Criminal Justice organizational trends Essay

The criminal justice system has gone through many changes throughout the past decades. Throughout its journey the criminal justice system has been reformed numerous times striving to perfect its process. Because of the numerous changes to the format it has been expanded and is unrecognizable from the days when crude management and organizational theories were first developed and conceived. In this document I will compare the use of privatization, e-corporation, and militarization of criminal justice organizations with current organizational structures, historical and traditional organizational behavior theories, and explain how theories of motivation affect criminal justice organizations. What is an organization and its purpose? The purpose of an organization is to combine its resources, and maximize its manpower in the best possible fashion so that organization can get the desired results with maximum efficiency. After years of trial and error the criminal justice system has adapted its thought process and embraced commercialization and privatization of its core. Throughout the years the criminal justice system has heard the voice of the community and the peoples cry for justice due to the lack of personal responsibility taken by criminal justice professionals from inefficient community policing to corrupt law enforcement. Because the government has heard the overwhelming concern for its criminal justice departments they have allowed privatized companies to spearhead the proceedings. There has been an influx and privately owned law enforcement companies and agencies. Private law enforcement professionals are estimated to outnumber public servants 3 to 1. Research has shown that privatization of criminal justice is an effective way of reducing cost and recidivism. Government agencies are able to contract privatized correctional facility, policing agencies and other forms of  criminal justice. The government’s main reason for contracting with privatized organization is to efficiently manage their resources and maximize their efficiency. This consists of our government contracting with private police organizations who are held responsible for CSI work, parking enforcement, communications, accounting, maintenance, investigation background checks and etc. a bigger aspect of what our government privatizing law enforcement today is in our correctional facilities. Within these facilities every aspect of a correctional facility is controlled by the private company who holds the government contracts. Every aspect of the facility is outsourced to these private companies from maintenance to vocational training. Militarization is the use of force for the effective ruling of a population. Not only is a force used to resolve policy issues, but also to control the people (Simpson, 2009). Using this definition the police may gain a status of power. This power is perceived by society at a cost because this method of power defies humane rights, democracy, and law mechanisms. If the government was to utilize the militarization control society would have a hard time accepting such violations of their civil right. The use of militarization in the criminal justice field would have a negative effect. Militarization would undermine women’s equality, the effectiveness of civil policing and the loss of protection for communities. What are E-Corporation, they are institutions that are managed and are responsible to the stakeholders they are privately or publicly owned and usually dealing technologies. How does E-company translate into the criminal justice world? E-corporations in the criminal justice world usually are comprised of computer technologies that insist on utilizing extremely skilled technicians to maintain its optimal performance. These companies can be compared to companies like Kerpersky who specialize in antivirus software. Like Kerpersky these E-corporation specialized in securing sensitive information privy only to law enforcement. Without the corporations law enforcement agencies would not be able to protect sensitive information from novice hackers. This would compromise any sensitive information collected by law enforcement agencies creating strain on the  entire criminal justice system. Criminal motivational theories include such theories as self-determination theory, in this theory individuals receive more of an intrinsic value by accomplishing the mission. Getting your man or criminal can be a great feeling of accomplishment and very self-motivated. As far as extrinsic alley you I believe the majority of the criminal justice professions have great retirement plans and an individual can work hard towards achieving that goal. Another theory is the goal setting theory this theory applies to the criminal justice field by motivating the individuals to be part of a team and to accomplish the mission they are given regardless on the difficulty of the task I myself find meaningless task and complacent work to be daunting I find myself being bored out of my mind when I am challenged my day goes by so much quicker and at the end of the day I feel more productive as an officer. The final theory I’d like to discuss the two factors theory. In the criminal justice field employees must feel like they have the opportunity to advance their positions within the department or facility otherwise they become unmotivated and jaded. Allowing the chance for advancement within the fields you the employee a sense of satisfaction in achieving higher position. Also ensuring that your employee has job security is a great motivator for individuals to continue excelling at their positions. In conclusion, privatization of criminal justice is an efficient means in reducing recidivism and is cost-efficient it involves rewarding contracts to private companies for policing, incarceration, and other aspects of criminal justice. Militarization is the use of force for the effective ruling of a population. E-corporations in the criminal justice world usually are comprised of computer technologies that insist on utilizing extremely skilled technicians to maintain its optimal performance. All supervisors in the criminal justice field should have a firm grasp on the theories of motivation. Supervisors should maintain these theories to create positive motivation for their subordinates especially in the criminal justice field where rewards are far and few between and the act of self-motivation is imperative to accomplishing the mission. References Benson, B. L. (1996). Privatization in criminal justice. Retrieved from http://heartland.org/sites/all/modules/custom/heartland_migration/files/pdfs/6032.pdf (2014). Organizational Behavior- Chapter 5. Retrieved from https://new.edu/resources/theories-of-motivation–3. Hoban, J. E. (2013). polieone.com . Retrieved from http://www.policeone.com/militarization/articles/6383533-Police-militarization-and-the-Ethical-Warrior/

Leadership Management

APPLIED LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT COURSE BUS3023 ASSIGNMENT 3 CREDITS Please complete the following assignment and mail it with the copy of the assignment to be marked and for comments. Please use your discretion to determine the length of your answer. Keep the following criteria in mind: Did I demonstrate my knowledge and insight? Will the tutor be satisfied that I can apply the information (Skills)? Write answers in your own words as far as possible and refrain from copying from text books/handouts. 1. Define: Leadership. The process of influencing people while operating to meet organizational requirements and improving the organization through change. 2. Name the five practices of exemplary leadership. * Model the way * Inspire a shared vision * Challenge the Process * Enable other to act * Encourage the heart 3. Explain the relationship between management, vision and planning. * Management involves all the undertakings require planning, organizing, command, coordination and cont rol to function properly, by focusing on producing change by developing a vision for the future along with strategies for bringing about the changes needed to achieve that vision. . Does every manager need to be a leader? Explain. * All good managers are leaders to various degrees. They need to carry out their leaders' visions by creating their own visions that support the larger vision, and then getting their workers to accomplish the vision. For example, Howard Schultz, of Starbucks Coffee Company, had a vision of 2000 stores by the year 2000. This vision became one of the driving forces behind the company's success. Did Howard Schultz build those 2000 stores himself? No way!Schultz's vision was achieved by managers and supervisors throughout the organization who had smaller scale visions that directly supported his 2000 by 2000 vision. They got these visions accomplished by delegating the means and authority to their subordinates. These managers and supervisors also supported the ir employees by giving them the means and opportunity to grow by coaching and mentoring; and providing training, development, and education opportunities. * A CEO cannot be the sole leader of a large organization. There are simply to many leadership tasks that must be accomplished†¦ leader cannot do all of them herself. 5. It has been identified that there are 6 Pillars of Character that are important to adopting and ethical perspective in leadership development. Can you name four of the six? a) Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship b) Ruthlessness, Drive, Determination, Toughness, Supportive, Action oriented c) Supportive, Intelligent, Insightful, Good Communicator, Toughness, Fair d) Caring, Softness, Intelligent, Decisive, Team Player, Communicator 6. Define: * Vision The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom:the organization had lost its vision and direction * Mission * a strongly felt aim, ambition, or cal ling: his main mission in life has been to cut unemployment * Strategy * A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. * The art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle * Leadership Values. * Leaders know what they value. They also recognize the importance of ethical behaviour.The best leaders exhibit both their values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. Your leadership ethics and values should be visible because you live them in your actions every single day. 7. What concepts of leadership are important to explain the difference in focus of leadership compared to management? * Leadership and management must go hand in hand, however they are NOT identical. Both are needed and they are linked and complement each other. Any attempt to separate the two is likely to cause more problems in a business without solving any. Many debates took place and is still taking place regarding the differences. Simply put the manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate and the leader’s role is to inspire and motivate * The following is from book published in 1989 written by Warren Bennis namely â€Å"On Becoming a Leader,† he composed a list of the differences as listed below: * The manager administers; the leader innovates. * The manager is a copy; the leader is an original. * The manager maintains; the leader develops. * The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people. The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust. * The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. * The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. * The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader’s eye is on the horizon. * The manager imitates; the leader originates. * The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it. * The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person. * The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing. 8.In which way do you see that new technologies will affect leadership and leaders? * I do not see technologies affecting leaders, or people for that matter. What I do see are good leaders achieving their goals by selecting the right tools (technology) to