Online Payment And Security Of E Commerce Information Technology Essay

Online Payment And Security Of E Commerce Information Technology Essay With the era of information technological advancement, electronic commerce is gradually leading the distribution of the business areas. Online electronic payments are an important part of e-commerce, and also the basis for electronic commerce which able to successfully develop. Without the corresponding real-time coordination of electronic payment, e-commerce is just only practical significance of the virtual business, it cannot achieve a true network transactions. The reason that I choose this title as my seminar title is because it related to my final year project. As my final year project is regarding to online payment method, so I would like to share about online payment method and the risk of online payment, what are the risk can be taken, what are the step to prevent data lost, the security strategic to prevent any privacy or confidential information fraud, and what are the pros and cons about the online payment method. Online payment is the core of e-commerce development, is an important step to complete the transaction on internet, and also the bottleneck of the domestic network application development. Every firms or companies which run the business on internet must provide the online payment method to maintain their company flow. Introduction 1.1 What is online payment? Online payment, also known as electronic payment, it refers to the money which exchanged electronically. Broadly speaking, online payment refers to the transaction exchanged the funds on internet, typically involves computer network, internet and digital stored value system. It makes e-payment may at any time, via the internet directly to the transfer, settlement, and forms of e-commerce environment. 1.2 How online payment basic process? Online payment may seem to be very easy and fast, but it consist of the confidential and security for the card info. In order to make sure that the process is work correctly, the merchant must connect to the network with the Issuing bank, processor, and others financial institution, so that the information that provided by the customer can be routed reliable and secure. As highly sensitive payment information, trust and confidence is an essential element of any payment transactions. This means that payment processing services should be provided by a wealth of experience in payment processing and security. 1.3 What is electronic commerce? Electronic commerce refers to the goods and services which exchange over the internet, commonly known as e-commerce. All major retail organization also have an online presence, however, e-commerce also apply between business to business (B2B) transactions. It can open to all interested parties, or even limited participants. For example like Amazon.com, the selling and buying transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time. Besides that, e-commerce system also associated with the service industry, such as online banking, transfer funds, or even pay the credit card bill. 1.4 Security of e-commerce Along with the e-commerce continue to broaden, protection of individual treatment over the internet, and make your customers feel secure is the primary factors and necessary. In order to perform a secure and good service, internet security plays an important role to be enhancing in this situation. The objective is to establish rules and measure to use against attacks over the Internet. Internet information exchange on behalf of the invasion led to unsafe or high risk of fraud. For any expert in internet security will tell, e-commerce is actually much more secure than real world commerce. For example like when you leaved your credit card receipt in the shop, or accidentally give your credit card number to someone else, you are actually accepting the risk that the order which not order from you will appear on the next months credit card bill. However, when you enter a credit card number of e-commerce site, you are sent through a secure connection to a server access only to authorized personnel and protected against even the most determined intruders. Although some of the people believe that transactions over the internet are in fact safer than offline transactions, there are still a number of people believe that offline transactions are always better than online payment. For example like protecting the credit card detail, company need to prevent the card info from customer or the privacy of the customer found by a third party. Typically, this involves the company network security and how the company provide a strong and secure system on the internet. 2 Common Online Payment Systems Online payment system is to help the consumer more convenience and it is the key issue to ensure that the consumer are fast and secure. There are several types of common online payment systems: 2.1 E-cash internet payment system E-cash, also known as electronic cash or electronic money, it is a form of data which exchanged electronically through the network computer or internet, these is electronic cash currency. It can be converted to cash value of the family of cryptographic sequences, and then use these sequences to show the value of all sizes. There are few characteristic are as follows: an agreement between the enterprises and banks and authorization, can be transfer, can be kept, used to exchanged value within another system. As e-cash is what we can imagine as cash Chinas purchase of small general merchandise payment habits features, it is likely to become an important means of online payment in China, but China has not officially started. There are many foreign companies to provide electronic cash market. If unconditionally anonymous electronic money digital cash net cash market can provide an anonymous e-money market. 2.2 E-purse Internet Payment System E-purse, also known as electronic purse, it is a type of smart card which embedded with the microchip. To use e-purse shopping, the first is the user must transfer certain amount of personal bank account, then in the corresponding of website to download electronic wallet service system free software and install an electronic wallet, to apply online and access the cardholder electronic safety certificate. When users want to purchase something through the internet, just need to click on the electronic wallet icon, and follow the corresponding information that the user need to provided, such as password and user name to complete the transaction on the internet. E-purse would be more convenient and flexible compared with checks or debit card for a smaller transaction, it always used in conjunction with the bank card to help the user complete all the small transaction process. E-purse is independent of the function of bank accounts, so it will be able to record the user as required payments are made in a checkbook greater privacy and freedom. In addition, e-purse even can provide budgeting because the user only can spend what the total amount that the card had. 2.3 Electronic check (E_check) Internet Payment System Electronic check, also known as e-check, is a form of payment which transfers through the internet. It perform the same function as the paper check of using digital transmission to transfer money from one account to one account. Besides that, e-check provide better security features than the paper check because it is an electronic format and may proceeded in fewer steps to complete the transaction. Most common features provided by  electronic checks include authentication, public key cryptography, digital signatures or personal identification numbers instead of signature and so on. Theres a simple electronic check process shown below: 1. Send Check Payee Payer 2. Inspect Check 5. Bill 3. Notice 4. Approve funds and transfer Payee Bank Accounting Server Electronic Check-Cashing Process E-check is an exclusive network system, the international financial institutions, with their equipment, software and hardware, an accurate and complete set if user identification, the standard messaging, data validation and other standardized data transmission agreement to make sure that the transaction are safety and security. 