and schedule the journals to be generated automatically and it provides spreadsheet integration for journals, reporting, budgets and currency rates. Oracle Asset Enterprise FA Assets The second module of Oracle Financials (OFIN) is Oracle Assets which is used to manage the assets of Great Eastern. The assets could be anything like laptop and computer in the company. With the help of Oracle Assets, the asset management would be automated and accounting tasks would be simplified. Standard accounting, operational, and registry reports are available to ease reconciliation and analysis. Oracle Assets allowed the user to define the depreciation rules according to the regulatory and business needs. The company can choose the method to according to the needs. Great Eastern is a global enterprise; the company is focus on the business in South East Asia. Different country used different depreciation rules to calculate the depreciation charges. As the company grows internationally, Great Eastern need an integrated, flexible system grows exponentially. In this situation, Oracle Assets supports complex reporting requirements includes worldwide financial and tax standards. Great Eastern can obey any regulatory requirements from other country by using flexible user-defined rules to calculate depreciation charge. Oracle Payables Enterprise Vendor AP The third module is Oracle Payables which is used to manage the vendors or the suppliers of the company. The transaction record or data need to enter by the operational level includes what has the company purchased from which vendor? When to pay the suppliers? Does the company pay on time? What methods they used for payment such as by credit or cash? All the transactions between the company and supplier will be record in the Oracle Payables. In the Payment Process Request window, it will show the details about the suppliers with the Great Eastern. It shows the amount, the name of vendor, date of purchased and the schedule of payments. The schedule of payments include the payment currency, amount remaining, discounts given, interest due and also total amount payable. With the help of Oracle Payables, it will optimize the payment strategies of the enterprise. The middle management is given the tools to control the cash flow, oversee the operational management to minimize the errors and the problems of overpayments. Besides that, the system also helps to eliminate the inefficiencies with the standard reports that allow the manager to eliminate the identical or double payments. Another way is Oracle Payables provides real-time, accurate cash position and speculate information so the manager can plans the payment and expenses properly. So in overall, Oracle Payables can improves the margins, infuse corporate and fiscal discipline, and optimizes business relationships between Great Eastern and their suppliers. Oracle Receivables AR Enterprise Customers The fourth module of Oracle Financials is Oracle Receivables. Basically, the information for Oracle Receivables not much different compared to Oracle payables. The difference is this system is used to manage the customers or receivables so it will tell the company that the name of the customers, items bought from the customers such as what insurance policy purchased by the customers. Besides that it would state the payment methods used by the customers and the date of payment made by customers. By using this system, it will show the credit rating of the customers due to the pass payment made by them. All the transactions between Great Eastern and their customers will be recorded in this system. In the Oracle Receivables streamlines invoice entry, it shows the name of the customers, address, contact number, policy number, types of payment, amount of premium, due date, interest due if any and etc. Besides that, it allows the company to increase their cash flow and minimize the bad debt through Oracle Receivables system and better control for the manager. Oracle Receivables allows company to go globalization. With this system, Great Eastern has the flexibility to respond to the global market needs, support any regulatory requirements and so present documents in customer’s language and also enhanced customer relationship. With the flexibility, it helps the enterprise to calculate the currency gain or loss automatically so the finance staffs they no need do the complex calculation by themselves and also able to report in multiple currencies. Oracle Cash Management CM Enterprise Bank The last module of Oracle Financials is Oracle Cash Management. It helps the company to reconcile the bank statement and it will tells that whether bank has made error not, how many bank accounts the company have and also what is the status of the bank account. It allows Great Eastern to manage the firms liquidity and control of cash. Oracle Cash Management gives the company directs access to expected cash flows from their operational systems. By using the company can analyze enterprise wide cash requirements, cash management and currency exposures more quickly, to ensure liquidity and optimal use of cash resources. As it provides flexibility in cash forecasting, in different currencies, different organization and for multiple time periods, the middle and senior management can use the system to forecast the cash flow in future based on forecasted transactions for example outstanding orders and invoices that may be create a cash flow in future. Besides that, real time cash positioning will minimize the idle cash. Real time cash positioning is important to prevent overdrafts of bank balance and helps the company manage their liquidity effectively. c) Explain how the use of such IT/IS application can help to change or manage the organization decision making and business process. Information Flow Payables (AP) Assets (FA) General Ledger (GL) Cash Management (CM) Receivables (AR) Great Eastern Finance department had used Oracle E-Business Suite to automate their general ledger and accounts payable and receivable processing, cash management and as well as their fixed assets. Oracle E-business Suite able to help the company automate budgeting, purchasing and any forecasting process include future cash flow and thus allow for online payment to the supplier or vendor. Without the information system, they have to do all financial budgeting and forecasting job manually by using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and it will cause time consuming and the information produced may not be accurate and limited. Each module in the Oracle Financials will talk to each other means that information from one module will flow to each other although they are stand alone software. In this case, the