Rogers Chocolate Essay Example for Free

Rogers Chocolate Essay Introduction Rogers’ Chocolate is on a mission to have the company double or triple its size within 10 years. An analysis will be performed to figure out a strategic plan where Rogers’ Chocolate will be able to grow, and maintain their image of providing premium chocolates. The issue facing Rogers’ Chocolate is how they will be able to gain new customers and sustain their current customers. To give a thorough analysis, I will identify and explain the strategic issue, present the results of the analysis, and present alternative strategies. Finally, I will present my recommendation and conclude the analysis. Strategic Issue The strategic issue facing Roger’s Chocolate is how to grow the company by being able to gain new customers and still maintain their current customer base. The objective of Rogers’ Chocolate is to double or triple the size of the company within 10 years. By growing, this means that they will need more production, more employees, and more customers. Rogers’ Chocolate will need a strategy that will help position them to be able to grow the way they want it to. Analysis After reviewing Rogers’ Chocolates finances, they are good shape and have improved from 2005 to 2006. This improvement shows opportunity for the company to reach its objective of growing. According to their balance sheet, their current ratio for 2006 is 1. 366 (2,330,241/1,705,132) and 1. 245 (2,896,842/2,326,966) for 2005. These numbers show that they are able to continue to pay off their obligations. This means they are in a position where they shouldn’t go bankrupt. It also shows that Rogers’ Chocolate are just efficient enough in the sense of turning their product into cash. The company’s cash available for next year, 2007, is $74,744. This is down from what they had at the beginning of the year, $151,802. This may hurt them when trying to invest into new areas. The external environment of Rogers’ Chocolate looks very promising. Godiva and Bernard Callebaut are the only ones that seem to threaten Rogers’ Chocolate position in the market. The other chocolate companies are of lower quality and price but still compete with Rogers’ Chocolate. Godiva’s chocolates are priced higher but lower quality. Bernard Callebaut’s chocolate are similar to Godiva’s in price, are in similar locations as Rogers’ and are also good in new introductions and seasonal products. They are also superior to Rogers’ when it comes to their packaging. The internal environment doesn’t look well for Rogers’ Chocolate. With very few employees who do multiple jobs, Rogers’ seems like they are not able to handle their demand for their product. Also their issue with out of stock product causes many problems when trying to keep up with other demands. Strengths for Rogers’ Chocolates include liquidity and their differentiation from other competitors. Roger’s is in a good position financially. They are not in the best position but are in a good enough position to make changes and improvements. Rogers’ is also efficient. Once, again they are not at their best, but are efficient enough to be a successful competitor. They are also very strong in their image. They are able to differ from their competitors with high quality chocolate and an image that is known locally. Rogers’ weaknesses are cash flow and production. Although Roger’s Chocolate is not in a position to go bankrupt, they have limited cash to invest into improving their operations. With the low amount of cash they have, they may have to borrow in the future. Another weakness is their production efficiency. A low number of employees and bad planning causes their production to be slow and inefficient. Inventory management and out of stock problems cannot continue if Rogers’ want to be able to grow into the company they want it to become. Rogers’ Chocolates has several opportunities. One opportunity is to maintain their current image to introduce new products to compete with Bernard Callebaut. Having a new product to compete can help can new customers and new market share. Another opportunity is to provide lower quality chocolates to reach a new target market. Being able to acquire a new market may bring those new customers to their current market. The main threat to Rogers’ chocolate is the competition. Not being able to keep up with the competition or current trends can lead to lost market share. With Godiva having superior packaging, distribution, and price points, and Bernard Callebaut having superior packaging and seasonal influence, Rogers’ Chocolate could be falling behind soon if they do not join the ranks. Rogers’ must find their niche in order to be able to compete not just locally, but globally. Alternative Strategies Rogers’ Chocolates will need to gain new customers if they want to grow the company. To gain new customers, Rogers’ must take a risk a re-brand themselves with a new packaging design to create a new image. Implementing a new brand image will gather a new crowd of consumers that Rogers’ did not reach with its current image. To be able to do so, Rogers’ will need some financial help in order to invest money into the new packaging design and image that they want to create. They will also need new store displays and marketing tools to be able to push the image to customers. By creating this new image, they run the risk of losing their current customers. The new image that Rogers’ creates will grab the attention of a new market that will help gain market share that they currently do not have to aid in the growth of the company. For growth to happen, Rogers’ must be more efficient in production. The problems caused by out of stocks and bad planning are causing Rogers’ to not be as successful. When production plans are put on hold to finish special orders, it is not a good sign. Production should be a continuous flow. To change the production efficiency, Rogers’ will have to hire more employees so their current ones are not doing multiple functions. They will also need to use the correct data when planning production and forecasting next year’s sales. Once again, money will be needed to hire and train new employees, as well as changing the planning method. Rogers’ risk is that the employees may not be as happy when new hires come, since a lot of the employees are third generation employees. Also, another risk is that the new planning may cause the same problems such as discounting products or even wrong forecasting. Another way for Rogers’ to grow is to boost their online presence. Since social media is growing, Rogers’ could take advantage of it to gain traffic to their website. By doing so, not only will sales go up, but they will also be able to reach a new age group of 18-34, who use online shopping. This will give them new customers that will start to aid in replacing the aging customers that Rogers’ currently have. Since social media is a low cost, not a lot of money will be needed, although it may be a good idea to hire a social media consultant to handle all the work. The only risk that I see Rogers’ facing is throwing away money if sales do not increase. If social media and a larger online presence are not working, Rogers’ could face a situation where they are not on the receiving end. They will need to research who the online customer base really is to gain information on how to market to that segment. Not only will a larger online presence grow the company, but also moving business to the United States will help in the growth as well. Opening up retail stores in the US will help Rogers’ to start to gain a global presence. The way that Rogers’ retails their products shows that they know how to do it locally. To be able to reach the US, they will need to put a lot of effort into research the market on how to market to US customers. In their current retail stores, they display their products to suit the season with a Victorian theme. Rogers’ will need to do the same for the US, but use the information gathered to create displays and marketing tools that will gain a following. By changing to fit and gain sales in the US, Rogers’ has the risk of losing their current image as well as spending a lot of money just to gain customers that they may not get. This is the riskiest strategy. They will spend a lot of money by building retail stores and staffing them and marketing to a new segment. The risk of having their image ruined is also a risk. Since Rogers’ is well rooted in tradition, this may cause a stir among employees and their customers. Recommendation After reviewing the analysis and the alternative strategies, Rogers’ has several ways to achieve growth. I recommend that Rogers’ re-brand themselves with new packaging and marketing tools. Although there is a risk of losing current customers, I believe that is a very small risk. People who buy Rogers’ Chocolates are very loyal customers and have been buying them for years. Rogers’ is a company based of providing premium chocolate with high quality. Changing the image will not affect the quality of their chocolates, but rather gain new customers they don’t currently have and be able to compete against Godiva and Bernard Callebaut. The image that Rogers’ needs to create is an image that will still hold its tradition, but at the same time be edgy enough to strengthen its packaging, advertising, and distribution. This will allow new customers to get to know what Rogers’ Chocolates is and be able to keep the current ones coming back. Conclusion As you can see, Rogers’ chocolates objective is growth for the company. An analysis was performed to show the current financial and environmental state Rogers’ is currently in. after reviewing the analysis, I found that Rogers’ is in a good position to grow and again market share using their current products. I recommended that Rogers’ Chocolates create a new, edgy brand image to gain a new customer base. This will keep their current, loyal customers and help gain new customers who are soon to be loyal as well. Rogers’ has put themselves in a position to make this strategic decision in order to grow the company into a market leader.

