Impact Of Social Media On The Business World And Our Life Essay

Impact Of Social Media On The Business World And Our Life - Essay Example The researcher states that it is important for people to understand how they are going to use social media for their betterment, and also how the businesses can use this platform in order to enhance their revenue. Regarding social media and the popularity of emerging names in social media, two names that come to mind are WhatsApp and Instagram. Instagram is essentially a photo-sharing and video-sharing online service, which is available on platforms such as Apple, Windows, and Android. Likewise, WhatsApp is a messaging and photo-sharing app. which has gained immense popularity in the last 2 years. Both Instagram and WhatsApp incidentally share a common aspect; they both have been acquired by the social media behemoth Facebook. The amount paid to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp has been $1 billion and $16 billion respectively, therefore reflecting the profit-generating potential of social media platforms such as these. Almost 70% of the mobile users used internet on their mobile device s. With the increasing popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices, especially the Android-based ones, the social networking foray started to think how they can reach as many numbers of users as possible through their new and innovative ideas. This thinking created the need for generating a mobile messaging app, which is popularly known as Whats App. This popular mobile messaging service has almost 70 million active users every month. This shows how much people are using social networking in their everyday life. Instagram, the photo-sharing app over the internet, was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. This acquisition had been buzzing over the media as hot news.

Home Schooling Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Home Schooling - Research Paper Example This project stresses that the family which study together stays together. Home schooling is the common thread woven throughout their lives that pulls the family together. It also allows giving quality education to the children .Home as always been the heart of a child’s education. One need not be a professional teacher to home school a child as they are natural learners and parents are natural teachers. Parents are the best teacher a child could have as no one knows the children better than them. The parents knows the strength and weakness of their children and can train them accordingly .Rather than teaching home schooling should be treated as a guiding a child for their future development. This report declares that from the earliest days, a child’s education took place inside the home. Children learned from parents, from a large extended family, and from everyday life. In his book writes that â€Å" History shows that today’s home education sprang from a rich heritage of family based learning† Families made sure that the children learned important life skills, reading, writing, math skills and socializing skills. In the beginning times, school education was not mandatory for children. Many children were taught home as they could not walk the distance to and from school and mass transportation was not yet an option. Some children were kept at home by bad weather, snowstorms and floods. As industrial revolution swept the country, school transportation improved and so did attendance at public schools.

Final Exam Study Sheet Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Final Exam Study Sheet - Assignment Example Persuasion is thus an essential aspect of marketing. In marketing, it can be done using the AIDA formula. The formula is acronym that is vital in the advertising and highlights lists of activities that occur when the customer is engaged with an advertisement agency. Letter A means attention which requires that the attention of the customer should be realized. Interest is the next stage; D means desire while the last A means action. Those who receive given information or message directly are said to be the primary audience. On the other hand, secondary audience involves a group that receives a copy of the information directly. They also called hidden audience. Research exists in primary or secondary dimension (Vogel 34). Primary research is new and has the aim of address specific questions. Secondary research utilizes information from the initially researched areas. These are channels by which message is conveyed from the sender to receiver (Vogel 76). They include emails, letters, and memos. E-mails are quick and can be sent over long distances. They, however, demand computer literacy that most people lack (Vogel 77). Letters are efficient for a smaller organization and are relatively cheaper. On the other hand, they require literacy that is relative. Direct messages communicate open information to the audience (Vogel 66). They are used when immediate feedback is needed. Indirect messages covers and concealed information. They are often used to pass information that demands discreteness. This includes the adjusting of tones in sentences so that the directly points at the ‘you’ being referred to (Vogel 178). They are mostly used in illustrative or instructional sentences. For example, ‘you are being advised to see the manager.’ They are also called topical sentences (Vogel 55). They are made up of short and precise sentences. They appear at the beginning of the

