Nature of Dreaming

The dreaming is the centre of the Aboriginal culture which everything relates back to, the creation of people, animals, water and land. The Dreaming for Aboriginals is, ‘the past, the present and the future’. 1. Outline the nature of the Dreaming- its stories, symbolism and art. Outline means to sketch in general terms, indicate the main features of. Aboriginal people tell the stories of the land and how it came to be with all its living creatures through expression of song, dance, painting and storytelling. The Aboriginal Dreaming is set into multiple layers from the simplest first layer which anyone can access and understand to the second layer onward where the concepts are more complicated and a person must have a relationship to the Aboriginal people or culture to understand. The last couples of layers are only for initiated Aboriginals and Aboriginal elders and are very sacred and secret from anyone and everyone else. Aboriginal Dreaming stories are depicted in the numerous artworks done using various techniques and coloured natural paints. Behind every painting there is hidden symbolism and every little shape, line and colour relates to some form of the Aboriginal life. The painting Sugarleaf at Ngarlu is an excellent example of hidden symbolism using shapes to create meaning such as camp sites, women dancing, footprints, ceremonial poles and women gathering socially. The stories of the dreaming are important as it is passed from generation to generation by the elders about the different experiences, lessons and Gods and spirits. Painting was the main way of expressing stories from ancestors specifically on rocks, utensils, weapons and as body art. Rock art has given evidence of human presence in Australia for over 30000 years. In the present day and in the past, body paintings have been used to show social position, relationship to their family, ancestors and to a person’s totem. Reference http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/art/art.php

Junot Diaz’s Becoming a Writer: Dedication and Persistence Essay

The piece of work titled â€Å"Becoming a Writer†, written by Junot Diaz, is a short story showing the importance of dedication and persistence in order to become a good author. Diaz begins by explaining his difficulty in getting past the â€Å"75 page mark† in a novel he had been working on. He explains how no matter how hard he tried, it felt as if he was â€Å"chained to the sinking ship of those 75 pages and there was no key and no patching the hole in the hull†. Diaz explains how it is hard to continue his work after a long 5 years of writer’s block and begins to think that maybe he should move on to another profession. In pursuit of a new career, Diaz’s fiancà ©e suggests that he make a list of all the things he is talented at, however his list was relatively short and only had but three points. Diaz speaks about how he would just look at the list and hope for the hint of a spark to uplift his spirits†¦ but that spark never came. Shortly after, he sets aside his work and begins to disengage himself from the writing community; no longer did he attend book clubs, or even visit bookstores. In his downward spiral into normality, Diaz gives it one more go and decides to find just one good thing in the pages to get him back on track. He separated the 75 pages and â€Å"despite every part of him shrieking no no no, he jumped back down the rabbit hole again.† And three years later he could finally look at his pile of pages and say â€Å"done.† Diaz concludes his argument in saying that no one is perfect, and can just pick up a pencil and start writing a novel, but you have to work hard and never give up.

My Handsome Boy Named Scooter

My Handsome Boy Named Scooter Judith A. Bell ENG 121 Thomas, Cooper December 2, 2012 One gorgeous summer day, I decided to stop in our local Humane Society and peep in on the new dogs. It was love at first site, my handsome boy Scooter sat in the corner of the last cage I peered in. Our eyes met and we both knew he was coming home with me that very day. I put a brand new bright neon green collar and leash on him as if he and I were pro’s, it fit perfectly. I then knew we were off to a beautiful start of our relationship. I just knew we were going to become the best of friends forever.On the car ride home, he sat so adorable in the seat next to me. We both were so excited to get home, we could barely wait. It felt like we were on pins and needles all the way there. After arriving to Scooter’s new forever home, I immediately went to work on setting up the house for a puppy. Laying down puddle papers, food, and water down in certain spots is necessary. So, He could easily get used to his surroundings. He could even tell me from the start, with his amazing nose, where I put his treats. He put his front paws on the cabinet and started barking.The next day, we went out in the back yard to let Scooter experience the alluring long bladed grass. He ran and ran until his itty bitty body was plum wore out. He slept like a newborn baby that night, and from that point on, every night in his bed witch was as soft and plushy as mine. Another morning, Scooter awoke with a blissful look on his face, so I decided to capture the moment and go for a peaceful bike ride. The next thing I know, I hear a yelp like I have never heard before. He somehow got his cute little nose/mouth in the spokes.I immediately saw bright red blood, so we rushed off to the animal hospital. The vet took a look at Scooter; he then turned to tell me he lost two teeth. I felt terrible and started to cry. That’s when the vet whispered, Scooter will be just fine. I was so elated, and read y to go home. After a few months of pure bliss for us both, Scooter started running out of our yard to chase cars going by. The next thing I heard was an extremely high yelp again. A small orange as the sun, car hit my handsome boy. I tried to scoop him up to see how horrific his wounds were.I became very upset at what I saw, his back left leg was terribly hurt and that familiar smell of blood was present. This time Scooter needed stiches and a cast. The vet again whispered to me, he is a very luck boy, and must have nine lives. And again we returned home to recover from his wounds. He never has gotten the full use of his leg back since. Right away, my husband put a fence up around our whole five acres. Now that a few years have gone by my handsome boy is slowing down. He uses three legs as if he was born that way.This just shows me, that no matter how bad things can get, we can overcome anything but death. And, my handsome boy and I will be there for each other, for the rest of our lives. `All in all, my handsome boy Scooter has gone through terrible accidents, but I will always treat him as if he is my child. I rescued him, and I will continue to cherish and love every moment we have together. I recommend that everyone should adopt at least one dog in their lifetime. There will never be a dull moment, and the love you exchange is unbelievable. My handsome boy Scooter will hold a piece of my heart forever.

Palliative Sedation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Palliative Sedation - Essay Example Palliative sedation is a  beneficial  therapy  as it provides comfort and dignified death. The key  value  of palliative medicine is to  relieve  suffering (Braun,  Hagen  & Clark, 2003). It is an accepted and effective symptom  control  method  for patients with intractable physical symptoms. Palliative sedation  get  supported by beneficence,  autonomy  and double  effect  doctrine. According to  autonomy  every person has a right to  decide to regard  health status based on the beliefs, values and goals. Suffering being a personal experience, a person should be given a  chance  to choose the options they  wish  to use to relieve pain (Quill, Dresser & Brock, 1997). Based on beneficence principle, health care practitioners should  offer  care that is beneficial to patients. Relief of suffering whether physical or  emotional  is their  duty. Clinicians should  weigh  all the options and bear in mind that palliative sedation is  beneficial  to the caregivers and family  too. The double effect doctrine deals with the intention of treatment. In this case, the intention is to  relieve  suffering as the patient nears death. Before administering palliative sedation, it is necessary to ensure all other options  are exhausted, and the symptoms are  unmanageable.  Consider different options such as  intermittent, continuous and respite sedation. Caution must be exercised, and administering should be done on informed consent (Hallenbeck, 2000). Shaver, W. & Rousseau, P. (2005). A challenge to the ethical validity of palliative sedation. Program and abstracts of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine/Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association Annual Assembly. New Orleans,

Global prespective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Global prespective - Essay Example The country has been described as one of the most stable Middle Eastern economies with a relatively good security situation. Since the gulf war in which the country was involved, Qatar has been a peaceful haven for business activities in the area. The government plays a huge role in the determination of what businesses should or should not run. The government has in recent times executed heavy censorship in the liquor and food businesses to the point of being authoritarian where different liquor business have been closed and no explanation offered for the same. Other businesses have however run independently. The country has good bilateral relationships with the United States and there are many US companies operating in the area hence it will be easy to establish our operations. American workers and companies face a little discrimination in the country as the countrys leadership attempts to maintain a pious image elsewhere while projecting the west as corrupt. There are however, no i ncidences of extreme fundamentalism. Qatars economy is hugely oil-based. The country has huge oil reserves that are estimated to last at least another century. The country has attempted to diversify from petroleum although it still accounts for more than 50% of the countrys Gross Domestic Product. The country embraces the ideals of free trade with limitation to business enterprises that have a connection with the Sharia law. The country has an effective tertiary industry with easily accessible banking and insurance services. The Qatar Financial center affords financial institutions globally competitive services, capital support and no interest loans(Forbes, 2012). The country has a cheap and efficient road transport owing to the low prices of petroleum and word-class road network. Communication is as developed with good internet and telephone coverage. The country has a good number of local and international media

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 21

Assignment - Essay Example Thus, it would help to allow dripping of the faucet to dissolve the ice and prevent the growing volume of ice to bring about any further pressure against pipe walls. At night, the cooling of air happens at a speed greater than the cooling of water. Then from the surface of the lake, warm water vaporizes and blends with the colder air above it and due to the resulting temperature difference, warm water cools off becoming moisture in the form of droplets that suspend in the air. This suspension is actually the ‘steam fog’ which people often view as mist just on top of the lake’s surface. 3. A man who is 6 ft tall is standing in front of a plane mirror that is 2 ft in height. If the mirror is placed with its bottom edge 4 ft above the floor on a wall that is 5 ft away, how much of his image (i.e. what length of himself) can the man see? (Assume that his eyes are at the top of his head).  If the man moves to a point 10 ft directly away from the wall, with the mirror staying in place, how much of himself can he now see? You must show all of your work, including sketches, to get full credit. Where I and O both refer to the heights of the image and the man, respectively, while ‘di’ and ‘d0’ are the distances of each from the mirror. Using ruler to scale, the reflection the is 2.4 feet away from the mirror, so In this scenario, index of refraction of water is 1.33 @ room temperature whereas a typical crown grass has index of refraction = 1.52, so when Snell’s law n1*sinÃŽ ¸1 = n2*sinÃŽ ¸2 is applied, the angle of refraction (ÃŽ ¸2) would be greater than the angle of incidence