Organizational Culture Case Study: BrainGame

Organizational Culture Case Study: BrainGame Introduction The importance of individual and organisational culture are vital components for business to succeed. BrianGame has the organisational culture of making global volunteers as their workers to develop games. However, the debate among BrainGames top management now considers changing the culture of volunteers to full-time employees, which raise issues on the relationship between volunteers and BrainGame. This essay will examine the challenges that BrainGame face and provide recommendations based on the challenges for BrainGame. Trust and Group Conflict One challenge for BrainGame is trust. Some top management want to replace volunteers with full-time developers. This is because volunteers are not productive and hard to manage, more than a thousand crappy ideas proposed, according to Rutger Ekberg, the head of product development (Sutton et al, 2014). Figure 1: (Dietz and Hartog, 2006) People like Rutger from BrainGame belongs to deterrence-based, they dont trust  volunteers and have no positive expectation over volunteers. They believe if no full-time experienced developers used, then what if game fails and the potential of losing investors. This is also a group problem. The companys top management are task conflicts because of the disagreement among top management about the content and outcomes of volunteers performance (Wit et al, 2012). Task conflict may hurt more proximal group outcomes, such as trust from volunteers and volunteers satisfaction. This latter effect is especially likely when volunteers interpret the companys diverging viewpoints as a negative assessment of their own abilities and competencies (Wit et al, 2012). If volunteers are not trusted, then the company will not run effectively, and influence companys operation like productivity, communication, and raise problem of demotivating volunteers, reduce their commitment to the company. According to Mayer and Gavin (1999) employees performance will suffer if they believe their leader cant be trusted. Some top management such as Lena, the CEO, are knowledge-based to volunteers. They believe volunteers saves money and provide free marketing for the company as well as free product development, but they need to convenience people who distrust volunteers so BrainGame can work toward the same target (Dietz and Hartog, 2006). Motivation Another challenge is motivation. BrainGame needs to motivate volunteers so they can be more efficient. Volunteers who work for BrainGame are unpaid, they work because they want to create positive, nonviolent, commercially viable product that reward empathy and caring rather than aggression and revenge (Sutton et al, 2014). Figure 2: (Herzberg F, 1987) Self-determination theory explain the motivation for peoples growth and human development (Deci and Ryan, 2004). The theory explains the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors are self-determined by ones own will (Deci et al, 1991). From figure 2, it shows achievement, recognition and work itself and responsibility are the top four motivation factors, which are all intrinsic motivation. These motivation factors are correlated with BrainGames volunteers because they want be respected by others, recognize for their work and actually make a difference. The problem between BrainGame and volunteers is some people in BrainGame dont recognize their work, they distrust them. Which could lead to more ineffective production and creativity because volunteers are discovered they are not recognized for what they do and what they contribute, therefore will not fully commit to the job or even leave. If BrainGame wants to keep volunteers, then they need to help volunteers achieve what they wan t so they can commit to the job. Organizational Culture Organizational culture is another challenge for BrainGame. The company have the culture of volunteers instead of full time developers. Klaus called this culture a movement (Sutton et al, 2014). However, the culture has been in question of volunteers should be replaced by full-time developers. Figure 3: (Hartnell et al, 2011) BrainGames culture is most likely to be the adhocracy culture type, because this type of culture is externally oriented with flexible organizational structure (Hartnell et al, 2011). BrainGame has a very flexible organizational structure with over thousands of volunteers as developers around the world (Sutton et al, 2014). The fundamental assumption in adhocracy cultures is that change fosters the creation or garnering of new resources (Hartnell et al, 2011). This organizational type encourages people to be innovative. However, BrainGames current culture doesnt work efficiently. Volunteers produced many ideas but most ideas are not viable to use and time consuming. Moreover, BrainGame initial ideas of using volunteers are because of cost saving. Since BrainGame are making profit now, the company needs to rethink its organizational culture, to continue with volunteers or move on to full time developers. The company needs to also consider the risk of losing volunteers and the possibili ty of turn thousands of brand evangelists to brand haters since volunteers provides free marketing and advertising (Sutton et al 2014). Leadership BrainGames top management have the characteristics of transactional leadership with laissez-faire and management by action (passive) style. They hesitate when make decisions and only make interventions if standards are not met (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). According to research, laissez-faire and management by action (passive) are negatively correlated with leadership criteria (Judge and Piccolo, 2004). Based on the case, BrainGames top management have constant debate on should they keep volunteers or replace them with full time developers. However, no one could come up with a defiant solution. BrainGames top management especially Lena needs to change their leadership styles, to be more inspired to other people, have vision and active. Question 2 Goal-Setting Theory As challenges addressed above, it is important to make appropriate recommendations to help BrainGame solve its problems. One recommendation is using the goal setting theory to solve motivation problem. Figure 4: (Lunenburg, 2011) Figure 4 shows the process of goal-setting theory. The two cognitive determinants of behavior are values and intentions (goals) (Lunenburg F.C, 2011). As for BrainGame, the goal for volunteers is try to achieve self-actualization, to create positive, commercially viable product and have the desire to do things consistent with them. Goals leads to attention and action which gain motivation and lead to higher effort with persistence. Goals help people to find the right strategies for themselves so that they can perform at the level they can to achieve that goal. Finally, goal achievement can lead to sense of accomplishment and further motivation, or