The Healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

The Healthcare - Essay Example In an interview with Clay G., Med, Ph.D. classroom teacher at Michelle Jordan, and counselor at Seagoville Elementary School, Dr. Clay mentioned that the most substance used by children in my school is tobacco. He confirmed that Seagoville is in a low socio-economic area in Dallas County and has a prevalence of drug users which these children are exposed to, the kids tend to pick up smoking or using drugs because of the area they live and grew up inside. Due to the low education and increasing poverty in this area, students rarely escape such poverty. Dr. Clay explained that students who use drugs display different behaviors. In addition to mood swings, students are usually jittery, lethargic, depressed, and unable to focus. When these behaviors are noticed by the teacher the parents are invited to meet with a counselor and the child’s teacher. The school counselor in most cases provides weekly lessons to students on any issues related to drug and peer pressure. Schools togeth er with district administrators mostly hold the Red Ribbon Drug Free week, which is a pledge for students not to use drugs. He recommended that the only thing that may help in reducing such drug abuse is early education and funding to increase resources that will help reach all children at a tender age. More commercials have to be designed to show students the effects of drug abuse such as, â€Å"this is your brain on drugs† campaign shown a few years ago, with the person’s brain presented in form of an egg being fried on a pan.

Religion and Health Care in a Secular Society Essay

Religion and Health Care in a Secular Society - Essay Example This paper approves that Islam is a religion that was founded by Mohammad in the 7th century AD. Mohammad claimed to be from a long line of prophets including Jesus, Moses, Abraham and many others who were monotheist prophets sent into humanity by the creator God who had also been known as the Father, Allah, and Elohim etc at different times in recorded human history. Mohammad claimed that he was the recipient of Divine revelations which are recorded in the Qur ’an. Mohammad also claimed that he was to be the last in the line of prophets sent to humanity by God to present the final universal law for humanity for all times. Although Mohammad claimed that the previous prophets including Jesus and Moses were equally true in presenting the message of God to humanity, the previous message had been corrupted and lost by their followers. Thi essay makes a conclusion that a secular society has to cater for a lot of minorities and the diversity which is inherent in its midst. The job and the calling of a nurse, a health worker or a policy maker are to provide comfort, cure and the elimination of suffering. Religion has a spiritual dimension and most individuals belonging to a religious framework can be identified with the spirituality that is associated with the religious framework. The sick or the dying have to be treated as far as possible with respect to their spirituality and values so that they can be comfortable. A secular system and the individual should try to do just this within the limits imposed by resources and the physical limitations of the human body.

Cybercrime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cybercrime - Essay Example Apart from this, it also reflects the computer-content acts with regard to the confidentiality along with accessibility of the computer systems (NCPC, â€Å"Preventing Identity Theft: A Guide for Consumers†). Thesis Statement. This study intends to delineate definitions and examples related to cyber-theft and cyber vandalism. Apart from this, the study will also determine the reasons and significant challenges with respect to the traditional law enforcement and other issues associated with cybercrime. Cyber theft primarily refers to an act by which the internet is used in order to steal, interfere or enjoy someone else’s property. In simpler term, cyber theft is executed to derive others’ financial and personal information for illegal use. One of the examples of cyber theft is hacking of a bank’s computer data for wrongfully transferring the financial information and monetary amount i.e. ‘Nigerian prince email’. Another example of cyber theft is hacking of accounts of Barclays Bank (The Huffington Post, â€Å"Barclays Bank Cyber Theft: 8 Arrested For Allegedly Hacking Computer System, Stealing $2 Million†). Vandalism is the concept that reflects an action that involves the destruction or damage with respect to the public or the private property. Cyber vandalism is carried out mainly using electronic information. It has been further observed that specific crimes with regard to cyber vandalism include website defacement. Furthermore, the attacks with respect to social web pages are also regarded as cyber vandalism. One instance of cyber vandalism is the hacking along with impairment of ‘Google’s Pakistan page’. The hackers’ replaced the logo of the ‘Google’s Pakistan page’ by ‘two penguins walking up a bridge at sunset’ (The Express Tribune News Network, â€Å"Cyber vandalism: Hackers deface Google Pakistan†). Moreover, the other example of cyber vandalism is gaining access of the United

Mother and Twin Brothers Eli Essay Example for Free

Mother and Twin Brothers Eli Essay In The Droughtlanders, by Carrie Mac, Twin brothers Eli and Seth, both Keylanders, live inside a privileged and protected city surrounded by huge walls to protect them from the filthy, sick Droughlanders. Eli’s mother teaches him to view Droughtlanders sympathetically and Eli changes his opinion about them. As a result Eli joins a rebellion group against the Keylands. Initially Seth is furious about Eli’s decision and attempts to hunt Eli and kill him but ultimately realizes the truth and joins his brother. At the beginning Eli and Seth have a bitter hate for each other which intensifies due to their different view points regarding the Droughtlanders. In the end, they make up and the hate they had between them fades away. Right from the start Eli and Seth do not get along, this relationship soon turns into hate and distrust between them. Near the end Seth also changes his mind about Droughtlanders and they get along. From the beginning Eli and Seth dislike each other because of Seth’s constant harassment. Seth is constantly making harsh jokes about Eli’s bladder problem, â€Å"do you have to sit down like a girl?