Airport Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Airport - Article Example The website shows the importance of a realistic airport design for purposes of safety, emergency and coordination of operations. The website insists on the importance of development as a measure of stability and growth (Federal Aviation Administration, 2009). The development of any small airport lies greatly on how it aligns its operations. This is with due respect to the overall management of finances through efficient public relations. The relations result in the trickling in of clients who have become regular’s as a result of the reliable service. It is clear that there is need to carefully foresee current and future problems in all airports. This is one sure way of ensuring that the operations run as smoothly as they are expected. The reality of how finances are applied in the airport is also defined as a crucial point. This is because if current finances are put to maximum use, then airport operations are enhanced. The website highlights the need to form a budget, and how to channel all the existing revenues to internal and external projects (Federal Aviation Administration, 2009). As a result of the nature of airport operations, the website also goes ahead to educate on aspects that should come into play when dealing with liabilities and insurance. In conclusion, the website greatly advocates for the need to ensure that airport designs, operations, developments and finances are in order for any airport which has a clearly set objective. Federal Aviation Administration (2009). Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP 16): Guidebook for managing small airports. Washington: Trb.org. Retrieved from

Federalism and State Powers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Federalism and State Powers - Essay Example The original federal government not only had little authority over confederate states and their activities such as commerce, the system had no court system and taxation powers. Essentially, the confederation was a loose union of politically sovereign governments, with each state having a free hand in regulating own commercial activities and having independent courts structures. The hindrances of the fragmented nature of the government with respect to national political and economic growth soon dawned on many Americans. As such, a reevaluation was thus necessary and so a Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to restructure the government and harmonize functioning of the national and state economies. Finally, the â€Å"Great Compromise† was struck paving the way for federalism as the basis for governmental control. In the spirit of the US Constitution, Federalism is a dual system of sovereignty in which power was to be split between the central government and state govern ments. The agreement set fourth the United States Constitution as the Supreme law of the land with elaborate federal power system of shared responsibilities. (U.S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2). Both levels of governments were to have a direct influence over the US citizenry through officials and enacted laws in both levels of governance. Noteworthy, changes in the constitutions governing the conduct of both the federal and state governments had to be consultative to promote magnanimity referred to in the superior laws. Articles I to VI of the supreme law basically define powers of the national government putting restrictions on what states’ spheres of influence. Accordingly, only the national government has authority to coin money, govern Indian tribes, conduct foreign relations, raise armies and a navy and declare war whenever necessary. Concerning the court system hitherto a thorn before the ratification of the constitution, only the Supreme Court was elaborately named in the US Constitution. Establishment of other federal courts fell under the powers of Congress. Declared under Article VI of the Constitution, the US constitution is the supreme law governing every aspect of governance in the entire nation. It apportions certain distinct powers to the federal government (enumerated powers) effectively limiting state powers to avoid conflict of interest. However, it also reserved other powers to the respective states (literally known as reserved powers). While State governments derive their authority from the people as outlined in their respective constitutions, the ratification of the United States Constitution basically transferred certain powers to the federal government effectively limiting state powers with respect to certain areas of policy action. According to the Tenth Amendment, â€Å"all powers not delegated to the federal government nor prohibited to the states were retained by the states.† Accordingly, states retained â€Å"police power" to enact laws governing health and safety, and those required to enhance economic welfare of the citizenry. Both levels of governments hold overlapping powers in certain areas. In general, issues regarding public security in terms of crime control, education, public health services, transport systems, and the general infrastructure are primarily state responsibilities. Nevertheless, all of these

Financial Econometrics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Financial Econometrics - Assignment Example Thus, the series has a significant autocorrelations across the years. However, compared to other years, lag 1, 5, 11 and 31 have larger partial autocorrelations. The above plot represents the difference in log of real personal disposable income. This data shows a stationary trend whereby the data points assume a straight line. Moreover, the graph shows that the data have a constant mean and variance. This implies that the first difference of the series achieves stationarity. The above graph represents the autocorrelations of DLrpdi series whereby all the years show significance autocorrelations. However, compared to other years, year 4 and year 10 have larger autocorrelations due to large variations. The above graph is a representation of the log of real personal consumption data over time. This series shows an upward trend. This implies that this variable has an upward trend across the years. This data is non-stationary since it is increasing with the change of time. The graph above shows autocorrelation of Lrc. ACF is significant across the years. At lag 1 it is quite high and it has a decreasing uniform trend across the years; implying that the data is not stationary. The above graph represents the partial autocorrelation of Lrc series whereby all the years show significance autocorrelations. However, compared to other years, year1, year 3 and year 4 have larger autocorrelations due to large variations. The above plot represents the difference in log of real personal consumption. This data shows a stationary trend whereby the data points assume a straight line. Moreover, the graph shows that the data has a constant mean and variance. This implies that the first difference of the series achieve stationarity. Therefore, since the p-values at lag 0 and lag 1 is less than 0.05 in the above tests, we fail to accept the null hypothesis which states that the difference in the Lrpdi and Lrc show a unit root; the difference does

Capital Punishment Punishment In The Light Of Kant's Deontology Essay

Capital Punishment Punishment In The Light Of Kant's Deontology - Essay Example Advocates of death penalty argue that death penalty is the need of the time as homicides and serious offences are at an increasing rate and that the provision for capital punishment can act as the strongest corrective measure or deterrence. Similarly, the retributive belief that death penalty is essential to preserve retributive justice whereby murderers get the full punishment they deserve and the utilitarian argument that death penalty deters or is necessary to incapacitate prospective criminals have also emphasized the need for capital punishments. On the other hand, the major argument against death penalty is that it is against human rights, ethics and morality. The supporters of the argument hold that death penalty cannot be justified as man has no right to take away the life of anyone. This paper seeks to address the issue of capital punishment in the light of Kant's deontology and his concept of duty based ethics comprising of the categorical imperatives. Kant's concept of 'du ty-based' ethics is strongly rooted in his deontological ethical approach where he stresses on certain principles and rules that we ought to respect, even if the consequences are not beneficial for the greatest number. For Kant, one should possess reverence for the universal law which forms the basis for moral values and ethics. It can be seen that Kant’s deontological ethics emphasizes both reason and obligation; his perpetuation of duty based ethics accounts that the person’s actions are performed from duty or obligation towards the universal moral law rather than from any other inclinations. Kant postulated two underlying principles or categorical imperatives to guide everyone through the right ethical framework and for him one can fulfill one’s duty based ethics only when one is moved by these categorical imperatives. Kant’s categorical imperatives are quite anthropocentric in nature. However, Kant also postulates that there could be real conflicts am ong duties when there are conflicts between one’s moral duties and self-interests. On the other hand, Kant believes in the superiority of the universal moral law and makes it clear that moral duties rarely conflict; rather our self-interests tend to conflict with our duties. It is worthwhile to analyze Kant’s categorical imperatives and how these could be applied to the issue of capital punishment. Kant’s deontological ethics presupposes a universal law of morality that is quite categorical, flawless and universal without exception. The first categorical imperative formulates: act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. This exhorts people to keep themselves away from any actions or values that do not lead them to the universal law of morality. The first categorical imperative becomes problematic as people’s conception of universal law is quite subjective and these are influenced by conflicts of duti es as well as conflicts of self-interests. This casts shadows on what is morally permissible. The second formulation of CI sounds more practical as it asks to treat all persons as ends, and never as means only. As such the second principle respect and regard persons as self-determining rational beings who act for their own purposes. Applying Kantian deontology to the issue of capital punishment it is significant to understand whether the given punishment treats people as means or ends. As such, it can be inferred that inflicting punishment on the convicted as part of deterrence regards the person as a means and cannot therefore be regarded as ethical in Kantian view. On the other han

