Category: Free Essays

Integrated Children and Youth Social Services

Introduction

The development of integrated services in Hong Kong aims to reduce the fragmentation and duplication of services, fill service gaps, make manpower deployment and resources allocation become more flexible, and concern community needs (Angie; Hong Kong Government, 1991).

According to Social Welfare Department, integrated children and youth service centre (ICYSC) integrates children and youth centre-based team, school social work team and outreach team to better serve the multiple needs of children and youth aged from 6 to 24 using the “total person approach”. There are four main objectives as shown below:

Facilitating the personal development of children and youth to develop their life skills, potential and problem-solving ability.
Enhancing the social development of children and youth in building up positive social values and attitudes, enhancing interpersonal and family relationships as well as contributing to the well being of the community.
Adopting a community-based planning strategy to address to local youth needs and to arouse the community’s concerns on youth issues so that young people could grow up in a more concerned and supportive environment.
Providing guidance and support to children and youth in disadvantaged circumstances such as disadvantaged family environment, deprived living environment and unfavourable social environment etc. and to direct them to more positive lifestyle.

ICYSC mainly provides four kinds of core programs, including social responsibility and competence enhancement programmes, supportive services, socialization programmes, and guidance and counseling services. Social responsibility and competence enhancement programmes can enhance civic mindfulness and involvement of children and youth in community issues. Supportive services for disadvantaged children and youth aim at facilitating mutual support and enhancing their personal as well as social functioning. Socialization programmes aim at helping children and youth enhance the interpersonal and family relationships and development of life skills. Guidance and counseling services aim at providing opportunities for children and youth to deal with their difficulties and stress.

Apart from the core programmes, ICYSC also focused on how can the centre attract more children and youth, how to enable them to utilize their leisure time constructively, how to build rapport with members and their families, and how to build up community links. Among the work of ICYSC, community needs should be given the highest priority and the centre should collaborate with other significant persons or systems which affect the welfare of the children and youth.

There is no regulation or guidelines about what integrated model should be adopted by ICYSC. The integrated model really depends on the agency and the community served so that clients and residents are best benefited.

Strengths and Limitations of ICYSC

The areas of strengths and weaknesses of ICYSC can be interpreted in different kinds of integration as different agencies may apply different integration models or concepts.

Service Integration

For service users, service integration allows earlier intervention, the service gap is narrowed and the stigmatization of clients are lessened. However, this may weaken services for groups with special needs, such as marginal youth. For workers, higher degree of coordination can be developed with insights from colleagues but it takes much time to communicate and both workload and pressure are increased. For agency, there can be higher flexibility in deploying manpower and resources, preventing the overlapping of services. Nevertheless, it increases the time needed and the difficulty in management and coordination. The quality of supervision may be lowered. There may also be insufficient space in peak periods, including after school hours and weekends. These may affect the quality of service to children and youth.

Profession-oriented Integration

Different professionals gather and work together. For example, policemen work with social workers in Police Superintendent Discretion Scheme. Teachers cooperate with social workers to hold school events for students. With different professional skills and knowledge, the quality of service can be increased. Multi-level and multi-disciplinary interventions are also available. However, as every profession may have its own values and preferences, it requires much time for discussion, collaboration and implementation of services. In case of conflicts among professionals, conflict-resolution is required. In this way, the quantity of time providing direct services to children and youth may become limited.

Method-oriented Integration

Different intervention methods like casework, group work, community work, asset-based community development model can be merged together to form a multi-level intervention. This makes it more flexible to fulfill clients with different needs. This kind of integration trains workers’ skills and build up their knowledge so the services provide to children and youth can meeting the changing societal needs. Since workers have to step into and consider many intervention methods together, the workload and pressure of workers are highly increased. If they are burnt out, the efforts paid in working will be decreased.

Agency-oriented Integration

Different agencies can collaborate together and increase their resource pool by sharing. Resources can be manpower, financial support professional service or specific knowledge and skills. A typical example would be volunteer group where children and youth centre works with elderly centre or rehabilitation centre. These kinds of cooperation can best utilized resources from and strengths of different agencies, avoiding the overlapping of services. As this kind of integration requires the collaboration of different agencies and the efforts to match clients’ needs with resources, it is relatively time-consuming.

Locality-oriented Integration

Similar to agency-oriented integration, locality-oriented integration makes use of the resource pool but it is particularly from community and aims at serving community needs. The sharing of resources strengthens the interflow and referral system with agencies in the same locality, reducing the administration process and enhancing the cohesion in the community. Social capital built and convenience are beneficial to service users. Again, it is sometimes time-consuming as consensus and negotiation are not easy to achieve.

Client-oriented Integration

Different services under one roof can be served to different clients’ profiles or needs. The services are more person-centered so as to promote holistic development of clients, serving multiple and developmental needs throughout their life-spans by single point of entry. To fully adopt this integration, high level of coordination among teams as well as case management are crucial. Outreach work has to be carried out in order to better understand clients’ needs. Hence, workers may have higher workload and pressure. There may also be conflicts between different types of clients.

There are also some general limitations of ICYSC model. Models are not regularly and comprehensively evaluated. The government didn’t provide clear operational guidelines to NGO on the way of implementation of integration. Owing to the governmental subvention (i.e. lump sum grant), service providers have to fulfill requirement of funding service agreement so they focus more on quantitative output than qualitative outcome. With fixed amount of subvention, agencies compete with each other to apply for resources and funding. When services are directed by funding, it may not fit the community needs well. The lump sum grant also hinder long-term planning of services and sustainable service development as no one can guarantee there will be enough resources for the events in the coming years.

Improvement on Implementation of ICYSC

There are some suggestions on how to improve the implementation of ICYSC model. And they are categorized into worker, agency and policy levels.

1) Worker Level

The government may support mandatory training to social workers and other relevant professions to let them master and update their knowledge and skills to meet the changing integration environment. Workers may also make use of their free time and working hours to better equipped themselves to comply with agency’s integration model.

2) Agency Level

The agency can review community needs regularly and frequently. It can also develop a web-based electronic database for more effective case-management and share among multi-disciplinary teams confidentially so as to provide more integrated and real-time client-based information. The pool of resources should be strengthened by developing self-sustaining services and reducing the limitation from government funding.

3) Policy Level

The government should introduce emergency funding to meet new or sudden community needs and provide financial security to facilitate long-term planning in NGO. FSA should be evaluated and restructured based on quality and fulfillment of community needs. ICYSC models should be regularly evaluated to see if amendment is needed with the invitation of suggestions from agencies and citizens. Although different districts may have different needs, there should be some common needs for children and youth in Hong Kong. It is good to synchronize services for these common needs among service providers in Hong Kong. Last but not least, tripartite collaboration among the public, the private sector and the government should be enhanced so resource pool will be magnified and self-sustainability can be promoted.

Conclusion

It is hoped that by adopting the more appropriate integration model, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the adopted integrated model with continual evaluation and improvement, children and youth can satisfy their diverse needs in a holistic manner. Children and youth can enjoy one-stop and user-friendly services. Hence, the future generation can be nurtured well and contribute to society when time comes.

(1497 words)

References

Angie, Y. The purpose and future development of social services integration.

Hong Kong Government (1991). White paper on social welfare into the 1990s and

beyond. Retrieved 9 May, 2014, from http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CADAL/B38633498.pdf

Social Welfare Department. Funding and service agreement (lump sum grant)

integrated children and youth service centres (ICYSC). Retrieved 9 May, 2014, from http://www.swd.gov.hk/doc/fsa_sd/ICYSC.pdf

Social Welfare Department. Integrated children and youth service centres. Retrieved

9 May, 2014, from http://www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_young/sub_centreserv/

id_integrated4/

This essay aims to critically analyse the Sir John Blofeld inquiry report into the death of David Bennett in 1998, through the theme of institutional racism. In order to achieve this, I will give a brief background to the inquiry chaired by Blofeld in 2001. This will enable me to reflect upon the various aspects of this particular case and build a context for the inquiry. I will look at explanation of evidence based practice to social work and seek to learn from the report in order to inform my own practice. The choice of the above theme reflects my belief in anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory as a good social work practice.

Mr David Bennett was an African-Caribbean. He suffered from schizophrenia. He had been receiving treatment for his mental illness for some eighteen years before the date of his death. On that evening, Mr David Bennett had been in an incident with another patient who was white. During that incident, each man struck out at the other. Mr David Bennett was also the recipient of repeated racist abuse from the other patient. After this incident, Mr David Bennett was moved to another ward. While in that ward he hit a nurse. He was then restrained by a number of nurses and a struggle developed. He was taken to the floor and placed in a prone position, face-down, on the floor. During the prolonged struggle that then continued he collapsed and died. The first part of the Inquiry covers the whole period of Mr David Bennett’s illness, the events leading up to his death and certain other events that took place during the hours and days following his death.

I will provide a definition of evidence based practice. Evidence based practice is “the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individuals” (Newman et al 2005, P: 4). It calls for decision making that is considered rather than reactive. Therefore professional should be equipped with the knowledge that will enable them to discharge their responsibility effectively, and they must continue to learn, and put that learning in practice. Decision making at an individual level must also be informed by professional judgement and intimate knowledge of the client’s personal narrative. Evidence-based practice cannot deliver certainties just increase probabilities (Newman et al 2005).

Inquiries have been crucial to raise society’s awareness about social problems that disadvantaged groups of people face. For practitioners, the reports of these inquiries have indentified some valuable lessons to be used to refine policies and everyday practice. The findings from MacPherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence and the Ritchie Inquiry into the care and treatment of Christopher Clunis found institutional racism in the mental health and police. The same problem identified by Blofeld inquiry into the death of David Bennett.

Benefits of public inquiry, according to Brammer (2007, P: 291), include its ability to “ascertain the facts of the case; learn lessons for the future and to meet public concern”. Prior to the death of Bennett, there had been a number of deaths of BME people in psychiatric custody that had concerned the Institute of Race Relations. These included the death of Orville Blackwood in Broadmoor Hospital in 1991 through to the death of Veron Cowan at Blackberry Hill Hospital in Bristol in 1996 (Athwal,2004). The critical atmospheres of inquiries and media attention lead to the belief that there was institutional racism. This put the activities of psychiatrics are usually under scrutiny during public inquiries into the death of BME and as a result, such inquiries have had an impact upon their morale in practice.

I will now define institutional racism. The definition set out in the Macpherson Report (1999) is:

“Institutional racism is the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping, which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”

(Macpherson 1999).

Institutional racism is a systematic set of patterns, procedures, practices, and policies that operate within institutions so as to consistently penalise, disadvantage, and exploit individuals who are members of non-White groups (Better, 2002).

Institutional racism in mental health hospitals could be evidenced in a number of ways. Failing to provide BME patients with an adequate diagnosis, not providing them with a coherent treatment plan, not offering appropriate treatment and failing to meet needs are common examples. As Singh concludes:

“Such failures occur repeatedly over many encounters with the services, and several clinicians individually and collectively contribute to the poor decision-making. These experiences are replicated nationally for patients from ethnic minority groups.” (Singh, 2007, p: 363).

In the case of David Bennett inquiry 2003, all external experts agreed unanimously that institutional racism exists in psychiatric services. In UK, racist practice is not openly or publicly encouraged, according to Race and Relations Act. The public is concerned with institutional racism (the inequalities) in mental health, and there is evidence that Black minority ethnic (BME) people are marginalised in mental health services.

Misdiagnosis200

When black people come into contact with professionals such as the psychiatrists or health workers, they focus inappropriately on culture, and ethnicity at the expense of sound clinical judgement and this is where BME Patients experience misdiagnosis and poor health care. In case of David Bennett, his early contact with mental health services, the psychiatrist (Dr Feggetter) was dismissive and believed that his problems were due to cannabis intoxication. From 1980 to 1985 professionals thought that it was his use of cannabis that was causing the problem rather than this mental ill-health, but he was diagnosed later as suffering from schizophrenia. Therefore, the stereotypes can form the basis of misdiagnosis. Pilgrim and Rogers (1999) are of the view that professionals appear to have a limited capacity to recognise psychiatric disorders in black patients compared with other patients. Young black men are misdiagnosed by the mental system, which tends to operate on the basis of limited or inadequate knowledge of black communities and using stereotypical expectations of young black men’s behaviours (Fernando, 1998).

Treatment 300

Experts estimate that black people are three times more likely to be diagnosed as schizophrenic but less likely to be diagnosed with depression (McKenzie 1999). Also, there is evidence that black men were more likely than others to be held in secure in-patient environments. Pilgrim (2005, P: 32) suggests that racial biases mean black people are disproportionately dealt with by specialists mental health services, and as these services are characterised by coercive practices, one could interpret this as institutional racism. More so, on the clinical side of treatment, In relation to Bennett’s treatment at the Norvic Clinic, the report refers to actions by professionals which can be seen as driven by institutional racism. Dr Sagovsky related that Bennett was on a particularly high level of anti-psychotic drugs as he was seen as especially dangerous (Bennett Report, 2003, P: 10), a view that may have been linked to Bennett’s physical appearance. Ultimately, this combination of drugs was described as ‘troubling’ (Bennett Report, 2003, P: 26) by the inquiry, even if it could not be directly linked to Bennett’s death

Sandhu (2007) argue that many people from BME backgrounds complain that mental health services focus primarily on medication maintenance and control therefore; appropriate chances for recovery are limited. The diagnosis applied to the black patients were, however, significantly different from those applied to the white patients. A research by Littlewood and cross (1980, p: 121) found that stereotyped attitudes led to assumptions that ECT is suitable for black patients than white patients.

