Piercing the Corporate Veil England and Wales

Introduction The main reason for forming a corporation is to protect owners from liabilities and debts of their ventures. This guarantees the continuity of the corporation. However, we have noted cases whereby courts have reached a point of considering a separate business enterprise as a way of gaining unfair advantages over creditors and other claimants.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Piercing the Corporate Veil: England and Wales specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Moreover, it is clear that courts apply various standards for various types of business entities. Therefore, such variations in decision-making can affect the future decisions of courts when piercing the veils of other entities, which can have significant ramifications for the owners. This paper looks at circumstances under which courts can decide to pierce the corporate veil using cases from England and Wales. It also reviews both past and recent tren ds and how they may affect future decisions of courts. Piercing the Corporate veil Shareholders of business corporations and limited liability entities design their organisations to protect themselves from creditors. Individual investors take risks by making investments in new or existing businesses. The public favours creations of new entities because of job creation. In addition, they also act as sources of taxes for the government. Corporations and limited liability companies are responsible for business developments as they protect their owners from failure resulting from business activities. Thus, if the new corporation fails, it is responsible for all debts it incurred as a new venture. However, corporations protect shareholders from such claims. Thus, the business owner has no obligation to pay such debts unless there are personal guarantees of the owner against debts. Therefore, in case of lawsuits, business entities face risks of losing their assets. However, the corporate veil protects assets of the owner. Thus, we can say that not many entrepreneurs would risk their personal wealth without a corporate shield.Advertising Looking for essay on business corporate law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More We have to note that the lawsuit may only remain as a form of threat to the business only if the owner treats that business as a distinct and separate entity from himself. In most cases, the court may establish that the corporation has no real assets to pay for its debts. In this case, the creditor may seek to convince the court that a corporate shield should not apply in the case. Instead, the creditor will strive to recover the debts from personal assets of the owner. This practice of collecting debt is piercing the corporate veil in order to get the court’s decision regarding the owner’s obligations for the creditor in debts incurred. Shareholder Protection and Piercing the Corporate Veil Courts have often delivered some controversial rulings about piercing the corporate veil. The landmark case of Salomon v A Salomon Co Ltd of 1897 is one of such court rulings. The recent case that has influenced the idea of piercing the corporate veil is the case of VTB Capital Plc v Nutritek International Corp (VTB Capital) of 2011. There is also the case of Antonio Gramsci Shipping Corp v Stepanovs (Gramsci) of 2011. These cases have created new interests regarding the scope of piercing the corporate veil (Pugh, 2012). In the case of Gramsci, the Court ruled that it was appropriate to pierce the corporate veil of Stepanovs so that Gramsci could enforce terms of the agreement under the contract. The Court based its decision on the fact that the owners established the company to perpetuate fraud by abusing structure and personality of the company. The UK has effective Corporate Governance Codes (the Code). It works based on â€Å"comply or explain† principle. This gives it flexibility of adoption among corporations of the UK. The Code has gained popularity due to its effectiveness in promoting corporate governance in the UK. According to the Code, â€Å"corporate governance is the system by which board of directors direct and control companies† (Financial Reporting Council, 2012). The main reason for corporate governance is to promote effective growth of business through prudent management, which bring the long-term success of the corporation. As a result, the Code ensures that corporations exist to serve interests of shareholders and the public.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Piercing the Corporate Veil: England and Wales specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, the Code can only controls regulatory practices of corporations, but it cannot control their internal affairs such as acquisitions of assets or credit facilities. Thus, corporations are liable for their own d ebts. In some cases, there are exceptions regarding directors or shareholders obligations to creditors (Rogowski, 1999). Thus, creditors may seek personal assets of directors and shareholders. Given such conditions, courts may pierce the corporate veil of the corporation and hold shareholders liable for debts. Shareholders have enjoyed limited personal liabilities. This implies that such directors and shareholders are not liable for creditors (Gower Davies, 2003). Occasionally, shareholders or directors may fail to uphold financial integrity and effective corporate governance requirements. In these cases, directors or shareholders risk becoming personally liable for corporation debts. This is because creditors or the court may establish that there is no difference between the shareholder and the corporation. Theories of piercing the corporate veil The principle of piercing the corporate veil differs from one country to another. It also creates confusion in the corporate law because of the idea of limited liability. The views among corporate law scholars point to interpretations of limited liability and corporation activities when handling the corporate veil issue. Two theories exist to explain the idea of piercing the corporate veil. They also explain why courts can lift the corporate veil. First, there is the alter ego or self-theory. This theory looks at â€Å"if there is a distinctive nature of the boundaries between the corporation and its shareholders† (Forji, 2007). Second, instrumentality theory focuses on the use of a company by â€Å"its owners in ways that benefit the owner and not the corporation† (Forji, 2007). Thus, on any given case, the court shall decide which theory applies in a particular case. However, courts have not been effective in piercing the corporate veil and may only do it to achieve equitable results for both parties.Advertising Looking for essay on business corporate law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Situations under which the court lift the veil of corporation Occasionally, courts may ignore the provision of limited liability and pierce the corporate veil. This applies when the court perceives that shareholders may not be different from the company. In this case, the court disregards the provision of corporations as a separate entity. Instead, it treats the two as a single entity (Payne, 1997). In English and Wales company laws, the courts insist on establishing a distinction between the business and its owners. Thus, Anglo-Saxon courts reflect on several issues before piercing the corporate veil. These may include some irregularities in the companies, in the partnership, groups, and subsidiaries. The company may be a sham, facade, or a creation of another company with intentions of facilitating evasion of fiduciary requirements. In this case, they automatically disregard the separate personality of the company in question (Bainbridge, 2001). Fraud English and Wales courts have pierced the corporate veil in cases involving fraud. In this case, a shareholder of a corporation establishes the corporation for evasion legal or fiduciary obligations. This is when the intention to create a corporation is to deny the creditors’ pre-established legal rights and refute claims. The famous case is that of Re Edelsten ex parte Donnelly. In this case, the court did not ascertain fraud of the owner of the company, who failed to take the responsibility regarding his creditors basing his decision on limited liability. This means that the court could not rule out fraud as the establishment of the business was not out of sham (Farrar, 1990). Shareholder created the company in order to protect any property acquired after bankruptcy from ending with the one of bankrupt trustees. Creditors incur unjust costs Sometimes, creditors may incur unfair costs or losses and the court may decide to pierce the veil. Unfairness may cause courts to pierce the corporate veil. The cou rt may argue