Thornton's Strategic Choices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Thornton's Strategic Choices - Essay Example 18 References 21 (Words 4997) 1. Introduction The identification of successful strategies is a key challenge for managers worldwide. Usually, the ability of managers to locate strategies that are able to respond to organizational needs is differentiated, according to the personal skills and perceptions. Also, each organization’s external environment is likely to affect, more or less, the progress of strategies of the particular organization. In this context, the establishment of an effective strategic management framework can help an organization to increase its efficiencies and stabilize its market position. Kew and Stredwick (2005) note that three are the key elements of all strategic management frameworks: ‘the strategic analysis, the strategic choice and the strategic implementation’ (Kew and Stredwick 2005, p.205). The first of these elements, i.e. the strategic analysis addresses the following two issues: ‘which is the organization’s current pos ition and where the organization wants to go’ (Kew and Stredwick 2005, p.205). At the next level, the strategic choice refers to the need for the identification of appropriate strategic options, as appropriate, for responding to the organization’s needs, as they have been identified through the strategic analysis process (Kew and Stredwick 2005). ... In 2011, the firm’s employees were estimated to 4,205 (Thornton, company website, investor relations 2012). The firm’s turnover in 2011 was estimated to ?218.26m, slightly increased to the turnover of 2010, which was estimated to ?214.55m (Thornton, company website, investor relations/ financial summary 2012). The firm’s performance during the last five years indicates that the organization has been able to face effectively the market challenges. Indeed, the turnover of the firm from 2007 up to 2011 has been changed, as presented in the table in Figure 1 below. Turnover of Thornton from 2007 to 2011 2007 ?185.99m 2008 ?208.12m 2009 ?214.80m 2010 ?214.55m 2011 ?218.26m Figure 1 - Turnover of Thornton from 2007 to 2011 (Source: company website, investor relations/ financial summary 2012) According to the figures presented in Figure 1 below, the organization has managed to achieve a continuous growth. However, if reviewed more carefully, the organization’s pe rformance has not been improved the last five years. More specifically, the organization’s profits have been significantly decreased in 2011, if compared to 2007, as also revealed through the table in Figure 2 below. Profits of Thornton from 2007 to 2011 2007 ?5.21m 2008 ?6.07m 2009 ?3.60m 2010 ?4.35m 2011 -?0.25m Figure 2 – Profits (after tax) of Thornton from 2007 to 2011 (Source: company website, investor relations/ financial summary 2012) At the same time, the number of the organization’s employees has been decreased in 2011, as compared to 2010; in 2010 the firm’s employees were 4,377 while in 2011 they were reduced to 4,205 (Thornton, company website, investor relations 2012). Also, problems in regard to the alignment

Dealing with Difficult Clients and Opposing Essay Example for Free

Dealing with Difficult Clients and Opposing Essay The State Bar of California and the Office of Section Education and Meeting Services are approved State Bar of California MCLE providers. Points of view or opinions expressed in these pages are those of the speaker(s) and/or author(s). They have not been adopted or endorsed by the State Bar of California’s Board of Governors and do not constitute the official position or policy of the State Bar of California. Nothing contained herein is intended to address any specific legal inquiry, nor is it a substitute for independent legal research to original sources or obtaining separate legal advice regarding specific legal situations. Dealing with Difficult People by Steven G. Mehta There seems to be no shortage of difficult people in the practice of law. Perhaps there is something in the water, or perhaps it is the economy. But no matter where you go, difficult clients or opposing counsel seem to be popping up out of nowhere. Indeed, take the case of the hypothetical mediator who had a recent encounter with an extremely difficult party who wanted to sabotage the mediation from the very beginning. The client insulted her own attorney, wouldn’t let the other parties speak, accused her attorneys and every attorney in the world of having no heart or emotions and being liars and accused the mediator of lying about the merits of the case. To top off her venom, she had already reported her attorneys to the bar and at every turn was trying to avoid resolving the case. At one point, one of her attorneys walked out of the mediation. In short – she was the mother of all nightmare parties. Unfortunately for mo st attorneys and mediators, they have met this type of client/party at some point in their career. Therefore, it is critical to understand how to deal with such difficult clients and opposing counsel. First, this article will identify some of the different types of difficult clients. Second, it will discuss general strategies on how to deal with difficult people. Finally, it will provide specific tools on how to deal with difficult clients or opposing counsel. The following are the most common types of clients that can walk into your office. Usually, this angry client will be very hostile towards you and others. Your staff may dread dealing with this person. Sometimes, it is unclear why the person is so angry. Be assured that this person’s anger will only get worse during litigation. Moreover, some or all of that anger will spill over to you and your staff. †¢ The vengeful or zealous client. Typically a vengeful or zealous client will be vengeful about many things and not just the cause for what you are being hired. This person will usually make it known that they are bringing the fight based on principle. Many times this desire for vengeance will overcome any sense of rationality. †¢ The obsessed client. This client cannot stop thinking about the case, the injury, the wrong, and what can be done to address this problem. This client could easily call you several times a day to make sure that you are on top of the case. You could likely get too much information rather than too little. †¢ The emotionally needy client. This client is often emotionally fragile and insecure. Many times this person will be in a co-dependent relationship and is seeking to embroil you in another co-dependent relationship. This person may find it very difficult to make decisions. Mediation Offices of Steve G. Mehta 25124 Springfield Court, Ste. 250, Valencia, CA 91355 Tel: (661) 284-1818 Fax: 661 284-1811 Email: [emailprotected] Offices: Valencia Los Angeles ÂThe angry or hostile client. †¢ The dishonest or deceitful client. Often this client will not tell you all the information they know to be relevant or will tell you the wrong information. †¢ The unresponsive client. This client often wants the appearance of an attorney who is providing independent advice but in reality doesn’t want your advice. This client simply wants you to rubber stamp his or her actions. Often, this client will reject your advice because it is contrary to her own. As stated by Sheila Blackford, author of Recognizing Difficult Client Types, â€Å"Clients often come to lawyers to determine the consequences of actions they have already taken or have decided to take.