CDHPs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

CDHPs - Assignment Example It is in the same year that health reimbursement arrangements (HRA) begun. Then Health Savings Account (HSA) closely followed HRAs after the approval of the 2003 Modernization Act. This Act allowed individuals with a considerable amount of deductible health contrive to contribute towards HSAs. The main reason for coming up with CDHPs was to empower employees to make informed decisions about health care (â€Å"FAQ - What are Consumer Directed Health Plans (CDHPs),† n.d.). Since 2001, CDHPs have assumed an upward trend as consumers have appreciated it as a financial friendly and cost- restraint system. Studies show that in 2013 only, nearly 23% of employers having workers ranging from 15 to 400 and employers with over 500 workers proposed the use of either HSA or HRA health scheme. Studies affirm that CDHPs do not downgrade preventive services and encourages younger healthier populations since most subscribers are young families. Today not only individuals but also business companies have embraced CDHPs as a way of handling their health related issues. There has been a rise for contributions in both HSA and HRAs 2013 having an approximated amount of $ 23.8 billion Collins, 2007). This was a significant rise from $18 billion in 2012. The number of account holders rose from 11.7 million in 2012 to 11.8 million in 2013. Although there are speculations about the ineffectiveness of CDHPs, it stands undisputed that this type of strategy has an amazing ability to make member to take actively part in their health care management. CDHPs readily offer necessary support to members in terms of materials and skills. Feeling that the individual may not be able to understand or manage his or her finances when enrolled in CDHPs is inappropriate. (Greene, Peters, Mertz, & Hibbard, 2008)A research conducted reveal that CDHP members are aware of their roles and make good use of the available information

Models in project management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Models in project management - Essay Example This statement of work will provide a deep insight into development of the high-level project charter for the E-Mail Upgrade Project described in the scenario. This statement will provide an overview of the identification of a project management methodology and project team, and a baseline schedule. This will describe the project objective and its main scope. This project is going to enhance the overall structure if the company communication structure. This project will upgrade the e-mail system of the Ohio Department of Human Services. Through this the organization will get the better communication facilities and data sharing network over the organizational intranet. This project will enhance the following areas of the organization; This project will be implemented on the Ohio Department of Human Service’s organizational Intranet. The Office of Network Support (ONS) will keep track and manage the overall project and its associated activates (tasks, phases). We have decided to purchase the new version of the Worldviewupgrades that is Globalupgrades 9.0. This is better system with the offer of discounts for a Version 9.0 license. We are also satisfied with the quality of this system working. This system will also offer the better robust working environment. I have analyzed the overall project tasks and main activities that we will need to perform. After this I have devised a workable and convent time line for this project. This project will take three months for the overall project execution and implementation. At the end of the three months we are expecting to have the overall new efficient working system that will deliver the better performance and communication infrastructure. After that we have to engage a training period of three days that will introduce the all personal regarding the use of the new system. This system should have the capability to tolerate any system level error. This system should also

Introduction to Health Economics, Lorna Guinness | Overview

Introduction to Health Economics, Lorna Guinness | Overview NAME OF THE BOOK: INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH ECONOMICS AUTHOR: GUINNESS, LORNA KEY TERMS Efficiency It describe the connection between inputs and outputs. It’s involved with increasing advantages with the resources accessible, or minimizing prices for a given level of profit. Goods These are the outputs (such as health care) of a production method that involves the combining of various resources like labor and instrumentation. Merchandise (including services) are valuable within the sense that they supply some utility to individual shoppers. They’re termed ‘goods’ as theyre fascinating, as distinct from ‘bads’ that youll examine later! Health sector It contains organized public and personal health services, the policies and activities of health departments and ministries, health-related nongovernment organizations and community teams, and skilled associations. Health services- The vary of services undertaken primarily for health reasons which have an instantaneous result on health, as well as health care programs like health promotion and specific disease prevention and treatment. Marginal analysis It is the examination of the additional focal points or costs emerging from an extra unit of utilization or generation of a decent. Market A state of affairs wherever those who have a requirement for an honest move with suppliers and agree on a worth at that the great are going to be listed .The important condition for effectively working markets may be an arrangement of property rights to verify that people will take part in honestiness. Opportunity cost (economic cost) As assets are rare, a single person, in deciding to devour a decent, on a fundamental level, picks the great which provides for him or her the best advantage, and in this manner renounces the utilization of a scope of option merchandise of lesser worth. The opportunity expense is the estimation of the profit of the following best option. Resources These represent inputs into the method of manufacturing merchandise. They’ll be classified into 3 main elements: labor, capital and land. Completely different merchandise would typically need variable mixtures of those parts. Resources are typically valued in financial terms. Utility- The satisfaction or fulfillment an individual increases from expending a decent. The more utility an individual gets from the utilization of a decent, all else being equivalent, the more they would be eager to use their salary on it. What is an economy? The economy is outlined as all the economic activities and establishments among an outlined space (usually geographically, associated with the political borders of a nation state). Resources’ are those items within the economy that can be used to manufacture and distribute goods. Resources will be classified as labor, capital and land: Labor refers to human resources, manual and non-manual, accomplished and unskilled. Capital-are those product that are accustomed turn out alternative product – as an example machinery, buildings and tools . Land –consist of all natural resources, like oil or ore. Goods are either items that you can hold or touch (e.g. a medication) or else they are administrations that befall you (e.g. a counsel). There are 2 vital attributes that recognize diverse goods: 1 Physical attributes – a frozen dessert and a cup of tea are totally completely different commodities as a result of they need different producing techniques and since they satisfy different needs. 2 Context in which the good is consumed – for example: a) the time in which the good is available – an ice cream that is available on a hot summer’s day is a different good from one available in the cold midwinter. b) The place where the commodity is available – a cup of tea available in a fashionable cafà © is a different good from tea that is sometimes sold at a petrol station. What is a market? In financial science, the expression business sector is utilized to clarify any condition of undertakings wherever individuals that request a conventional close with suppliers. For it to be a market the purchasers and venders dont need to be urged to physically meet – case in point, most unmistakably, exchanging on the net will include systems of individuals in all segments of the planet who can never meet. Altogether, an important condition for effectively working markets could be an arrangement of property rights to affirm that people will take part in accordance with some basic honesty. This infers that the exchanges made between gatherings are some way or another enforceable which there are bound comprehended tenets in regards to however people act as far as giving information, making installment. Health System finance Health system finance is that the method by that revenues area unit collected from primary and secondary sources, that area unit accumulated in fund pools and allotted to supplier activities’ Within the finance function of the health system there are unit 3 main activities. Revenue collection refers to the raising of funds either directly from people seeking health care or indirectly through governments or donors. Fund pooling refers to the gathering of funds which will be used for finance a given population’s health care in order that contributors to the pool share risks. Purchasing is the method of allocating funds to the suppliers of health care. There are two ways of paying for health services: Out-of-pocket payments: this is often the only and earliest style of dealing between patient and provider. Third-party payments: where providers are paid by an insurance company or a government. 1) In several countries out-of-payments for health care play a crucial role. From low-income countries theres proof that individuals who are not covered by insurance pay high amounts for health care in relevance their financial gain. In Africa, quite fifty per cent of health care expenses return from directly paid non-public sources. Types of out-of-pocket expenditure include the following. †¢ Private consultations with doctors. †¢ Over the counter (OTC) drugs. †¢ Co-payments and user fees: where third-party payment is prevalent, cost sharing within the variety of co-payments plays a very important role. Co-payments and user fees might apply to prescription drugs, medical care, patient care and emergency transport. †¢ Unofficial fees: besides official fees, unofficial payments to doctors are common in several countries. Further payments to employees to urge access to hospitalization are common in some Asian countries. In range of countries in central and Eastern Europe, doctors used to expect unofficial payments as a supplement to their financial gain. †¢ Services not covered by insurance: transport costs, traditional or complementary medicine and luxury services such as cosmetic surgery. 2) These are costs that are high in connection to salary. Case in point, lavish helps are unrealistic to be paid out-of-pocket, as individuals would need to use a substantial extent of their salary or riches on social insurance. Generally, people look for protection to secure themselves against such conceivably disastrous misfortunes. You might likewise consider administrations with qualities of an open decent which are financed openly on the grounds that they are not given by private markets. Consider preventive administrations, for example, wellbeing instruction, which the individual customer may not be ready to buy secretly. 3) Overall out-of-pocket spending on health care is increasing. This is due to the growing proportion of OTC drugs and increasing cost sharing. The evolution of health service finance Global correlations demonstrate that nations use distinctive methods for paying for wellbeing administrations. Case in point, France and Sweden have created notably diverse practices to reserve healing centers and to pay for specialists. Latin American nations have social protection frameworks while in numerous African nations government subsidizing is normal. The Changing World of Health Services Finance The climbing estimation of health awareness imply that paying for medicinal services is an issue of concern in most, if not all nations. Governments are upset in regards to the monetary and political results of the expanding benefit of giving wellbeing administrations and look at to utmost using through tighter controls and diverse changes. Theres gigantic assemblage of writing to suggest that a considerable measure of nations are disappointed with the present methodologies of account and conveyance of wellbeing administrations or as inside the instance of the past Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, are forced into change through immense political alteration and wretchedness. Though the motives and kinds of reform could disagree, there are some common themes: Separation of customer and supplier responsibilities whereby the underlying plan is that purchasers contract with those suppliers giving best price for cash which this will increase the potency of service delivery . Redefinition of the role of the state in responsibility for health care. Encouragement of the personal sector. Encouragement of competition between suppliers. Alternative sources of funding, budget constraints and political modification in several countries has resulted within the health sector and governments seeking out other ways of mobilizing the resources. What is economic evaluation? It is the comparison of prices and consequences of different health care interventions to assess their worth for cash. Impact of health problems A key need of numerous social orders far and wide is the assuagement of wellbeing issues: illness, damage or a danger component for one of these. The effect of such wellbeing issues can be showed in distinctive ways – physical inability, dismalness and mortality, enthusiastic trouble, social troubles and seclusion, and monetary and financial misfortune. The impact of health problems can be measured as: The number of cases The number of passing’s(deaths) The amount of disability, pain or suffering The measure of people with a risk factor The measure of money spent on a health problem