Blackness and madness plus dangerousness. 220

In addition to that, black patients are dealt with impartially in the psychiatric units, their level of dangerousness is assessed objectively on the basis of information provided and likelihood of mental illness based on history. Bennett was a very athletic young man, staffs were frightened of him. These misconceptions about black people that have also become embedded in mental health practices often combine to influence the way in which mental health services assess and respond to the needs of black people. Restraints

Brammer (2007, P: 467) is of the view that there is “evidence that practice race is considered an index for dangerousness in mental health field”. Staff working with Bennett perceived his race as dangerousness, and so the staff had to use too much force to restrain him, by pinning him down for long ‘when they should not have done so. To some sources; it is a ‘serious failure of training’ that no time limits were given for the restraint of a person in a prone position, but to others its racism. Fernando (2002) the dangerousness of a BME patient is determined by racial stereotypes of black people while other factors are ignored. This is institutional racism, how can race determine dangerousness of patients. Fernando (2002) further highlights that the power of people working in mental health provide cover for racism to operate unchallenged. This denial of racism is common within organisations where it can be found. Collier (1999) suggests that:

“The oddest thing about institutional racism is the blindness of the perpetrators. In a racist organisation outrageous thoughts and behaviours are acceptable and all apparently without questioning….worse still the victims are caught too as they seem paralysed, unable or unwilling to protest in case they suffer more.”

Admissions 320

One way in which institutional racism manifests itself is the over-representation of BME in compulsory admission in psychiatric units. The count me in the census for England and Wales showed higher rates of admission for mental illness and more adverse pathways to care for some BME groups and led to accusations of institutional racism within psychiatry. The keys issues identified in the Bennett report are common to discussion around BME communities and mental health, namely the high levels of compulsory detention. As Patel and Heginbotham (2007, p: 367) write: “Either there is an epidemic of mental illness among certain Black groups or there are seriously worrying practices that are leading to disproportionate levels of admission”.

A large number of people from ethnic minority are particularly likely to be detained under section 136 Mental Health Act 1983, and there are a large number of young Afro-Caribbean males admitted under compulsory detention into psychiatric hospitals. Nearly half of these numbers were referred by the police, courts of law, social workers and GP’s (Browne 1997). By 1990s, studies reported that African Caribbean males were over-represented among those formally detained in acute in patients units, and they were also up to 3 times more likely to be sectioned than their white counterparts. This supports the view that institutional racism is popular in mental health units. However, the decision to detain a patient is necessarily preceded by patient’s refusal to accept help on a voluntary basis. This is because some groups of people refuse help from psychiatric services and sometimes are non- compliant. Therefore, interpreting institutional racism as the main explanation for the excess of detentions among ethnic minorities adds little to debate and prevents the search for real causes of these differences.

Cultural needs. 470

Institutional racism is about how organisations acknowledge the diversity of their client base and meet their cultural needs.

The Bennett Report provided a number of examples of how these needs were not met with Bennett. For example, Dr Stanley also said that Bennett did not wear dreadlocks and yet she knew he was Rastafarian, and in most cases his religious beliefs and cultural were not mentioned through his meetings with different consultants. Staff within the system failed to understand that ignorance or thoughtlessness can lead to a form of institutional racism just as damaging as overt deliberate racism therefore; one fits with the Macpherson definition of inquiry.

Further more, there is a wide-spread perception that mental health services do not have sufficient understanding of the complex and diverse religious, cultural and traditional needs of BME people and that this constitutes institutional racism as defined by Macpherson report. Dr Feggetter noted that Bennett’s cultural needs were not addressed, but patients were treated as human beings. There is a need to treat each person as an individual rather than a group. Fernando (1986) shows how the effects of racism can result in depression through experience of rejection, loss and hopelessness. It may also create a bias to depression through a feeling of hopelessness and inability to exercise any control over external forces. Racial discrimination is an obvious cause of stress in the lives of people from the ethnic communities, however, any policies and practices measures to address the diverse needs of BME groups including appropriately sensitive environments taking into account patient’s dietary, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Sewell (2009) differences in culture whatever it is, may lead to real differences in understanding and communication of certain experiences. It is vital to remember that there are some people within a BME group who may adhere to their cultural practices while others may not.

Racial harassments

The report argued that Bennett’s racial, cultural or social needs were not met within the mental health system and that it failed to protect him from what were at times high levels of racial abuse from other patients. Racial harassment is a serious problem, and it is important that service providers should have clear policies and procedures to deal with inter-patients racial harassment. The report stated that staff within the system failed to understand that ignorance or thoughtlessness can develop a form of institutional racism just as damaging as overt deliberate racism. Another telling point in the report that can be seen as evidence of institutional racism is the finding that Bennett was “a man who was treated at times with a degree of intolerance and at times as if he were a nuisance who had to be contained” (Bennett Report 2003, P:12). In the events leading up to Bennett’s death, staff failed to adequately address the sustained racial abuse that Bennett received from another patient and also apparently ignored Bennett’s complaints that he was a black man trying to cope in a white environment.

Bennett was bound to feel acutely sensitive’ and particularly if their perception is that no action may be taken to prevent racist abuse. What is relevant here is the point that institutional racism does not have to involve direct racism by staff or members of an organisation – it can equally stem from an organisational failure to address racism that might come from other service users or clients.

Criticism of the theme

In this section will look at the impact of institutional racism on the service user: This accusation of racism as an explanation for these findings is not productive, as It leads to several damaging consequences for the profession, ethnic minority groups and most crucially for ethnic minority patients. It is the psychiatry organisation which is discriminatory but not individual psychiatrists. Therefore, we must focus on the underlying reasons whatever those are, and try to understand the multifunctional interrelated issues which lead to the cited high admissions and detention rates for some groups in society.

The different rates might also be a consequence of discrimination and racism that ethnic minority people face in Britain. It would not be surprising if the multiple victimisation that some are subjected to, led to mental distress (Hudson 1992, 4-5). Thompson (2006, P: 80) asserts that BME people become mentally ill as a result of the systematic erosion of their capacity to deal with multiple oppression. This explains why BME patients in psychiatric units become violent in the psychiatric units than when they were admitted. When we look at the case of Bennett racial abuses from other patients and control agitated him.

Institutional racism acts like a self fulfilling prophecy by contributing to mistrust of services by ethnic minorities, thereby leading to delayed help seeking with increased use of detention and coercive treatments for ethnic minority patients.

BMH (2009) agree that new horizons offers the opportunity to ensure that the failures highlighted within the Bennett inquiry report are taken forward and addressed through this new strategy. It goes onto suggest that there must be moves away from the medical model and admitting a disproportionate number of black patients into secure psychiatric settings. The rights and health care needs of BME are less likely to be taken seriously than those of white clients.

A key element of the government’s response to the Bennett Report has been the development of the Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care (DRE) which aims to achieve equality and tackle discrimination for all BME mental health service users. Amongst the aims of DRE are: a reduction in fear of mental health services among BME communities; reduced rates of admission of BME people to psychiatric inpatient units; reduced rates of compulsory detention for BME service users; a more active role for BME communities and service users in training and development of mental health policy and; the provision of a mental health workforce and organisation capable of delivering appropriate and responsive mental health services to BME communities (DOH, 2005). DRE is a positive initiative and is clearly aimed at clearing out any forms of institutional racism within mental health services.

Social work

Looking at the implications of Bennett inquiry in relation to social work practice the key tools are to combat institutional racism within mental health services has to be the use of anti-discriminatory practice. This requires social workers to understand that discrimination and oppression are often central to the situations that they encounter (Davies 2003). Within the arena of mental health, anti-discriminatory practice entails moving out of an ethnocentric frame of reference and taking account of the fact that we live in a multi-ethnic society. On a wide level, justice, equality and participation are important concepts of anti-discriminatory practice (Davies 2003).

The code of practice requires that people to whom the Act is applied should be given respect for their qualities and diverse backgrounds as individuals and be assured that account will be taken of their age, sex, gender, social ethnic cultural and religious backgrounds but that general assumptions will not be made on the basis of anyone of these characteristics (Ninth Biennial report1999-2001, p: 63).

In mental health participation might involve service users in the planning, coordination and evaluation of services to provide opportunities for empowerment and to ensure that services are culturally appropriate and responsive. To use the mental health code of practice 08 ‘participation’ principle that service user should be involved in planning, developing and reviewing their treatment. It was cited that professional working with Bennett did not involve him at all.

Empowerment within mental health can also refer to ensuring that BME service users are able to access information about services and go on to receive such services. Ideas about working in partnership with service users are also important here – referring back to the Bennett report, there was little in the way of working in partnership with Bennett during the time of his illness and little evidence of empowerment or anti-discriminatory practice to try and eliminate the elements of racism within service provision (Burke and Dalrymple, 2006).

The GSCC Codes of Practice lay out ways in which both social workers and management can act to combat institutional racism. The codes for social workers state that they must use “established processes and procedures to challenge and report dangerous, abusive, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice (3.2 GSCC codes of practice) and also – crucially in challenging institutional racism. they must not condone any unlawful or unjustifiable discrimination by service users, carers or colleagues. (5.6 GSCC codes of practice). Social care employers must also establish processes under which social workers can report dangerous, discriminatory or abusive behaviour and have methods to deal with these reports (4.2 GSCC codes of practice). Such processes were clearly lacking at the Norvic Clinic when Bennett was a patient and it is important that organisations have channels for staff at all levels to challenge any forms of racism by colleagues of service users. As indicated previously, social workers working with BME service users with mental illness need to have an understanding of cultural differences between this service user group and white people. They must also treat BME service users and white service users in the same way. For example a black man presenting with possible mental illness may be talking loudly – common symptoms of mental illness. However if a professional simply sees an angry black man there may be an incorrect judgement that trouble or problems may follow and an inappropriate response might be the result. (Bennett Report 2003, P: 48).

Practitioners need to examine their own attitudes and ask themselves whether their practice shows any evidence of indirect discrimination, however anti-discriminatory they may feel that they are as an individual. For example, do practitioners misinterpret cultural differences as mental health symptoms, do they believe there is a link between immigration and mental illness or could they be inherently racist and see some service users as posing more of a risk simply because they are not white?. The Bennett Report found that institutional racism existed within UK mental health services and there is still work required to eliminate this. Collier (1999) asserts, “Institutional racism must be stamped out, but leaving it to individuals is not to be recommended. Mechanisms must be put in position to make the change corporate…nothing less is unfair or unworkable” This is the key point – institutional racism is far bigger than the actions of a few individuals and beyond the remit of individuals to resolve. Tackling inherent institutional racism across a large organisation needs large scale change over a period of time. The recommendations of the Bennett Report have pointed the way forward and DRE looks to build on this. Change to attitudes towards BME service users must be driven from the top downwards and be embedded in all areas of the organisation. Advocate for service user who feels that they are wrongly detained in hospital under MHA1983, inappropriate use of power under MHA83 is a trap, for social workers to fall into if they are not sufficiently aware of diversity issues of psychiatry (Thompson 2006).

I have learned that I should be able to challenge racism, and should always recognise and respect diversity when working with service users. I should endeavour to always reflect on my practice using own initiatives, involve service user’s and their families in formulating care plans, be able to work as a team member and continue to update myself in current guidelines, policies and procedures and more so, work in anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive manner.

In conclusion; ‘Institutional racism’ could possibly explain why BME higher prevalence within in-patient areas of the mental health service. On the other hand, it is clearly apparent that institutional racism is still at large, what is needed here is a re-assessment of the mental health service, including new coping strategies for individuals from BME and support community wide. The breakdown of stereotyping will be necessary for both the medical professional and the wider community. It is clear that staff in mental health units have in the past ignored cultural values of ‘others’.

This essay intends to talk about innovative approaches to challenging behaviour in a specific Social Care Setting. The writer will discuss about approaches like counselling, the Low Arousal Approach, the Time-out Approach, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, and many more and will then give examples using practical examples from practice placement. Challenging behaviour has being an issue on the spot light over the past years especially in young children and people with intellectual disabilities. This essay will also bring some issues that causes or promote challenging and aggressive behaviour in the social care setting.

The term challenging behaviour was adopted from The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps (TASH), and emphasises that behaviours represent challenges to services, rather than problems which are solely intrinsic to the individuals with learning disabilities. Emerson, et al (1987) suggests the following as a definition of severely challenging behaviour “Severely challenging behaviour refers to behaviour of such an intensity, frequency or duration that the physical safety of the person or others is likely to be placed in serious jeopardy, or behaviour which is likely to seriously limit or delay access to and use of ordinary community facilities” (Emerson, Barrett, Bell, Cummings, McCool, Toogood, & Mansell 1987; cited NSH Evidence, 2011).

