Case of the Mysterous Roses

In our daily lives we interact with people from all walks of life. As individuals some of us set our own rules to live by, and as professionals we are given a set of guidelines to follow. Working in the Human Resource’s field there are many situations that may occur and we are forced to make difficult decisions. This ethics game simulation presented some examples that occur in the real world. There were two scenarios presented, â€Å"The Case of the Mysterious Roses†, and â€Å"The Case of the Cold Feet†. These cases were both difficult to deal with, and allowed the managers use critical thinking skills to address both situations. The first scenario â€Å"The Case of the Mysterious Roses† there were several issues that arose; one is when a female employee began receiving roses from a secret admirer. One problem is that she believed the roses are from a male coworker, which made her uncomfortable. The employee feels the need to go to her supervisor for advice, and sends an email requesting a confidential meeting. In this scenario I am the supervisor, which reveals the other problem. The issue at hand is how I will respond to the request. As the department supervisor I should respond to the request without compromising the integrity of myself or the company. As the supervisor and witnessing the activities that had taken place felt confident that there may be a possibility of sexual harassment accusation. In response to the email I felt that she could not give her a firm yes or no answer. The exercise allowed me to look at the situation and put my thoughts into perspective and ask myself what is my responsibility as a supervisor. The ethical lens helped me to identify the primary stake holders, though both lens rights and responsibility, and results lens. These lens enabled me to make the decision. I was able to advise Gayle that, I am able to maintain confidentially on any personal matter; however if the issue is work related I may have to report it. I informed Gayle of the company policy on sexual harassment and advised her of her rights as an employees. I based my decision on my own professional experience, as my company has a zero tolerance for such behavior. I could not guarantee 100% confidentially to the employee if there was an employee violating company policy. If I am aware of the situation and do not report it I would be just as guilty. In the second scenario â€Å"The Case of the Cold Feet† there was an issue in reference to an employee falsifying information on a report. The issue is brought to my attention and I must take a plan of action by using a different set of lenses, relationship and reputation lens. The exercise took me through multiple steps to identify how I would handle the situation. In the relationship lens I decided to perform an in house investigation in reference to the allegations. My choice did not agree with the program and I was advised to consider my colleague’s reputation and allow him to clean up his act. That made me realize that I need to give others a chance to correct their mistakes. In the reputation lens I made that decision which allowed me to hold others accountable for their actions. In my professional life I would have given the employee to redeem him or herself before I would involve a manager. In this scenario I believe I thought about it too long and chose an answer based on what I thought someone else wanted. After participating in both of these activities I believe that I can make better decisions when called up on. Using my critical thinking skills I can think outside the box and give others a chance while following company policy. Sexual harassment is a serious offence and it is a good idea to educate employees to avoid situations such as this. The company that I work for as well as other companies, do not take this matter lightly. In the situation regarding falsifying documents is also a concern with organizations. The company that I work for does not tolerate this type of activity. Our policy states that if an employee is falsifying documentation that is immediate ground for termination. There are many situations that occur within an organization and with the help of a strong management team and policy to follow the company can be successful.

Local substance abuse: Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia Council on Abuse impact study states that 50% of all homicides and 62% of assaults is associated with substance abuse. Georgia’s population of 369,393 in 2003 statistics showed that 32.1% was composed by White and 59.3% by Black African American. In 2004 Atlanta was reported to have 151 homicides. 18% of aids in Atlanta were also found to be related to injection users. Substance abuse is defined to be the excessive use of a substance such as drugs, tobacco or cigarettes and alcohol for mood altering purposes. The profile of substance abuse in Atlanta seems to scare the national strategy on drug control. The third principle referring to disrupting the market may not be able to effectively invade the already ongoing drug war in the vicinity. I think there is a cross country need to look into the problem of intergenerational healing of families in Atlanta than just mean policies and intervention. Users of drug Methamphetamine (Meth), being readily available in Atlanta nightclubs, ranges from ages 13-30, White. Atlanta is defined to be the drug smuggling corridor of the east coast being the largest city in the South. Being the center for all East-West and North-South travel, it became a haven for most Mexican-based traffickers. Atlanta’s strategic location made it Georgia’s largest source of supply of Meth coming from Mexico, California, or Texas, from the lairs of Europe in transit for distribution to other states market. (ONDCP 2005). The Meth epidemic in Atlanta poses significant effect to socio cultural factors, state policy and programs for intervention. Atlanta is presently a major distribution hub for the crystal rock form of Meth commonly called as Mexican ice. The impact of the substance abuse epidemic on tobacco, alcohol, cocaine and other illegal drugs among infants delivered by users has significantly impede the quality of life in Georgia’s future generation being a recourse for open-air drug markets. Their quality of life is pretty disturbing to note that first use of drugs was reported to start as young as 12 years old due to parental permissiveness on drug use. Studies showed that parents were even underwriting keg parties for teenagers. This was their unique experimentation and response to providing safe drug alternatives among teenagers. This will also lessen potential dangers brought by drinking and driving. Somehow Georgia legislature in 1997 implementing stiffer penalties to teenagers driving while impaired by alcohol consumption has even increased the population for substance abusers in an unknowingly different way and at an unknowingly different rate. It was seen that parents who initiated such keg parties are the ones who grew up from a generation of high drug used. To illustrate more on the problem of substance abuse, the University of Georgia is now even planning to send creepy emails to all of its college students regarding the effects of Meth. The intensity of substance abuse and the insensitivity of the parents with diverse ethnic origins to adopt a new life from the neighborhood they knew were quite amazing and does coexist with the rampant drug trafficking Atlanta scenario. Interventions come in diverse approaches according to the needs of the individual and the situation of the state itself. Since 2000 Atlanta has been delving on the aid of local television advertisements regarding the harmful effects of drugs. A centralized phone number is then provided where calls were then referred to the appropriate centers or programs the caller needs according to the intensity of the abuse. The selection of drug rehab treatment and facility is ultimately based and tailor made depending on the choice of the patient. Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) were the ones collecting data on different States for monitoring. TEDS provides information on the demographic and substance abuse characteristics based on annual admissions while N-SSATS provides data based on the location, characteristics and use of treatment facilities and services. TEDS is admission based and does not have the appropriate technology to monitor such admission based on the individual. It can count on an individual twice if it will be admitted twice in a row at that period of study. Knowing that substance abuse patient’s characteristics come and go from admissions to outpatients, the population generated by its study does not represent the true value of the population and is thereby misleading. TEDS is not capable of following an individual in their treatment episodes due to the confidentiality of assigning a unique ID identifier at State level. There is one big probability that the number of admissions population that was gathered by TEDS could mean the number of treatments an individual had not to mention cases of subsequent transfers done to different service types for a single treatment program. Promptness of reports also matters since late reports for that period will be integrated with the next period’s report. States continually review TEDS data and revisions may occur at any given time during the review even for a period of five years. N-SSATS on the other hand collects data from all known treatment facilities in voluntary form. The term voluntary itself would mean incomplete information.   (SAMHSA 2005). The local and national reports could well differ in terms of the population. Statistics is vital for use in the treatment and intervention programs that will be created by ONCDP for Atlanta. The unique ID identifier made by the State is good enough to track the substance abuse patient’s admissions and transfers. The report system of the facilities and the government is not integrated and does not support each other. The structure of their IT must be studied and immediately remedied to achieve appropriate data to be able to create appropriate measures for substance abuse control. References ONDCP. (2005). Atlanta, Georgia: Profile of drug indicators February 2005. Retrieved April 13, 2007 SAMHSA. (2005). Treatment Episode Data Sets (TEDS) and National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). Quick statistics from the drug and alcohol services information system. Retrieved April 14, 2007 Website: http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/tedsweb/tab_year.choose_year?t_state=GA         

Dehumanization in Night Essay

Night is a heart pulling memoir of its young Jewish author, Ellie Weasel, and his experiences in the Holocaust. The book begins with him living in the town of Sighet. He had a very sheltered life, with no accounts of negativity in the world. He and his family were also raised heavily on Jewish beliefs. One day a man by the name of Moshe the beadle comes to warn the people of the dangers of the Nazis. Unfortunately the people did not heed this and Sighet was invaded by Nazis. Weasel and his family are taken and separated. He only had his father now and they braved much torture and mal treatment by the kapos in the camps. At the end of it all only weasel himself made it out alive, though a brutal scar was marked upon his soul. He’d lost his family and his faith at those camps. But through all his sorrow and loss he wanted to share his accounts in this dark volume of his life, so that people understand what the Jews went through all those years ago. This led him to write Night, where in which Weasel points out the inhumanity towards other humans during the holocaust as one of the themes of his chilling story. One of the major factors that contribute to this theme is actually one of the first cruel things he encountered was the Nazis. At first on the other had he didn’t see them for the monstrous people that they were. In the book Eliezer, Weasels character, even recalls, â€Å"Our first impressions of the Germans were most reassuring†¦. Their attitude toward their hosts was distant, but polite.† But this is just one of the many aspects of the holocaust that was tremendously misunderstood. But even more so unthinkable was the cold-blooded butchery of millions of innocent people. As the memoir progresses you will see how Weasel puts a spotlight of the actions of the Nazis by first seeing them as humans beings but then later on reveals the evil deeds that they commit upon innocent Jews. Night also exhibits how inhumanity can spread to others who have been shown inhumanity. This is shown when the Jews start to turn on each other, instead of braving their harsh treatment together. It is even said by a Kapo: â€Å"Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else. . . . Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone.† Because the Kapo are also just prisoners that are in control of the other prisoners, this is a very significant message. They were happy to help the Nazis in their plans for genocide. This led them to act really ruthlessly towards those under their command. In the fifth section of the book Eliezer mentions them as being, â€Å"functionaries of death.† The perspective of the Kapos show how those effected by the Holocaust can use inhumanity to infect other people like it as a virus.