† (36). This quote shows how Seth bullies Eli. Seth and Eli get in a lot of fights and Seth says mean thinks like â€Å"If father wasn’t in the room I’d kick your face in† (44). Seth bullies Eli because he thinks that he is weak and pathetic. After getting in yet another fight Seth says to Eli â€Å"You really are a baby. Get a diaper, Eliza† (55). Eli hates Seth’s bullying and they never get along. They have always had a poor relationship, but it becomes worse once Eli sympathizes with the Droughtlanders. Seth and Eli’s relationship and distrust gets even worse. When the explosion goes off where their mother is, Eli cries â€Å"Maman. She was in there, Seth† (45). Eli had a very strong connection with his mom, but Seth not so much. Eli tells Seth how their father killed their mother and Seth whispers into his ear â€Å"Say that one more time, or to anyone else, ever, and I will kill you† (54). This quote demonstrates how seriously angry they are with each other. Eli tries to tell Seth that their mother was a rebel but Seth responds â€Å"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say† (56). This quote illustrates how much distrust they have between them. When Eli secretly leaves to look for the Droughtlander rebels, Seth views him as a traitor and this betrayal leads to Seth hunting Eli. When Seth finally catches up with Eli, he tells Seth the truth about their mother’s death and how their father was responsible. Seth also comes to accept the Droughtlanders for the decent and ill-treated people they are. Eli and Seth find each other in a forest. â€Å"When Eli heard the name he’s not been called in so long, he felt some thing snap with a sharp, invigorating pain. Keenly aware of his intentions, he brought out his own knife and in one fluid motion flicked the wider blade open, turned and plunged the knife through Seth’s pants and as deep as it would go† (300). It is this moment that Seth gains respect for Eli and starts to question his own beliefs. After Seth is captured he does his sin inventory and comes to realize how horrible of a person he was. Although Eli is still very angry with Seth, Seth says, â€Å"I’m sorry, Eli, for being such a terrible brother† (317). This is the start to their relationship reuniting. They discuss and finally agree about the tragic events that lead to their mother’s death. Sabine, their triplet sister, is also there and for the first time they all connect peacefully. During the circus they all collapse and are sent to the infirmary. â€Å"They speculated on why only now they felt a connection† (323). They figured it was because this was the first time they were all happy together. In the end, Seth and Eli are no longer enemies and can be happy. The relationship between Seth and Eli started with mutual hostility and ended in admiration. It is a unique relationship between Seth and Eli in search of the truth. Eli pursues the truth of his mothers legacy as Seth searches for the truth about Eli’s defection.

Computer Fraud

Computer Fraud Task 1 (6.c)Importance and Effectiveness of Legal Regulation in Computer Fraud Introduction In todays world due to the advancement in the modern technology there has been always problem arising related with computers especially computer fraud misuse. People who are using computers are deceived in many ways like program fraud, system hacking, e-mail hoax, auction, retail sales, investment schemes, information hacking, virus/worm attacks and people claiming to be experts on subject areas. Anyone who uses the computer with an internet connection is a potential candidate for being a victim of computer fraud. The computer fraud rate is increasing every day as the internet usage among the people increases, most of the people are using the computers and internet for a good cause but there are some people who are intentionally using the computers to bring down some organizations or business firms or to get peoples personal information. But due to the implementation of current legal regulations in each and every fields; the crime people started to get tracked down and are punished under the Computer Misuse Act, which may ultimately reduce the number of computer fraud rate in the future. Background Over the past decades the amount of financial, military and intelligence information, business data and personal information is stored on and transmitted by computers has increased by tremendous growth. All the major sectors like government and military operations entirely depend upon computers / internet for their work process and data transmission. The information which is stored and transmitted via internet will be vulnerable to attack from any unknown source; almost every organization has been affected in some way due to the computer fraud. â€Å"The British National Computer Centre reported that more than 80% of British organizations suffered security threat in the last two years† [5], most of the investigation revealed that the computer fraud occurred involves unauthorised access to computers via the internet. The current growth in the technology suggest that within a decade it will be possible for every person in the world to access all the information network including the security defence data and government departments personal information but it is in the hand of the people to make sure that they do not misuse the available information. Other than the increase in the number of computer users, there will be also increase in the number of computers per person. Each person will own and connect to hundreds of computers for information processing through network environment. In the future all the people will use computers in home appliances, phones, televisions, offices and automobiles; all these computers share the information to optimize the use of resources and to provide convenience in daily life which might result in a threat for computer fraud. In this context we will discuss about the detailed term of * Computer fraud * Causes for computer fraud * Types of computer fraud/attacks * Basic ways to prevent computer fraud apart from legal regulation. * Importance / Effectiveness of the legal regulation in computer fraud. Computer Fraud Basically computer fraud is defined as taking control access illegally or stealing information without others knowledge, computer fraud can take place in any form; it includes fraud committed by an employee of a company using the computer to steal funds or information from the work company, whereas some people use deception to gain access to individual resources. Therefore the type and the method carried out to do the computer fraud vary from people to people depending upon the need to do it. Causes for computer fraud Most of the computer fraud is done for the main purpose of gaining money either by stealing the needed information from big organizations/firms