achieve their goals. Good leaders focus upon their goals and then do what is necessary to achieve it; they do not pick a technology and then try to achieve some goal with it. 9. What is the difference between ‘Interpersonal skills and Personal Learning Skills’? * Interpersonal Skills- The skills used by a person to properly interact with others.In the business domain, the term generally refers to an employee's ability to get along with others while getting the job done. * Personal Learning Skills – Is the way that a person will learn something either by making notes, creating a mind map, etc. 10. Write an essay of (one) A4 Page on the importance of the individual within the context of team practices. Organisations are made up of individuals brought together to enable the organisation to achieve its mission. The organisation's structure will determine how these individuals are brought together and how they relate to one another.The success of the organisation is dependent on each individual working together to achieve the common goal. If individuals are pulling in different directions, this will have a detrimental impact upon the organisation achieving its mission. It is the role of the manager to integrate the activities of individuals, ensuring that they are aware of the institution's priorities and that they are working towards them. Managers achieve this through the authority delegated to them within the organisation's hierarchy. We are all different.We differ in many ways, some of them visual (age, gender) some of them non-visual (personality, abilities). These differences mean that we often have diff erent values and attitudes on certain issues and individuals will perceive situations in different ways. It can be interesting and rewarding to discuss a topic from another point of view and to gain insight into other perspectives. But diversity can also be challenging and it can sometimes be difficult to understand things from a different point of reference.From an individual perspective, it is important to understand and appreciate that not everyone will see things or value the things that you do, nor agree with your opinions. Different jobs require different abilities, skills and competencies. When we assign someone to a job that does not match their abilities, because the job is either not sufficiently demanding or too demanding, the result can be frustration and stress for both the individual and their work colleagues. In a situation where an individual's abilities do not match the requirements of the job because they are in some way lacking, then the individual will feel out o f their depth.This has an impact on the individual who feels unable to complete their tasks to the required and expected levels of performance. The team will also be affected by the situation. They will often have to take on extra work and duties in order to support their colleague. In a situation where an individual's abilities exceed those required for the job, then the individual may find the job too easy and become bored. This leads to a lack of enthusiasm and care for the job and a sense of frustration for the individual feeling unable to achieve their potential.Again this frustration impacts upon the rest of the team and ultimately their performance. Stress is a very individual concept and our responses to it can vary considerably. We all find different situations stressful and we all react to them in a variety of ways. Some people are stress victims. They perceive almost every situation in life as a threat and they respond negatively to situations causing them anxiety, anger, self-doubt or frustration. Others view situations more positively. They assess situations and channel their energies into a proactive response spurring them on to achieve their goals.Our response to stress depends on a balance between how demanding a potentially stressful situation is perceived to be and our ability to cope with it. Too big an imbalance and we will suffer negative stress. This ability to cope with stress is influenced by our outlook on life, our health and our support system which includes friends and relatives. Therefore, a situation that may be stressful to one individual, may be exhilarating and exciting to another, and indeed our reactions to stressful situations and how we cope with them varies throughout our life 11. Describe the three critical dimensions of team learning. First, there is a need to think insightfully about complex issues * Teams must learn how to tap the potential for many minds to be more intelligent than one mind * Second, there is a need f or innovative, coordinated action * Third, there is the role of team members on other teams * A learning team fosters other learning teams through inculcating the practices and skills of team learning 12. Explain the requirements for leadership team learning. * Leadership in a non-team work environment is a top down structure where rules, not principles, govern participation.In a team culture, leaders, guided by their principles of involvement, work to help team members find a level of confidence, trust, and cooperation so that they can achieve high levels of production * Both managing a department and leading a team involve the following skills and activities: * Providing direction and leadership to others * Planning * Meeting goals and objectives * Managing activities/tasks * Working with people * The key difference lies in the responsibility for performance management. * Team leaders, on the other hand, are responsible for leading teams of people who may not report to them. Witho ut organizational authority, team leaders must influence others and inspire them to meet the goals of the initiative or project. * Following are five critical team leadership skills that will help team leaders (and managers) effectively influence and demonstrate respect for their team members. * Understanding behavioural styles * Listening and effectively communicating * Giving praise * Handling * criticism * Using problem – solving and persuasion instead of Criticism 13. What is the relationship between leaders and followers? Many people make mistake to separate leaders and followers. I think that no matter what position one has within an organization, he/she is playing a follower’s role to support someone else. Great leaders of an organization are following the profitable goals of their stakeholders. For a survival  business, followers need to be effective and supportive for their leaders to be successful. Nevertheless, followers are more effective if they consider themselves active and independent * It is more important in my opinion that how follower’s view of their leaders is. According to Yukl et al. 2010), leaders’ effectiveness implies leader competence and intentions in the view of the followers. Followers who are closed to their leaders are often the most susceptible to the crucibles of their failed leaders. Additionally, followers who are so committed to their leaders are the most disappointed people when they see their leaders fail. 14. Distinguish between the following types of teams: * Problem Solving Teams; * A group of individuals assembled to work on a project that involves resolving one or more issues that have already arisen or to deal effectively with issues as they arise.In a business context, a problem solving team will typically be formed for a limited time frame incorporating staff from different organizational levels with various relevant skill sets. * Cross Functional Teams; * Let us understand this with the help of an example. * Maria and Andy both were part of the branding team. They got an assignment from their superiors to be completed within two days. Unfortunately Andy met with an accident and was advised complete bed rest. To avoid delays, Peter from the operations team was shifted to the marketing team to assist Maria for the time being and form a team.Such teams are called cross functional teams. Ideally the employees should be more or less on the same level to avoid ego hassles. Individuals from different areas come and work together for a common objective to form a cross functional team. In such teams, people from different areas, interests and likings join hands to come out with a unique idea to successfully complete a task. * Virtual Teams; * Virtual teams consist of individuals who are separated by distances and connected through computer. Here individuals communicate with each other online through internet.Sam at Los Angeles can form a team with Mandy at Mexico and Sa ra at Denver all working for a common objective but the communication is totally digital through internet. Such teams are helpful when employees need to connect with each other and are located at different places. Individuals supporting any community in social networking sites such as facebook or orkut also form a virtual team as all the members are from different locations but support a common community. They all have a common objective -to support and promote their community. * Research and development Teams; Investigative activities that a business chooses to conduct with the intention of making a discovery that can either lead to the development of new products or procedures, or to improvement of existing products or procedures. Research and development is one of the means by which business can experience future growth by developing new products or processes to improve and expand their operations. * Self Managed Teams * Self Managed Teams consist of individuals who work together again for a common purpose but without the supervision of any leader. Here as the name suggests every individual is accountable for his individual performance.The team members of self managed teams must respect each other and should never loose focus on their target. No leader is appointed and the team members have to take their own responsibility. Individuals take the initiative on their own and are their own guides and mentors. 15. What do you understand by ‘Quality Performance ; Collaboration’? * Quality Performance is also referred to as quality of service. Quality performance can be assessed through measurements of physical products, statistical sampling of the output of processes, or through surveys of purchasers of goods or services. Collaboration is working with each other to do a task. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, (this is more than the intersection of common goals seen in co-operati ve ventures, but a deep, collective, determination to reach an identical objective 16. Explain in your own words the phases of the mentoring relationship. * Building a relationship between the mentor and mentee * Discussing and developing clear expectations between the parties * The development of the Mentee * Closing of Ending the Formal Metor – Mentee relationship 17.Why is the development leadership effectiveness important in the 21st Century? * The quality of leadership is an important element in an organization’s success, since leaders influence employees to work together toward the fulfilment of a company’s mission and the achievement of its goals 18. Describe the two leadership functions needed for effective group performance. Must the leader perform both of these functions? * To act as a counsellor of the people at work: When the subordinates face problems at work, which may be technical or emotional, the leader has to guide and advise the subordinate co ncerned.There may be situation which are out of control, in that situation, leader must stand behind the subordinate to encourage and support and find a solution for the problem. * Time Management: Leader must ensure the timely completion of the work while ensuring the quality and efficiency of the work. At different stages, the work should be complete according to the plan. The timely completion of the individual tasks will ensure the completion of the group work. Leader should monitor and ensure the individual task at different stages are accomplished as per the plan. In my personal view I would think that a leader should perform in both of these mentioned functions 19. What is the â€Å"situational leadership theory†? How should the manager’s style vary in each of the four phases? * Situational Leadership Theory (S. L. T. ) is the idea that changing conditions often call for a rapidly evolving strategy with tactics to support the evolution of the team to meet the pr esent challenges. S. L. T. also suggests that great leaders will recognize the special talents ; strengths of each team member and then adjust the tactical maneuvers around the strengths of each team member and the collective team. 0. In what ways, if any, have your views on leaders and leadership changed as a result of this course? Which leadership style do you feel is best suited to you? Which style would you be most likely to use? How flexible in leadership style do you believe you are? Do you think your answers to these questions will affect your career choice(s)? 