2.4 Digital Wallet Payment System A digital wallet, also known as e-wallet, it is a software system that store inside the users computer to hold the digital cash, and a digital certificate with a digital signature. E-wallet allows users to make payment or transaction over the internet fast and safety. The function of the e-wallet is much more like a physical wallet, used to store the digital cash. After the e-cash service released, the e-wallet has evolved into a service to provide online shopping information and holds credit card data and passwords for logging into the website with a convenient way. An e-wallet have both software and information component. The software provides the safety and security with the encryption for the actual transaction. Typically, e-wallet is store on client side, so it is easier to self-maintenance and fully compatible with most of the online payment system. In addition, the system will automatically key in the user information in the online form, it is easier for the user and reduce the time to enter all the information again and again. While for the server side, it is refers to an organization and your side to create and maintain on it server. Because of the security and the efficiency and effectiveness of the utility that provided by the server-side to the users, it become more and more popular and famous for the user with the entire process. 2.5 PayPal System Listen Read phonetically PayPal is an e-commerce business by allowing the user to make transaction or money transfers through the Internet. PayPal also known as electronic alternative, such as checks and money are orders with the traditional paper method. It doesnt charge any fees to make any transaction or join the PayPal service, but they will be a fees change for those who want to receive the money from other people. PayPal account from a bank account can be funded by electronic debit or credit card. To receive the transaction from other people, the recipient from PayPal can either request from the PayPal service, established their own PayPal account, or request from their bank account. PayPal service is much like a intermediaries or a third party who involve between the clients and the recipient that facilitates in e-commerce. PayPal involve in several payments processing such as, online auction, online vendors, and others commercial users. It will costs some fees from the recipient for receiving money, fee included the percentage of the amount plus another additional amount. The fees is charged depend on the currency used, the option that choose by the user, the country of the sender and recipient (how far between both sender and recipient), the total amount sent by the sender and the type of account that the recipient receive it. In addition, shopping on eBay and then made the transaction by a credit card through PayPal may incur a foreign transaction fee if the seller is located in another country, as credit card issuers are automatically informed of the sellers country of origin. 2.6 Critical Evaluation According to Singh Sumanjeet1 (2009, p.24), Electronic cheque system has many advantages: (1) they do not require consumers to reveal account information to other individuals when setting an auction (2) they do not require consumers to continually send sensitive financial information over the web (3) they are less expensive than credit cards and (4) they are much faster than paper based traditional cheque. But, this system of payment also has several disadvantages. The disadvantage of electronic cheque system includes their relatively high fixed costs, their limited use only in virtual world and the fact that they can protect the users anonymity. Therefore, it is not very suitable for the retail transactions by consumers, although useful for the government and B2B operations because the latter transactions do not require anonymity, and the amount of transactions is generally large enough to cover fixed processing cost. In my opinion, i strongly agree with the statement that the author mentioned about. Electronic cheque system provides several advantages than a paper based cheque such as faster speed transaction, provide a certain level of security like encryption or decryption, and so on. But there are still limits of disadvantages for electronic cheque system, like high fixed costs or development start-up costs. Besides that, electronic cheque system can be used in virtual world instead of the real world payment method. And the most important point is the security issue, because the less of face to face communication, we cant even know the actual user as well. The possibilities that someone is try to pretend as the actual user to make transaction with us and caused identity threat 3. Strength and Weakness 3.1 Advantages of Online Payment Online payment, what we called as online payment, is an indispensable business. This is extremely important to accept electronic payment of telecommunications service industry, because it started to use this rapidly growing economy is fully utilized. Use of credit cards by phone or Internet is a familiar and convenient for consumers in the form of payment. It provides for immediate purchase to reduce the pain of payment delay coupling. Customers often feel more comfortable with a credit card, because they know they have the proof to the product or service if they not satisfy on it. There are several advantages of online payment (e-payment): 3.1.1 Convenient and 24 hours real time transaction Through the use of online payment system, consumer can access the web to make any transaction such as online banking, online billing or even car loan at any time (24 hours) or anywhere, as long as access to the internet. For example like consumer can check the bank details through their mobile phone no matter at where and anytime along with the network connection. In addition, consumer able to check or view the history of the previous transaction that they made or get the accurate real time information through online payment system. It may save up a lot of the paperwork as well. 3.1.2 Reduce cost and save time With the help of online payment system, we only need to stay at home with just a click in front of the computer which connected to the network, and transaction will be done easily. Instead of go to the physical bank to make the transaction by writing the form and waiting in front of the counter. It may save up a lot of cost like transportation fees, paper workflow fees and so on. Besides that, through online payment, the processing speed is definitely fast and rapid by following the simple instructions and entering the parameters that the system required. And user may not need to transport from one location to another, it may save up a lot of time. Compared with the real world physical offline banking system, it may spend a lot of time especially on peak season or peak hour. 3.1.3 Flexible of using e-payment Along with the continuous improvement of e-commerce, many organizations or firms not only focusing their business on offline operation, but managing their business workflow on internet. Nevertheless, e-payment, as what we called as online payment, had become an indispensable item for the entire progress of e-business. Nowadays, there are more and more online payment service provided which linked with the organization. It is more flexible to the consumer, they can choose which type of service that they want, for example like PayPal, e-cash or which bank they prefer such as maybank2u and so on. Besides that, majority of the online payment service are operation 24 hours, consumer can make the transaction anytime they like. In addition, they can reduce they pain of transport from one location to another and waiting in-front of the counter in the bank. Online payment service allow consumer to make any transaction on anytime or everywhere by accessing to the network. It is the flexibility of e-payment. 