toptermpaper.com

Establishing Internal Validity in Longitudinal Research with the Homeless

Introduction

When working with the homeless, it is necessary to identify potential factors that may contribute to the process of entering or exiting homelessness. These factors may take the form of demographic information, socio-economic status, and familial support, to name a few (Johnson et al., 1997; Chamberlain & Johnson, 2013). Some of these variables may be described as negative reinforcements, in that they exacerbate a person’s likelihood of experiencing prolonged homelessness (Aubry, Klodawsky, & Coulombe, 2012). These may include substance use, mental illness, arrest history, and absence of support network (Fazel et al., 2008). The temporal relationship between variables of this nature and homelessness is of particular interest to researchers. Determining whether substance use or mental illness precede and predict one’s chances of entering homelessness, or whether these variables have a greater chance of occurring following the manifestation of homelessness, will have implications for the development of interventions.

While substance use and mental health disorders are shown to occur at increased rates among the homeless as compared to the general population (Fazel et al., 2008), teasing out their particular relationship with the onset, life course, or outcome of homelessness may be difficult to do. In their longitudinal investigation of 344 single adults recruited from municipal homeless shelters in the New York City area, McQuistion, Gorroochurn,Hsu, andCaton (2013) sought to measure the constructs of substance use and mental health, among others, to discover what relationship they had with whether or not someone experienced chronic homelessness, recurring homelessness, or successful rehousing over an eighteen-month period. The authors hypothesized that recurrent homelessness would be associated with characteristics that limit or impede a person’s ability to function, and additionally sought to determine if these characteristics may be independently predictive of recurrent homelessness, or if they are associated with other outcomes (McQuistion et al. p. 2, 2013).

Defining the variables

The dependent variable in this report is described as the life course of experienced homelessness. The researchers limited their participants to exclusively include those who were experiencing homelessness for the first time, so as to observe differences in individual characteristics of those who go on to experience recurrent or chronic homelessness and those are rehoused. The authors recruited participants from the municipal shelter system, and relied on retrospective self-report to measure the continued progress of housing status. Interviews were conducted every six months, while brief check-in interviews were conducted monthly, in an effort to reduce recall bias. As the study proceeded, the authors divided participants into one of three categories: (1.) those experiencing recurrent homelessness – one or more further lapses of homelessness following rehousing, (2.) chronic homelessness – the absence of any housing following baseline interview, and (3.) stably housed – the acquisition and successful retaining of fixed permanent dwelling (McQuistion et al. p. 3, 2013). As a dependent variable, life course of homelessness in this study is sufficiently nuanced to include a wide range of possible experiential outcomes over a span of time, but the concept of “homelessness” itself is narrowed by the restraints of the study’s recruitment technique. While drawing their entire recruitment pool from the municipal shelter system of New York City ensured that participants were experiencing true homelessness (McQuistion et al. p. 2, 2013), this definition of homelessness still excludes those who may be sleeping in cars, residing in homeless encampments, occupying public spaces, or otherwise absent from the shelter system. There will be no way to say whether the results obtained in this study would be any different for people who may not utilize shelters upon entering homelessness.

The independent variables in this study are described as “risk variables” (McQuistion et al., p. 3, 2013), demographic characteristics, and personal history information. The authors describe only a few of the instruments that were used in gathering this information. Upon initiating the baseline interviews, participants were screened for criteria of DSM-IV Axis I disorders (including substance abuse disorders). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV was used for this purpose, for the sake of brevity. The only Axis II diagnosis screened was antisocial personality disorder, because it is the only Axis II disorder in which behavioral history is the primary criteria (McQuistion et al. p. 2, 2013). While this may be convenient, excluding the diagnosis of other personality disorders further limits the generalizability of this data. History of living arrangement, education, income, employment history, criminal justice involvement, history of childhood placement, and current familial support were also obtained (McQuistion et al,. 2013).

“Out-of-home placement” in childhood was defined as residing with a non-relative before the age of 18 (McQuistion et al., p. 3, 2013). Once again, the definition of this construct may be too narrow in scope, as it overlooks those who have had a similar “out-of-home placement” experiences, but have been placed with distant relatives through foster care. Familial disorganization during childhood was assessed by asking a series of questions related to parental substance abuse, parental criminality, family violence, and other similar items. According to the authors, “family disorganization” as a construct had a reliability ? coefficient of .71 (McQuistion et al. p. 3, 2013). Other reliability coefficients for the remaining instruments were not disclosed.