frustration and lower motivation if failed to accomplish the goal. (Lunenburg F.C, 2011). The goal setting theory under the right conditions will help BrainGame set goals for volunteers to achieve efficiency and productivity. The first step for goal setting theory is people needs to accept goal first, so that they can be motivated to achieve their goal target (Locke and Latham, 2002). Then they need to commit to their goals, two factors help people to commit their goals are self-efficacy and importance (Locke and Latham, 2002). Importance are factors that makes people stick to their goal, including what they expected for their result (Locke and Latham, 2002). According to Erez et al (1985) shows by having involvement in setting its own goals will make them accept their goals at a higher rate because they feel under control of their goal setting. By involved in goal setting, they will have a better understanding of the task and what will they expect as a result. Self-efficacy is how much people believe they can achieve their goal (Locke and Latham, 2002). Self-efficacy can be improved by provide training for volunteers such as online training, this will help increase their skills which leads to better productivity and efficiency. Through effective and regular communication between the company and volunteers to encourage volunteers, this will help gain their confidences (Locke and Latham, 2002). Through training and regular communication, individuals will have a better understanding of their own goal importance and more self-confidence towards their goal, therefore improve goal commitment (Locke and Latham, 2006). A goal needs to be specific and measurable, goals which are unclear are confusing and normally have little effect on motivation. Making goal clear allows people to focus on at the right directions and act related to goal (Lock and Latham, 2002). Volunteers with specific goal target will have better understanding of the task, results in efficiency. Goal is proven to be a motivational factor for people to follow if difficulty is considered, it gives the incentive for people to challenge. If goal target is too difficult, it will demotivate people and reduce their commitment. Goal difficulty not just affect individuals behavior, it will also affect at organizational level. In the late 1960s, Fords goal to gain market share against international competitors, goal was set at tight deadlines and many levels of management signed off on unperformed safety check to the newly development car- the Ford Pinto, results in 53 consumer deaths, the challenging goal was met but companys unethical behavior has damaged its reputation (Ordà ³Ãƒ ±ez et al, 2009). Setting goals that are too high or difficult not only reduce motivation and commitment but also can create dishonesty, cutting corners and corruption (Bennett, 2009). BrainGame needs to be clear of their goal settings, specific and measurable, not setting high goals that demotivating volu nteers, since they are not contract bound by the company, demotivating them will only damage the company. Feedback is essential for volunteers to retain their goal commitment and effectiveness. It is important to give volunteers with constant feedbacks on their work so they can aware of all the progress and mistakes they made during their work, or it will become difficult to monitor the level of effort that needs in order to achieve the goal target more sufficiently (Sorrentino, 2006). Additionally, feedback gives the advantage that allows individual to spot their personal disadvantages towards their goals, and allows promptly adjustment to be done (Smith and Hitt, 2005). By having feedbacks, volunteers will know their work has been checked and evaluated and people are recognizing their work. Provide positive feedbacks to volunteers means BrainGame recognize their work. Whereas negative feedbacks will also motivate them and increase their effort to work if they have high self-efficacy. In contrast, volunteers with low self-efficacy will respond with less effort and demotivated to negativ e feedbacks (Bandura and Cervone, 1986). However, goal setting theory have limitation. Concentrating only to goal can cause people to miss other factors in your environment (Simons and Chabris, 1999). When attention is focused on goal, people become inattention to other factors, which could sometimes cause people to miss the bigger picture. Transformational Leadership BrainGame needs to transform from transactional leadership to transformational leadership style in order to run the company more efficiently. Transformational leaders are more effective because they are more creative, and they encourage and help the people who followed them to be creative (Shin and Zhou, 2003). Companies with transformational leaders are more decentralized, managers are more likely to take risks, compensation plans are aim for long-term results (Ling et al, 2008). According to a study of information technology workers in China found giving more power to people will create positive personal control among workers, thus increased their creativity at work (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Companies with transformational leaders also have better agreement with managers about goals and strategies, this leads to better and efficient group and organizational operations and performance (Colbert et al 2008). Research from 203 team members and 60 leaders in a business unit found high p erformance is related to individual transformational leadership, and high group performance is also related to team focused transformational leadership (Hetland 2007; Lowe 1996). To have transformational leaders is important for BrainGame because there has been debates on volunteers, with people having different opinions but no one have profound and extraordinary effect to influence other people, the level of distrust to volunteers has raised in top management. As a leader, it is important to trust and guide your people with right directions. Transformational leaders obtain higher levels of trust, which in result reduce their followers anxiety and fear (liu et al, 2010). Followers who trust their leader are confident they will be protected for their interest and rights (Hosmer, 1995). BrainGames leaders needs act as transformational leaders and to trust their volunteers because volunteers are there main developer of game. The business is attracting investment and best ideas were gen erated from volunteers. Volunteers want to achieve recognition and trust is the best way to recognize their work. Transformational leaders encourage creativity and support peoples idea, by encouraging their ideas and guide them towards right direction (Schaubroeck et al, 2011). This will help volunteers improve their skills, and improve their productivity and commitment. Training is an effective way to become a better transformational leader. Training include teach skills on trust building and mentoring, learn how to analysis and