3.1.4 Benefit between consumer and organization With the help of online payment, consumer and organization are benefiting in other ways like the consumer and organization are able to negotiate arrangements for the true value, and strengthen the relationship of their business. Besides that, consumer can skip many steps or documentation for the transaction. It may easier for them to control over the timing of payment steps, and minimize the operation of the idle account balance. Consumer can eliminate the delay for the processing of transaction. For organization, they can reduce the cost of processing the paper cheque. Yet when the organizations process the paper cheque that paid from consumers, they need to spend some cost to process the paper cheque. With the help of online payment, the organization may have the advantages as well by encouraging the consumer to pay electronically instead of pay by a paper cheque. In addition, they can receive the payment immediately without any delay, because the receipt is available immediately after consumer had made the payment. 3.1.5 Others common benefits Below are some of the common benefits for online payment method. Personal security We do not need to hold so much money along with us on our premises, or even on the outside, and lead to more safety and security Used internationally Online payment is a common method that can be used internationally, it is important for the tourist-sector businesses or those organization who running their business or selling their goods overseas. Reaching a wider customer base Some of the organizations accept the online payment method like phone delivery or mail ordering for online customers; it is easier for those customers who are lack of transportation or not able to reach your premises. Increase the sale opportunities For some customer willing to buy the goods from the offline business shop, the may having the problem that insufficient fund, they have to leaves to get cash, it may cause them not return to the shop again. With the help of online payment from ecommerce sector, customer can buy the goods from internet as long as the computer or devices are connected to the internet. This may lead to sale increasing. 3.2 Disadvantages of Online Payment The transaction over the internet or the transfer of fund on internet through the electronic media is known as electronic payment, as what we called as online payment. Nowadays, online payment is a daily activity for most of the business organization. It is very common and convenient for the online transaction for those organizations focus their business over web to interact with their consumers or business partners. In fact, there are still weaknesses of the online payment that we cannot ignore it. One of the ways is to be aware the raised awareness of privacy and security issues from the electronic online payment system. Consumers have to bear the risk such as fraud or identity threat that involved in the online transaction. There are several disadvantages of online payment (e-payment): 3.2.1 Privacy security concerns. In the e-commerce world, most of the online banking systems, also known as online transaction site, require the user to register as their own member with some simple input or instruction before giving the authorization for them to make the transaction. While the registration process, user need to provide the username and password, all these information implies the need of privacy protection and security. In addition, user need to maintain their account, it may be a trouble for the user. For those organizations site that hosting the user account, they should follow the strict of security and privacy policies. It is very important for those organizations to protect the privacy of the user details and prevent the information being hacked by the hacker. If the username or password is susceptible to being hacked, it maybe will cause the user a serious financial loss problem from the end. All these are a potential rick of the privacy or the personal detail being hacked while using the online payment system. 3.2.2 Identity theft Another disadvantage of using online payment is identity theft. Using the right security measure can prevent your important information being exposed by the third party. Besides that, using virus protection or firewall may very useful to protect your computer. It might a risk that you make any transaction through internet from your computer. Another example like if you losing your smart card, unfortunately the card is fall in unsafe of persons hand. There is a very serious or dangerous expenditure of your entire account balance. Though you will inform the authorities on cards loss, when the time between you losing your card and informing to the authorities, the third party (unsafe person) may transfer all your money out through your card details via internet. 3.2.3 Dependency of online payment system Along with the information technology, many organizations or firms are running their business over the internet and provide several utilities as long as online transaction. In fact, this method is indirectly effect consumers become more and more dependent on online transaction, because it speed and rapid transaction, availability 24 hours as long as connected to the internet at home or even a mobile devices. However, there still can be disadvantages for over dependent of online transaction. For example like if the email does not send to the right destination or not working well, the sender may not know the sending error or does the email has reach the destination or not. Or like for those consumers may want to pay the bill or loan over the internet instead of the traditional ways. There might be a possibility that the online payment system down or not function well from the server side, and worst there was a way for the consumer to meet the dead line. 3.2.4 Loss human touch In the physical bank, some of the customer may like to talk and communicate with the bank tellers, interacting with the bank manager or even the bank clients. But in the online virtual world, online banking system had taken off of these human interactions, all these are done by a system program, impersonal hand-off process. Due to the lack of the human interaction for online payment system, some of the customer my not know about the knowledge of online payment system. These required a basic computer skill and the knowledge about internet before using the online payment system. In addition, for some of the small online banking system, they may not provide any instruction or any guideline to lead the user in the correct way. It will caused the users entering the wrong information or incorrect bank details through the online payment system. 