The Weaknesses Of The U.S. Criminal Justice System Essay Example for Free

The Weaknesses Of The U.S. Criminal Justice System Essay Introduction The Michael Jackson, a continuation of the an epic cycle of celebrity trials that started with O.J. Simpson, passing through Kobe Bryant, Robert Blake and Phil Spector have undoubtedly brought to the fore concerns about the American Criminal Justice System1. The verdict of the Michael Jackson trial, delivered on June 13 2005, capped the chain of events that was sparked off by the broadcast of Living With Michael Jackson a TV documentary programme by British journalist Martin Bashir. Like every other celebrity trial in history, the Michael Jackson trial offered a cocktail of fame, sex and violence. It provided an opportunity to look behind the veil that normally protects the private lives of celebrities. However, most importantly, it brought to the fore questions about the politics that influence the U.S. Criminal Justice System2 In the last couple of decades, there have been growing concerns about the politising of criminal justice in the United States and the increasing punitive approach to crime control. It has been argued that the criminal justice system is in decline in its goal of crime control3. The last few decades have witnessed dramatic increase in the number of American citizens in prison and other custody facility, but this has not translated to decrease in crime rates. Beck and Paige4 reports that the 1990s saw an unprecedented rise in the United State’s incarceration population. They reported that in 1990, there were approximately 1.1 million US citizens incarcerated in federal, state and local facilities, by the year 2000, this figure has increased to 2,071,686. The U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics, corroborating the above fact, states that the rate of incarceration in the U.S. increased from 292 inmates per 100,000 US residents in 1990 to 478 at year-end 20005. Unfortunately, this increasing toughness on crime has not in anyway translated to reduction in crime. In a study released by the US Department of Justice in June6, entitled Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994, it was reported of the approximately 300,000 prisoners released in 15 states in 1994, 67 percent were are-arrested within the first three years. Compared to a similar study done in 1983 where 62 percent of prisoners released were re-arrested, the growing ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system becomes apparent. The rest of this essay intends to adequately support the argument that the United States Criminal Justice system is weak and ineffective, using the 2005 Michael Jackson trial as a yardstick. In this regard, the rest of the essay will be structured thus: The next section will provide a brief review of the Michael Jackson trial. This will be followed by an analysis of the United States Criminal Justice System. This section will detail factors that have been indicted as responsible for the ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system and also attempt to examine how these factors have come to play in the Michael Jackson trial. The last part of the essay shall provide a summary of the argument thus far, and then a conclusion. The chain of events that characterised the Michael Jackson trial started with the broadcast in February 2003 of Living With Michael Jackson, an unflattering television documentary by British-Pakistani journalist Martin Bashir7. In the programme, the boy was shown holding hands with Jackson and resting on his shoulders. In November of the same year, California police authorities searched Jacksons Neverland Ranch after child molestation allegations were made against him. Later that month, Jackson was booked and arrested on child molestation charges and released on $3 million bail8.   Formal charges were filed against Jackson in December of the same year and in April 2004, a grand jury indicted Jackson on charges of molesting the boy at the centre of the trial, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive in 2003. Jackson, however, pleaded not guilty and did not testify during the trial, though testimony and losing arguments lasted about 14 weeks before the jury took over the case9. The Grand jury proceedings started in March and by April 21 2004, indicted Jackson10.   The grand jury was composed of nineteen jurors; the indictment required the votes of at least twelve of them. Prosecution witnesses testified without defence cross-examination. The judge ruled that witnesses before the grand jury could talk to defence attorneys about their knowledge of the case as long as the witnesses did not tell what they saw in the grand jury room or what questions they were asked and their answers11. Later in April, after the indictment, a sudden change in Michael Jacksons defence team was announced.   Ben Brafman and Mark Geragos were replaced with Robert Blakes defence attorney Thomas Mesereau12. According to CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, tension from the Jackson family from not having Geragos full attention, because of the Scott Peterson death penalty case being at trial, and quick responses to their questions regarding media coverage of Michaels case were the reasons for the dismissal13. The jury selection for the trial started on January 31, 2005, and lasted less than a month. Twelve members of the jury, comprising eight women and four men, were selected from a pool of 200 people from the Santa Barbara County. The twelve member jury, ranging from 20-79years old had no single Black American, although, there was one African-American juror in the eight alternate jurors (four men, four women), selected for the case14. The trial, as it unfolds, was full of scandalous testimonies, dramatic moments and lots of celebrity defence. While, on the one hand, prosecutors alleged that in the aftermath of the Bashir documentary in 2003, Jackson and five others, who where not indicted, have contrived to control and intimidate the childs family in other to get them to cooperate with damage control efforts, including forcefully keeping them at Neverland against their will15; on these grounds, Jackson was charged with four counts of lewd conduct with a child younger than 14; one count of attempted lewd conduct; four counts of administering alcohol to facilitate child molestation; and one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment or extortion16. On the other hand, Jacksons lawyers consistently portrayed him as a naive victim of the childs family, who were allegedly schemers and good at extorting money from rich and famous people. There were 91 prosecution and 50 defence witnesses throughout the trial period17. In May 2005 the witnesses for the defence testified. Closing arguments of both sides were presented in the beginning of June and on the 13th of June, 2005, the jury, after a 37hour deliberation that spanned seven days, announced Jackson not guilty and acquitted him of all the charges18. However, and most importantly for this discussion is the consequences of the trial. The aftermath of the trial witnessed several allegations of jury misconduct and several criticisms tossed back at Janet Arvizo, the mother of the accuser19. Among the several jury misconduct allegations, the fifth jury admitted to illegally bringing in a medical text to show Jackson fit the books definition of a paedophile, while also conceding to have winked Michael Jacksons mother, Katherine Jackson, even though jurors are supposed to avoid all such communication, no matter how innocent. Furthermore, she claimed that there were three devoted fans of Michael Jackson in the jury, who made it clear from the start that they would never convict Michael Jackson (with one referring to him affectionately as my Michael), while she herself allegedly came in on the jury with the sole intent of convicting Jackson and later writing a book about it. When Jackson was acquitted, her book deal fell through20. Jurors Cook and Hultman also claimed that the juror foreman, Paul Rodriguez, threatened to remove them from the jury, unless they agreed to acquit Jackson, even though jurors cannot be removed from a jury simply because they dont agree with the others. Both jurors expressed regret about acquitting Jackson (Jackson Juror Sues over Book Deal, 2005). Also, in the aftermath of the trial, Janet Arvizo, the mother of the accuser, was charged with welfare fraud on August 2005 for allegedly collecting nearly $19,000 in payments while making false claims21. During her testimony at the Jackson trial, Arvizo cited the Fifth Amendment against criminal self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions about how she succeeded in illegally obtaining welfare payments while having more than $30,000 in the bank. However, during the defence case, a Jackson lawyer walked a California Department of Social Services representative through Arvizos welfare applications, pointing out how she repeatedly failed to disclose, as required by law, assets and financial assistance she was receiving. Among many devastating criticisms tossed at Arvizo during the Jackson trial, the welfare fraud allegations were particularly damaging since they appeared to be backed by government documents22. Though this cases finally died, the lapses that came to the fore as a consequence of the trial, especially allegations of influences on the jury and other misconducts, undoubtedly re-affirms the concern that the American criminal justice system is greatly politicised, ineffective and weak. The rest of this essay will examine the nature of the American criminal justice system with a view to ascertaining influences or factors that have contributed to this weakness. Criminal Justice refers to the system used by government to maintain social control, prevent crime, enforce laws, and administer justice. The police, prosecution, courts and corrections facilities are the major component of any criminal justice system23. To be most effective, criminal justice systems must not only seek to punish offenders, but also attempt to rehabilitate and successfully re-integrate offenders into the larger society, so that they can become law abiding and useful citizens. Anything short of this goal should be unacceptable24. Unfortunately, most modern criminal justice systems take an ineffective punitive approach to crime control. The last few decades in the United States has witnessed increasing emphasis on incarceration as a crime control tool, with a political mandate to â€Å"get tough on crime† as opposed to using alternative sanctions. This effort has failed to combat crime, in most cases; it has further increased crime rates25. As mentioned earlier on, in a study released by the US Department of Justice in June 2002, entitled Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994, it was found that of the nearly 300,000 prisoners released in 15 States in 1994, 67 percent were re-arrested within three years; while a study of 1983 prison releases estimated that 62 percent re-arrested within the same timeframe26. This shows that despite the increasing number of incarcerated populations, the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in combating crime is reduced considerably. It becomes very obvious that the several environmental factors which includes legal, culturally and political influences on the American criminal justice system has produced a weak, fragmented and utterly ineffective criminal justice system27. The organisational environment of any system can be described as any external phenomenon, event, group or individual which may compose of technological, legal, political, economic, demographic, ecological and cultural forces that affect such a system28. Kolfas and colleagues further contend that as environmental conditions change, demands for service, legal resources and positions on policy and programs of both public and private organizations may change. They then explained that in adapting to these new demands, constraints and pressures may alter the mission or policy of the organization. Relating this to the criminal justice system, for example, increasing the number of arrests as a result of an increase in crime and public pressure will impact on the criminal justice system. The populations of jails will increase and court dockets and caseloads of prosecuting attorneys will expand29. Governments and essentially, the political climate is another strong organisational environment that could affect any organisation, especially the criminal justice system. For example, government’s response to political conditions can be passed on to an organisation and its agencies within the system30. Governments can be influenced to change budgets and mandates, and to alter the composition of top administrative personnel. It can be argued that such change in organisational environment has led to the development and application of several justice models throughout history. Cole and Smith31 identified seven justice models that have been developed and used from the 1600s through to the 1990s. These