or directly stealing funds from big organizations/firms. There are few people who are not concerned about the money or information but they wanted to bring down the fame of the organization/firm so they reveal all the secrets of the particular organization and few people like hackers does the computer fraud/crime just for a fun. Types of computer fraud Computer fraud can be classified into many types depending upon the fraud committed but the major categorisations of fraud are mentioned below. All the computer crime/fraud taking place now a day comes under these main categories. o Internet auction/Bid sales fraud o Retail sales o Investment schemes o Identity theft o Phising o Credit card fraud o Information hacking o Email hoax o Virus/Worm attack o Letter scam o Ad ware All these types of computer frauds are caused mainly due to the advancement in the technology and crime is still growing around the world. Basic ways to prevent computer fraud apart from legal regulation The most important thing to do to prevent computer fraud is to be alert to the scams that are circulated over the internet so that it helps to safeguard the system and the information stored within the system, there are some basic rules to be followed in order to prevent the system from computer fraud o Users should be aware of not to publish any of their personal details on the websites or forums. o The organization/firms should not broadcast much of their business details on the internet. o Organizations/firms should ensure that they follow security policies, and procedures. o People working at homes or organization should ensure that before sending any personal information on the net should check for valid signatures. Internet auction/bid sales fraud o Understand the way how the auction/bidding works on the internet, think what is the need for the seller to sell it. o Check out what will be actions taken by the online seller if something goes wrong during transaction and shipment. o Try to find more information about the seller; if the only information you have is the business email id, check the Better Business Bureau where the seller/business is located o Examine the sellers feedback on previous sales, if the seller has good history and good feedback on previous sales; then there is no need to worry about the purchase. o Determine what method of payment the seller is asking for during the transaction. o Be aware of the difference in laws governing auctions between the U.K. and other countries like U.S, China. If a problem occurs with the auction transaction that has the seller in one country and a buyer in another country, it might result in a dubious outcome leaving you empty handed. o Be sure to ask the seller about when delivery can be expected and warranty/exchange information for the product. o To avoid unexpected costs, find out whether shipping and delivery cost are included in the auction price or are additional. o Finally, avoid giving out your social security or drivers license number to the seller, as the sellers have no need for this information. Credit Card Fraud o Do not give out credit card number online unless the site is both secure and reputable. Sometimes a tiny icon of a padlock appears to symbolize a higher level of security to transmit data. The icon is not a guarantee of a secure site, but may provide you some assurance. o Before using the site, check out the security software it uses; make sure your information will be protected. o Make sure you are purchasing product from a reputable/legitimate source. Once again investigate the person or company before purchasing products. o Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number, call the seller to see if the number is correct and working. o Send them e-mail to see if they have an active e-mail address and be cautious about the sellers who use free e-mail service where a credit card was not required to open the account. o Do not purchase from sellers who will not provide you with this type of information. o Check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there have been any complaints against the seller before. o Check out other web sites regarding this person/company details. o Be cautious when responding to special offers. o Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies from outside your own country. o If you are going to purchase an item via the Internet, use a credit card since you can often dispute the charges if something does go wrong. o Make sure the transaction is secure when you electronically send your credit card somewhere. o You should keep a list of all your credit cards and account information along with the card issuers contact information. If anything looks suspicious or you lose your credit card contact the card issuer immediately. Investment Fraud o Do not invest in anything based on appearances. Just because an individual or company has a flashy web site does not mean it is legitimate. Web sites can be created in just a few days. After a short period of taking money, a site can vanish without a trace. o Do not invest in anything you are not absolutely sure about. Thoroughly investigate the individual or company to ensure that they are legitimate. o Check out other web sites regarding this person/company. o Be cautious when responding to special investment offers; inquire about all the terms and conditions dealing with the investors and the investment. Importance of the legal regulation in computer fraud After all the basic discussion about the concepts and the causes of computer fraud, we are going to discuss about the legal regulation issues related with the computer fraud which tells how the legal regulations prevent or reduce the increasing computer fraud rate in todays developing world of technology, Most of the law reform is achieved by modifying and extending existing law to cope with new situations rather than by the introduction of completely new legislation.This can sometimes make it difficult to find a single place where the whole of an area of law is clearly set out. The Computer Misuse Act was enacted in 1990 and it remains the primary piece of UK legislation focusing on the misuse of computer systems. It covers computer frauds such as hacking and the deliberate spread of viruses and was created to prevent unauthorized access or modification of computer systems and to prevent criminal elements from using a computer to assist in the commission of a criminal offence or fro m impairing or hindering access to data stored in a computer. â€Å"In 2004, MPs specifically, the All-Party Internet Group (APIG) began a review of the CMA, on the basis that this legislation was