There is a great concern for how people with challenging behaviour view themselves – the issues of self – esteem and self view. Work on communication and relationship goes hand-in-hand with these issues and is likely to contribute mightily to a person’s self worth if he/she is having regular positive valuing experiences in interactions with others. This is an area which might require great thought and professionalism. However, it can be very difficult to be with and generally displays negative or abusive behaviour towards others. There is no doubt that these positive experiences are necessary and likely to increase people’s sense of feeling good about themselves, resulting in positive effects in their behaviour (Hewett 1998:7).

Different people’s state of normal arousal may be at different levels; indeed some people with challenging behaviours may have a level of arousal which is normally very high. Many people with learning difficulties may experience, due to their difficulties with understanding what is going on around them. The trigger is the event occurring either within the environment or within the person which activates the state where the person’s behaviour becomes challenging (Hewett 1998:154). For example, during my placement I was able to observe this arousal in the service users I worked with and what the social care worker staffs did in situations like that.

We have a male service user in the house who suffers from Bipolar Mood Disorder (BMD), this means that sometimes he feels ”high” and sometimes ”low” which is controlled by daily medication. The following are signs that show when he is becoming unstable: burping, smoking, eating more than usual, talking excessively without waiting for reply (pressure of speech) sleeping badly, general bad mood, and giving out or teasing other service users. When he is unwell, he wakes up at the middle of the night because he gets mixed up between day and night. At this point there is always a wake up night staff with him when the service user is feeling high. According to Hewett (1998:164) the first indications of triggering in a person should lead to staff surveillance and vigilance – this should be the start of ‘tuning-in’. Members of the staff need to start monitoring the person for the signs and signals that the person’s feelings and behaviour are starting to escalate.

When the staffs working with the service user notice that the service user’s behaviour is becoming unstable as explained above and the service user is presenting with a challenging behaviour to the staff and other service user in the house, the staffs will try to de-escalate the situation because the service user in question will be verbally abusing (teasing) other service user which will make the other service user to be upset and the service user will continue to talk excessively without waiting for response and their will be pressure in the service user’s tone. In this case, the staffs will bring these to the social care leader and the social care leader will then arrange for an awake staff that will be with the service user throughout the night. With regards to other service user in the house, we always organise outings with them like bowling, going to the pub and so on just to keep them away and they can have a break as well.

Another service user in the house with moderate intellectual disability present challenging behaviour as a way of seeking attention. This service user is so much attached to a particular staff and when the staff is not working, the service user’s behaviour is completely different compared to if the staff is on duty. If the staff is on duty, the service user would want the staff to always be with her and attend to all her needs. However, if other staff tries to make the service user understand that the staff is busy for example, writing a report or giving personal care to other service user, the service user will become abusive and her tone of voice will be very high. Whenever the service user is in that mood, other service user in the house will be upset. The staffs use Behaviour Modification on the service user. Behavioural Modification according to Atherton (2011) is the approach used by behavioural psychologists to modify behaviour. It is usually based on the reinforcement of desired behaviours and ignoring undesired ones. Therefore, the staff uses a Star Chart for the service user to modify the service user’s undesired behaviour so whenever the service user is being aggressive to other staff because the service user’s favourite worker is not there, the service user’s sticker will be taken off and the service user has to earn it back with good behaviour unless the service user will be in trouble with her key-worker and the social care leader, because all the service user wanted was for the staff to come down and then the service user will be calm. This service user does not behave like this when another staff is on duty.

Training courses in the management of challenging behaviour may help to provide carers with the belief that a person can cope with the violent and aggressive behaviours. This increase in confidence can increase the likelihood that a person with learning difficulties will have the opportunity to have access to ordinary community service (Blunden and Allen 1987; cited McDonnell 1997:160). This is because the reputations that people with challenging behaviour acquire can affect their relationship with their carers. Literally, you cannot have a positive relationship with a service user who frightens you. Training can help to build a relationship of trust between the client and the carer (McDonnell 1997:160). Particularly, staffs working in social care setting need more support and training in challenging behaviour because it is the key to identifying and maintaining the equilibrium of challenging behaviours being presented by the service users.

An innovative approach to challenging behaviour is counselling. Counselling as defined by Elliot and Place (1998) is the process of listening to problems, advising on actions and explaining the constraints within which children and adult should operate. It is associated with paying attention to non-verbal cues, developing good listening skills establishing trust, maintaining positive attitudes, developing expectations and showing non-judgemental attitudes and respect for privacy (Papatheodorou 2005:56). Dave (1989) Carpenter and Apter (1988) went on and say that counselling aims to enable the client to increase their conscious awareness of distorted perceptions of existing realities, and to provide emotional support in order to reduce their level of frustration (Elliot and Place 1998; Dave 1989; and Carpenter and Apter 1988; cited Papatheodorou 2005:56). Counselling in this sense will work very well with the service user that uses challenging behaviour as a mechanism of seeking attention to the particular staff. It will be a good idea if the service user’s key worker arranges for an appointment with a counsellor because it will make the service user not only to understand that the staff is not just there to attend to her but to other service users in the house which will change the service user’s behaviour and attitude on it.

Operant approaches have stressed the importance of the environment in causing and maintaining aggressive behaviours (Skinner, 1953, 1957; cited McDonnell 2010, 2). Reinforcement of behaviour, both positive and negative, has a causal effect on antecedent stimuli and behaviour. However, there is little doubt that the application of scientific approaches to behaviour analysis has led to significant positive developments in care settings. Early approaches tended to focus on the manipulation of consequences to behaviours and the use of token economy system to control and manage behaviours can provide some insight into the change and adaptation of behaviour technologies. Token economies tended to be used in larger institutionalised system in the past (Ayllon and Azrin 1968; cited McDonnell and Sturmey 2010: 5). This approach can be found in a social care because some service users might not like the house that he or she is living in, maybe due to other service user’s behaviour towards him or her and this can increase the likelihood of aggressive and challenging behaviour.

If the behaviour of staff inadvertently triggers aggressive behaviours, then altering these behaviours may have an impact on the management of aggressive behaviours. The construct of reflective practice in which an individual evaluate their performances in situations and learns from both positive and negative experiences (Schon, 1987) is useful to apply to staff who may experience violence and aggression in care settings. It is possible by staff, although in many cases they may be unaware of their influence. In the circumstances, it may be difficult to expect staff to examine their own contribution to these situations (Schon, 1987; cited McDonnell 2010: 20). This explanation shows the second scenario in this essay that the staff might have contributed to it, for example initially the staff might be showing too much attention to that particular service user and then the service user became too attached to the staff and the only way the service could get attention by the staff is by employing challenging behaviour towards other staff and service users when ever the staff is on duty. According to McDonnell 2010: 21) behaviour management strategies need to develop a questioning approach to managing behaviours, which should include an honest and critical appraisal of the staff member’s contribution to violence, aggression, and challenging behaviour. In order to achieve this, encouraging an open dialogue in human services about the role of staff beliefs and expectations in maintenance of aggressive behaviour is crucial.

A low arousal approach is predominantly a staff based intervention which focuses on reducing arousal in crisis situations. Organisationally there is am emphasis on strategies which aim to reduce confrontation through primarily staff based reduction of arousal. Immediate staff-based strategies focus on the reduction of requests and demands and on the non-verbal cues and triggers employed by staff in conflict situations. A general reduction of rules and boundaries which may also create a culture of control are implicit aspect of the approach (McDonnell 2010: 24).

De-escalation offers a nonviolent way to manage disruptive and assaultive behaviour. The technique can be used in all types of health care organization. A number of well-known programmes offer a consistent approach to the safe management of out-of-control behaviour. One general programme is Nonviolent Crisis Intervention provided by Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI). Another technique is Time-out which is a procedure used to help individual regain emotional control by removing him or her from the immediate environment and restricting him or her to a quiet area or unlocked room. It generally involves a brief of standard duration, such as 5 minutes or 20 minutes. Brief isolation (through a time-out) provides more learning trials and opportunities to see the consequences of behaviour. Time-out can be used very effectively as part of an early prevention programme (Joint Commission Resources 2002: 50-52).

Conclusion

Having gone through several books and websites, it is understood that staff might contribute to upsetting behaviour towards the service user thereby invoking challenging behaviour. Nevertheless, challenging behaviour is a serious issue among children, and people with intellectual disability especially those in residential home care. There are some techniques and strategies for example the low arousal approach, the time-out approach, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, outlined in this essay which can help both the service user and their carers to be ware of their own behaviours which can trigger aggressive behaviour in others.

Explain How Different Aspects of Organisational Culture, Including Communication and Leadership, Influence Service Provision in Social Care

Organisational culture, a theoretical model of business practice, may also used to understand the systems and behaviour of other organisations, in particular the application of organisational culture theory to the understanding of social work practice. This model of business attempts to understand the positive and negative development of an organisation, through conscious and unconscious processes, and how these elements assist or limit the people within the organisation. Applying the principles of organisational culture theory to an environment which is essentially client-focussed is not straightforward, but provides social care theorists with both a way to understand barriers and limitations within the system, and the way that the principles of the organisation is applied to service provision; it may also offer a key to implementing practice reforms and changing the structure of social service organisation from within. By interpreting the social care system through this business model, it is possible to avoid the limitations which hinder better practice within social work.

As this essay is based upon the terminology of Organisational Culture Theory, it is necessary to begin with a brief introduction to the theory, highlighting its concerns, and considering how this term relates to current understanding of organisational models. After this explanation, the essay will then consider each of the most important terms within organisational culture theory, including leadership, communication, and motivation. These terms will then be used to describe the aspects of organisational culture as they affect the provision of services within social care. A conclusion will discuss the relevance of organisational culture theory to social work, finishing with the consideration of how this business model is being used to alter the way in which social services are practiced, and the values which are utilised by social care.

Organisational culture, the “set of beliefs, values and meanings that are shared by members of an organization” (Austin and Claassen, 2008, 349), is most often understood to refer to the practices and behaviours of a business organization. The term “Organisational culture” is not easily defined, despite its frequent usage, and theorists have therefore tended to outline the term according to their own interests. Attempts to clarify the meaning of ‘organisational culture” began in 1954: “The culture of industrial groups…from class origins, occupational and technical sources, the atmosphere of the factory which forms their background and finally from the specific experiences of the small informal group” (J. Brown, quoted in Anderson-Wallace and Blantern, page 3). This term highlights the importance of social bonding in creation of an organisational culture, which serves to unite a company around a common world view. Andrew Brown is one of many authors who have noted that the same organisation can have different organisational cultures in different countries, reflecting a difference in the social cultures of those companies: “These differences are most striking when they were detected in the subsidiary companies of the same multinational organisation, because they seemed to suggest that national cultural differences may help shape organisational design and behaviour at a local level” (Brown, 1995, page 2). Later, organisational culture would be more extensively defined by both Brown and Edgar Schein: these two works will be the basis of the remainder of this essay. It is important to note the essential elements of organisational culture theory: that this culture consists of social and localised beliefs about the operation of the business; these beliefs, or mythology, may bind a company together to the extent that it becomes isolated from outside ‘reality’: Brown uses the example of Philips Electronics: “Philips’ cultural inclination to define truth and reality according to its technological bias has led critics to charge that it is complacent, lethargic, inward-looking and risk adverse” (Brown, page 29). He also notes that critics considered the internal culture a definite factor in the economic failure of the business.

Brown’s work is a general guide to organisational culture, and offers three main sources of culture within a business: “The societal or national culture within which an organisation is physically situated” – which might be one reason why multinationals operating in many countries often have a number of organisational cultures; “The vision, management style and personality of an organisation’s founder or other dominant leader” – leadership and the mythology of prominent leaders being an important influence on the culture of a business; and “the type of business an organisation conducts and the nature of its business environment” – one would not expect social care to develop the same organisational culture as a company such as Shell or Cadburys (two businesses mentioned by Brown).

Schein’s work describes similar factors in a rather more abstract manner. He uses the terms ‘artifacts’, ‘expressed values’, and ‘basic assumptions’ to describe organisational culture. Schein sees artifacts as including all the tangible aspects of a culture – language, surroundings, technology and “The visible behavior of the group and the organizational processes into which such behavior is made routine” (Schein, 1992, page 17). These are the aspects most observable to outside researcher, although Schein notes that “It is especially dangerous to try to infer the deeper assumptions from artifacts alone because one’s interpretations will inevitably be projections of one’s own feelings and reactions” (Schein, page 18). Espoused values may help the researcher to better understand the culture; some of these values later become assumptions: “Only values that are susceptible to physical or social validation and that continue to work reliably…will become transferred into assumptions” (Schein, page 20). Consciously espoused values may provide a clue to the basic assumptions of a group; alternatively, they may not: “One must discriminate carefully between those that are congruent with underlying assumptions and those that are, in effect, either rationalizations or only aspirations” (Schein, page 21). Basic Assumptions are, in essence, what lies beneath; these assumptions are those held subconsciously by an organisation: “If a basic assumption is strongly held in a group, members will find behavior based on any other premise inconceivable…[they] actually guide behavior…tell group members how to perceive, think about, and feel about things” (Schein, page 22).

With this understanding of basic organisational culture theory, it is now possible to consider in greater detail a number of subjects which are influenced by this culture: motivation, leadership, and communication.