21. Create a leadership time line for yourself (beginning with the end of high school) that depicts important turning points in your development as a managerial leader. Think of where you have been and where you are today on the time line.What do you expect it to look like in five years? Ten years? 22. Describe in short the four principal forces of change. * Globalization * A convergence of international activities suc h as the increase in overseas production of goods and services; increasing consumer demands in emerging markets worldwide; declining barriers to international trade aided by rapidly changing technology, have created a globalized economy in which inter-dependency among countries has emerged as the norm today * Technological Change: * Technology is like a two-edged sword that can make our lives easier or worse.The Internet has revolutionized the way in which information is exchanged, communication facilitated and commerce conducted. Technology is rapidly changing and effective management demands more knowledge in these areas in order for companies to manage their resources and develop, maintain or keep their competitive edge. * While technology has enabled firms to save time and money by conducting business such as negotiations, trade, and commerce in real time, it can also facilitate the dissemination of sensitive information about a company's practices, trade secrets and new product development in a matter of seconds. Knowledge Management * Driving forces such as shifts in buyer demographics and preferences; technology, product and market innovation; changes in society, consumer attitudes and lifestyle all demand new ideas. This has created a need for knowledge workers. * Knowledge workers comprise a company's intellectual capital and are made up of creative people with novel ideas and problem-solving skills. Managing its knowledge assets can give a company a competitive edge as it effectively utilizes the expertise, skills, intellect, and relationships of members of the organization. * Cross-boundaries Collaboration An important part of knowledge management is effectively managing organization-wide collaboration. Use of appropriate technology and applications such as a virtual private networks; VoIP, e-mail, social networking websites such as Face Book, and even company-sponsored blogs can facilitate communication between an organization and its stakeholders, and help in different types of internal and external collaborative processes. An example of a tool that can be used in cross-boundaries collaboration might be an easily accessible online database that provides a central source of information to employees, customers, or suppliers. 3. Briefly profile your company’s primary shareholders. What are their investment objectives? How much influence do they currently exert? If your organization is not publicly traded, identify the key stakeholders. How influential are they in the day-to-day operations? How might the influence of the key shareholders or stakeholders change in the next five years? With this level of analysis of the forces acting upon your company, what must the organization do differently in order to effectively address these influences? Where do you fit into that picture? 24.What are the values that drive you in your job? 25. How do you keep people's loyalty in a company that is downsizing? * Leadership is more about enabling people to do their best and become the best, than it is about loyalty. Leaders inspire people while managers set polices that buy loyalty. Besides, organizations that have effective leaders throughout their organization will find themselves downsizing much less than organizations that are lacking leaders. That is because they will be performing the necessary steps to carry them on to the visions they have created.Also, if you have good leaders throughout the organization, you are going to find yourself doing the right things if and when it becomes cost-cutting time – being honest and compassionate 26. Is there any index of success for turning common managers into leaders, i. e. , a tax of effectiveness of training? * I'm not so sure if there is an index, since this type of training falls more into the development category, which can be extremely hard to measure at times. For example, if you train someone to operate a forklift, you can then go to the job site to see i f that person actually learner some new skills.But observing someone to see if they have gained some leadership skills is much more difficult. How do you effectively measure their visioning skills? Also, developing a leader is not accomplished in a two-week leadership course; that is where they learn the basics. The rest of what they learn comes through a trial and error period of practice. However, there are indicators that show how much value organizations place on leadership skills: * The March 2, 1999 edition of the NewsEdge had a story on an international study conducted by the HayGroup for Fortune magazine.They found that corporate cultures of the world's most admired companies are alike in many ways, but also differ from those of an average company. * This study reveals that the dominant values in the world's most admired companies are teamwork, customer focus, innovation fair treatment of employees, global reach, and vision. These are mainly leadership skills! * In average c ompanies, the overriding values are making budget, supporting the decisions of management, and minimizing risks. While these are mainly management skills! * Great companies have leaders while average companies are run by managers! Also, Aon Consulting of Chicago reported that the top five reasons for employee commitment are (notice that all five tasks are mostly leadership skills): * Employer's recognition of personal and family time * The organization's vision and direction * Personal growth * The ability to challenge the way things are done * Everyday work satisfaction 27. Describe your business strategy in less than 45 words. 28. Answer True or False: According to the recent literature, courage is one of the seven competencies of effective leaders. * False 29.International management development involves the CEO and the senior team and other key elements. Which of the following is not one of the key elements? a) The global strategy b) Human Resource and line capabilities c) Senio r Management involvement d) Performance Management 30. Explain why resistance to change is so prevalent in the workplace * Loss of Job: * In an organizational setting, any process, technological advancement, systems, or product change will include streamlining, working smarter, cost reduction, efficiency, faster turn around times. * Bad Communication Strategy: The way in which the change process is communicated  to employees within the organization is a critical factor in determining their reactions. * Shock and Fear of the Unknown: * Employees’ responses to organizational change can range from fear and panic to enthusiastic support. During periods of change, some employees may feel the need to cling to the past because it was a more secure, predictable time. * Loss of Control: * Familiar routines help employees develop a sense of control over their work environment. Being asked to change the way they operate may make employees feel powerless and confused.People are more li kely to understand and implement changes when they feel they have some form of control * Lack of Competence: * This is a fear that is difficult for employees to admit openly. But sometimes, change in organizations necessitates changes in skills, and some people will feel that they won’t be able to make the transition well. Therefore, the only way for them to try and survive is to kick against the change. * Poor Timing: * Change must be introduced when there are no other major initiatives going on. Sometimes it is not what a leader does, but it is how, when and why she or he does it that creates resistance to change!Undue resistance can occur because changes are introduced in an insensitive manner or at an awkward time * Lack of Reward: * There is a common business saying that managers get what they reward. Organizational employees will resist change when they do not see anything in it for them in terms of rewards. * Office Politics: * Every organisation has its own share of i n-house politics. So, some employees resist change as a political strategy to â€Å"show or prove† that the change decision is wrong. They may also resist showing that the person leading the change is not up to the task. Former Change Experience: * Our attitudes about change are partly determined by the way we have experienced change in the past. For instance, if in your organisation, you have handled change badly in the past, the employees will have good reasons for rebelling. * Loss of Support System: * Employees already in their comfort zones, working with the managers they get along with, and who are operating within predictable routines know their support system will back them up during challenging times. * Empathy and Peer Pressure: * Whether we are introverted or extroverted, we are still social creatures.Organizational stakeholders will resist change to protect the interests of a group, team friends, and colleagues. It is normal for employees to resist change to prote ct their co-workers * Lack of trust and support: * Successful organizational change does not occur in a climate of mistrust. Trust, involves faith in the intentions and behaviour of others. In organizations where there is a high degree of trust and each individual employee is treated  with respect and dignity, there is less resistance to change. 31. How could cultural differences within an organization be better leveraged to enhance performance? Cultural diversity involves the differences in the composition of members of an organization in terms of nationality, race, color, gender, creed, religion or age — in other words, an array of culture found among people from diverse backgrounds. Organizational behavior refers to the nature of interactions among people and groups within an organization. The positive influence of cultural diversity facilitates members of the organization to build relationships and acknowledge each other regardless of their differences of origin and bac kground. A typical organization has an extensive range of people who have cultural and personal differences. A small business interested in fostering cultural diversity among its employees endeavours to create mutual respect for the different cultures, along with enabling personnel to reach their full potential. Acknowledging diverse cultures enables the organization to positively influence the organizational behaviour that, in turn, enhances the performance and image of the organization.The business should portray the cultural diversity aspect of the organization in the mission statement. * Cultural diversity is the biggest potential benefit to work teams with complex tasks and problems that require creativity and innovation. 