management is easier to retrieve different information from different area. By using standardized software, it simplifies interdepartmental sharing of data as well as information and they are able to get all the information they want. Besides that, the information system will also help to manage the enterprise risk and reduce compliance costs. All the modules will link together and it will provide sufficient reliable information for the management of Finance department to make any short term or long term decisions. For example, the Oracle Financials modules are linked to each other, the Finance manager can refer to different modules at the same time to forecast future cash flow and to control the daily transaction more effective. The manager may use the software to make a right investment decision in the business. Great Eastern used Oracle E-Business Suite to improve their budgeting and planning. The Finance manager of Great Eastern enters department budget and submits for the senior management to approve. Using the Oracle Cash Management and Oracle Assets, the user can immediately prepare the financial budget and forecast report after approved. Oracle Assets For Oracle Assets, operational management which involves Finance staffs have to enter the original cost of the assets, the useful life of the assets, and the most important step is to choose the depreciation method which the company complied with in order to calculate the accurate depreciation amount for each year. By using the Oracle Assets, it gives the company and department more accurate visibility of capital investments and therefore the middle management like Finance manager will has better control over their capital investment. Once the Finance manager inquiries for the ad-hoc report, he may use the powerful Asset Inquiry to access the information he looking for, including transaction history of the clients, financial details, depreciation profile, capital project details and financial details. The senior management of Great Eastern able to optimize their accounting and tax strategies by projecting depreciation expenses with what-if depreciation analysis. With the assist of Oracle Assets, it drives better decision making and able to optimized business processes at lowest cost. Oracle Cash Management For oracle Cash Management, the operational management will enter all the past transaction data into Oracle Cash Management for example the cash inflow and cash outflow then the system will calculate the net cash flow. The middle management they only enter the duration they going to forecast for example 3 months from now, they also need to choose the forecast currency then the system will do the calculation and forecast the future cash flow of the company. The Finance manager can base on the forecasted result and decide how to allocate the cash and how much to invest in which area to maximize the revenue of company. The user can do their budgeting and forecasting without rely on the hard copy report, because all the data will easily and quickly turns up on time which will increase the accuracy of forecast. It will also make sure the accurate information of the company’s assets between Finance department and line of business will help the manager make better decision on budgeti ng. Without the assist of the system, it may take up to 2 weeks to make the report available to the manager. After preparing the budget and forecast report, it will helps the Finance manager to have an clearer picture on how to allocate the funds in different area of investments such as shares market, bond, unit trust or deposits. In addition, Oracle Cash Management can build a cash forecast based on forecasted transactions like outstanding order and invoices. With this, the user in Finance department can analysis the past transactions from the customers and suppliers such as receipt and past payments into future. Once the budget and forecast report was approved, the budget data will be upload into Oracle General Ledger for combination. After that the budget is ready to use by the Finance department. Besides that, the month-end report also can be created within a day allowed the faster response to inquiry by the Finance manager. Oracle General Ledger Finance department staffs are using Oracle General Ledger and Oracle Cash Management to done their day-to-day business transaction include oversee the invoicing, budgeting and also company cash flow. The Oracle applications are integrated with each other, it makes the financial information more stable and reliable and stored in a single database. It gives the higher visibility to the manager into financial matters. Basically the manager will have confident in making any financial decisions because the data provided is accurate and is the latest one considered as up-to-date data. Operational management in Great Eastern Finance department used the Oracle General Ledger to enter the daily accounting transaction. The finance staffs just need to enter the correct data such as the premium amount; expenses and amount claim from policyholders then the system will help them to perform the task. Since the system performs the task in automated way, it will minimize the error make by people and increase the efficiency. For middle management, they will oversee the operational level. Since Oracle General Ledger provides flexible chart of accounts and reporting structures, the finance department manager can based on the report and make the decision. Oracle General Ledger allows the middle management to have a complete control and flexibility to design their own chart of accounts. They need to know the amount of insurance premium delay or accrue by the policyholders and send the notifications to reminder them to pay off. Furthermore, they can control the budget and expenses made by the department based on the accounting record. Oracle General Ledger also provides flexibility to the management level to response to their inquiry. The manager only enters the segment they want then the system will show the result to manager. From the result, the manager will know the balance of the account, the amount paid to the suppliers and received from customers. The senior management use Oracle General Ledger to check on the profitability revenue growth of the Great Eastern. The CEO of the company can use the system to check the balance each month because the system provides the feature of automated month-end close processing. It allows the senior management to optimize the use of resources they have such as, cash, assets and budget to generate more income for company in future. From the accounting record, Finance department will know the profitability revenue growth in the past; it will help