Motivation: Business theory is greatly concerned with the motivation of employees, and a strong organisational culture is considered essential to this. “Most organisations make strenuous attempts to motivate their employees…an appropriate and cohesive culture can offer employees a focus of identification and loyalty” (Brown, page 90). A positive organisational culture has a beneficial effect upon the motivation of the workforce, encouraging staff retention, high performance, and the intake of recent graduates; employees may also experience a better quality of life, or at least working life, avoiding stress-related illness. By contrast, a negative culture may result in loss of motivation, high staff turnaround, workers entering employment with fewer skills or qualifications, and low performance.

Leadership: Leadership, particularly charismatic leaders and company founders, have a profound impact upon the organisational culture of a business. Founders, of course, by creating the business, “usually have a major impact on how the group initially defines and solves its external adaptation and internal integration problems…Founders…typically have strong assumptions about the nature of the world, the role that organizations play in that world, the nature of human nature and relationships… [and] how truth is arrived at” (Schein, page 213). The creation of the company is usually the beginning of its organisational culture and basic assumptions; and while the espoused values may change, the unconscious basic assumptions may extend back to the foundation of the business. Founders and later leaders are often charismatic, and their decisions may not be challenged directly: “The emerging culture will then reflect not only the leader’s assumptions but the complex internal accommodations created by subordinates” (Schein, 230). The charismatic leader’s personal style will also lead to the development of a mythology. These stories are vitally important in the maintenance of an organisational culture.

Communication: The effective communication of ideas is essential in organisations, and often progress can be hampered through poor communication; Schein describes the development of production engineering: “Without it, engineering often designs things that cannot be built or are too expensive…Engineering is likely to perceive production as lazy and unimaginative, while production perceives engineering to be unrealistic” (Schein, 258). Organisational culture can affect communication, for example in hospitals, where “Most were discovered to suffer from a dearth of worthwhile formal communication channels” (Brown, 281). An organisational culture which avoids communicating new ideas will undoubtedly make profound mistakes and fail to co-operate.

It is possible to see these aspects in the influence of organisational culture upon social care, and particularly how the provision of care is directly affected by leadership, communication, and motivational ideas. As Anderson-Wallace and Blantern explain, the perception of the recipient of care has a basic assumption (unchallenged), as its base: “One cultural artefact is an emphasis on an assessment of the individual client within their wider social environment. This is underpinned by the espoused value of the importance of a dialogue between practitioner and client. The underlying assumption is of the independent nature of the client in active negotiation with the practitioner.” (Anderson-Wallace and Blantern, page 8.) The basic assumption also reveals that the emphasis is upon the client, rather than upon the care worker. In such circumstances, it would not be surprising to see care workers being de-motivated; active participation is limited to the client, lessening the need for effective communication, and also the possibility of blaming the client for errors; against this latter lays the practice of holding social services responsible for all errors in service provision.

Motivation is a major problem in social service, revealed through high turnover, poor quality of working life, and work-related illnesses such as stress: “stress is more common amongst social workers than either the general population or health care workers, due to the sensitivity and responsiveness to the difficult problems presented by clients which their work requires” (Ramon and Morris, 2004, page 7). As noted above, lack of motivation provision within organisational culture not only results in all the complications described here, but is also connected to low job performance. Here, the organisational culture influences service provision in a negative manner, by creating a culture of de-motivation, where the care worker feels impotent: “The statements indicate the relationships between experiencing stress, level of control, autonomy and flexibility within their job or role” (Ramon and Morris, page 8). There are also conflicting social cultures within the wider environment which contribute to this absence of motivation: the western world generally emphasises self-help and chastises those who are dependent upon government assistance: “A further layer was poor morale, associated with an inquiry on child protection (a feature shared with a number of similar departments), and the experience of a culture which tended to view stress as reflecting individual weakness” (Ramon and Morris, 7, but also visible in the wider media).

There is in fact very little evidence for leadership as part of organisational culture within the social services, although some research has suggested that leadership culture within social care may be negative: “This vindication of the pessimistic view of the team leaders group highlights the defensiveness of some senior managers of social services departments who view constructive criticism as an affront” (Ramon and Morris, 19). The account of leadership culture within the social care department suggests an organisation that emphasises leadership above productivity and worker satisfaction – other parts of the essay note staff complaining about impolite and inconsiderate leadership styles. Despite an espoused value of worker importance, the basic assumption appears to be that leadership is most valued, and criticism by lower staff members is not acceptable.

Poor communication culture lies at the heart of social care training. Ramon and Morris note “Improved communication between management and staff” as one of the goals of their research (Ramon and Morris, page 10), suggesting at the very least that the organisation culture of the social services is one of negligence towards communications, other sections of their essay suggest that communication is exceedingly poor “Poor communication and consultation within the organisational culture was identified as the major cause for stress,. As noted above, this can seriously affect performance, in this instance service provision” (Ramon and Morris, 19). In the following example, the necessary NVQ was preceded by a questionnaire upon the values of the workers involved; these reveal quite different values from those of the NVQ modules – an emphasis upon personal quality of life offered by the workers is altered to education on health care and understanding of resident’s social issues. “Almost without exception, role development was identified as impor­tant; most viewed this to be within the care sector at a higher grade or entering nurse training. Significantly, male staff perceived their role pro­gression to be to that of care home manager or owner” (Winter and Meehan, 2004, page 6) While most of the workers described personal lives as more important or as important as work, and valued honesty and equal opportunities for staff, instead, emphasis was placed upon NVQs with modules such as “Fostering people’s equality, diversity and rights”, where the focus was upon the residents’ needs rather than staff equality. Training within the NVQ did not cater for male staff’s ambitions, or for personal quality of life. Here we can see Social Care with a series Espoused Values (care and motivation of staff; better staff retention; valuing employees) which contradict the actions of the area, with its emphasis upon residential equality and the gaining of IT skills, suggesting that the Basic Assumptions do not match – the basic assumptions might be “care of the residents is more important than staff satisfaction” and “IT training will improve motivation and help retention”, or even “training will improve the care given”. It is worth noting that, while 92% of staff thought the NVQ training would improve motivation, only 50% thought it would improve staff retention – one of the stated aims of the training. Emphasis upon training therefore appears to bear little correlation to workers’ performance; it also does not appear to have improved the motivation or turnover of care staff.

The purpose of this essay has been to consider how organisational culture influences the provision of services within social care. One thing that has become clear from this research is that the organisational culture of social services relies heavily upon charismatic leadership to develop the stated values of the department. However, the culture also places limitations upon staff criticisms of leaders, meaning that desirable change may be limited or even prevented: for instance, Michelle Johnson and Michael Austin have suggested that the organization culture of local social services contained barriers to the creation of evidence-based practice, including the fact that there was “Little history, culture or expectation that evidence is routinely and systematically used to underpin practice” (Austin and Johnson, 87). This problem is undoubtedly one of leadership culture preventing better evidence-based practice from being developed. A secondary problem is that of communications – as Ramon and Morris noted, official communication was resented, being seen as an imposition from above (page 19), and there was limited value placed within the culture for cross-company consultation.

These details may seem to relate only to staff members, but clearly they have a role in the outcome of service provision to clients or residents. The lack of motivation experienced by staff members, including stress and feelings of impotence, impact the service they offer to clients, particularly when the unconscious assumption is that these clients are both ‘independent’ of the care provider, and under the control of that same provider. Leadership issues prevent the adequate solving of problems – the basic assumptions of the group meaning that challenges to senior management are dismissed, or regarded as an affront to the leadership. This assumption has prevented the adoption of beneficial policies within the workplace, and has probably limited schemes which would also have aided service provision. Communication between departments within the social services has been justly criticised in the past, and it is clear that a problematic relationship with senior management is also indicative of problems in communication, data being rejected by staff members if it appears to come from management. All of these actions reveal the unconscious assumptions of social workers, both towards colleagues and towards their clients.

The application of organisational culture theory to social care offers an opportunity to better understand the role that basic assumptions and values take in the provision of services to clients. Attempts to create a more evidence-based practice have emphasised the importance of a corresponding change in the culture of social work, offering an alternative to the problematic assumptions which can be found in the current organisation’s culture and practice.

Works Cited

Anderson-Wallace, Murray, and Chris Blantern (2005) “Working with Culture” in Organisational Development in Healthcare Peck, Edward (ed) Radcliffe Publishing, 2005.

Austin, Michael J, and Jennette Claassen (2008) “Impact of organizational culture: implications for introducing evidence-based practice” Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work Volume 5 no 1-2 (2008) pp. 321-359

Austin, Michael J, and Michelle Johnson (2006) “Evidence-based practice in the Social Services: Implications for Organizational Change” Administration in Social Work Volume 30, no 3 (2006) pp 75-104

Brown, Andrew (1998) Organisational Culture Essex, Pearson Education Ltd

Schein, Edgar H (1992) Organisational Culture and Leadership San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Ramon, Shulamit and Lana Morris (2004) “Responding to perceived stress in a social services department: applying a participative strategy” retrieved 13/09/2008 from http://www.britsoc.co.uk/user_doc/Morris.pdf

Winter, Jane, and Lyn Meehan (2004) “The value of integrated workforce planning across the local health and social care economy: a case study” Clinical Governance Bulletin Volume 5, no. 2 Jul 2004 pp 6-8

Experience of early childhood attachment is at the base of healthy child development and works as the framework for the intimate relationship with others. Early manner of communication between the caregiver and child shapes the attachment relationship. The outcomes of infant attachment considered to be long-term and influences generations of families. According to Bowlby who developed theory of infant-caregiver attachment, attachment security characterizes the confidents of infants in their caregiver, and can be observed through how they interact with their caregiver and how they make use of the caregiver as a secure base to explore their environment (Brown, McBride, Shin & Bost, 2007). Attachment theory, therefore, has been regarded as the major structure for the research of mother-child attachment, and it also might offer a practical approach for examining attachment development between other caregivers and infants. Nonetheless, in spite of a number of researches on mother-child attachment has conducted, we still are unfamiliar with attachment relationships between other caregivers such as a father and adoptive parents. Because of the socioeconomic changes that have occurred in the United States during the past three decades, more mothers, with infants, work outside the home and, in many cases, new roles for fathers within the home increased, and many couples with a variety of reasons decided to adopt children also increased. Therefore, this paper explores whether an infant can develop secure attachment to a caregiver other than their primary caregiver, usually mother, and then how father and foster mother-infant attachment relationship different from ordinary infant-mother relationship.

Importantly, sensitivity has been considered as a key predictor for secure caregiver-infant attachment. Despite the fact that the relatively few researches studying the attachment relationship with fathers, some studies on father-child attachment suggests that fathers can give sensitive care, an important factor for developing secure attachment, for their children as much as mothers can; therefore, the level of attachment between father and child appears to be comparable to that usually found with mothers (Brown et al., 2007). Moreover, Brown et al. (2007) found that when fathers employed favorable parenting activities, father involvement time does not seem to affect on secure father-child attachment. More specifically, infants tended to form quite secure attachment relationships despite the fact that either their fathers were more involved or disinvolved. When fathers, on the other hand, employed less sensitive child-rearing, increased father involvement was associated to an insecure father-child attachment (Brown et al., 2007). Therefore, father-child attachment is influenced by fathersaa‚¬a„? parenting quality, and increased involvement is better for building attachment only when it accompanied by positive parenting. In addition, another research showed that fathers who valued the parental role were more tend to have a secure attachment with infants, but this connection was marked only when fathers have positive marriage, conceivably because these fathers are more prone to be given helping hand from their partner (Wong, Mangelsdorf, Brown, Neff & Schoppe-Sullivan, 2009). Yet interestingly, fathers who valuing the paternal caregiving role might promote secure attachment of temperamentally difficult infants, for such fathers may be tend to support them with daily child-rearing activities and be adjusted to emotional needs of their infants as well as their other demands. Accordingly, temperamentally difficult babies would be more prone to attach securely to fathers in this circumstance.

Even though all adopted children go through a stressful disjointing from their attached figures and are replaced with new attachment figures in the foster family, they are also able to develop and become attached to their fostering families. Jeffer and Rosenboom (1997) examined 80 mothers and their infant from all over the world, adopted between at age of 6 month and 8 month olds, in the Strange Situation when they were 12 and 18 months to evaluate their attachment. According to their study, they found more secure infant-mother attachment than insecure attachment relationship as normally expected. The actual proportion of secure attachment at both 12 and 18 months were approximately 75%, so secure attachments observed this research seemed to be stable over time (Juffer & Rosenboom, 1997). Another study of attachment between foster parents and infant also demonstrated that quality of mother-infant attachment in middle-class foster families was comparable to the result of families with only biological children; however, interracial adoption were more likely to have less secure caregivers- infants attachment (Singer, 1985). It might be explained by which families who adopt children of a different race than themselves are less likely to receive hearty support from extended family, friends, and neighbors than are families who adopt children of the same race. Higher rates of insecure attachment also have found among infants who spent as a minimum of 8 months in a Romanian orphanage and then placed to foster families. Infants who adopted at an earlier age, by contrast, do not appear to have an elevated rate of insecure attachment to their adoptive parent (Chisholm, 1998). From these results, although adopted age of infants seems to be a critical factor whether they develop secure or insecure attachment to foster patents, adopted infants are capable of attaching to their new caregiver, and in turn, adoptive parents are responsive enough so that they can meet their adopted babiesaa‚¬a„? needs and be a their lighthouse as well.