created before the emergence of the Internet and therefore required updating† [5]. The Act was seen to focus too much on individual computers and not enough on computer networks. In addition some of the definitions used in the 1990 Act need updating. The final report outlined several recommendations to the government for changes to the CMA. In March 2005, APIG called for amendments to the CMA to address the threat from denial of service attacks. The Computer Misuse Act was passed in 1990 to deal with the problem of hacking/other threats of computer systems. In the early days hacking/other computer fraud related issues was not taken very seriously by the law and the impression was that it is mischievous rather than something which causes serious loss to organizations. However, with developments in technology the issue has become more serious and legislation was introduced to recognize three key offences: o Unauthorized access to computer material, Example: Finding or guessing someones password and then using that to get into a computer system and have a look at the information. o Unauthorized access with intent to commit further offences. The key to this offence is the addition of intent to commit further offences. It therefore includes guessing or stealing a password and using that to access material or services without the consent of the owner. o Unauthorized modification of computer material. This could include deleting files, changing the desktop set-up or introducing viruses with the deliberate intent to impair the operation of a computer. Effectiveness of legal regulation in computer fraud ( Conclusion) All the above mentioned computer fraud issues was not taken seriously until the legal regulation was made properly, and due to the implementation of legal law of Computer Misuse Act, the effectiveness caused a tremendous change by punishing all the illegal users of the computer system. Below example shows the consequence for an ‘Unauthorized Access to system. Incident Unauthorized Access to Communications Systems Provision Computer Misuse Act Section 1 Description Cause a computer to perform any function with the intention of securing access to any program or data held in a computer, if this access is unauthorized and if this is known at the time of causing the computer to perform the function. Sanction A fine and/or a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months was sentenced for the illegal user. Total number of words in the Task1 report: 2500 Signed [ ] Task 2 (2)Do legal developments in law relating to Software copyright and Patents help or harm the cause of information system security Information system security acts as the protection of information system against unauthorized access or modification of existing information whether in storage, processing or transit stage. The information system ensures to safeguard all the stored information. Information security covers not just information but the entire infrastructures that facilitate access and use of information. The primary concern to organizations is the security of valuable information which can be anything from a formula to a customer list or organizations valuable information to financial statements. Three widely accepted elements of information system security are: o Confidentiality Ensuring information is only accessed by authorized users. o Integrity Safeguarding the accuracy and completeness of information. o Availability To ensure that authorized user have secure access to information when required. Law relating to Software Copyright and Patents In early 1970s there was a debate concerning about whether there is a need to make a copyright for the softwares or not, but later on it was decided that all the developed software needed to be copyrighted and if needed it can also be patented under the UK Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. The UK law for copyright and patent helped the organizations from misuse of their developed softwares/concepts. Some organizations try to steal the concepts/parts of code from developed software of other organization and try to utilize them in their developing software product. But due to the software copyright and patent law, all the leading software organizations like ‘Microsoft started to make copyright for their parts of developed code, so that no other organizations can use their part of code for developing other applications, this helped most of the organizations to develop a unique software product. Legal requirement for Information Security Keeping valuable information secure is not only a matter of good organization practice it is also a legal requirement. Since 1999 in UK and most parts of the world, there is a statutory obligation on all organizations to maintain minimum levels of security. Organizations that fail to meet the minimum security requirements may face enforcement action by the UK Government via the Information Commissioners Office. â€Å"Enforcement action can take any form and the Information Commissioners powers are not limited. Organizations that want to be relatively safe can choose to implement BS7799† [2], that is a voluntary standard which helps to ensure that sensitive information is handled by an organization in a professional and secure manner, it can done by making the organization to classify the sensitivity of information and to provide necessary control access to it. Legal developments in laws relating to software copyright and patents ‘help the information system security (Conclusion) As discussed earlier, the main work of information system security is to provide a secure environment for the information storage and processing, in the past decades when there was no legal laws for software copyright and patents, hackers used to break the information system and get the needed information/softwares; they are not really afraid of anything because there was not any law stating that taking/hacking the softwares/information was a crime which caused a big problem for the software developing organizations but now due to the development of legal laws; if a person tries to hack the information system security, he can be sentenced to prison due to the current state of law. So the development of the legal laws relating to software copyright and patents did help the information system security to make a secure environment. Total number of words in the Task2 report: 500 Signed [ ] Task 3 (4)Evaluate the proposition that Data protection laws are an unnecessary burden on legitimate public and commercial data collection The Data Protection Act was originally started on 1984 but later the existing act was replaced by the new