that it would result to justice and fairness for the creditor. Lack of a clear separation between the entity and the owner Some business owners have failed to establish a distinction between their personal lives and their entities. In this case, the plaintiff may request the court to declare the business as a sham entity, which does not exist. Therefore, owners take personal operation of the business and are liable for debts incurred. Agency Some companies operate as corporate groups. Thus, the parent company may not be clear. Scholars argue that the parent company may conceal its identity under the agency name. The courts have argued that companies do not exist to serve the purpose of being agents for their owners. Instead, they are separate entities. The case that explains the role of agency in piercing the corporate veil is Barrow v CSR Ltd (Forji, 2007). However, it is difficult to establish that the company operates as agent to its shareholders. Thus, courts may re fuse to pierce the veil in that case. This was the case of The Electric Light and Power Supply Corporation Limited v Cormack where the court did not pierce the veil (Forji, 2007). Corporate groups The courts also do not hesitate to pierce the veil in corporate partnerships. A good example to illustrate this instance is the case of Bluecorp Pty Ltd v ANZ Executors and Trustee Co Ltd (supra). The court declared, â€Å"Inter-relationship of the corporate structure and the degree of their participation in shared enterprise with benefits reaped from steps initiated and plans executed† (Forji, 2007). Sham The court may consider a sham or a facade when lifting the corporate veil. In this case, the real plans behind the establishment of the entity are vague and may not be real. Briefly, it is something that makes false appearance, disguise, and or serves to conceal the real purpose behind its existence. The case of Sharrment Pty Ltd v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy served to explain a sham (Forji, 2007). Fraud and sham go together. Courts have maintained that an argument for a sham also depends on an argument for a fraud. This is because shareholders cannot perpetuate fraud using a legal and an existing entity. Consequences of Piercing the Corporate Veil If courts pierce the corporate veil, then the business owner become personally liable for the entity’s debts. Thus, the owner loses rights to limited liability. Instead, the creditors turn to the shareholders personal properties, homes, other investments, and bank accounts to clear their business debts. The recent arguments in the case of Gramsci and VTB Capital highlight how the judges give diverse views about piercing the corporate veil of an entity. Judges argues for or against their decisions regarding rulings of whether or not they ought to have pierced the corporate veil. Several corporate scholars review the case with increased interest to understand whether the courts have established cases of in justice and impropriety in the case. A closer look at the VTB Capital Inc. v. Nutritek International Corp The Court of England allowed for an appeal in the case of VTB, which has raised several questions regarding the legality of piercing or lifting the corporate veil. This case shall provide an opportunity for the Court to explain circumstances under which a Court can pierce the veil. It shall also demonstrate the Court’s position regarding the shareholders or directors of the company with reference to facility agreements. We have to recognise that there is no definite rule on how the case can go as the decision entirely rests with the Court. In all, this case shall set a new precedent on the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil. The impact of VTB case shall extend beyond England and Wales to other countries under the Commonwealth influence. Facts about VTB case This case comes from the failure of Russagroprom LLC (RAP) of to repay its loan to Capital (VTB). RAP acquired a loan facility in order to facilitate an acquisition of some dairy companies for Nutritek International Corporation (Nutritek). Nutritek is the defendant in this case. VTB is an English company operating as a subsidiary of the Russian Bank, JSC VTB Bank of Moscow. VTB granted a facility to RAP through a ‘Facility Agreement’ terms. They also executed many interest rate swaps (ISA). RAP is a Russian company. However, when RAP failed to service the facility, VTB saw it appropriate to sue the loan beneficiary, Nutritek. Nutritek is a Virgin Island company of England. VTB also sued two foreign affiliates of Nutritek. In addition, the list also included a Russian (Malofeev) VTB claimed as the owner and controller of the companies. VTB argued that Malofeev was the main beneficiary of the facility, owner and controller of Nutritek, its foreign affiliates, and RAP (Kain, 2012). The company first made its claims under tort. It claimed that Nutritek and other defendants were liab le for deceit or fraud and conspiracy. VTB claimed that Nutritek and its associates engaged in two acts of fraudulent activities that facilitated its entry into the facility arrangement and ISA. First, VTB claimed that Nutritek and its associates misrepresented that RAP was an independent entity with its own arm of control. Second, VTB also claimed that Nutritek and its associates misrepresented the actual value of the company to its auditors, Ernst Young Valuation Company, which conducted valuation for VTB Moscow. VTB acquired an ex parte order that allowed it serve Nutritek and its associate ex juris in 2011. Ex parte order also had a â€Å"worldwide freezing of Malofeev’s assets of US $200 million† (Kain, 2012). Nutritek’s reaction aimed at setting the orders aside. As a result, VTB realised it was appropriate to amend its claims. In this new claim, VTB claimed that Nutritek and its associates acted jointly on several occasions with RAP to disregard the Faci lity Agreement and ISA arrangements. VTB argued that, under these new claims, the Court would pierce the corporate veil of RAP. VTB based its main argument rested on the fact that the â€Å"Facility Agreement contained forum-selection and choice-of-law clauses in favour of England† (Kain, 2012). VTB claimed that the Court could consider all defendants as responsible parties to the facility under the Facility Agreement. In this case, the Court could apply â€Å"the English forum-selection clause, or base the case on the English CPR Practice Direction, which permitted service ex juris in relation to contractual claims† (Kain, 2012). Discussion of the case Judge Arnold dismissed VTB’s claims in November 2011. On the other hand, he granted the Nutritek’s motion of the service ex juris order. This also extended to the worldwide freezing of Malofeev’s assets. The judge claimed that VTB had not established whether England was the appropriate location to t ry the case. Judge Arnold maintained that even if the Court pierced the corporate veil of RAP, it could not guarantee that the legal consequences would mean that the Court could enforce the Facility Agreement and ISA against Nutritek and associates. Further, the Court reaffirmed Arnold’s ruling on June 20, 2012 at the English Court of Appeal. Lloyd argued that there was no such principle as piercing the corporate veil. However, the Judge had only one provision for VTB. It argued that the Court could look into the case based on the company’s corporate sham or facade. In this case, the Judge argued that the case of was only valid under â€Å"special circumstances, which indicate that it was a mere faà §ade concealing the true facts† (Kain, 2012). The Judge asserted that: â€Å"†¦ In cases in which that is done, the authorities show that it will or may lead to the granting of remedies against the company which, veil piercing apart, might appear in principle to be available only against those controlling it; and, equally, against the controllers when they might appear in principle to be available only against the company†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. (VTB Capital plc v Nutritek International Corp and others [2012] EWCA Civ 808). Lloyd also maintained that the Court had the competency and the capacity to pierce the corporate veil in case there was no other means to ensure that the company and its controllers take responsibility for their wrongdoing. Lloyd also established the following arguments from the case. First, Lloyd noted that ownership and controls of entities alone do not guarantee piercing the corporate veil. Second, the court cannot simply pierce the veil in â€Å"the interest of justice even if there is no third party in the case† (Kain, 2012). Third, the Court can â€Å"only pierce the veil on grounds of impropriety† (Kain, 2012). Fourth, there must be a connection between the use of the company’s structures in order to