Art and surreal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Art and surreal - Essay Example Both artists could be considered as actively employing the technique of action painting, defined as â€Å"a highly-charged, impulsive abstract painting technique during which paint is energetically splashed, spilt or dribbled onto a canvas, usually placed face-up on the floor† (Action painting, par. 1). Pollack’s One: Number 31 created in 1950 is basically shown in colors black, white and grey on a brown backdrop with obvious but artistic rendition of the drip technique. Miro’s The Birth of the World, was shown to indicate that â€Å"Miro applied paint to an unevenly primed canvas in an unorthodox manner—pouring, brushing, and flinging—so that the paint soaked into the canvas in some places while resting on the surface in others† (MOMA: Gallery Label Text, par. 1). The same colors are prominent, black, browns, grey, with intermittent white. A connection between the two art works could be deduced from the similarities in style and drips formin g long elongated lines that curve into an intricate web of patterns interwoven with other colors.

Westar beverage Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Westar beverage - Statistics Project Example alysis corresponds to the hotel’s monthly sales for both pub and nightclub, sales for the club, sales for the pub, total expenditure for the hotel, expenditure for the nightclub, expenditure for the pub, and room occupancy in the hotel. Using excel, regression analysis generates the following tables with coefficients. From the regression statistics, the high value of adjusted R square indicates that the regression model explains a high percentage of the considered data, more than 95 %. The model can therefore be used to predict beverage sales. The lower significance value from the ANOVA table, 0 relative to 0.05, also indicates that there exist significant relationship between beverage sales and the other variables. Further, the table of coefficients confirms that significant relationship exists between beverage sales and sales for the pub and sales for the nightclub. The hotel’s volume of sales equally depends on its two branches, pub, and club. Research into forecasting should therefore be diversified to investigate factors affecting sales in the two branches of the

Ecnomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Ecnomics - Essay Example This universal phenomenon leads to the definition of economics as the science of allocation of scarce resources." To understand more clearly, lets understand that we have three factors of resources that are necessary to for production process as described in (Sloman: 2006, p. 4): Human resources: labor. The labor force is limited both in number and in skills. Natural resources: land and raw materials. The world’s land area is limited, as are its resources. Manufactured resources or capital. Capital consists of all those inputs that have themselves been produced in the first place. The world has a limited stock of capital: a limited supply of factories, machines, transportation and other equipment. The productivity of capital is limited by the state of technology. Hence, scarcity arises due to comparative unlimited human wants in the limited set of available resources to satisfy these wants. In other words, in free market economy scarcity occurs either because of increase in de mand or decrease in supply. Economics, deals with issues arises due to ‘scarcity’; distribution of resources and products among individuals or societies, regions or countries of the world. Investorwords (2011) defines â€Å"Free market system† as a system in which, â€Å"Business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy†, or â€Å"a foreign exchange market that is not controlled by the government†. Also known as pure capitalist system; where individuals are free to make their demand decisions. The decisions of consumers and firms pertaining to the demand and supply of goods are transmitted to each one of them via the effect of these decisions on prices. This in turn, sets the equilibrium price level in the economy. Hence, prices are set via free interaction of demand and supply of goods and services, in a market where consumers are free to make their own choices according to their ow n income levels, firms are free to supply what they decide according to their own investment. The present world markets are likely to be known as mixed economies where minimal government interference to run the economic system exists with the help of businesses. United States, however, is a good example of free market system where government intervention is minimal and mostly prices are determined through market forces of demand and supply. Command system or planned economy is defined in investorwoods (2011) as: â€Å"an economy where supply and price are regulated by the government rather than market forces. Government planners decide which goods and services are produced and how they are distributed. The former Soviet Union was an example of a command economy†. Command economies are usually recognizable in places where the presence of socialist or communist systems of economy exists. It is in these economic systems that land and capital are collectively owned. State is the sole decision maker. It decides how to allocate resources for the future trends and also for the current ongoing requirements of the economic system. The State also governs the generation and distribution between customers of output from each industry and firm. In these centrally planned economies, the government could achieve high growth rates by allocating resources into investments; and could minimize unemployment levels by critically planning the allocation of labor according to the production levels and labor skill levels,

Catholic Charities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Catholic Charities - Essay Example St. Luke's Addiction Recovery Centre offers rehabilitation services for those with substance abuse. This location is well maintained to ensure that it is able to offer its services in an efficient manner and in a pleasing environment. This is a non-governmental organization, which is non-profit social service organization and is aimed at alleviating human suffering by offering the necessary assistance. It has continued services aimed a restoring dignity to the human race. This has been achieved by operating within the set goals and mission (Addiction Treatment Centers, 2008). The mission of Catholic Charities is to honor God by ensuing that they enhance the quality of life and dignity through offering the necessary support to individuals and families, fighting poverty, building communities and working towards a justice cause. The organization offers different types of services. ... sts immigrants; housing services for the homeless; and behavioral health care which includes counseling, prevention and basic treatment offered in sites like Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. In the organization, I was functioning as an intern in the outpatients department. In this section I offered individual therapy. I also facilitated peer led group services with other people in the organization. Internal structure of the organization The whole organization has about 23 staff working in different programs in the organization. All these people are of diverse origin comparable to that of South Florida. The staff is balanced in terms of gender, ethnicity, disability, age, and professional status. Of all the staff there are 20 females and 16 males which shows close gender equality in distribution. The staff has paid close attention to the ethnicity of the community and has included Cubans, African American people, Puerto Rican, Jamaicans, and there are also white American staff members in the organization. The organization is headed by the president who also acts as the chairperson of the board. Under the chairperson there is the Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive Officer delegates the duty to Chief Operating Officer who delegates to Financial Officer and Data Security Officer. In matters of operation efficiency, the organization is very efficient in it operation given the great division of labor and specialization in the organization. Every staff member is assigned to their duties, which they attend to efficiently. The initial treatment plan is usually completed within three days of admission. The treatment plans are revised with the counselor after every 30 days. It ensures that a month before discharge at least 72% complete treatment with no alcohol and

White paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

White paper - Assignment Example EPA primarily covers legislations for pollution in air, water, land, management of hazardous waste and protection of engendered species. EPA provides public awareness campaigns as management at such a huge level is not possible without individual participation (Simonsen, 2010). For air, a limit is imposed on the exposure of certain air pollutants in all areas. EPA can also ban a certain air pollutant from emission like from chemical plants, mills and utilities. By limiting exposure of dangerous air pollutants, EPA helps keep the air clean and livable for all creatures and human beings. EPA takes responsibility of cleaning up land or underground waste that has a threat on the environment. Mostly land is cleaned in industrial areas where wastes are dumped and they pose threat to living beings in that specific vicinity. In order to keep the land free of dangerous chemicals and providing a healthy diet, pesticides are registered and tolerance of each pesticide is set for usage. To monito r toxic substances in the environment EPA conducts tests and gathers relevant data for future analysis other than controlling its exposure. Waste disposal and recycling of it is also regulated by the EPA. Water is treated for safe and healthy usage and water waste management is also conducted to ensure it remains pollution free. EPA has also set regulations to manage waste or release of hazardous material by accident in emergency conditions. Another category termed cross cutting issues is dealt by EPA. It covers several aspects ranging from environmental justice to climatic change. To make sure the above mentioned regulations are actually followed, EPA follows a compliance process. Compliance department assists local bodies by providing tools and training to combat unexpected situations. They also impose penalties to businesses that fail to comply with the environmental safety regulations. During their audit procedure they also reduce or completely eliminate penalties

AES Corporation management (Organizational Behavior) Essay

AES Corporation management (Organizational Behavior) - Essay Example Finance management is crucial and the fact that we have been able to survive the current financial pressures proves our financial strength. We immediately took steps to reduce capital expenditure, disposed off assets, liquidated equity to meet the margin calls, retrenched, and withdrew from risky business areas. We are aware that AES may not be able to access the capital market and has to rely on the internally generated funds. Besides, as per the analysts report we may not be able to command a fair value for the assets that we put up for sale but the directors have already taken additional steps to provide a more substantial liquidity cushion. This will definitely leave us a better-capitalized and stronger company with less earnings volatility. Bidding power contracts is not an issue because people have the expertise to sustain competition like Shell and Bechtel. The focus now should not be on the investors, but on attaining liquidity. All the other fronts have been attacked simultaneously. Organizational changes have already been made with a view to enhance operating performance, further reduction of operating costs, revenue enhancements. Two special offices – the Cost Cutting Office and the Turnaround Office would assist in better coordination on management of expenses. It would also assist in taking prompt decisions to dispose off or retain businesses. Apart from these, what else can a new board of directors do? Failures of companies like Kellogg and Apple, who shared the vision of alternative type of enterprise.

Informational Interview Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Informational Interview - Research Paper Example Upon graduating, she began her current role with her current employer after completing her internship with them as a web designer for company clients. Her current role involves the development of the company’s website and sub-sites. For this, she uses a combination of software including Drupla, Editplus, phpBB and Photoshop. She usually works independently but liaises with the company CEO and sales and marketing departments for website information regarding new content, information, customer information, target audiences and news. The interviewee believes that her educational programme helped greatly in preparation for her current role. She administers that attention to detail, creativity and technical proficiency are important skills for web designers. She is concerned by the current climate of the profession regarding the popularity and availability of accessible web-design software, however, she admits that effective web design of larger or complex sites can only be achieved by trained and skilled web designers. The following are some examples of the questions and answers given during the interview. â€Å"No, I wasn’t always interested in Web Design. I was always interested in the web itself and computers in general. I first became interested in web design when I took the web design module in my first year in college.† â€Å"I created a substantial web site for my third year project and again for my final year project......My project work definitely helped me with my career in web design. I also had an internship called INTRA during my third year of college. This also helped a lot with gaining experience in web design, and also gave me my job today.† â€Å"A typical day for me would be to come in at 9 o clock. Check emails. Email the CEO of the company and ask for any news and updates for the website†¦ Check that the website is working correctly and make any necessary changes†¦Add in any news or updates. Make changes†¦ Only yesterday I

Quality Improvement Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Quality Improvement - Research Paper Example The foundational frameworks of quality improvement include Quality Circles (where a group of employees interact to identify and resolve problems to ensure quality), Sig Sigma (which is about ensuring high quality and attaining cost-efficiency), Benchmarking (when a company compares its products or services against competitors’ market offerings), Reduced Cycled Time (complete business process in shortest possible time) and Continuous Improvement ( process and product innovation to ensure differentiation and high quality premium products). There are differences among the definitions given by healthcare stakeholders such as Managers, Clinicians, Patients, Industry analysts and Human research specialists because of personal experiences, attitudes, behaviors, education, past experiences, skills and lifestyles. Indeed, a patient if provided all major healthcare services under one-roof in a center will express that quality of healthcare is higher. Similarly, the professionals and clinicians will express improvement in quality only when they observe any developments and advancements in technology or computerized systems, increase in facilities within a center or hospital and improvements in immediate or emergency services all across the country etc. The reason behind it is the fact that computerized systems help in accurate diagnose that in turn improves quality of services provided to patients. Similarly, more facilities at healthcare centers and emergence of new centres enhance the reach thereby enabling customers to cons ult any nearby center for healthcare. Quality improvement is not only been adopted by core profit-maximizing business enterprises but also in Healthcare industry. The reason being the fact that top quality to patients by clinicians, physicians and others etc. will result in alleviating threats of major chronic and acute illnesses that in turn will reduce financial burden on government and concerned authorities.