Relationship between variables

Following data collection after eighteen months, cases were divided into the aforementioned three categories of homeless life course (McQuistion et al. p. 3, 2013). The authors then used multinomial logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between each of the housing categories and the risk variables, while controlling for demographic characteristics (McQuistion et al. p. 6, 2013). Some noteworthy associations were discovered.

On its own, substance abuse was associated with increased rates of recurrent homelessness when examined in a bivariate analysis (McQuistion et al. p. 8, 2013). Among the risk variables and dependent variables, no isolated variable was statistically significantly associated with housing status outcome following multinomial logistic regression analysis. However, the authors point out that upon combining three factors – (1.) substance abuse within 30 days prior to baseline interview, (2.) history of arrest, and (3.) a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder – an outcome of recurrent homelessness could be exclusively predicted. These findings suggest that while no single variable may predict the life course of homelessness, a grouping of risk factors may increase the likelihood of one outcome over another. There are associations, particularly between substance use and the homeless life course, but they may not reach critical influence unless they occur in conjunction with other factors. These findings further illustrate the idea that the phenomenon of homelessness is complex, hard to explain, and involves the culmination of many forces (McQuistion et al., 2013).

Discussion – internal validity

The internal validity at issue in this study comes down to establishing the relationship between three statistically significant risk factors and an outcome of recurrent homelessness, specifically whether one causes the other. While the authors took steps to safeguard against the threat of confounding and selection bias by virtue of the potential independent variables they accounted and controlled for, there are still issues with establishing internal validity. Although the three variables that were collectively linked with recurrent homelessness were temporally established as preceding the outcome, there are alternative explanations for this. Arrest history and antisocial personality disorder have historically been closely related (Hodgins, & Cote, 1993; McCabe et al., 2012). That these both occurred together is redundant, and suggests that one variable that could have covered both of these simultaneously had to be divided to produce the appearance of a significant association. Furthermore, the authors describe a substance use disorder within the past thirty days of the baseline interview as being the third predictive variable for recurrent homelessness. That reported substance abuse was present prior to the baseline interview – and subsequently the first of many recurrent homeless episodes – throws doubt on the temporal assumption of one variable causing the other. Participants could have forseen their entry into homelessness as their support networks fell apart, began using a substance to cope, entered homelessness, and continued using. In this case, entry into homelessness may have brought on substance use, rather than the alternative. That there exists this alternative explanation casts doubt on the internal validity of asserting cause-and-effect between this article’s dependent and independent variables.

While this article does contribute to our understanding of the factors associated with recurrent homelessness – and may even suggest a temporal relationship – it is not flawless. Research attempting to identify the possible causes of a complex phenomenon like homelessness will undoubtedly encounter difficulties in doing so. Regardless, it is the collective contributions of these efforts that will continue to inform our knowledge base, and consequently our interventions, with this population.

References

Aubry, T., Klodawsky, F., & Coulombe, D. (2012). Comparing the housing trajectories of

different classes within a diverse homeless population. American Journal Of Community

Psychology, 49(1-2), 142-155.

Chamberlain, C., & Johnson, G. (2013). Pathways into adult homelessness. Journal Of

Sociology, 49(1), 60-77.

Fazel, S., Khosla, V., Doll, H., & Geddes, J. (2008). The prevalence of mental disorders among

the homeless in Western countries: Systematic review and meta-regression analysis.

PLoS Medicine 5(12), 0001–0012.

Hodgins, S., & Cote, G. (1993). Major mental disorder and antisocial personality disorder: A

criminal combination. Bulletin Of The American Academy Of Psychiatry & The Law,

21(2), 155-160.

Johnson, T. P., Freels, S. A., Parsons, J. A., & Vangeest, J. B. (1997). Substance Abuse and

homelessness: Social selection or adaptation. Addiction, 92, 437–445.

McCabe, P. J., Christopher, P. P., Druhn, N., Roy-Bujnowski, K. M., Grudzinskas, A. r., &

Fisher, W. H. (2012). Arrest types and co-occurring disorders in persons with

schizophrenia or related psychoses. The Journal Of Behavioral Health Services &

Research, 39(3), 271-284.

McQuistion, H. L., Gorroochurn, P., Hsu, E., & Caton, C. M. (2013). Risk factors associated

with recurrent homelessness after a first homeless episode. Community Mental Health Journal, doi:10.1007/s10597-013-9608-4

1

Cheniere Energy was founded in 1983 and is a world leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) company. Through its subsidiaries the company engages in the development, construction, ownership, and operation of onshore LNG receiving terminals and natural gas pipelines in the Gulf Coast of the United States. It also engages in oil and natural gas exploration and development activities. Cheniere Energy is based in Houston, Texas with offices in Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, and London – called Cheniere International UK Branch. The London office consists of six people who are responsible for sourcing and trading LNG cargoes for Cheniere as well as managing the day to day operations and activities of the office.