32. Select the right answer: All of the following are differences in the inherent leadership styles between women and men except: a) Men are more likely to use a directive command and control style b) Man rely on formal authority for their position c) Women at tempt to enhance followers’ self-worth ) Men share power and information e) Women tend to lead through inclusion and rely on interpersonal skills to influence others 33. Answer True or False: One limitation of path-goal theory of leadership is that some of the contingencies have not been sufficiently researched. * True 34. Describe the different stages of group evolution. * Forming * In the Forming stage, personal relations are characterized by dependence. Group members rely on safe, patterned behaviour and look to the group leader for guidance and direction. * Storming The next stage, called Storming, is characterized by competition and conflict in the personal-relations dimension an organization in the task-functions dimension. As the group members attempt to organize for the task, conflict inevitably results in their personal relations. Individuals have to bend and mould their feelings, ideas, attitudes, and beliefs to suit the group organization. * Norming * In the Normin g stage, interpersonal relations are characterized by cohesion. Group members are engaged in active acknowledgment of all members’ contributions, community building and maintenance, and solving of group issues.Members are willing to change their preconceived ideas or opinions on the basis of facts presented by other members, and they actively ask questions of one another. Leader ship is shared, and cliques dissolve. * Performing * The Performing stage is not reached by all groups. If group members are able to evolve to stage four, their capacity, range, and depth of personal relations expand to true interdependence. In this stage, people can work independently, in subgroups, or as a total unit with equal facility. Their roles and authorities dynamically adjust to the changing needs of the group and individuals. Adjourning * The final stage, Adjourning, involves the termination of task behaviours and disengagement from relationships. A planned conclusion usually includes recog nition for participation and achievement and an opportunity for members to say personal goodbyes. 35. Select the right answer: The type of leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements are: a) Transactional leaders b) Employee-oriented leaders c) Transformational leaders d) Process-oriented leaders ) Charismatic leaders 36. Explain in your own words what you understand by ‘Distributing Power and Status’ * Human societies develop pecking orders just as chickens do, but both the process and the outcome are, of course, far more complex and varied. We are used to a single powerful leader who operates through command and control is attractive in its simplicity. However it is much better to rely upon a wide range of individuals and leaders who share a common set of values and feel personal ownership for the overall success of the organization.These responsible and empowered individuals will serve a s much better watchdogs than any single, dominant leader or bureaucratic structure. I personally feel that status will not influence teams aa power is distributed evenly and most of the time these teams are composed of people that have the same status. It can also be useful to adopt a peer ranking system. All associates get the opportunity to rank members of their team, including their leaders 37. Define Group Boundaries and Identity. For a group to function and develop, one of the most important areas for clear consensus is the perception of who is in the new group and who is not in, and the criteria by which such decisions are made. New members cannot really function and concentrate on their primary task if they are insecure about their membership, and the group cannot really maintain a good sense of itself if it does not have a way of defining itself and its boundaries. * Initially, the criteria for inclusion are usually set by the leader, founder, or convener, but as the group m embers interact, those criteria are ested, and a group consensus arises around the criteria that survive the test. In a young company, there is often intense debate over who should be an owner or a partner, who should have stock options, who should be hired for key functions or be an officer, and who should be ejected because he or she does not fit in. In this debate, real personnel decisions are being made, and at the same time, the criteria of inclusion are being forged, tested, and articulated so that they become clear to everyone.Such debate also provides opportunities for testing mission statements, goal clarity, and means clarity, illustrating how several cultural elements are simultaneously being created, tested, articulated, and reinforced. 38. Complete the following statement: With self-leadership, individuals and teams set goals, plan and implement tasks, evaluate performance, and _________________. * Solve their own problems, and motivate themselves. 39. What do you under stand by ‘Moralism-Pragmatism’? Moralism means the notion that there is some intrinsically good way of living, or at minimum some intrinsically bad ways of living. To the moralist, the proper function is to reinforce the intrinsically correct way of living and to suppress the intrinsically incorrect ways of living. In contrast, pragmatism is not concerned with the intrinsic ways of living, but with outcomes: a way of living is good or bad only to the extent that it produces a good or bad outcome. To the pragmatist, the proper function of the is to produce a good outcome.Both of these paradigms entail making moral judgments: the moralist must (somehow) judge which ways of living are good or bad; the pragmatist must (somehow) judge which outcomes are good or bad. 40. A more recently emergent theory of leadership holds that IQ scores and other historical qualifiers of â€Å"leadership† are not as important as being able to understand yourself and others in the conte xt of varying situations. What is this theory known as? a) Motivation b) Self Awareness c) Emotional Intelligence d) Charismatic Leadership 1. Perhaps the first study of Organizational Leadership (Lewin et al, 1938) identified 3 behavioural leadership styles, which of the following is not one of the styles? a) Autocratic b) Democratic c) Laissez-Faire d) Task Oriented 42. The super leader model of leadership proposed by Afsaneh ; Nahavandi in a 2000 paper, does NOT include which of the following characteristics for a leader? a) Use self-managing teams b) Work as a facilitator c) Delegate to a team with goals and structure d) Trust the team to handle given work 43.A critic of business school's obsession with teaching of management as a science, this current professor at McGill University is also the co-author of a organizational structure known as an Organigraph a) Henry Mintzberg b) Peter Drucker c) James MacGregor Burns d) None of the above. 44. What are some advantages of a MBA Pr ogram focused on Leadership? * Help students develop skills that are essential to success in any field: critical thinking, problem-solving, communicating, negotiating, and acting ethically in professional situations. Programs are designed for mid-career professionals who want to step into leadership roles * It has flexible schedules 45. Which of the following theories of leadership postulates that people will be more focused and motivated if they believe they are capable of high performance, believe their effort will results in desired outcomes and believe their work is worthwhile? a) Contingency Theory b) Path-Goal Theory c) Transformational Theory d) Transactional Theory 46. The belief that people are either born or not born with the qualities for successful leadership can be classified as what type of leadership theory? ) Transformational Theory b) Situational Theory c) Skills Theory d) Trait Theory 47. The nominal group technique is a good way to allow all group members to have a say in the group's final decision? a) True b) False 48. When faced with a difficult decision that directly involves the group you a) Avoid making the decision altogether b) Put it up for discussion and ask other members of your group for input c) Leave it to someone else to decide d) Pretend the problem doesn't exist e) Keep postponing the decision until the problem becomes obsolete 9. You delegate a task. What defines the performance standards for the person who fulfills the task? a) How well you would do it b) The person's past performance c) Criteria and standards set prior d) The job needs to be done as well as necessary (fitness for purpose) e) By giving others in the group authority, the manager/team leader loses control. 50. When working toward a goal a) You tend to focus on the big picture b) You tend to focus on the details. 51. Do you have a clear vision of where your group/organization is headed? a) Definitely ) To a large degree c) To a certain degree d) Not really 52. Why is effective communication so important for leadership? * Effective communication is an important element of success for every organization, leader, manager, supervisor, and employee. An organization whose people communicate effectively experiences fewer of the misunderstandings that create friction between people, waste time, and cause mistakes. The strategy of this enterprise is clear to all, and each person understands how his or her work contributes to that strategy.Employees listen to customers and, in turn, are clear and persuasive in describing their company’s products and services. 53. Explain where does trust fit in terms of effective leadership? * Trust is one of the most critical elements in the leading-following equation. People who are in leadership roles in any organization cannot succeed over the long term unless there is some sense of trust from the followers in that organization. Force and coercion can replace trust as a glue that binds people together f or a while, but not for the long haul. Followers need not love a leader. They need not like a leader. But to support a leader, and follow him or her, they need to have some sense of trust and confidence in that leader, both in their ability to perform competently and expertly, and confidence in the leader as a person 54. Explain where does power fit in leadership? * To answer the question we have to distinguish between two kinds of power. First there is the kind of power that is associated with a formal position in an organization's hierarchy, such as the CEO, VP, Department Head, or Unit Supervisor.Holding such a positions confers some ability to control reward, punishments, working conditions and other things that affect employees. We call this formal power, or you can also call it positional or role power. * The other kind of power doesn't come from having a formal position, so both formal and informal leaders can wield it. We can call this form of power informal power, or influe ntial power, since it is based on the ability to influence and not on the ability to control the rewards and punishment or the work environment.Informal power is a result of others (peers, other managers, rank and file) choosing to follow because the leader creates trust, loyalty and inspires others. 55. What is a ‘thought leader’? * Thought leaders are people who have an influence on how people think about an issue or situation. Through their development of models, theories or ideas, they end up with a following that stems largely from the apparent truth and/or usefulness of their ideas. * Thought leaders do not â€Å"intend to lead†. Neither do they require formal power. Their â€Å"power to lead† lies with the apparent truth and effectiveness (and often innovativeness) of their thinking. Thought leaders can affect others on a grand scale, through the exposure of their thinking in the media, or through books, personal influence and so on, but they can al so affect others locally, within an organization, by presenting their thinking in compelling ways, so that those around them approach problems or issues from a different perspective. Often thought leaders are best known for innovative or â€Å"new† ideas. 