evaluate a situation and apply those skills into their own styles, and evaluate in a given situation, which leader behaviors is appropriate to use (Brady, 2010). For BrainGames top management, train them gives them more skills to evaluate the current situation, and provide long-term strategy, and better skills to build trust and communication. with volunteers. To conclude, BrainGame currently in debate over should volunteers be replaced by full-time developers. To do so, it could lose trust from volunteers and demotivate them. Organizational culture will have to change, and leadership style needs to change in order to run the company more effectively. Goal-setting theory is a good method to solve some challenges faced by BrainGame. By goal-setting, volunteers will have better understanding of their task and motivate them, which will increase their productivity and efficiency and this is one of the most important factors why BrainGame want to replace volunteers. However, goal difficulty needs to be careful set or it could cause negative impact. By transit from transitional to transformational leadership, leaders of BrainGame will motivate, communicate better with employees. Transformational leadership skills can be improved with training. Nevertheless, BrainGame should retain volunteers, and build a better strategy around them to run more e fficiently. Question 3 It was a group project I worked with other group members. Group leader set goals for each one of us, but goal was not specific enough. After the deadline, one group member completely misunderstood the task, which the whole team project was stagnated. That group member was demotivated, but we decided to stop our tasks and help him to finish his first. One of the problem for us while we are doing the project is lack of communication as a group, we all focused on our part but each part is correlated, lack of communication with unspecific goal leads to this problem. After this, we all decided to communicate and help each other more, we all motivated and the project in the end finished faster than the deadlines. I think I will apply motivation to my career, because through self-determination theory, I will know which factors will influence me most to motivate me and my teammates. Word count: 2456 References:   Ã‚   Bandura, A., and Cervone, D. (1986) Differential Engagement in Self-Reactive Influences in Cognitively-Based Motivation, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 38pp.92-113. Bennett, D. (2009) Ready, aim fail. Why setting goals can backfire. The Boston Globe, C1. Brady, D. (2010) The Rising Star of CEO Consulting, TMG, Available: https://miles-group.com/article/rising-star-ceo-consulting accessed date: 16/12/2016 Colbert, A. E., Kristof-Brown, A. E ., Bradley, B.H . and Barrick, M.R. (2008)CEO Transformational Leadership: The Role of Goal Importance Congruence in Top Management Teams,Academy of Management Journal , 51, (1) pp.81-96. Deci, E. L., Vallerand, R. J., Pellitier, L. G. and Ryan, R. M. (1991). Motivation and education: The self-determination perspective. Educational Psychology, 26(3), pp.325 346. Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M. (2004) Handbook of Self-Determination Research Rochester, NY: The University of Rochester Press. Dietz, G. and Hartog, D. (2006) Measuring Trust Inside Organizations, Personnel review, 35(3) pp.557-588 Erez, M., Earley, P. C. and Hulin, C. L. (1985) The impact of participation on goal acceptance and performance: A two-step model. Academy of Management Journal, 28(1), pp.50-66. Hartnell C. A., Ou A.Y. and Kinicki A. (2011) Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Competing Values Frameworks Theoretical Suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology. 96 (4), pp.677-694. Herzberg, F (1987) One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review, Reprint 87507, pp.1-16 Hosmer, L.T. (1995) Trust: The Connecting Link Between Organizational Theory and Philosophical Ethics, Academy of Management Review, 20, 393. Hetland, H., Sandal, G. M. and Johnsen, T. B. (2007) Burnout in the Information Technology Sector: Does Leadership Matter? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology ,16, (1) pp.58-75 Judge, T.A. and Piccolo, R.F. (2004) Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5) pp.755-768 Liu, J., Siu, O. and Shi, K. (2010) Transformational Leadership and Employee Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Trust in the Leader and Self-Efficacy, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 59(3) pp.454-479. Ling, Y., Simsek, Z., Lubatkin, M.H. and Veiga, J.F. (2008) Transformational Leaderships Role in Promoting Corporate Entrepreneurship: Examining the CEO-TMT Interface, Academy of Management Journal 51(3) pp.557-576. Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2002) Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), pp.705-717. Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2006) New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), pp.265-268. Lowe, K. B., Kroeck, K. G. and Sivasubramaniam, N. (1996). Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the MLQ literature. The Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), pp.385- 425. Lunenburg F.C. (2011) Goal-Setting Theory of Motivation. International Journal of Management, Business and Administration, 15(1) Mayer, R.C. and Gavin, M. (1999) Trust for management and performance: Who minds the shop while the employees watch the boss? 1999 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Ordà ³Ãƒ ±ez, L., Schweitzer, M., Galinsky, A. and Bazerman, M. (2009). Goals gone wild: The systematic side effects of over-prescribing goal setting. HBS Working Paper, 09-083. Schaubroeck, J., Lam, S.S.K. and Peng, A.C (2011) Cognition- Based and Affect-Based Trust as Mediators of Leader Behavior Influences on Team Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4) pp.836-871 Simons, D. J., Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28(9), pp.1059-1074. Shin, S. J., and Zhou, J., (2003) Transformational Leadership, Conservation, and Creativity: Evidence from Korea, Academy of Management Journal, 46(6), pp.703-714 Smith, K.G. and Hitt, M.A. (2005) Great minds in management: the process of theory development. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Sorrentino, D.M. (2006) The seek mentoring program: An application of the goal-setting theory. Journal of College Student Retention, 8(2), pp.241-250. Sutton, R. I. and Rao, H. (2014) Can a volunteer-staffed company scale? Harvard Business Review, 92(5), pp.125-129. Wit, F.R.C., Greer, L.L and Jehn, K.A (2012) The Paradox of Intragroup Conflict: A Meta-Analysis Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(2) pp.360-390 Zhang, X. and Bartol, K.M. (2010) Linking Empowering Leadership and Employee Creativity: The Influence of Psychological Empowerment, Intrinsic Motivation, and Creative Process Engagement, Academy of Management Journal, 53(1) pp.107-128.