Purpose of the report

The purpose of this report is to examine work issues at Cheniere International UK Branch resulting from office harassment and specifically the conflict between an office assistant and the operations manager. It focuses on the interactive behaviour themes relating to communication, work relationships and leadership.

Definition of Interactive Behaviour at work

The term interactive behaviour at work refers to the reciprocal communication conduct of two or more persons. It covers both their overt behaviour and the factors and processes underlying it. It also extends to the use of communication for purposes such as self-presentation, co-operation, influencing others, working in groups and leadership. (Guirdham, 2002)

Definition of the themes
Communication

According to Guirdham (2002) communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Interpersonal communication at work may be face-to-face or indirect, formal or informal, and transmitted verbally or non-verbally. Communication is affected by language, communicator style, the differences between one- and two-way communication, power and status, culture, gender and disability. These effects on communication give rise to barriers, which can be analyzed as intrinsic, individual level and inter-group. To be high in quality, communication must overcome these barriers.

Work relationship

Interdependence and social orientations, roles, norms and conformity as well as co-operative, competitive and conflict behaviour are all concepts that help us to understand and be more effective in work relationships. Other important aspects related to the issues discussed cover conflict resolution, cultural differences, coping with prejudice, discrimination and harassment. (Guirdham, 2002) Harassment is defined as: conduct which is unreasonable, unwelcome and offensive, and which creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating working environment. (Mullins, 2005) Harassment is a potential cause of stress. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines stress as: “The adverse reaction people have to excess pressure. It is not disease. But if stress is intense and goes on for some time, it can lead to a mental and physical ill health”.

Leadership

Leadership can be defined as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organisation of which they are members” (Guirdham, 2002) There is a close relationship between leadership and management, especially in work organisation, and an increasing tendency to see them as synonymous. However, arguably there are differences between the two and it does not follow that every leader is a manager. Leadership might be viewed in more general terms, with emphasis on interpersonal behaviour in a broader context. According to Mullins (2005) due to its complex nature there are many alternative ways of analysing leadership. Leadership may be examined in terms of qualities or traits approach, in terms of the functional or group approach, as a behavioural category, in terms of styles of leadership, through the situational approach and contingency models, and in terms of distinction between transactional and transformational leadership.

Problem identification

The issue discussed in this report involves the deteriorating relationship between a manager and an assistant (myself) in a small office environment. In addition the report looks at the behaviour of a director of the company involved to whom the employees were directly responsible to.

Matters discussed include the identification of key points of conflict between the two persons involved, the style of management, the reaction of fellow employees, the interaction with the director involved and steps taken to resolve the issue.

Background and causes of problems

I joined the Cheniere International UK Branch in 2008 as an office assistant. Working at their London office in Mayfair where there were three other employees at my level, two were English and one was an American. I was the only one having English as a second language.

The operations manager was a mature English lady with a very strong personality and an accretive attitude. I noticed that I was being asked to do considerably more work than the other assistants and that the manager was querying my efforts every day. At first I thought this was because I was new to the job and that it was a way of measuring my capabilities and ability to cope with the stresses of the work. It became clear however that this was much more of a particular attitude toward me as compared to the other employees.

Maybe write something about working in a multi-cultural environment or possibly highlight that there was predominance of white Anglo-Saxon employees and as such no exposure to different cultures or ethnic diversity.

Inter-cultural problems arise when members of an in-group perceive members of an out-group as inferior. This can promote in-group favouritism, increased tendency to stereotype members of out-groups and negative attitudes to actual or perceived cultural differences. It can result in exclusion of members of out-groups, negative evaluations and harassment.

In a small office environment it would be unusual for someone in a position of authority to feel threatened by a single junior employee.

It is difficult to give any clear instances of harassment, as such, as this was a subtle but constant undermining of my position on a daily basis. This was apparent in her constant criticism of my work and references to my Polish background and English not being my native language. I made a point of asking the other assistants to check my work and they always said it was fine and that was just “her way” and not to worry. One occurrence that began to give me an insight to her behaviour was when she asked me, in front of all the other assistants, why “I did not work as a nanny or cleaner as all other Polish girls did”.

This indicated to me that there was the possibility that her actions were not actually based upon my performance but upon a much deeper prejudice and possible stereotyping of Polish people (either collectively or by gender).