includes: the colonial, penitentiary, reformatory, progressive, medical, community and crime control. As the political climate changed in the 1970s and 1980s, a renewed emphasis on the crime control model of corrections developed. The crime control model emphasizes efficiency and the capacity to catch, try, convict and punish a high proportion of offenders; it also stresses speed and finality over the caution against the possibility of innocent people being adversely impacted32. One can argued that these above mentioned components of the crime control model are actually deficiencies and could be part of the reasons why the US criminal justice system is fragmented and not functioning at optimum level. Besides environmental or external influences, the structure of the American criminal justice system lends itself to faults and inefficiency. The U.S. criminal justice system is designed sequentially with interrelated parts. For example, decisions in the criminal justice system are made in a specific order33. The police must make the arrest before the offender is prosecuted, the prosecutor’s decisions determine the nature of the court’s activity, prosecutors and judges cannot bypass the police and make arrests and corrections officials cannot punish anyone who has not been through the earlier states of the process 34. This process creates an exchange relationship among the key decision makers in the criminal justice system that could impact goals, objectives and policy development35. In this light, it appears that a â€Å"cause and effect† relationship exists for every decision made by system members and this; undoubtedly can greatly impact system efficiency and outcomes. Moreover, between these different segments of the criminal justice system, difference in the goals of retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation create differing operating policies that not only affect the efficiency and outcomes of the system, but also how the society at large, and the offenders in particular, view the system. While the public continue to see the system as unjust    the results of national research commissioned by the Open Society Institute, part of the Soros foundations network, discovered that 65 percent of Americans believe that the countrys criminal justice system comprises an ineffective, purely punitive approach to crime 36; the criminal justice professionals are also becoming more cynical about the systemic functions of the criminal justice system, which is perceived as becoming more preoccupied with case processing efficiencies rather than justice and crime control37. Criminal justice experts argue that the criminal justice system is not a system at all but a sequence of autonomous agencies and activities, each one generating a caseload for another, and each one competing for adequate resources from the public purse 38. There is a universal dissatisfaction among all players in the system: offenders feel injustices, which hinder rehabilitation; victims are re-victimised by the system because of inadequate coordination of services; the public believes that justice was not done; and criminal justice professionals are cynical because case processing supersedes the preferred system outcomes39. An overview of the components of the criminal justice system could only help to further strengthen this argument. The police is in most cases, the foremost agency in the criminal justice system. However, most police departments function within the crime control model, and remain enforcement oriented. The priorities of most police departments are largely independent of the influence of the police agency’s external environment 40. Regardless of the rate and types of crime a police jurisdiction experiences, police administrators view protecting the public from crime as a priority, with less interest in providing services or order maintenance functions41. This crime control approach is narrow but popular and neglects the community-based service and order maintenance activities 42. Therefore one can argue that the crime control philosophy of the U.S. police force and the influence of the crime control model itself exacerbate police operating policies and also contribute to certain levels of systemic fragmentation. In the same vein, it is apparent that the crime control model of justice also impacts on the prosecutorial component of the U.S. criminal justice system. It is argued that contemporary prosecutorial systems focus on mass case processing because of the influence of the crime control model. It requires prosecutors and judges to work too closely together in an attempt to achieve case processing efficiency. The crime control model compels judges to adhere to the sentencing recommendations of prosecuting attorneys, pre-sentence recommendations can develop into recommendations from the prosecutor, and probation officers’ pre-sentence reports become incidental 43. From this arrangement, one can infer that since the prosecutor drives the criminal case, this process could have an adverse impact on individual rights, due process and the effective overall effective administration of justice. While the crime control model could also impact on the court system, influencing mass production and prosecution of criminal cases and requiring the judges to act in unison with the prosecutors, there appears to be another significant problem with the American court systems. The majority of American trial courts are highly decentralised, with local judges deciding cases that pass through the courts and also administering the court. Although, this is so structured so that courts are close to the people and thus responsive to their values, this arrangement makes courts subject to local political influences and community values44. While some might argue that the courts are intentionally structured for these reasons, so that in the process, each court develops its own legal culture with differing ways to administer rules, procedures and justice, there are grave disadvantages of this arrangement. Beside disadvantages such as differences among local court cultures and decisions, duplication of process and poor use of legal resources, there are worst problems, and as evident in the Michael Jackson trial, this arrangement makes the court and in essence the whole criminal justice system open and susceptible to external political, culturally etc influences; therefore undermining the criminal justice system in entirety45. Irrespective of what has been said so far, one important characteristic of the U.S. criminal justice system, and perhaps a trend in most Western countries, is the increasing use of crime as a political issue. The special task force of federal state and local law enforcement officials, as well as independent scholars from across the political spectrum put together by the American Bar Association in 200346 reached an unanimous conclusion that the increasing federal influences on criminal justice portends serious danger to government, individual liberty and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The task force report indicated that for more than a hundred years after the adoption of the Constitution the federal criminal code was limited to treason, bribery of federal officials, perjury in federal court, theft of government property and revenue fraud. However, the present body of federal criminal law is so vast that there is no complete list of federal crimes. There are an estimated 4000 criminal statutes which have been enacted by Congress, but in addition to these there are some 10,000 federal regulations which have legal sanctions for their violation. Put together, the various criminal statutes, regulations and judicial rulings governing how these statutes are enforced comprise 4 million (4,000,000) pages of text. In addition to the 4 million page criminal code there are also general laws against Interfering with Interstate Commerce and Violation of Civil Rights which are constantly being expanded to cover new activities, and each year approximately 1000 new criminal statutes are considered for adoption by Congress. It is needless to say, again, that despite attempts by politicians to appear tough on crime   the federal crime fighting effort has had no appreciable effect at reducing violent crime47. Unfortunately, while the increasing political influence on criminal justice has had to appreciable effect on crime rates, it has created a myriad of problems and potential problems for the criminal justice system. Some of these problems identified in the task force report include: Selective Prosecution. Because only .2% of violent crimes are prosecuted on the federal level, US attorneys must cherry pick specific cases on which to focus. There are no federal guidelines and no judicial review over which cases federal prosecutors decide to pursue or not. As a result the prosecution and punishment of a few individuals will differ radically from the majority of people in the same area who commit the exact same crime. A real danger exists that a federal prosecutor will discriminate against a particular group of people, and that those people will have no recourse. Additionally, federal and state sentencing guidelines reflect very different priorities, which may not well serve the cause of justice. Federal sentencing guidelines for non-violent offences tend to be harsher than for states, while state sentencing for violent crimes is often harsher than for federal. Overburdening the federal judiciary. The federal courts were not designed or intended to handle more than a handful of criminal cases. The federal courts were initially set up to rule on civil cases involving disputes between individuals or corporations in different states. The primary role of federal courts to adjudicate civil disputes has been seriously hampered as more and more of their time must be devoted to criminal matters. The result is that interstate cases requiring federal attention are delayed to accommodate criminal cases which could also be tried at the state level. Distraction and Diversion of Local Police. The blurring of responsibility for a certain conduct between federal and local police may have the ironic effect of discouraging and confusing local police efforts. Some local entities because of assumption of federal jurisdiction may hesitate in pursuing certain types of conduct. Some crimes may go uninvestigated as each level assumes that the other is taking responsibility. On the opposite side is the potential for an unhealthy competition or resentment between local and federal law enforcement. Turf wars could result between local district attorneys and US attorneys as each tries to claim jurisdiction over high profile crimes. It may even occur that one jurisdiction or the other will make an arrest before a case is sound in an effort to beat the other entity. Lack of Local Expertise. Federal law enforcement agencies lack the local expertise, knowledge of the area, contact with local informants, familiarity with local citizens, and trust of the local community which is such a help in the investigation and prevention of crime. In as much as federal law enforcement crowds out local police the federalisation of law enforcement is counter productive and weakens the criminal justice system48. More importantly, the increasing politicising of criminal justice system creates a misconception about the essence of punishment and how to administer punitive measures. It is obvious that punishment is the most complex process within the criminal justice system and the inconsistencies associated with comprehending this process may be reasons for the weakening and inefficiency of the system. According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy49, the concept of punishment its definition and its practical application and justification have during the last few decades shown a considerable drift away from efforts to reform and rehabilitate offenders towards retribution and incarceration. Von Hirsch50 placed the concept of punishment in the right perspective when he argued that punishment is more socially than individually based and he based this concept of punishment on fairness. For example, when someone infringes another’s rights, the person gains an unfair advantage over others in society. The punishment for this act imposes a counterbalance disadvantage on the offender and restores balance 51. The author then argued that if the system is unjust regarding the administration of punishment (in other words, it is undeserved, unfair, unnecessary or extreme) a â€Å"social crime† may be perceived by the offender; therefore the offender perceives society as having an unfair advantage. As a result of these actions, social retaliation could be committed by the offender, in the form of prejudice, hostility, resistance, a criminal act and other acts of deviance in order to maintain the social equilibrium. Putting the argument in this essay thus far into perspective, it becomes apparent that the weakness and inefficiency of the U.S criminal justice system is a as a result of a mix-match of factors. The multiple approaches to the mission of US criminal justice systems have led to the erosion of a common purpose, resulting in a mix of both efficient and inefficient systems. This essay has brought forth information that has clarified the argument that states have failed to plan collectively resulting in a fragmented system of justice. This departure has led to â€Å"state specific† methods of criminal justice processes that have had a widespread adverse impact on the offender, the re-integration process and thus the effectiveness of the criminal justice system as a whole. Again, the state specific nature of the American criminal justice system makes the system more susceptible to local political influences, while the increasing federalising of criminal justice systems, on the other hand, also open the system to influences from the federal level. Taken as a whole, politics appear to play significant role in the direction and outcomes of criminal cases, and this, most evident from the Michael Jackson trial, speaks volumes about the weakness of the system. Considering the outcomes and consequences of the trial, it is obvious that the verdict of the trial was a result of a lot of influences. However, one fact that stands out from the trial appears to be that equity and equality is not really a characteristic of the system. In essence, environmental influences, fostered on the system due to the crime control model of justice, appeared to have complicated the judicial process, hindered due process, stagnated programme development and in sum, considerably hindered the effective administration of justice through the criminal justice system. Conclusion Like every other celebrity trial in history, the Michael Jackson trial offered a cocktail of fame, sex and violence, and most importantly, a test of the American criminal justice system.   