New Public Management (NPM) in Secure Training Centres

New Public Management (NPM) in Secure Training Centres 1. Introduction The management and organization of the public services in the UK became an issue of intense debate and discussion in the early eighties, coming under intense pressure for large-scale change. This demand to bring about wide ranging transformation in the working of the public administration arose mainly because of the negative perceptions of the conservative government about public sector working, especially concerning issues like bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of commitment, misallocation of funds, and overstaffing. The surfacing of new organisational configurations, roles, and cultures led to extensive questioning of well recognized and firmly established public sector patterns and to the challenging of standardised and professionalized welfare state agencies. Subsequent privatization and restructuring in numerous different public organisations led to the development of New Public Management, a broad based concept that spread to other states like the USA, Australia, and especially N ew Zealand, where its implementation became extensive. Over the years, the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) has come under increasing criticism. Public and media disillusionment at its failure to solve many problematic issues related to older methods of public governance, have tended to go hand in hand with the realisation that old fashioned public organisations also had several positive factors, which were necessary to the approach and working of public services.. These included a measure of stability, lack of personnel turnover, an insistence on required process, fairness in treatment, integrity, and answerability. Qualities like these, which constituted the other side of public sector working and had come to be largely accepted, and possibly ignored, during the debate on the need for change , came to the fore, especially in the case of public institutions or departments that dealt in areas of social responsibility, like, for example, the health, justice, and child welfare systems. One such area of increasing public anxiety and media debate concerns the working of Secure Training Centres (STCs) for young offenders under NPM methodology and practice. These institutes, which come under the purview and control of the Youth Justice Board, (YJB) are responsible for the secure custody, training, and rehabilitation of young offenders sentenced to custodial terms. STCs aim to ensure the smooth reintegration of their wards into society at the end of their custody periods, through required counselling, education and training. Their success is critical to (a) ensuring reduction of reoffending incidents, (b) rerouting the lives of disturbed young people, (c) motivating them to forsake criminal options, (d) building up their employment and earning skills, and (d) facilitating their reintegration with society. The area has come into sharp focus in recent months because of the introduction of rules empowering officials to use force under specific circumstances, and the suicid e of a young inmate following an episode of forceful restraint. This essay aims to study and analyse the use of NPM practices in the working of Secure Training Centres in the UK. The study of New Public Management, until now, has remained restricted to the domain of researchers and scholars of public administration, with business school professors preferring to focus on the working of private companies. While this is surprising considering the contribution of not-for-profit institutions and voluntary associations in the development of organization theory, a number of scholarly studies and research assignments on public sector organisations do exist. Some of these, along with information available on the internet and from media reports have served as information sources for this assignment. 2. Commentary a. Origins of New Public Management The public and private sectors constitute the two broad divisions of society, with their institutional separation evident on a global basis. The public sector comprises of organisations that belong to the entity known as the ‘state’ or the ‘government’. However, its scope is much wider than that associated with either of these two well-known concepts and contains, in its ambit, numerous kinds of governmental actions at diverse levels, varieties of public finance, as well as general public governance and regulation. Historically the role of the public sector in national life has moved through various stages, from being minimal in the nineteenth century, through a period characterised by social reformism and greater involvement of the government in public affairs, in the first half of the twentieth century, to that of the welfare state of the post war years. The welfare state functioned in the UK from the end of the Second World War, until well into the 1980s. It came into being on the assumption that private organisations, meaning charitable bodies, did not have either the resources or the competence to look after weaker sections and that the state needed to take care of its citizens from birth to death. These welfare services thereafter became the functions of professional public sector employees, specifically chosen and trained to handle their responsibilities. The concept of the welfare state came under severe criticism and pressure for change from the conservatives because of its many perceived deficiencies, chief among which were the rationing attitude of public servants, who (because of their war years mentality), were unable to respond to the needs of a changed citizenry, the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public sector officials, and the greed of public sector trade unions, who put their own needs before those of their communities. Widespread changes in the role of public administration led to privatisation of numerous public sector organisations and their eclipse from the economic sector. In social and community sectors the conservatives pushed the concept of the enabling state, where planning and funding would remain within the responsibility of the state, while service provision would devolve upon private players. Privatisatisation, experts felt, would help not only in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of provisioning of services, but also in its responsiveness to individual requirement. (Ferlie, Mclaughlin and Osborne, 2002) This approach in public sector approach, which came to be known as NPM, owes its origins first, to a distrust of bureaucracy and public administration to provide public services with economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, and second, to an apprehension concerning the incorrect use of professional powers by bureaucrats, leading to the possible disempowerment of general community members. Although considerable debate and contention still exists over the exact implications of NPM, there is broad consensus over its seven important components. (a) a focus on hands-on and entrepreneurial management, as opposed to the traditional bureaucratic focus of the public administrator (b) explicit standards and measures of performance,(c) an emphasis on output controls, (d) the importance of the disaggregation and decentralization of public services, (e) a stress on private sector styles of management and their superiority, (f) a shift to the promotion of competition in the provision of public services, and (g) the promotion of discipline and parsimony in resource allocation (Ferlie, Mclaughlin and Osborne, 2002) One important spin off that arose from these tenets was the development of an enlarged emphasis upon outsourcing services by public sector organisations from private service providers in many sectors, including in those responsible for health, childcare, and prison management. b. Young Offenders and Secure Training Centres Statistics and information available from official websites and other information sources on crime and offending by young people in the UK reveal the issue to be one of great worry and concern. Young offenders come under the purview of the Youth Justice Board, (YJB) an established non-governmental public body, charged with preventing offending by young people and children through the formulation and use of measures for prevention of crime, identification and dealing with young offenders, and reduction of reoffending. YJB figures indicate that approximately 150,000 people enter the justice system each year, nearly half of whom are of school age. The percentages of young people coming into the purview of the YJB from black or mixed race backgrounds are significantly higher than their actual demographic distribution, especially in the under 16 groups. While nearly 75 % of the young offenders are let off with reprimands, curfews and fines, 17 percent are sentenced to community work while 4 %, i.e., around 600 young people receive custodial sentences. Custodial sentences vary from 4 months to two years and normally need serving in conjunction with a certain amount of community work. Custodial arrangements are of three