In a strange way this was a relief as until then my confidence had been undermined and I felt under stress at work. It seemed nothing I ever did was right, I was often depressed, both at work and at home and it was difficult to understand why she picked on me and what was causing the problem. It also made it difficult for me to try to see how I could resolve the problem.

Being aware of the personality clash between us I was trying to understand what caused her hostile behaviour and I blamed myself that it was I who caused the conflict, but on the other hand I knew I normally never have any major problems engaging with people, being an easygoing and friendly person. The Thoms-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire can be useful in explaining my stance in the conflict. Scoring 9 in avoiding and 9 in accommodating styles shows that I am not an assertive person, do not wish to hurt people’s feelings, obey orders and I am generally a selfless type of person. (See Appendix x for a copy of the Thoms-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire you took.)

It was very difficult to please and satisfy her probably because she developed irrational beliefs and prejudiced views about me. If being from Poland meant to her that I should be a nanny or cleaner she maybe believed that people of other races or backgrounds are in some way inferior and therefore deserve to be treated as second class. According to Tehrani (1996) the lack of self awareness in harassers increases their fears and prejudice. Harassers never feel strong enough to test their views objectively, preferring to live in an irrational world, where they need to continually support their prejudiced views with biased evidence. To explain even deeper her behavior I would say she portrayed the actions of a stigmatizer.

Freidson (1983) stated that in Erving Goffman’s theory of social stigma “a stigma is an attribute, behaviour, or reputation which is socially discrediting in a particular way: it causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an undesirable, rejected stereotype rather than in an accepted, normal one”. In this manager’s eyes I was different; she may not want to accept me because of my nationality, my different accent, my origin.

Goffman divides the individual’s relation to a stigma into three categories: the stigmatized are those who bear the stigma; the normals are those who do not bear the stigma; and the wise are those among the normals who are accepted by the stigmatized as “wise” to their condition. I then represent a stigmatized person, the manager is normal and rest of our team can be seen as wise.

Strategic Implications of the problem

My case can be seen as a micro problem because it describes a situation in a small office and only a few people are involved in the conflict. I am the only person who was harmed and it could be argued that it is difficult to show macro implications from this issue. However, I would like to stress that harassment at the workplace occurs very often and causes a lot of problems. According to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) harassment in the workplace costs employers in the UK more than ?2bn per year in sick pay, staff turnover and lower productivity. 19 million working days are lost each year as a direct result of workplace harassment. 1 in 4 people report that they have experienced harassment in the last 5 years. 70% of HR professionals have witnessed or have been aware of harassment in their organisation. Organisations that fail to address the problem of unacceptable behaviour at workplace pay a heavy cost in terms of loss of staff, reduced innovation, morale and sickness absence. This is in addition to the cost of litigation and bad public relations (Tehrani, 1996). My issue did not affect the organisation in a significant way, except high staff retention – within 1 year two office assistants left the company because of Jane’s difficult character.

As mentioned before 25% of the population suffer from harassment. By describing my personal experience I raise an issue that affects a lot of people and something that organizations have to deal with. Harassment is related with work relationship – one of the main themes which are described in this paper. According to Tehrani (1996) harassment has a number of common elements; it involves a hurtful behaviour, this behaviour is repeated over a period of time and the person being harassed finds it difficult to defend themselves. People being harassed will also have difficulty in being rational in their thinking, believing the acts or views of a harasser are the views of everyone else. When I was working for Cheniere I was felling sad, negative and worthless. In addition my feelings were heightened with outbursts of anger, crying, loneliness and hurt. Lack of pleasure in almost everything that I was doing was significant and difficult to cope with. Being humiliated resulted in the lack of self confidence to assert myself and challenge the unacceptable behaviour of operations manager. It needs to be added that harassment is linked with stress. Guirdham (2002) stated: “Some of the major effects of stress include sleep trouble, tiredness, being unable to cope well in conflict situations, wanting to be left alone, smoking, drinking and eating too much, being unable to influence or persuade people and finding it difficult to get up in the mornings”. I recall that I was often very tired, could not sleep, and did not want to see my friends or family.

Some people were asking me why I let her be abusive and rude towards me. The answer is – because she had power over me. As I mentioned I held the lowest position in the office and I was supposed to listen to everyone and doing whatever they needed at work. Among French and Raven’s (1959) power sources there is one which can be implemented in this situation – coercive power. (Podsakoff and Schriesheim, 1985) Threats and punishment are common tools of coercion. I was often given undesirable tasks by Jane. There is one in particular where she spilled tea on her desk and asked me to clean it. My example demonstrates that this source of power can often lead to problems and in many circumstances it involves abuse. Coercive power can cause unhealthy behaviour and dissatisfaction in the workplace. (mindtools.com)

From my above evaluation it can be stated that the operations manager was definitely my significant other at that time. She had very strong influence on my self-esteem and my behaviour.