evade or conceal liability and the impropriety. He also notes that the company’s engagement in impropriety alone does guarantee piercing its corporate veil. Fifth, the Court argued that it was necessary to establish both an act of impropriety, control, and ownership of the entity by the offender. In this case, the offender uses the corporate to conceal the real facts with the intention of concealing impropriety. Finally, the Court also recognised that an entity could also be a sham from its inception, even if the ownership did not intend to use it for deception. Therefore, the Court agreed that it could pierce the corporate veil based on the relevant offense of fraudulent or dishonest activities involving misuse of the corporate identity in order to conceal the facts behind the corporation identity. The failed VTB’s Claims From these observations, the Court established that VTB had a case against Nutritek and its associates, and that it was proper to pierce the corp orate veil of RAP. In this sense, the issue was whether it was possible for the Court to pierce the corporate veil of RAP in order to render the defendants (Nutritek and its associates) liable for the Facility Agreement and ISA. However, VTB’s claims did not succeed on the following ground, at least, from Lloyd’s argument. According to Lloyd, after reviewing the English law, they established that they could not support the idea of granting equitable relief against the corporation or its owners beyond this. In other words, the Court could not hold the owner as an actual party to the contract. Given this view, the Court rejected claims of undisclosed principals as agents of the contract. According to the Court, VTB assumed that, under the English law, the Court could hold a party responsible to a contract because of controls or ownership. However, the Court established that none of the parties had any idea about the contract. The Court also noted that to accede to VTBâ⠂¬â„¢s claims would amount to making intrusions into the principle of law that respects contractual agreements between parties, and any other party interested in the contract. In this light, the Court noted that the case of VTB did not fall under this category and that a stranger to the contract was not liable to the contract. The Court also did not recognise the puppet entity and the controlling puppeteer. However, it was important to identify the puppet company and its owners to justify the grant of a judicial remedy when it was convenient and necessary to do so. Still, the Court could not go to the extent of treating the puppeteer and the puppet entity as the other parties because they were distinct entities. The Court noted that fulfilling this claim amounted to ignoring Salomon principles. In this context, the Court could not assume that the puppeteer and the puppet entity were party to the contract. In short, Lloyd noted that it was not proper to use the common law as VTB had suggested. In other words, the court did not recognise VTB’s claims of piercing the corporate veil of RAP in this case. Any such decision would indicate that the Court surpassed the current principle of the common law. Further, it would mean that the Court brought new parties to the contract. The Court expressed that such claims could not apply in this case because it was not the right one for such common laws. The Court viewed this case as a commercial deceit that English law could handle under tort. This implied that VTB could only make claims against defendants under tort principles for deceits and wrongful acts. Therefore, the Court claimed that there were â€Å"no policy reasons for giving the case an artificial remedy in a situation, which VTB did not need† (Kain, 2012). According to the Court, VBT merely invoked claims to support it cases because it â€Å"assumed that the English courts could assume jurisdiction in its claims† (Kain, 2012). Possible contr ibutions of the case with regard to piercing the corporate veil This case has created debates regarding the legal principle of piercing the corporate veil. Consequently, it will have significant influence among the Commonwealth states. Courts and commercial lawyers must also review their approaches with reference to this case and principle of piercing the corporate veil. This case raises some issues of fundamental interests. First, the Court established that VBT’s claims had no factual, legal, or principle basis under English common law in which the Court could lift the corporate shield of RAP. According to this ruling, the Court cannot make a controller of another entity a party to a contract of another company. In this sense, the Court observed â€Å"the principle of a separate legal entity and the law of privity of a contract† (Kain, 2012). Scholars may argue that this decision can limit England’s attraction for foreign cases involving corporate disputes. How ever, the English Court has clarified significant matters about piercing the corporate veil. This implies that the Court cannot just rule to satisfy the claims of another party. It must observe principles of common laws. Any ruling in favour of piercing the corporate veil of RAP could have created new controversies regarding the principle of corporate law. Second, if the Court could have affirmed VBT’s claims, then it would have raised issues regarding the remedies available to VBT and the position of the company’s controller with reference to separate and distinct party to the contract. Affirming these claims of VBT would mean disregarding the principle limited liability for corporation directors. Thus, the Court avoided contradict the principle of separate legal personality in the benchmark ruling of Saloman v A Saloman Co Ltd [1897] AC 22. Third, we must also note that VBT wanted the Court of England to pierce the corporate veil of a foreign company. The Court of A ppeal did not refer to RAP as a foreign company. The issue arises whether it is appropriate for the Court of England to a pierce a veil of a foreign company and the possible consequences of doing so. On the other hand, we must also note that VBT is a Virgin Island company. Thus, the Court acted under English law. However, it did not confirm the position of RAP as a foreign entity. We must also recognise careful analysis of the English law by the Court. This analysis helps commercial entities and lawyers understand circumstances under which the Court can pierce the corporate veil. Thus, it helps clear discrepancies in past rulings. For instance, in the case of Gramsci, the Court had to pierce the corporate veil. As a result, the puppeteer or the controlling mind had to bear responsibilities of the contract. In contrast to VTB case, questions arise whether the Court made a wrong judgment on the case of Gramsci. In other words, the Court did not obey the principle of separate legal ent ity of the owners. In addition, the Court’s ruling highlighted that it could only pierce the corporate veil based on the principle of equitable remedies. In this manner, the puppeteer must not evade its contractual liabilities. However, the Court could not take such action on a non-contractual puppet or puppeteer. However, this case is not over just yet. VTB applied for an appeal to the Supreme Court. This implies that new decisions on piercing the corporate veil of a corporation and its controlling minds shall emerge. Conclusion This matter raises some controversies regarding the relevancy, applicability, and effectiveness of the principle of piercing the corporate veil. In this case, the Courts should declare their positions regarding the principle of piercing the corporate veil. This is because Judge Arnold declared that there is no such principle as piercing the corporate veil. From the above examples, it is clear that the act of piercing the corporate veil is not clear. It is also controversial and will persist to be so for many years coming. The case of VTB shows that piercing a corporate veil exists only in theories. For instance, the Court noted that it was only valid under a â€Å"special circumstance, which indicates that it was a mere faà §ade concealing the true facts† (Kain, 2012). With reference to the above terms, English law does not recognise the principle of piercing the corporate veil. In addition, the use of terms like â€Å"a mere faà §ade concealing the true facts† makes VTB’s claims under piercing the corporate veil difficult. Conversely, English Courts are willing to preserve well-established and long-standing principles of common laws like the rule of corporate personality. This is exactly how the Court ruled on the case of VTB. It recognised the claim that Nutritek and its associates were independent party to the contract. Thus, were not part of the agreement consequently, had no liability over the claims . Nevertheless, we have to recognise that