types, Secure Children’s Homes, (SCHs) Secure Training Centres (SCTs) and Young Offender Institutions (YOIs). SCHs and SCTs house children aged between 12 and 17, whereas YOIs house young offenders aged 15 to 21, with people aged 15 to 17 and 18 to 21 held in separate enclosures. YJB officials decide upon the place of custody after considering relevant factors that include assessments of vulnerability, needs of other young people in custody, and availability of custodial accommodation. An overwhelming proportion of the young people who enter the youth justice system come from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds and many have histories of substance misuse, mental health problems and economically weak, disturbed or disrupted family backgrounds. Their educational backgrounds, in comparison with the general population, are also extremely deficient. Surveys reveal that 81 % of the sentenced boys were not going to school, at the time of sentencing, and 41 % had not gone to school at all after 14. In fact, a startling 75 % of the offenders appearing before the youth justice courts have histories of temporary or permanent school exclusion. Many of them have special counselling and mental health needs that require urgent attention. (Background paper, 2000) While the young people who come into the custodial system share backgrounds of severe disadvantage, deprivation and exclusion from school, the people who exit from YOIs, SCHs and SCTs have a marked predilection to return to offending actions. The number of reoffenders is extremely high with approximately four out of five (78 %) young persons sentenced to custody reoffending within one year. Statistics reveal that the proclivity to offend in these people continues in later years and 40 % of ex prisoners have a history of being young offenders. (Background paper, 2000) Prima facie, it does appear that the custodial system currently in practice, (the result of policy changes, public private participation, NPM, and outsourcing of governmental activities to private players) has not only been unable to meet its objectives but is possibly worsening with time. Considering that it costs twice as much to educate a young person in custody than outside, the whole situation is nothing les than a scathing indictment of the NPM system in childcare, children’s education, and youth justice in the UK. Exclusion from school becomes a major causal factor in offending and the occurrence of crime, which in turn leads the state to arrange for dispensation of justice, housing of children in custody, and providing for their training and education. While considerable public effort and expense goes into this process, the continuance of reoffending indicates the occurrence and continuance of large-scale systemic failure, notwithstanding the laudatory comments of the YJB on the effectiveness of the youth justice system. The present custodial system, of which STCs are an integral part, is representative of NPM and public private participation, in which governmental departments, local authorities and private players play similar and overlapping roles. Vulnerable young people, aged between 12 and 17 stay in these institutions while serving custodial sentences. Apart from housing them in restricted secure surroundings these institutions are under governmental mandate to provide counselling, education and training in order to (a) facilitate their reintegration into the broader community, (a) increase their earning ability, (c) help them to disengage from criminal actions and (d) eliminate their proclivity to reoffend. While Secure Training Centres, Secure Children’s Homes and Young Offenders Institutions all come under the purview of the YJB and form part of the custodial system, their control falls under different institutions. While all of the seventeen YOIs are run by the prison service, all bu t one of the fifteen SCHs are run by local authorities, and the four SCHs are run by private service providers. c. Management and Administration of SCTs Secure Training Centres are establishments specially built for housing young offenders up to the age of 17 and are representative of NPM concepts, which while keeping planning and funding of public service with the state, call for service provisioning by the private sector. Private agencies, appointed after appraisal and selection, run these institutions under contracts that contain detailed terms and operational requirements. At present, there are four STCs in England, at Oakhill in Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire, at Hassockfield in Consett, County Durham, at Rainsbrook in Rugby, Northamptonshire, and at Medway in Rochester, Kent. These establishments have accommodation for 58 to 87 persons with not more than eight places in each house. The total population of STCs is currently about 270. The formation of STCs represents a major governmental initiative in bringing about much needed reform in the youth justice system. Conceived in the initial years of the 2000s, STCs aim to play a major role in rehabilitating young offenders and ensuring their integration in normal community life. While the original plan envisaged the progressive establishment of 31 STCs, only four are in operation, with the functioning of some of them coming in for trenchant criticism. STCs are responsible for housing vulnerable young people sentenced to custody or remanded to secure accommodation and have a wide ranging and demanding set of responsibilities, which include (a) provisioning of secure housing, (b) taking care of the individual and collective needs of the trainees, including nutrition, hygiene, cleanliness, physical activity, medical aid, and absence of substance misuse, (c) providing focussed and tailored programmes for education and vocational development (d) ensuring appropriate couns elling and treatment for disturbed children and (e) fostering links with their home communities. Their responsibilities are not just onerous but critical because of their enormous potential to influence the lives of young people, who, because of socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, commit offences that involve custodial sentencing. Many of the trainees are vulnerable, have lived traumatised lives in environments of economic deprivation, substance misuse, and domestic violence, and need help from expert and trained professionals. â€Å"The report accepts that many of the 10 to 17-year-olds held in young offender institutions, secure training centres and local authority secure childrens homes have had chaotic and abusive childhoods and lack clear boundaries to their behaviour.† (Child jail restraint criticised, 2006) The effectiveness of these institutions is causal in the trainees choosing to enter normal society or returning to their familiar environs of socia l exclusion, repeated offending, and criminality. STCs are contractually bound to provide these services effectively and all employees require undergoing specific training programmes. Counselling, social and medical services are available from the local social and medical infrastructure. All secure training centres are also required to undergo periodic checks from external governmental agencies as well as watchdogs like Ofsted for assessment of actual service levels. While STCs are undoubtedly fulfilling a vital need in custodial requirements, their major failure relates to their inability to reduce reoffending, which at 79 %, points to a gross failure in their major objective of rehabilitation. Inspection reports also point to disparities in the efficiency and effectiveness of different STCs, the absence of improvement between periodic inspections and non-implementation of recommendations. This is also supported by intermittent incidents involving the use of forceful restraint, which in the recent past was possibly causal in the su icide of an inmate, (with a history of mental disturbance), and attracted significant media attention and debate. The running of STCs is especially difficult because it involves functions that on occasion contradict each other and exert immense pressure on the people running these institutions. Secure custody, on one hand, involves dealing with young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have committed serious offences, and possess attitudes that are possibly brutalised and dangerous, necessitating the use of restrictive custodial measures and force, if the situation so demands. On the other hand, trainees need to care, empathy, and deep understanding of the reasons that have led them to their current states. These functions, of prison keepers and social workers, are mutually contradictory and create significant tensions when required of the same group of people. Private organizations, when faced with these demands, respond with systems designed to meet these differing requirements but remain inherently flawed because of their inherent contradictions. These organisations are also not f unded by open-ended or liberal funding schemes and have both cost constraints and profit motives that are bound to influence their working. Employees who work in such organisations generally to the