the company to make better decision in the future and fully utilize the resources that the company has to generate higher revenue by referring to the accounting record produced by Oracle General Ledger. Oracle General Ledger’s Financial Statement Generator (FSG) improves the precisely and timeliness of financial reporting. FSG supports many output options includes PDF, HTML, text and spreadsheet outputs. In addition, the staffs are allowed to create quality reports by defining the report layouts using word processing application and leveraging formatting features like change the font size, colour and adding logo. Oracle Receivables Oracle Receivables is a module which enables the Finance department to manage all the transaction made by the customers. The staffs have to enter the information of the customers like name, policy number, date, types of purchases and amount of purchases in order to reduce the error. Oracle Receivables will do calculation with data, determine the premium amount need to pay by the policyholders and calculate the interest due if the policyholders failed to pay the premium on time. The task will be automated so it will help to reduce the personal error and provide more accurate and timely data. Based on this system, the operational management will send the notification letter to the customers and tell the customers when they need to pay the premium. Basically the information from this system will flow to Microsoft Office- Microsoft Word in preparing the notification for customers. In order to optimize customer relationships with the company and provide strategic information, Oracle Receivables allows the finance staffs to streamline invoicing and receipt. The data enter will be saved in the database and easy for user to retrieve data next time. In addition, it will let the management know the credit rating of the customers and so they will always focus on the loyal customers once they introduce new product. With the assist of Oracle Receivables, the middle management know who is unlikely to make payment on time and they will find out the solutions try to enhanced the relationship between the customers with enterprise and reducing the time and effort required to process customer payments thus resolve disputes. By using Oracle Receivables, the senior management of the company can provides variety of convenient payments to the customers to make payment like using credit card, debit card, check or cash. This will encourage timely payment and reduce their day sales outstanding (DSO). Oracle Payables Oracle Payables are deal with the transaction for suppliers. By using this system, it will tell the company when they should pay to the suppliers. Oracle Payables will show the amount, date and the name of person or organization that the company should pay on time in order to maintain a good credit rating and trustworthily form the creditor. With the help of Oracle Payables, it will optimize the payment strategies of the enterprise. The middle management is given the tools to control the cash flow, oversee the operational management to minimize the errors and the problems of overpayments. The management level can based on this system decide what types of payment they should pay first and what the payment method is. This system supports shared services functionality which promotes best practice for Great Eastern. Besides that, Oracle Payables also provide full scale support for Great Eastern including foreign currency transactions and also future date payment. So in overall, Oracle Payables can improves the margins, infuse corporate and fiscal discipline, and optimizes business relationships between Great Eastern and their suppliers. Office and communication system For Office Automation System (OAS), Great Eastern Finance department using Microsoft Office 2007 in perform their daily business. It is designed to increase the productivity of data workers in the office by supporting the coordinating and communicating activities of the typical office. The most common office tools used by the finance staffs are Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The staffs are using Microsoft Word to prepare the report and letter or document required by the manager. Basically, the financial report of Oracle Financials will link to Microsoft Word and PDF directly so the staffs no need to prepare again the report by their own. The Finance staffs use Microsoft Excel to do some simple calculation such as the total premium amount paid by the customers, the monthly collection, interest payment and etc. Besides that, they also used Microsoft PowerPoint when there is a meeting of the department. The presenter will show the slides by using Microsoft PowerPoint to make it mor e interesting. Besides that, the company also uses communication software in order to communicate with each level of the department. The most common communication way is to use E-mail. Each staffs in the company from lowest to top management are given their own E-mail address for internal use and external use. For the internal use, the colleague can send the document, notice or information through E-mail to a

Ireland Essay -- essays research papers

Ireland   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ireland is a small island first settled in early 6000BC. It’s located to the west of Europe close to Great Britain. Through history Ireland has had many different influences and has been occupied by different types of people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the early years, the Celtic people known as Gaels settled Ireland. This was sometime between 600 and 150BC. Gaelic people had many small kingdoms that were separated yet they all shared the common language of Gaelic. The Brehons kept order throughout Ireland, these were men that kept peace and made sure common rules and laws were followed. This system of independent ruling worked longer in Ireland than in other parts of Europe because nobody tried to conquer Ireland therefore there was no outside influence. During the Medieval time period in Ireland came the development of Celtic Christianity, they introduced St. Patrick into their religion. The Tuath(150 small kingdoms in Ireland) still remained and continued to function without European influence. The dark ages of Europe were the golden ages of Ireland. During this time period Ireland sent St. Columba and St. Columban into Europe, many manuscripts and books were written and religious arts and artistic achieve ments took place. In 1014the Irish Tuath formed an alliance against the invading Vikings and won. Brian Boru who was a king of one of the Tuatha kingdoms led the alliance. In 1171 England began its conquest to establish a co...