Miss.Independent Essay Example for Free

Miss.Independent Essay Abstract We survey the phenomenon of the growth of ? rms drawing on literature from economics, management, and sociology. We begin with a review of empirical ‘stylised facts’ before discussing theoretical contributions. Firm growth is characterized by a predominant stochastic element, making it di? cult to predict. Indeed, previous empirical research into the determinants of ? rm growth has had a limited success. We also observe that theoretical propositions concerning the growth of ? rms are often amiss. We conclude that progress in this area requires solid empirical work, perhaps making use of novel statistical techniques. JEL codes: L25, L11 Keywords: Firm Growth, Size Distribution, Growth Rates Distribution, Gibrat’s Law, Theory of the Firm, Diversi? cation, ‘Stages of Growth’ models. ? I thank Giulio Bottazzi, Giovanni Dosi, Ha? da El-Younsi, Jacques Mairesse, Bernard Paulr? , Rekha Rao, e Angelo Secchi and Ulrich Witt for helpful comments. Nevertheless, I am solely responsible for any errors or confusion that may remain. This version: May 2007 †  Corresponding Author : Alex Coad, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Evolutionary Economics Group, Kahlaische Strasse 10, D-07745 Jena, Germany. Phone: +49 3641 686822. Fax : +49 3641 686868. E-mail : [emailprotected] mpg. de 1 #0703 Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Empirical evidence on ? rm growth 2. 1 Size and growth rates distributions . . . . 2. 1. 1 Size distributions . . . . . . . . . . 2. 1. 2 Growth rates distributions . . . . . 2. 2 Gibrat’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 2. 1 Gibrat’s model . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 2. 2 Firm size and average growth . . . 2. 2. 3 Firm size and growth rate variance 2. 2. 4 Autocorrelation of growth rates . . 2. 3 Other determinants of ? rm growth . . . . 2. 3. 1 Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 3. 2 Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 3. 3 Financial performance . . . . . . . 2. 3. 4 Relative productivity . . . . . . . . 2. 3. 5 Other ? rm-speci? c factors . . . . . 2. 3. 6 Industry-speci? c factors . . . . . . 2. 3. 7 Macroeconomic factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 4 5 9 9 11 14 15 18 18 19 23 25 26 28 29 3 Theoretical contributions 3. 1 Neoclassical foundations – growth towards an ‘optimal size’ . . . . 3. 2 Penrose’s ‘Theory of the Growth of the Firm’ . . . . . . . . . . . 3. 3 Marris and ‘managerialism’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. 4 Evolutionary Economics and the principle of ‘growth of the ? tter’ 3. 5 Population ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 31 32 34 35 38 . . . . . . . 39 39 40 43 44 45 46 49 5 Growth of small and large ? rms 5. 1 Di? erences in growth patterns for small and large ? rms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. 2 Modelling the ‘stages of growth’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 51 53 6 Conclusion 56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Growth strategies 4. 1 Attitudes to growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 1. 1 The desirability of growth . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 1. 2 Is growth intentional or does it ‘just happen’ ? 4. 2 Growth strategies – replication or diversi? cation . . . 4. 2. 1 Growth by replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2. 2 Growth by diversi? cation . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3 Internal growth vs growth by acquisition . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #0703 1 Introduction The aim of this survey is to provide an overview of research into the growth of ? rms, while also highlighting areas in need of further research. It is a multidisciplinary survey, drawing on contributions made in economics, management and also sociology. There are many di? erent measures of ? rm size, some of the more usual indicators being employment, total sales, value-added, total assets, or total pro? ts; and some of the less conventional ones such as ‘acres of land’ or ‘head of cattle’ (Weiss, 1998). In this survey we consider growth in terms of a range of indicators, although we devote little attention to the growth of pro? ts (this latter being more of a ? nancial than an economic variable). There are also di? erent ways of measuring growth rates. Some authors (such as Delmar et al. , 2003) make the distinction between relative growth (i. e. the growth rate in percentage terms) and absolute growth (usually measured in the absolute increase in numbers of employees). In this vein, we can mention the ‘Birch index’ which is a weighted average of both relative and absolute growth rates (this latter being taken into account to emphasize that large ? rms, due to their large size, have the potential to create many jobs). This survey focuses on relative growth rates only. Furthermore, in our discussion of the processes of expansion we emphasize positive growth and not so much negative growth. 1 In true Simonian style,2 we begin with some empirical insights in Section 2, considering ? rst the distributions of size and growth rates, and moving on to look for determinants of growth rates. We then present some theories of ? rm growth and evaluate their performance in explaining the stylised facts that emerge from empirical work (Section 3). In Section 4 we consider the demand and supply sides of growth by discussing the attitudes of ? rms towards growth opportunities as well as investigating the processes by which ? rms actually grow (growth by ‘more of the same’, growth by diversi? cation, growth by acquisition). In Section 5 we examine the di? erences between the growth of small and large ? rms in greater depth. We also review the ‘stages of growth’ models. Section 6 concludes. 2 Empirical evidence on ? rm growth To begin with, we take a non-parametric look at the distributions of ? rm size and growth rates, before moving on to results from regressions that investigate the determinants of growth rates. 1 2 For an introduction to organizational decline, see Whetten (1987). See in particular Simon (1968). 3 #0703 2. 1 Size and growth rates distributions A suitable starting point for studies into industrial structure and dynamics is the ?rm size distribution. In fact, it was by contemplating the empirical size distribution that Robert Gibrat (1931) proposed the well-known ‘Law of Proportionate E? ect’ (also known as ‘Gibrat’s law’). We also discuss the results of research into the growth rates distribution. The regularity that ? rm growth rates are approximately exponentially distributed was discovered only recently, but o? ers unique insights into the growth patterns of ? rms. 2. 1. 1 Size distributions The observation that the ? rm-size distribution is positively skewed proved to be a useful point of entry for research into the structure of industries. (See Figures 1 and 2 for some examples of aggregate ? rm size distributions. ) Robert Gibrat (1931) considered the size of French ? rms in terms of employees and concluded that the lognormal distribution was a valid heuristic. Hart and Prais (1956) presented further evidence on the size distribution, using data on quoted UK ? rms, and also concluded in favour of a lognormal model. The lognormal distribution, however, can be viewed as just one of several candidate skew distributions. Although Simon and Bonini (1958) maintained that the â€Å"lognormal generally ? ts quite well† (1958: p611), they preferred to consider the lognormal distribution as a special case in the wider family of ‘Yule’ distributions. The advantage of the Yule family of distributions was that the phenomenon of arrival of new ? rms could be incorporated into the model. Steindl (1965) applied Austrian data to his analysis of the ? rm size distribution, and preferred the Pareto distribution to the lognormal on account of its superior performance in describing the upper tail of the distribution. Similarly, Ijiri and Simon (1964, 1971, 1974) apply the Pareto distribution to analyse the size distribution oflarge US ? rms. E? orts have been made to discriminate between the various candidate skew distributions. One problem with the Pareto distribution is that the empirical density has many more middlesized ? rms and fewer very large ? rms than would be theoretically predicted (Vining, 1976). Other research on the lognormal distribution has shown that the upper tail of the empirical size distribution of ? rms is too thin relative to the lognormal (Stanley et al. , 1995). Quandt (1966) compares the performance of the lognormal and three versions of the Pareto distribution, using data disaggregated according to industry. He reports the superiority of the lognormal over the three types of Pareto distribution, although each of the distributions produces a best-? t for at least one sample. Furthermore, it may be that some industries (e. g. the footwear industry) are not ? tted well by any distribution. More generally, Quandt’s results on disaggregated data lead us to suspect that the regu4 #0703 larities of the ? rm-size distribution observed at the aggregate level do not hold with sectoral disaggregation. Silberman (1967) also ? nds signi? cant departures from lognormality in his analysis of 90 four-digit SIC sectors. It has been suggested that, while the ? rm size distribution has a smooth regular shape at the aggregate level, this may merely be due to a statistical aggregation e? ect rather than a phenomenon bearing any deeper economic meaning (Dosi et al, 1995; Dosi, 2007). Empirical results lend support to these conjectures by showing that the regular unimodal ? rm size distributions observed at the aggregate level can be decomposed into much ‘messier’ distributions at the industry level, some of which are visibly multimodal (Bottazzi and Secchi, 2003; Bottazzi et al. , 2005). For example, Bottazzi and Secchi (2005) present evidence of signi? cant bimodality in the ? rm size distribution of the worldwide pharmaceutical industry, and relate this to a cleavage between the industry leaders and fringe competitors. Other work on the ? rm-size distribution has focused on the evolution of the shape of the distribution over time. It would appear that the initial size distribution for new ? rms is particularly right-skewed, although the log-size distribution tends to become more symmetric as time goes by. This is consistent with observations that small young ? rms grow faster than their larger counterparts. As a result, it has been suggested that the log-normal can be seen as a kind of ‘limit distribution’ to which a given cohort of ? rms will eventually converge. Lotti and Santarelli (2001) present support for this hypothesis by tracking cohorts of new ? rms in several sectors of Italian manufacturing. Cabral and Mata (2003) ? nd similar results in their analysis of cohorts of new Portuguese ? rms. However, Cabral and Mata interpret their results by referring to ? nancial constraints that restrict the scale of operations for new ? rms, but become less binding over time, thus allowing these small ?rms to grow relatively rapidly and reach their preferred size. They also argue that selection does not have a strong e? ect on the evolution of market structure. Although the skewed nature of the ? rm size distribution is a robust ? nding, there may be some other features of this distribution that are speci? c to countries. Table 1, taken from Bartelsman et al. (2005), highlights some di? erences in the structure of industries across countries. Among other things, one observes that large ? rms account for a considerable share of French industry, whereas in Italy ? rms tend to be much smaller on average. (These international di? erences cannot simply be attributed to di? erences in sectoral specialization across countries. ) 2. 