there are no provisions on how courts should rule on cases about piercing the corporate veil. Still, rulings may also vary from various jurisdictions. For instance, the outcome of the case could have been different in Russia where RAP has its origin. Therefore, we have to look at how courts appreciate different cases involving piercing the corporate. We can see the contradicting decisions on Gramsci and VTB cases and the merits under each case. The ruling could have different if there were direct issues like fraud, sham or facade, unfairness, corporate groups, and agency. Most courts pierce the veil based on these issues. However, the Court established that the case of VBT was a deceit with a perfect remedy under tort laws. Thus, it ignored the inappropriate conducts of the controlling mind behind the deceit. These rulings make the concept of piercing the corporate veil uncertain and not reliable for creditors. The concept is also undergoing inevitable changes. Thus, the issue persists whether Courts can go beyond injustice and impropriety. Still, we have also recognised that the English Court can only pierce the veil to grant equity to parties in dispute. This ruling also demonstrates that Courts still focus on fraud as the key requirement for piercing the veil. Reference List Bainbridge, S 2001, ‘Abolishing Veil Piercing’, J. Corp Journal of Corporate Law, vol. 26, p. 479. Farrar, J 1990, ‘Fraud, Fairness and Piercing the Corporate Veil’, Canadian Business Law Journal, vol. 16, p. 474. Financial Reporting Council 2012, Annual Reports. Web. Forji, A 2007, The Veil Doctrine in Company Law. Web. Gower Davies 2003, Principles of Modern Company Law, 7th edn, Sweet and Maxwell, London. Kain, B 2012, UK Supreme Court to Pierce the Issue of the Corporate Veil: VTB Capital Inc. v. Nutritek International Corp. Web. Payne, J 1997, ‘Lifting the Corporate Veil: A Reassessment of the Fraud Exceptio n’, Cambridge Law Journal, vol. 1997, p. 56. Pugh, C 2012, ‘United Kingdom: Piercing The Corporate Veil – Recent Developments, Mondaq Corporate Company Law, vol. 2012 , pp. 1-4. Rogowski, G 1999, Company Law in Modern Europe, Dartmouth Publication, Sudbury, MA. This essay on Piercing the Corporate Veil: England and Wales was written and submitted by user Stephanie N. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Google Organisational Structure and Culture Essays

Google Organisational Structure and Culture Essays Google Organisational Structure and Culture Paper Google Organisational Structure and Culture Paper What are the main factors/HRM procedures that have contributed to the success of Google? Organization’s success is gauged by its performance and performance of organization by its employees. We can see that an individual and the organization are inter-related and interdependent. The link between individual and organization is HRM and managers. Hence, the performance of organization depends on the people it recruits and the managers who diffuse work to teams to produce positive outcomes that contributes towards the success of organization. Figure:1 Illustrating the Interdependency and Inter-relation. The factors that have contributed to Google’s success are: Attraction Selection Attrition (A. S. A): The point to be noted in the following explanation is the inter-relationship between A. S. A and IQ Big 5 traits in employees. Google while hiring its employees is very selective and attract candidates who have performed well academically and have good scores on SAT, GMAT or other competitive exams which proves*(Gottfredson L. S. , (2003), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 4-45) that their IQ level is high. The reason Google considers it important is because it is proven that these tests test the intellectual abilities of a person. A few dimensions for intellectual ability have been identified, which include number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, memory*(M. D. Dunnette, (Chicago:Rand McNally, 1976, quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 45) obviously not all dimensions are needed to be intelligent for example a software programmer hould have the ability to identify a logical sequence in a problem and then solve it, hence, the dimension he needs to essentially possess to perform well in his field is inductive reasoning. Google hires people with diverse skills and qualities, so that they could use these diverse skills to their benefit, in this case innovation. Google being an innovative company prefers fresher from college with good educational background rather than experienced employee. It is said that intelligent people are better job performers*( W. M Coward and P. R. Sackett,(june 1990), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. : A 12 ed. , p. 45), more creative, are able to learn jobs more quickly, are more adaptable to changing circumstances and are better at inventing solutions that improve performance. Hence we can conclude that A. S. A*(Schneider B, quoted in BHM399, Organizational Behavior, p. 112) is adapted by organization to achieve performance. Interestingly while intelligence is a big help in performing a job well, it is not correlated with job satisfaction. Hence, it is important to match ability to job which is also know as ability-job fit and the effect of personality on performance or personality-performance. Performance is inter-related to job-satisfaction. Studies*(Ability-job fit, Person-job fit, Motivational theories) show that: Personality: IQ and Big Five Model As Google hires through A. S. A, Googlers have IQ and possess some or all the qualities of OCEAN*(Landrum G. N, (1993), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 109). The applicable theory for the personality traits/ personality is Big Five model (OCEAN IQ). Personality of the employee is directly related to his/her performance. This can be explained by person- job fit theory*(Holland J. L, (1997), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 130). However, person-organization fit*(Schneider B, (1987), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 132) and the relationship between a person and his work environment (group) needs to considered as well. They most certainly possess Openness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, as employees are open to new ideas are very comfortable with their work relationships and very cooperative and trusting with one another, this can be seen in the trust the top management has on an individual employee to do his work without being managed respectively. Job-Satisfaction: Job satisfaction depends on various factors like ability-job fit*(explained and quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 48), person-job fit* and person-organization fit*; these are three different levels (individual, group and organization). The relationship between people their work environment (including peers) is also linked to job satisfaction. The applicable theory for the level of job-satisfaction in Google is Two-Factor theory also known as Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene theory*(Herzberg F et al. ,(1959), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 89, also quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 133-134). This theory assesses the level of job-satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Two-factor theory* proves that Googler’s have high job-satisfaction because the motivator and hygiene factors being met. Explaining the same by the table. |MOTIVATOR FACTORS are met hence, leads to satisfaction. |HYGIENE FACTORS are met hence, leads to no di ssatisfaction. | |Achievement: The sense of achievement is high as millions of |Company policy: The open door policy of company makes employees | |people use what the employees develop for Google. feel worthy, important and heard by anyone they want to approach. | |Recognition: Google employee is recognized respected socially. |Supervision: Leadership style is transformational. This keeps the| |In the company, they feel recognized rewarded^ for their work. |work environment energetic, as employees are highly involved in | |Eg: When an employee innovates he gets to lead the team, this |work and encouraged to think innovatively. | |could be emotionally rewarding with a feeling of advancement in | | |position. | |Note: ^Rewards need not be materialistic rewards, it could be | | |emotionally rewarding as well. In this case emotional. | | |Work: Work at Google is very creative and employees are given |Relationship with boss: The informal culture, transformational | |personal time t o work on their projects. Hence, employees enjoy |leadership style and open door policy makes sure that employees | |working at Google. feel comfortable to express their views. | |Responsibility: As there are no project managers, all engineers |Work conditions: There are no set codes for the way employee | |are project leaders where leadership is on a rotation basis. |wishes to work at Google, hence the employee can make his work | |Also, if something isn’t right in a product that has gone public,|conditions as comfortable as he wants to. Eg: He can even get | |teams fix it without asking anyone. Hence, employees have the |pets to work! If he feels he can work better with his pet next to| |freedom and responsibility for their product. |him. | |Advancement: When an employee comes up with an innovation and |Relationship with peers: One of the main emphasis while | |he/she can back it up, they are given an opportunity to head the |recruiting is, team goals above personal goals. Assuming that | |project. |there could be minimal-average repercussions if any (assuming as | |Eg: Google News, developed by Krishna Bharat in Oct 2002 |nothing has been mentioned on case study). | Motivation: Before discussing about motivation, it is note worthy that individual motivation and group and organizational motivation is inter-linked, this is done by providing the right environment for the employee to perform better. Motivation plays a key role in the performance of an individual. Motivation could either be internal or external, self-motivation and inspiration and encouragement by external forces respectively like co-workers, managers or organization in form of its values, culture, rewards and recognition etc. The applicable theories for motivation in Google are, Expectancy*(IL)(Vroom V. H, (1964), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 208, also quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 134-135) Job enrichment*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 136), Job Characteristic Model*(JCM)(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 137), EI Initiatives*(Provided by Organization) (explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 141-142). Eg: The employees are motivated to work at new ideas (20% of time is given for their self-directed projects), once the idea is successful they get to lead the project. Hence, Leadership: Before starting Leadership styles, Big Five model*(OCEAN, R. R McCrea, (June 1992), quoted in Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. , p. 110, Judge et al. , (2002), JAP, quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 232). At a Group Level (GL) employees at Google are benefited by the leadership style, which is Transformational leadership*(Bass, 1985), quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 243) and People-oriented*(Fiedler’s Contingency Theory, explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 236-237). Transformational leadership style inspires, motivates and stimulates the intellect of employees. Situational Leadership*(Hershey Blanchard’s Situational Theory, explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 237-239) is used in Google, as there is no management structure, Wayne Rosing (VP) for engineering, lets the teams do their work. Hence, Rosing is using situational leadership with the engineering teams as she trusts them and lets them work on their area of expertise. Eg: Through EI Initiative (sparrow program) management could motivate and stimulate the intellect of employees to innovate new ideas. This also helped the job design greatly as every employee got 20% of their time for self directed projects, this helped in job enrichment. Through sparrow employees had skill variety, task identity, task significance (if the idea was selected), Autonomy and feedback on it by other employees at Google. Hence, JCM is used in Google as one of the motivation tools to keep the Googler’s involved and satisfied with their job. Organic structure: Culture of an organization plays a very important role in shaping up of an ndividual working for an organization apart from creating right environment to work for, which ultimately impacts on performance. Even if organization spends huge amounts of money and time in selecting the right people, if it cannot provide right environment to work in, it would fail in its objective to succeed as a company Culture-Organizational Performance* (explained in chapter 17 of Robbins S. P and Judge T. A 12 ed. ,). At an Organizational Level, Google provides an informal and Organic structure*(explained and quoted in quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 72) to its employees, which gives them freedom to manage their work the way they like, ultimately to give outputs that matches with the company’s requirements. Google’s Organizational structure is placed in a way that it is organic in structure however, it borders a bit towards Boundary less organization*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 272). Out of the 7 different types of power Expert power*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 314) is very predominant in Google, employees have this power, this can be seen as a motivator factor for employees. The sustaining culture at Google is due to A. S. A, Top management (their approachability, principles/values and attitudes) and socialization among Googlers and top management is very informal. The Culture Development*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 341) at Google due to the above factors resulted in Organic structure and informal culture. Eg: Google does not have any management structure, which allows the employees to work and behave flexibly, respond quickly to changing and unusual situations by taking responsibility of their project/product. Note: Informal culture has worked Google so far, but with growing employees and the attitude change in employees there is possibility it can pose as a problem in future. Will discuss this in the negative aspects of Google. Reflexivity and Team Effectiveness: Reflexivity and team effectiveness*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 200) are inter-linked to performance of a team on a GL*. Teams are more innovative and effective when they reflect on their objectives, strategies, processes and environments from time to time. They need to then adapt/improve their working style to achieve their task. Eg: A discussion is held every Friday to review the new ideas, feasibility and user-friendliness (team objectives/vision is set after selecting the ideas). While project is being headed team strategies and processes are analyzed and tested (tested among Googlers) before launching the product. As a conclusion, we can say Google was successful in sustaining a zero attrition rate when most of the companies suffered from attrition during the dot. com boom and this was possible because of all the above factors. Describe some of the negative aspects of Google’s culture. Do you think Google needs to change its culture – and, if so, in what ways? Every organization has a culture, which has positive and/or negative influences on its employees. We know that work culture affects us on a day-to-day basis. Organizational Culture is given importance because it has the power to influence, motivate/de-motivate, mold or shape up the attitudes of employees. It also sends a message across to employees about the working standards of a company and how employees are expected to work in a company. Google’s informal culture has positive and negative aspects to it. Negative being it lead to arrogance and laziness among employees and positive being work freedom, which encouraged creativeness, in Google. Negative aspects of Google are: No Management Structure: Google has no management structure (due to organic structure design of organization), which is very evident from the case study. Management structure is inter-linked to the attitudes of the employees as well the informal culture. No management structure could lead to organizational conflict, as there is no status consistency. In Google every engineer was given the title as project manager, this leads to confusion about control and decision making power which could further lead to process loss*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 193). The theories applicable are Organizational conflict*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 316-320) and Process loss*. Further, with a diverse workforce in Google and no formal leader there could be a lot of politics and time taken for a team to go through stages*(Tuckman’s Five-Stage Model of Group, explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 92) could be longer at a GL and this will ultimately effect the ability of a team to perform better. We can also point out the effect this will have on employee attitude, as there is no formal leader everyone would try to dominate the other spoiling the work environment. This might also lead to arrogance in employees. Google has branches all over world this means that th e