Matching You with Your Mate :: essays research papers

Is it really better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? Some of the couples today make that statement seem to be the ultimate truth and others make it questionable. Some appear to be perfect for each other, and others can cause you to wonder just what it is that they have in common. From a girl’s point of view, there are many different types of boyfriends with various behaviors out there. Some go for the typical shy guy, others for the ticking time bomb, the twenty-four seven frisky friend, the little puppy its way, or even the searched for soul mate. Just to think that the next guy you meet may turn out to be just the opposite of what you’re looking for creates a risk that no girl can seem to refuse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The guy sitting next to you in your summer English class appears to be your typical shy guy because he never has much to say. Imagine yourself a month from now dating him and picture how he’d be as a boyfriend. Now you’re not only spending time in the classroom, but you’re also devoting and sharing everything you have with him. You find yourself waiting for the moment for him to come out of his shell, but it just never seems to come. This proves that the shy guy never really changes much over a period of time, relationship or not. There will always be an awkward moment of silence with him that may cause things in the relationship to become a little unsteady. For example, when you both attend your company’s annual picnic, he comes off as being an unsociable date that seems to be attached to your hip because he never makes the effort to converse in your conversation nor his own. For some people a shy guy isn’t so bad, but for those who are looking for a long-lasting relationship, it’s not recommended.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Moving up a step or two from the shy guy brings you to the ticking time bomb that some girls just can’t seem to get enough of. These are the guys that make it hard for you to take them out because it’s unpredictable when that bomb that you’re holding hands with will go off. Fortunately for these guys, some girls will put up with the edginess that these easily irritated guys seem to possess.

Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap: Sandro Botticelli :: essays research papers

Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap Sandro Botticelli, real name Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, was one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His work, Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap, captures his highly personalized style. He is known for his execution and precise use of lines to portray objects realistically. The Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap will be the source of our discussion, but first a background of Sandro Botticelli’s artistic relations is necessary. Botticelli was born in Florence Italy (1445-1510) and worked as an apprentice to a goldsmith early in his career. He then served as an apprentice to the painter Fra Fillippo Lippi. After working with Lippi, Botticelli developed his sense of line working with Andrea del Verrocchio. By 1470 he had his own workshop, where he spent most of his time producing pieces for the Medici family. It was through the Medici family that Botticelli was influenced by Christian Neoplatonism, which exemplified Christian views. From this point Botticelli developed such works as the Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap. The painting, which is quite simple in nature, depicts nothing more than the bust of a teenage boy with a red hat on. The boy is uniquely outlined on each side with the right side of his body gently fading into a black backdrop and the left having a sharp and precise line separating him from the black. As the viewer may notice, the young man does not pose any facial gesture which may depict emotion. It is therefore almost impossible to know the feelings of Botticelli’s subject. Many feel that Botticelli was merely documenting the boy’s physical appearance without evoking feeling from his viewers. Botticelli also used much more detail on his face than he did on the clothing of the young man, which supports that it is a portrait. He uses tones of red from the sharp hat to the tones of his skin. A brown color is used to unify his hair, lips, and eyes. The boy’s wardrobe also includes a jacket typical of the time period. In a more in depth look at the portrait, o ne may notice that it shades from a rich red color at the top to a dark brown color at the bottom. The light source shines from the left side of the picture while it brightens the right side of the young man’s body.