Data Protection Act of 1998[DPA 1998], the â€Å"new act of 1998 implemented the EU Data protection Directive 95/46† [3]. The DPA relates to the protection of personal information that includes names, email addresses, financial details, personal documents and photographs. Personal information is everywhere and because it is generally impossible to separate personal information from other organizations information, most observers agree that the security standards required by the Data Protection Act are the minimum that must be applied to organization IT Systems as a whole. The security of information is so important to most organizations that, regardless of what the law require, organizations generally implement levels of security that are as high as budgets and technology. Data Protection Act of 1998—Personal Data Security The main legal requirements are set out in Principle 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 says that all organizations must take â€Å"Appropriate technical and organizational measures against unauthorized or unlawful use and against accidental loss, damage or destruction, of information.† [4] Today, all computerized processing of personal data, structured manual records, and even some unstructured manual records are subject to provisions of the DPA 1998, including the right of the individual to access the data which is held about them. Together with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA 2000), the DPA 1998 has forced a re-think of organizations good practice in personal data handling, new approaches to records management and made organizations consider more carefully their obligations to those whose data they hold. The FOIA 2000 extends the rights of the individual to access their data which had already existed under the DPA 1998. The definition of data is widened, as far as public authorities are concerned; to include all other recorded information held by a public authority. However, there are limits to the data subject rights that apply to this additional category of data. A request by an individual for information about him or herself is exempt under the FOIA 2000 and should be handled as a subject access request under the DPA 1998. In certain circumstances such a request may involve the release of associated information in which case the provisions of sections 7(4) and (5) of the DPA 1998 should be used to determine whether it is appropriate to release the third party information. Where an applicant specifically requests information about a third party or where responding to a request for information would involve the disclosure of personal information about a third party which is not also personal information about the applicant, the request falls within the remit of the FOIA 2000. However, the authority must apply the Data Protection Principles when considering the disclosure of information relating to individuals. An authority must not release third party information if to do so would mean breaching one of the Principles. Conclusion Even though the DPA secures the users personal information/data, there are some problems/burden exist for the legitimate users/public facing the Data Protection Act, according to DPA there is no exemption for back-up of data/information. In practice it will be unlikely that a data subject want access to data back-up and there is nothing to prevent a controller confirming that a data subject wishes to access only the most recent records. The back-up data which provides that automated data processed to replace other data which has been lost, destroyed or impaired are exempt from section 7 during the first transitional period ending on 23 October 2001; but this is not a general exemption for back-up data in the traditional sense. Total number of words in the Task3 report: 500 Signed [ ] Bibliography o Andrew Terrett., The Internet, Business Strategies for Law firms, (2000, Law Society, London) o Bobbie Johnson., ‘UK computer laws are ridiculous, April 30, http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1763989,00.html o ‘Computer Fraud and its Acts, April 30, http://www.itwales.com/999573.htm o ‘Concepts of Patent work, May 1, http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/consultations/conclusions.htm o ‘Data protection effect on senior management, May 2, http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=pub_smbp_dpa1998 o ‘Data protection law, The key change, May 1, http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/1998/issue4/widdis4.html o David Icove. and Karl Seger, Computer Crime, (1995, OReilly Associates, USA) o David S. Wall., Cyberspace Crime, (2003, Darmouth Publishing Company , Hants, England) o Douglas Thomas. and Brian Loader, Cyber crime, (2000, Routledge publication , London) o ‘Facts on copyright, May 1, http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/what.htm o ‘Fraud law reforms, April 30, http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.1149 o ‘Fraud Tips, April 30, http://www.fraud.org/internet/intset.htm o ‘Hacking and other computer crime, April 30, http://www.met.police.uk/computercrime/#SO6 o Ian Lloyd., Information Technology Law, (1997, Reed Elsevier Ltd, Halsbury, London) o Joshua Rozenberg., Privacy and the Press, (2005, Oxford university press Inc , USA) o Michael Levi., Regulating Fraud, (1987, Tavistock Publication , London) o ‘New laws for computer fraud, April 30, http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=400895in_page_id=2 o ‘Summary of Intellectual property rights, May 1, http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/intellectual_property o Susan Singleton., Data protection The New Law, (1998, Jordans Publication , Bristol) o ‘UK Data protection laws are chaotic, May 2, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/data_protection_laws_chaotic/

Time management Essay -- essays research papers

Time Management for College Students We all know the sound that is very familiar to us: tick, tick, tick. No, it’s not the sound of our favorite movie coming on; It’s time moving on. College students often find that time is the hardest goal to conquer. Time isn’t really a goal. Finding time to complete all of our task is a goal. As a student there are some basic principals of time management that you can apply. Identify the best time for studying. Everyone has high and low periods of attention and concentration. Are you a morning person or a night person? Use your power times for studying, especially if you have children. Use your down times for cleaning, laundry, and running errands. If you have a job like most of us do, make a slot in your day for studying. Study difficult ...