Since infants can develop securely attached relationship to other caregivers, the long term effects such as resiliency to new environments and having positive behaviors and expectances are assumed to be similar to which mother-infant relationship likely to have. Even though the comparison of attachment in foster and non-foster families was reasonably resemble, the outcome sometimes do not exclude the potential importance of insecure or disrupted post-infancy family relationships as a source for the adjustment problems of the adoptee. The study showed that when children reached to school age, they faced to the reality of adoption and begins to be aware of their circumstances, including being abandoned by their parents. Consequently, they often feel frustrated, doubtful, and become insecure to their current families relationship (Singer, 1985). Nonetheless, it appears that the higher occurrence of troubles accounted later on in such families cannot be explained only by attachment problems of earlier life because early secure attachment counteracts to these problems and buffers the negative emotion to some degree.

In conclusion, infants can develop secure attachment not only to their mothers but also other caregivers, including fathers and adoptive parents. It seems that infants can become attached to any caregivers, provided that those caregivers interact with them on a regular basis, provide physical and emotional care, and are emotionally invested in the child. Sensitivity plays crucial role in secure attachment development between caregiver and infant; on the other hand, the amount of time parents involves in parenting appears to be less related to secure attachment development. The similar positive outcome of secure attachment can be expected to the attachment relationship among father- and adoptive parents-infant. Children are born prepared to form relationships with those who care for them, and those early experiences influence the relationships that they develop within the family and in the greater world outside of the home. Consequently, relationships affect childrenaa‚¬a„?s healthy development, and childrenaa‚¬a„?s development, in turn, transforms their later fine relationship.

Experience of early childhood attachment is at the base of healthy child development and works as the framework for the intimate relationship with others. The caregiver-child attachment relationship shapes though early pattern of interaction between the caregiver and child. The outcomes of infant attachment considered to be long-term and influences generations of families. According to Bowlby who developed theory of infant-caregiver attachment, attachment security characterizes the confidents of infant in his or her caregiver, and can be observed through how they contact with the caregiver and how they use of the caregiver as a secure base to explore their envrionment. Attachment theory, therefore, has been regarded as the major framework for the research of caregiver-child relationships in infancy, and it also may provide a useful approach for understanding attachment development between other caregivers and infants than mother. A vast body of research from this perspective indicates that attachment security is an index of parent-child relationship quality that develops largely as a function of parenting behavior. Nonetheless, in spite of a number of researches on mother-child attachment has conducted, we still are unfamiliar with attachment relationships between other caregivers such as a father and adoptive parents. Because of the socioeconomic changes that have occurred in the United States during the past three decades, more mothers, with infants, work outside the home and, in many cases, new roles for fathers within the home increased, and many couples with a variety of reasons decided to adopt children also increased. Therefore, this paper explores whether an infant can develop secure attachment to a caregiver other than their primary caregiver, usually mother, and then how father and foster mother-infant attachment relationship different from ordinary infant-mother relationship.

Importantly, sensitivity has been considered as a key predictor for secure caregiver-infant attachment. Despite the fact that the relatively few researches studying the attachment relationship with fathers, some studies on father-child attachment suggests that fathers can give sensitive care, an important factor for developing secure attachment, for their children as much as mothers can; therefore, the level of attachment between father and child seems to be similar to that usually found with mothers (Brown, McBride, Shin & Bost, 2007). Moreover, Brown et al. (2007) found that when fathers employed in positive parenting behaviors, father involvement time does not seem to impact on father-child attachment security. That is, children tended to form quite secure attachment relationships despite the fact that whether their fathers were highly involved. When fathers, on the other hand, employed less sensitive parenting, increased father involvement was related to an insecure father-child attachment. Therefore, father-child attachment is dependent upon quality of fathersaa‚¬a„? parenting, and increased involvement is better for building attachment only when it accompanied by positive parenting. In addition, another research found that fathers who valued the parental role were more likely to have securely attached infants, but this association was marled only when quality of marriage was high, conceivably because these fathers are more likely to receive helping hand from their partner (Wong, Mangelsdorf, Brown, Neff & Schoppe-Sullivan, 2009). Yet interestingly, fathers who valuing the paternal caregiving role might promote secure attachment of temperamentally difficult infants, for such fathers might be more likely to support them with daily caregiving activities and be more adjusted to their infantsaa‚¬a„? emotional needs as well as their other demands. Accordingly, temperamentally difficult infants would be more likely to build secure attachment to fathers in this circumstance.

Even though all adopted children go through a stressful separation from their primary attached figures and are replaced with new attachment figures in the adoptive family, they are also able to develop and become attached to their fostering families. Jeffer and Rosenboom (1997) examined 80 mothers and their infant from all over the world, adopted between at age of 6 month and 8 month olds, in the Strange Situation when infants were 12 and 18 months to evaluate the infant-mother attachment relationship. According to their study, they found more secure infant-mother attachment than insecure attachment relationship as normally expected. The actual proportion of secure attachment was approximately 74%, 46 of 58 infants, at 12 months and 75% at 18 months, so secure attachments observed this research seemed to be stable over time (Juffer & Rosenboom, 1997). Another study of attachment between fostering parents and infant also demonstrated that mother-infant attachment quality in middle-class adoptive families is similar to the result found in families with only biological children; however, interracial adoption were more likely to have insecure attachment between mother and infant(Singer, 1985). This might be explained by which families who adopt children of a different race than themselves are less likely to receive hearty support from extended family, friends, and neighbors than are families who adopt children of the same race. Higher rates of insecure attachment also have found among infants who were placed to fostering families after spending at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage. Infants who adopted at an earlier age, by contrast, do not appear to have an elevated rate of insecure attachment to their adoptive parent (Chisholm, 1998). From these results, although adopted age of infants seems to be a critical factor whether they develop secure or insecure attachment to fostering patents, adopted infants appear to be capable of adapting their new parents as a secure base, and in turn, adoptive parents appear to be sensitive enough so that they can meet the needs of their adopted baby and become a lighthouse as well.

Since infants can develop securely attached relationship to other caregivers, the long term effects such as resiliency to new environments and having positive behaviors and expectances are assumed to be similar to which mother-infant relationship likely to have. Even though the overall comparison of attachment in adoptive and non-adoptive families was reasonably similar, the outcome sometimes do not exclude the potential importance of insecure or disrupted post-infancy family relationships as a basis for the adjustment problems of the adoptee. The study noted that as school-age children begin to understand the implications of adoption, including the reality of being relinquished by biological parents, therefore, they often feel confused, uncertain, and insecure regarding their current adoptive family relationship (Singer, 1985). Nonetheless, it seems that the higher occurrence of troubles reported later in life in adoptive families cannot be explained only by early attachment problems because early secure attachment counteracts to these problems and buffers the negative emotion to some degree.

In conclusion, infants can develop secure attachment not only to their mothers but also other caregivers, including fathers and adoptive parents. It seems that infants can become attached to any caregivers, provided that those caregivers interact with them on a regular basis, provide physical and emotional care, and are emotionally invested in the child. Sensitivity plays an important role in development of secure attachment between caregiver and infant; on the other hand, the amount of time parents and children spend together is much less than what they do with that time. The similar positive outcome of secure attachment can be expected to the attachment relationship among father- and adoptive parents-infant. Children are born prepared to form relationships with those who care for them, and those early experiences influence the relationships that they develop within the family and in the greater world outside of the home. Consequently, relationships affect childrenaa‚¬a„?s healthy development, and childrenaa‚¬a„?s development, in turn, transforms their later fine relationship.

Industrial training needs to be fulfilled in order to obtain a degree of International Business. Every student needs to do industrial training in the company which can let the students to be exposed to dealing with international work procedures and environment. The duration for the industrial training is about 9 weeks. All of the degree of students needs to have two times of industrial training and this report described about the second time of the industrial training report.

This report describe about the industrial training for 2nd year student of International Business Program from School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship of university Malaysia Perlis. I am having my second time of industrial training at Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd which is located at Sungai Petani, Kedah. Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd is manufacturing company which focus on Life Science, specializes in diagnostics and biotechnology. The industrial training is started on 26th June 2012 and end on 24th August 2012.

The contains of this industrial report consists of the brief introduction of Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd and the background of the company. In addition, the report also state about the task I have done during the training in the company. Other that that, the report also contains the skill, knowledge, experience, problem and challenges that I facing during this two months.

Acknowledgment

First of all, I want to thank god for me to complete the industrial training smoothly and my journey of during this two months is in His bliss. Besides that, I also want to dedicate this project to my parents, lecturers, colleagues and all my friends for being with me and helping me in each hand every difficult faced in this project completion and all those who taught me, trained me and polished my abilities.

I want to have million of thanks to the most precious persons in my life, my parents for all their support either in moral support or financial support. In the other side, I also need to have special thanks to my supervisor, Mr SG Yeoh. The supervision and support that she gave during these two months truly help the progression and smoothness of the internship program. I am very appreciating the co-operation from the supervision and the company.

Beside that, I would like to thank to Ms Salwa who is my colleague that work under the same department with me. I thank you for all the guidance from her to complete the industrial training. She teaches me a lot and helps me when I do the mistake and willing to teach me new knowledge that I cannot found in book. During these eight weeks, I realized the value of working together as a team is very important.

Not forgotten to thank for the other staffs working at Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd. their entire kindness helping and teaching me during the 2 months really appreciated. This internship program brought us together to appreciate the true value of friendship and respect of each other. I feel very glad and lucky to have such helpful colleagues and make me never felt left out in any situation. In addition, I also want to thank my friends for always reminding me to be honest and trustworthy during the industrial training.

Last but not least I would like to thank UniMAP and CIC (Centre for Industrial Collaboration) for organizing this two months Industrial Training. I am very appreciating the opportunities that let me to learn and understand the objective of Industrial Training.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Company Profile

1.2 Background of the Company

1.3 Organizational Structure

1.4 Nature of the Business

2.0 Detail of Working Experience

On the first day of the working, I was arranged to work in finance department and my position is account assistant. In the finance department, I worked with Ms Siti Salwa Binti Sulaiman who is the finance officer. She was the person who will lead me in the working. By the way, my supervisor is Mr SG Yeoh who is the Finance Director.

Finance department have the responsibility to control firm cash flow. So, all the data and document are private and confidential. Therefore, I was not allowed to expose those information for other people from different department. The person who is responsible to control the cash flow is MS Salwa with the supervision of Mr SG Yeoh. So, I learn a lot of the process from Ms Salwa. When want to make payment to the vendors, we need to get the approval from Mr SG YEoh. He will verify and sign the payment if he agrees to do so.

In the other hands, the department also uses computer system to update or control cash in and out between the vendors and the company. The systems the company uses include Microsoft Excel and UBS. At the same time, the related documents are filing in the file and keep in document control room.

Other than that, I also have the opportunity to work with other team members or co-workers from other department such as Human Resource Department, Warehouse Department, Purchasing Department, Business Development Department and others. As we know, most of the department will be related to finance department, so, I needed to know the function of other department. For example, when there have purchasing of material from purchase department, there have some document should be sent from purchase department to finance department to do payment. The related document include quotation, purchase requisition, purchase order (PO), invoice and others. in the other hands, when doing payroll, the Human Resource Department will responsible to calculate the payroll and let finance department know the total amount needed to pay for the employees. When the amount was know, finance department will give to finance director to allow the payment.

2.1 Description of Tasks/ skill and experience gain

As we know, usually, what we had learn during study is different with what had we actually done in the working place. This is because in university, there is more tend to theoretical and calculations while during in the industrial training, I learn how to gain a working knowledge. This is because the industrial training give me the opportunity to have a practical approach in which enable me to involve in the environment that I will be facing in the career lives after I graduate. Other than that, the industrial training also enables me to apply the skills that I had already learned in study. So, the industrial training let me familiar with the surroundings of a working environment.

During the two months working in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd, I have experience real industrial working condition which developed and improved my functional as well as soft skills in several aspects. The skills include computer skills, interpersonal skill, communication skills, and self management and so on.

2.1.1 Computer Skills

I learned some software during I training in the company. I was exposed to using UBS system. I realize that the UBS also has different function when it is used in different department. For example, UBS for accounting is to keep the information of account payable and account receivable while UBS for payroll is used to calculate the salary for employees.

Along I work in finance department, Ms Salwa teach me how to used UBS to record the information and how it is used to check the transaction. At the beginning, I feel very hard to understand the flow but fortunately she still very patient to explain and teach me when I face any problem.

Besides that, I also feel glad to have the opportunity to learn the UBS used for payroll. I have the chance to attend the UBS training on how to use the UBS to calculate the salary of the employees. Furthermore, I also can learn and practice how to calculate the payroll of employees due to the manager from admin department who responsible to handle the payroll was in maternity leave. So, the company required Ms Salwa to follow up the task of handle the payroll. As the result, I have the opportunity to learn and practice on calculate the payroll from Ms Salwa.

Other than that, I also more familiar with the Microsoft Excel after complete the industrial training. This is because during the training, I also always used Microsoft Excel to update the information such as update creditor aging report, cheque listing and others. Before the working in the company, I seldom use the Microsoft Excel and I learn a lot from that.