The Scope Of Computing And Information Technology Developments Education Essay

Calculating and information engineering is a really dynamic, invariably germinating country with advanced applications emerging on a day-to-day footing. Some like the World Wide Web have led to rapid planetary acceptance and cardinal alterations in the manner people do concern and carry on their lives. These developments are frequently represented, peculiarly in the popular media, as the consequence of great penetrations or flashes of inspiration. The fact that these penetrations by and large occur to people who have spent considerable clip in painstaking systematic survey and probe is less by and large appreciated. It is hence of import that pupils shiping on a calling as computer science and IT professionals are given a clear apprehension of these developments in their socio-economic, historical and ethical context along with a house foundation in the cardinal professional accomplishments that will assist them lend efficaciously to its hereafter development. This unit aims to suppl y anchoring in cardinal professional based accomplishments such as the comprehension, analysis, rating, and recording of information, information determined decision-making, and the design of appraising probes in the context of some of the most exciting current developments in calculating and IT. The importance of professionalism, honestness, unity, equity, due attention, and attending to item is emphasised throughout. Purposes of the Unit The purpose of this unit is to present pupils of the range and scope of calculating and information engineering developments and give them an apprehension of the basic rules, cognition, tools and techniques necessary for the development of professional self-managed pattern in calculating and information engineering and to supply the support and counsel that will enable them to aquire assurance in planning and pull offing their work both separately and jointly as portion of a group. The accent of the unit will be on understanding calculating and information engineering as a professional subject with the regard of, and duties to, the general populace, relevant governments and the profession. Equally good as developing apprehension of personal and group direction skills the unit will supply experience in their application by presenting pupils to the rudimentss of systematic probes, informations aggregation, analysis, rating and presentation. Specifically, the unit aims to: aˆ? provide pupils with a wide cognition of the range of the field and its current developments and their socio-economic, historical and ethical context ; aˆ? give pupils a general grasp of the value of criterions and experience in interpretation, using and measuring conformity to peculiar criterions ; aˆ? familiarise pupils with techniques for efficaciously pull offing squad and group based work ; aˆ? aid pupils get liberty in pull offing their ain acquisition and supply experience in techniques of personal clip direction ; aˆ? introduce the basic constructs of systematic probe and job resolution ; aˆ? assist pupils in understanding computer science and information engineering within its socio-economic, historical and ethical context. aˆ? explain the importance of academic unity and how to guarantee that their ain work avoids charges of misconduct Learning Results Knowledge and Understanding Having successfully completed the unit, pupils will be able to show cognition and apprehension of: Socio-economic, historical and ethical context of calculating and information engineering ; The design, analysis and rating of systematic probes ; Academic and professional unity. Intellectual Skills Having completed this unit, pupils will be able to: Evaluate paperss in footings of their intent, construction and manner ; Pose appraising inquiries and invent just agencies for proving them ; Assess the veracity of information in a assortment of signifiers ; Set particular, mensurable, accomplishable, relevant and clip related marks separately and in groups ; Practical Skills Having completed this unit, pupils will be able to: Develop certification in conformity with a given house manner. Present informations and statistics to efficaciously convey information ; Interpret the degree of assurance informations provide for a hypothesis ; Movable Skills Having completed this unit, pupils will be able to: Demonstrate organizational and clip direction accomplishments ; Work with others to accomplish common ends Efficaciously present fresh thoughts to an audience of their equals ; Take effectual notes from spoken and written presentations ; Keep a portfolio that efficaciously records indispensable information related to their survey and pattern. Appraisal of the Unit Weekly Lecture Reflections and semester 1 accomplishments activities ( 36 Markss ) Students will enter their contemplations from the CCP lectures throughout the semester utilizing the templet provided. This will be looked at on a regular basis by the coach. Students will be expected to grounds completion of specific tutorial activities from the CCP and other units in their portfolio. Brooding Commentary ( 12 Markss ) . Students will be expected to reflect on their strengths and failings and place their short/medium/long term ends and how they have been able to accomplish them, to day of the month. Marks will be awarded for the critical rating of their advancement and personal development for semester 1. Integrated appraisal ( 15 Markss ) this constituent will be assessed as portion of the incorporate appraisal in hebdomads 13, 14 & A ; 15. Personal Development Plan ( 12 Markss ) . The pupil will get down a personal development program at the start of the unit, and the coach will discourse it sporadically throughout the unit with the pupil. It will be assessed sporadically throughout the two semesters. Group Report and Presentation in little groups ( 25 Markss ) . Students will be formed into groups and carry on an probe into a given subject and compose a formal study, every bit good as give a presentation on the subject that they have investigated utilizing techniques introduced in the unit. Feedback Feedback will usually be given to pupils 15 working yearss after the