3.2.5 High cost development for internet payment gateway The major disadvantage for online payment method is the high cost for internet payment gateway. For those organizations or firms are running their business over the internet, the have to create an internet payment gateway or a system in-house is definitely high development cost. For those non IT companies, it is hard and difficult for them to create a system for their own. Because it wasnt their core business, and they had to use the resource from inside the company with a little or even zero of IT knowledge to build it up. Therefore, the company have to outsource from outside to help them develop a new online payment gateway for them. 3.2.6 Others Limitation Others common limitation of the online payment method: May be difficult to inspect from a remote location Limited of countries cultural and legal obstacles The rapid changing of technologies Hard to retaining the employee Government regulators Difficult to integrate the software of transaction process and the current existing database. 3.3 Critical Evaluation Based on Olga LuÃ…Â ¡tÃ…Â ¡ik (2009, p.15-16) The main benefit from the bank customers point of view is significant saving of time by the automation of banking services processing and introduction of an easy maintenance tools for managing customers money. Private customers seek slightly different kind of benefits from e-banking. In the study on online banking drivers Aladwani (2001) has found, that providing faster, easier and more reliable services to customers were amongst the top drivers of e-banking development. In my opinion, I definitely agree with the above statement that stated by author (Olga LuÃ…Â ¡tÃ…Â ¡ik). Online payment may help to reduce costs and convenience; user may stay at home to performed transaction at any time as long as connected with the network. It is fast and provides funds management, which allow user to download the history of the transaction that that had made. 4 Ecommerce Security Elements In the use of ecommerce, there are several factors that need to involved are: the confidentiality and privacy of the transaction need to be care between the sender and the recipient. The transaction or trading from ecommerce is directly represents to the individual, organization, or business competitor secrets. Therefore, to prevent any confidential data lost from ecommerce application, we have to make sure that the users are legitimate to access the system, and the authentication to filter which date should be show or which should not be show to the particular user. 4.1 The Integrity of the information Due to the accident or fraud of data entry, the information of the data may result in different way. In addition, the wrong of data or information will result the duplication of transmission in different sector of the process. Therefore, the trade sector will affect the integrity of the information from the parties that involved in the transaction and the entire of the business workflow. 4.2 The validity of the information In e-commerce world, the validity of information to individuals, organizations or even the countries are directly affected to the economic interests and reputation. Besides that, the validity of the number of time and the transaction price are very important. It is to make sure that the recipient received the data from the primary side. While for the primary side also have to make sure that the data are sent to that particular person. 4.3 The Non-repudiation of the information Non-repudiation is refers to something like document or contract that cannot simply denied by the origin party. Typically, non-repudiation is to ensure that the contract or one party cannot deny that they communicate to sign the document or the authenticity of a message. For example like legal documents usually need a witness person to sign it, it is to ensure that the person cannot deny the document. 4.4 The Authenticity of the transaction status Online transaction are geographical distant, we couldnt know each other or even an organization. Organization, businessmen, client or even consumer on internet may need to consider whether the transactions between both parties are trusted. To make the transaction success, mutual understanding and trusted with each other is very important. However, there are too many hacker or scammer in the virtual world, is hard to 100% fully trusted on the online transaction or even the in the virtual organizations. 4.5 The reliability of the system In e-environment, the most important point for the reliability of the system is to protect the confidentiality with a powerful security system. In addition, it is to prevent hacker hack into the system and steal the sensitive information from the system. Computer errors such as system failure, software down, virus detected, network connection down or natural disasters may result from potential threat. Therefore, prevention of the system in a good way is to ensure that the systems are security and reliability. It will affect the business workflow in the future if the reliability of the system is not fully secure. 4.6 Critical Evaluation According to Yang Jing (2009, p.48), Using the network for the transaction, the sender and recipient need to ensure the confidentiality of information exchanged. E-commerce as a means of trading, its message directly represents individuals, corporations or commercial secrets; and the e-commerce system is based on a more open network environment promote the application of ecommerce to maintain commercial confidentiality is an important guarantee. Therefore, in order to prevent a large number of transmissions was illegal to steal information to ensure that only legitimate users will be able to see the data. Information can prevent stolen. In my opinion, I absolutely agree with the statement that the author status above. To prevent the information lost, we have to protect it before happen. The integrity of information, the validity of information, the non-repudiation of information, The Authenticity of the Transaction Status, and The Reliability of the System, all these are the important elements which listed by the Author (Yang Jing) to prevent information lost. In fact, I believe that there are still a number of elements for information prevention which I never mentioned on top. 5 Strategic of E-commerce Security As e-commerce security cause by many factors such as fraud, identity theft, or confidential data being steal by the hacker, all these are the problem that we might face it when in the online virtual world. So, a strategic planning for ecommerce is very important, all the strategic that came out should be line with the overall of the ecommerce business management. It must provide a very powerful protection for all the ecommerce confidential data and allow them to recover as fast as possible if any incident happen. To prevent the security problem happen, a set of variety measurement must be included: 5.1 Security Strategy In order to ensure secure communications between both parties on internet, we must take the necessary measures to prevent them. For communication link purpose, we can use firewall or Virtual Private Network (VPN) to make the communication more safety and secure. And consumer must be very careful on some of the untrusted Proxy server. It is act like an intermediary for seeking the information, resource, or link that requested by the client. If the consumer are using the untrusted proxy server, all the data that the client provided may not be encrypted and sent to the proxy server, and proxy server may record down everything sent from the client, including the login and password. For identification and authentication purpose, encrypted or hash function may be very useful in this situation. In ecommerce, login is a very common and the first step for the consumer before they move on the transaction step. To login to the system, the system needs to identify the user name and password before provide the authentication to the user. With the help of encryption, user password have more secure which showing the password in * symbol. Besides the encryption, hash function is a way to convert your password into others form and store in the s