56. Answer True or False: According to organizational behaviour research, male and female leaders do not differ in their levels of task-oriented and people-oriented leadership. True 57. What is paternalistic leadership? * A type of fatherly managerial style typically employed by dominant males where their organizational power is used to control and protects subordinate staff that are expected to be loyal and obedient. A manager with a paternalistic leadership style might be appropriate for a business with a more formal and hierarchical structure where creative thinking is not required of staff. 58. Some authors say leaders must divide their time in three parts: one for handling finances, another for quality, and a third for relationships.What do you think about? * Leaders have two â€Å"leadership continuum† scales that they must follow. Earlier, I talked about the people scale, and how we have been moving from Douglas McGreagor's Theory X to Theory Y. This continuum can be seen as the vertical axis (concern for people) in Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid. The other axis is the â€Å"concern for task† and it is plotted along the horizontal axis. By focusing on the far end of the scales or continuum and developing goals to achieve the 9s, a leader can create her visions.And then by developing great people (people scale) and giving them the means to accomplish your vision (task scale), you have ensured that the necessary ingredients are there for organization success. In other words, good leaders have â€Å"goal directed visions† and then achieve them by inspiring their people to work through change and challenges in order for task accomplishment. This, in turn, equals a successful organization. 59. What do you call the theory that some people have specific characteristics that differentiate leaders from non-leaders? * Trait Theories 60.What's the worst fault a leader can have? * A failure to see the benefits of diversity. This creates like-people throughout the organizations and leads to one-way thinking. If you do not have a diverse team, then you cannot come up with the creative brainstorming solutions to stay competitive. Also, you alienate your customers and consumers who can be quite diverse. 61. Complete the following statement: If trait research had been successful, we would ______________, whereas if behavioural studies were correct, we would ___________. * Select the right person for the job; * Train leaders. 2. Select the right answer: It is generally considered that leadership is important to an organization’s success. All of the following are actions that leaders take to make an organization successful except: a) Make rapid and firm decisi ons b) Control deviations from a standard c) Motivate employees to higher levels of productivity d) Practice charismatic standards e) Anticipate change and vigorously exploit opportunities 63. Answer True or False: Path-goal theory advocates servant leadership. * True 64. What is the shape of the perfect leader and does he or she exist? To paraphrase W. Somerset Maugham, â€Å"There are three rules for creating good leaders. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. † * There are no perfect leaders, that is why good leaders are always trying to improve themselves through self-study, training, education, mentorship, making mistakes and then learning from them, etc. Since there are no perfect leaders, it is hard to build a good leadership model, which is why there are hundreds of them. But, we can be sure of a few things that good leaders have: * A vision of the future (answers the question, â€Å"where are we going? †). The ability to encourage followers to jump into t hat experience (work through the many changes that are required to achieve that vision). * A love of self-improvement for themselves and their followers. This love makes them good coaches and mentors. * Empowering their followers to get things done (delegates). 65. Does a leader need to be motivated? How can leaders maintain themselves to stay motivated? * A leader definitely has to be motivated; those who are not will quickly be seen as frauds in their followers' eyes as they expect their leaders to be enthusiastic about their work.Motivation comes in two forms: extrinsic and intrinsic. * Extrinsic motivators come from the outside. For example, one reason that I go to work is that I need to make a living in order to survive. Intrinsic motivators come from within. For example, another reason that I go to work is that I get a great deal of satisfaction when I accomplish a difficult task. * Good leaders set and achieve goals that allow them to get a healthy balance of both motivators. Although many people believe that intrinsic motivators are the best, that is not necessarily so.Often, the extrinsic motivators lead us into new situations and then our love for doing it (intrinsic) carries us through and on to new heights. 66. As far as communication is a key point, how can a shy person be a leader? * Communication, from a leadership point, is more than just directing others (which shy people would draw back from), it is more about maintaining healthy relationships (which almost every shy person is capable of doing). One of my favorite quotes is from Captain Henry â€Å"Jim† Crowe, USMC.While in Guadalcanal on 13 January 1943, he used the following words and actions to motivate his troops: â€Å"Goddamn it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me! † It was more than an order — it was his action of not showing his fear by being in the front that motivated his troops. * Leaders use both actions and words to get things do ne. Bossing others is the act of directing others to get things done without having any concern for the employees. Shy persons do not normally become bosses, but many of them do become leaders†¦ while the bullies become bosses. 67.If so much material is written about leadership, why are there so few real leaders in companies? * Who says there are so few leaders? The only people who can call a person a leader are the followers. People outside the organization might call a person a leader, yet she might have just been a dictating tyrant who used her power of authority to get things done. This only made her the boss, not a leader. Only the people who work for another person have the authority to call that person a leader. * Too many people equate leaders with the power of authority, yet it is more about visioning and achieving goals through others.Organizations that are lagging behind their competitors often have a lack of leaders throughout their ranks. While great organizations have leaders throughout the organization, from top to bottom. Just as I mentioned earlier about Starbucks' goal of 2000 stores by the year 2000, it took a lot of leaders throughout the ranks to accomplish it. 68. The role of principles of leadership is so extensive that it puts one to think – isn't a good leader a kind of superman or superwomen? How can that be? * Leadership is like many other difficult skills — it takes skills and practice.That is why it is important to develop leaders throughout your organization; although you can learn the knowledge and the skills in a short period of time, it takes plenty of practice to get it right. Senior leaders should always be coaching and mentoring their subordinates on the leadership continuum. 69. Is a military model of leadership adequate to any company, as far as it based most on authority and discipline? * Researchers at McKinsey & Company and the Conference Board discovered that one highly effective route of leadership is demonstrated by the U. S. Marine Corps.The Marines' approach to motivation follows the â€Å"mission, values, and pride† (MVP) path, which researchers say is practical and relevant for the business world. A couple of other organizations that follow the MVP path are 3M, New York City Ballet, and KFC. There are four other valid paths to follow: Process and Metric (Toyota), Entrepreneurial Spirit (BMC Software) Individual Achievement (Perot Systems), and Reward and Celebration (Mary Kay). * The Marines invest in their front line by following five practices: * Over-investing in cultivating core value: * Make an investment by intensely focusing on core values.Give your employees more than a brief introduction — assign some training to your most experienced and talented managers. One role model can influence 40 or 50 new hires. Also, focus on values after the training, i. e. Marriott prominently displays customer letters praising superior performance. * Preparing every pe rson to lead, including frontline supervisors: * Training every front line person to lead has a powerful effect on morale. Do NOT write the followers off or give them superficial attention. You most embrace the notion that front line workers can lead. Learning when to create teams and when to create single-leader work groups: * Genuine teams are rare in the business world where a single individual leading a group is the norm. Real teams get most of their motivation from its mission and goals * Attending to the bottom half, not just the top half: * Find the time to attend to the poor and mediocre performers, even if it means personal sacrifice. Normally, it is cheaper and easier to rejuvenate under-performers than it is to replace them. Marine Drill Instructors, despite their legendary toughness, refuse to give up on any recruit. Encouraging self-discipline as a way of building pride: * Demand that everyone act with honor, courage, and commitment. For example, Southwest Airlines turn s its planes around in less than half the time that is needed by most competitors; not by fear of punishment, but by a desire to be the best. * To emulate the Marines, many executives would have to embrace the notion that front-line workers can lead. (Jon R. Katzenbach and Jason A. Santamaria. Harvard Business Review â€Å"Firing Up the Front Line. † May-June, 1999, pp. 107 to 117. ) 70. Is there an ideal percentage of leaders in a company?Can an excess of leaders turn into a problem? * Every organization is unique, hence it will require a different percentage. But every leader and supervisor must display some form of leadership, they cannot simply be bosses and expect the organization to become a great organization. As far as excess, how can you have too much of a good thing; is there such a thing as a company having too much profit? 71. Which of the following g statements about leadership is false? a) Leadership does not necessarily take place within a hierarchical structur e of an organisation b) Not every leader is a manager ) When people operate as leaders their role is always clearly established and defined d) All of the above 72. What is better for a company that does not have huge sums to invest in training: try to build a team of leaders, with all the failure possibilities, or concentrate on building a good team of efficient managers? * Why would there be more failure possibilities with a team of leaders than with a team of managers? Managers can get things done, but they have to have leaders and leadership abilities of their own. Otherwise, what will hey get accomplished? It takes leaders to have visions. Once you have your vision, it needs to be framed in general terms and communicated to your team. Your team then develops the ends (objectives), ways (concepts), and means (resources) to achieve the vision. Except for developing the means (resources), all of these are leadership tasks. 73. Can someone be a good leader, but not a good manager? W hich is better for a company? * Just as there are many managers who cannot lead, there are many leaders who cannot manage. And neither is better for a company.Both strip the company of a valuable resource — a leader who can get things done or a manager who can lead her employees. 74. Answer True or False: Anonymity inevitably has a negative impact on group members. * True 75. Select the right answer: Which of the following is a leadership activity? a) Reviewing and evaluating the delivery of a project b) Planning and undertaking performance reviews and monthly supervision sessions c) Empowering and inspiring others to take responsibility for aspects of the service they deliver d) Drafting a service budget and consulting the management team about it.