entry of an assignment. Introduction to Analyzing the Unit of measurement Overview of the Main Content Finding relevant beginnings of information in the library and on the cyberspace Analysis and rating of papers architectures and manners Comprehending, analyzing and measuring documental beginnings of information Effective note taking and journal maintaining Techniques for personal planning and clip direction Group work direction techniques – consensus edifice, goal-setting, guaranting committedness and conformity covering with struggle Asking appraising inquiries and finding a just trial Planing questionnaires and interviews Analysis of questionnaire informations Effective presentation of informations and information Academic unity, house manner, mentioning and referencing of beginnings Overview of Types of Classes There will be a one hr talk followed by a two hr tutorial in semester one and two hr tutorials in semester two with some one hr talks. Lectures will chiefly concentrate on presenting pupils to some of the broader issues in calculating and information engineering and will besides move as a ‘laboratory ‘ in which pupils can experiment with developing effectual note taking accomplishments. Tutorial clip will be divided between working on single and group undertakings, exercisings and whole category activities and one-to-one support Sessionss with the coach. Students will be encouraged to develop a personal development program and single support Sessionss will be organised around these programs. Importance of Student Self-Managed Learning Time The unit introduces a figure of techniques and accomplishments based exercisings that need to be practised on a regular footing for the pupil to be able develop competency and go skilled practicians. It is of import that pupils pattern these techniques in all their acquisition throughout the hebdomad. The personal development planning and one-to-one support Sessionss with there coach will assist pupils be after and pull off their clip efficaciously. Employability Professional behavior is cardinal to gaining the regard of employers and co-workers and the basic accomplishments and good wonts developed in this unit are extremely regarded by employers. In peculiar, being able to pull off their ain clip and work efficaciously in groups and squads is often cited by employers as an of import differentiator when choosing staff. Bing able to show competency in these countries therefore clearly improves a pupil ‘s opportunities of gaining and retaining good employment chances. The Programme of Teaching, Learning and AssessmentWeek Get downingSemester Week NumberLectureAppraisal Points27 Sep 2010 1Introduction to the unitProfessionalismSemester 1 Begins04 Oct 2010 2 Library Information Skills 11 Oct 2010 3 Personal Development Planning 18 Oct 2010 4 Can my electric refrigerator talk to my rinsing machine? 25 Oct 2010 5 Identifying your accomplishmentsPDP reappraisal by coachs01 Nov 2010 6 Learning Manners 08 Nov 2010 7 Note-taking & A ; analyzing 15 Nov 2010 8 Assuring Academic & A ; Professional Integrity 22 Nov 2010 9 Critical ReviewPDP reappraisal by coachs29 Nov 2010 10 Effective Writing 06 Dec 2010 11 CV Preparation 13 Dec 2010 12 CommunicationReflection & A ; Activities20 Dec 2010 27 Dec 2010 03 Jan 2011Christmas holiday10 Jan 2011 13 Integrative Assignment 17 Jan 2011 14 Integrative Assignment 24 Jan 2011 15 Integrative AssignmentSemester 1 terminals31 Jan 2011 1 Integrative AssignmentSemester 2 Begins07 Feb 2011 2 Assuring Academic & A ; Professional IntegrityGroup Work hand-out14 Feb 2011 3 Report WritingPDP reappraisal by coachs21 Feb 2011 4 Making the most of your clip at University 28 Feb 2011 5 Importance of p/time and impermanent work 07 Mar 2011 6 Puting it all together ( using for occupations ) 14 Mar 2011 7 Placements 21 Mar 2011 8 28 Mar 2011 9PDP reappraisal by coachs04 Apr 2011 10 11 Apr 2011 18 Apr 2011 25 Apr 2011Easter Vacation02 May 2011 11 Bank Holiday Monday 09 May 2011 12Group Work Presentations16 May 2011 13PDP Hand-in23 May 2011 14 Semester 2 tests, hebdomad 1 30 May 2011 Recess Week 06 June 2011 15 Semester 2 tests, hebdomad 2 REMEMBER – Your coach on this unit is besides your personal coach for the first and 2nd old ages of your class.Hand OutHand InMarksTimeDescriptionS1W1 S1W12 36 % 16 hours Study Skills appraisal and activities S1W1 S1W12 12 % 4 Contemplation on personal development to day of the month S1W13 S1W14/15 15 % TBD Integrative appraisal component S2W2 S2W12 25 % 8 hours Group work probe and presentation. S1W1 S2W13 12 % 4 hours Personal Development Plan ( PDP )The tutorial activities that should be included are:Information Searching Skills – completed undertakings with replies History of Calculating article and feedback ( Fintan Culwin ) Mail Merge ( photocopy of pronounced assignment and feedback from BAD unit. Students non making the unit should make the undertaking and subject the work as portion of the portfolio ) Short-term/medium-term/long-term targets/goals Weekly contemplation on all the talks, utilizing the given templet. Integrated Assignment In hebdomads 13 – 15 you will set about an integrative assignment. The bulk of the work for this will be group-based, and will measure larning in: Computer and Communications Architecture, Commercial Information Systems Development, Quantitative Analysis/Methods and Computing Culture and Practice units. Additionally there will be an single component in hebdomad 12 necessitating you to take one of a figure of occupations and fix an application. The stuff in the booklet will be of aid in all parts of the assignment but peculiarly with the occupation application. The assignment is deserving 60 % in entire for all four units ( 15 % for each unit ) . Contemplation and PDP Students should be able to show they have successfully planned their personal development. The pupils should supply a comprehensive list of strengths, failings, chances and menaces in a broad scope of relevant countries and be able to utilize their experiences whilst set abouting the first twelvemonth to successfully be after their personal development. There should be grounds of periodic reappraisal of their PDP and indicant of their advancement. 