Many organisations and their managers and executives are guilty of ignoring, tolerating or sustaining conflicts and harassment (Guirdham, 2002). This statement confirms the behaviour of my director who was trying to explain me that I should accept the fact that Jane is generally a difficult person and therefore should not take it personally what she says and how she behaves. Lack of leadership qualities can be seen in my boss’s attitude. A large portion of the existing literature on leadership focuses only on the positive traits of leaders. However, the so-called “dark side of leadership”, or negative personal traits of leaders, has received relatively less attention. Also, in practice, leadership is mostly evaluated in terms of the positive traits and strengths of leaders, even though certain organizational factors and followers’ characteristics significantly contribute to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of leaders (Toor and Ogunlana, 2009). The director was not an effective leader. A leader who lacks character or integrity will not be seen as a competent one. Even though he was intelligent, affable, persuasive, or savvy, he was also prone to rationalizing unethical behaviour. Office harassment is a very unethical issue and should be resolved by a company’s leader, but it was not in my case. Moreover leaders not attuned to the needs of the employees are not effective either. Successful leaders focus on workers satisfaction and loyalty. They should find ways to consistently engage them and incorporate them into company’s policies and make sure they know and obey their code of conduct. If they ignore, mistreat, or otherwise do not value their employees, they will not be valued for competences. Furthermore good leaders should communicate effectively across mediums, constituencies, environments of course employees. My boss was aware that Jane’s behavior was harmful but did not react and did not want to be involved in the conflict. This observation can lead to a statement that the director represented a laissez faire leadership style. According to Flynn (2009) this type of a leader describes passive leaders who are reluctant to influence subordinates or give direction. They generally refrain from participating in group or individual decision making and to a large extent, abdicate their leadership role. Subordinates are given considerable freedom of action and, therefore, seem likely to maximize their power and influence. Although laissez- faire leadership can be very successful in some environments where followers are responsible for self-monitoring, problem solving in my case it was not what I needed. I was looking for a mediator in my conflict with Jane, someone who can direct and take steps to resolve the problem. From Blake Mouton Managerial Grid perspective, it could be argued that the director represented Impoverished Leadership which is known for creating a work environment that is not satisfying and not motivating. The result is a place of disorganization, dissatisfaction and disharmony. (Rollinson, 2005) My boss had low concern for employee satisfaction because knowing I was depressed and was in a conflict he was not concerned about it.

A major danger of stereotyping is that it can block out accurate perception of an individual and lead to potential situation of prejudice or discrimination. This in consequence can build communication barriers. Jane’s tendency to ascribe negative characteristics to me on the basis of a general categorisation was a simplified process of her perception. Her stereotyping process based on my nationality and education had a significant implication to the atmosphere in our office and my wellbeing. Her prejudice caused communication problem between us. According to Erven (2008) stereotyping is a barrier to communication when it causes people to act as if they already know the message that is coming from the sender or worse, as if no message is necessary because “everybody already knows.”

People stereotype genders, races, religions, and cultures. They combine them to say things but often incorrectly creating assumptions. Stereotypes develop from reality. “Poles steal British jobs” became a stereotype because a lot of Poles are poor and had to learn how to survive and came here to look for a job but they do not deserve to be stereotyped. It might be true that most of Polish women work as nannies or cleaners but, it does not identify me, my needs, and my weaknesses. So if Jane used the stereotypical view of Polish women towards me, she missed who I actually am, as an individual. I wanted to communicate, talk to her and did not want to be lost in the stereotypical concept. People are complex and need to be understood as individuals, not stereotypes. Uniqueness is what gets lost in the stereotypes and lack of proper communication. People should listen, understand, consider the whole person, and that requires rejecting the preconceived assumptions, based on the stereotypes that are created and used.

Communication is at the heart of many interpersonal problems faced by employers.

Understanding the communication process and then working at improvement provide a recipe for becoming more effective communicators. Knowing the common barriers to communication is the first step to minimizing their impact. Stereotyping is a barrier to proper communication, it cannot just disrupt communication, it can destroy it.

The significance of non-verbal communication and body language need to be evaluated in this report as in my case it was more important than verbal communication. According to Mullins (2005) non-verbal communication includes inferences drawn from posture, gesture, touch, invasion of personal space, extent of eye contact, tone of voice or facial expression. Very often the operations manger was using proper language and if was not obvious for others to see the conflict between us and her antipathy.