bpo management system Essay

1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document describes the high level design for the CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping Application and the CHART Internet Mapping Application. The purpose of this design is to show the high-level technical approach to meeting the requirements defined in system requirements specification. This serves to identify the architecture of the system and high-level interactions between major system components. 1.2 Objectives Identify and describe the software architecture for the system. Provide  high-level approaches to various technical challenges. Provide a guide for future development efforts, such as detailed design and coding. 1.3 Scope This high level design encompasses the approach for meeting the requirements as defined in the documents CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification and CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification. 2. System Architecture 2.1 Overview The following diagram shows the system architecture used by CHART mapping applications.  The system design utilizes web based multi-tier system architecture. The data storage is managed at the data tier by the databases. The main business logics are hosted in the two applications in the web server. Because mapping is an area that there are many requirements related to client side interactions with the graphic content of the application, application logics are partitioned based on the most appropriate location to execute them. Some are located on the client browsers to provide instantaneous feedback to the user. The general system operation flow involves the following: 1. Data updates from various sources such as the CHART II CORBA events, EORS data inputs, device and event editing modules are stored in the databases. 2. When a mapping application receives a mapping request, it sends the image map generation request to the ArcIMS map server. The ArcIMS server retrieves the map data from the databases and creates a rendering of the map and saves it as a raster image file. The mapping application generates HTML pages embedded with the image and sends it to the browser client. 3. For the CHART Intranet mapping client, the application also generates the dynamic content in VML format, which encodes the device and event information in vector format. This enables the application to update the dynamic data without having to reload the whole map image. This avoids the heavy load on the map server when the application scales up. 4. When the images and VML  data arrives at the client browser, the client displays the map to the user. The user can interact with this data on the client. 2.2 SQL Server and ArcSDE ArcSDE from ESRI allows managing of geographic information in commercial databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Informix. ArcSDE provides functionalities to efficiently store and retrieve spatial information using spatial indexing mechanisms. ArcSDE provides a set of API and administrative utilities that help manage the spatial data storage. For the CHART mapping systems, the combination of ArcSDE and SQL Server manages the spatial information in the relational database. ArcSDE adds spatial functionalities without disrupting standard SQL database capabilities. 2.3 Map Server (ArcIMS) ArcIMS includes a few components that will play important roles in the CHART mapping application. The workhorse component that processes the data and generates maps is the spatial server. Managing the spatial servers is the ArcIMS Application Server, which monitors each spatial server’s activity and brokers map requests to the least busy spatial server. The detailed interaction of a map request is as the following: When the ASP.Net page receives a map request, it parses it and uses the ActiveX Connector object model to construct a map request. The connector then sends the map request in ArcXML format to the Application Server. The Application Server then finds the least busy spatial server and forwards the map request to it. The spatial server performs the query against the ArcSDE database, retrieves the data and renders them into a raster image file. The location of the file is then sent back to the connector and the ASP.Net page writes it back to the client as HTML page with the image embedded in it. 2.4 Web Server (IIS) .Net Framework and ASP.Net The web server hosts and publishes content to the client browser. In the case of the CHART mapping applications, most of the content is dynamic content generated by ASP.Net modules. When IIS recognizes a page being an ASP.Net module (an aspx extension), it passes the request to the .Net Framework to load the module and handle the request. The ASP.Net pages are then loaded into memory and executed. The .Net Framework provides many utilities such as garbage collection, tracing, just-in-time compilation that manages the execution of ASP.Net modules. The ASP.Net page modules are where the CHART mapping application logic is coded. The web server also provides security via the Secured Socket Layer (SSL), allowing interactions between the user’s browser and the web server to be encrypted when necessary. 2.5 Security 2.5.1 Network Level Security Network layer security will be managed by the network security configurations like firewall and RSA secure ID. 2.5.2 Secured Socket Layer (SSL) MDOT has a certificate server to provide digital certificates for the SSL configuration. The server name must remain consistent with the certificate. All links shall use the same server name, otherwise, if the server is referred using an IP address or a local server name, etc., the user will see an alert indicating the certificate is in-consistent with the resource. IIS supports the configuration of one folder in the web application requiring SSL while other portion does not. The session information remains consistent between SSL portion of the web site and the non-SSL portion. 2.5.3 Enterprise User Enters Read-Only View Many of the CHART mapping functionalities are for display and reviewing data, i.e. a read-only view. The design allows enterprise viewers and CHART users to access the read-only portion of the web site without having to input user name and password. This also enables CHART users to reach the viewing area without having to enter their login information again. When system receives a user request to enter the secured area, the system checks whether the current session has been authenticated. If not, system displays login screen. The user shall enter their CHART user name and password. Upon receipt of the user name and password, the system checks it  against the CHART II database’s user tables. If they are authenticated, the system stores the user information in the session. The session will be managed in the server until the configured timeout expires. All subsequent requests from the same user session will inherit the same authorization information for the user. 2.5.4 CHART User Enters Editing Area Other applications, like future versions of CHART II and CHART Lite, can launch the map editing URL via the HTTPS protocol. The user name and password can be sent via https request. The system verifies their authentication information against the CHART II user database using an OLEDB/ODBC connection. If the authentication information is correct, the system will store this information in the session. The user will be redirected to the map page. If the authentication is rejected, the user request will be redirected to the login screen to reenter the authentication information. Associating a CHART user with an op-center/default map view area: Based on CHART II R1B3 database design, users are not associated with an op-center; rather, the user specifies an op-center during logon. In order to display a default map view area based on an op-center, an external application launching the CHART mapping application will also need to pass in the operation center name to initialize the map to the associated extent. Passing user name and password in URL request: The mapping site shall have a module that verifies the user name and password, then forward the page to the map page, hence avoiding showing the password on URL address box. At the current time, without the full integration with CHART II and CHART Lite, the system will expect plain text user name and password. In the future, an encryption/decryption algorithms agreed between the systems can be added to achieve higher security. 2.5.5 EORS Security Currently, the EORS security has not been implemented. EORS functions will be hard-coded with security configuration. 3. Network Configuration The design above depicts CHART network configuration as the Internal network, a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network for hosting the web server and connecting out to the external Internet network. There will be two firewalls, one between the Internet and the DMZ network and another one between the DMZ network and the internal network. The map server and database servers are to be hosted in the internal network for maximum security. The initial configuration calls for two physical computers to host the map servers and database servers. In the future, if the system needs to scale up, additional physical servers can be added. The Intranet web server can optionally be hosted on the load-balanced virtual server too. 3.1.1 Map Server Load Balancing The design achieves load balancing by a combination of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service and the ArcIMS Application Server. The system utilizes two physical server computers. The two servers are configured with NLB. NLB works on the TCP/IP level. Any incoming traffic from web server to the virtual server IP address is load balanced between the two application servers by NLB. ArcIMS Application Server operates at the application level, monitoring each spatial server’s load and operation. When a spatial server is busy, it directs the map request to idling spatial server(s). Each physical map server hosts one ArcIMS Application Server and two ArcIMS Spatial Server instances. An application server failure forces NLB to direct new connections to the remaining application server. When the failed server is recovered, new client connections should once again be shared between the two servers. The two spatial server instances are â€Å"cross registered† to the application servers. As shown in the diagram, Spatial Server A1 and A2 are registered to Application Server B and A correspondingly. This arrangement ensures that when a spatial server is down, the application server can still  utilize the spatial server from the other server to serve the map request and the application server continue to function. Also, this configuration also allows ArcIMS to load balance at the Spatial Server level as opposed to just the network traffic level, which is what NLB provides. This configuration can withstand an Application Server failure, a Spatial Server failure, a simultaneous Application/Spatial Server failure or hardware failure of one of the physical map servers. Using two map servers with network load balancing should provide high-availability load balanced ArcIMS web site. 3.1.2 Database Load Balancing By running two SQL Server and ArcSDE instances with NLB to balance the load, the system can achieve high availability at the database server layer. The database servers are completely independent and share no hardware components. This type of availability is achievable with the standard edition of SQL Server. The two database servers are setup with Transactional replication. One of the two SQL Servers is configured as the publisher and the other one as a subscriber. All the data modification such as insert, delete and update will be performed on the publisher and changes are replicated to the subscriber. Transactional replication can provide very low latency to Subscribers. Subscribers receiving data using a push subscription usually receive changes from the Publisher within one minute or sooner, provided that the network link and adequate processing resources are available (latency of a few seconds can often be achieved). When the web server and map server requests use the virtual IP address on the load-balanced group of database servers, they are directed to the database server with the least amount of load. If one of the database servers goes down due to hardware failure, NLB detects that this server is down and no longer directs database requests to this machine. The remaining machine handles the database requests and apart from a slight drop in performance the users are unaware that a database server has failed. When the hardware is fixed the offending machine can be brought back online. One limitation exists for this design. It happens when the publisher database is down. In this situation the data updates cannot be committed until the publisher database comes back. But at the same time, all read access from the Internet and Intranet server could still be directed to the secondary server. In the case when the publisher data is going to be down for extended time period, system configuration need to allow system administrator to change the configuration so that the replica will serve as the main database. Compared with clustering solution, this system design provides the maximum database availability and performance benefit. The databases that need to be replicated would include: 1. Background map database. Background map data does not change often. A snapshot replication is sufficient for replicating data updates in one database to the other. 