Though, there have been concerns about the effectiveness of the U.S. criminal justice systems, this trial further helped to strengthen such worries. Criminal Justice refers to the system used by government to maintain social control, prevent crime, enforce laws, and administer justice. The police, prosecution, courts and corrections facilities are the major component of any criminal justice system. Unfortunately, most modern criminal justice systems take an ineffective punitive approach to crime control. This effort has failed to combat crime, and in most cases; it has further increased crime rates. In the American situation, external influences such as legal, culturally and political influences on the American criminal justice system has helped to produce a weak, fragmented and utterly ineffective criminal justice system that appears to only dance to the tune of these influences. Beside these external influences, the structure of the American criminal justice system lends itself to faults and inefficiency. The U.S. criminal justice system is designed sequentially with interrelated parts with decisions in the criminal justice system made in a specific order. This process creates an exchange relationship among the key decision makers in the criminal justice system that could impact goals, objectives and policy development and thus tend to hold a â€Å"cause and effect† relationship exists for every decision made by system members. And this fact has been clearly brought to the fore by the Michael Jackson trial. While the prosecutor indicted Jackson on a ten count charge of child molestation, the jury acquitted him of all charges under circumstances that left so much to be imagined. The consequences of the acquittal have further lent credence to the argument that the process through which Jackson was acquitted was not as just as would be expected. It has also clearly showed that the structure of the American criminal justice system is one that allows for external influences to determine the direction and/or outcomes of the system. Endnotes Olsen, Eric (2005). Michael Jackson Trial: Closing Arguments Begin. BC Magazine, posted on 2nd June. Camon , Alessandro (2005). Guilty! Online Essay available at http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/06/14/jackson_essay/index.html Smith, Leslie J (2003). The Organizational Environment and Its Influence on State Criminal Justice Systems Within The United States And The Offender Re-Integration Process. Criminal Justice Studies, Vol. 16(2), Pp.97–112; Weich, Ronald and Carlos Angulo (2000). Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System. Report prepared for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund. Beck, A. and P. Paige (2001). Prisoners in 2000. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, US Department of Justice, August. US Department of Justice (Bureau of Justice Statistics) (2002). Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994, June [On-Line serial] NCJ 193427, pp. 1–16. US Department of Justice. Ibid Jackson not guilty. CNN News Report posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005. Available at http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/13/jackson.trial/index.html/; Olsen, Eric (2005). Michael Jackson Trial: Closing Arguments Begin. BC Magazine, posted on 2nd June. Jackson not guilty. Supra County of Santa Barbara, CA (2003). PR Michael Jackson. Press release. Available at http://www.countyofsb.org/da/documents/PR-Michael%20Jackson.pdf.; Jackson not guilty. Supra, Olsen, Eric (2005). Supra Olsen, Eric (2005). Supra Camon, Alessandro (2005). Ibid County of Santa Barbara, CA (2003). Ibid Jackson not guilty. Ibid County of Santa Barbara, CA (2003). Ibid Olsen, Eric (2005). Ibid Jackson not guilty. Ibid Jackson not guilty. Ibid County of Santa Barbara, CA (2003). Ibid Olsen, Eric (2005). Ibid The Michael Jackson File – From Superstar to Suspect, Complete Coverage of Trouble in Neverland. E! Online: available at http://www.eonline.com/Features/Features/JacksonNews/index.html, Jackson Juror Sues Over Book Deal. Contact Music (2005). Available at http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/jackson%20juror%20sues%20over%20book%20deal County of Santa Barbara, CA (2003). Ibid Hahn, P. H. (1998). Emerging Trends in Criminal Justice, 10–11:158–160; Cole, G. F. and C. E. Smith (1998). The American System of Criminal Justice, 8, 22–40, 143–257, 456. Smith, Leslie J (2003). Ibid Richard C. Hanes and Sharon M. Hanes (2005). Crime and Punishment in America. Volume 1. Thomas Gale. Farmington Hills, MI US Department of Justice. Ibid Smith, Leslie J (2003). Ibid Kolfas, J., S. Stojkovic, and D. Kalinich (1990). Defining the environment of the criminal justice system. Criminal Justice Organizations Administration and Management. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, pp. 18–30 Kolfas, et al Supra p. 20. Kolfas, et al. Ibid p. 21 Cole, G. F. and C. E. Smith (1998). The American System of Criminal Justice, 8, 22–40, 143–257, 456 Cole and Smith (1998). Supra p. 9. Cole and Smith (1998). Ibid   p. 22. Cole and Smith (1998). Ibid   p. 23. Cole and Smith (1998). Ibid   p. 22. Open Society Institute (2002) Majority of Americans Think U.S. Criminal Justice System is Broken, Ineffective; See Need for Change. Soros Foundation Network. Available at http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/news/systembroken_20020213 Smith, Leslie J (2003). Ibid Smith, M. E. (Ed.) (1996). Who wants an effective crime policy and can deliver one? In campaign for an effective crime policy. Crime and Politics in the 1990s: Three Perspectives. Washington, D.C.: Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy. Smith, (1996). Supra Zhao, J. and Q. C. Thurman (1997). Community policing: where are we now? Crime and Delinquency, 43(3), 345–357. Zhao and Thurman. Supra p. 345 Zhao and Thurman. Supra p. 345–347 Cole and Smith (1998). Ibid; Petersilia, J. (2000). When Prisoners Return to the Community: Political, Economic, and Social Consequences, Sentencing and Corrections: Issues for the 21st Century, November. Washington, D.C.: US Department of Justice; Hahn, (1998). Ibid Smith, Leslie J (2003). Ibid Smith, Leslie J (2003). Ibid, Savelsberg, Joachim J., Lara L. Cleveland, Ryan D. King (June 2004). Institutional Environments and Scholarly Work: American Criminology, 1951-1993. Social Forces 82(4): p1275-1302 American Bar Association (2003). Summary of the American Bar Associations Report on the Federalization of Criminal Law. Available at http://www.localsov.com/abuses/justice/abasum.htm American Bar Association (2003). Supra American Bar Association (2003). Supra Stanford Encyclopeadia of Philosophy (2005). Punishment. Retrieved 4th April 2007 from http://plato.stanford.edu/ Von Hirsch, A. (1996). Doing justice: the choice of punishments. Criminal Justice, 3, 147–152. Von Hirsch (1996). Supra p. 147 Bibliography American Bar Association (2003). Summary of the American Bar Associations Report on the Federalization of Criminal Law. Available at http://www.localsov.com/abuses/justice/abasum.htm Beck, A. and P. Paige (2001). Prisoners in 2000. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, US Department of Justice, August. Bedau, H. A., 2001, Feinbergs Liberal Theory of Punishment, Buffalo Criminal Law Review, 5, pp. 103-44. Camon , Alessandro (2005). Guilty! Online Essay available at http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/06/14/jackson_essay/index.html Cole, George F., Christopher E. Smith (2005). Criminal Justice in America. Thomson. County of Santa Barbara, CA (2003). PR Michael Jackson. Press release. Available at http://www.countyofsb.org/da/documents/PR-Michael%20Jackson.pdf The Michael Jackson File – From Superstar to Suspect, Complete Coverage of Trouble in Neverland. E! Online: available at http://www.eonline.com/Features/Features/JacksonNews/index.html Walker, Samuel (1992). Origins of the Contemporary Criminal Justice Paradigm: The American Bar Foundation Survey, 1953-1969. Justice Quarterly 9(1). Savelsberg, Joachim J., Lara L. Cleveland, Ryan D. King (June 2004). Institutional Environments and Scholarly Work: American Criminology, 1951-1993. Social Forces 82(4): p1275-1302 Richard C. Hanes and Sharon M. Hanes (2005). Crime and Punishment in America. Volume 1. Thomas Gale. Farmington Hills, MI Stanford Encyclopeadia of Philosophy (2005). Punishment. Retrieved 4th April 2007 from http://plato.stanford.edu/ Open Society Institute (2002) Majority of Americans Think U.S. Criminal Justice System is Broken, Ineffective; See Need for Change. Soros Foundation Network. Available at http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/news/systembroken_20020213 Kraska, Peter B (ed) (2001). Militarizing the American Criminal Justice System: The Changing Roles of the Armed Forces and the Police. Northeastern University Press. Jackson not guilty. CNN News Report posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005. Available at http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/13/jackson.trial/index.html/ Olsen, Eric (2005). Michael Jackson Trial: Closing Arguments Begin. BC Magazine, posted on 2nd June. Jackson Juror Sues Over Book Deal. Contact Music (2005). Available at http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/jackson%20juror%20sues%20over%20book%20deal Nutley, Sandra and Huw T.O. Davies (1999). The Rise and Fall of Evidence in Criminal Justice. Public Money Management, January-March. Smith, Leslie J (2003). The Organizational Environment and Its Influence on State Criminal Justice Systems Within The United States And The Offender Re-Integration Process. Criminal Justice Studies, Vol. 16(2), Pp.97–112. Weich, Ronald and Carlos Angulo (2000). Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System. Report prepared for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund. Cole, G. F. and C. E. Smith (1998). The American System of Criminal Justice, 8, 22–40, 143–257, 456 Hahn, P. H. (1998). Emerging Trends in Criminal Justice, 10–11:158–160. Kolfas, J., S. Stojkovic, and D. Kalinich (1990). Defining the environment of the criminal justice system. Criminal Justice Organizations Administration and Management. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, pp. 18–30 Petersilia, J. (2000). When Prisoners Return to the Community: Political, Economic, and Social Consequences, Sentencing and Corrections: Issues for the 21st Century, November. Washington, D.C.: US Department of Justice. Smith, M. E. (Ed.) (1996). Who wants an effective crime policy and can deliver one? In campaign for an effective crime policy. Crime and Politics in the 1990s: Three Perspectives. Washington, D.C.: Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy. US Department of Justice (National Institute of Corrections) (2002). Guidelines for Developing a Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, January. US Department of Justice (Bureau of Justice Statistics) (2002). Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994, June [On-Line serial] NCJ 193427, pp. 1–16. Von Hirsch, A. (1996). Doing justice: the choice of punishments. Criminal Justice, 3, 147–152. Zhao, J. and Q. C. Thurman (1997). Community policing: where are we now? Crime and Delinquency, 43(3), 345–357.