† Often these clients don’t want you as a lawyer, but are â€Å"forced† by others or circumstance to hire a lawyer. Beware that just as they are unwilling to accept your advice, they may also be unwilling to pay the bill for advice they do not want. Finally, there may be a combination of these t ypes of clients. You could end up with an angry, vengeful client that is obsessed. If that is your client, turn in the other direction and run. If this ends up being your opposing counsel, then in the famous words of the Robot in Lost in Space, â€Å"Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!† Now that difficult clients have been identified, it is helpful to look at some strategies that attorneys can use to combat both difficult or nightmare clients and opposing counsel. First, start out by examining yourself. Everyone can be difficult to deal with at times. Before you can determine whether the other person is the problem, make sure that you aren’t the problem. Are you over overreacting? Are you having a bad day? Why is this person affecting you? What buttons of yours are being pushed, and why? After examining whether you may be part of the communication problem or that you have misinterpreted the comments made towards you, then you will have a better idea as to whether this person is being offensi ve or difficult or whether it is you. In examining yourself, it is important to understand that everybody has an instinctual reaction to act when attacked. This is hardwired in our brains from the stone age days where we had to either react to a threat (fight) or flee from the threat (flight). In modern days, the threat is usually not physical, yet the body still gives issues the same fight or flight reaction. People end up having an immediate need to affirmatively right a wrong or injustice against them. More likely, a person can end up wanting to immediately defend his or her actions or position. This is partially because the attack against a person is affecting his or her internal observation of self worth that person’s standing in the community or amongst his peers. Often people feel the need to show that they are correct and that the other person is wrong. This knee jerk reaction, however, can do more damage than good. Indeed, when having such a reaction, most people perceive that it makes them feel good; but shortly thereafter, they regret having said and done what they did in the heat of the moment. The strategies listed hereafter are not in chronological order; but instead are different strategies that can be employed depending on the situation. First, PRESS THE PAUSE BUTTON. In sports after a particularly difficult call by the referee the commentators will press the pause button on the action and show an instant replay at a slower pace. This tool is not just beneficial in sports. The pause button can be very powerful in helping to deal with difficult people. The length of the pause can depend on the situation. In the case of a minor issue, you might treat the matter with a small pause, giving yourself just enough time to think. Indeed, this is exactly what attorneys tell their clients in preparation for deposition. After the question is asked, wait for a brief second before answering. That pause can help to avoid making a huge blunder by saying the wrong thing. In other cases, you might need a longer pause. You could simply ask for a five-minute break or ask to use the restroom; whatever excuse you need to give to allow yourself a moment to think. Once you have hit the pause button, you can then consider the comment or action, its impact on the scheme of things, and what you might want to do in response. Take for example, the case of one mediator. In one particularly nasty mediation, when a party insulted the mediator’s integrity to its foundation, the mediator simply took a moment to pause in the mediation to let the sting of the initial insult pass. Then he asked take a five-minute break while he digested the information just conveyed. Then when he returned, he simply moved the mediation forward as if the comment had never been made. Once the party realized that she couldn’t get a reaction to her insulting comments, she was forced to stop making them. Another rule to consider is that â€Å"You don’t have to win every argument.† As noted above, often the reason a person jumps into the fray is because she wants to prove that she is right. This is difficult for lawyers because they are trained to advocate their position. However, proving that you are right with a difficult person can simply entrench that person even further; and even though you may feel that you are right, the other person will never agree. Sometimes the best response is to let it go and have the satisfaction that you know that you are right. Another important strategy is to employ ACTIVE LISTENING skills. An important sign of respect for another person is to actually listen to what that other person has to say. How many times have you been in a situation where someone has said:â€Å"You aren’t listening to me. One of the most powerful tools in addressing difficult people is using active listening skills. Active listening skills include avoiding any distractions – such as that pesky Blackberry – and really trying to under stand the other person’s positions and concerns. All too often attorneys are already working on their response while the other person speaks. clarify what you understand about the other person’s statements. Ask whether your restatement is an accurate version of what the other person feels. Sometimes, depending on the person, you might mirror some of the nonverbal cues the person displays. Studies show that by mirroring non-verbal gestures, the other person will feel more connected with you. Ask questions that elicit more information from the other person. Depending on the person, you may have to spend a considerable amount of time using active listening skills. However, at the end of such a process you might find that the difficult person is much less difficult. It is also important when dealing with difficult people that you try not to give that person an excuse to be even more difficult. As such, when you communicate your concerns or feelings try to avoid using terms that target the other person, such as â€Å"you† phrases which target the other person’s behavior. Instead, talk about your experience s using â€Å"I† phrases, such as â€Å"I was upset when I heard the comments.