2. CHART/EORS Spatial Database CHART/EORS spatial database stores CHART and EORS device and event information with spatial data. They are dynamically updated throughout the day. Transactional replication will be setup to ensure that data change in one database gets replicated to the other one. 3. SDE metadata. In general, the system can continue to provide access of map and data to both the Internet and Intranet users in the case of failure of any one component in the system. The only exception is that when the publisher database is down, the new data cannot be updated into the system. Users will get delayed information. 3.1.3 DMZ Configuration CHART is currently implementing a Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) network to enhance the network security. This entails creating a separate network for the web server computer(s) and separating it from the internal network with a firewall. In an ideal world, the DMZ would have no physical connection to the internal network. This would require two separate map server setups to serve the  Internet and Intranet users. The recommended way to implement is to disallow any access from the DMZ to the internal network, but allow access from the internal network to the DMZ. In other words, allow out-bound connections. On each of the ArcIMS server computers, mount a network drive to a shared drive on the Web server. Each ArcIMS spatial server would write the output raster image files to the location on the web server to be delivered to the Internet client browsers. 4. Database Organization To reduce the dependency and operation interference between the spatial data and the attribute data, the EORS spatial database and CHART spatial database will be created as two SQL Server databases. To reduce the performance overhead when joining data between the spatial and attribute data, the EORS spatial database will reside on the same database server(s) as the EORS database. 5. Technical Challenges 5.1 Map Display Mechanism CHART Intranet mapping application requires that changes in event and device data be reflected on all map clients in a near-real-time fashion (within 5 seconds). To do so via the traditional raster map publishing mechanism will result in all clients retrieving updated map every 5 seconds or at least when event/device status update requires a new map to be generated. When there is large number of users of the system, it will result in a high map server load in a concentrated short time period. To resolve this issue, the project team reviewed various technical approaches and summarizes their advantages and disadvantages as the following: 5.1.1 Raster (JPEG, GIF or PNG) Image This is a popular approach that utilizes the basic image display functionality of web browsers. It utilizes the server processing power efficiently. The disadvantages are that the images have limited client side intelligence, leaving most of the computation concentrated on the server. It’s capability of handling large number of concurrent map requests is limited. Generally, one map server can support 4-8 requests per second. For  CHART’s situation, when an event changes status, if a new map image needs to be generated, it would be about 40 requests per second (200 users at 5 second update interval). Many servers will be required to support the load. With the license fee involved with using GIF format, we will not use GIF for map publishing. Compared with JPG format, PNG graphics do not have the â€Å"bleeding† effect inherent with the JPEG compression algorithm. With the map displaying lines rather than continuous tone images, it is much cleaner. PNG also results in a smaller file, which translates into faster download times for client. The only JPG advantage is server side image generation times. It is recommended to utilize PNG for the Intranet application to produce highest quality images for standardized IE browser while utilizing JPG for the Internet to allow for support of as many browsers as possible. Also, the reduction in image processing time should deliver better web image generation performance. 5.1.2 XML Based Vector Graphics 5.1.2.1 Vector Markup Language (VML) VML is a XML based W3C standard in describing vector graphics. Basically, it encodes the vector coordinates of points, lines and polygons in XML format. The support of VML is included in Internet Explorer 5.0 and later. There is no download needed to display VML encoded vector graphics. It also has built-in support for style sheet and scripting. This makes it possible to modify the display properties and positions of the vector graphics using the JavaScript on the client-side browser. Using this functionality, we can dynamically update the display of devices and events. 5.1.2.2 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Scalable Vector Graphics is another XML-based W3C standard format for vector graphics. Compared with VML, it requires Java or ActiveX based plug-in to be displayed. Also, based on review of the plug-ins (SVG Viewer by Adobe), there is not as much support for scripting as for VML. 5.1.3 ArcIMS Java Viewer ArcIMS includes a Java Viewer, which provides a Java Applet that can be customized to a certain extent to display vector encoded GIS data on the client side. It requires a download to the client. The Java Viewer reads vector data from ArcIMS feature server encoded using an ESRI proprietary compression format, which makes it difficult to implement special features such as WSMS offsetted road networks because they need to be offset dynamically based on map scale. 5.1.4 MapObjects Java MapObjects Java from ESRI provides a set of Java-based objects for GIS functionalities. It has an extensive set of functionality that can satisfy the requirements. But, it requires a license fee of $100/seat, or comparable server-based licensing. It also requires a download to client machine to run it. 5.1.5 Summary Based on the research above, the project team recommends the following design: Use raster map for background map display (background data with SHA grid map are often large amount of data, suitable for server side processing) Use XML data format to transport the device and event data from server to browser client. Use JavaScript to create and update the VML vector data elements to display the dynamic layers including all the CHART/EORS devices and events. The diagram above illustrates the map display mechanism: 1. Map server reads the spatial data from background database and sends the published map image to the client browser to be displayed as background. 2. Device and event information is broadcasted from the CHART II system in the form of CORBA events. 3. CORBA event listener receives the event broadcast and saves the data into CHART spatial database. 4. CHART/EORS device and event data are published in XML format to the client. Client browser parses the XML into a XML Document Object Model (DOM) using the XML parser. 5. The client browser then iterate through the DOM tree structure and create corresponding VML elements based on the XML device and event data. The VML elements are displayed on the top of the background raster map image. 6. At a pre-configured interval, the browser client retrieves update of device and event data from the IIS server in XML format and update the VML display  based on the updated information. 5.2 Automated Refresh of Device and Event Data CHART/EORS device and event information needs to be updated at a pre-configured interval. They should be updated separate from the background map to reduce the load on the map server. The technical approach to achieve this will be to use a hidden frame to send the request to retrieve updated device and event data and receive the response. The response will package the data in XML file to be parsed into a document object model (DOM) and display the data on map. The request can be to retrieve all data or only retrieve data newer than last retrieval. When the new device/event is received and it requires changing the display of the device/events, the style assignment for the elements can be changed to update the device and event display.   The VML elements will be sent using real-world coordinates (Maryland State Plane 1983). After the data has been retrieved to the client side, the VML map layers can be dynamically projected using the â€Å"local coordinate space†. When user zooms or pan the map, the VML will be projected using the updated coordinates to fit the new map extent without going back to the server to retrieve new data set. 5.3 Inter-Frame Client Script Synchronization The map page has a few frames and the browser loads them asynchronously. Scripts in one frame may call scripts in another frame that may not have been loaded. The approach to resolve this is to add client-side exception handling and verification routine to ensure that the script is called always after the frame is loaded. 5.4 Assigning and Editing Event Location The dynamic nature of VML elements in the browser allows adding and modifying VML elements by scripting. When the user clicks or drags the mouse on the map, client-side script manages the transformation of screen coordinates and real-world map coordinates. The coordinates are sent back to the server’s secured URL where the information is extracted and saved to the database. 5.5 Scalability The CHART mapping application serves not only the Intranet users, but also Internet browser clients. During emergency situations, the load on both the Internet and Intranet servers could get extremely high. The system must be able to scale up to serve large amount of users. The technical approach to solve this issue involves two main facets. As described in the network configuration section, the system will employ network load balancing and allows adding additional hardware in the future. The system should also be able to utilize the caching feature of IIS and ASP.Net to scale up without significantly increase hardware investment. ASP.Net allows caching configuration for individual page modules, such as whether the page is cached and how long it is cached. After the application is deployed, these caching settings can be configured on the web pages. For example, if it is determined that the Internet mapping can be up to 3 seconds late, by setting caching time to 3 seconds, all requests from the Internet will receive a cached response without creating additional load on the map and database server. 5.6 Exception Management and Recovery CHART II keeps its clients updated via a push model using the CORBA Event Service. The Event Service does not guarantee delivery; therefore it is possible for event data to be lost/dropped (although in practice, this is rare). To account for this possibility, the CHART Web Event Listener will refresh its information about the status of devices and traffic events from CHART II at a configurable interval. Also, each time the Event Listener is started, it will retrieve all relevant data from CHART II. Thus, the update model becomes a push model with an occasional pull to be safe. This process will be used to recover from the following situations: 1. The Event Listener was down and did not receive new data from CHART II. 2. CHART II CORBA event(s) occasionally dropped while the Event Listener is up and running. Another likely scenario is that the CHART II server or service(s) restart. After a typical restart, the CORBA Event Service CORBA objects will be  recreated with the same characteristics allowing the Event Listener to continue to automatically receive CHART II CORBA events. As the CHART II services will not be processing events during this time, no events are likely to be missed. Therefore, the Event Listener does not need to do anything special to handle a CHART II server or service(s) restart. Sometimes CHART II maintenance will require that new (and different) Event Service CORBA objects be created. This might happen during a CHART II upgrade, for example. In this case, the Event Listener will need to be restarted so that it can pick up the new objects. Since this type of maintenance does not occur often and the Event Listener restarting is fast, the restart can be handled as part of the CHART II upgrade procedures. 