2.1.2 Interpersonal Skill

My ability in interacting with people such as colleagues and my supervisor improve a lot after completes the training. Now, I know how to communicate and deal with other people in a nice way. I found that it is good for me to deal with this people, especially when they were willing to help and explain about the things that I not understood.

In the other hands, I found that it needs skill when we had to speak though phone with the vendors. How to answer the phone is important since what we said in the phone will direct give the impact for the company. For example, if we not answer in a good manner, it will bring the bad image for the company. so, every time I answer the phone, the first thing I will do is greeting and say the company name use a manner voice and tones. I also will note down the message left for colleague in case the colleague is not around when I answer the phone. After that, I will let her know who is calling and told her the message leave by the people who was calling.

2.1.3 Self Management

I also learn on how to conduct myself properly in the business environment. I knew how to manage my time and arrange the task given more effectively. I must make sure all the tasks given must be complete on time. So, I needed to arrange and plan the task well. for example, in the first day, my supervisor already give me the assignment on doing the flow chat about the process of selling and buying. I plan it carefully and make sure I was not affect or ignore other task when doing the assignment.

Besides that, I also must make sure I was punctual in work and rest followed the time fixed by the company. Appropriate attire was also important. So, I also must know how to wear properly and manage my appearance well. I found that all of this is very important since it will bring the good image for the others people to me.

2.1.4 Teamwork Skills

Most of the time, I was work with Ms Salwa. Along the time worked with Ms Salwa, I realized work as a teamwork is very important. It can let the work more effectively and efficiency. She guided me in every task I conducted. Other than that, after I finish my task, she will help me to double check and make sure what I done is correct. For example, when I record the personal detail of the employees in UBS, she will always remind me to record it correctly especially the amount of the salary because it will affect the payroll.

2.1.5 Communication Skills

After I complete the industrial training, I found that my communication skills improved a lot. Now, I feel more comfortable and have the confident in handling social situation when meeting with new people and know how to socializing with colleagues of different situations. For example, during the meeting of the event for aa‚¬A“Buka Puasaaa‚¬? during the fasting month, I can voiced out my idea and share what I think with other the colleague and really to receive the comment from them. For me, I think the comments and suggestions from the colleagues are good for me because it can improve me and let me have better idea.

2.1.5 Leadership Awareness

I feel glad to have the opportunity to gain some useful leadership insight by observing how people led the subordinates and how to solve the problem facing. I can learn this though experience of attend the meeting and observe how professional handle the events and management of the situations. During the meeting for the event of aa‚¬A“Buka Puasaaa‚¬?, I can see how the secretary who is the leader of the meeting handled and distributed the task for all of the people who attend the meeting. As a leader, she will accept and ask us feel free to give the idea but not only want all of us accept her idea. It is what a successful leader should have.

2.1.6 Human dimension of Management

From my observation, I found that the company can organized and managed the employees effectively. For example, the company gave the task to Ms Salwa on handle the payroll when the manager who responsible to handle the payroll was in maternity leaves. The company felt that this way was better compare to hire a temporary employee to replace that manager.

2.1.7 Process Evaluation Analyses

During the two months worked in finance department, I can know the process of buying and selling. In the first day of woking in Skykod Polyscience, my supervisor already give me the assignment on doing flowchart about the process of purchasing and selling. He wanted me to know the process of how the company buys the material and manufacture to become the final products. During the process, I also learned which documents are needed and how a payment is done.

2.1.8 Adaptable Problem Solving

When I faced any problem in my work, firstly I will try to solve it by myself first. However, if I cannot solve the problem, I will ask the others staff to help me to find the solution or solve the problem. Throughout the period, most of the problem arises were technical such as computer and software problem.

In the other hands, when I complete the assignment that given by my supervisor about the flowchart, I also faced many problems. I felt the assignment was hard for me because when I have not understood the company, the supervisor already give me the task. I still remember during the first day, I not yet have chance to understand the company and still not know the nature of the company. so, to solve the problem, I needed the help from other colleagues. I asked the colleague about the problem or questions that I did not understand. Fortunately, all of the colleagues were willing to answer my questions and lend their hands to help me. Besides that, I also referred the ISO document of the company to make me more understand the nature of the company and make me find the answer what I want. I felt glad because I have the chance to refer the ISO document and those documents help me so that I can complete the task given by the supervisor in the time given.

2.2 Applications of theory and Soft Skills

During the training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd, I found that the basic thing I had learned in the classroom is being applied. This gives me an upper hand in understanding things. However, there have still a slightly different when it is apply in the working place, same as mention earlier, what I had learn in classroom is more on theoretical while during in industrial training is more tend to practical.

2.2.1 Introduction To Business

Introduction to business is the subject that I have learned during the semester one. This subject let me not feel unfamiliar with the business world when I having the industrial training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd. When doing the assignment of flowchart about the process of selling and buying, the basic of introduction to business help me a lot. For example, I know Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd is a manufacturing company and it is a type of sole trader which is one of the four types of business in this world.

In addition, after learn the subject of Introduction to Business, I know every company has different short term and long term goals which are some time known as mission and vision of the company. So, the company always focuses on many methods which can enable the company to achiev and reache those short and long term goals. The concepts of planning, organizing, leading and controlling are used by the company to achieve those goals. Furthermore, I also have the opportunity to learn about business on way to manage business, nature of business and so on.

2.2.2 Principle of Accounting

I found that the knowledge I had learned in class and during in the industrial training is different. Although the principle is same, but it still have the differential among what I had learn and what actually in the working place. However, the principle of accounting had developed my further understanding of accounting principles and their application to financial statement. The subject I had learned during in the class really very useful to me and it bring the advantages for me in doing my task during my training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd.

What I found that the different between theory that I had done and the practical is during study, what I used to do the transaction of account was using paper work. But during in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd, the transaction of account is using UBS, so, at the beginning, I still not familiar on how to see the transaction of account. So, it made me confuse whether I should record the data in either debit or credit. Fortunately, after get the explanation from Ms Salwa, I found that it is as same as what I had learned in class.

2.2.3 Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management was one of the subjects I had learned on last semester, so, for me, it is still clear remember in my mind. I found that what I had learned in the subject of Human Resource Management mostly is applied in this company. For example, the company provided training for the employees on the first day of working. Every employee was compulsory to undergo training on the first day of working. The training enable every employee understood and knew about the company and also what law and regulation should follow. Hand out about the company was distributed and the employees were required to answer the simple question according the handout given. I also observed that different department will be given different question to answer. That means the training for employees who worked in different department required to answer different question. The questions were based on the task that they will perform in the working place.

2.2.4 Skill and Technology in Communication & Business Communication

I had learned Skill and Technology in Communication in second semester while Business Communication is one of the subjects that I had learned in third semester. I felt because I can apply what I had learned in Skill and Technology in Communication & Business Communication in the working place. I know the skill on how to communicate with different people. Other than that, I also able to guess what the message that people trying to say according to their gesture and body language. It helped me to avoid do the things that my supervisor did not like and also avoid me to do the wrong thing as well as scold by my supervisor.

2.2.4 International Finance

The subject of International Finance made me more easier familiar in the working place. This is because the company can consider as multinational company which has deal with the company from other countries such as Singapore. I still remember the currencies of different countries are not same. So, with the knowledge l learned, I know how to calculate the currency of different country when wanted to make payment.

2.2.5 Ethnic Relation

I had learned the subject of Ethnic Relation before I had undergo industrial training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd. so, I know how to stay and communicate with people from different races such as Muslim and Indian. In Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd, I found that most of the employees are Muslim. However, I think it is not a problem for me since I always try to make myself at there. I try to adopt myself so that I can stay and work peaceful with the colleagues who are from different races. I always made sure I treat all of the colleagues very well and never mean to them. So, we will go out to have a lunch together at least once a week. It can make our relationship more closely and at the same time I can more understand them. In addition, during the fasting month, I try not to eat or have a drink in front of them as a respect of them.

3.0 Problems and Challenges

I faced a lot of problems and challenges when I had my industrial training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd but thanks to Gods I had solve those problem at the end. I found that the first problem I faced was the communication with the other employees. I felt hard to communicate with the colleagues because I was the new trainee in the company and was not familiar with the working environment and other staffs. At the beginning, I felt I can not join with them and just follow what they asked me to do and just complete the work they give me without asking any question and the reason to do so. Fortunately, all of this just happened in the first week because of the unfamiliar with the environment. The next and following week, I felt very comfortable and started familiar with the company and the colleagues and at the same time, I dare to ask the question that I did not understand.

Other than that, I found that some of the documents were not filling correctly. So, when wanted to refer back the documents, I found that I needed to use lots of time to find the documents. I also face the problem in filing the documents. For example, when Ms Salwa wanted me to filing the documents, sometime, I did not know which file the documents belong to especially the document related to audit.

In the other hands, I also faced problem when doing the cash payment voucher and abnk payment voucher. For example, when wrote the cash payment voucher and give the petty cash for the staff, I face the problem on do not know how many petty cash was needed to give them. The petty cash mostly is used for the purpose of petrol and told fees when there have shipment or other purpose used in small amount.

The problem I faced when record the bank payment voucher is some time I did not know which category the payment belong to such as account payable, utilities, and others. the bank payment voucher is issue using the e-management and it can not have any mistake because it will be view by the head department.

One of the problems I faced during the two months of working in the company is when I picked up the phone, I always forgot to greeting and say out the company name. Furthermore, at the beginning I scare to pick up the phone because I still not remember all the colleagues, so, it was hard for me to transfer the phone. Fortunately, this problem was happen for the first week, after that, I found that I already familiar with it. Another problem about the telephone is I need to transfer the phone to another colleague but I always forgot the extension number of that colleague. This is because before transfer, I needed to dial the extension. I always must refer the list before transfer those phone.

During the almost two months working in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd, I found that I had made some mistake but I felt it was not very bad for me. This is because after the mistake will always remind me to not to do it second time. Those problems and challenges will become my valued experience and knowledge in my future workplace. I also realize that if we not ask people when we do not understand, we will easy to do mistake. So, we should not feel shy to ask for people help when we face any problems or challenges.

4.0 Suggestions and Recommendations

During the industrial training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd, I found that the company as well as Unimap has the space in doing improvement in several fields. So, I would like to do some suggestions and recommendations to make both company and Unimap more perfect.

First of all, it would be more beneficial if the company willing to create more structured training programs. I realize it is not an easier task since the person who responsible to supervise the practical students normally busy with their work burden and this suggestion may bring their work more burdens or may be will be more stress. However, I believe it will not bring the bad effect to them if they plan it effectively. They can spend some time in planning so that it is more comprehensive, structured and organized training for the practical students. To do so, the in charge supervisor can list and arrange the training task which will be performed by the trainees. The work of the supervisor will become easier because the trainee will do the task according to the list and guideline. Therefore, a good training schedule is very important since it can optimize the training period. In addition, if the supervisor really busy with their work, they can let the other colleagues to guide the trainees by suing the training schedule. This is practice by my supervisor when he is busy. So, most of the time, I worked with Ms Salwa.

Other than that, I found that the computer system in the company very slow and old. This is because the computers in the office are still using Microsoft Office 2003 and at the same time, the computer also in old condition and I think it is used more than five years. So, the computer always loading in a longer time and this will affect work performance and I needed to waste much of time in wait the computer 2 loading. Furthermore, the computer some time will shut down by itself suddenly. I will be in trouble if I work in half way and forget to save the document while I was using the computer. This made my work slow down because I needed to restart the computer and then redo the work if I forgot to save it.

Besides that, I also should prepare the full set of equipment for the people who first day come to work. I still remember on the first day work in the company, although I have my own table but I found that I did not have key board for my computer. So, I needed the help from IT department to find the keyboard for me. For my suggestion, I think the company should prepare all the equipment and made sure all those equipment must be in good condition before the enter of a new employees instead the company already know the date I register myself to the company. So, they should prepare all the things well before I enter. This can save a lot of time. I can start my work after I enter but not waste the time to find the keyboard.

Another problem I faced is I found that some of the files are not label correctly. Although the existing employees already used to it but for the new coming employees like me, we may not find the correct file or the file they want. So, I would like to suggest that the file should label correctly and it will also bring convenience for all the employees and it will save time when want to refer it back.

Besides that, I found that some of the documents are not arrange in the good way. They should arrange the document according to the date so that it is easier for the staffs when they want to refer the document back. The staff no needs to spend too much time to find the documents.

In the other hands, I would like to suggest Unimap to extend the Industrial training to thee month or above. This is because I found that the two months period is very short and the skill that we can learn is limited because some skill is needed more time to learn. We also cannot join the big project because mostly the big project needs longer time to do the preparation. Furthermore, the two months of industrial training also make me hard to find the company that want to accept me as the trainee. Most of the company I found would not like to accept me with the reason that the period of the industrial training is too short. Most of the companies required the trainee who can work for about three months and above.

3.0 Conclusion

I found that having industrial training in Skykod Polyscience Sdn Bhd is a very good opportunity for me. I can gain the unforgettable experience which I cannot learn it from the class during study. The training really widen up my minds on what is mean by working environment. I know the theory that I had learn in class is the different in the real working environment. Now, I know how a finance department looks like and what the working scope when work under finance department is. I can know the procedure needed when want to do a payment. It is not as easy as what I think. It involves many aspects and many departments.