1. 2 Growth rates distributions It has long been known that the distribution of ? rm growth rates is fat-tailed. In an early contribution, Ashton (1926) considers the growth patterns of British textile ? rms and observes 5 US 86. 7 69. 9 87. 9 16. 6 5. 8 Western Germany 87. 9 77. 9 90. 2 23. 6 11. 3 78. 6 73. 6 78. 8 13. 9 17. 0 France Italy 93. 1 87. 5 96. 5 34. 4 30. 3 74. 9 8. 3 UK Canada Denmark 90. 0 74. 0 90. 8 30. 2 16. 1 92. 6 84. 8 94. 5 25. 8 13. 0 Finland Netherlands 95. 8 86. 7 96. 8 31. 2 16. 9 86. 3 70. 5 92. 8 27. 7 15. 7 Portugal Source: Bartelsman et al. (2005: Tables 2 and 3). Notes: the columns labelled ‘share of employment’ refer to the employment share 6 26. 4 17. 0 33. 5 10. 5 12. 7 13. 3 13. 0 6. 5 16. 8 Total economy 80. 3 39. 1 32. 1 15. 3 40. 7 40. 5 30. 4 27. 8 18. 3 31. 0 Manufacturing 21. 4 11. 5 35. 7 6. 8 12. 0 12. 7 9. 9 5. 3 11. 4 Business services Ave. No. Employees per ? rm of ? rms with fewer than 20 employees. 20. 6 33. 8 12. 1 46. 3 33. 4 33. 0 41. 9 39. 8 Business services Total economy Manufacturing Share of employment (%) Business services Total economy. Manufacturing Absolute number (%) Table 1: The importance of small ? rms (i. e. ?rms with fewer than 20 employees) across broad sectors and countries, 1989-94 #0703 #0703 1 Pr 1998 2000 2002 0. 1 0. 01 0. 001 1e-04 -4 -2 0 s 2 4 6 Figure 1: Kernel estimates of the density of ?rm size (total sales) in 1998, 2000 and 2002, for French manufacturing ? rms with more than 20 employees. Source: Bottazzi et al. , 2005. Figure 2: Probability density function of the sizes of US manufacturing ? rms in 1997. Source: Axtell, 2001. that â€Å"In their growth they obey no one law. A few apparently undergo a steady expansion.. . With others, increase in size takes place by a sudden leap† (Ashton 1926: 572-573). Little (1962) investigates the distribution of growth rates, and also ? nds that the distribution is fat-tailed. Similarly, Geroski and Gugler (2004) compare the distribution of growth rates to the normal case and comment on the fat-tailed nature of the empirical density. Recent empirical research, from an ‘econophysics’ background, has discovered that the distribution of ? rm growth rates closely follows the parametric form of the Laplace density. Using the Compustat database of US manufacturing ? rms, Stanley et al. (1996) observe a ‘tent-shaped’ distribution on log-log plots that corresponds to the symmetric exponential, or Laplace distribution (see also Amaral et al. (1997) and Lee et al. (1998)). The quality of the ? t of the empirical distribution to the Laplace density is quite remarkable. The Laplace distribution is also found to be a rather useful representation when considering growth rates of ? rms in the worldwide pharmaceutical industry (Bottazzi et al. , 2001). Giulio Bottazzi and coauthors extend these ? ndings by considering the Laplace density in the wider context of the family of Subbotin distributions (beginning with Bottazzi et al., 2002). They ? nd that, for the Compustat database, the Laplace is indeed a suitable distribution for modelling ? rm growth rates, at both aggregate and disaggregated levels of analysis (Bottazzi and Secchi 2003a). The exponential nature of the distribution of growth rates also holds for other databases, such as Italian manufacturing (Bottazzi et al. (2007)). In addition, the exponential distribution appears to hold across a variety of ? rm growth indicators, such as Sales growth, employment growth or Value Added growth (Bottazzi et al. , 2007). The growth rates of French manufacturing ? rms have also been studied, and roughly speaking a similar shape was observed, although it must be said that the empirical density was noticeably fatter-tailed than the Laplace (see Bottazzi et al. , 2005). 3 3 The observed subbotin b parameter (the ‘shape’ parameter) is signi? cantly lower than the Laplace value of 1. This highlights the importance of following Bottazzi et al. (2002) and considering the Laplace as a special 7 #0703 1998 2000 2002 1998 2000 2002 1 prob. prob. 1 0. 1 0. 01 0. 1 0. 01 0. 001 0. 001 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1. 5 -1 conditional growth rate -0. 5 0 0. 5 1 1. 5 2 conditional growth rate. Figure 3: Distribution of sales growth rates of French manufacturing ? rms. Source: Bottazzi et al. , 2005. Figure 4: Distribution of employment growth rates of French manufacturing ? rms. Source: Coad, 2006b. Research into Danish manufacturing ? rms presents further evidence that the growth rate distribution is heavy-tailed, although it is suggested that the distribution for individual sectors may not be symmetric but right-skewed (Reichstein and Jensen (2005)). Generally speaking, however, it would appear that the shape of the growth rate distribution is more robust to disaggregation than the shape of the ?rm size distribution. In other words, whilst the smooth shape of the aggregate ? rm size distribution may be little more than a statistical aggregation e? ect, the ‘tent-shapes’ observed for the aggregate growth rate distribution are usually still visible even at disaggregated levels (Bottazzi and Secchi, 2003a; Bottazzi et al. , 2005). This means that extreme growth events can be expected to occur relatively frequently, and make a disproportionately large contribution to the evolution of industries. Figures 3 and 4 show plots of the distribution of sales and employment growth rates for French manufacturing ?rms with over 20 employees. Although research suggests that both the size distribution and the growth rate distribution are relatively stable over time, it should be noted that there is great persistence in ? rm size but much less persistence in growth rates on average (more on growth rate persistence is presented in Section 2. 2. 4). As a result, it is of interest to investigate how the moments of the growth rates distribution change over the business cycle. Indeed, several studies have focused on these issues and some preliminary results can be mentioned here. It has been suggested that the variance of growth rates changes over time for the employment growth of large US ? rms (Hall, 1987) and that this variance is procyclical in the case of growth of assets (Geroski et al. , 2003). This is consistent with the hypothesis that ? rms have a lot of discretion in their growth rates of assets during booms but face stricter discipline during recessions. Higson et al. (2002, 2004) consider the evolution of the ? rst four moments of distributions of the growth of sales, for large US and UK ?rms over periods of 30 years or more. They observe that higher moments of the distribution of sales growth rates have signi? cant cyclical patterns. In case in the Subbotin family of distributions. 8 #0703 particular, evidence from both US and UK ? rms suggests that the variance and skewness are countercyclical, whereas the kurtosis is pro-cyclical. Higson et al. (2002: 1551) explain the counter-cyclical movements in skewness in these words: â€Å"The central mass of the growth rate distribution responds more strongly to the aggregate shock than the tails. So a negative shock moves the central mass closer to the left of the distribution leaving the right tail behind and generates positive skewness. A positive shock shifts the central mass to the right, closer to the group of rapidly growing ? rms and away from the group of declining ? rms. So negative skewness results. † The procyclical nature of kurtosis (despite their puzzling ? nding of countercyclical variance) emphasizes that economic downturns change the shape of the growth rate distribution by reducing a key parameter of the ‘spread’ or ‘variation’ between ? rms. 2. 2 Gibrat’s Law. Gibrat’s law continues to receive a huge amount of attention in the empirical industrial organization literature, more than 75 years after Gibrat’s (1931) seminal publication. We begin by presenting the ‘Law’, and then review some of the related empirical literature. We do not attempt to provide an exhaustive survey of the literature on Gibrat’s law, because the number of relevant studies is indeed very large. (For other reviews of empirical tests of Gibrat’s Law, the reader is referred to the survey by Lotti et al (2003); for a survey of how Gibrat’s law holds for the services sector see Audretsch et al. (2004). ) Instead, we try to provide an overview of the essential results. We investigate how expected growth rates and growth rate variance are in? uenced by ? rm size, and also investigate the possible existence of patterns of serial correlation in ? rm growth. 2. 2. 1 Gibrat’s model Robert Gibrat’s (1931) theory of a ‘law of proportionate e? ect’ was hatched when he observed that the distribution of French manufacturing establishments followed a skew distribution that resembled the lognormal. Gibrat considered the emergence of the ?rm-size distribution as an outcome or explanandum and wanted to see which underlying growth process could be responsible for generating it. In its simplest form, Gibrat’s law maintains that the expected growth rate of a given ? rm is independent of its size at the beginning of the period examined. Alternatively, as Mans? eld (1962: 1030) puts it, â€Å"the probability of a given proportionate change in size during a speci? ed 9 #0703 period is the same for all ? rms in a given industry – regardless of their size at the beginning of the period. † More formally, we can explain the growth of ? rms in the following framework. Let xt be the size of a ? rm at time t, and let ? t be random variable representing an idiosyncratic, multiplicative growth shock over the period t ? 