Her tone of voice and facial expression were sending messages that I was not accepted and were unwelcomed. Mullins (2005) adds also that in our face-to face communication with other people the messages about our feelings and attitudes come only 7 per cent from the words we use, 38 per cent from our voice and 55 per cent from body language, including facial expression. Significantly, when body language such as gestures and tone of voice conflicts with the words, greater emphasis is likely to be placed on the non-verbal message. He also suggests that when verbal and non-verbal messages are in conflict (like in my case regarding communication with the operations manager) accepted wisdom is that the non-verbal signals should be the ones to rely on, and that what is not said is frequently louder than what is said, revealing attitudes and feelings in a way words cannot express.

Alternative options for resolving problem

Leave the job or stay.

People have bad days at work. But if that bad day is every day, it might be time to consider leaving the job. Some causes of job dissatisfaction are impossible to alter, and in this case employees may well be better off making an exit. Leaving the job is usually a very difficult decision and can often cause mixed emotions: joy because of moving on to something better, sadness at losing people we enjoyed work with, relief we don’t have to cope with the problem and conflicts anymore. Uncertainty about the future and new job has usually a big impact on people’s decisions. I was also concerned about my future.

Staying with Cheniere was an alternative, but I was concerned how I can change the atmosphere and Jane’s behaviour. Talking to her or to my boss were the options to make my work conditions better. Alternatively I could stay with the company and try to accept the environment and ambiance, and try to reduce sensitivity to hostility or displays of prejudice. Mullins (2005) evaluated difficult people: “Perhaps our reluctance to identify, and then directly address, conflict within organisations is based upon the widely held belief that conflict is inevitable, negative and unmanageable”. There is a tendency to see conflict as a result one person’s personality. Conflict may be inevitable, but how dramatically situations could be changed if we could also view it as positive and manageable. What if we think of these situations as raising questions of difference? What if we were to make a shift away from blaming individuals and their personalities, recognizing instead that it is through normal human interaction that outward expressions of difference are produced? Unfortunately coping with difficult people is not one of my strong points.

Another option was to beat her at her own game. Act like her, be unsympathetic, telling colleagues how unfair she is. This option would be very difficult because she held higher position and therefore had power and because I respect people it wound be something against my values and beliefs.

Choice of option

I was trying to resolve the problem. I talked to the director but was ignored and was told that I should accept the situation as it is and accept Jane’s behaviour because she is difficult and she is not going to change her attitude. Another advice was that I should be less emotional and try to be mentally stronger. He did not wish to speak to Jane to ask to change her attitude and help her to cope with her hostile behaviour. Tehrani (1996) argue that the role of leader in developing the skills which enable people to communicate in an open and assertive manner is perhaps one of the most effective tools in addressing conflicts. The support of an assertive and caring manager is an important aspect of rehabilitating a harasser. Harassers need support when they are developing the new skills and behaviors in communication which will replace the harassing behaviours. I also talked to Jane but I was told that I read her intentions badly. She was trying to tell me that there was no issue between us and I should not waste her time for such conversations.

Rationale for choice

Because I had an interesting job, was satisfied with my compensation I did not want to leave thus I was trying to find a resolution. I was not accepted by one of the co-workers but I did not want to be a victim of harassment. I was trying to be a survivor. According to Tehrani (1996) victims of harassment frequently express the view that there is little they can do to prevent the harassment taking place. They have no choice but to put up with what is being done to them. This perception of lack of personal control or power must be changed if the harassee is ever to make sense of what has happened to them. Survivors, on the other hand, are able to begin to make choices and decisions about what they want to do to stop or resolve the harassment. Survivors of harassment take an active part in deciding how they would like things to be handled when resolving their problems. They are keen to take responsibility for making things happen, rather than behaving passively, allowing others, however well meaning, to take over control. One of the main skills survivors of harassment learn is to be assertive in expressing what they want and do not want to happen during the harassment investigation; to be able to say yes or no regardless of the wishes of others. Assertiveness is also one of the most important skills needed to prevent harassees becoming victims of harassment in the future. Finally the survivors of harassment are able to look forward to the future, a future without harassment, while the victims concentrate on the harassment itself, rather than on how they can change things to prevent the harassment occurring again. Although I was trying to help myself, was looking for help from the directors and also arranged a meeting with Jane, nothing changed.

Implementation of Option

I eventually decided to leave. It took me 2 weeks to find another job. The difference in the working environment was immense. New co-workers were pleasant and friendly. I am glad that I took control over the situation and left the company. I will never fully forget this experience but sometimes we should experience and accept the extremes, because if the contrast is lost, we lose appreciation.