employees from different branches have to interact with one another at some point, if diversity*(UNESCO, (1999), quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 95-197) is not taken with a positive attitude it cause hindrance in terms of effectiveness and creativity, affecting performance. Informal work culture: Google has a very informal and open culture, Googlers can bring pets to office if they want to can approach anyone they want to, in Google’s case in relation to performance it has worked but failed in shaping employees responsible and respectable behavior. Googlers are known to come late for meetings and don’t pay attention to the meeting, which shows poor respect and carelessness towards clients. This shows negatively on the organization. Sergey backed this behavior by saying that they were working around the clock and hence were not prepared for the meetings. The theory applicable for this is attributional bias*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 115) Fundamental attribution error*. Sergey attributed the late coming and careless behavior to external attribution because they had to work round the clock. Treatment towards contract workers: 30% of Google’s employees are contract workers. These employees are not given any benefit, stock options, nor do they get company’s intranet access, meetings or social events. This obviously shows discrimination, which might lead to conflict, de-motivation, demoralization, and unrest among the employees, and if one is unhappy with his/her organization they tend to talk more about how unhappy they are with their friends and family, which might lead to bad reputation of the company. The leadership style towards contract workers can be explained through LMX*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 240-241). Wherein there is low quality LMX. 12 hr working day as the norm: With all the facilities provided at Google employees work for 12 hrs a day, which is a norm. This could be good for the organization but not for an individual as this affects his personal life and health. This could also mean that Googlers are not utilizing their time efficiently, as their pet or other famous entertainments at Google distract them. Biases: In the case study it is mentioned that while hiring employees, Google prefers a fresher rather than an experienced person. This could be wrong as an experienced person might have abilities and capabilities that a fresher doesn’t possess. The theory applicable for this is perceptual bias*(explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 14). Recommendations: Lewin Theory*( Lewin (1951), explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 343-344) of change can be adapted in this case. As the organizational structure is organic it is not very difficulty to unfreeze the links. Also there was no mention of appraisals in the case study. Appraisals are one of the key methods to see to it that the employee s perform well. It is also a method to motivate employees hence, SMART* (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound) goals should be set for the employees (explained and quoted in BHM399 Organizational Behavior, p. 140). Word count: 2,495 words APPENDIX: Note: The appendix contains the explanation of all theories quoted in the above explanation of success and failure factors. Also note IL, GL and OL refers to Individual level, Group Level and Organizational Level respectively throughout the case including appendix. Theories on an Individual Level (IL): Personality: Big 5 Model: OCEAN and IQ OCEAN stands for Openness to experience: Extremely open people are creative, curious and artistically sensitive. Those at other hand are conventional and find comfort in the familiar. Conscientiousness: This dimension is a measure of reliability. Extraversion: This dimension captures one’s comfort level with relationships. Agreeableness: This dimension refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Neuroticism/Emotional Stability: this dimension taps a person’s ability to withstand stress. The Big 5 personality trait gives an insight into a person’s personality and organizations use ASA to see if the person is fit for job and organization. IQ: Intelligence Quotient Perceptual Bias: This is based on perceptions and perception is a process by which individuals select, organize, and interpret the input from their senses. Schemas, motivational state, and mood all play a part in perception. The perception bias can have different effects, like, Primacy, Contrast, Halo and Similar-to-me effect. Attribution Theory: A group of theories that describe how people explain the causes of behavior. It can be attributed to internal or external. Internal attribution: Against the cause of behavior to some characteristic of a person like ability, personality, motivation, etc. External attribution: Against the cause of behavior to factors external to the person like, task difficulty, luck, etc. Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to over-attribute behavior to internal rather an external causes or vice a versa. Motivation theories: Two-factor theory/Herzberg’s Motivator-hygiene theory: Categorized factors into those led to job satisfaction and those that lead to job dissatisfaction. When Motivator factors are met, workers will be very satisfied; when they are not met, workers will not be satisfied. Similarly when Hygiene factors are met and not met, workers will not be dissatisfied and will be very dissatisfied respectively. Factors for each have been illustrated in the main text. Expectancy Theory: A process theory about work motivation that focuses on how workers make choices among alternative behaviors and levels of effort. Valence: the desirability of an outcome to an individual. Instrumentality: A perception about the extent to which performance of one or more behaviors will lead to attainment of a particular outcome. Expectancy: A perception about the extent to which effort will result in a certain level of performance. Illustrated in the main text. Job Design: The process of linking specific tasks to specific jobs and deciding what techniques, equipment and procedures should be used to perform those tasks. Job Enrichment: Increasing a worker’s responsibility and control over his or her work; also called vertical job loading. Job Characteristic model: The theory of the Job Characteristics Model is that the core dimensions impact critical psychological states, which in turn impact an individual’s work and personal outcomes. Individual differences and individual perception moderate the effects. An approach to job design that aims to identify characteristics that make jobs intrinsically motivating and the consequences of those characteristics. Core job dimensions include skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Skill Variety: degree job requires variety of activities Task Identity: degree job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work Task Significance: degree job affects the lives or work of other people Autonomy: degree job allows individual freedom and discretion Feedback: degree to which the job gives clear information about performance Goal Setting: A theory that focuses on identifying the types of goals that are most effective in producing high levels of motivation and performance and why goals have these effects. EI Initiatives: Describes those activities designed to increase the amount of information which employees receive about their organisation and to provide them with the opportunity to contribute to decisions – thereby increasing their commitment to the organisation’s success. Group Level Theories: Tuckman Stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning Forming: Norming: Performing: Adjourning: Process Loss: Is also known as social loafing. This happens when there is no management structure and everyone are expected to be responsible. One person akes it for granted that the other person will do the job and pretend to be busy when he/she is not. This leads to process loss. Diversity: Principles of human diversity as a life-enhancing condition; conflict as a normal process to be managed constructively; and social responsibility as the human capacity to reflect and apply ethical norms to personal and public decisions’. When group attitudes to diversity are positive – exploring and relishing difference – the synergistic effects of diversity on team performance, in terms of effectiveness and creativity are profound Reflexivity: Teams will be more effective and innovative to the extent that they reflect upon their objectives, strategies, processes and environments and adapt these aspects of their task worlds accordingly . Team objectives/vision appropriateness, value, clarity Team strategies detail, alternatives, time span, effectiveness Team processes