Drug and Alcohol Abuse :: Substance Abuse Essays

In the book Understanding Drug Use, An Adult's Guide to Drugs and the Young, by Peter Marin and Allan Cohen, you find that education in our youth today is vital. In a few short years, drug taking by younger people has become a fact of life in America, and for hundreds of thousands of families this fact poses a profound problem with wrenching social, legal, and psychological implications. Faced with an upsetting and unfamiliar experience when they discover that their children are experimenting with drugs or alcohol, parents search frantically for solutions-often coming up with the wrong ones, thereby intensifying an already sensitive situation. This book seems to have been written with the parent or mentor in mind. It focuses on realistic approaches to dealing with substance abuse, and attempts to help parents and others understand why some people put themselves in these types of situations.The damage that could result from a parents lack of understanding in the meaning of their chil d's drug and/or alcohol abuse can often be worse than the results of the child actually taking the drugs! Marin and Cohen lay the groundwork for this understanding with a discussion of adolescence in America today that makes many parents realize they play an important role in helping their children react to situations. With sensitivity and genuine feeling, discussion can open up new areas of understanding, revealing some of the fundamental impulses that motivate our young people in today's society, and perhaps parents will be better equipped psychologically to relate to what really troubles their children. Most parents must assume that their children will attempt drugs and/or alcohol at least once in their adolescence, and attempts to suppress their use entirely "are doomed to fail, because children react to actions of parents and peers". The authors instead suggest ways to minimize drug misuse and teach specific ways in which parents, teachers, community leaders, and others can assist children in education on the negative results of abuse.Some of the suggestions are helpful and can bring understanding to the child as well. What to do if your child is arrested is one topic area, and in it the authors suggest you attempt to motivate your child to see how he or she came into the situation t hey are in now.