† This approach helps to avoid attacking the other person or accusing the other person of something. Match communication styles. Generally, people fall into three categories: Audio learners, visual learners, or Kinesthetic (or touch) learners. You can tell which style a person favors by the language she uses. Think about whether the other person is using visual language such as color, seeing, and pictures or whether the person is using audio language such as hearing, sounds, vibrations, etc. Then try to match their language by using words that relate to those styles in your responses. For example, with a visual person you might comment, â€Å"I see your position,† but with an audio person you might say, â€Å"I hear what you are saying.† If the difficult person puts you in a position where you are required to respond, ask that person what exactly he is upset about. This will help to demonstrate that you are interested in solutions rather arguing. This strategy then can allow you to incorporate active listening once the person explains to you their concern (irrational or otherwise). Finally, if after an unreasonable attack against you, consider agreeing with a small portion of the statement. This can accomplish several things. First, it can help you avoid jumping in to defend yourself and continuing the unhealthy communication. More importantly, however, it can allow you to create something in common with the angry person and may appease their irrational anger. These general strategies can be very useful in dealing with all types of difficult people. But what about the difficult client or lawyer? There are several specific strategies to work with these individuals. First, there is a saying that the best client you will ever have is the one that you don’t take. In other words, sometimes it is far better to not take a client than to take a client and have nightmares wondering if you are going to be called by the Bar or se rved with an unjustified malpractice suit. matter how lucrative, are just not worth the risk and the stress. Many times if the client is difficult as a prospective client, that person will only get worse during the representation. If you don’t have the luxury of refusing to represent a certain person, establish boundaries. You can limit your involvement to specific interactions. You can also establish boundaries for when and how many calls you might take on a particular topic. One lawyer has a written guideline for all of his clients which establishes what the lawyer will and won’t do in the legal process, including responding to calls on the weekend. Third, you can establish specific requirements for your clients in the very first meeting and before you sign the retainer. Along those same lines, one of the major frustrations for attorneys is clients that have unreasonable expectations of the result and process. By providing the clients with a detailed explanation of what they can expect, and what you expect, y ou can minimize difficult communications. This principle can also work very effectively with opposing counsel. If counsel is abusive to you or your staff, you can set down ground rules for future communications. If those ground rules are not honored, then you can limit your communications. For example, one lawyer lets the opposing counsel know that if there are any further abusive phone calls, then all further interactions will have to be in writing. Moreover, if the opposing counsel persists in his or her actions, then all writings will not be by fax or email, and will only be accepted and given in the mail. One lawyer has gone so far as to require that all conferences be videotaped. Unfortunately due to the nature of the practice of law which involves conflict scenarios, there will continue to be difficult people in the practice of law. There are many strategies for dealing with difficult people. This article has only addressed a few of them. However, armed with these strategies, it is possible to substantially decrease the number of difficult interactions and the stress related to those interactions. Research sources: http://www.abanet.org/lpm/magazine/articles/v36/is4/pg41.shtml Pyschology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200609/dealing-difficultpeople Steven G. Mehta, Esq. is a full time mediator based in Los Angeles with offices in Downtown and Valencia and specializes in emotionally complex cases involving elder law, injury cases, and employment disputes. He can be reached through his website at www.stevemehta.com. Mediation is a tool to help people recognize their responsibility for things, to negotiate a solution and to move on with their lives. My role is to allow them to present their side, to ensure that they are heard and to help them achieve a resolution.† What, exactly, is Mehta’s magic? Understanding human dynamics. â€Å"Anyone can learn the law,† he points out. â€Å"Understanding people is where my expertise lies. There are two sides and two emotions to every story. I care about them both.† But there’s a huge chasm between understanding human dynamics and getting two frustrated, angry parties to agree. Mehta is very definitive about what it takes to bridge that gap and bring the parties together. â€Å"My ability to connect with each participant and develop trust is absolutely essential,† he says. â€Å"Then, I need to be creative about solutions. Finding a mutually satisfying settlement is as much art as it is law. Finally, I never give up. Nothing is impossible. The impossible just takes a little longer.† In the end, there is almost always an answer. When it’s over, it’s a solution the parties chose. â€Å"They feel empowered. Grateful. Relieved,† Mehta says. â€Å"Most importantly, they feel free to move on with their lives.† Now, that’s a masterful job.