Time for Implementation

I was working for this company for 5 months before handing in my resignation.

Conclusion

In recent years there has been an increasing recognition of the harm that could be done to individuals who become the victims of harassment or bullying. Although there have been significant moves to introduce legislation and guidelines that deal with the introduction of organizational policy and procedures on harassment and bullying, the occurrence of harassment is still common in many British organizations. My case in this paper can be perceived as a representation of this problem for many organizations. This is not an easy issue to deal with for mangers, people who cause harassment and most of all for people who suffer from hostile behavior. Background and causes of such conflicts are often implicit and not easy to resolve. Understanding the communication process and communication barriers is important to effectively control the problem. Leadership skills and appropriate use of power can be crucial.

Introduce ICCMW Services in Hong Kong

Integrated Services in Hong Kong

Start from 1991, the establishment of first integrated youth services centre, there are more and more integrated services has been developed in Hong Kong. It is believed that integrated services generated a lot of advantages, such as avoiding wastage of resources and duplication of services. For different target group of people, different kind of integrated services has been developed afterwards. Nowadays, there are integrated youth services (ICYSC), integrated family services (IFSC), integrated elderly services (DECC), integrated disable services (DSC), and integrated mental wellness services (ICCMW) in Hong Kong. In this paper, the integrated services of mental wellness in Hong Kong will be focused and discussed. The strengths and limitations of this integrated social service would be analysed, as well as the improvement of implementation.

Background of Integrated Mental Wellness Services

In March 2009, Social Welfare Department set up the first Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness (ICCMW) in Tin Shui Wai. The major aims of setting up ICCMW are enhancing the social support and re-integrating the ex-mentally ill persons into the community (Social Welfare Department, 2014). The goals of ICCMW are providing one stop services and accessible community supports for the needy. The targeted service users are discharged mental patients, persons with suspected mental health problems, their families or carers of above persons, and people who are interested in understanding and improving their mental health. ICCMW has been established in all the 18 districts in October 2010. Upon now, there are 24 ICCMW provided by 11 non-governmental organization (Social Welfare Department, 2014).

Integration of Services

Generally, there are three integration levels that integrated services have to address the different needs of clients, includes ICCMW, which are linkage, coordination, and full integration. For the first level, linkage, ICCMW would like to link up the service users and the particular services. For example, it provides information for people who concern about their stress level. For the second level, coordination, ICCMW would serve the function of coordinator between systems and agencies, process to address problem of service users. For example, follow up the case which just has been discharged from hospital by providing day training programs or counseling services in the centre or in other organizations, is a kind of cross-sectional operation between medical and mental wellness sectors. For the third level of integration, full integration, multidisciplinary team cooperation, and community integration would be the targets of ICCMW. There are nurses, occupational therapists, doctors, clinical psychiatrists, social workers as a team to provide mental rehabilitation services for clients, in order to let clients re-integrated to the community.

Using the agency of The Wellness Centre in Tin Shui Wai of New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (New Life) as an example, it provides prevention services and intervention by using recovery-oriented approach. For the prevention, New Life offers a lot of mental health promotions and public education, letting general people have more understanding about mental health and mental illness. For the group work intervention, New Life provides support groups, carer volunteer training, and psycho-education programs for clients. For the individual level intervention, New Life provides counselling, peer support worker training, vocational planning and development services, wellness programs, and so on (New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, 2013). These kinds of intervention and therapy are for the goal of making people with mental health problem to reintegrate to community.

Strengths of ICCMW

There are a lot of advantages of setting up integrated services in Hong Kong, so do ICCMW. The first advantage of ICCMW is, convenient to services users. For the service users, ICCMW is multi-functional which provides occupational training, vocational training, care and support, and leisure opportunities. For the public who concern about their mental wellness, they can self approach ICCMW and ask for information and related services. Services are easier accessed nowadays.

The second advantage of ICCMW is better coordination among workers and services. After integration, there are multidisciplinary within a team in ICCMW, such as occupational therapist, nurses, doctors, and social workers. They have regular case meetings for discussing how to manage the case, and it is believed that coordination would be better between each division due to more communication.

The third advantage of ICCMW is reducing stigmatisation. ICCMW provides different kind of services, not only giving therapy and counselling for people with mental illness but also providing public education and volunteer trainings for mentally ill person or the caregivers. Public education serves the function of letting general public know more about mental health, and letting them to understand that it is not only refer to mental illness but also mental wellness related to everyone. Also, the chance of letting mentally ill person doing voluntary work to community helps them integrating back to community. Therefore, multidimensional services provided by ICCMW would let the concept of mental health and also the mentally ill person integrated into community.