Cruise Control

Dept. of Electronics & Communication RVCE, Bangalore Cruise Control System |Cruise control is a new technological development which incorporates a factor of comfort in driving. Safety is only a small benefit of this | |system. In short, cruise control can be said to be a system which uses the principles of radar to determine the distances between two | |consecutive moving vehicles in which either one or both of them is incorporated with this system. | Lalitha Chinmayee H M 1RV11EC052 Namratha H Mahesh 1RV11EC062 IntroductionEvery minute, on average, at least one person dies in a crash. Air bags and seat belts save tens of thousands of people a year. But the ultimate solution and the only thing that will save far more lives, limbs and money is cruise control system. Cruise control was commercially introduced in 1958 as an option on the Chrysler Imperial. Cruise control is an invaluable feature on American cars. Without cruise control, long road trips would be more tiring, for the driv er at least, and those of us suffering from lead-foot syndrome would probably get a lot more speeding tickets.Cruise control is far more common on American cars than European cars, because the roads in America are generally bigger and straighter, and destinations are farther apart. With traffic continually increasing, basic cruise control is becoming less useful, but instead of becoming obsolete, cruise control systems are adapting to this new reality — soon, cars will be equipped with adaptive cruise control, which will allow your  ­car to follow the car in front of it while continually adjusting speed to maintain a safe distance. What is Cruise Control System?Cruise control is a system, which automatically controls the speed of an automobile. Most cruise control systems don’t allow the use of cruise control below a certain speed. The purpose of the cruise control system is to maintain a constant vehicle speed despite external disturbances, such as changes in wind o r road grade. This is accomplished by measuring the vehicle speed, comparing it to the desired or reference speed, and automatically adjusting the throttle according to a control law. The cruise control system actually has a lot of functions other than controlling the speed of your car.It can accelerate or decelerate with the tap of a button. There are also several important safety features — the cruise control will disengage as soon as you hit the brake pedal, and it won't engage at speeds less than a particular value (usually around 25-30 mph). We all know that the things that control the speed of the car are the gas pedal and the brakes. And the brain that normally controls the speed of the car is the brain of the driver. The driver senses the speed by looking at the speedometer and then adjusting the pressure on the gas pedal or the brakes to compensate for variations in the desired speed.The cruise control system does the same thing with one exception. It only controls t he gas pedal – it doesn't even know there are brakes in the car!! A Blind inventor and mechanical engineer called Ralph Teetor, invented cruise control in 1943. [pic] Modelling To understand the working of a cruise control system, we consider here a simple model of the vehicle dynamics, shown in the free-body diagram (FBD) below. The vehicle, of mass m, is acted on by a control force, u. The force u represents the force generated at the road/tire interface.For this simplified model we will assume that we can control this force directly and will neglect the dynamics of the powertrain, tires, etc. , that go into generating the force. The resistive forces, bv, due to rolling resistance and wind drag, are assumed to vary linearly with the vehicle velocity, v, and act in the direction opposite the vehicle's motion. [pic] Figure 1 Summing forces in the x-direction and applying Newton's 2nd law, we arrive at the following system equation: (1)[pic] —(1) Since we are interested in controlling the speed of the vehicle, the output equation is chosen as follows 2)[pic] —(2) Taking Laplace’s transform for equation (1), we get m sV(s) + b. V(s)=U(s) —(3) We find the transfer function of the cruise control system to be: [pic] [pic] Figure 2 – Block Diagram Controlling the Cruise Control The brain of a cruise control system is a small computer that is normally found under the hood or behind the dashboard. It connects to the throttle control as well as several sensors. The diagram below shows the inputs and outputs of a typical cruise control system. [pic] Figure 3 – Cruise Control Working Block DiagramA good cruise control system accelerates aggressively to the desired speed without overshooting, and then maintains that speed with little deviation no matter how much weight is in the car, or how steep the hill you drive up. Controlling the speed of a car is a classic application of  control system theory. Since the cruise cont rol system controls the speed of the car by adjusting the throttle position, it needs sensors to tell it the speed and throttle position. It also needs to monitor the controls so it can tell what the desired speed is and when to disengage.The most important input is the speed signal; the cruise control system does a lot with this signal. The most basic control system is a  proportional control. In a proportional control system, the cruise control adjusts the throttle proportional to the error, the error being the difference between the desired speed and the actual speed. So, if the cruise control is set at 60 mph and the car is going 50 mph, the throttle position will be open quite far. When the car is going 55 mph, the throttle position opening will be only half of what it was before.The result is that the closer the car gets to the desired speed, the slower it accelerates. Also, if you were on a steep enough hill, the car might not accelerate at all. Most cruise control systems use a control scheme called  proportional-integral-derivative control (PID  control). The integral of speed is distance. The derivative of speed is acceleration. A PID control system uses these three factors — proportional, integral and derivative, calculating each individually and adding them to get the throttle position. We've already discussed the proportional factor.The  integral  factor is based on the  time integral of the vehicle speed error. Translation: the difference between the distance your car actually travelled and the distance it would have travelled if it were going at the desired speed, calculated over a set period of time. This factor helps the car deal with hills, and also helps it settle into the correct speed and stay there. Let's say your car starts to go up a hill and slows down. The proportional control increases the throttle a little, but you may still slow down.After a little while, the integral control will start to increase the throttle, opening it more and more, because the longer the car maintains a speed slower than the desired speed, the larger the distance error gets. Now let's add in the final factor, the  derivative. The derivative of speed is acceleration. This factor helps the cruise control respond quickly to changes, such as hills. If the car starts to slow down, the cruise control can see this acceleration (slowing down and speeding up are both acceleration) before the speed can actually change much, and respond by increasing the throttle position. pic] Figure 4 – Block Control of Cruise Control Model Setting of Cruise Control [pic] [pic] Figure 5 & 6– Setting of Cruise Control using buttons The system pictured above has five buttons: On, Off, Set/Accel, Resume and Coast. It also has a sixth control – the brake pedal, and if the car has a manual transmission the clutch pedal is also hooked up to the cruise control. †¢ The on and off buttons don't actually do much. Hitting the on button does not do anything except tell the car that you might be hitting another button soon.The off button turns the cruise control off even if it is engaged. Some cruise controls don't have these buttons; instead, they turn off when the driver hits the brakes, and turn on when the driver hits the set button. †¢ The set/accel button tells the car to maintain the speed you are currently driving. If you hit the set button at 45 mph, the car will maintain your speed at 45 mph. Holding down the set/accel button will make the car accelerate; and on this car, tapping it once will make the car go 1 mph faster. If you recently disengaged the cruise control by hitting the brake pedal, hitting the resume button will command the car to accelerate back to the most recent speed setting. †¢ Holding down the coast button will cause the car to decelerate, just as if you took your foot completely off the gas. On this car, tapping the coast button once will cause the car to slow down b y 1 mph. †¢ The brake pedal and clutch pedal each have a switch that disengages the cruise control as soon as the pedal is pressed, so you can shut off the cruise control with a light tap on the brake or clutch.Adaptive Cruise Control System A more advanced cruise control is being developed that can automatically adjust a car's speed to maintain a safe following distance. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) is an automotive feature that allows a vehicle's cruise control system to adapt the vehicle's speed to the traffic environment. This new technology, called adaptive cruise control, uses forward-looking radar (or lidar – light detecting and ranging. But lidar based ACC’s are limited due to poor working in bad weather), installed behind the grill of a ehicle, to detect the speed and distance of the vehicle ahead of it. [pic] Figure 7 – Adaptive Cruise Control System Adaptive cruise control is similar to conventional cruise control in that it maintains the vehicl e's pre-set speed. However, unlike conventional cruise control, this new system can automatically adjust speed in order to maintain a proper distance between vehicles in the same lane. This is achieved through a radar headway sensor, digital signal processor and longitudinal controller.If the lead vehicle slows down, or if another object is detected, the system sends a signal to the engine or braking system to decelerate. Then, when the road is clear, the system will re-accelerate the vehicle back to the set speed. The 77-GHz Autocruise radar system made by TRW has a forward-looking range of up to 492 feet (150 meters), and operates at vehicle speeds ranging from 18. 6 miles per hour (30 kph) to 111 mph (180 kph). Delphi's 76-GHz system can also detect objects as far away as 492 feet, and operates at speeds as low as 20 mph (32 kph).These systems are being enhanced to include collision warning capabilities that will warn drivers through visual and/or audio signals that a collision i s imminent and that braking or evasive steering is needed. In May 1998, Toyota became the first to introduce an ACC system on a production vehicle,luxury sedan. Main Parts & Working of ACC’s The main components of a typical radar-based ACC system are: 1. Fusion sensor 2. Headway control unit 3. Throttle 4. Brake 5. Dashboard display Fusion sensor: It is a combination of sensors and processors.They are 1. Millimetre-wave radar 2. Stereo camera 3. Image processor 4. Fusion processor [pic] Figure 8 – Architecture of Radar Based ACC System Millimetre wave radar: It is a sensor which uses millimetre wave for detecting the position and velocity of a distant object. Range is calculated using the formula C = 2*R/T Where, ‘C’ is the velocity of light, ‘R’ is the range, ‘T’ is the time of flight of transmission. [pic] Figure 9 – Millimetre Radar Unit Stereo camera: The camera’s function is detection of cars and other objects i n the roadway.Image processor: It processes the images from the stereo camera and the data fed into the fusion processor. Fusion processor:  The function of fusion processor is Data Fusion. Headway control unit: It has control on the brakes and throttle and uses dashboard for immediate warnings. Canceling Cruise Control Operation: †¢ Brake pedal is pressed †¢ ‘Off' button is pressed †¢ Vehicle Speed < 25 mph †¢ An ACC system fault is detected [pic] Figure 10 – A car model with advanced cruise control system First, the vehicle speed sensor might fail. Normally the speedometer also fails so that's pretty easy to diagnose.Next, the power to the brain can be interrupted (Here brain is referred to the cruise control system as it works similar to brain). A blown fuse or a corroded connector can prevent the brain from working correctly or at all. Next, the brains can lose its ability to function. A faulty component can prevent the brain from doing its thi ng. The brain is a pretty sophisticated box that contains a lot of electronic components including a microprocessor. Normally when the brains fail you need to replace the box. The vacuum diaphragm can develop a leak.If that happens then the cruise control might set and hold the speed for some time however if the leak is larger than the supply line and modulator can add vacuum to the system the system will slowly lose control and the vehicle will slow down. This can also happen if the vacuum line to the diaphragm is cracked or loose. Finally, the linkage that connects the diaphragm to the accelerator linkage can fail. Some aftermarket cruise control systems use a short length of what looks like fat key chain – bead chain. I have seen several units fail when the chain simply breaks. ConclusionBut one drawback is that cruise control systems are dangerous in wet roads and slippery roads as they may cause some serious problems. Fully autonomous car is probably not viable in the fo reseen future. Nearby vehicles would be in constant communication with each other and act co-operatively. It will probably take decades, but car accidents may eventually become almost as rare as plane crashes are now. References 1. www. howstuffworks. com 2. www. cars. com/features/adaptivecruisecontrol 3. www. autorepair. about. com 4. ctms. engin. umich. edu/CTMS/index. php? example=CruiseControl=SystemModeling