0 – 3 Minimal attempt – small grounds that PDP is understood, with limited efforts at placing their ain personal development 3 – 6 Some grounds that PDP is understood, with limited efforts at placing their ain personal development. 6 – 9 Clear grounds of comprehension of PDP, presented in a clear and systematic manner. Some work that goes beyond what has been introduced in the unit. 9 – 12 Excellent grounds of comprehension of PDP. Planned for their initial and/or go oning personal development and reviewed their pattern and evidenced from a assortment of beginnings. Student Evaluation By and large the pupils found the unit utile for fixing for them for theirstudies at university and besides for work. Learning Resources Core Materials Tony Buzan The Buzan Study Skills Handbook. BBC Active, 2006 S. Cottrell The Study Skills Handbook. Third Edition. Palgrave, 2008. L. Lee Davis Developing Work and Study Skills, First edition, Thomson Learning, 2007. G. Fairbairn & A ; C Winch Reading, Writing and Reasoning, Second edition OUP, 1996. A. Britton & A ; A Cousins Study Skills: A usher for womb-to-tomb scholars The Distant Learning Centre, London South Bank University, 1998 N Stanton Mastering Communication Palgrave Macmillan, 1996 Cameron, Sheila Skills Business pupil ‘s enchiridion: Learning accomplishments for survey and employments. 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2005 McMillan, K & A ; Weyers, J The Smarter Student, First Edition, Prentice Hall, 2006 Jay, Ros & A ; Jay, Anthony Effective Presentation, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2004

Introduction to Communication in Health and Social Care

SHC 21: Introduction to communication in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings 1. Understand why communication is important in the work setting 1. 1 People communicate by many ways including non-verbal highlighting facial expression, eye contact, body language, physical gestures such as touch, dress and behavior, along with verbal including tone and pitch of voice. The age and knowledge of a person one is communicating with, also dictates somewhat the amount of vocabulary i. words and terms used too . People communicate to share ideas, information, educate, build relationships, express feelings and emotions, to be social, ask questions and expand their knowledge and share different experiences. 1. 2 Effective communication affects all aspects of work. Talking to a child, parent, work colleague, friend or boss, takes on a variety of different levels of communication. Maybe more smiles are given when talking to a child rather than to a boss figure. Also read: How and When to Seek Advice About Communication Introduction to Communication in Health and Social CareHaving a good understanding of effective communication in the work place, can help avoid misinterpretation and misunderstandings especially important in ensuing a safe work place. Talking and listening to work colleagues, children and parents builds professional and personal relationships, helping establish trust between all parties. 1. 3 Observing reactions when communicating with people are especially important to ensure understanding on both parties. Maybe you have acknowledged that they may not be feeling well, are feeling sad or are excited about something through their body language.Reading someone’s expression can tell you a lot about the mood the person is in. Avoiding eye contact, can also indicate that the person feels uneasy. If someone is angry, they may need time to calm down, acknowledging peoples actions and reactions can help lift or diffuse a situa tion. It is not advisable to continue to verbally talk to someone from a different country who does not understand you, maybe you can seek the help of a translator to help communicate or use picture cards. If someone has limited hearing and sight, nsure you’re not in a dimly lit room and use visual aids in bigger print to help the person understand what your communicating to them. Being able to recognize the ways in people communicate even without words is important to understand and be aware of. 2. Be able to meet the communication and language needs, wishes and preferences of the individuals 2. 1. To find out an individual’s communication and language needs, wishes and preferences there are many ways to find out this information, it could be from the individual themselves, from a parent, teacher, friend of the individual or their carer.There may be care notes, medical notes or documents from authorities which you can access to obtain this information if no rules of c onfidentiality are broken, so you can see how they’re being managed, ways of communicating that helps and any progresses that have been made. Some preferences may also be based on the individuals beliefs, values or culture. It is important not to judge people for they may resist communication for fear of being judged or reprimanded. Offer reassurance about confidentiality and explain what this means. Also make sure the setting is fit for purpose, privacy is important.The individual and care worker should not hold a personal and private discussion in a room full of people, whereby the conversation could be overheard. 2. 2 Demonstrate communication methods that meet the individuals needs wishes and preferences could include using a louder pitch in voice when talking to someone who has hard of hearing and ensuring there is no background distractive noise. If someone has difficulty reading, audio books can help. If an individual has dyslexia, then reading the information out loud to them, can help them better understand .A child having difficulty in remembering, may find a tape or video recorder a great assistive technology aid. A wheelchair user can talk to people at eye level if the unaided person sits down on a chair making both feel more comfortable when having a conversation and if a person cannot communicate properly via a disability, flash/need cards can be designed, allowing the person to choose which card they would like, ie TV, cup of tea, book, food or toilet. In the case of a foreign language being spoken, the help of a translator or interpretation service can assist. 