Providing Independent Living For Disabled People Social Work Essay

Providing Independent Living For Disabled People Social Work Essay Independent living is about disabled people having the same level of choice, control and freedom in their daily lives as any other person. Everyone will need assistance or equipment of some kind, although many people with learning disabilities, physical and/or sensory impairments, mental health support needs, long-term health conditions or who experienced frailty associated with old age, will have additional needs for assistance. Although these additional needs for assistance and equipment may be met, it is not always giving people choice and control over the matter, others will decide on behalf of them which can lead to segregation and social exclusion. It is necessary for everyone, whatever their impairment, to express preferences and therefore express choices about their needs and how they should be met. What evidence is there that it is an issue? With reference to Christensen, K. (2010), The late 20th century rhetoric about empowering people by providing them with more independence in their lives has recently emerged within developed welfare states and led to the introduction of cash for care systems in many European countries. These systems allow local authorities to pay people cash instead of providing care if they are assessed as eligible for community care services and are willing and able to manage the payments alone or with assistance. What evidence is there that different policy options will affect the issue? The Prime Ministers Strategy Unit produced their final report on, Improving life chances of disabled people, in January 2005. Within this report it sets out an ambitious programme of action that will bring disabled people fully within the scope of the opportunity society. By supporting disabled people to help themselves, a step change can be achieved in the participation and inclusion of disabled people. This report sets out a strong vision for improving the life chances of disabled people, which is needed to help disabled people face fewer disadvantages. It is never going to happen straight away so they give themselves a 20-year vision: By 2025, disabled people in Britain should have full opportunities and choices to improve their quality of life, and will be respected and included as equal members of society. This report plans to have big changes as a result of this strategy, to make these changes the strategy will empower and involve disabled people, personalise the support they receive and remove the barriers to inclusion and participation. Reference!! The centrepiece of this strategy is the promotion of independent living. Independent living is more than about being able to live in their own home, its about providing disabled people with; choice, empowerment and freedom. For the government to give disabled people more choice and control over their care The Community Care (Direct Payments) Act was introduced in 1996. With reference to the Directgov website, Direct Payments are local council payments got people who have been assessed as needing help from social services, it gives the individual the chance to arrange and pay for their own care and support services instead of receiving them directly from the local council. Direct payments and individualised budgets are central to the UK governments independent living strategy for disabled people to live autonomous lives, and have the same choice, freedom, dignity and control over their lives as non-disabled people (ODI, 2008:27). While Direct Payments have delivered important choice and control for some people, they are not suitable for everyone. Furthermore, the fragmentation of peoples needs across different budgets means that Direct Payments are not always sufficient to deliver a personalised and holistic response to individuals needs. The report, Improving life chances of disabled people, therefore suggests proposes that different sources of funding should be brought together in the form of individual budgets while giving individuals the choice whether to take these budgets as cash or as services. The overall aim would be to enable existing resources to be allocated and services delivered in ways that personalise responses to need, and give disabled people choice over how their needs are met. The Independent living strategy was published in 2008 and its aim was to ensure that all disabled people, including those with significant learning disabilities or other forms of cognitive impairment (including dementia), are enabled to have choice and control over how their support needs are met, and also to have greater access to housing, education, employment, leisure and transport opportunities and the participation in family and community life. REFERENCE!! Of paper. Within this strategy it includes; Putting People First, a shared vision and commitment to the transformation of adult social care, introducing personal budgets and help gaining information, advice and support, Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbours, a national housing strategy for an ageing population, the development of a national employment strategy to enable individuals to remain in employment when they become disabled or when an existing condition gets worse. Therefore the strategy covers all aspects of a disabled i ndividuals life. Why is this an important issue? What should we do about the issue? Disabled people themselves, employers, health professionals, educators, local communities, and providers of goods and services all have a key role in improving the life chances of disabled people. Disabled peoples experience of government support and services needs to change. Too often disabled people feel that they are fighting a system which is fragmented, complex and bureaucratic, and which does not put the needs of disabled people at the heart of service provision. Public service reform and investment has not yet benefited disabled people to the extent it should. REWORD paper improving life chances of disabled people. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/financialsupport/DG_10016128

Change within Organizations Essay -- Business Environment, Organizatio