Family Sytem Theory Essay

Family therapy is a form of counseling which specializes in treating family relationships. Marriage and Family Therapists can work with every combination of family relationship (whole families or couples, parents with children or individual members) to assist a family to function in more comfortable and useful ways. While most family therapists work alone with family members, others may work in pairs or a larger team of therapists. How Does Family Therapy Work? Family systems theory proposes that we as individuals first learn about ourselves, our emotions and how to manage close relationships from the experience we have growing up in our family of origin. This personal experience influences how we tend to function in all other relationships we may have throughout our lives. As we come to better understand ourselves in our family emotional system, and work to heal our natural, anxious reactions to it, we can become more flexible in our marriages, our parenting, and our work and community relationships. What Kinds of Therapy Does Family Therapy Use? While some forms of family therapy are based in cognitive, behavioral, experiential or psychodynamic psychology, the most commonly practiced methods of this therapy are based on family systems theory. Family therapy developed its theoretical foundations fifty years ago from the developing, cross disciplinary body of knowledge called systems theory. Systems theoryproposes that everything we experience in the world is interconnected to its context, and can’t be fully understood without it. When it comes to human beings, then, we don’t know who we are without understanding the relationships we have. Those relationships include the ones we have with family, our friends, our neighborhood and cultures, our work and school environments, and those we may have with the larger systems of language, gender, nationality, or religion. Professional Accreditation and Family Therapy Family Therapy is specific to the graduate training of Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT). LMFTs can be found in private, group and clinical therapy practices across the United States and abroad. Other psychological professionals, such as psychologists, social workers, and professional counselors may also have received some advanced training in family system therapy, and may use its principles and ideas in their work. The number of sessions depends on the situation, but the average is 5-20 sessions. A family therapist usually meets several members of the family at the same time. This has the advantage of making differences between the ways family members perceive mutual relations as well as interaction patterns in the session apparent both for the therapist and the family. These patterns frequently mirror habitual interaction patterns at home, even though the therapist is now incorporated into the family system. Therapy interventions usually focus on relationship patterns rather than on analyzing impulses of the unconscious mind or early childhood trauma of individuals as a Freudian therapist would do – although some schools of family therapy, for example psychodynamicand intergenerational, do consider such individual and historical factors (thus embracing both linear and circular causation) and they may use instruments such as the genogram to help to elucidate the patterns of relationship across generations. The distinctive feature of family therapy is its perspective and analytical framework rather than the number of people present at a therapy session. Specifically, family therapists are relational therapists: They are generally more interested in what goes on between individuals rather than within one or more individuals, although some family therapists—in particular those who identify aspsychodynamic, object relations, intergenerational, EFT, or experiential family therapists—tend to be as interested in individuals as in the systems those individuals and their relationships constitute. Depending on the conflicts at issue and the progress of therapy to date, a therapist may focus on analyzing specific previous instances of conflict, as by reviewing a past incident and suggesting alternative ways family members might have responded to one another during it, or instead proceed directly to addressing the sources of conflict at a more abstract level, as by pointing out patterns of interaction that the family might have not noticed. Family therapists tend to be more interested in the maintenance and/or solving of problems rather than in trying to identify a single cause. Some families may perceive cause-effect analyses as attempts to allocate blame to one or more individuals, with the effect that for many families a focus on causation is of little or no clinical utility. It is important to note that a circular way of problem evaluation is used as opposed to a linear route. Using this method, families can be helped by finding patterns of behaviour, what the causes are, and what can be done to better their situation.

Free Essays on Creating & Living With A Budget

A budget is a way of gaining control of, planning, communicating and fulfilling your dreams. At the very least, a budget should allow you to find extra spending money in your paycheck every month. It can help you see how to use money to pay bills and get more of the things that you need and want. A budget allows you to decide what is important to your family and to make choices before spending your money. The benefits of a budget are that it can help you live within your income, place your needs above your wants, set aside money for large planned expenses, emergencies, and save for the things you want. To create the family budget, you need to review your family goals. If you do not have a list of goals, then you will need to create one. You need to decide what your short-term needs (i.e. down payment for car, insurance, shopping spree) and long-term needs (i.e. retirement, vacation) will be and then prioritize them. The income part is easy take a look at your most recent pay stub and copy your information. Most budgets use your â€Å"disposable† income, which is income after taxes. You will also need to include any other income such as rent, alimony, child support, etc. After you have gathered your family’s goals and income, you need to set up your spending and savings plan. You will need to gather your expenses, such as food, apparel, health care, education, insurance, 401K contributions, rent/mortgage, transportation costs, entertainment, charity and any other miscellaneous expense you incur. Break your expenses down into categories; fixed, flexible, perio dic and emergency. Fixed expenses are expenses that stay about the same. They include such things as house payments, insurance, time payments and charge accounts. You need to document the expense, the date it is due and the amount due. Flexible expenses vary from week to week. These include food, clothing, utilities, gasoline, savings, and medical care. For th... Free Essays on Creating & Living With A Budget Free Essays on Creating & Living With A Budget A budget is a way of gaining control of, planning, communicating and fulfilling your dreams. At the very least, a budget should allow you to find extra spending money in your paycheck every month. It can help you see how to use money to pay bills and get more of the things that you need and want. A budget allows you to decide what is important to your family and to make choices before spending your money. The benefits of a budget are that it can help you live within your income, place your needs above your wants, set aside money for large planned expenses, emergencies, and save for the things you want. To create the family budget, you need to review your family goals. If you do not have a list of goals, then you will need to create one. You need to decide what your short-term needs (i.e. down payment for car, insurance, shopping spree) and long-term needs (i.e. retirement, vacation) will be and then prioritize them. The income part is easy take a look at your most recent pay stub and copy your information. Most budgets use your â€Å"disposable† income, which is income after taxes. You will also need to include any other income such as rent, alimony, child support, etc. After you have gathered your family’s goals and income, you need to set up your spending and savings plan. You will need to gather your expenses, such as food, apparel, health care, education, insurance, 401K contributions, rent/mortgage, transportation costs, entertainment, charity and any other miscellaneous expense you incur. Break your expenses down into categories; fixed, flexible, perio dic and emergency. Fixed expenses are expenses that stay about the same. They include such things as house payments, insurance, time payments and charge accounts. You need to document the expense, the date it is due and the amount due. Flexible expenses vary from week to week. These include food, clothing, utilities, gasoline, savings, and medical care. For th...