Limitations of ICCMW

A coin has two sides, although ICCMW provides lot of advantages to service users and community, it is not faces no limitations.

Firstly, ICCMW is hard to select centre location. Usually, ICCMW have to select a location for services centre which is close to community for residents convenience, however, there are lots of limitation of setting up centre in estates. Many of the ICCMW reflects that they are hard to find a permanent premises which are large enough for group services and training. And the reason may attribute to the approval time of Welfare Department are too long (Cheung, 2011). In addition, there are objective sounds reject if ICCMW is too close to community or located in estate. For example, in 2010, the residents and the district councilor of Tuen Mun Wu King Estate objected one ICCMW established in their estate, and requested the moving out of ICCMW (MingPao Health, 2011). The major reason is due to stigmatization of mentally ill people who are dangerous and would attack public suddenly. Therefore, residents object if ICCMW too close to the residents.

Secondly, there is shortage of man-power. As integrated, ICCMW needs professional staff from different discipline such as nurses, clinical psychiatrists, and doctors. It is all known that, these kinds of professions are now shortage in Hong Kong. Even an ICCMW start in estate, they may face the problem of down man-power for a period of time.

Thirdly, it is time-consuming to have meetings for multidiscipline to discuss and examine the case management. Since services integrated, operation complexity would be increased. Regular meeting is essential to understand the roles and views of other professions, however, caseworks and pressures would relatively increase. That makes the workers may easily burnt out for the increased duties.

Lastly, there is lack of centralized data for different agencies. Although the communication and interaction between agencies, departments, or bureaus increased under integrated services, they do not have share information between each other. For example, a mental illness patient who just discharged from hospital with marriage problem, Medical Social Services Department in Hospital, Integrated Family Service Center (IFSC), and ICCMW would be involved in this case. Since there are no platforms for information sharing between agencies, the social workers in ICCMW may need to contact IFSC social workers and medical social workers particularly for further information. Procedures may be duplicated due to lack of data transparency.

Suggestions for ICCMW

First of all, it is suggested that increase the linkage between agencies and organization by developing a platform to share essential information. For example, the doctors in hospital can provide medical reports, integrated progress notes provided by social workers from related agencies etc. It is believed that can raise the transparency of information and data.

In addition, it is suggested that Social Welfare Department can simplify the application system of centre location, to avoid the situation that appropriate venue has been rented by other private parties during the long and complicated approval process.

Furthermore, it is important to strengthen the public education for public understanding the nature and image of ICCMW. As residents have misunderstanding about people with mental health problem are all dangerous to society, public education is necessary to eliminate their incorrect perception. It is recommended that government should strengthen the advertisement and civil education in community and education institutions, to let people have correct concept about recovered mental ill person that they are also a part of society, and not only harmful to society.

Finally, it is also suggested that more resources should be granted for ICCMW. As ICCMW is the newest service within integrated services since 2009, the resources and experiences are not yet well-developed. Therefore, resources like funding for ICCMW allow them to purchase more useful treatment tools for clients, or hire more professional staff for relieving the pressure of existing staff.

Conclusion

Integration of services in Hong Kong are designed to fulfill different needs of clients, and avoiding wastage of resources. ICCMW generates the advantages of convenience to service users, better cooperation among services workers, and reduce the stigmatization of mentally ill people in society. However, there are still some limitations that ICCMW facing, such as difficulty of selecting centre location, shortage of man-power, time consuming of multidisciplinary meeting, and lack of centralized data. It is believed that ICCMW is still in the developing process, if government provides certain assistances and recourses for them, the integrated services would benefit more and more people in need in the coming future.

References

Cheung, K. C. (2011), Hong Kong Social Workers General Union. Service Series- Rehabilitation Services, Retrieved on 29 April 2014 from http://www.hkswgu.org.hk/node/70

MingPao Health (2011), “Only 6 out of 24 ICCMW location confirmed” retrieved on 5 May 2014, from http://www.mingpaohealth.com/cfm/news3.cfm?File=20110213/news/gok1.txt

New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (2013), Annual Report 2012-2013. Retrieved on 2 May 2014, from http://www.nlpra.org.hk/information_n_publications/Annual_report/pdf/049_117_2013.aspx

Social Welfare Department (2014), Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness (ICCMW), Services Description, retrieved on 2 May 2014, from http://www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_rehab/sub_listofserv/id_iccmw/

1

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.