Chiquita Bananas Essay Example for Free

Chiquita Bananas Essay Chiquita is blamed for the actions of two terrorist organizations that extorted money from the company. Victims and their families of the attacks performed by these two terrorist organizations are looking for compensation from Chiquita, claiming that the company is responsible for making those attacks happen. Chiquita has to make a decision whether or not to take the responsibility for the actions performed by the two organizations. Key Facts/Background FARC and AUC (two Colombian organizations currently designated by the U. S. as terrorist organizations) purportedly threatened Chiquita’s executives to hurt employees in the Colombian plant if the company failed to provide the payments for their â€Å"protection. † Chiquita continued to do so until two years after the U. S. designated AUC as a terrorist organization. The U. S. government fined Chiquita for giving â€Å"protection money† to FARC and AUC. Now the victims and families of FARC and AUC are coming forward to claim compensation for damages they incurred due to actions that were financed in part by the money provided by Chiquita. If the law that permits victims and their families to sue providers of support to the terrorist organizations passes, Chiquita may face multiple lawsuits for providing this support to FARC and AUC, which may amount to millions of dollars. The law is not yet in place but the problem that Chiquita is facing is already here. Stakeholder Analysis Based on the case one of the main stakeholders is Chiquita. Giving money to FARC and AUC in the first place was not only illegal (after 2001) but also not aligned with, what could be perceived as company’s dedication to protect its employees—giving money may have (and actually did) encourage the AUC to continue to threaten Chiquita just like FARC did. The company did not show that they are constant and coherent in their vision of corporate and social responsibility. They did not care about the communities they operated in as much as they cared about their own well being. The issue is that the payments were already made and the company admitted to it, which ended with a plea agreement with the U. S. government. Now, the challenge is whether or not to admit that Chiquita is responsible for actions of FARC and AUC because â€Å"extortion† money has been paid. This may result in either lawsuits or settlements for all the damage incurred by the two terrorist organizations, which in turn will result in definite lowering of the bottom line and losing credibility. At the same time (just like with the Tylenol case) if Chiquita acknowledges by itself the wrongdoing, it may recover its image of socially responsible company and show that it is aligned with their beliefs of protecting people (just as they protected their employees, they should protect all the people who are affected by their actions). If Chiquita will wait until law is passed and then fight over the responsibility, it will be costly, but also the company will loose all the credibility they built with the customers and shareholders over the decades. The U. S. judicial system is another main stakeholder. If the law is passed, the courts in U. S. will be tasked with making a decision of whether Chiquita is indeed liable for, what the company was believing to be, paying the extortion and â€Å"protection† money to safeguard their employees against harm from FARC or AUC. Here the court may be in a dilemma, since the illegal activity that Chiquita engaged itself in was believed to be because it was trying to protect lives of their employees. Now, with one more law in place—to compensate those who suffered from FARC and AUC—the dilemma will boil down to determining if what Chiquita believed to be the reasoning behind these payments, was indeed it. If yes, could we punish Chiquita for trying to protect their employees? The other main stakeholders are the victims (and their families) of FARC and AUC’s actions. They are trying to bring to justice people who are responsible for their suffering. Now, the challenge is that they are trying to bring to justice a company that was not directly but rather indirectly harming them. The reasoning behind this is the belief that the money Chiquita paid was indeed used in hurting those people. The victims and their families have right to demand justice. The question remains, of who actually should be brought to justice. Options Analysis Based on the current situation (company already admitted to paying the money, internal documents that the money did provide benefits exceeding the protecting of the employees were unveiled, threat of lawsuits), Chiquita has couple limited options, which are based on justice and duty. First option is to come out now and take the responsibility for the actions of FARC and AUC. The law may not be in place yet, but this decision may show that Chiquita is standing by its promise to protect people affected by its actions. This option definitely addresses the claims of victims and their families—they will get the compensation they are seeking. Chiquita will face multiple lawsuits and will be harmed financially, which affects shareholders of the company. In this case the reasoning behind the payments is brought in place—whether it was for corporate gain or protection of employees. Another option would be to refuse paying compensation to victims of FARC and AUC based on the fact that Chiquita did nothing directly to harm them. Moreover, they were protecting people by paying the terrorist. If the law holding the company responsible for these actions is not in place, the company and the U. S. justice system are â€Å"off the hook† and the victims and families can’t seek to have their claims fulfilled. If the law holding the company responsible is in place, then Chiquita is going to be brought to justice and both the justice system and the victims will have their legal claims fulfilled. Recommendation It comes down to determining whether the company benefitted in other ways than protecting their employees from paying for the â€Å"protection† from FARC and AUC. From the information provided in the internal documents it seems like it did. Even without the internal documents, Chiquita did benefit financially from being present for all those years in Colombia (Chiquita in Colombia Case, p. 4: according to AUGURA, â€Å"productivity on Latin and Central American plantations were three times greater than in the Caribbean, and costs to import were 50% lower†). The company had the direct benefit in paying the FARC and AUC for their â€Å"protection. † Doing business in Colombia was lucrative and giving it up was (at that time) more damaging than paying terrorist. That’s why my recommendation to Chiquita is to come forward and admit to their wrongdoing and pay the claimants for their damages. It will be hard to run a company with such past, but this lesson will (hopefully) help avoid such issues in the future (not only for Chiquita but also other companies who are doing business internationally in unstable political and security environments). Action Let’s say someone is threatening to kill me unless I give him or her my car. I know he or she may kill someone else with it—I wouldn’t give it up even if I paid with my own life for it. If my family is threatened—I give it up, since I am responsible for more people. If the situation repeats over many years and every month I give up the car to protect myself and my family, more and more people are being killed. Do I admit to what that someone does? Am I responsible for this? I would want to think that not. But if there is a case of repeat actions like this, I would have to take that responsibility. And that’s why Chiquita should act on their core social responsibility values they preach. Synopsis By giving money to FARC and AUC, Chiquita approved of the actions of the two organizations. The solution is to now take the responsibility for these actions.