decision-making, communication, interaction, meetings, feedback, support for innovation, conflict management Leadership trait: Explained by Big 5 model. Leadership traits are directly related to Big 5 model. Transformational leadership: Leadership that inspires followers to trust the leader, to perform at a high level, and to contribute to the achievement of organizational goals. Situational/Contingency Theories Assumptions: This includes People oriented leadership where the leader is more people oriented than task. LMX: Low quality: A theory that describes the different kinds of relationships that may develop between a leader and a follower and what the leader and the follower give to and receive back from the relationship. Managers develop different relationships with their subordinates, which very from low to high quality LMX Organizational Level Theories: Organic Structure/Boundaryless Organization: Organic model . This model looks a lot like the boundaryless organization. It is flat , uses cross hierarchical and cross functional teams, has low formalisation, posesses a comprehensive informational network ( using lateral and upward communication as well as downward) and involve high participation in decision making. Expert Power: Informal power that stems from superior ability/expertise Organizational conflict: There are various types of conflicts in organization in googke we are concentrating on status inconsistency. The various types are: Culture Development: Culture development and sustaining depends on the following factors: Selection (also A. S. A) Socialisation: Social events in an organization brings togetherness and unity among employees. Top management: The top management plays a key role in developing a culture. Lewin Change Theory: Force field analysis (Lewin 1951) is widely used in change management and can be used to help understand most change processes in organizations. In force field analysis change, is characterized as a state of imbalance between driving forces (e. g. new personnel, changing markets, new technology) and restraining forces (e. g. individuals fear of failure, organizational inertia). To achieve change towards a goal or vision three steps are required: First, an organization has to unfreeze the driving and restraining forces that hold it in a state of quasi-equilibrium. Second, an imbalance is introduced to the forces to enable the change to take place. This can be achieved by increasing the drivers, reducing the restraints or both . Third, once the change is complete the forces are brought back into quasi-equilibrium and re-frozen. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Organizational Behavior, 12 edition, by Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge. BHM399 Organizational Behavior, Oct 2007, On Campus, Prof Robin M artin and Prof Michael West. ORGANIZATION INDIVIDUAL GROUP Effort = Expectancy Performance = Instrumentality Outcomes = Valence

SHELL ETHICAL CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS Coursework

SHELL ETHICAL CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS - Coursework Example cial markets are the key to explaining the large influx of foreign capital into emerging markets as well as its rapid departure during times of crisis. Transparency in global financial markets prevents foreign investor overreactions due to unclear market signals, quicker and smaller adjustments by investors in responding to new information, advance planning by local firms in supervising investment flows, and greater market efficiency. Global investors also demand greater market transparency, hoping that the greater flow of information regarding the actions of governments and firms in emerging market economies will allow them to better manage their investments. While few governments, banks, or private firms disagree the imporant need for an increased level of transparency, transparency still proves to be an elusive goal. These international financial institutions rely on their multilateral mandates for surveillance, financial data collection, and data diffusion. In addition, these institutions also have to contend with a whole panorama of transnational, multinational, domestic, and international persons regarding the preparation of financial information and the dissemination of the financial information. Transparency in busines is an excellent global governance strategy. Transparency needs to standardize all of the regulatory processes through which financial information is prepared for the global investor. The regulators also need to examine the specific procedures that govern the diffusion of this data. The financial information that helps investor decision encompass credit ratings, bond ratings, and measures of interest rate and exchange rate risk. The data is useful when the processes through which this information is produced are standardized across markets. The data must also highly accessible to the global markets. (Shuster, 2000) Banking can be a hugely profitable endeavor. In addition, the synergies between commercial banking and investment banks merge:

Intellectual Heritage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Intellectual Heritage - Essay Example The three major religions of the World, Bible, Quran, and the Baghavat Gita, have a similar notion about the relationship between God and Man. They observe Human Beings in terms of men and women created by God with an intentional duty on earth. Bible says God created human beings form his breath and the dust form earth. The trees in the garden called paradise reveal the relationship between God and man. The command given by God to the first man shows the relationship between God and human, that human is God’s attendant given to the earth to fulfil the purpose of God. In the sense, God is the dictator and man need to obey in order to keep the earth always a paradise. This sounds almost similar with that of Bhagavat Gita, in which Lord Krishna exemplifies the supreme Goal of God in terms of Yogas such as Raja Yoga , Bhakthi Yoga, Karma Yoga and Janana Yoga representing the meditation, devotion, selfless action and accumulation of knowledge respectively. Brahma is considered as the foremost God of creations. The supreme soul or paramatma is said to be found in the hearts of all human beings. If Brahma is the impersonal energy ruling the Universe, The paramatma form of God living in every body’s heart takes the transcendental form of God. As far as Good living is concerned man should follow Dharma or honesty, this is what Quran and Bible also insist. It man’s individuality ad true self could be realised by understanding the purpose governed by God to man [in Bible and Quran],then according to Bhagavat Gita the same is achieved in terms of self realisation which in turn reached by understanding the supreme existence of paramatma in every body. Freedom is looked upon in different aspect. Bible talks of freedom given to man with a certain restriction imposed by God. When God allows human beings to look after the Garden, He also makes a restriction that they should not touch the fruit of Knowledge. Quran, emphasises on man’s duty to

Divorce and Our National Values Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Divorce and Our National Values - Article Example This emphasis may be in the form of the psychiatrist’s advice or may be reflected in classic American literature like Thoreau’s Walden, or laws passed to make divorce harder, and so on. Kramer goes against many contemporary psychologists when he argues this. For instance, Carl Rogers claimed in the 1970s that the best marriages actually increased ‘self-actualization’ of the individuals involved. In short, the greater the level of freedom and independence enjoyed by the partners, the ‘better’ the marriage. Kramer suggests that perhaps we should dismantle ‘self-actualization’ as the goal and replace it with another ideal: mutuality. Mutual happiness and care can be just as worthy and fulfilling a goal in marriage. Compromise may mean a certain degree of loss of selfhood, but it does not necessarily mean the loss of happiness or fulfillment. Another issue crops up at this point, related to gender. Kramer reveals how women are supposed to be naturally more compromising. We have been so socialized into believing these stereotypes that in relationships women often feel pressurized to be the pliant and compromising one. Since this is true for a large part of the population, the kind of ideal of mutuality that Kramer proposes might just work out unfairly for women and perpetuate greater inequality in marriages. To counter this, Kramer suggests that by fully accepting mutuality and not expecting only women to inculcate it, we can work towards a value system which actually supports longer-lasting relationships instead of encouraging  separation.