Historical aspect and development of tourism in Paris The WritePass Journal

Historical aspect and development of tourism in Paris Introduction Historical aspect and development of tourism in Paris IntroductionBibliographyRelated Introduction This essay will firstly analyse the historical aspect and development of tourism in Paris. Secondly it will also identify the positive and negative aspects of socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts. Finally it will explain an academic model related to Paris. In particular, it is worthwhile to know exactly the meaning of the terms tourism, recreation and leisure.   Recently, The World Travel and Tourism Council had made an approximate judgement that, the tourism has become the world largest activity and industry within the business market. But an understanding of tourist waves is important for dealing with the environmental and the social effects of tourism and also to secure the lucrative viability of the tourism industry and to plan for new development.  Ã‚      In addition the tourism can be defined as an entire place of people, businesses, and places with a purpose, to self associate in a common way, to discover a travel experience in a multidimensional activity.   Economically it is vital to describe the tourism as a demand or a supply, which can be stated precisely in terms of the motivations or other typical moral strength of travellers. From some     Ã‚  conceptual argument, it can be seen as an activity for persons moving from an area to another. For instance, the tourism can have both direct and indirect effect and displacement effect, but in most of case, it is locally and economically beneficial Cooper et al (1998). To begin with, in the light of recent national media attention regarding tourism, it seems that a touristic region have to be more attractive to persuade visitors in many of its different aspects, such as historical, regional image and many thing to discover. Historically, Paris has a long standing past of more than two and halves millennium, during which it grew from small people to multicultural inhabitant, and also the history of Paris was most dominated and divided into dynasties and kings such as, the Capetians, the Valois, the Bourbon who had built many castle and monumental status. Geographically, Paris is the capital city of France and one of the famous cities in the world. This city has gone past through so many bad moment and the better days. Firstly, the imperial period which was dislike because of its political instability and corruption. Secondly, the French revolution event which took place in 1789, however, its universal aspiration will made France the country of human right. Thirdly, the bloody wars which the City welcomed as an opportunity to obtain revenge for the battle lost in 1870 and left the city brutally damaged. Finally, the better days came when Franà §ois Mitterrand was elected as president of France in 1981 which brought so many changes to the city’s appearance and the political aspect and also made Paris to attract many artiste and intellectual from all over the world. When considering Butler’s Tourist Area Life-Cycle Model, which particularly talk about the tourism Exploration, Development, Decline, Rejuvenation, it seemed that the tourism in Paris had started in about 1848, when the rail network came into effect, the city became one of the most visited destinations and the public were most attracted by its museums and monuments, especially the Eiffel tower which was built later in 1889 and also since its construction it has been visited by more than 200 million peoples, then come the   Basilique du sacrà © Coeur and Notre Dame de Paris, with more than 12 millions visitor a year and also the Disneyland Paris has been visited by more than 14millions visitors in 2007 followed by the Louvre museum which is the famous and the largest and also it has so many art displays, moreover many hotels and restaurants in Paris depend on the tourism. Pioch (2002) Unfortunately, due to the global economic crisis, the tourism in Paris had decreased significantly during 2008 and also in 2009 the demand for visitor in Paris had slowed down due to the Swine flu outbreak, miraculously that demand bounced back at the end of 2009 as France came out of recession, but that recovery was still showing some negative effects but now things have come back to normal. Nowadays, Paris is still one of the most visited cities on earth, because of its beautiful architecture, romantic cafes, spectacular monument, the old churches, the art galleries. Its transport system and communication are so sophisticated to facilitate people to get place such as the Charles de Gaulle airport and the Euro-Disneyland as well as a number of sports events that attracted worldwide TV coverage. In addition the majority of People, who came to visit Paris, are from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and most British tourist travel by car and through channel tunnel. It is clear that, the tourism always plays a vital role within the economic aspect of the world and a considerable activity of global value and also a high influential position. For many years, Paris can be classified in the top tourist destination, particularly as regards the hotel and catering sectors. Briefly, among the sectors which contribute to Paris success in tourism are :   Its country is the largest in western Europe, it is also unique in its altitudinal and latitudinal position, its culture has been largely imitated, its French language is most spoken worldwide, France is among the world’s leading economic powers due to is technological advance. Furthermore, a touristic destination must be attractive and give reassurance to the tourist as their security and safety will make the location more desirable to the comers. Jenks (1998). Apparently, Paris is one of the beautiful and a vibrant city in Western Europe, with an estimated population of more than 2 million, its development history, started with a major industrial change in methods creation of railway network, which has brought an unknown flow of many people to the capital in the early 1840. Even though, It seems nearly hard not to see tourist studies as an enthusiastic and an interesting course these days, as It has grown very quickly. Indeed, the core reason is that the tourism studies, has been dramatically dominated by a general plan of action and the industry sponsored by priorities and perspectives, made by people whose the disciplinary provenance do not contain the necessary tools to examine and scrutinise a complicated cultural and social process which is spread out. Despite the lack of resource in the tourism studies, there is a large sort of conceptual and concerning approaches to tourism which should be rigorously monitored as it is no longer a typical consumer product or a style of consumption. However, from its beginnings the tourism had broken relatively away from its minor and short time ritual of actual national life to be a significant model. Nowadays the tourism has become such a relevant aspect to social life worldwide to which its recent agenda have to reflect this rising significance. Moreover, people have been able to experience new aspects of identities, their familiarisation with nature and their personal relations and also to use the relevant cultural competence of their dream and mind to travel. Boniface et al (2005) Apparently the tourism industry has to be made as flexible as possible, as suggested by Miossec’s Model of tourism Development, which looks more structural and practicable with any kind of tourist in the sense of actual evolution and the development of the destination. In addition the beneficial impact of it model can be classified in particularly as follow: transport, saturation, and tourist’s behaviour.   It is wise to understand why the tourism is among the fastest developing part in the global market, as any kind of industrial development will always bring so many positive and negative impacts in which it takes place. However, as longer as the tourists tend to visit a place to consume the supply, inevitably the tourism Industry activity  Ã‚   has  Ã‚   to be associated with positive effect such as the local economic activities boost. Firstly, there will be a high demand on transport and Paris has the most sophisticated transport in the world, which serves its local residents which means, in Paris the transport has much developed these days than in the past. Furthermore Paris has improved its transport network, the road are well build to facilitate the traffic and many more, some network train serve Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport and also the Disneyland park. The tourist can use taxis, buses, metro to reach their final destination and to discover many places. Secondly, hotels and restaurants may employ extra new staffs to satisfy their customer needs, all local shops will take advantage, leisure and cinemas will have the frequentation of their customer raised, exchange office will also benefit from the foreign currency, which means, enhances taxation and licence revenues will generate employment for local people. In addition, each year the tourist in Paris bring 8.5 billion Euro to the economy at same time the local council earn more or less 30 million Euro, from   the tourist tax. For instance, the tourism is always much more helpful to the economic growth of Paris, however it is necessary to take into account the beneficial impact occasioned by direct productive activity. In meantime, the economic impacts linked to tourism development, can sometime be direct or indirect and also the tourism activity which require a massive quantity of the production of supply from different range of industries, including those who are not directly supplying tourist service and goods. Moreover, the tourism in Paris has also its negative aspects; such as the saturation impact which will affect the environment and the nature. Pearce (1995) Dramatically there will be an overgrowing population and a huge pressure on urban life, which create the desire to change or to move in to a different area, a high level of the religious beliefs, sudden change in behavioural patterns and high level of crime. Although, the environmental stress created from the tourist activities, can always be considered in terms of their negative effects by local resident. In spite of this issue, the impact may be direct or intern which can be forcibly caused by the political involvement of some countries in war and it can also be a terrible nightmare with a catastrophic concern or even a serious threat to some state, especially the terrorism, which has became now an imminent threat worldwide; constitute a serious menace not only to the tourist but also to the travel companies. Youell (1998) The real scope of environmental impacts must not be underestimated, as most forms of industrial progress impacts upon use of land, energy consumption and other direct or indirect forms of physical impacts are critical.   In addition the panoramic environment, whether it is artificial or natural, it is one of the most fundamental parts of the tourism productivity. However, as soon as the tourist travel to a destination, the environment can change inevitably or even being modified either. However, tourists have also a considerable impact on the wildlife and their wastes constitute a vital concern of polluting water and the atmosphere, particularly at some coastal areas and mountains. In order to consider the physical impact of tourism in Paris, it is important to establish its effects on the natural environment especially, an immediate change in floral and faunal composition, natural resources, pollution and erosion. In the other hand, the built environment is also impacted such as t he urban environment, visual impact, car park, litter, infrastructure and a competitive restoration. In fact, there is a wide range of environmental impact which can be used or being expanded to allow a careful study or to facilitate future development planning used for resources. Ryan et al (2005) In the other hand, the tourist must be fully aware of what makes Paris worth visiting, regarding its culture, lifestyle, panoramic views such as Eiffel tower and the public area, while rude behaviour such as pickpocket and threat rising from local people may result the tourist to change their mind or cancel their visit. Given that, basic motivations for tourist are highly concerned with cultural and social experiences, such as meeting new people and visiting different cultural sites, from that point the tourism can have positive impacts on travellers. Also a large number of people within the can benefit from the social and the cultural impacts of tourism in so many ways, which means they can take advantage by mixing people from diverse culture, with different kind of lifestyle and also from their linguistic different backgrounds. In the other word, the tourism can improve the quality of human life especially to the local residents, by offering and sharing with them the programme of s ocial and cultural events. The culture of Paris is today marked by socio-regional and cultural aspect of different tendencies, which consists of beliefs and values learned through the socialisation process and interactions between member of the society and also the personal influences such as languages and religions. However, the behaviour of tourist in Paris may appear irrational within the space of a few minute. This has become an obligation to know how to react to the new priorities of tourist and this involves re-thinking the role of management, strategy, organization and marketing. In conclusion, the tourism industry and the environmental preservation have, to improve the strategies with an integral part of many development programmes, which will be treated with much respect than it was during the beginning of this century. In fact, the environmental indicators in Paris should not be limited to what should be done, but instead what action people should take just in case. However, the physical plan and the visual aspects can take place together, with a strict measures created to protect the economic benefit of tourism in line with environmental policy. Although this stage required the government of most countries worldwide, to implement the project that can be monitored in terms of its future environmental impact and the integration of its economy. Likewise, the environmental and the economic impacts is essential if tourism strategies and choices of the destination are     well informed and steps taken, to prevent tourism development exceeding the capacity of the destination. Furthermore, not all of Paris’s areas are attractive, due to their bad reputation, which constitute a slight loss to the local council. Nonetheless, the tourism will be much more influenced by a number of tourists disappointed by their experience and also the changing world situation or the impacts of globalisation. Along with these changes, are other influences which can have moderate impacts or considerable impacts and also possible detrimental effects to people such as the soil, water, air, peace and quiet, landscapes, cultural sites and many more. Therefore, as long as the tourism grows in Paris, much complex system and transport network will expand dramatically, which bring the rejection of the tourism by the local citizen and protecting th e environment can give a shape to tourism. Cooper et al (2005) Bibliography Boniface, B. Cooper, C (2005) The Geography of travel and Tourism 4th ed. Butter-Heinemann, London. Cooper, C. Fletcher, J. Gilbert, D. Wan hill, S. (1998) Tourism Principles and Practice 2nded. Addison Wesley Longman, New York Cooper, C. Fletcher, J. Fyall,   A. Gilbert, D. Wan hill, S (2005) Tourism Principles and Practice 3rd ed. Pearson: Harlow Jenks M G (1998) impressionist Paris: the Essential Guide to the cite of light Libra Journal V 123 Iss 12 Pg 119 Pearce D (1998) Tourist Development, Harlow: Longman Pioch, N ( 2002) Web Museum, Paris [ online] ibiblio.org/wm/paris/hist/ Accessed on 20th Nov 2010 Ryan, C. Page, J. Stephen, Aicken M (2005) Tacking Tourism to the limits Issues, Concepts and Managerial perspectives. Netherlands Youell R (1998) Tourism, Longman Singapore