5.7 Integration with ASP Code in EORS and CHART Web Application The CHART Intranet Mapping, replacing the existing EORS mapping application, will still be launched as a separate window by a URL string with a few parameters identifying the district, view type, etc. The impact on EORS web application should be limited to modifying the URL links. The current CHART Internet Mapping site uses â€Å"include† statement to include site navigation pages from upper level CHART web site’s pages. When upgrading Internet Mapping to ASP.Net, â€Å"include† statement is no longer used. Instead, a ServerXMLHTTP request can be formulated to request the text from the included ASP page and merge them into the mapping ASP.Net pages. The limitation of this implementation would be that the ASP.Net application couldn’t share the session and application variables from the ASP application. Currently, there are only a couple of them, such as database connection string. The ASP.Net mapping application will maintain a separate set of application variables. 6. User Interface Design 6.1 Intranet Map Site User Interface Design Here following is a high-level frame structure for the Intranet mapping site: 1. AppFrame is the highest-level frame that includes all the child frames. On the top of the page, there will be the title frame, which will host the  CHART icon. Also inside the title frame will be a group of tabs, such as Traffic, Roadway Weather, Message Sign, etc. 2. ToolsFrame hosts the map navigation and other map related tools. The ToolsFrame will also host menu system that allows the user to bring up data and other detailed information. 3. HiddenFrame will be used to submit and receive information from the server. 4. ContentFrame is further divided to a map frame on the left and a data frame on the right. The user shall be able rearrange the frame boundary to give more space to the map or data area. Data frame will display data as well as legend, layer control and other items when needed. 5. PromptFrame will display the current tool selected and instructions for user activities. Here is a screen shot of the preliminary user interface design: 6.2 Internet Map Site User Interface The overall CHART Internet mapping web site design will stay the same as current web site. The site will stay as part of the overall CHART web site by including the CHART navigation menus into the site. The site will not be using frames; instead, all elements will be laid out as HTML tables. 7. References 1. CHART/EORS Intranet Mapping System Requirement Specification 2. CHART Internet Mapping System Requirement Specification 3. Security and ArcIMS – ESRI White Paper 4. ArcSDE Configuration and Tuning Guide for Microsoft SQL Server – ESRI White Paper 5. ArcIMS 4.0 High-Availability Configuration Testing Using Network Load Balancing –ESRI White Paper 6. Vector Markup Language (VML) Specification – W3C 8. Terms and Glossary ArcXML – ESRI’s map request/response specification in XML format CORBA – Common Object Request Broker Architecture CSS – Cascading Style Sheets DOM – Document Object Model ESRI – Environment System Research Institute GIS – Geographic Information System GML – Geography Markup Language NLB – Network Load Balancing SSL – Secure Socket Layer SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics VML – Vector Markup Language XML – Extensible Markup Language

Sufficiently demonstrated this through my actions

I would like to state that I am executing this letter to manifest to the creditors and financial institutions concerned that I am an individual of good credit standing and that I am qualified and eligible for the Housing Loan that I am applying for.I am well aware of the fact that recent events may lead some to believe that there may be some concerns with regard to my credit worthiness.   I would like to personally assure the concerned parties that there is no need for such.   In order to assuage the fears of my creditors, I feel that it is best to provide a clear explanation of the events that have recently transpired.The events in question all began in 2003 when I filed for bankruptcy.   This was because I was going through a difficult time in my life as I was supporting my ex-husband and had a number of marital issues to deal with.   I had applied for three (3) credit cards that same time and was given approval for all of them.   Unfortunately, I was not able to settle m y outstanding balance because I was forced to relocate from Colorado to Georgia due to grave threats that my ex-husband had issued.I understand these events do not excuse nor exempt me from any financial liability or obligation that I have with the financial institutions concerned.   In my defense, I would like to make mention of the fact that despite these events and circumstances I have gotten in contact with all my previous creditors and have apprised them of my previous situation.   After my discussion with these companies, I was able to resolve the problems.   Soon after that I was also able to secure a stable job and have really improved my financial standing.I am a person of principle and one of those principles is in settling my debts to others.   I do not only proudly say this but also feel that I have sufficiently demonstrated this through my actions.   I am confident of my financial position at this time and feel that my credit worthiness is not a matter that my self or anyone else for that matter should be concerned about.

Raymond Williams and His Contribution to the Study of Culture Essay

Raymond Williams and His Contribution to the Study of Culture - Essay Example The essay "Raymond Williams and His Contribution to the Study of Culture" discusses the brief introduction and historical background of the development of cultural studies; theories and theorists advocating the cultural materialist approach; Raymond Williams on cultural studies and cultural materialism and the relevance of cultural materialism in current context. The explanation of cultural materialism is grounded on the theoretical fundamentals of leftist culturalism and Marxist analysis. Williams views culture as a productive process. In accordance with the Marxist theoretical framework, cultural materialism is an elaboration of historical materialism - a way of understanding the diverse social and material production of the works of art. For Williams, culture is located within flexible but identifiable boundaries. The idea of culture with boundaries is problematic and a complicated issue in the age of globalization. Williams theory of cultural materialism describes the relationshi ps between culture and society. Culture is denoted, according to Williams, as a whole way of life material, intellectual and spiritual. This definition is relevant even in today’s globalization period to understand the complicated patterns of diversified cultural relationships. The various perspectives of ‘common culture’ in Williams’ theory include social relations at work, organized politics, public entertainments. The new modes of communicative production in today’s cultures are the technological advancements.

Oil and Off Shore Drilling Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Oil and Off Shore Drilling - Research Paper Example While drilling of oil is deemed necessary for compensating the deficiency of oil and to reduce its ever-increasing price, the large scale environmental effects of offshore oil drilling cannot be overlooked. According to the law of environmental science mass is always constant and therefore the amount of materials human beings release into the environment must go somewhere and in the course renders its due effect on nature. Hence during oil spills a large area around the rig is affected destroying the habitat both of water and land. The BP and the Exxon Valdez oil spill cases are remarkable in this context and the arctic zone is extremely vulnerable (BP oil spill: Italy drilling ban hits UK-listed explorer, 2011; Fontova, 2008). Although offshore drilling was temporarily banned after the BP incident, the constant demand for oil and petroleum and its high price of $110 per barrel have prompted US to relax regulations and favor offshore drilling. Moreover the economic goals of meeting d eficiency and reducing prices are not met by increase in offshore drilling. ... Hence the team participants of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have been deeming it conducive to boost the production of oil in order to control price rise. The author explains that when the supply increases in order to ensure future availability and reduction in cost, this further creates a boost in demand and hence the normal cases of price fall under increased supply does not take place. However while talking about oil price and the need to reduce the same, one needs to consider the global oil politics and the economy, which will be at stake. For instance, the oil exporting nations reap a major part of their revenues from oil. The sudden rise in oil prices made the oil dependant nations cautious about the supply strains and countries like United States put large-scale efforts to expand foreign reserves for future use. When the demand for oil fell suddenly in 2009, prices began to fall and this led to major problems with respect to decreasing government expenditur es and welfare activities in the oil exporting nations. The reserves of â€Å"easy oil† were already exhausted and extraction of â€Å"tough oil† requires large-scale investment in drilling and exploration, which the companies were not ready to make considering the falling demand. Therefore as the remaining reserves were getting depleted there was an impending rise in oil price, as demand would surge after recovery of the economy (Klare 2009). This shows the dangers involved in attempts to lowering of prices. Brian K. Mignone, director of research on Energy Security Initiative, has projected a similar explanation in his article ‘Offshore Drilling Will Not Significantly Lower Energy Prices’. Mignone (2008) observes that offshore drilling will

What are the different types of businesses that exist in the UK Essay

What are the different types of businesses that exist in the UK - Essay Example Each and every business organization and their respective locations are different and are generally needed to be observed for rules and regulations. Before you finally make up your mind to the type of business that you intend doing or going in for, it is advisable to go in for the professional advice of your solicitors and accountants and have a good attorney, well versed with all the rules and regulations, to help you decide and plan your project and business. There are various types of businesses and types of plans that you could chalk out for getting the proper result and feedback from your business. A business plan is basically a document, incorporating things like market research, operational requirements, promotional strategies, and the financial projections. The plan is mainly used to raise capital, reorganize the actives and resources and preparations for the final sell out as well. A strategic management plan focuses on the on the management personnel and its main team. I may incorporate the procedure, manuals of how the operations should take place, policy and the organizations. It fits mainly into the operational aspects where all the staff requirements. And all the management philosophy is made. Amongst the many kinds of businesses and business organizations that are in the UK are Partnership, Private Limited Company, Public Limited Company, Franchise and Sole Trader are the most common ones. Out of the many important decisions that any business owner has to face, whenever they start any new business is to decide as to what structure the business will consist have, of what kinds it will be. The decision would include many things like There are different types of partnerships. The tow common ones are general partnerships and limited partnerships. Through an oral agreement, two or more people can easily form a general partnership. Though it is not recommended that an oral agreement should be started, instead with the help of an attorney, you