Incest abuse is an issue that is prevalent among family members including children. There are various short-term and long-term effects that children encounter throughout and after their abusive experience. These effects are extremely traumatic and cause stressors for children and within families. Incest can occur between any two family members regardless of age and gender. There has been a lot of research that has been conducted regarding incest, but it is often difficult to draw conclusions from research. This is because of vague definitions and unclear restrictions and guidelines. With everything considered, prevention is the most important step that society can take to try to reduce the number of incest cases.

Incest is a horrifying and tragic issue between family members typically involving one person of higher power and one of lesser power. In addition, it is extremely traumatic for children that do not know any different or that are still too young and naA?ve to understand what is going on. This topic is extremely important in the fact that more research needs to be gathered to understand why this is occurring within the family. This issue is more prevalent that many people realize. Therefore this paper is going to discuss issues relating to incest and sexual child abuse within families. It will include research and studies that relate to family incest and abuse. The paper will cover an analysis of research that has been conducted on the relating topic of incest including short term and long-term effects of incest.

There are many different forms of incest, but extensive research findings have only been implemented on a few of the forms. There are also factors such as certain age ranges and gender that are more likely to encounter incest abuse. As more research is being conducted regarding incest and abuse, there also needs to be more prevention implementation. Research is important because it allows researchers to find the reasons and causes of why this is happening. However, this issue of incest will not go away without some sort of prevention tactic. Prevention is an extremely important method to help reduce the prevalence of incest and abuse within families.

Incest can be a stressor and traumatic event that often causes short term and long-term effects on victimized children. There are issues such as chemical dependence, mental illness, and numerous psychosocial stressors that these victims can encounter (Courtois, 1997). In addition, the family can face disturbances within relationships and dynamics (Courtois, 1997). These issues include parental discord and immaturity, parent-child role reversals and triangulation, boundary violations, double-bind communications, and entrenched patterns of denial, secrecy and rigidity (Courtois, 1997). These are just a few of the effects that incest can produce among families.

Short-term effects of incest consists of, “those effects that the victim experiences or displays during and/or immediately after the incest and/or its disclosure (the most consistent include emotional)” (Vander Mey & Neff, 1986, p. 67). The victim can display a variety of emotions and feelings that are typically associated with short-term effects. These can include shame, guilt, fear, anger, in addition to feelings of being trapped, used, confused, betrayed, and humiliated (Vander Mey & Neff, 1986, p. 67). Not every victim will experience these short-term effects, but most often victims will experience one these emotional effects from incest abuse.

On the contrary, “Long-term consequences for the victim are those behaviors, attitudes, or opinions that the victim has or displays years after the incident(s) of incest: effects that are due directly or indirectly to the incest” (Vander Mey & Neff, 1986, p. 67). These effects go beyond emotional issues; they extend to larger deviant, antisocial, and/or illegal behavioral effects of the victims (Vander Mey & Neff, 1986, p. 67). Often times these behaviors include one or more of the following: promiscuity, inability to assume a wife/mother role, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution sexual dysfunctioning, delinquency, depression and suicide (Vander Mey & Neff, 1986, p. 67).

There seem to be many negative effects on children involved in incest abuse. There is also much controversy among research regarding the effects on the victims. There appears to be no definite absolute answers that tell us exactly what will happen to a child who is the victim of incest abuse. However, there is enough consistent data to conclude that incest is a major risk factor for a variety of serious aftereffects (Courtois, 1997).

The studies done in regards of victim effects seem to display a fairly strong variety of possible outcomes. As there is no definite solution to effects of children who experience incest abuse, there is a range of common potential results. There seemed to be little or no research regarding the lasting effects of the long-term consequences among victims. However, there was an overall consensus between research studies that each child is an individual and no two cases/situations are the same, and no two victims will walk away the same.

Within a family, each individual takes on different roles. There are common roles that characterize a perpetrator of incest. The most common is the “authoritarian father” who has absolute authority over the entire family (struggle of a power imbalance) (Blume, 1990, p. 34). In this situation the rest of his family fears the father (Blume, 1990, p. 34). He displays control and power and his wife and kids are on a constant guard trying to never upset him (Blume, 1990, p. 34). The father takes advantage of the power he has by sexually abusing his child(ren) and possibly his wife as well. There is also another type of father that is referred to as the “timid father” (Blume, 1990, p. 34). This dad is not able to stand up to another adult and express his feelings and is often considerd a “push-over” (Blume, 1990, p. 35). Since he seems to have no control within the family, he seeks his control elsewhere by sexually abusing a son or daughter of his.

There are many people who say that victims of child abuse will grow up to become abusers. However, Blume (1990) states that, “One is responsible for one’s adult acts; one’s past does not cause one to do violence to another” (p. 37). In addition, if it were true that these victims of abuse turn into abusers, then shouldn’t there be more women as perpetrators since women are more likely be seen as the victims? However, this is not the case because most incest survivors are female, and David Finkelhor says, “there is a male monopoly on child molesting” (Blume, 1990, p. 37).

It is important to remember that young girls are not the only victims of incest and that fathers are not the only perpetrators either. Perpetrators can include mothers, brothers, sisters, and extended family (Sloan & Porter 1984). Similarly, victims can consist of sons, daughters, cousins, etc (Sloan & Porter, 1984). There may be more prevalence in certain situations, but “incest is incest” no matter who the victim is or who the perpetrator is.

Researches have said that it is very difficult to accumulate research on the issue of incest. There are a variety of reasons for this with the foremost reason being defining incest (Blume, 1990, p. 26). There is no one definition of incest; there are various views on what constitutes as incest. Some are more restrictive than others. For example, some include touch as incest abuse, and others include “step-parents/siblings” as perpetrators of incest abuse. (Blume, 1990, p. 27). In addition, some say that any age under eighteen years old constitutes as incest abuse; however, there are other researchers other things (Blume, 1990, p. 27).

Prevention is the key to diminishing this issue. Just as it is important to have treatment centers and therapy for those who have experienced incest abuse, it is also important to implement preventative measures. Sloan and Porter discuss a prevention plan that was created and implemented by community health nurses into a public school. First, there was an emphasis on the importance that children are aware that teachers and school administrators are available to discuss nonacademic problems (Sloan & Porter, 1984). Second, the focus was to present as much information as possible to the children without frightening those who had not had these kinds of experiences (Sloan & Porter, 1984). Third, “the community health nurses wanted to provide children with a problem solving technique that could be used in a number of situations” (Sloan & Porter, 1984).

There was success in this program in the fact that they were able to present intense information to young kids without frightening or creating anxiety for them (Sloan & Porter, 1984). There were also only positive comments received from teachers and school officials (Sloan & Porter, 1984). However, the positive feedback that was received was only obtained through school administration and community health nurses who worked together to achieve their goal (Sloan & Porter, 1984). As this study seems very encouraging, there needs to be more aspects that are examined in order to determine the actual effects of the program. It is great that this particular program focused on children because it allows them to understand what incest and abuse is about, but there also needs to be a program that helps the adults as well.

The studies and information presented has, for the most part, seemed to follow in the same direction and correlate with each other. There is the basic overall conclusion of the idea that incest abuse is more prevalent than many people think and that prevention is the key to reducing the issue. All of the studies seemed to express how difficult incest research is due to various factors. These factors covered a wide range, while some research focused on victim’s lack of report and others emphasized the definition of incest.

The overall research seems to highlight the extremely sad situations and traumatic experiences that victimized children encounter. There are many short-term and long-term effects that children can experience due to incest abuse. The implications that are drawn from these issues is that there needs to be not only therapy for victims, but also prevention programs implemented to help decrease the issue of incest.

My own personal values were passed by my family, peers and people that I admire. One of the most important value for me is love and respect.

By love I mean love to another human being, not only as a feeling but also as self-respect and people around me. I understand love as a friendship, need to being needed and loved and have someone close to me. Receiving and giving love to life-partner, family or friends is very important for me. By feeling love from people that are part of my life I feel secure, worth and I build my self-esteem. It motivates me to work and gives me strenght to fight with adversities.By giving love to another people I show my own commitment and respect to them. I give them a friend, person to support them in hard times. My personal value is also to respect every individual, especially elderly people. I think everyone need to love and be loved.

Another important value for me is personal fulfillment.

It is very important for me to fulfill my dreams and plans and I do everytthing to do it. I am a perfectionist and I’m trying to get everything done at my best, and I am trying to accomplish everything that I set to myself. One of my dreams is to become a social worker and I am realising this by doing this course. It is very important for me to fulfill myself and achieve the goals which I set. It gives me happiness, build my self-esteem and gives me sense of control over your life.

Next value that plays role in my life is health.

I respect my body and I feel happy that I was born fully heatlhy and efficient. In my life I am trying to keep my body as healthy as possible. Balanced diet such as a lot of fruits and vegetables and less sugars, exercise, fresh air help me to reduce risk of having illnesses. Also work/live and study and safe environment promotes my health. I am trying to not expose my own and others health on risk. I belief that we have one life and we should exploit it as much as we can and by respecting our life we respect also other people’s life.

My own values have also relationship in social care practice.

Social Care sector is regulated by agencies such as Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. This reguratory body promotes National Care Standards which are:

-dignity

-privacy

-choice

-safety

-realising potential

-equality and diversity

Some of those standards are very similar to my own personal values such as safety. This standard cares for service users’ health and safety. My own health value is very similar to this standard. Their common aims are to create environment free of harm and abuse and to reduce risk of health danger. It also has relationship with Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 which is about ensuring the environment is safe and free from hazards. ‘This law basically rules that employers must ensure as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of not only their employees but sub contractors and the general public too.’ REFERENCJA

Realising potential is also very similar to my personal fulfillment value. This standard gives service users opportunity to archive their goals and make the most of their life. My value is to archive all my plans and goals and also to do everything the best as I can. It also has relationship to Regulation of Care Act (Scotland) Act 2001. Under this act Scottish Social Services Council regulates the education and training of social service workers and raise standards through the publication of codes of conduct and practice.

Social Care practice is based on respect every individual and treating people equally. Every employee must take this into their practice. My love value is related to all aspects of care practice. It states that we should respect and love every human being and have a right to love and be loved. Social Care practice promotes respect for every individual by National Care Standards’ Choice and Privacy. Care workers respect service users privacy under Data Protection Act 1998 which protects clients confidential information such as care plan. Choice from National Care Standards promotes respect of service users by allowing them live as much independent as possible. Care workers also respects all choice made by individuals and take them into account before making any actions.

Anti-Discriminatory Practice is well known term in all sectors of social work. Term Anti-discriminatory Practice mean practice without discrimination and respecting individual’s worth and dignity. Practice without discrimination is known as practice free of judgement and prejudice of service users as well as service providers. It is a practice where people are treated equally without any fear of any harm or abuse because of their ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion or age; where people respecting each other worth and dignity and no discriminating them against their views, beliefs, appearance or behaviour. It is a practice where everyone is accepted as they are and treated equally. It focuses on respecting individuals and works againts stereotyping, discrimination and prejudice.ADP is important for providing effective care practice for employers and employees as well as service users. It promotes equality by introducing anti-discrimination policies in workplace and changing attitudes towards staff and service users. It promotes it by value service users for their ethnic background, language, culture and faith, let clients live independently, being able to complain effectively without fear of victimisation.

Discrimination

Discrimination is behavioural component of bias by treating people differently and unfairly or less well than others because they belong to certain groups. Discrimination is often due to jealousness, religion, race, unequal pay, pregnancy, sexual orientation or gender. It is form of social exclusion. This unequal treatment of legally unjustified objective reasons. Any such action constitutes a breach of the principle of equal treatment and basic human rights.

Discrimination has two types:

Direct discrimination

It is based on treating people differently because of someones personal circumstances compared to ourselves or another person in the same situation. For example unequal pay for women and men for the same type of job.

Indirect discrimination

It occurs when actions taken are neutral to public opinion but discrimination may affect some of them. For example discrimination against disabled people or same gender couples.

Values that underpin Anti Disctiminatory Practice include:

Equality

Equality is a value that is very important in ADP. Treating people equally means that everyone is not the same and should be treated as an individual. Everyone is equal regardless of gender, age, religion or sexual orientation. Anti Discriminatory Practice promotes equality by providing range of services for all possible service users. Disability Discrimination Act 2005 promotes equality for people with disability. It focus on services, goods and employement. Under this act all employers and must reasonable adjustments and make workplace suitable for all employees such as lifts and toilets.

Tolerance

Tolerance is another important value that underpins Anti Disctiminatory Practice.

Tolerance is an open, objective and respects the approach to other human traits, which are different from their own.Tolerance is the opposite of discrimination.Tolerance means that even if we don’t have the same views or personal beliefs as someone else, we still respect it. Equality Act 2010 promotes tolerance as their aims are:

-banning age discrimination outside the workplace

-protecting carers from discrimination

-clarifying the protection for breastfeeding mothers

-banning discrimination in private and public sectors

Protection

Protection is also one of the important values in Anti Disctiminatory Practice.

Human protection from any forms of harm or abuse is one of the main aims of ADP.