2. You can show how and when to seek advice about communication if you feel unsure about something, maybe a physical incident may have taken place which worried you, maybe something was thrown at you. Sometimes complex cases need extra assistance and help can be sought by talking to your peers, line managers, the individuals carer. A line manager or supervisor can help advise on sp ecialist organisations who offer expert advice and services, as it is best not to think or second guess that you can manage the situation by yourself especially if you do not have the necessary skill set to deal with certain communication problems.Professional duty to ensure individuals receive the very best care and support is essential to provide the best service you can for them. 3. Be able to reduce barriers to communicate 3. 1 There are many barriers to communicate both visible and invisible. One of the most common starts with oneself. One must make sure that the language used is one that the individual can understand. It is no use talking to someone about abbreviations, slang or acronyms when shortcutting talk, is not commonly used by the person you’re speaking to, ie they’re not in the circle/workplace which those shortcuts/terms are commonly used.Individuals may not clearly understand what you are saying to them if those terms are used. If someone is hard of he aring then calling them on a telephone would not be recommended unless they had specialist equipment dedicated to improve the quality of the call so they could hear you properly. If someone comes from a different country, then language can present barriers too. Other barriers could include: emotional distress, health issues, cultural differences and environmental problems 3. 2 Demonstrate how to reduce barriers to communication in different ways.One of the most important factors would include making the other person feel at ease and comfortable with you. They should feel happy and safe in your company. Use friendly facial expressions, be encouraging and actively listen and acknowledge what they’re saying to you. Speak clearly and not too fast. Remove any distractions such as background noise and make sure any hearing aids an individual has, is working correctly. Use non-verbal methods to communicate interest, sympathy or understanding.Repeat things when necessary and make sur e the physical environment is ideally suited to the individual especially if they have a physical disability, where being confined to a wheelchair makes it impossible to meet you on the 1st floor if there is no lift in the building. 3. 3 The ways to check that communication has been understood could include a recap of the conversation so that the messages discussed are re-confirmed and agreed by both parties. If communication has not been understood then going over what was said is essential and maybe in a different way to ensure agreement and understanding is reached.Summaries , clarity and agreements between both parties should ensure effective communication has been understood. 3. 4 Identifying sources of information and support or services to enable more effective communication can be sourced from a variety of organisations and experts. For example someone who is blind or going blind, may benefit from learning about the national charity, RNIB Royal National Institute of Blind Pe ople. A telephone number can be offered to the individual so they can make contact with the charity. Someone who is experiencing hearing loss, could contact Action on Hearing Loss and learn lip leading.Elderly could make contact with Age UK. The internet is a great source of information along with local library, community centers and workplace. Condition specific organisations including Cystic Fibrosis, Cancer Research and the Stoke Association allow people to access their services for further information and understanding. Translator (changing written text into another language ) or interpretation services ( converting spoken language into another) can also assist along with advocacy services for people who find it difficult to speak up for themselves, including GOV.UK website, Action for Advocacy website,The Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) and Diabetes UK advocacy service 4 Be able to apply principles and practices relating to confidentiality at work 4. 1 The term c onfidentiality means a set of rules or a promise that limits access to, or places restrictions upon, certain types of information. One cannot discuss a person’s private conversation, make comment about them to another person or pass over their documents to someone whom has no immediate need for this information. You cannot divulge their details to other people without their consent first. . 2 Confidentially can be demonstrated in day to day communication in line with agreed ways of working by the following: †¢ If a medical emergency takes place, the paramedics, doctors may need access to the patients medical history notes. †¢ If someone moves care homes, then the new home would need the individuals private papers from the previous home †¢ If someone was critically ill, information about their health would be passed to their next of kin †¢ Organisations have their own policies and procedures showing circumstances in which information can be disclosed.These can usually be located within the HR Dept. 4. 3 Information might need to be passed on in the following circumstances : †¢ Court hearing †¢ Hearing, learning about or seeing abuse of children or elderly adults †¢ Community protection and public health (Alerting the authorities if you’re aware and know about a potential outbreak of a virus/disease) †¢ Suicide attempt, by contacting a relevant body ie Police †¢ Risk to the individual or risk at others nearby the individual 4. One may need to seek advice about confidentiality and if it should be maintained, if one is uncertain about the next steps, has concerns or been informed of something by the individual including that they are fearful of a situation, by talking it through with the manager, they can offer advice and expert information in how to deal with certain circumstances. Also by referring to the companies policy and procedural guidelines, which would cover: data protection act, code of practice , freedom of information act, general right of access and whistle blowing.