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His first book,  The Nature of Managerial Work  (1973) challenged the established thinking about the role of the manager, and is one of the few books that actually examine what managers do, rather than discussing what they should do. Other highlights include  The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (1994); Managers Not MBAs  (2004), and  Managing  (2009).This report presents overview of his major works. Introduction An engineer by training, he received a PhD from MIT before joining McGills faculty of management in 1968. He was the first Fellow to be elected to the Royal Society of Canada from the field of Management. He designed and developed the IMPM, the International Masters Program in Practicing Management, and a degree-level program delivered in six countries Canada, England, France, India, Japan and Korea. It is a degree program that focuses directly on the development of managers in their jobs and organizations. Henry Mintzberg equates the process of strategy making to the process of making pottery. The strategist is similar to  a craftsman, or potter in this case. Mintzberg says, The crafting image better captures the process by which effective strategies come to be. First, the potter may create a product that follows in the tradition of her past work, but she may also create a work that breaks away from tradition in a new direction. Similarly, strategies are patterns that are put into action over time; but strategies may emerge in a different direction than tradition has previously held. Second, strategy making must be a deliberate process-thought must precede action. But strategies can form as well as be formulated. Third, strategists do not necessarily have to be top management running an organization but removed from the inner-workings of that organization. Instead, like the potter is intimately connected with her work, strategists may be those most intimately connected with the compa ny and those products/services it sells. Strategists may be those on the front lines, so to speak. Fourth, the potter may fail to make one piece, but the lump that remains may be formed into something completely different. In the same way, strategies can emerge any time and at any place; errors themselves may become chances for opportunity. The image of a craftsman is someone who is dedicated, passionate, intimately involved with the materials, has a personal touch, has mastered the detail of their art, and is experienced. The strategist must also be someone who is involved and connected with their industry and who is personally involved with the industrial processes. Finally, just as a craftsman may see things that other people miss, the strategist must be able to see emerging patterns and guide them into place as strategies. Mintzbergs major impact on the management world began with his book,  The nature of managerial work which was published in 1973 and also a seminal article in Harvard Business Review,  The managers job: folklore and fact  which was written two years after the book. These two works established Mintzbergs reputation which showed research work done on what managers did, to successfully carrying out their responsibilities, which were substantially different from the most of the theories learnt in MBA classrooms. Mintzbergs management thinking is against the concept of having one or two clever theories within some narrow discipline. His approach is merely broad enough to involve virtually the study of everything that managers do and how they do it. His appeal was further enhanced by a belief that management is about applying human skills to systems and not applying systems to people. In all the articles of Mintzberg this belief is explained. In his article  The managers job: folklore and fact,  Mintzberg has set out the reality of what managers do. A single theme runs through the article and that is the pressures of the job drive that the manager carry to take on too much work, respond quickly to each and every stimulus encourage interruption, seek the tangible, decisions in small increments, avoid the abstract, make, and do everything abruptly. Mintzberg, in this article has stressed the importance of the managers role and the need to understand it thoroughly before attempting to train and develop those engaged in carrying it out. No job is more vital to our society than that of the manager. It is the manager who determines whether our social institutions serve us well or whether they squander our talents and resources. It is time to strip away the folklore about managerial work, and time to study it realistically so that we can begin the difficult task of making significant improvements in its performance. In  The nature of managerial work, Mintzberg proposes six characteristics of management work and ten basic management roles. As per him, these characteristics and roles apply to all management jobs, from supervisor to chief executive. The six characteristics are: 1. The managers job is a mixture of regular, programmed jobs and unprogrammed tasks. 2. A manager is both a generalist and a specialist. 3. Managers rely on information from all sources but show a preference for that which is orally transmitted. 4. Managerial work is made up of activities that are characterized by brevity, variety and fragmentation. 5. Management work is more an art than a science and is reliant on intuitive processes and a feel for what is right. 6. Management work is becoming more complex. The ten roles that he believes make up the content of the managers job are divided into three categories: 1. Interpersonal a)  Figurehead   performing symbolic duties as a representative of the organization. b)  Leader   establishing the atmosphere and motivating the subordinates. c)  Liaiser   developing and maintaining webs of contacts outside the organization. 2. Information a)  Monitor   collecting all types of information that are relevant and useful to the organization. b)  Disseminator   transmitting information from outside the organization to those inside. c)  Spokesman   transmitting information from inside the organization to outsiders. 3. Decision-making a)  Entrepreneur   initiating change and adapting to the environment. b)  Disturbance Handler   dealing with unexpected events. c)  Resource Allocator   deciding on the use of organizational resources. d)  Negotiator   negotiating with individuals and dealing with other organizations. The Structure of Organizations In his book,  The structuring of organizations, Mintzberg has identified five types of `ideal organization structures. Following are the more detailed view of organization types drawn up: The entrepreneurial organization: Having small staff, loose division of labor, have small management hierarchy, being informal with power focused on the chief executive. The machine organization  : highly specialized, large operating units, routine operating tasks, formal communication, elaborate administrative systems, tasks grouped under functions, central decision making and a sharp distinction between line and staff. The diversified organization: a set of semi-autonomous units under a central administrative structure. These units are called divisions and are centrally administered called as headquarter. The professional organization: found in hospitals, universities, public agencies and firms producing standardized products or services and doing routine work, this structure relies on the skills and knowledge of professional staff in order to function. The innovative organization: Mintzbergs definition of modern organization, flexible, rejecting any form of bureaucracy and avoiding emphasis on planning and control systems. Innovation achieved by hiring experts, giving them power, training and developing them and employing them in multi-discipline teams that work in an atmosphere unbounded by conventional specialism and differentiation. The missionary organization: Here, mission is counted above everything else. The mission is clear, focused, distinctive and inspiring. Staff readily identifies with it and shares common values. They are motivated by their own zeal and enthusiasm. Mintzberg defines, the following mechanisms, regarding the coordination between different tasks: 1. Mutual adjustment, to achieve coordination by the simple process of informal communication. 2. Direct supervision, achieved by having one person issue orders or instructions to several others whose work interrelates (as when a boss tells others what is to be done) 3. Standardization of work processes, achieves coordination by specifying the work processes of people carrying out interrelated tasks (standards developed in the techno-structure to be carried out in the operating core, as in the case of the work instructions that come out of time and motion studies) 4. Standardization of outputs, which achieves coordination by specifying the results of different work (developed in the techno-structure, as in a financial plan that specifies subunit performance targets or specifications that outline the dimensions of a product to be produced) 5. Standardization of skills and knowledge, in which different work is coordinated by virtue of the related training given to the workers (as in medical specialists, a surgeon and an anesthetist in an operating room, responding almost automatically to each others standardized procedures) 6. Standardization of norms, in which the norms infusing the work that are controlled, usually for the entire organization, so that everyone functions according to the same set of beliefs. According to the organizational configurations model of Mintzberg each organization can consist of a maximum of six basic parts: 1. Strategic Apex (top management) 2. Middle Line (middle management) 3. Operating Core (operations, operational processes) 4. Techno-structure (analysts that design systems, processes, etc.) 5. Support Staff (support outside of operating workflow) 6. Ideology (halo of beliefs and traditions; norms, values, culture) Strategy and planning The relationship between strategy and planning is a constant theme in Mintzbergs writing and his views on the subject are considered to be of contributed significantly to the current management thinking. In his 1994 book, The rise and fall of Strategic Planning, Mintzberg produces a criticism on conventional theory. He believes that there are some failures in traditional understanding of planning procedure. Processes the elaborate processes use to create bureaucracy and suppress innovation and originality. Data `hard data (the raw material of all strategists) provides information, but `soft data, provides wisdom: Hard information can be no better and is often at times far worse than soft information. Detachment Mintzberg dismisses the process of producing strategies in ivory towers i.e. he believes that effective strategists cant be made by people who are at a distance from the detail of a business. They should be the ones who have immersed themselves in it, while being able to abstract the strategic messages from it. He sees strategy not as the consequence of planning but the opposite: Strategies  illustrate the concept of the delicate, painstaking process of developing strategy a process of emergence that is far away from the classical picture of strategists grouped around a table predicting the future. He argues that while an organization needs a strategy, strategic plans are generally useless as one cannot predict two to three years ahead. 5 Ps of Strategy To develop understanding of strategy Mintzberg developed what is known as the 5 Ps of Strategy. These are: Strategy as  Plan Strategy as Intended Pattern Strategy as Emergent/Unintended Pattern Strategy as Position Strategy as Perspective Strategy as  Plan: Mintzberg defined it as some  sort of consciously intended course of action, a guideline (or set of guidelines) to deal with a situation.  The  example of Game Theory, where  Strategy is nothing but a complete plan: a plan that specifies what choices [the player] will make in every possible situation. Rebuilding Companies as Communities Community means caring about our work, our colleagues, and our place in the world, geographic and otherwise, and in turn being inspired by this caring. Tellingly, some of the companies we admire most-Toyota, Semco (Brazil), Mondragon (a Basque federation of cooperatives), Pixar, and so on-typically have this strong sense of community. Young, successful companies usually have this sense of community. They are growing, energized, committed to their people, almost a family. But sustaining it with the onset of maturity can be another matter: Things slow down, politics builds up, and the world is no longer their oyster. Community is sometimes easier to preserve in the social sector-with NGOs, not-for-profits, and cooperatives. The mission may be more engaging, and the people more engaged. But somehow, in our hectic, individualist world, the sense of community has been lost in too many companies and other organizations. In the United States in particular, many great enterprises, along with the countrys legendary sense of enterprise, have been collapsing as a consequence. The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning When strategic planning was defined the mid-1960s, corporate leaders embraced it as the one best way to devise and implement strategies that would enhance the competitiveness of each business unit. For the scientific management pioneered by Frederick Taylor, this involved separating thinking from doing and creating a new function by having specialists like strategic planners. Planning systems were expected to produce the best strategies as well as step-by-step instructions for carrying out these strategies so that the managers could not get them wrong. Strategic planning has long since fallen from its pedestal. But even now followed by people as very few understand that strategic planning  is not  strategic thinking. Strategic planning often spoils strategic thinking, by causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers. This confusion lies at the heart of the issue i.e. the most successful strategies are visions and not plans. Strategic planning has actually been  strategic programming,  the articulation and elaboration of strategies, or visions, that already exist. Mintzberg says after understanding the difference between planning and strategic thinking, companies can get back to what the strategy-making process should be i.e. capturing what the manager learns from all sources (both the soft insights from his or her personal experiences and the experiences of others throughout the organization and the hard data from market research and the like) and then synthesizing that learning into a vision of the direction that the business should pursue. This doesnt imply that organizations, which have disenchanted with strategic planning, are needed to get rid of their planners or conclude that there is no need for programming. In fact, organizations should transform the conventional planning jobs. Planners should perform the role of providing the formal analyses or hard data required by the strategic thinkers and hence should make their contribution in strategy making process. Hence, planners should act as catalysts supporting strategy making by aiding and encouraging managers to think strategically. Thus, they can be programmers of a strategy, helping to specify concrete steps needed to carry out the vision. By redefining the planners job, companies will acknowledge the difference between planning and strategic thinking. Planning has always been about  analysis about breaking down a goal or set of intentions into steps, formalizing those steps so that they can be implemented almost automatically, and articulating the anticipated consequences or results of each step. This has been accepted by Michael Porter, who is known as the most widely read writer on strategy. Strategic thinking, is about  synthesis. It involves intuition and creativity. The outcome of strategic thinking is an integrated perspective of the enterprise, a not-too-precisely articulated vision of direction, such as the vision of Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics, that three-dimensional visual computing is the way to make computers easier to use. Such strategies cant be developed on schedule basis and cant be immaculately conceived. They should be free to appear at any time and at any place in the organization through the processes of informal learning that must necessarily be carried out by people at various levels who are deeply involved with the specific issues at hand. Crafting Strategy Imagine someone planning strategy. What likely springs to mind is an image of orderly thinking: a senior manager, or a group of them, sitting in an office formulating courses of action that everyone else will implement on schedule. The keynote is reason-rational control, the systematic analysis of competitors and markets, of company strengths and weaknesses, the combination of these analyses producing clear, explicit, full-blown strategies. Now imagine someone  crafting  strategy. A wholly different image likely results, as different from planning as craft is from mechanization. Craft evokes traditional skill, dedication, perfection through the mastery of detail. What springs to mind is not so much thinking and reason as involvement, a feeling of intimacy and harmony with the materials at hand, developed through long experience and commitment. Formulation and implementation merge into a fluid process of learning through which creative strategies evolve. My thesis is simple: the crafting image better captures the process by which effective strategies come to be. The planning image, long popular in the literature, distorts these processes and thereby misguides organizations that embrace it unreservedly. In developing this thesis, I shall draw on the experiences of a single craftsman, a potter, and compare them with the results of a research project that tracked the strategies of a number of corporations across several decades. Because the two contexts are so obviously different, my metaphor, like my assertion, may seem farfetched at first. Yet if we think of a craftsman as an organization of one, we can see that he or she must also resolve one of the great challenges the corporate strategist faces: knowing the organizations capabilities well enough to think deeply enough about its strategic direction. By considering strategy making from the perspective of one person, free of all the paraphernalia of what has been called the strategy industry, we can learn something about the formation of strategy in the corporation. For much as our potter has to manage her craft, so too managers have to craft their strategy. At work, the potter sits before a lump of clay on the wheel. Her mind is on the clay, but she is also aware of sitting between her past experiences and her future prospects. She knows exactly what has and has not worked for her in the past. She has an intimate knowledge of her work, her capabilities, and her markets. As a craftsman, she senses rather than analyzes these things; her knowledge is tacit. All these things are working in her mind as her hands are working the clay. The product that emerges on the wheel is likely to be in the tradition of her past work, but she may break away and embark on a new direction. Even so, the past is no less present, projecting itself into the future. In my metaphor, managers are craftsmen and strategy is their clay. Like the potter, they sit between a past of corporate capabilities and a future of market opportunities. And if they are truly craftsmen, they bring to their work an equally intimate knowledge of the materials at hand. That is the essence of crafting strategy. In this article, we will explore this metaphor by looking at how strategies get made as opposed to how they are supposed to get