1 to t. We have xt ? xt? 1 = ? t xt? 1 (1) xt = (1 + ? t )xt? 1 = x0 (1 + ? 1 )(1 + ? 2 ) . . . (1 + ? t ) (2) which can be developed to obtain It is then possible to take logarithms in order to approximate log(1 + ? t ) by ? t to obtain4 t log(xt ) ? log(x0 ) + ? 1 + ? 2 + . . . + ? t = log(x0 ) + ?s (3) s=1 In the limit, as t becomes large, the log(x0 ) term will become insigni? cant, and we obtain t log(xt ) ? ?s (4) s=1 In this way, a ? rm’s size at time t can be explained purely in terms of its idiosyncratic history of multiplicative shocks. If we further assume that all ? rms in an industry are independent realizations of i. i. d. normally distributed growth shocks, then this stochastic process leads to the emergence of a lognormal ? rm size distribution. There are of course several serious limitations to such a simple vision of industrial dynamics. We have already seen that the distribution of growth rates is not normally distributed, but instead resembles the Laplace or ‘symmetric exponential’. Furthermore, contrary to results implied by Gibrat’s model, it is not reasonable to suppose that the variance of ? rm size tends to in? nity (Kalecki, 1945). In addition, we do not observe the secular and unlimited increase in industrial concentration that would be predicted by Gibrat’s law (Caves, 1998). Whilst a ‘weak’ version of Gibrat’s law merely supposes that expected growth rate is independent of ?rm size, stronger versions of Gibrat’s law imply a range of other issues. For example, Chesher (1979) rejects Gibrat’s law due to the existence of an autocorrelation structure in the growth shocks. Bottazzi and Secchi (2006a) reject Gibrat’s law on the basis of a negative relationship between growth rate variance and ? rm size. Reichstein and Jensen (2005) reject Gibrat’s law 4 This logarithmic approximation is only justi? ed if ? t is ‘small’ enough (i. e. close to zero), which can be reasonably assumed by taking a short time period (Sutton, 1997). 10 #0703after observing that the annual growth rate distribution is not normally distributed. 2. 2. 2 Firm size and average growth Although Gibrat’s (1931) seminal book did not provoke much of an immediate reaction, in recent decades it has spawned a ? ood of empirical work. Nowadays, Gibrat’s ‘Law of Proportionate E? ect’ constitutes a benchmark model for a broad range of investigations into industrial dynamics. Another possible reason for the popularity of research into Gibrat’s law, one could suggest quite cynically, is that it is a relatively easy paper to write. First of all, it has been argued that there is a minimalistic theoretical background behind the process (because growth is assumed to be purely random). Then, all that needs to be done is to take the IO economist’s ‘favourite’ variable (i. e. ?rm size, a variable which is easily observable and readily available) and regress the di? erence on the lagged level. In addition, few control variables are required beyond industry dummies and year dummies, because growth rates are characteristically random. Empirical investigations of Gibrat’s law rely on estimation of equations of the type: log(xt ) = ?+ ? log(xt? 1 ) + (5) where a ? rm’s ‘size’ is represented by xt , ? is a constant term (industry-wide growth trend) and is a residual error. Research into Gibrat’s law focuses on the coe? cient ?. If ? rm growth is independent of size, then ? takes the value of unity. If ? is smaller than one, then smaller ? rms grow faster than their larger counterparts, and we can speak of ‘regression to the mean’. Conversely, if ? is larger than one, then larger ? rms grow relatively rapidly and there is a tendency to concentration and monopoly. A signi?cant early contribution was made by Edwin Mans? eld’s (1962) study of the US steel, petroleum, and rubber tire industries. In particular interest here is what Mans? eld identi? ed as three di? erent renditions of Gibrat’s law. According to the ? rst, Gibrat-type regressions consist of both surviving and exiting ? rms and attribute a growth rate of -100% to exiting ? rms. However, one caveat of this approach is that smaller ? rms have a higher exit hazard which may obfuscate the relationship between size and growth. The second version, on the other hand, considers only those ?rms that survive. Research along these lines has typically shown that smaller ? rms have higher expected growth rates than larger ? rms. The third version considers only those large surviving ? rms that are already larger than the industry Minimum E? cient Scale of production (with exiting ? rms often being excluded from the analysis). Generally speaking, empirical analysis corresponding to this third approach suggests that growth rates are more or less independent from ? rm size, which lends support to Gibrat’s law. 11 #0703 The early studies focused on large ? rms only, presumably partly due to reasons of data availability. A series of papers analyzing UK manufacturing ? rms found a value of ? greater than unity, which would indicate a tendency for larger ? rms to have higher percentage growth rates (Hart (1962), Samuels (1965), Prais (1974), Singh and Whittington (1975)). However, the majority of subsequent studies using more recent datasets have found values of ? slightly lower than unity, which implies that, on average, small ? rms seem to grow faster than larger ? rms. This result is frequently labelled ‘reversion to the mean size’ or ‘mean-reversion’. 5 Among a large and growing body of research that reports a negative relationship between size and growth, we can mention here the work by Kumar (1985) and Dunne and Hughes (1994) for quoted UK manufacturing ? rms, Hall (1987), Amirkhalkhali and Mukhopadhyay (1993) and Bottazzi and Secchi (2003) for quoted US manufacturing ? rms (see also Evans (1987a, 1987b) for US manufacturing ? rms of a somewhat smaller size), Gabe and Kraybill (2002) for establishments in Ohio, and Goddard et al. (2002) for quoted Japanese manufacturing ? rms. Studies focusing on small businesses have also found a negative relationship between ? rm size and expected growth – see for example Yasuda (2005) for Japanese manufacturing ? rms, Calvo (2006) for Spanish manufacturing, McPherson (1996) for Southern African micro businesses, and Wagner (1992) and Almus and Nerlinger (2000) for German manufacturing. Dunne et al. (1989) analyse plant-level data (as opposed to ? rm-level data) and also observe that growth rates decline along size classes. Research into Gibrat’s law using data for speci? c sectors also ? nds that small ? rms grow relatively faster (see e. g. Barron et al. (1994) for New York credit unions, Weiss (1998) for Austrian farms, Liu et al. (1999) for Taiwanese electronics plants, and Bottazzi and Secchi (2005) for an analysis of the worldwide pharmaceutical sector). Indeed, there is a lot of evidence that a slight negative dependence of growth rate on size is present at various levels of industrial aggregation. Although most empirical investigations into Gibrat’s law consider only the manufacturing sector, some have focused on the services sector. The results, however, are often qualitatively similar – there appears to be a negative relationship between size and expected growth rate for services too (see Variyam and Kraybill (1992), Johnson et al. (1999)) Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that in some cases a weak version of Gibrat’s law cannot be convincingly rejected, since there appears to be no signi? cant relationship between expected growth rate and size (see the analyses provided by Bottazzi et al. (2005) for French manufacturing ? rms, Droucopoulos (1983) for the world’s largest ? rms, Hardwick and Adams (2002) for UK Life Insurance companies, and Audretsch et al. (2004) for small-scale Dutch services). Notwithstanding these latter studies, however, we acknowledge that in most cases a negative relationship between ? rm size and growth is observed. Indeed, 5 We should be aware, however, that ‘mean-reversion’ does not imply that ? rms are converging to anything resembling a common steady-state size, even within narrowly-de? ned industries (see in particular the empirical work by Geroski et al. (2003) and Ce? s et al. (2006)). 12 #0703 it is quite common for theoretically-minded authors to consider this to be a ‘stylised fact’ for the purposes of constructing and validating economic models (see for example Cooley and Quadrini (2001), Gomes (2001) and Clementi and Hopenhayn (2006)). Furthermore, John Sutton refers to this negative dependence of growth on size as a ‘statistical regularity’ in his revered survey of Gibrat’s law (Sutton, 1997: 46). A number of researchers maintain that Gibrat’s law does hold for ? rms above a certain size threshold. This corresponds to acceptance of Gibrat’s law according to Mans? eld’s third rendition, although ‘mean reversion’ leads us to reject Gibrat’s Law as described in Mans? eld’s second rendition. Mowery (1983), for example, analyzes two samples of ? rms, one of which contains small ? rms while the other contains large ? rms. Gibrat’s law is seen to hold in the latter sample, whereas mean reversion is observed in the former. Hart and Oulton (1996) consider a large sample of UK ? rms and ? nd that, whilst mean reversion is observed in the pooled data, a decomposition of the sample according to size classes reveals essentially no relation between size and growth for the larger ? rms. Lotti et al. (2003) follow a cohort of new Italian startups and ? nd that, although smaller ? rms initially grow faster, it becomes more di? cult to reject the independence of size and growth as time passes. Similarly, results reported by Becchetti and Trovato (2002) for Italian manufacturing ? rms, Geroski and Gugler (2004) for large European ? rms and Ce? s et al. (2006) for the worldwide pharmaceutical industry also ? nd that the growth of large ? rms is independent of their size, although including smaller ? rms in the analysis introduces a dependence of growth on size. It is of interest to remark that Caves (1998) concludes his survey of industrial dynamics with the ‘substantive conclusion’ that Gibrat’s law holds for ? rms above a certain size threshold, whilst for smaller ? rms growth rates decrease with size. Concern about econometric issues has often been raised. Sample selection bias, or ‘sample attrition’, is one of the main problems, because smaller ? rms have a higher probability of exit. Failure to account for the fact that exit hazards decrease with size may lead to underestimation of the regression coe? cient (i. e. ?). Hall (1987) was among the ? rst to tackle the problem of sample selection, using a Tobit model.