Case Study Analysis on an Organisation Essay

Organisational change is something that occurs throughout an organisation’s life cycle and effects the entire organisation rather than one part of it. Employing a new person is one example. Change is increasing due to a number of forces including globalisation led by rapidly advancing technologies, cultural diversity, environmental resources and the economy; therefore the ability to recognise the need for change as well as implement change strategies effectively, in a proactive response to internal and external pressures is essential to organisational performance. Internal changes can include organisational structure, process and HR requirements and external changes involve government legislation, competitor movements and customer demand (Wood et al, 2010). Change does not need to be a painful process, as it may seem when observing the amount of failed change management initiatives with reports as low as 10% of researched success rates (Oakland & Tanner, 2007), when successful change management strategies are utilised and planned, including effective communication strategies, operational alignment, readiness to change and implementation, which all lower and overcome resistance (Wood et al, 2010). There is a great amount of literature on the negative aspects and difficult management with employees resisting change, however Wood et al (2010) challenge this notion by questioning the change management process as people do not resist change itself but aspects of the change that affects them personally such as fear of the unknown, status, remuneration and comfort. Resistance to these changes is a healthy reaction and can be managed effectively in the beginning by ensuring communication and using one of the change initiatives described here. Background Information Truelocal is based in Sydney, with small sales branches in Brisbane and Melbourne. It employs over 150 staff, an increase of approximately 50% over the past two years. It was founded in 2005 by NDM as part of an expanding operation of online websites to provide across the board consumer services, including news and magazine websites; online sport and weather information; and shopping comparison search engine, web-based recruitment, and travel search engine solutions [http://www. ewsdigitalmedia. com. au, accessed 25/08/2010]. As the world shifted into what is often referred to as the ‘digital info age’, consumer demand for online media as a way to source information significantly increased and demand for printed media decreased putting pressure on newspaper companies to expand to producing news and information online in digital format. This included News Corporation which decreased its newspaper operations and increased its digital expansion. As an employee at Truelocal for over six years, I have acquired this information presented here through interviews with management, company information and my own observations internally within the organisation’s sales department working in the roles of sales executive, account manager and senior retention account manager. The Need for Change – Management & Structure Truelocal needed to align its culture, values and structure with the parent company in order to meet strategic growth goals not long after it was founded. Wood et al (2010) describe the work of an author, Noel Tichey on managing strategic change. Experts use three fundamental sets of change in their approach; technical design, political allocation and culture/ideological mix problems. It is one of these problems that become a pressing issue at any one time of which then initiates the change. In Truelocal’s case there were a number of changes evolving and at this time it was culture problems. NDM has been growing in size since its establishment in 2006 with a number of acquired website operations, each operating as a separate business unit with the support of HR, Finance, IT, Commercial Operations and other support services provided by the parent company (NDM). A decision was made to align the organisation in terms of operations, culture and strategy so it could concentrate on innovation and performance to achieve its goal of becoming the number one provider of online information in Australia. As a result NDM redesigned its organisational structure as Truelocal and most of the other business units merged together in one location. Not long after this relocation, Truelocal began flattening out the company structure lead by a new management team and CEO. It has since been under constant change to achieve it’s goal to continue growth (both in number of staff and performance) and excel as a high performing and innovative company with an agenda of being the second largest online directory service in Australia after it’s competitor Sensis (Yellow pages online). Wood et al (2010) explain the performance gap is a desire to move from one less desired state to another. This can be seen by the increased performance after the change occurred and culture change was implemented. What changed Fundamental changes that occurred were a shift from the existing vertical, bureaucratic structure to a horizontal structure and change in specialist functioning of divisions creating a professional, corporate environmental culture that was customer focused. The existing culture was a casual attitude towards dress requirements, starting and finishing times, breaks, informal communication expression and channels and many staff were employed as friends of existing staff rather than based on competency and job skills. Some managers had their partners working for them and a few were family members. There didn’t appear to be any dress code and people came and left work at varying times. Additionally management employed more skilled staff, retrained existing staff and created processes of which procedures were then put in place. One of the ways these objectives were achieved was by the reduction of management layers resulting in more direct reporting. Wood et al (2010) explain as organisational size increases, the more interconnections and less direct communication between people takes place (Wood et al, 2010). Change Process When management at Truelocal uplifted existing management and reporting structures, staffs were initially left