Word Count 3000 Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations INTRODUCTION Organizational Change In an ever-changing business environment, for organisations to remain competitive in this fast-moving world of technological development and globalization, organisations must examine frameworks regularly and manage change and their working practices and systems if they are to remain competitive. â€Å"It is becoming increasingly important for organizations to gain competitive advantage by being able to manage and survive change † â€Å"Organizational change has become synonymous with managerial effectiveness since the 1980s (Burnes, 1996; Wilson, 1992). A definition given by Mark Hughes (2006 ) in his book Change Management defines ‘ Change’ as â€Å"The leadership and direction of the process of organizational transformation – especially with regard to human aspects and overcoming resistance to change† (Hughes, 2006). Change is a constant feature of organizational life and the ability to manage it is seen as a core competence of successful organizations (Bumes, 2004b). The ability of organizations to manage and survive change is becoming increasingly important in an environment where competition and globalization of markets are ever intensifying (Cao and McHugh, 2005: 475). Organizational change involves, by definition, a transformation of an organisation between two points in time†. It is crucial for organizations to â€Å"Accept that undertaking change is a natural part of business life in order to keep in line with the need for improvements or customer or fashion demands†. The IBM report (2008 ) on Making Change Work states the ``effects of globalization , technology advances, complex multinational organizations , enable... ...e-fits-all approaches. For example, they attempt to combat resistance to change by involving employees in the initiative’s design even when employees don’t have the information needed to provide useful input† We need to beware of pat formulas or off-the-shelf improvement packages. Improvement tools, techniques, and approaches must be customized to fit our unique personal, team, and organizational circumstances. That's why trendy programs like quality circles, excellence, customer service, quality improvement, teams, empowerment, re-engineering and the like have failed or fallen short in so many organizations. They're often sold as a one-size-fits-all, step-by-step process that we can drop right into our organization. When that doesn't work, some managers or consultants try to alter the organization to fit the program rather than the other way around. Change within Organizations Essay -- Business Environment, Organizatio Word Count 3000 Why are there different perspectives on change within organisations INTRODUCTION Organizational Change In an ever-changing business environment, for organisations to remain competitive in this fast-moving world of technological development and globalization, organisations must examine frameworks regularly and manage change and their working practices and systems if they are to remain competitive. â€Å"It is becoming increasingly important for organizations to gain competitive advantage by being able to manage and survive change † â€Å"Organizational change has become synonymous with managerial effectiveness since the 1980s (Burnes, 1996; Wilson, 1992). A definition given by Mark Hughes (2006 ) in his book Change Management defines ‘ Change’ as â€Å"The leadership and direction of the process of organizational transformation – especially with regard to human aspects and overcoming resistance to change† (Hughes, 2006). Change is a constant feature of organizational life and the ability to manage it is seen as a core competence of successful organizations (Bumes, 2004b). The ability of organizations to manage and survive change is becoming increasingly important in an environment where competition and globalization of markets are ever intensifying (Cao and McHugh, 2005: 475). Organizational change involves, by definition, a transformation of an organisation between two points in time†. It is crucial for organizations to â€Å"Accept that undertaking change is a natural part of business life in order to keep in line with the need for improvements or customer or fashion demands†. The IBM report (2008 ) on Making Change Work states the ``effects of globalization , technology advances, complex multinational organizations , enable... ...e-fits-all approaches. For example, they attempt to combat resistance to change by involving employees in the initiative’s design even when employees don’t have the information needed to provide useful input† We need to beware of pat formulas or off-the-shelf improvement packages. Improvement tools, techniques, and approaches must be customized to fit our unique personal, team, and organizational circumstances. That's why trendy programs like quality circles, excellence, customer service, quality improvement, teams, empowerment, re-engineering and the like have failed or fallen short in so many organizations. They're often sold as a one-size-fits-all, step-by-step process that we can drop right into our organization. When that doesn't work, some managers or consultants try to alter the organization to fit the program rather than the other way around.

Lab Essays -- essays research papers

1 Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The experiment conducted regarding Memory Processes tested individuals on their ability to store and retrieve words. The levels on which words were stored were structural, the lowest level, phonetic, the next highest level, and semantic, the highest level of processing. The experiment is based on the recall and reorganization of the words from group they show during the experiment. The experiment conducted supported hypotheses regarding a subject’s performance on retrieving words at different levels. The independent variables were the encoding levels, and they manipulated the dependent variables by affecting the time in which a word could be received due to its placement on a processing level. This experiment was an extension of Craik and Lockharts Depth of Processing Model, that explored the effects of â€Å"deeper† processing by an individual, and the likely-hood that those words processed deeper were retrieved better. 2 Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1970, Craik and Lockhart proposed that there are different levels of processing a person uses while encoding information. Thus, they devised a model to represent these levels of processing called the Depth of Perception Model. In this lab, the levels of processing were based on a person’s ability to recall certain words according to the category in which they were presented to the subject. The three levels of these encoding categories were orthographic (structural) processing, or identified physical characteristics; phonetic processing, or the sound a word makes and that auditory relationship to other words; and semantic processing, or the representational meaning a word has when used in context with other words. Respectively, a word when recognized by the subjects passes first through orthographic processing, then phonetic processing, and finally semantic processing. According to Craik and Lockhart, when a word has gone through these three levels of enc oding it is more likely to be stored and later retrieved than a word that has only gone through the first level of processing. This lab tested a subject’s ability to store, or hold learned information for later use, based on the three levels the word was possibly processed on. There were thirty-six words presented to each subject in the Psyk.Trek experiment. These words were process... ... than basing an experiment on selected students with relatively the same ability, in the same college course, all participating for the same reasons. The internal validity in this experiment could have also been improved if serial positioning was included in the experimental data. Since serial positioning was important in the conduction of this lab, its lack of final representation was also a lack of internal validity. To further research on the topic of memory, not only can these faults be addressed, but also if words were repeated under the same encoding processes and then tested more than once, a better understanding of how effective each process is may be reached. Also different sections could be added to the experiment that called for the retrieval of a word on another level from which it was stored and on the same level it was stored. The reaction times it takes to process these words on different levels could prove as interesting data, either to support that a word is 8 retrieved at the same time for the level on which it was stored, or that a word’s retrieval depends on its context, not the level at which it was stored.