My Career In International Management Education Essay

My Career In International Management Education Essay The main purpose of this report is a self-evaluation of my skill, attributes and competencies relevant for my career in International Management. Point out skill that an international manager should have, evaluate these skills and see where my strengths and weaknesses are, and also giving evidence of my experience with these skills. Also included is a review of progress made regarding the mid semester SMART development plan, that had to do with targets within a period of six weeks. A smart development plan for a period of six months will be included in this report and it will focus on two important targets that i intend to improve on to help me for the next six months, it will be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. 2.0 SELF EVALUATION The main aim of this self development plan is a guide in identifying skills, competences and attributes relevant to me for a future career as an international manager. According to MacBeath 2006, self evaluation is a process of discovery, knowing ones self and identifying strengths and capabilities, identifying weaknesses and also improving on them. For a future career in international management i have to first identify some skills and competences that i should have and that are important to be effective as an international manager these skills are: Cross cultural Communication skill Interpersonal skill Cultural intelligence Teamwork Time management Leadership skill Decision making Negotiation skill Cultural empathy There are so many other skills and competences that are not mentioned above, although these are the few that i can relate myself with and show to what extent i have developed in these areas. 2.01 CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION SKILL Personally, i prefer face to face communication which involves direct contact with speaker involved, knowing the speakers facial expressions and gestures and to be able to listen properly and avoid miscommunications, having proper understanding of what the speakers is saying. For example when i started my masters programme i found it difficult to communicate with my lectures, because i had to send emails to them, this was a new experience for me. In communication across cultures contexts is very important, according to Browaeys and Price (2008), Hall (1990) settled firmly on two groups of culture high context and low context cultures. An example of the high context cultures are central Europe, Arabs and Asians who leave their messages unspecified and most of the message is hidden in the text making it a bit difficult to understand, while an example of the low context cultures are Germans, Americans their messages are explicit and can be understood through facial expressions and gestu res. Although communication with Chinese and Indian colleagues and class mates was very difficult a first due to the accent they have but with time, i began to understand them better without having any problems because of the everyday encounter. 2.02 INTERPERSONAL SKILLS Interpersonal skill is mostly regarded as important as an international manager, having this skill will aid integration socially to gain knowledge and also establish relationships with people. I dont think i have any problem fitting into a new environment, i usually observe my environment first to know the kind of people, know what to say and what not to say to them that might hurt their feelings. After doing this most of the time i dont find it difficult getting along well with people. This skill has built my confidence a lot and it has also improved my relationship with people from different cultures 2.03 CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE CQ Cultural intelligence has to do with understanding different cultures by interpreting unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures (Earley and Mosakowski 2004). After taking a test on cultural intelligence from the article from my MCME module guide, the result reflected that i have a reasonable level of cultural intelligence. There were three aspects cognitive CQ, physical CQ and emotional/ motivational CQ. The total points out of 5 where, for Cognitive CQ 4, Physical CQ 4.3 and Emotional/ motivational CQ 4.5. I am confident with this result because before interacting with people i stop to think before acting and i can also change the form of speech like my accent. I scored higher in the Emotional/ motivational CQ i am confident that i can deal with people from different cultures and i can also adapt to the lifestyle of different cultures. When i first came into the UK i had to change my accent for people to understand and i also had to get used to the word love which is used often here. 2.04 TEAM WORK AND PRESENTATION SKILLS Working in teams is no new thing to me and it is a very important skill for an international manager. My course international business and management entails a lot of team work and we are usually put into groups of students from different countries. In these groups there are different people from different parts of the world, Chinese, Indians, Germans, and Italians with different team roles. According to Belbins team roles (Duggan 2009), people have different roles like coordinators, sharper, implementer, completer, specialist, resource investigators, having one or more of this skill will enhance a role in a team. Out of all these roles my preferred role is by coordinating, for example calling my group members and fixing meetings and also a team builder as well. I happened to have done a lot of group work for my masters degree, where we are put into for five to six members and a mixture of students from different cultures, Chinese, Indians and the outcome has been rewarding especiall y through feed backs of marks awarded by my tutors. This also relates to my presentation skill as the outcome for most of my presentations have been good and i have evaluated this form feed backs gotten form the tutors and also my class mates. Since the beginning of my course i have worked on my presentation skill and also my power point skill. I have used the skills online website provided by my school to enhance this skill. It has helped me focus more on main points in the presentation, being confident and making eye contact with the audience. 2.05 TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL This is a very important skill, when there is no good management of time they tend to be a lot of procrastinations, and this affects time because there is a tendency to delay in doing something that has been previously planned. Initially this was a problem for me and it started affecting most of my daily activities due to procrastination, this was really bad at first because it kept on occurring and then it began to affect my school work. I decided to have a to-do-list mapping out things i had to do on a daily bases and followed this list religiously, because as a student in the UK i have keep to time because it is part of the culture of the people to do so. Time is very crucial and important for a future career in international management because in the future, i have to be on time for business appointments and meetings. Developing this skill has been of good use to me. 2.06 LEADERSHIP SKILLS In evaluating my leadership skill, by looking at my role as a team member which is that of a coordinator and it has to do with organising members for group meetings and also building an effective team. I have had an experience in school where i had to take up a leading role because my group members where a bit relaxed and nonchalant about our presentation so i took up the role of coordinating the group and made sure the work was done properly. Out of the six leadership styles which are coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching leaders, over time i have observed that i am more of an affiliative/ femininity leader in the sense that i tend not to be too hard on people and create an emotional bond with the people around me. Leadership varies depending on the culture, according to Hofsteds findings, there are four dimensions of different cultures, and they are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism / collectivism, and masculinity/ femininity . Although in Nigeria where Im from leadership is more collective and masculine and also a high level of power distance. With my little work experience a lot of respect is shown by those who are being led. 2.07 NEGOTIATION SKILLS This is an essential skill for most business dealings today. Negotiation styles vary across different cultures. An example is a negotiation exercise i participated in, where we were divided into groups of US negotiators and Chinese negotiators, i realised that the US negotiators are mostly based on getting the deal done and are eager to get as much information they can to make progress in negotiations, while Chinese negotiators mostly try not to give information and this may cause frustration, for example for a US negotiator. The categories of different cultures of negotiation by Richard D Lewis (Rushton 2009 ) are linear active, multi active and reactive cultures. I am from a multi active culture where most people are extroverts, they talk a lot, but personally i am more of an introvert, i tend to be quiet sometimes. Although havent yet had much experience of negotiating professionally, i do have to negotiate at times for example, going to a local market and negotiating on a price for an item. I still need to improve on this skill because it essential for me if i intend to pursue a career in international Business. 2.08 DECISION MAKING AND CULTURAL EMPATHY Decision making is not an easy process although it is required as an international manager to be able to make good decisions for an organisation or business. It is also essential for good leadership. When its times to take decisions on my own, i usually seek advice from family, friend and people around me. Making good decision a times could be a problem for me. For cultural empathy i always try to listen to people, appreciate their views and use my cultural intelligence skill in this as well. 3.0 MID SEMESTER SMART DEVELOPMENT PLAN REVIEW In relation to a review of the progress made in my mid semester SMART development plan which was set at the beginning of my course, Msc International business and Management for a period of six weeks had positive results. Although due to the fact that i had many skills to improve on, it was a bit difficult to achieve all of them. One of the skills i planned to improve on which didnt quite work out fine was the writing skills. The reason why it wasnt too successful was because the period of time given was too short for me to have covered all i wanted to and i was not able to attend the session on writing skills made available by graduate skills programme because some of the sessions clashed with my classes. Although i made some progress on my power point skill, and this skill is relevant for me to produce good visual aids for presentations during my course. I had a lot of practise done on my own and also i also volunteered to produce visual aid for group presentation which was a good outcome with regards to feed backs from my presentations. Also progress was made on my research skills, and this was done by exploring different sources of text books, articles, journals and this was very helpful during my course. I have also been able to manage my time by making use of my to-do-list which i made on a weekly basis . On the to-do-list i put high priorities first before any other activity and this helped me to a great extent. I was able to make time for my research, course work and also create time for myself. My mid semester development plan had both negative and positive outcomes, although it was very useful for me because it helped me identify skills to be developed and improved on. 4.0 SMART DEVELPOMENT PLAN With this SMART development plan, i will focus on a specific goal to be improved on within the next six months. By so doing i intend to take specific steps on improving on skills that will be of good use for both my course and in my professional life. I would like to improve on my writing skill and on my leadership skills, but for the purpose report i would improve on my writing skill, because writing is a very important skill as a student and as an international manager. To justify my reasons for improving on this skill, below is a SMART development plan for the next six months SPECIFIC I plan to improve on my writhing skill within the next six months, given that its a longer period i should be able to work on this skill and accomplish it by the end of the sixth month. MEASURABLE In six months time i should have improved on my writing skill by: Reading relevant books, articles and journals on writing especially on academic writing. Using information from the skills online website made available for me by the school. I should be able to know the appropriate structure and format for both essay writing and report writing because it is very relevant for my course. Properly apply the right grammar and punctuations in my writing. Going for sessions on how to develop writing skills offered by the graduate skills programme of Sheffield business school. ACHIEVABLE This skill can be achieved by putting a lot of effort and by making use of the resources from the library, the internet to help me with this skill, although there might be some restraints due to other commitments in terms of course work. These are the activities that i should be able to achieve in the next six months: 1st Month First month starting from February i will attend class sessions like English for post graduate students by the university English scheme. This will help focus on general language skills like writing and also preparing for my dissertation. I will attend these classes at least 2 times in a week for a month. 2nd Month Make use of the learning centre find books on writing that will enable me understand writing properly. 3rd Month Make use of the key skills online which has been made available for me by my school; explore every option including a skill check on writing which will help me get clearer view off my writing skills. 4th Month Search for books, articles journals that relate to essay and report writing. Look at examples and identify structures, the use of English. 5th Month Get books that can help me with my use of English, punctuations, grammar, vocabulary and also learn how to proof read my essays and reports. 6th Month practice writing on my own, using all the information and knowledge learnt from previous months, show a friend or colleague that is good in writing to double check what i have written and make corrections. REALISTIC The need to improve on my writing skill is realistic in the sense that it will be useful for the remaining part of my course for my assignments and my dissertation. It will influence my assignments by writing proper essays and reports use proper grammar and punctuations and also it help me in the future if i intend to pursue a career in international management. TIME BOUND The time set for my SMART development plan is six months and within this period i will still be undergoing my masters program, writing will be a good skill to develop on because i will be doing a lot of writing and the time of six months is realistic. 5.0 CONCLUSION The self evaluation was mostly about the skills and competences that are relevant to me as i would like to pursue a future career in international management. Hopefully with more work on these skills it wont be difficult for me to work in a multicultural environment. The SMART development plan is about the skill i intend to improve, it is very important to me as a student and also in my future career in international management. BIBLOGRAGHY BROWAEYS , Marie Joelle and PRICE Roger (2008). Understanding cross cultural Management, Prentice Hall DUGGAN, Chris (2009). Multicultural team work. [Lecture hand outs]. From an MCME lecture held on 17th November at Sheffield Hallam University. EARLY Christopher P and MOSAKOWSKI Elaine (2004). Cultural Intelligence. Harvard Business Review, October 2004. GOMAN Carol Kinsey , Ph.D ( 2007) Communicating Across Cultures[online]. Last accessed 26th January 2010 at: http://www.asme.org/NewsPublicPolicy/Newsletters/METoday/Articles/Communicating_Across_Cultures.cfm MACBEATH John (2006). Self inspection and self evaluation: Working with new relationship, USA and Canada, Routledge RUSHTON, Diane (2009). Leadership skill for 21st century MNCs (lecture hand out) from an MCME lecture held in November at Sheffield Hallam University . RUSHTON Daine (2009). Cross Cultural Negotiation [lecture hand outs]. From an MCME lecture held on 10th November at Sheffield Hallam University SCHNEIDER, Susan C, and BARSOUX, Jean Louis (2003). Managing Across cultures, prentice Hall Skills online website, last accessed 26th January 2010 at: http://keyskills.shu.ac.uk/lskills/TLTP3/entersite.html