Knowledge-based organization

Knowledge-based organization Knowledge-based organization Introduction Most organisations in one way or another have embraced the notion that to operate effectively in todays economy, it is necessary to become a knowledge-based organization (Alvesson, 1993). But few truly understand what that means or how to carry out the changes required to bring it about. Perhaps the most common misunderstanding is the view that the more a companys products or services have knowledge at their core, the more the organization is, by definition, knowledge based. The knowledge-based society of the 21st century is characterized by knowledge generation as the primary source of wealth and social well-being. This economic development, facilitated by networked actions of a variety of global actors utilizing new information and communication technology (ICT) including Internet technologies, is fundamentally changing the rules of the game of performing in both private and public organisations. Accordingly, new concepts, frameworks, models and theories are required in order to increase our understanding of the principles of the creation and use of knowledge and information as a resource. This development both in theory and in practice is evident because, contrary to the traditional factors of production, knowledge and information are partly intangible in nature. It is therefore vital for organisations to provide a holistic view of contextual factors which have an impact on the creation, processing, storage, maintenance and use of information and know ledge as a resource. Moreover, organisations must know more about the means that affect processes related to knowledge and information. Knowledge-Based Organisation in Malaysia In the early 1980s, when the Japanese advances in the economy and began to make great impacts on the business state of affairs, knowledge work began to make headway to the workers levels. The Japanese enterprises show their way to knowledge work at the workers levels through such practices as QCC activities, 5S activities, Kaizen suggestion schemes and the like. These practices continue to contribute to improving productivity and competitiveness in production. By mid 1980s, Japan has overwhelmed other western companies and organisations with their low cost and high quality products by it techniques and quality tools. Malaysia as any other countries in the world is moving towards improving their information technology facilities and services. After achieving independence on 31 August 1957, Malaysia was basically a resource-based country and depending on the extraction of natural resources. The need to provide jobs for the local population then was one of the primary foci of the economic development plans. In order to compete with Japanese organisation success Malaysian government in the Malaysian Context of Industrial Development has emphasis learning in every national agenda. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Malaysia launched the First Industrial Master Plan, 1986-1995 (IMP1) in 1986 with the main focus is to rationalize the industrial growth process and the growth of manufacturing industry. The Malaysian Prime Minister first mooted Vision 2020 in 1991 and it is Malaysia national vision for the countrys continuing development into a developed nation (Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, 1993). Even with the success of the IMP, the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth recorded over the period 1992-1997 was below the expected level. The manufacturing-based industrialization strategy will only take the country into an industrial society and this will not be sufficient to achieve the post-industrial/advanced industrial society and a civil society as envisaged in the Vision 2020 (NITC, 1998). As Malaysia prepares to become a knowledge-based economy, new strategic focus calls for the nation to work towards the digital economy and a knowledge-based economy. The national response to this is the National IT Agenda (NITA) to direct the progress and the Multimedia Super Corridor (MDC, 1999) and its associated programs that aim to create the IT waves towards this new economy (NITC, 1998). Organisations will have to refocus their strategies to be globally competitive. The new competitive strategy will be knowledge-based, and organisations will have to be knowledge-focused. Even if production of tangible outputs is the core business, the competitive strategy will have to be knowledge-based. In other words, the competitiveness of an organisation will be its knowledge rather than is physical outputs. The proposition here is that managing and exploiting organisational knowledge or knowledge management is a strategic focus for organisation to achieve competitiveness, and the learning organisation is the outcome of this strategic process. Knowledge Management initiatives are developing in a wide variety of government sectors in varying countries around the world and this conference will provide and intergovernmental forum for the discussion of best practice in public sector knowledge management. A recent survey reveals that 73% of governments feel they have made mistakes in setting up their online systems and 56% say that the work has taken longer than expected. Nonetheless, 89% are not yet tired of implementing e-government. By placing individual services on-line, government departments could achieve cost savings of up to 25 percent. If departments collaborate to provide a one-stop shop for a handful of services-say, by creating a World Wide Web site where you apply for a drivers license, pay a traffic ticket, and make an appointment for an emission inspection-the figure raises to 45 percent. Getting departments to collaborate is the tricky part. What is Knowledge? Knowledge as we all know comes from a cycle that involves the transformation from data to information and to knowledge. Information if it is not interpreted accordingly will not be knowledge. Knowledge is an organised combination of data, assimilated with set of rules, procedures, and operations learnt through experience and practice and without meaning knowledge are just information or data (Bhatt, 2001). It is only through meaning that information finds life and becomes knowledge (Bhatt, 2000). McDermott describes six characteristics of knowledge that distinguish it from information (McDermott, 1999): 1. Knowledge is a human act. 2. Knowledge is the residue of thinking. 3. Knowledge is created in the present moment. 4. Knowledge belongs to communities. 5. Knowledge circulates through communities in many ways. 6. New knowledge is created at the boundaries of old. In today competitive environment, organisations are competing which each other to achieve a high competitive advantage. In this era information is now considered as the most important assets in organisation. Information comes from knowledge and knowledge comes from the mind and experience of an individuals. Davenport and Prusak (1998) have provided the following definition of knowledge: Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluation and incorporating new experiences and information. If originates and is applied in the minds of knower. In organisations, it is often becomes embedded not only in documents of repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practice, and norms. Knowledge management emphasizes on the inter-personal communication over the mere capture and storage of knowledge. Organizational intellectual assets and capital are the most priority aspects of the knowledge management efforts. Knowledge is the important elements in a value-chain. This value chain includes data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and the conceptualisation of knowledge management as a process of refinement, leveraging data and information to the more valuable level. These value-added elements can help organisations in problem solving and decision-making to improve performance and increase innovations. Innovation is an ongoing process in which organisations create problems, define them, and then develop new knowledge for their solution (Beveren, 2002). Knowledge Management Knowledge management is an emerging trend. This is because organisations have started to realize the importance of knowledge in order to achieve competitive advantage. Recent years have seen an explosive increase of interest in knowledge management. As well as a massive outpouring of books and articles on KM, many organizations have embarked upon their own KM programmes. A recent KPMG survey (KPMG, 1998) of 100 leading UK firms found that a staggering 43% of respondents were undertaking some kind of KM initiative. For an organisation to survive they must be able to move one step further from their competitors and would be able to differentiate themselves between other. Creating and sustaining a competitive advantage a one way of achieving goals. To coupe with these rapidly changing environments, organisations needs to know what are their corporate knowledge assets and manage these assets to sustain competitive advantage. Knowledge belongs to the family of progressively increasing corporate assets, like management systems, brand identity, customer information and corporate reputation (Pascarella, 1997). Knowledge is a person, highly personal asset and represents the collective expertise and efforts of networks and alliances. Knowledge management has becoming the most critical aspect in organisation to achieve competitive advantage. Nonaka (1991) stated that in an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. According to McCampbell (1999), to have a successful knowledge management projects, knowledge management was at least partially responsible for a major transformation of one large consulting firm and the transformation was all-embracing in terms of a marked improvement in financial result for the firm while engaged in knowledge management practices. Knowledge Management is multi-disciplinary approach and has now becoming very powerful concept. It is rapidly growing practice used as strategic tool for organisation to produce efficient and productive product and services. This concept helps organisations to seek and maximize value by helping people innovate and acclimatize in the face of change. As the world is moving towards a global knowledge economy, proper management and practice of knowledge can transform services and product and put value into it. As global competition based on knowledge intensive products or services swiftly increase, it is little wonder that organisations are seeking ways to harness knowledge through business strategies and knowledge management tools and techniques (Vandermerwe, 1997). Many organisations are already thriving in our increasingly knowledge-intensive world, often referred to as the new or knowledge economy. These organisations are achieving success by focusing on how knowledge can be used to deliver value to the organisation and its stakeholders. Knowledge management helps people prepare for an environment of constantly shifting demographics, industries, economies, and customer needs by ensuring that people have the expertise and information they need in order to properly assess business problems and opportunities. Knowledge Management is a process that helps organisations to find, select, organize, disseminate, and transfer important information and expertise necessary for activities such as problem solving, dynamic learning, strategic learning and decision-making (Gupta, Iyer and Aronson, 2000). Knowledge management caters the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings (Malhotra, 1998). Tacit and Explicit Knowledge There are two types of knowledge. Knowledge that cannot be articulated is called tacit knowledge. In organisations, tacit knowledge is the personal knowledge used by members to perform their work and make sense of their worlds (Choo, 2000). Tacit knowledge is also as important as explicit knowledge. The only problem that occurs is that tacit knowledge is hard to be explained and communicate. As Michael Polanyi the chemist-turned-philosopher who coined the term, put it, We know more than we can tell. Polanyi used the example of being able to recognize a persons face but being only vaguely able to describe how that is done. Contrast to tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge is the knowledge that has been articulated, capture in the form of text, tables, diagrams, product specifications and so on (Cortada, 2000). Explicit knowledge is also knowledge that is expressed formally using a system of symbols and can therefore be easily communicated and diffuse (Choo, 2000). This type of knowledge is the most recognized and captured by organisations. Most organisations concentrate more on explicit knowledge because it is easy to understand and capture (Barlow, 2000). Both tacit and explicit knowledge are very important and critical to organizational information or knowledge management system development. It is just a matter of identify and captured it to make it as an valuable assets. TACIT EXPLICIT INDIVIDUAL DEPENDENT Personal Tacit Self-Motivated Creativity Know-How Know-What Know-Why INDIVIDUAL INDEPENDENT Cultural Tacit Organisational Tacit (e.g. Causal Ambiguity) Regulator Assets (Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks) There are three types of explicit knowledge resident in any organisation 1. Cognitive knowledge, 2. Advanced systems skills, and 3. Systems understanding. In Figure 1, Meso and Smith (2000) described cognitive knowledge, also termed know-what is the basic mastery of a discipline that professionals achieve through extensive training and certification (Quinn et al., 1996). Advanced skills or know-how refer to the ability to apply rules of a discipline to complex real-world problems (Quinn et al., 1996). Systems understanding, also termed know-why is the deep understanding of the web of cause-and-effect relationships underlying a discipline (Quinn et al., 1996; Nonaka, 1991). The creation of new knowledge comes from the ongoing innovations form learning organisations. Therefore, organizational learning occurs at the intersection of tacit and explicit knowledge during the interaction of the various employees, departments or teams in an organisation (Nonaka, 1991). Sustainable competitive advantage results from innovation. Innovation in turn results from the creation of new knowledge (Meso and Smith, 2000). Knowledge Creation It is process how organisation gathers internal and external information in one system. Knowledge creation refers to the ability of an organisation to develop novel and useful idea and solution (Marakas, 1999). Nonaka (1994) identifies four mechanisms for knowledge creation: 1. Socialisation whereby one individual shares tacit knowledge with other. Sharing of experiences through observation, imitation and practice; 2. Combination whereby one pieces of explicit knowledge is combined with other; 3. Externalisation whereby tacit knowledge is made explicit; and 4. Internalisation process of experiencing knowledge through an explicit source, where explicit knowledge is converted into tacit. Meanwhile