Eye Care Institute Analysis

Eye Care Institute Analysis Ishan Narma Jyotismaya Shabeer Pk Khayapam Raising Ujjval Rana Nahid Zafar Ipshita Prasad Usha Deepthi INTRODUCTION: The LV Prasad Eye Institute was established in 1987, with a mission to provide equitable and efficient eye care to all sections of society. Started with a goal to be a leader in combating global blindness through the direct impact of patient services and the indirect impact of training it provided to eye care professionals, LVPEI by 2011, had become a world class eye institute encompassing services such as clinical care, education, research, rehabilitation and high impact rural eye care. LVPEI was the brainchild of Dr. GN Rao, who after working for 12 years in the United States, was greatly inspired by the quality of eye care provided there. Born in a small village of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Rao was very sensitive to the health problems of the poor and wanted to do something for them. His dream of serving the poor was shared by film producer L.V. Prasad, who wanted to support a project dedicated to enhancement of vision. L.V. Prasad donated a 5 acre plot of land to Dr. Rao to start an eye hospital, along with the equivalent of 1 million US dollars. Dr. Rao named the hospital after L.V. Prasad, to respond to his generosity. Additional funds were generated for the hospital from the United States through the Indo-American Eye Care Society and finally the hospital started operations in 1987. The hospital was built with a keen eye for aesthetics. Dr. Rao did not want the hospital to look or feel like one, instead wanting a sunny and pleasant place with wide corridors and soothing dà ©cor. Dr. Rao wanted to focus on the patient, keeping in mind his dignity, needs and comfort. LVPEI offered services for all types of eye care diseases, from routine cataract surgery to complex procedures such as retinal, corneal and oculoplasty services. Special service facilities were set up for the vulnerable age groups such as children and the elderly. Since it was established in 1987, LVPEI had provided outpatient care to six million and surgical care to more than 585,000 patients, 52% of them free of charge. LVPEI had reached a total of 17 million people, and had built permanent eye care infrastructure in 16 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Vision 2020 – The Right to Sight In order to address the problem of increasing number of global blindness, WHO and the International Association for Prevention of Blindness jointly launched a common agenda for global action: Vision 2020 The Right to Sight. Five conditions were identified as immediate priorities based on their high prevalence, and the affordability of interventions to treat them. These were Cataract, Trachoma, Onchocerciasis, Childhood Blindness and Refractive Errors. PYRAMID OF EYE CARE In order to attain the aim of making eye care accessible to everyone, Rao and his team developed the LVPEI Pyramid of eye care. The main emphasis of this model was to provide eye care at appropriate level, easily accessible and affordable without any compromise in quality. This resulted in the creation of facilities within the community which are linked to higher levels of care. The pyramid consists of 5 levels of care. They are, Community Level Care, Primary Level Care, Secondary Service Centres, Tertiary Care Centres and Centre of Excellence. Community Level Care: The community level care is provided by the vision guardians. They look after the health of 5000 people. They monitor the health of children and elderly by doing door to door campaigns and through other means. They monitor those patients who have had surgery and provide readymade near vision glasses. They also refer those who need eye check up to the appropriate centre. Primary Level Care: The primary eye care is provided at the Vision Centres, managed by the Vision Technicians trained by LVPEI. They screen people at the centre and children at school. They cover a population of 50000. They dispense spectacles as well as educate the people about their use. They also identify people for surgery advanced eye care. Secondary Service Centres: At this level, outpatient services are provided where diagnosis of all eye diseases is done. They perform eye surgeries and also serve as the referral source for tertiary care. They serve a population of 1 lac. There are 11 secondary care centres and 9 partner centres. Tertiary Care Centres: They provide highest quality medical and surgical eye care irrespective of the socioeconomic status. They serve a population of 5 million. They offer finest medical education and surgical training to eye care professionals and also conduct innovative research. Centre of Excellence: It is situated at Hyderabad serving a population of 50 million. It provides services like management of complex cases, training to subspecialists and trainers, rehabilitation, research and capacity building of training centres. This model of LVPEI is so efficient that the Government of India has adopted the same model for eye care service delivery in current five year budget plan. EDUCATION AND TRAINING LVPEI considers training and education as an important factor which can influence the quality of eye health service delivery. The training aims to upgrade the skills of ophthalmologists and equip new entrants to the field with the appropriate skills and knowledge. The institute develops human resources internally through training and education. All the clinical staff, support staff, ophthalmic technicians and eye care administrators undergo a training program before they are recruited for the particular post which helps to maintain quality care across all the levels of care. It has a comprehensive co-operative agreement of mutual benefit in education and research with the University of Rochester Eye Institute, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Wisconsin, Duke University and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in the United States and the University of New South Wales and University of Melbourne in Australia. This gives great opportunity for those who would like to excel in e ye care delivery. RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY LVPEI integrated research as a part of service delivery though it affected the clinical workload and productivity. It was 25 years ago, the research started at Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (HERF), the research arm of the institute, with the support from Professor Brien Holden of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The research concentrated on molecular genetics of inherited eye diseases, molecular diagnostics for early detection, microbiology of eye infections, biochemical features of cataract and stem cell technology for reconstruction of the damaged ocular outer surface. Research is spread over the centres at Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. It not only conducts clinical research but also clinical trials. Each clinical research project and trial goes through a rigorous examination by Institutional Review Board (IRB), for its scientific and ethical aspects. Only those that are approved are taken up. The projects were supported by the grant s received from the