made. Throughout, I will be drawing on the two sets of experiences Ive mentioned. One, described in the sidebar, is a research project on patterns in strategy formation that has been going on at McGill University under my direction since 1971. The second is the stream of work of a successful potter, my wife, who began her craft in 1967. The Five Minds of a Manager The CEO of a Canadian company has recently complained that he was not able to get his engineers to think like managers. Such a complaint is common in nature, but behind it lays an uncommon important question: What does it mean to think like a manager? We dont see much attention paid to answer that question in later years. Many of us have become enamored of leadership so much that management has been pushed into the background. Now days, we dont see anybody aspiring to become a good manager; in fact everybody, wants to be known as a great leader. But we ignore that the separation of management from leadership is harmful. As we know that management without leadership encourages an uninspired style, which deadens activities. In contrast, Leadership without management encourages a disconnected style, which promotes hubris. Knowing the destructive power of hubris in organizations we should get back to old management. The only problem is that the plain old management is comparatively more complicated and hence, confusing. Managers are asked to be global and also to be local to collaborate and to compete in the market. Show change, perpetually to maintain order. Make the numbers even while nurturing your people. Now the question is how anyone is supposed to reconcile all this? The reality is that no one can actually do it. For becoming effective, managers have to face the juxtapositions so that they can arrive at a deep integration of these seemingly contradictory concerns. This means that managers must focus not only on what exactly they have to accomplish but also on how they have to think. Basically, managers need to have different mind-sets. Helping managers to appreciate this was the challenge they had set for themselves in the mid-1990s the time, when they had began to develop a new masters program for the managers for practicing. They had guessed that they cant rely on the usual format of the MBA education, which actually divides the management world into field like function of marketing, accounting, finance, and so on. Their intention was basically to educate managers who were coming out of such narrow mindsets. They wanted to have a new structure which would encourage synthesis than separation. They came up with a framework based on the five aspects of the managerial mindset, which has proved not only powerful in the classroom but also of utter importance in practice. Below, they have explained how they came up with the five managerial mind-sets. The Managers Job:  Folklore and Fact If you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organize, coordinate, and control. Then watch what they do. Dont be surprised if you cant relate what you see to these words. When a manager is told that a factory has just burned down and then advises the caller to see whether temporary arrangements can be made to supply customers through a foreign subsidiary, is that manager planning, organizing, coordinating, or controlling? How about when he or she presents a gold watch to a retiring employee? Or attends a conference to meet people in the trade and returns with an interesting new product idea for employees to consider? These four words, which have dominated management vocabulary since the French industrialist Henri Fayol first introduced them in 1916, tell us little about what managers actually do. At best, they indicate some vague objectives managers have when they work. The field of management, so devoted to progress and change, has for more than half a century not seriously addressed  the  basic question: What do managers do? Without a proper answer, how can we teach management? How can we design planning or information systems for managers? How can we improve the practice of management at all? Our ignorance of the nature of managerial work shows up in various ways in the modern organization-in boasts by successful managers who never spent a single day in a management training program; in the turnover of corporate planners who never quite understood what it was the manager wanted; in the computer consoles gathering dust in the back room because the managers never used the fancy on-line MIS some analyst thought they needed. Perhaps most important, our ignorance shows up in the inability of our large public organizations to come to grips with some of their most serious policy problems. Somehow, in the rush to automate production, to use management science in the functional areas of marketing and finance, and to apply the skills of the behavioral scientist to the problem of worker motivation, the manager-the person in charge of the organization or one of its subunits-has been forgotten. I intend to break the reader away from Fayols words and introduce a more supportable and useful description of managerial work. This description derives from my review and synthesis of research on how various managers have spent their time. In some studies, managers were observed intensively; in a number of others, they kept detailed diaries; in a few studies, their records were analyzed. All kinds of managers were studied-foremen, factory supervisors, staff managers, field sales managers, hospital administrators, presidents of companies and nations, and even street gang leaders. These managers worked in the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Great Britain. Strategy as Pattern Mintzberg defines strategy as  consistency in behavior, whether or not intended.  Strategy can emerge as patterns, which may be seen as the resulting actions. To prove this point, he gives example of Henry Ford who originally developed the Model T, which was the strategy to offer the car in the  black color, but by strategy as a pattern, this was an intended strategy. An unintended strategy, as a pattern can be seen with an example of IKEA who began to flat pack their furniture, where as the original idea for this was to borne of one of the companies designers which are trying to load a table into their car and when they realized that it wouldnt fit and hence, they would have to detach the legs of the table. At that time, they realized that customers would be facing the similar issue while purchasing their product, and as such a vital aspect of Ileas strategy it emerged unintentionally.http://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/emergent-strategy.jpg?w=481h=372 Strategy as Position Strategy as a position refers to the environment in which the organization operates in and the mediating force between the internal and external context. An example to justify this concept can be of organizations strategy towards dealing with critical environmental factors such as extreme heat, disposal of waste, use of green IT. Strategy as Perspective This aspect of strategy is concerned with how the organization itself sees the business  environment. For example, an organization will have an option of being the pacesetters, who is always seen at the bleeding edge of technology and who, sell their products based on advances of technology. Whereas another option would be to be followers, where organizations learn from the mistakes of the pace setter and hence, they adopt only proven technologies and are more  concerned  with the quality and reliability of products rather than bleeding technological edge. Examples to prove this is of the automotive industry, where it can be seen, how Ford has began the new Ford Focus market to be the technological leader in this product category. With the use of economies of scale Ford has managed to cheaply introduce technologies like Self-Parking, it is a technology associated with premium brands rather than Ford who is traditionally known for targeting blue-collar workers. Key works by Henry Mintzberg Books Managing.  FT Prentice-Hall, 2009 Management: its not what you think.  (With Bruce Ahlstrand and Josepeh Lampel). FT Prentice-Hall, 2010 Strategy bites back.  (With Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel). Pearson, 2005 Managers not MBAs.  Berrett-Koehler, 2004 Strategy safari.  (With Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lample) London: Prentice-Hall, 1998 The strategy process: concepts, contexts, cases (3rd ed).London: Prentice-Hall International, 1996 The rise and fall of strategic planning.  Hemel Hempstead: Prentice-Hall International, 1994 Mintzberg on management: inside our strange world of organizations.  New York: Free Press, 1989 Power in and around organizations.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983 Structures in fives: designing effective organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983 The structuring of organizations: a synthesis of the research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979 The nature of managerial work.  New York: Harper and Row, 1973 Journal articles Key articles are given below, for a complete list from 1967 to date, with some links through to full text, please seehttp://www.mintzberg.org/articles The managers job: folklore and fact.  Harvard Business Review, 68 (2) Mar-Apr 1990, pp. 163-176. Originally published in 1975, the article includes a retrospective commentary by the author. Crafting strategy.  Harvard Business Review, 65 (4) Jul-Aug 1987, pp. 66-75 The fall and rise of strategic planning.  Harvard Business Review, 72 (1) Jan-Feb 1994, pp. 107-114 Rounding out the managers job.  Sloan Management Review, 36 (1) Autumn 1994, pp. 11-26 Musings on management.  Harvard Business Review, 74 (4) Jul-Aug 1996, pp. 61-67 Managing on the edge.  International Journal of Public Sector Management, 10 (3) 1997, pp. 131-153 The yin and yang of managing.  Organizational Dynamics, 29 (4) 2001, pp. 306-312