Protection means taking actions against disctimination, prejudice or stereotyping and providing environment free from those. Human Rights Act 1998 promotes protection of human rights such as:

Respect for privacy and family life and the right to marry.
The prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment
Protection against slavery and forced labour

It`s the idea that a person’s life outside of work is as important as their working life`s and that the time a person spends working should be balanced by time spent doing things such as spending time with friends and family, keeping fit, doing hobbies, traveling etc.

Work life balance is the state of equilibrium between an individual’s work and personal life. Work life balance is achieved when an individual combination of work, family commitments and his personal life in an effective and efficiently way. If a worker is spending more time on work, he earned money but he unable to give quality time to his family and would also be neglected from his community. If a worker is working too little work, then he could not be able to provide his family a decent standard of living. A single individual work-life balance varies overtime. Work life balance for an individual worker is different from a single parent or a parent with school going children.

Importance of work-life balance:

The idea of WLB does bring attention to the fact that being a salve is detrimental to a person’s physical and mental well-being; socializing, physical activity, and being with friends and family are all activities that contribute to being happier and healthier. Adopting WLB practices, the organization can also give a sense of social responsibility that organization is not only concerned with the profits earning activities but they are also concerned with the non-business activities like taking care of families of the workers.

MERITS

Spent more time with family.

Healthier life

Productivity increased

Clear thinking.

Better judgments.

Enjoyment of work.

Better social relationships.

Broader perspective.

Less stress

DEMERITS

Slower career advancement.

Lower financial rewards.

Moving out of the mainstream.

Reduction in responsibility

How important for employees and employers:

All around the world, many companies realized that there is a connection between the work life balance and the impact it may have on their business. Much business believed on the theory that their employers must devote their work time to their work alone. Employees were not allowed to leave the work due to unexpected emergencies because many employers believed that their employees were hired only for work. As the world is changing, many employers become more flexible to balance the life situation with their employees.

The most common problem for the employees is that they worked too much. They spent many hours in the office to complete their activities. For this reason a negative atmosphere may be created in the company. To combat that negative atmosphere or attitude there are many employers who are beginning to educate themselves and their employees on work-life balance.

Employees who manage to balance their work with their life activity are more likely to be happy. This increased happiness can create positive work environments. Employers know that friendly work environments mean better results and better results often translate into profits.

Developing Work-life balance is not only beneficial to employers. Employees, their family and friends can all from benefit from a positive work-life balance. Once a balance between life and work has been established a working parent may be able to spend more time with family.

Benefit not Just for Those with Families:

Many organization brought work-life balance in the workplace considering the families of employees, but work-life balance is not just for individuals with family. It is true that the employees who benefit the most from a work life balance policy are those with families; however, others do as well. When work-life balance incorporated in to the business structure it must applies to all employees not certain one. This means that everyone, including unmarried individuals or those without children, can reap the benefits of WLB.

Many employers offer work alternatives to their employees to create positive work environment. All of these alternatives are likely to decrease the amount of time that an employee has to spend in the workplace when they already have prior engagements. Some of the alternatives are flexible hours, working at home, or job sharing.

There are many individual who have multiple hobbies. A hobby is an activity to participate during your free time. Some of the activities are stamp collecting, photography, writing, reading story books, playing sports and other outdoor activities. Since work-life balance reduces the amount of time you are giving to your job, so an employee can utilize his/her time for doing such activity. There are many individuals who (when not working) volunteer in or around their local community. Volunteering is most commonly done at not profit charities, play groups, schools, and homeless shelters. Having a healthy balance between work and life is what enables many employees to volunteer during their traditional work hours.

Impact of working long hours:

Working eight hours is considered to be as the standard time for employees in many areas of the world. But an employee often works for more than eight hours a day because employer requires it. Regardless of the reason for doing so; it has been proven that long hours can have a negative impact on an employee and their family.

Some health issues are associated with working long hours. Stress is more likely to occur when you are working long hours more than the standard. It has been known a sleep deprivation that is cause by stress. Individuals who suffer from a lack of sleep and a large amount of stress are likely to have a weak immune system. In order to prevent from these employees need to get a proper amount of rest and relaxation.

The most important affects of working long hours is the amount of time you spend with your family. Your relationship with your family is depending of how much time you spend with them. It is not uncommon for tension to be present in a household where one or more of the home occupants are working long hours. Stress is more likely to occur when a household hold more than one duty and give extra time to her outside work.

When an employee has regularly been putting in long hours at their workplace it is often difficult to stop. It is not uncommon for a worker to fear asking their employer for a reduction in hours in fear of losting their job. So If a job was accepted on the terms that workdays would be longer than most traditional ones it may be difficult for you to find a solution to your long lasting hours. If you agreed to the work arrangement your only alternative may be finding an organization that values the balance between working and life.

How work-life balance should be implemented in the workplace:

Earning profits is not the only goal that the organization is looking for. Nowadays getting employees loyalty is another important challenge that organization want to achieve to success in the business. In order to do that employer should satisfy their employees. This satisfaction is most often obtained by coming to the realization that all employees have a life outside of work that is just as important, if less, than their career. Pleasing every employee is a difficult task but most of the successful organization accomplished that task by incorporating work-life balance into their organization.

One research indicated that employees are satisfied when the policies of work life balance are in accordance to their needs. Some of the individuals needs are sick leaves, lunch breaks, vacations leaves, pleasant amount of time with family and friends etc. Therefore there is a need for the organizations to develop a work-life policy that respects customer, individual and organizational needs. Same set of WLB facilities available at the organizations will help the management of the organizations to retain their employees with higher satisfaction levels. One important fact that organization should clearly defined the concept of work life balance to the employees so that they can balance their life.

Some major policies of WLB all over the world:

Long hours and overworked employees is the main problem in the organization. So in order to prevent that there are certain policies (flexible work practice) developed by the organization:-

Hiring two employees to fill one job; this practices known as job sharing. Job sharing means works by dividing work time vacations, benefits, and pay between two workers.

It is now becoming standard practice for an employer to offer their employees flexible hours. Working hours are predetermined during the hiring process and employees are allowed to pick hours that they work each week.

Working at home is another alternative work arrangement that enables more employees to be at home with their family.

Provided medical leave programs to employees. This program enables the employee to take time off from work if they or one of their family members becomes injured or ill.

Provided vacation leaves for some period of time if employees feel that they are not giving proper time to their families.

For parents the most popular way that work-life balance is brought into the workplace is through onsite childcare. It is located at the same building which allows parents to visit whenever they want to.

Provide part time work arrangement for those who want to work for fewer hours.

Affects of flexible work practice:

Studies have indicated that introducing flexible work practices has a number of advantages for employers, such as an improved ability to attract existing employees as well as people not currently in the workforce. Research has shown the provision of flexible work practices (that help workers achieve work-life balance) positively impact

Recruitment and selection

Reduced stress and working environment

Job satisfaction

employee morale

Labour turnover

Motivation and productivity

Absenteeism

Return on training investment and staff loyalty

Finding organization that values Work-Life Balance:

There are number of things that an employee must take into account before seeking an organization where he wants to work. Employee should determine before joining the organization that whether they value the work-life balance or not. The two most common ways to gather information on a particular organization is before you being the application process or during the interview. While interviewing there are many individual who may ask an employer if they believe in the balance of work and life. This is a best way to get an answer to your questions, but it should also work to your demerits. Some employers, especially those who have not adopted the popular WLB theory, are likely to feel that you will not be a good job candidate. If you really want to know about the employer feeling on work-life balance then asks him directly in the middle or end of the interview. This shall make it appear as if that is not the only reason why you are seeking employment with them. In addition, to sharing the same values, most of companies want to hear that you have faith in their products being sold or services being offered.

To determine if a company you are interested in applying to shares this concept you can ask about family medical leave, job sharing, alternative work arrangements, and onsite childcare. Each features are typically found in a workplace that values life and family just as much as it does work.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Employee work satisfaction and work life balance in Pakistani perspective

As the wave of globalization captured the Pakistani markets the job became more demanding and the working hours also increases. The fast pace economical development in the country has demanded more efforts from its employees. Now organizations in Pakistan are paying off good salary packages, compensation and benefits but the nature of the work is more demanding. The work related stress, work pressure, long working hours leads to job dissatisfaction which is one of the main hinder in the factors related to work/family interferences

The researchers made their efforts to highlight the issues of job satisfaction and work life balance in one of the developing countries, Pakistan. From the Pakistan perspective the researchers identified that the employee is said to be satisfied from his/her work when he/she feels comfort while working in the organization. Whereas work life balance means that an employee is comfortably accomplishing his/her work and non work responsibilities.

Nadeem and Abbas (2009) tested a relationship of work life conflict and job satisfaction in a sample of Pakistani employees and revealed a negative relationship of the variables and suggested that the supportive management can be a medicine to minimize the conflict and enhance satisfaction among employees. However, the correlation of workload is positive and insignificant which shows that workload does not affect the job satisfaction of the employees in Pakistan.

One of the researchers while examining the impact of rewards and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation of in a sample of Pakistani sample employees defines employee work satisfaction (job satisfaction) as a pleasurable positive emotional state as a result of work appraisal from one’s job experiences (Gruneberg, 1979; Danish & Usman, 2010).

Malik, Zaheer, Khan and Ahmad, (2010) examined a relationship of work life balance/ work life conflict and job satisfaction in a sample of MBBS doctors in Pakistan and revealed no significant effect of work life balance on job satisfaction.

Another research (ijcrb.webs.com) examines the relationship of employee work satisfaction and work life balance practices in Pakistan. A sample of 450 are gathered via stratified sampling from the two big organization operating in Pakistan i.e Pakistan telecommunication limited (PTCL) and Habib bank limited (HBL) . The results of this study show no significant difference with respect to employee work satisfaction and work life balance at all the management levels .Moreover, the result of regression analysis poses a strong positive relationship between the variables which means employee satisfaction has a strong impact on work life balance. The data which collected in this study clearly indicated that HBL provide more work-life facilities than the PTCL by ensuring better education facilities, child facilities, social support, flexi time facilities and more sick and education leaves. It means that HBL has the policies related to their people that support the concept of work-life balance.

After going through several studies it is obvious that the term work life balance has been defined in different by different authors.

Survey:

We conduct a survey of Pakistan Steel Mills to identify that whether organization has HR policies in respect of work life balance and whether it is rightly implemented in the workplace. We taken interview of Mr. Iftikahr A. Barakzai , General Manager (MTC and human recourse department) and ask questions about HR polices related to work life balance that exist in Pak Steel Mills. We also distribute questionnaire to 40 employees of different department.

HR Polices in respect of WLB:

Weekly hours:

No employee shall be allowed or required to work in a mills for more than forty-five hours in any week.

Provided that an employee worker in mills engaged in work which for technical reasons must be continuous throughout the day may work for forty-eight hours in any week.

Weekly holiday:

No employee worker shall be allowed or required to work in a mills on a Saturday and Sunday.

Compensatory holidays:

Every employee should be allowed for a compensatory holidays, If worker works on Saturday and Sunday.

Daily hours:

Technical worker shall not be allowed or required to work in a mills for more than 12 hours in any day.

Non-technical worker shall not be allowed or required to work in a mills for more than 9 hours in any day.

Intervals for rest:

The periods of work of employee workers in mills during each day shall be fixed either –

Each non-technical worker gets 45 min. launch and namaz break and two 15 min. tea break.

Each technical worker gets two 45 min. launch and namaz break and two 15 min. tea break.

Annual holidays:

Every worker who has completed a period of twelve months continuous service in mills shall be allowed, during the subsequent period of twelve months holidays for a period of thirty three consecutive days, inclusive of the day or days, if any, on which he is entitled to a holiday.

Casual leave:

Every employee shall be entitled to casual leave with full pay for twenty days in a year.

Sick leave:

Every employee shall be entitled to ten days sick leave on pay in a year.

Gazetted holidays:

Every employee should get leave of 14 aug, 23 march, 25dec, 1 may, 9 nov, 11 sep, 5 feb.

Festival Holidays:

Every employee shall be allowed holidays with pay on all days declared by the federal Government to be festival holidays, e.g. (EID-UL-AZHA).

Transportation facility:

All employees shall be facilitating with free transportation.

Health programs:

Each worker can get free medical facilities and also for his or her family.

Questionnaire:

We distribute questionnaire to 40 employees to different department to determine the work life balance affect on employee satisfaction. Our findings are;

Apply Correlation:
Interpretation:

After applying correlation analysis in spss and considering work life balance as our objective variable we determined that there is no significant relation between Work-life balance and job satisfaction, working hours & working days. It means that job satisfaction have no affect on the work life balance.

Conclusion:

The results of the current study are based on the sample of 40 employees of different department of Pakistan steel mills. The result shows no significant relation are found in employee job satisfaction and work life balance.

The study that we conducted in steel mills also determine that organization has certain policies which support individual to balance their life but there is no separate policy related to work life balance that exist in the organization and it is not properly defined to the employees. So there is needed to develop the concept of separate work life balance policies that will help the organization to retain the employees within the organization with higher job satisfaction level.

The studies conducted so far in Pakistani organizational environment are unable to highlight the work life balance and work life balance practices in concrete terms except for some big organization like unilever,P&G who has a separate well defined policies related to work life balance. So there is needed to make this concept clearly examine its effect on other human and organizational factors.