Department of Biotechnology( DBT), Department of Science and Technology(DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), National Eye Institute(NEI, National Institutes of Health), USA. HERF is one of the four pillars of the multinational research and development group called Vision Cooperative Research Centre (operating from Sydney, Australia). It conducts research on a series of clinical studies. Research at the Institute aims to be â€Å"relevant, rigorous and cutting edge†, and hopes to become one of the most productive eye research groups in the world. Towards this aim, there are six initiatives. They are a new Academy for Eye Care Education, Child Sight Institute, Institute for Eye Care for the Elderly, Centre for Ocular Regeneration (CORE), Institute for Eye Cancer, a Centre of Excellence in Eye Banking. The start of SRUJANA (a Sanskrit term meaning creativity), centre for innovation was a milestone. It is a bilateral program between HERF and groups at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RURAL EYE CARE (ICARE) International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care (GPR ICARE), LVPEIs community outreach program, began in May 1998, with the aim of making high-quality, appropriate eye care accessible to all. Objectives LVPEI tried to develop high quality self-sustaining eye care services in neglected areas of India and other parts of the developing world and to train all cadres of eye care personnel for the provision of efficient eye care services. Its objectives include participating in planning eye health initiatives in the developing world to undertake operations and research projects. Also LVPEI collaborated with international NGOs like Operation Eyesight Universal (OEU), in turn to support the hospitals to scale up their capacity to perform affordable cataract surgeries and provide comprehensive eye care services around the world. This support of LVPEI helped the hospitals to increase the number of patients by 100 per cent. Organisational Excellence Rao gives the full credit of organisational excellence to the employees. It is achieved by constant nurturing of its employees by giving continuous education program and training activities at various levels. The culture of the institute is build around quality care. To instil quality consciousness, they conduct presentation once a month at 7am meeting on already audited files and will see how they had complied with the standards. This effort will reinforce the quality consciousness among the employees. Since the organisation is depending on their employees the biggest challenge in front of LVPEI is in finding right people at right position. According to them they don’t want to hire somebody to fill a slot, but need people with exceptional potential. Their recruitment process is unique as they try to bring young people from rural areas and train them both clinical teachings and the culture, which they are following in the institute. They always prefer to have fresh minds over personnel with previous experience, since the experienced people couldn’t follow the institute. LVPEI gives importance to individual growth and career development as well, as they allow doctors to allocate their time at hospital between patient care, education and research. LVPEI culture is highly patient centric, we can see it from their practices like, doctors directly go to the waiting room to fetch the next patient, instead of waiting for the nurse to do so. The closest parking area is reserve d for patients rather than doctors and the staff members. The founder of LVPEI, Gullapalli N Rao, did his graduation in medical science (MBBS) at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and completed his post graduation from AIIMS, Delhi in ophthalmology. He then went to the US in 1974 and came back in 1986 and established LVPEI in 1987 in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). The idea behind this institute is to help poor and needy people in terms of alleviation of blindness. By the technical knowledge and experience gained in India and US and his strong desire and passion toward the work for the poor and needy people develop his leadership quality. DR. RAO’S LEADERSHIP SKILLS As we are talking about the work done by Rao and his leadership under which LVPEI gets the highest level of honor in people’s mind, it is to be emphasized that this is achieved solely by strong desire. Dr. Rao displays basically three kinds of leadership – People oriented leadership Transformational leadership Contingency leadership In People oriented leadership there is a mutual trust that exists between the leader and the followers. Leader is very much concerned about the desire, demand and welfare of his follower and this gains him respect and popularity among the followers. Dr. Rao’s patient- centric approach is clearly seen from his own quotation -â€Å"Patient is king; his dignity, needs and comfort supersede everything also , regardless of whether he pays for it or is treated free of cost†. His nature towards the patients can be understood with the help of certain scenario described by his staff member and patients. For example, in terms of reducing the waiting time of the patient come for the treatment in OPD doctors of the hospital has to walk in the lobby to approach the patient. Another example is about the parking arrangement of the hospital where the area is clearly defined for the staff and the patients come for the treatment. Parking area of the patient is nearer to the hospital as compared to staff so the patient is given prior importance. There are mainly three kinds of qualities which we have observed in a transformational leader charismatic, inspirational and individual consideration. In case of Rao, he is a visionary in nature. He is totally devoted to his goal to alleviate blindness and plan and work accordingly to meet his desired goal. He is very professional and his communication skills are excellent and so people feel comfortable in approaching him. His long term planning quality makes him a charismatic personality. Rao is very good in technical knowledge and skills and these are built on the foundation of his hardworking and passionate nature. His hardworking attitude made him popular in the hospital under the name of ‘Task maker’ and he unwillingly became the inspirational model for many people. By rewarding the staff he motivates them to do best for the hospital and for the patients. He strives to resolve even the personal problems of his staff and provide moral support. Contingency leader is the person who responds according the situation required. In case of Rao many people give different opinion; some would say he is autocratic in nature, some would say he is charismatic but democratic in nature, and further some would say he is very supportive in nature. Actually he responds differently according to the situation required. He becomes autocratic when matters of policy making, decision making, task completion and quality of work are concerned; becomes democratic when we are talking about long term projects and providing help to the staff and he becomes supportive when his staff have any issues may they be personal or professional. Rao’s leadership might be different from other leaders but he is the one who