profiles of members of marketised institutions, give their careers and individual progress preference, and lack both the commitment or ideology of charitable workers, and the job security of public sector employees. Expecting these private sector managers and employees to adapt to such challenging needs creates enormous tensions. A number of inspection reports have pointed to the high incidence of turnover, a phenomenon that automatically leads to breaks and discontinuities in relationships between the workers and trainees and results in the emergence of destabilizing conditions, especially where mentally disturbed children are involved. Services at Oakhill Secure Training Centre are inconsistent, with evidence that poor practice is being institutionalised, inspectors concluded yesterday. A Commission for Social Care Inspection probeof the centre for 80 young offenders in Milton Keynes last June found its progress had slowed since a previous inspection in May 2005. While safeguarding had improved since the previous inspection, where this area was criticised, progress was reliant on one particular manager. The inspection also found services at the facility, run by Group 4 Securicor, were ran in isolation with considerable scope for integrating health, education, substance misuse and other services (Samuel, 2007) Investigations into the suicide of thirteen-year-old Alisha Ishmail, the child prostitute who died of a drug overdose in a Camden Town after escaping from a secure home, link her mental state to the number of homes she had to move to during her period in care, and to the consequent breakdown of helpful relationships. Philip Haynes, in his treatise on â€Å"Managing Complexity in the Public Services† refers to the contradictions and tensions that arise when general management ideas used in profit oriented private businesses are imported and applied to the running of public service organisations. While their use is possibly effective in the running of utilities, enormous contradictions and tensions arise on the application of these tenets in public service institutions like the one under study. Policy makers need to realize that the business policies used by Unilever executives are not usable in looking after their disturbed teenagers, and that furthermore these very executives, however effective they may be in their functions, will never apply the strategies used with business suppliers to solve issues in home environments. Public officials who insist upon the need for using force for dealing with these children need to realise that these children do not fill the profiles of errant suppliers who need taming and that the suicides of 15 year old Gareth Myatt and 14 year old Adam Rickwood could have been avoided if STC officials gave adequate attention to their mental health needs, instead of using heavily built workers to restrain them and twist their noses in order to cause painful and temporary incapacitation. 3. Conclusion New Public Management, in its essence, involves the import of private sector management methods, perceived to be competitive, efficient, economic, objective and effective into public sector organisations. While these methods do have relevance in certain public undertakings, especially where they concern issues like utilities and transport, they prove to be of limited relevance in institutions that deal with servicing the community, childcare, health services, and the care and rehabilitation of young offenders, as well as mentally disturbed adult prisoners being prime examples of such areas. As Haynes points out the introduction of methods based upon economic and practical considerations in such people oriented sectors leads to the development of numerous contradictions and the generation of enormously complex situations that debilitate the working and structure of involved organizations. (Haynes, 2003) Policy makers need to consider these issues seriously and realise the inadequacy of catchall solutions and detached systematic working in areas that need individual attention for effective results. In the case of STCs appropriate solutions would include the introduction of far more detailed mental health examinations of new entrants, especially in consultation with relatives, greater emphasis upon communication with trainees, increased interaction of trainees with social workers, separation of custodial and rehabilitation functions, measures to reduce staff turnover and increase monitoring of staff behaviour, and strict vigilance on use of forceful restraining measures. The private sector argument of most of these suggestions leading to cost ineffectiveness and inefficient working needs outright rejection considering the enormous financial and social costs of the current, ostensibly â€Å"efficient† system. References Background Paper, (2000) Education of young people supervised by the youth justice system, Retrieved August 3, 2007 from www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/BACKGROUND PAPER -finaldraft (1).doc – Box, R. C., Marshall, G. S., Reed, B., Reed, C. M. (2001) New Public Management and Substantive Democracy. Public Administration Review, 61(5), 608. Child jail restraint criticised, (2006), BBC News, Retrieved August 3, 2007 from news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/4722652.stm Doherty, T. L., Horne, T. (2002). Managing Public ServicesImplementing Changes: A Thoughtful Approach to the Practice of Management. London: Routledge. Ferlie, E., Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L., Pettigrew, A. (1996). The New Public Management in Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press Hood, C., Peters, G. (2004). The Middle Aging of New Public Management: Into the Age of Paradox?. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 14(3), 267+. Lane, J. (2000). New Public Management. London: Routledge. Mclaughlin, K., Osborne, S. P., Ferlie, E. (Eds.). (2002). New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects. London: Routledge. Haynes, P. (2003) Chapter 1, Management, professions and the public service context in Managing Complexity in the Public Services Maidenhead: Open University Press, Samuel, M, 2007, Services at Oakhill Secure Training Centre inconsistent, warn inspectors, Community Care, Retrieved August 3, 2007 from www.communitycare.co.uk Thomas, C. J. (1999). Managers, Part of the Problem? Changing How the Public Sector Works. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Van Slyke, D. M. (2002). The Public Management Challenges of Contracting with Nonprofits for Social Services. International Journal of Public Administration, 25(4), 489+.

Group Dynamics in 12 Angry Men Essay -- Movie, Film, Twelve Angry Men

In the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men, group dynamics are portrayed through a jury deliberation. Group dynamics is concerned with the structure and functioning of groups as well as the different types of roles each character plays. In the film, twelve men are brought together in a room to decide whether a boy is guilty of killing his father. The personality conflicts, the joint effort and the functioning of several minds together to search for the truth are just a few characteristics of group dynamics at work. The whole spectrum of humanity is represented in this movie, from the bigotry of Juror No.10 to the coldly analytical No.4. Whether they brought good or bad qualities to the jury room, they all affected the outcome. At the outset, eleven jurors vote in favor of convicting the accused without even discussing a single shred of the evidence presented at the trial. When a group becomes too confident and fails to think realistically about its task, groupthink can occur. Since it takes a longer time to communicate and reach a consensus in a group, decision making in a group is time-consuming. Therefore, when groups want to achieve a quick decision, as several jurors were eager to do, they make riskier decisions than individuals. Since not any individual is completely accountable for the decision, members will have a tendency to accept more extreme solutions. Only one brave juror refused to vote guilty. Juror #8 refused to fall into the groupthink trap and ultimately saved an innocent man's life. He openly admits that he does not know whether the accused is guilty or innocent and that he finds it necessary to simply talk about the case. What follows is not only a discussion of the particular facts of t he case, but also an intense ex... ...quires looking at matters objectively, analyzing the evidence, and coming to a fair conclusion. And even if the juror's personal baggage was not checked at the door, the shift into positive group dynamics allowed the jury members to overcome interpersonal conflicts and prejudices to reach consensus on the innocence of an alleged murderer. Bibliography 1. Kolb, David A., and Joyce S. Osland and Irwin Mr. Rubin. Organizational Behavior: An Experiential Approach. 6th edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995 Pages 98-100 2. Sarah Trenholm. Thinking Through Communication: An Introduction To The Study Of Human Communication. 2nd edition. Allyn and Bacon: A Viacom Company, 1995 Pages 196 - 205 3. Damian Cannon, a review by. '12 Angry Men (1957)' Copyright Movie Reviews UK 1997 4. Steve Rhodes, a review by. '12 Angry Men (1957)' Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes

Emersons Over-Soul :: Biography Biographies Essays

Emerson's Over-Soul A citizen of Concord, a denizen of philosophy, a certain Mr. Emerson has recently informed me of his observations of a peculiar phenomenon he dubs the Over-Soul. I wish to, rather than bicker over the particular, interpret the general meaning and nature of this universal specimen. Mr. Emerson thoughtfully maintains that we, as rational and sentient beings, do and shall, beyond dispute and by virtue of our existence, know a certainty when presented it. He further entertains that such carnal understanding of being can be derived from such works of Shakespeare, and of Plato, and of other white, predominately dead men. But what is this visceral comprehension, this indescribable wonder? And whence does it come? I shall maintain that it is meaning, and that it comes from intelligence. Herein I shall undertake to discover its origin, existence and implication. Meaning, of course, names neither time nor space an acquaintance. It lies entirely in the mind of the individual, yet is to be found in every perception. Meaning is the thing that masquerades as truth and relies on the soul. Only an individual mind can discern it, and the genuine man can find it under every stone, or in a true stroke of oil, or between two pages. Only meaning can we ever truly know. Every genuine person seeks it, and finds it. All potentially rational entities are capable of appreciating this meaning, and fencing with it. It captivates all true men, and it permeates the intelligent universe. I daresay that Meaning is the divine timber from which Mr. Emerson's Over-Soul is cut. The revelations, the insight, the common basis of conversation that he describes can derive from nothing other than meaning in the ultimate tracing. We see profoundly because we see meaning, and we experience the enduring meaning in the "mind that is grandly simple." Our common ground of humani ty is the appreciation of meaning. But what is the precise relationship of Meaning and the Over-Soul? No mere sentence can describe it, but I will attempt to characterize it. The Over-Soul is a continuous, ethereal entity that dances with intelligence; Meaning is a consistent abstraction that lurks in the mind. All laws derive from the Over-Soul, but the laws only exist because they have the perfection of Meaning. The Over-Soul visits, on occasion, her clients; but Meaning awaits her suitors. The Over-Soul is an active, while Meaning exists passive, waiting for life anew in each comprehending mind.

Collage essay Essay

My name is †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. and I am looking forward to graduate this year. As a senior I have already decided what I want to do after graduating high school. I want to major in computer science in order to be a computer programmer. I choose George Mason University as my collage because it has the right kind of classes which will help me to become a successful computer programmer. Since my childhood days, I always had an interest on computers and I always wanted to learn more programs and features. Every time when new software and programs came out, I got really excited and used to save money to purchase the software. My cousin who is also a computer programmer inspires me to go in this field till this day. My dream job is to be a computer programmer which involves the act of designing, writing, testing, debugging and maintaining software programs of computers. Along with this, a person has to analyze tasks for programs, plan and organize programs, write instructions in programming language, conduct trial runs for programs and consult with superiors for the effective use of program software. Programmers spend most of their time in front of computers, typing information and thinking about new and innovative ways to design programs. A computer programmer can earn up to $110,000 annually or even more for senior programmers and independent consultants whereas the starting salary can be $40,000. Programming is very important and it impacts human lives because without the proper programming people cannot run complex medical equipment, advanced computer systems in airplanes, weather forecasting and many more advanced systems. Currently I am taking one computer class in school which is programming. In my junior year I took two computer classes: Webpage development and Information systems. Taking these classes will be helpful to me when I get into the university. I am also planning to take other related subjects in programming outside of school during summer. Also during my spare time, I usually go up online and research about my career. I have to work much harder than now while studying in the university. If I get good grades, hopefully, I will be able to find a good internship where I can prove myself. I will gain many valuable working skills while I am an intern which will help me in the job industry. I am also ready to work irregular and long hours if I get a job in this field. As I love travelling, travelling different places to help my clients would not be a problem to me. I love the challenges present in this field and I will also be able to make people’s life easier by developing new programs to help people in their work. The only concern regarding my career is that advanced computers are developing every day. Till the time I find a job, the knowledge that I have gained may not be useful in that time. So, I will also be taking various programming classes from time to time to update my knowledge regarding software and programming. . I hope that attending GMU and setting my career as a Computer Programmer will be a right decision for me.

Cell Phone Should Not Be Used in Classrooms Essay

The use of cell phones in today’s society is at an extremely high rate that people of all ages and gender can be seen parading with their cell phones. Whether people are buying groceries or driving in their cars, cell phones have become important in everyday life. Phones should only be used in leisure time and not in school while studying. Cell phone use in schools should be restricted because it distracts students, it is disrespectful towards teachers, and may tempt students to cheat. Cell phone use in class distracts everyone’s attention from the class. When a cell phone suddenly rings in class it makes a lot of noise, delaying lecture time for students. Instead of spending time to pay attention to the lecture, many students will spend their time giggling. If students are not able to pay attention they will not learn anything. Another distracting thing about cell phone use is that many students use their phones and text with their friends. Many people who text in class are not advancing their studies, but their social life. Students who sit in class and text are just wasting their time, instead of using that time to further their education. Some students who have their phones in class play games instead of listening to the lecture. When a student starts to play a game, others easily become fascinated. Playing games in class distracts more students. Using cell phones in schools is not only distracting, but it can also be disrespectful. Read more:  Should Cellphones Be Allowed in School Argumentative Essay Using cell phones in class is not good idea because it is disrespectful to teachers. Students who text in class may not know what the teacher is asking about, and may end up falling behind in class. It is disrespectful to not listen to others while they are talking. It is bad etiquette to not listen to the lecture while the teacher spends their time to teach, not only does it wastes the teacher’s time, but also their own time. Using cell phones in school while the teacher is trying to teach disrespectful, but it can also be used as a medium for cheating. Schools should keep their current policies of not being able to use phones because students may use it to commit educational fraud. It is hard for a teacher to always know what their students are doing during an exam, like a student who may be looking up information on their phones. If students do  this, they will not be able to learn anything. Also, some students use their phones and tell others what the questions are on the test, making it unfair for those who are working hard to earn the scores that they deserve. Another is that if students are able to use their phones in class and communicate with someone who knows the answer while taking the test. It is true that cell phones would make a good learning tool, but it is really tempting to cheat during tests. Cell phones in our current society are part of our everyday life, but cell phones should only be limited to leisure time and not during school. Cell phones should not be used in school because it is distracting, it is disrespectful to teachers, and can be a tool for students to cheat. Students should learn to become independent from their cell phones just like the days when cell phones were not invented yet.