Understanding and analysing self harm

Understanding and analysing self harm Self harm in all of its forms is one of the greatest dangers that face vulnerable adolescents, promoting unhealthy cycles, and increasing the risk of suicide and from the perspective of a school nurse, the problem is very evident. Whilst providing duties to young people with, or prone to, psychological, emotional or mental help problems it is clear that self harm is an ever increasing issue. There is evidence that would suggest that the rates of self harm within the UK are the highest in Europe (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a) and as such, this act should be considered one of our nations significant health concerns. Self harm is a complicated and very challenging problem to face and as such a deep understanding of self harm is vital to combating it. In reviewing literature we must interpret a comprehensive volume of information relating to a given topic. In this instance the topic at hand is self-harm, and as such we are required to study and absorb as much of the available information in order to digest it into new insights and to provide evidence to inform our practical decisions. In this specific review the aim is to use the available literature to identify the most prominent and prevalent challenges that could face a school nurse in the treatment and management of youths that self harm. The act of self-harm has become all the more common amongst adolescents (Fortune and Hawton, 2005) (Laukkanen et al, 2009), wherein as many as one in 15 youths undertake self harm at one point or more in their lives (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a). Self harm involves many types of personal injury, from poisoning to starving, though cutting is the predominant method of self injury (Lakkanen et al, 2009) and because of this, I have ensured to differentiate cutting, from other means of self harm within this review. The primary approach of this review is to attempt to identify the most prominent literature relative to this topic within the UK. Unfortunately there is only a small pool of literature governing the topic of self harm in youths; even foreign literature on the topic is just as underdeveloped and lacking, often using differing terminology, such as self-Mutilation (Derouin and Bravender, 2004). A further category of self harm that requires specific definition is the term Deliberate self harm, otherwise known as DSH. Whilst it is most frequently used in UK literature pertaining to the subject, it has been regarded as controversial, because of the mental connotations behind the disorder. (NICE, 2004). People who commit self harm, tend to not feel comfortable with the use of the word deliberate, as it disrupts the notion that the act is voluntary, which a lot of sufferers disbelieve (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2007). In recognising different perspectives on the matter, the term deliberate should no longer be used in relation to self harm, to give an enlightened view of the topic within this literature review. When discussing young people or adolescent in this report, the terms will refer to any young person between 12 and 18 years of age. The average age of onset for self harm is 12 years (mental health foundation, 2006, a), however children as young as five years old have been reported to self harm (Bywaters and Rolfe, 2002). The cases of children that young performing self harm is very uncommon, and the rate tends to increase rapidly with age throughout adolescence (Hawton et al, 2003). Methodology. Gathering literary sources was done by utilising a search of CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), a database for nurising based literature reviews. It is particularly suiting as it relaties specifically to nursing and allied health literature (Aveyard, 2010). In order to get the most comprehensive list of resources, several terms were used within the search; Cut* self-harm self-mutilation, Adolescent and School nurse in order to provide a wide range of literature related to the topic. Recent papers, such as those published within the last five to ten years were used. In order to gather enough information, the limit was extended to ten years, as there was simply not enough sources within a five year bracket. When performign these searches, the search terms were often linked in order to provide the best set of results. Other databases were used, using a similar method as this to good results. They included The British Nursing Inde, and PsychINFO. It is often emphasised how important it is to combine search strategies (Greenhalgh and Peacock, 2005), within literature reviews. Despite the advantage electronic searches provide, it is still possible to miss key sources of literature. (Montori et al, 2004). Every step to ensure the best quality of literature is provided should be taken, and as such within this review, any appropriate cited references have been thoroughly checked and sourced. In following various searches, the extracts from the articles were read for relevance to the review. They were also regarded to see if they met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and for general relevance and importance. The critical apraisal skills programme was used to great effect in ascertaining the quality of certain articles (Aveyard, 2010). Further articles that did not meet criteria at this stage were disregarded from the study. As could be expected, all literature that had been collated showed similarities in their findings and themes. These have been used to link the findings in a systematic manner for the purpose of this review (Pope et al, 2007). Prevelance, rates, reasons to harm, the factors behind harming, suicidal intentions and intervention are all themes which need to be studied and examined for the problems and considerations faced by a medical professional when encountering them. Prevelance One thought that is unanimous within studies concerning self-harm is that the act itself is much more than simply attention seeking behaviour. (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a). This is supported by the instances in which youths attempt to hide their attempts behind long sleeved tops, or by cutting in areas of the body that are hidden from view, such as the inner thigh or the axilla (Freeman, 2002). Because of this, many acts of self-harm do not come to the attention of the healthcare services, so it is almost impossible to discern the true scale of the matter. However in one study 13 .2% of adolescents reported to have purposefully harmed themselves within their lives (Hawthorn and Rodam, 2006). There have been many studies on the matter, but it is difficult to compare results due to varying age groups and conditions. Two facts seem t o be agreed upon however, and they are that cutting is the most prevalent type of self-harm (Laukkanen et al, 2009) and that in all likelihood the true scale of the problem goes unrecorded. The latter could be due to several reasons; between youths hiding the fact they perform self-harm and that parents who have no fears in regards to their children, are less likely to give consent to permit these studies recording data. (Hintikka et al, 2009). With all reports agreeing that the situation as a whole reflects merely the tip of an iceberg, and that findings do not cover the majority of acts that go unnoticed by the medical services, health professionals require a greater understanding of the topic, in order to tackle the problem when they do encounter it. As School Nurses are often the first to contact youths who self harm (McDougal, 2003), it is even more vital to provide an understanding and means to address this problem. Whilst establishing a professional where pupils feel comfortable in disclosing their behaviour , it is also vital to promote awareness in the school and community at large of the dangers of this self-harming behaviour (Hackney, 2009). However the root of the problem lies in identifying those who are prone to cutting and other acts of self harm, and understanding why they choose to take this step. Why Adolescents Self-Harm There appear to be many reasons offered as to why adolescents choose to harm themselves including to feel more alive, to distract from the reality of their situation, and to even gain relief from the pressures that surround them (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a). It can be used as a means of dealing with emotional extremes of anger, sadness or depression (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a), or even as a means of expressing negative emotions such as self-loathing or loneliness. Whatever the cause, the reason behind it is often that the adolescents mind finds it easier to deal with physical pain and trauma than the emotional pain that is the root of the problem (Medical Health Foundation, 2006, a). Physically, there are endorphins released during the act of cutting which serve as to calm the person down (Starr, 2004). In doing this, the anxiety is reduced and not only is the adolescent satisfied emotionally, but also potentially addicted physically. Adolescents often feel that betwee n studies and their family, they have no control over their own life; and as such cutting can be a means of exerting control over themselves physically. (Derouin and Bravender, 2004). However in certain circumstances, it can be used to exert control of those around the youth, such as friends, family, and other loved ones. (Freeman, 2002). With this in mind, it is understandable why youths take to self harm as a means of resolving their emotional issues, as it has been recorded that most youths who have undertaken the act, hold it in a positive light (Griesbach, 2008). However it is only a temporary solution and an often dangerous one at that. Any gratification gained from the act itself does nothing to relive the underlying problem (Mental Health Foundation, 2006), and as such cannot be expected to resolve itself. Those who choose to self harm, tend to do so because of a complex combination of reasons and experiences, rather than a single, governing event (Fox and Hawton, 2004). As such, it can often be difficult for a Nurse to address these issues as a collective when dealing with those who self-harm. Factors associated to Self Harm Girls are more prone to internalise their problems than boys and as such, certain pieces of literature believe that girls are far more likely than boys to resort to self harm (Hawton et al, 2002). In contradiction to this, certain texts would state that in a study of admissions to an accident and emergency department, almost as many boys were admitted as girls, for the act of self harm (Lilley et al, 2008). As such, it is important to acknowledge that the differences between genders, may not reflect the likelihood of cutting as any greater than the other. There a re also emotional factors tied to self harm, tha t include feelings of loneliness, isolation, depression, frustration and worthlessness (Griesbach, 2008). These feelings in and of themselves often a re enough to cause concern that a youth could self harm, however combined with other factors such as separation from loved ones (through arguments or neglect), bullying or even abuse could amplify the risk of self-harm (Griesbach, 2008). It is just as important when considering these factors, that not everybody who has suffered neglect or abuse will self-harm, and that those that have will often handle things in a less destructive manner (Turp, 2002). Other behavioural factors have been linked to those who self-harm, which include aggressive tendencies, poor educational performance, substance abuse, and most commonly depressive moods (Laukkanen et al, 2009). There are also those who suffer from stress, or who feel as if they have little control over their life. (Griesbach, 2008) Family and Relationships Whilst behavioural problems can be tied to the reasons behind self-harm, often it is those closest to the adolescent that promote these issues, knowingly or otherwise, such as a parental figure providing either overprotection, or a lack of care (Marchetto, 2006). There are many psychosocial issues that may impart negative emotions, stress, or pressures upon a youth, with serious family and relationship problems being the more common (Laukkanen et al, 2009). With this to consider, a school nurse must realise that even the most superficial act of self harm could be linked to a very deep and complex series of psychosocial problems. Young people often feel uncomfortable opening up about such backgrounds, regardless of family circumstance (Griesbach, 2008) and consequently it can be difficult for a school nurse to uncover the