Rovertson (2001) has identified four types of organisational knowledge: 1. Conscious, which is an individuals explicit knowledge; 2. Automatic, which is an individuals implicit knowledge; 3. Objectified, which is explicit, social knowledge, and 4. Collective, which is implicit, social knowledge. Knowledge Capture Knowledge can be captured inside and outside organisation. The captured knowledge then will be integrated within one system in organisation as a resource. The purpose of knowledge management is to integrate internal and external knowledge at all time in order to cope with environmental changes both within and outside the organisation, to solve existing problem as well as to innovate for business expansion. Beveren (2002) provides a model where information is acquired through the sensors and processed in the brain by using prior knowledge (see Figure 1). Where: Knowledge is the stock of conceptual tools and categories used by humans to create, collect and share information. During the processing of information, new knowledge can be acquired or created for future use, when more or new information is acquired and processed. Knowledge Dissemination Knowledge dissemination in corporate knowledge is involving with the activity to disseminate or distributes knowledge to members in organisation. Knowledge benefited to organisation if they can disseminate. Knowledge needs to distributed and shared if an organisation to leverage value from it (Bhatt, 2000). Beveren (2002) illustrates how knowledge is transformed into information within the brain to be communicated externally through language or demonstration (see Figure 2). Language in this model includes all forms of communication, such as written, verbal and body language. In this model, the prior knowledge contained in human brains is required for the creation of information, just as the creation of knowledge often requires the input of information through the sensors to the brain. The initial formation of prior knowledge has been a huge area of debate for many years and has been discussed from two opposed positions, the empiricists and the nativists. Organizational Learning 2.5.3 Knowledge Sharing The organisational creation of differential knowledge, at its central part, springs unpredictably and unknowingly from social interchanges between competent organisations. Thus the importance of organizational behaviour in adapting to change is self-evident. Unfortunately, our understanding of the processes of organizational change is quite limited. The basic facts of human cognition are that our brains have the capacity to establish an extremely large number of possible networks of connections, but only a small fraction of this potential can be realized. Indeed, the growth of knowledge and the possibility of innovation depend on the incompleteness of present connections (Loasby, 2000b). Knowledge sharing only takes place on a significant scale where organisations have organized themselves into communities of practice. These communities need to be integrated to the companys strategy and its organizational structure.The phenomenon of communities of practice is known under different names. The World Bank, for example, is leveraging global knowledge sharing to attain its goal of becoming a clearinghouse for expertise on sustainable development (Wah, 1999) and they are called thematic groups; in Hewlett Packard they are learning communities or learning networks; in Chevron they are called best practice teams, and in Xerox they are know as family groups (Denning, 2000). Many practitioners pf knowledge managementincreasingly see knowledge sharing as a better description of what they are about than knowledge management. Advantages of knowledge sharing as a term include its commonsense comprehensibility, along with a certain degree of inter-activity implicit in any sharing. Drawbacks of knowledge sharing include the possibility that even sharing is insufficiently interactive, and that it implies (falsely) that the existence of knowledge precedes the sharing process, thereby (wrongly) separating knowledge management from knowledge creation and innovation and research. Knowledge Exploitation Knowledge exploitation is one of the vital parts in corporate knowledge. Knowledge exploitation means making knowledge more active and relevant for the organisation in creating values. If an organisation did not find it easy to locate the right kind of knowledge, the organisation may find it difficult to sustain its competitive advantage (Ganesh 2001). There are certain indicators for an organisations ability to create, disseminate and apply knowledge. Demarest (1997) identified six key questions an organisation has to answer to participate in knowledge management effectively: 1. The culture, actions and beliefs of managers about the value, purpose and role of knowledge; 2. The creation, dissemination and use of knowledge within the organisation; 3. The kind of strategic and commercial benefits a organisation can expect by the use of effective knowledge management; 4. The maturity of knowledge systems in the organisations; 5. How a organisation organise for knowledge management; and 6. The role of information technology in the knowledge management program. Using Demarests model, McAdam (2000) in his research on A comparison of public and private sector perceptions and use of knowledge management found that in terms of knowledge construction, organisations recognised the need for both a scientific and a social construction of knowledge if the benefits of knowledge management were to be realised. Knowledge embodiment was found to be highly dependent on employee interchange, which must be recognised as a source of knowledge and key to the success of knowledge embodiment in organisations dissemination and use. Approaches to knowledge dissemination as part of a KM system were found to be mainly ad hoc. There was little systematic use of the more sophisticated methods available. The use/benefits of knowledge management within the organisations studied was based mainly on reduced costs, and improved quality and efficiency. Creating, managing and transferring knowledge is the top of agenda for a growing number of organisations in the Chase study. They believe knowledge management would improve performance and result such as improved decision making, increased responsiveness to customer, improved efficiency of people and processes, increased ability to innovate and improved products and services (Chase, 1997). Although organisations recognised the importance of creating, managing and transferring knowledge, the research findings also found that many of the organisations still have been unable to translate this competitive needs into strategies. Other conclusion from his study is that the best practice organisations are experiencing great difficulty in translating knowledge management theory into practice. Communities of Practice In todays organisations community of practice seems very important for employees to contribute and share their tacit and explicit knowledge for the organisation development. Community of practice can be define as a group of practitioners who share a common interest or passion in an area of competence and are willing to share the experiences of their practice. Community of practice can play an important role in leveraging knowledge in organisation. Gamble and Blackwell (2001) defined community of practice as collections of individuals bound by informal relationship who share a similar work role in a common context. They are groups that: 1. Come together voluntarily for a shared purpose; 2. Have members that identify themselves as part of the community; 3. Repeatedly engage in activities with other member s and communities; 4. Have interactions that last for an indeterminate period of time. An essential ingredient of knowledge sharing programs in large organisations is the community of practice. In undertaking knowledge sharing programs, most organisations have found sooner or later that the nurturing of knowledge-based communities of practice is a sine qua non to enabling significant knowledge sharing to take place. Such communities are typically based on the affinity created by common interests or experience, where practitioners face a common set of problems in a particular knowledge area, and have an interest in finding, or improving the effectiveness of, solutions to those problems (Denning, 2000). Launching and nurturing communities of practice for knowledge sharing programs can be accomplished in a variety of ways (Denning, 2000). 1. Endorsing informal communities that already exist. 2. Asking practitioners what issues they care about. 3. Instructing leaders to form communities. 4. Launching purely virtual communities. 5. Launching communities among the incorrigibles. Communities of practice can add value into organisations in several important ways: 1. Community of practice can help to drive strategy. 2. They can start new lines of business. 3. They can solve problems quickly. 4. They transfer best practice. 5. They develop professional skills. 6. They help companies recruit and retain talent. Organisational Culture Organizational culture is a critically important aspect for facilitating sharing, learning, and knowledge creation. It is not homogeneous and sometimes has subcultures (McDermontt and Odell, 2001). An open culture with incentives built around integrating individual skills and experiences into organizational knowledge will be more successful (Gupta, Iyer and Aronson, 2000). Goh (2002) argues that one cultural dimension critical to knowledge transfer is co-operation and collaboration. Recent research on co-operation in organisation may help increase organizational understanding of the dynamic knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer requires the willingness of a group or individual to work with others and share knowledge to their mutual benefit. Without co-operations and collaboration culture knowledge transfer form individuals and groups will not be successful. Culture plays significant function in the success of knowledge management implementations. McDermontt and Odell (2001) used a definition of culture that helped to see its multiple levels (Figure3). Following Schein (1985), McDermontt and ODell defined culture as: The shared values, beliefs and practices of the people in the organisation. Culture is reflected in the visible aspects of the organisation, like its mission and espoused values. But culture exists on a deeper level as well, embedded in the way people act, what they expect of each other and how they make sense of each others actions. Finally, culture is rooted in the organisations core values and assumptions. Often these are not only unarticulated, but so taken-for granted that they are hard to articulate, invisible to organizational members. Because of these layers of culture, people can often act in ways inconsistent with the organisations articulated mission and values, but consistent with its underlying or core values. Following this definition, in an organisation with a knowledge sharing culture, people would share ideas and insights because they see it as natural, rather than something they are forced to do. They would expect it of each other and assume that sharing ideas is th e right thing to do. In order to achieve high level of collaborations and co-operations, there is a fundamental variable needed. It is a matter of trust. A high level of trust is therefore an essential condition for a willingness to cooperate. Trust belongs to the area of human factors in knowledge management. It is defined as expectations and acts that the members of the community direct to each other. In organisations trust supports and enables collaboration and knowledge sharing which are processes related to knowledge management. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are based on organizational culture and climate, which can either support or prevent them (Yoon, 2000). In order to overcome cultural barriers to sharing knowledge has more to do with how organisations design and implement their knowledge management effort than with changing the existing organizational culture (McDermontt and ODell, 2001). It involves balancing the visible and invisible dimensions of culture; visibly demonstrating the importance of sharing knowledge and building on the invisible core values. The companies we studied felt they are still learning how to do this effectively. McDermontt and ODell (2001) derive five critical aspects about aligning knowledge sharing with the organisation culture. 1. To create a knowledge sharing culture, make a visible connection between sharing knowledge and practical business goals, problems or results. 2. Match the overall style of your organisation rather than to directly copy the practices developed by other organisations. 3. Link sharing knowledge to widely held core values. By linking with core values of the organisation values, you make sharing knowledge consistent with peers expectations and managers considerations. 4. Human networks are one of the key vehicles for sharing knowledge. To build a sharing culture, enhance the networks that already exist. Enable them with tools, resources and legitimisation. 5. Recruit the support of people in your organisation who already share ideas and insights. Managers need to encourage and even pressure people to share their knowledge. Build sharing knowledge into routine performance appraisal. There must be a well-built culture of continuous improvement and learning, linked to problem seeking and problem solving and focused on specific values such as product quality and customer service. Employees are encouraged to gather relevant information and to use and share that information in problem solving and implementing innovative solutions and practices (Goh, 2002). Organisational Knowledge Structures Organisational knowledge structure is different than organisational culture and climate in at least two significant ways. The concept of knowledge structures deals with goals, cause-and-effect perspective, and other cognitive essentials. Furthermore knowledge structure is more clearly linked to an organisations plan for survival and more subject to change than an organisations culture, neither of which changes readily of provides specific strategies for action for an organisation (Lyles, 1992). In developing knowledge structures, there are three stages that individuals go through to reach agreement (Weick and Bougon, 1986): 1. Agreement on which concepts capture and abstract their joint experience; 2. Consensus on relations among these concepts, and; 3. Similarity of view on how these related concepts affects each party. Human resource is an important asset and within these resources lays the knowledge useful for organisations. In order to develop organizational knowledge the role of individual knowledge is very important. Organizational Change The organisations creation of differential knowledge, at its core, springs unpredictably and unknowingly from social interchanges between competent organisations. Thus the importance of organizational behaviour in a