without direction, reporting channels, processes and goals were not clearly communicated causing a lot of uncertainty. Consequently many staff resigned as they felt upset and confused about what was happening. Truelocal however, retained some of the more experienced staff with new career development propositions and new managers were encouraging and open about future improvements that were to take place within the organisation. One of the ways Truelocal could have managed this change is by using the Freeze/Unfreeze concept; Wood et al (2010) explains Kurt Lewin, a famous organisational Psychologist’s three-force phase, which is needed for any organisation to be motivated to bring about the change of which are; 1) Unfreezing focuses on preparing people for change. This is a critical part of the change phase prior to implementation by analysing and influencing resistance and need to change. A common tool that is used at this stage is called Force Field Analysis, this measures these forces. ) Changing of people; tasks; structure; technology. Ideally the organisation will be completely unfrozen, ready for change and its goals made clear. It is recommended that staff are not perceived to have a sense of high or low security at this stage in order to avoid resistance. 3) Refreezing is the evaluation and reinforcement of the changes that took place. The new managers were recruited by Truelocal for their exp erience in organisational transformation within the type of professional, high performing, corporate environment the organisation desired and who worked at their competitor company. These managers were expected to manage the entire change process themselves. Change agents are people or groups who take responsibility for the change of behaviours and existing patterns in a supportive manner (Wood et al, 2010). The perceived risks however, are the responsibility of the organisation’s leader who decides on the direction of the change (Oakland & Tanner, 2007). Planned changes that took place were; Structure – change in organisational design by reporting systems, operational processes and size of teams, while roles were redefined by definition, job title and remuneration. Tasks – Most jobs were redesigned including more responsibility for staff in management roles and multi functional tasks for other staff. One of these job designs is called job enrichment, which is the increase and deepening of motivating factors built into a job (Wood et al, 2010). Some of these enrichments used by new management were increased responsibility and accountability, less control and more freedom in the job and more recognition. People – improvement of recruitment and selection process by advertising formal job vacancies on the organization’s intranet and incentives for staff to nominate candidates who were then formally interviewed by a number of managers. Additionally training sessions for new staff, coaching and certification courses were made available. Carless (2005) describes her research on the compatibility of job-person-organisation-environment fit. She believes a person must assess their attributes and personality with the job and organisational characteristics, which is likely to improve job satisfaction and adjustment to the environment. Culture – organisational values and beliefs were communicated from the parent company of which staff was rewarded when their behaviour displayed these values. Recognition was given in addition at meetings and performance appraisals. This is the observable culture, however as Wood et al (2010) explain, shared meanings and stories are other powerful aspects of culture and this can be observed at Truelocal by the high turnover of staff by both stories and norms that communicate the need to work hard to perform in the job or leave. Cultural symbols include trophies for ‘employee of the month’ awarded to the highest performer. These symbols serve to transmit cultural meaning (Wood et al, 2010). In the sales department a large subculture can be observed. Wood et al (2010) explain strong subcultures are often found in high performance task forces where people share similar values and backgrounds. This subculture included men between the ages of 22-30 yrs that have no formal education, drink alcohol excessively, and are passionate about technology, highly materialistic and view women as sex objects, which can often be observed by their language and behaviour. Moreover this culture is likely to be influenced by the national culture of which the organisation is embedded (Wood et al, 2010). In fact this subculture existed in the old culture before the restructure of which the company held ‘diversity training’ focused on discrimination and fairness within the workplace resulting in terminations. According to The Economist (2008), in the economic downturn companies need ‘Generation Y’ as hungry 25-35 year olds without commitment, for marketing and product innovation with emerging technologies, able to put in the time and energy to help them deal with recession hazards, especially in sales. Strategy – operations and planning were clarified at monthly and quarterly meetings including product changes. These were addressed by department managers regularly and CEO meetings irregularly, to engage staff. Wood et al (2010) explain leadership has changed from the traditional trait and behaviour approaches to transformational, charismatic, visionary focus and is separate from management. The leadership team at Truelocal formally includes the CEO and parent company (NDM) leaders. Their leadership function can be observed by their language and behaviours they use a transformational and visionary change approach. Objectives – specific performance targets were set allowing staff to earn a higher commission by overachieving set targets, recognition and prizes to increase motivation consistently. Purpose – both the CEO and the parent company made organisational goals clearly communicated vision and clarified progress regularly. Recognition was given for the contribution of each department and each business unit to the overall success of the organisation. These changes were managed by senior staff using a combination of change strategy approaches as explained by Wood et al (2010) that include a forced approach