true cause of self-harm with a patient. This difficulty in opening up must be considered when assessing a youth suspected of self harm in order to best establish a r elationship with the patient and thus a level of trust (Griesbach, 2008). Mental concerns. A high proportion of children can be diagnosed with mental disorders. With mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and even eating disorders being strongly linked to those who self-harm (Hintikka et al, 2009), these high proportions become all the more concerning. According to The Mental Health Foundation (2006, b) One in ten children have a mental health disorder, coupled with the strong links between self harm and these disorders gives cause for concern as to how much goes unrecorded. Depression has even been recognised as a major factor behind self harm (Derouin and Bravender, 2004), which is becoming even more common with girls who choose to cut. (Hintikka et al, 2009). However there is often a stigma attached to mental health issues that a school nurse will have to overcome when addressing these problems. Often establishing a heightened awareness of these disorders within the community will remove some of the stigma related to these disorders, and in turn will encoura ge youths to be more open and healthy with their thoughts (Hackney, 2009). Some adolescents however, have been discovered to have self-harmed for years by successfully hiding their injuries, and have shown no signs of a mental disorder (Derouin and Bravender, 2004) that stimulates the necessity to cut. Even if mental problems are not to blame however, the act of self harm is a sign that something is wrong within the youths life; self harm often being the outward response to unfavourable circumstances (Griesbach, 2008). Social Circumstances Peer pressure is an all too common part of adolescence. In regards to self-harm, this combined with curiosity and risk taking behaviour will often act as encouragement to try it (Derouin and Bravender, 2004). It is important for a school nurse to understand the presence of peer pressure, and be mindful of it when assisting those who have to overcome self-mutilation. Indeed it is necessary to be mindful of all outside social developmental issues when a school nurse attempts to break the cycle of cutting with a patient. (Derouin and Bravender, 2004). Suicide. Whilst those who choose to self cut or self mutilate often are not intending to attempt suicide, there can often be a risk. Often they are simply attempting to release extreme anxiety or inner pain, (Derouin and Bravender, 2004). However, there are difficulties when addressing this problem as a school nurse. Those who choose to cut are often less likely to be at risk of suicide than those who harm in a different manner; often their only aim is to release tension, and they are more in control of the damage they are inflicting than other methods. (Griesbach, 2008). However, evidence supports the notion that those who self-harm, will repeatedly self-harm, and in turn this increases their risk of suicide, intended or not (Cleaver, 2007). It is important to remember that in general young people will see suicide, and self-harm as two very separate things. Unfortunately for a school nurse, the characteristics of those who self-harm and those who intend to commit suicide are often shared (Hawton and James, 2005). Thus it can be a very challenging experience for a School Nurse to identify pupils who self harm who are at risk of suicide in a medium or a short term. It is vital for School Nurses to recognise the differences between the two, and intervene at the earliest possible opportunity, for every case of self-harm. Whilst Suicide is a rare event (NICE, 2004), it is still the third most common cause of death in the adolescent age group. As such any discovery of self-harming should be fully assessed for needs, emotional, psychological and social factors that are specific to the individual case (NICE, 2004) so as to better assess the problem at hand. Interventions There is some debate as to the best method to stop repeated self-harm, and unfortunately there is a lack of good evidence to support one method over another (NICE, 2004). Randomise Control Trials (RCT) are often the premier choice of researching and comparing differing interventions (Harner and Collinson, 2005). There had been positive results found within the realm of group therapy. Wood (2001) found promising results from a study into developmental group psychotherapy, recording a clinically significant difference to favour group therapy above other forms of aftercare and upon this evidence a first line of treatment should be prescribed as group therapy. Unfortunately in contrast to this a recent repetition of the study failed to yield any positive results to suggest that group therapy was a superior treatment (Hazell et al, 2009). As we can see there is a great difficulty in assessing the value of any research into treatment, and the importance of repeating the tests for grounded evidence. Young people say that they wish to be helped in a way that feels comfortable for them. This is understandable, as they are often discussing a private matter. Private support groups, one on one sessions and drop in services are viewed as particularly helpful (Griesbach, 2008). One of the most important factors is overcoming the negative attitude associated with the disorder; something that is even possessed by the nurses who treat it (Cleaver, 2007). As such it is important to treat the patient with respect and to listen to their problems, even if their roots do not stem from self-harm, but from daily, or emotional issues. Many who have self harmed state that had this service been available to them in the first place, they would not have started their disorder (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a) Preventative measures must be taken to address self-harm in all of its forms. A school nurse is positioned at the forefront of these preventative measures, and often can find themselves in the best possible position to assist the youth. However; self harm is a very large, and very complex problem for a school nurse to address, with evidence suggesting nurses to feel overwhelmed and under supported when tackling the issue (Cook and James, 2009). With this in mind, the further education of school nurses to equip them to deal with these issues cannot be disregarded (NICE, 2004). When preventative measures fail it is good practise to advise people who repeatedly self injure with management techniques such as, how best to deal with scarring, alternative coping strategies, and harm minimalisation techniques (NICE, 2004). This concept is well established in health promotion and has been applied in recent years successfully to both sexual health education and in a reduction of teenage pregnancies (Lesley, 2008). Adolescence is a time for striving for independence, experimenting and taking risks (Lesley, 2008) and this approach of minimising self harm can often be the best approach to tackling those who have already self harmed. Evidence to suggest an effective treatment is not abundant (NICE, 2004) but to focus on minimising the damage is a pessimistic approach. Certain voluntary organizations advocate the thought If you feel the need to self harm, focus on staying within the safe limits (Mind, 2010). Young people want a range of options for self help best suited to them, even if it is something as simple as something to distract themselves from self harm for just a short period of time (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a). Successful distraction techniques have been known to include using ice instead of cutting, or even marking with a red pen; other means involve simply venting pent up frustration such as by punching a punch bag (Mental Health Foundation, 2006, a) not all reliefs have to be physical, however, and often creative pursuits such as writing, drawing and painting can have a very positive effect (Griesbech, 2008). Often, it is much more constructive to engage in creative rather than destructive be haviour and is even more likely to change behavioural response to self harm (Norman and Ryrie, 2004). If unavoidable, it is advocated that those who cut use clean, sharp instruments and avoid areas that include veins and arteries (Pengelly, 2008). When advocating this a nurse must consider both the legal and ethical arguments of endorsing any form of self harm (Pengally, 2008). Many do not feel comfortable discussing these minimalisation techniques over the concern that this could be construed as encouragement and leave the nurse vulnerable to backlash (Pengally, 2008). That said, often self harm may be the only control that a young person feels that they have over their lives (Derouin and Bravender, 2004) it is essential for a nurse, when supporting adolescents, to make effective clinical decisions. Ethical dilemmas and diverse situations often arise in this field of medicine and must be balanced with the needs of the patient and community (Bennet, 2008). Ultimately, when undertaking these decisions, practitioners must consult with the rest of the clinical team and maintain in depth records. Similarly, the decision whether or not to inform the parents raises another ethical question. Inititally, it can damage trust between the nurse and patient in future consultations, however, should a youth be considered mature enough they should be treated as adults and thus given the same level of confidentiality (Hendrick, 2010). Limitations. The majority of sources of information within this review is qualitative research which is related to the desire to obtain the opinions of individuals alongside their experiences (Watson et al, 2008). The benefits of qualitative methods are that often a greater wealth of information is obtained, in terms of social and personal experiences and insights than would otherwise be available (Hall, 2006). Unfortunately, there are many criticisms that beset qualitative studies. For instance, many disregard the findings as they are not ecologically valid due to the small sample size (Parahoo, 2006) as such, findings of many studies often only reflect the characteristics of that particular sample as opposed to the diverse population that engage in the act of self harm. Furthermore, it is difficult to justify evidencing qualitative research as often its results are interpretative (Aveyard, 2010) of course, findings can also be affected by the differing assessment methods used to collate the inf ormation, such as whether the assessment was done autonomously or if it relied on parental consent. Recommendations. Harm minimalisation techniques need to be widely available to adolescents who self harm with recognization of the ethical dilemmas, in order to support school nurses within this field of practise. Future literature on the subject also needs to choose its terminology carefully and focus upon one form of self harm rather than generalising. This is the only manner in which a specific treatment can be formulated to address each individual form of self harm allowing nursing to develop appropriate preventative interventions. School nurses should also refer all youths who harm to CAMHS. The presumption that young people that cut are not suicidal or that they do not have mental illness is too high a risk to consider and even though the majority hold neither of these disorders, they can not be overlooked due to the minority that do possess them. Conclusion. The true extent of self harm or self cutting is very difficult to determine due to the inconsistencies and definition and underreporting that often it goes unnoticed. What can be agreed upon, is that self cutting is an increasing and serious problem among adolescents. School nurses hold a vital role in the management of this disorder and are often at the forefront of any prevention, treatment and education. An understanding of why adolescents self harm and all linked factors are vital for undertaking treatment of a patient. However, this challenge is complex and requires a large amount of training and support; it is very important to avoid any stigma attached to self harming when treating youth, they are often not attention seeking and frequently posess a lot of problems in their lives. Self harm masks underlying emotional, psychological and social trauma and can simply be a youths only outlet to relieve stress and emotional tension. It is undeniable that self harm is a rapidly expan ding area of research, however upon reviewing this literature many questions are still left unanswered. There is still the underlying moral and ethical difficulties that a school nurse must consider when supporting those who self harm