The Effects of Slavery on African-Americans

Slavery obviously had no small affect on the lives of millions of African-Americans in America. Both the North and South had strict rules on how the race was placed in society, rules that placed them far beneath any social class in America. It could be said that even free slaves, could never actually be â€Å"free† due to a complete lack of social equality granted by the American Government. Blacks were treated as something less than a human being, something like a product; this product was sold and traded around the country, and was the basis of the entire country's economy.Working in the fields from dusk to dawn not only hindered African-American's physically, but also exhausted them in the social and mental aspects of life. Slavery affected the lives of African-Americans in the South and the North by hindering them socially, mentally, and physically. Socially, African-American's were at the complete bottom of the list. Even the backwoods, workless â€Å"hillbillies† who lived nearly as harsh of lives as the African-Americans did were well above the slaves in social aspects.African-Americans in the South were completely deprived of any sort of education, including the simple knowledge of reading and writing. Black schools in the North were much despised, in one case, a school dedicated to the teaching of African-Americans was drug into a pond by a group of local whites. Blacks, horribly mistreated had virtually no legal rights, and could not even testify against a white person in court. This meant that no matter how brutally a slave was beaten, he could not do a thing about it.The â€Å"free† blacks had little freedom also, and were treated as a kind of â€Å"third race† in society. These people were essentially slaves still, only without a master. Secondly, African-Americans were hindered very much in the mental aspect. Blacks had no hope of social mobility in their country and recognized this. This, to many blacks became a degrad ing truth. They also felt deprived of their dignity and responsibility in the world. Knowing all of these depressing truths, many blacks esentially gave up and stopped putting so much effort into their role in society.Thus began the stereotype of the â€Å"lazy† African-American, who did just enough to get by, or purposely destroyed machinery in hopes of dodging work. Treatment of blacks within the family varied, some blacks in the upper South were treated as family while blacks in the deep South were whipped and branded on a regular basis. Lastly, the most apparent type of abuse that the African-Americans had to deal with was the physical abuse. Blacks toiled in the fields of cotton from dusk to dawn during their long work days.Masters were allowed to punish their slaves as they pleased, allowing them to whip their slaves if they weren't pleased with their effort. The Government offered no real type of protection to slaves due to the law that forbidded any African-American t o testify against a white in court. Even African-Americans that were finally free had to fear that they may be recaptured at any moment, and they could do nothnig about it. In the North, blacks were definitely a rare race. The blacks that were seen were discriminated against significantly, some blacks weren't even allowed entrance to certain states!In conclusion, African-Americans were placed at the pit of society throughout the 19th century. They had virtually no rights, and were worked tirelessly for a lifetime. African-Americans were not only exhausted by physical work, but they were also beaten in the mental and social aspects. Blacks almost always kept hope, and used the idea of being a free black as motivation, though this third race didn't have such a well-off life either. Slavery affected the lives of African-Americans in the South and the North by hindering them socially, mentally, and physically.

Perspective Essay

Everyone can view perspectives differently and sometimes it is hard to understand another person’s perspective. Many people do the things they do because they feel that their perspective is the right one. Personally I believe that sometimes people do not want to look at the others personal perspective because they know that they are wrong with their own. In other words, some people know what they are doing is wrong and do not want to do anything to fix it. In my perspective of being angry with my friend, I was angered that my friend who had been living with me for a week during the summer was not picking up after himself. I had to clean up all of his messes and had to make sure that our living area was not in complete disarray. It angered me because I had to clean up after him as well as myself. I feel that he should have contributed at least a little bit to our situation. We were both away from our homes and were both in the same situation and he just relied on me to be his personal â€Å"maid.† My response to this situation that I was dealing with was that I was very short tempered, and I did not want to communicate with my friend as much. He got the hint that something was wrong, but he did not have any idea about what was wrong. I tried to just blow off the situation and see if he was going to eventually start helping out, but nothing changed. Finally, I opened my mouth and told him that he needed to start helping around the place. He got super offensive and he stated, â€Å"I thought that room service was cleaning our room.† Some people expect things in life, and my friend was one of these people. My perspective changed after I looked at how this kid grew up. He had his parents and his grandma do everything for him. From doing the dishes to taking out the trash, this kid had never done a chore in his life. Sometimes you just have to look at the other person’s personal background and look at how they were raised. Of course it was not the right way to being raised, but I couldn’t control what he was used to. Problems occur in perspective taking all the time because not everyone is raised the same. Many people come from different backgrounds and different societies. We all view things differently and based on the way we were raised. Sometimes your own perspective may not be the agreeable one, and that is the hardest thing to change, especially if you grew up with it.

Compare the Lutheran and Calvinist Reformations

Like the family and the economy, religion is a universal and pervasive phenomenon, a part of the cultural system, because it is assumed to meet some basic need of human being. Religion is an integrated part of human experience and shows remarkable continuity through time. Even in the modern secularized societies in the West, religion has persisted and still exerts a great influence in the lives of people. Almost all known peoples in all places and times have some set of specific cultural patterns made up of beliefs and codes of conduct, tinged with emotional views, an explanation or justification of human behavior and social organization regarding the distribution of power between the leaders and the governed, the moral code, the distribution of wealth, or the success of some and failure of others may be found in religion. Religious, beliefs and practices have been debated by various religious sectors and it includes the Lutheran and Calvinist reformations. This paper compares and contrasts the doctrines and beliefs between Lutheran and Calvinist Reformations. II. Discussion A. Calvinism and its beliefs The theology and system of church practices based on the teachings of the protestant Reformation leader John Calvin. It is the doctrine of the Presbyterian and the Reformed churches and is part of the heritage of Baptists, the Congregationalists, and certain other Christian groups. Calvin’s thought is most completely expressed in his Institute of the Christian Religion (1536). Other significant documents of Calvinism are the Canons of Dort (1619), the doctrinal basis of the reformed churches; and the Westminster Confession (1646), the traditional Presbyterian creed. Fundamental to early Calvinism was the belief in God’s absolute sovereign will over the affairs of man. To do God’s will was man’s first duty. According to the doctrine of original sin, Adam, the first man, was created pure and did God’s will. Adam’s sin, however, resulted in man’s fall from this state. Thus, all mankind was infected with â€Å"a total depravity,† leaving man free to sin but not to do good. All were rightfully damned (R. Po-Chia Hsia & Henk Van Nierop, pp. 234-236, 2002). The strict Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement held that Christ’s death atoned for the sins of a limited few, not all mankind. The limited few, called the elect, were thus saved. According to predestination, Calvin’s most widely known doctrine; God decreed eternal life for the elect and eternal damnation, or reprobation, for the rest. According to the idea known as irresistible grace, individuals elected by God to be saved by his grace could not choose to resist it. Calvinist, like most other early Protestants, emphasized the doctrine of justification, which dealt with the condition of man’s salvation. A saved individual was made righteous by God’s grace, and by God’s judgment was declared just, or acceptable. Good works by an individual could not achieve his salvation or justification: he had to live by faith alone. However, his faith was expressed outwardly in strict moral and righteous conduct and good works. To a Calvinist, the ability to base one’s life in faith was probable evidence that one was saved from sin and numbered among the elect (Kingdon, p.45, 2006). In Calvinism, Scripture became the supreme authority in faith and life. Calvinists believed that the Bible designated only two sacraments—baptism and Holy Communion. Calvin’s notion of the church government in which the church elects elders, or presbyters, to govern its affairs came from the Bible and was adopted by the Presbyterian and the Reformed Churches. This idea of representational church government was an important influence on the development of modern democracy. In the 17th century, some Dutch theologians and the English Puritans added to Calvinism the covenant theology. The covenant was a contractual relationship between the Christian and God. The sacraments were given as seals of the covenant. There were two covenants that God made with man—the covenant of works was made with Adam; the covenant of grace was made in Jesus Christ (Van Bruaene, pp.481-489, 2004). The covenant theology, which became central to Puritanism in England and America, softened the doctrine of predestination by giving recognition to human cooperation in achieving salvation. B. Lutheran and its beliefs These are Protestant Christians who follow the teachings of Martin Luther, the leader of the German Reformation. Lutherans form the largest group of Protestants. The Lutherans are the largest religious group in Germany; they claim more than 95 percent of the people of the Scandinavian countries; and they have strong minorities in many other countries. Lutherans in the United States number about 8,460,000 and are the nation’s fourth largest religious group. Lutherans places strong emphasis on doctrine. It affirms that the Bible is the sole rule of faith and accepts all traditional Protestant Christian doctrines. Distinctive Lutheran beliefs are defined in Luther’s two catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, the Schmalkaldic Articles, and the Formula of Concord (Anderson, pp.121-125, 2001). The chief Lutheran tenet is justification by faith alone. Salvation, according to this belief, does not come through food works. Rather, it comes by the faith of believers that God has forgiven their sins through the Sacrifice of Christ, and that by Gods grace they have been justified (become righteous). Lutheranism has two sacraments, baptism and the Lords Supper. Lutherans believe that in Holy Communion there is no physical change in the bread and wine, but that Christ is truly present to forgive sins and to renew the spiritual life of believers. Lutheran churches make greater use of liturgy the most Protestant churches, but there are differences in forms of public worship among Lutheran bodies (Braaten, pp. 83-86, 2004). There are differences also in church government. The Lutheran churches in Europe have bishops. In the United State the local congregation is the unit of church organization and the source of authority. During the 19th century congregations combined in synods, or regional groupings (Arnold, p.47, 2002).   After 1900 many synods united to form national denominations. Some synods are advisory bodies while others have a considerable amount of authority. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was form in 1987 by a merger of the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. The denomination has 5,300,000 members, two of the denomination that make up the church were born out of mergers; and one, the association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, was a group that seceded from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Braaten, pp. 83-86, 2004). The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod believes in strict adherence to the Bible and to all Lutheran confessions. This denomination, of German origin, was founded in 1847 by the Rev. Cal F. W. Walther. The Missouri Synod has about 2,630,000 members. It has many congregations in Canada (Rogness, pp. 364-366, 2000). The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is one of the conservative Lutheran bodies, holding without reservation to the Lutheran confessions and the infallibility of the Bible.   The church was organized in Milwaukee in 1850. It has congregation in most states of the Union and has some 400,000 members. Other Bodies. There are several small Lutheran denominations. Thy include the Apostolic Lutheran Church of America (6,000 members), Association   of Free Lutheran Congregations(19,000 members), Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America (12,000 members) Church of the Lutheran Confession (9,000 members), Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (7,000 members), Evangelical Lutheran Synod (20,000 members), Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (14,000 members), Protestant Conference (Lutheran), Inc. (1,000 members), and World Confessional Lutheran Association (1,300 members) (Nelson, p.17, 2002). III. Conclusion In conclusion, by the early 20th century, only a few Protestant churches held to the strict Calvinism of the 16th and 17th centuries. Most churches characterized as Calvinist have either greatly modified or rejected such doctrines as election, predestination, and irresistible grace to give man a free will to determine his salvation. Moreover, there was much rivalry between Lutherans and the Reformed Church, which was founded by John Calvin. The reformed faith gained considerable support in some German states. During the 19th century the Lutheran and Reformed groups formed union churches in many of the states. Reference: Anderson, C.S. Faith and Freedom: The Christian Faith According to the Lutheran Confession, pp.121-125, (Augsburg, 2001). Arnold, D.W. The Way, the Truth, and the Life: an Introduction to Lutheran Christianity, p.47 (Baker Book House, 2002). Braaten, C.E., editor. The New Church Debate: Issues Facing American Lutheranism pp. 83-86, (Fortress Press, 2004). Kingdon, Robert M. The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe.   Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 59, p.45. 2006 Nelson, E.C. The Rise of World Lutheranism, p.17 (Fortress Press, 2002). Rogness, A.N. The Story of the American Lutheran Church, pp. 364-366, (Augsburg, 2000). Van Bruaene, Anne-Laure. Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 57, pp.481-489, 2004. R. Po-Chia Hsia, Henk Van Nierop. Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age.   pp. 234-236, Cambridge University Press, 2002