has made LVPEI the pioneer institute for eye care in India. Apart from LVPEI, Aravind Eye Hospital has gained massive popularity among the people. All this has been possible by the transformational leadership of Dr. Venkataswamy, who started this not for profit institute on great Indian mystic Aurobindo’s philosophy. QUALITY MANAGEMENT LVPEI follows standard protocols and processes for providing best quality eye care. By having proper support from appropriate systems, the doctors are able to treat lot of patients in the OP. They are following data driven approach to monitor quality. They periodically review the programs to modify them accordingly and to implement policies. FINANCIAL VIABILITY LVPEI is under the supervision of two not for profit institutes, Hyderabad Eye Institute and Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation. Even after treating a large chunk of patients at free of cost, they managed to generate profit. The main source of income for LVPEI was through cross subsidization of treatment where the treatment cost of poor patients is covered by rich patients. They are receiving donations from like-minded organizations, who support its work. FUTURE OF LVPEI The Indian health care industry is entering into new era with significant changes in greater affordability, increased awareness in patients, and presence of more health care providers. The population opting for health insurance is about 2% in India and about 20-30% of insured patients visit urban hospitals for seeking health care services. Now-a-days patients’ requirements have shifted from good quantity of vision to good quality of vision. There are more specialized clinics that educate patients on various methods of eye treatment and their outcomes. Due to all the above issue LVPEI has been forced to restructure and reorganize its system of delivering eye care facility. ORGANIZATION LIFE CYCLE AND LEADERSHIP A FUTURE PERSPECTIVE Being a 27 years old organization, LVPEI has already reached a state of maturity in its life cycle, which is characterized by delay in decision making, being less proactive, less innovative and more risk-averse. LVPEI has a functionally based structure that is primarily led by doctors and exhibits as fairly centralized. So for this LVPEI has developed a bureaucratic style of functioning and decision making. Its focus is mainly on efficiency rather than novelty. The future head of LVPEI should to be an ophthalmologist having an outstanding track record and who could take forward the organization into a desirable state of its functioning. LVPEI prefers its future head to be a clinical scientist respected both nationally and internationally. COMPARING DR. VENKATASWAMY’S LEADERSHIP WITH DR. RAO Both the legendary leaders from India, who tried to held head up in the global eye care. The main attracting feature of Dr. Venkataswamy’s leadership was his clear vision about the hospital and its function, while Dr. Rao is very much concerned about the needs and welfare of his followers and this make him respectful among the followers. Dr. Rao put emphasis on quality care and highly patient centric approach in the institute’s culture, Dr. Venkataswamy believed in social marketing strategy for the development and expansion. CRITICAL ANALYSIS WITH ARAVIND EYE HOSPITAL LVPEI has got a clear cut strategy for community outreach programs, but Aravind eye care lacks clarity on it. LVPEI focused on producing human resources internally, while Aravind eye care preferred persons with experience. LVPEI’s focus is on quality care, Aravind eye care focused on quantity, by increasing the number of patients. CONCLUSION Facing great challenges from both environment and leadership change, LVPEI had set a few goals for itself in the next five years, such as, strengthening its brand as a cutting-edge eye care delivery system, providing good quality of services and education, strengthening the ability of the institute to conduct breaks through clinical research, improving the ability of LVPEI to provide high level community health services, and improving its ability to enhance the capacity of LVPEI to become a role model globally in eye care health delivery system. Ultimately the main focus of LVPEI is to provide eye care facility to 200 million people directly by 2020. LVPEI also aimed to enhance the eye health policy across India and globally through providing quality eye health. Finally Dr. Rao articulated in his dream that, â€Å"when people talk about best eye institutes globally, LVPEI must come up for discussion† REFERENCES: http://www.lvpei.org/

Gender Stereotypes in Young Children

Gender Stereotypes in Young Children à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Sugar and Spice and everything nice, thats what little girls are made of. Society today has made a clear cut line about what is appropriate for a little boy and what is appropriate for a little girl. Society has made that distinction through gender stereotyping. If you walk into a preschool class room today, little girls will be playing dress-up with fairy and princess costumes while the boys will be tackling each other or playing with dump trucks. Even though many people believe that gender is not learned, but instinctual instead, there may be outside influences on gender roles that children fall victim to, for example parents influence gender roles by the language they use and media and toys reinforce gender stereotypes in children by character portrayal and advertisements. There are many different parenting styles that are seen today. Psychologist Diana Baumrind discovered four basic styles of parenting; authoritarian, permissive-indifferent, permissive-indulgent, and authoritative (Morris, 310). Regardless of the parenting style that one family opts for, there seems to be a common thread; the majority of parents will dress little boys in blue and little girls in pink. The thought process behind this is so that their gender can be identified properly by an outside source. No parent wants to be walking through a store with their little boy and have a stranger ask, How old is she? Interestingly enough however, according to the article Whats Wrong with Cinderella? author Peggy Orenstein points out when colors were first introduced to the nursery in the early part of the twentieth century, pink was considered the more masculine hue, a pastel version of red. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, was thought to be dainty. Somewhere along the line, the reverse was thought true; pink was more feminine and blue was more masculine, and is so enforced by todays standards. Another example of how strongly parents influence gender was learned when an experiment was performed at Harvard University. Male babies were dressed in pink outfits and were then given to adults to handle under the impression that they were girls. The language used with the boy babies dressed in pink fell into the female stereotype, while the girl babies dressed in blue fell into the male stereotype, being called handsome and tough (Pruett). Language is a big influence on gender interpretation. Often we tell boys not to cry and explain things with different tones for boys versus girls. If a little girl hits a friend, parents/caregivers might use a gentler phrase like, gentle hands on your friends please. If a little boy hits a friend, parents/caregivers might just shrug the action off as Boys will be boys as the common saying goes or raise their voices to get the point across more strongly, We DO NOT hit our friends! Even the compliments that adults bestow upon children can be gender stereotyping. When you tell a little a girl how pretty she looks in her dress is an illustration of that. Parents lead by example. Their children learn behavior from what they see their parents doing, even if unintentional. If a child sees their mother as the one who always does the laundry and cooks the meals and the father as the one who always takes the trash out, then chances are that the child will follow the same roles when as they grow up. Media also plays a large part in where children learn about what their gender role is. Disney movies are a prime example of this. In these movies, the leading female character, usually a princess, is sweet, romantic, daydreams about Prince Charming, and almost always wears a dress in a pastel color. On the other hand, the same Disney movie can represent the male population watching with a prince, who is usually strong, willing to fight, and always gets the girl at the end. These characters often lead to a misconception of what is feminine and what is masculine. On the spectrum of gender identity, Disney may represent the extremes of what the appropriate gender role is. Advertisements are often seen using gender as a marketing strategy for toys or games. If you look at a commercial for Tonka Trucks, there wont be a little girl to be seen in these ads. However, if you see a commercial for Easy-Bake oven, the opposite will be true. There will be no boys in those commercials. Seeing these on television demonstrates to children what should be an appropriate toy for a little boy and what should be appropriate for a little girl. Even the behaviors of children portrayed in television advertisements are stereotypic. Boys are often seen as active and domineering while the girls are portrayed as shy or overly silly. These advertisements usually lead to the purchase of the toys shown for the sex it was targeted to. Parents often wonder if you give a baby doll to a little boy or a dump truck to a little girl, will they be gender confused. Even the most new-age parents might find it bizarre to see their little boys walking around preschool with a purse and in dress shoes. Boys have a harder time crossing the gender line, whereas some parents of females might think that its alright for their daughters to play with dump trucks or Legos. This does not mean that the son will be more feminine and the daughter will be a tom-boy, but a majority of parents do not want to risk that. Not everyone believes, however, that gender is strictly a learned behavior. In 2009, Texas AM University used eye tracking software to measure infants interest in either male or female toys (Shaffer). According to an article published in 2010, the author M. Fox, found the results to be extremely informative: Hormone levels in the saliva, as well as finger dimensions that indicate prenatal testosterone exposure were measured to see if these things could explain why the infants visually preferred certain toys over others. The results revealed that while the girls preferences werent affected by hormone levels at all, the boys preferences were affected by both current and prenatal hormone levels. It appears that the higher the presence of testosterone at the time of the test, the greater the preference for groups of figures over individual figures, and those who indicated a higher exposure to prenatal testosterone had a stronger preference for the ball over the doll. This means that the boys showed an optical penchant for gender specific toys. In an article in New Scientist, Linda Geddes states that research has been done to show that the introduction of changing levels of testosterone and estrogen while babies are in utero may also have some sway in which toys boys and girls pick. There are other theorists that believe that there is a cognitive connection to gender development. Carol Lynn Martin and Diane Ruble are two such theorists. They discuss Kohlbergs theory of gender development is and what the impact is of knowing your gender does not change. This is an important fact for children to learn, generally setting the concepts of what is correct behavior for your gender type. Martin and Ruble think that there are important cognitive themes for gender development, rather than the influence of a specific outside source. The first important theme discussed is The Emergence of Gender Identity and Its Consequences. In this stage, it is allegedly general knowledge that children understand that there are two different types of genders, and they have the realization that they fall into one of those two categorizing sexes. This first theme is then broken down into two sub-categories, Evaluative Consequences and Motivational and Informational Consequences. The former meaning that the child understands and identifies one group as their own and sees this group as a positive. The latter sub-category means that one the child picks a gender to identify with and while the want to understand the opposite sex dwindles, the individual seems only interested it their own gender identity. The second theme that is thought to be a cognitive gender identity link is Active, Self-Initiated View of Gender Development and the final theme is Developmental Patterns. In these two themes, the thought is that the main focus is learning about the social gender group that they most identify with, and forming and developing the characteristics that are most familiar with the identified gender. While exploring the cognitive connection to gender, many place a strong association to motivational significances and developmental configurations of the gender identity theory. Even though many theorists believe that gender is not a learned behavior, but you are born knowing the difference between appropriate male behaviors and toys and appropriate female behaviors and toys, others disagree. Those people state that there are many possible outside influences on children when they are learning their gender roles in society. Some also believe that being aware of specific gender stereotypes has a connection to how one behaves. The media and toys that children do see and use play an intricate part in the concept of gender roles and parents influence gender identity by using specific language and actions. Whether or not gender is identity is solely obtained by influence or is pre-determined by some cognitive connection, it is an intriguing issue. Should boys and girls be able to make the choice of the toy that they want to play with or what their favorite color is going to be regardless of what society claims is normal? With the role that parents or caregivers pl ay in gender role identification, they should learn different methods for breaking stereotypes. Adults could make sure that they use the same language for both sexes or become involved in activities such as cuddling with boys or wrestling with girls. Connecting children of both sexes in such a manner is a good way to encourage the cycles of gender stereotyping to end.