of top down command, one way communication, coercive reward and punishment approach, rationalisation approach and shared decision making, empowered approach. Of these approaches no single approach was concluded best by researchers on organisational change and it is advised that more commonly a combination will occur, however guidelines are offered to change agents and managers (Wood et al, 2010); – consider use of expert consultants – communicate the need for change feedback from employees – avoid changing for the sake of change – study organisational change and structures From this perspective Truelocal management took the right approach by varying the way they managed the change. Change Results The facilitation of clearer and faster communication channels enabled staff to work more efficiently and g et things done faster, along with improved technology. Further benefits of this structure were people collaborating in teams, using initiative and increased spontaneous communication while rules, procedures and close supervision were reduced as described in (Tushman, Anderson & O’Reilly, 1997). Wood et al (2010) describe the matrix structure is common in large organisations wanting to improve customer responsiveness. Truelocal’s reporting structure utilised this organisational design as part of the change, for example the finance manager reports to the CEO of Truelocal and to the Commercial Director of NDM, however Wood et al (2010) note each organisation’s structure is unique and there is no single observed design. This change is described by Wood et al (2010) as radical. Radical changes are fundamental reorientations and transformational, often initiated by the arrival of a new CEO. Culture & Performance Change Since the change occurred, Truelocal’s sales department recorded a growth rate of 15% per full time employee (FTE). Some strategies used were; – Performance appraisal review (PAR) – staff are asked to grade themselves on their performance and their use of company values of which are discussed by their managers. For example one of the values is ‘Impact’ and an employee is asked how much impact they contributed to the organisation since the last performance review and they are required to give examples of this behaviour. These PARs are held quarterly and annually. Reward and remuneration – staff are given targets according to their job level and experience with incentives to over achieve. These targets are called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The person’s job is broken into task components of which each component consists of a target behaviour that is rewarded. Remuneration is based on the overall percent age of KPI achievement. – Recognition – employee of the month award was created by encouraging staff to use an online submission for their preferred co-worker who had gone over and above their job requirement displaying one of the company values. In addition the company awards the sales department with the person with the highest dollar value in sales and yearly a larger reward of which one year was a new car. Similarly a newsletter recognises new sales people who achieve early in their job. All of these reinforcements are called extrinsic which are rewards given to someone by another person’s valued outcome and because they are environmentally impactful are valued in influencing behaviour through the law of effect (Wood et al, 2010). Cultural change can take years according to Wood et al (2010); however effective cultural change strategies can be used to shorten the timeframe. One of which is explained by Oakland & Tanner (2007), it is important to align the culture to support the desired change in behaviour. For example Truelocal needed a professional, customer focused culture which required staff to develop professional skills and behaviour. The result was all departments undertook a full training programme designed to increase awareness in communication, with a focus on questioning and empathy. Conclusion Truelocal is a young company and part of the larger and still relatively new parent organisation, NDM, operating under the global News Corporation. The industry it operates in, digital media is one of the fastest growing and changing environments globally. It changed from a structure and culture of casual, unprofessional work practices managed within a more bureaucratic structure that was under performing to a transformational, high performing, innovative and professional culture that is customer focused. Truelocal achieved its goal of growth, productivity and change in culture, however many staff were lost in the process and not much planning appeared to be in place. It is unclear as to the lack of planning, communication or use of external consultant in the case of radical change that occurred. One assumption might be due to budgetary restrictions as the company has been running at a loss since it started, reporting a loss this year of over one hundred million. Apart from the successful change management strategies that were used by the change agents, in particular the motivational strategies used by nominated change managers, numerous other approaches were identified that may benefit the organisation for managing future changes more effectively. Reference List Carless, S. A. (2005). Person-job fit versus person-organisation fit as predictors of organisational attraction and job acceptance intentions: a longitudinal study. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology. 78 (3), 411-429. Generation Y goes to work (2008, December 30). The Economist (US). Retrieved from http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=12863573 Oakland, J. S. , & Tanner, S. (2007). Successful change management. Total Quality Management, 18 (1-2), 1-19. Tushman, M. L. , Anderson, P. C. & O’Reilly, C. (1997). Technology cycles, innovation streams and ambidextrous organisations: organisaiton renewal through innovation streams and strategic change. Managing strategic innovation and change. Oxford University Press, NY. 2-23. Wood, J, Zeffane, R. , Fromholtz M. , Wiesner R. , Creed A. , Schermerhorn J. , Hunt J. , & Osborn R. , (2010). Organisational Behaviour, Core concepts & applications. 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Australia, Ltd. Milton Qld.