Explaining the Code Clause of the NMC

Explaining the Code Clause of the NMC The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) of the United Kingdom is a corporate body of professional health care practitioners that form a committee called the council. The function of the NMC is to establish standards for nurses and midwives that will provide guidance in education and training also guidance that are principles and is known as the code (NMC 2002:1). The code is a professional duty that is required to provide care to people, client or patient. It secures peoples rights, decisions and choices during their care (Thompson 2006). To explain the code there are details of principles that practitioners should apply to throughout their daily practice to maintain high standards of how to behave, present one self and the principles shown during the care for people. The first stage of the NMC code clause (NMC 2008:1) state, the people in your care, this applies to people and the public that requires the need for healthcare support in a people centred practice. In order to provide care for these people there should be an understanding as to what care mean, who accessing the services, how the care is implemented by providers, what interventions occur during care and why nurses and midwives should care for these people. It is also important to know why nurses and midwives care but is it the reason because of empowerment, choice, decisions, personal care, safety, financial decisions or is it the obligation of the pledge they have made to become a nurse. The second stage of the clause states, people must be able to trust you with their health and wellbeing and the trust is to know your patient well but how can these patient able to provide that trust and how to communicate with them collaboratively and providing the right information on how to establish that trust. There should be continuity to reinforcing the trust in patient through encouragement, and promotion of their health and wellbeing. Not only does that, it stated that trust is to be justified and reasons why, it is to make the care of people your first concern, treating them as individuals and respecting their dignity (NMC 2008:1). Is it by treating people as they are, keeping information confidential and working as a team with families also ensuring patients give their consent but respecting the dignity of people. In discussing the code clause is stated very straightforward to understand but there are challenges introduced to raise expectation of the nurses and midwives bu t keeping up-to-date with technology and encouraging patients to maintain their quality of life. Hence, the purpose of the NMC code is to support nurses and midwives within their role. NMC (2008, p4) states the code protects people that are ill, helpless, vulnerable and requires support in your care. This guidance applies to nurses, midwives, professionals and students. Its purpose is to establish principles for best practice whilst caring of people in all settings (NMC 2009, p5). NMC (2008:1) states that the code has three functions, conduct, performance and ethics. The principles of conduct expresses how nurses are expected to conduct inside and outside the profession, performance is based on the knowledge and skills gained to be confident and consistency to deliver safe practice in the role as a professionals and students. The ethical care are the principles applied towards prioritising patients care which includes concerns, needs and interest for the people. The People in question are the people within your care and they are the one that matters and requires advocacy. Graham (1992 cited in Roper et al 1996) states, advocacy is doing things for patients and nursing has change to a more patient centred care to encourage patient to be more self-sufficiency in making choices and decision about their care. They are the people we refer to as patient, user, individual or client, but their vulnerability requires support from these professionals. Parsons (1951:1987 cited in Stein-Parbury 2005, p9) viewed people as patients or clients and they are ill person with needs for support and advice from professionals, whom they can release all responsibility and decision for their health. However some patient may not be able to make such decision while other patient can be self caring by taking on the role of responsibility for their care Guadagnoli Ward (1998 cited in Stein-Parbury 2005, p.9) Goodman and Clemow (2008) believes that if patient is define d then their value will not be identified. Caring is the spirit of love that is reflected in care, it provides hope for patient of their wellbeing, offering empathy and compassion, by displaying principle and commitment during nursing practice Farmer (1994 cited in Alexander et al 2000:999). Patients have a significant role that is why we put them first but some people are neglected due to barriers by not accessing the service because of isolation and not able to access the information to get the care required. People who are accessing the service are the one that gets the treatment and the service when it is needed (Sale 2005). The process of nursing commence when an assessment is done by gaining as much information about a patient, this is also referred to a nursing diagnosis. The diagnosis is being able to describe the patient problem with the help of the activities of living model for nursing Marks-Maran(1983 cited in Roper et al 1996:57). The model will help identify health issue and the first concern is performing an as sessment to determine if the patient is capable of maintaining a safe environment, able to communicate by the questions asked about daily activities, the level of breathing during physiological measurement, assessment of eating and drinking during meal time and mobility during personal hygiene. From these assessments the nurse is able to identify the actual problem then make a care plan. The care plan includes the problems, goal and intervention. The problem is what the patient admitted with and the goal what the nurse intend to do and intervention should include how the care will be given. The next step is to implement the care by providing the care, including multidisciplinary teams, medication for treatment. An evaluation is made of the patient care against the goal that was set to determine an outcome of achievement if there are changes a re-evaluation can be made of the patients care (Roper et al 1996). The reasons why nurses care are through obligation, ethical and spiritual belief. We cannot as carer avoid the difference in care but why we continue to care is because mainly of three reasons. The first is the pledge we have made as nurses with the obligation to patient (Brykczynska 1997). The pledge is reaffirming the commitment as promised by the nurses and midwives to the people to provide a service to deliver a very high standards of quality in care DH(2010). Secondly, the ethical care of knowing the right question to ask patients when trying to make an important decision or how they should respond when a situation arises but seeing the goodness in the patients (Brykczynska 1997). Nurse use their intuition or inner feeling or just common sense to make decision (Thompson et al 2006:49:50), but as students the knowledge through practical learning teaches to make ethical decisions and remembering from their teachings or the error they should not make by reflecting on the right and wrong to evaluate a good ethical decision. Other ethical reasons to care are, through quality care, a care which is deserved and should be priority in care. The empowerment of patients, by offering the right to make decisions about their care and offering patients choices to develop confidence while receiving hospital care. This confident encourage them to take control of what is happening in their lives. There are difficulties when making choice and being assisted by a nurse is an important decision that will benefit their health. Decisions are important and should involve planning the minute patients are admitted into hospital (Evans and Tippins (2008 cited in E-learning, PEP Module, Decision Making, p.2). The personal care would be assessed following the Roper et al model for nursing. The assessment will include check for safety, nutrition, manual handling and other risk factors. Management has to make decision on staffing team but a team that will provide a balance in the care. The financial decision is important on the expenditure and management of resources to maintain the operation of care but mainly the quality of care for patients. The nurses care is to support spiritual belief by encouraging safe practice during psychosocial distress or pain. Being an active listener, relating to the patient and answering their question truthfully could be comfort or relief for the patient. Anon (2005 cited in Thompson et al 2006), states that nursing is the balm that nourish your restless spirit, while other patients thinks that a balm could solve the problem to their pain. In order for people to trust you, being knowledgeable about the patient is the first step to patients care and being able to communicate and interaction will establishing a relationship that will help to provide a clear understand to the individual. All data must be up-to-date and accurate about the patients care and information should be available for feedback to the patients. The balance in the healthcare is to respect the confidentiality of patients information that they share and through commitment of trust (Hinchliff 2008). A professional relationship is looking after the patients interest and taking on issues of consent, respect, confidentiality but utilising the practical skill, experience and knowledge accordingly. The offering of informed consent is giving permission but the professional line must not be overstepped. Hinchliff (2008:193) Jonsdottir et al.; Gallant et al. (2004;2002 cited in Stein-Parbury 2005, p.9) states that patient and their healthcares needs to work in p artnership during care. DH (2008,p3) reported that people should working collaboratively as a team which includes patient and their families, nursing staff, social carer and the public. Therefore collaborative work with a multi-professional team provides a wider care to patients by communicating with teams and individuals with different training background who shares a common goal to offer a service that include nurses, doctors, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social workers, dieticians, speech and language therapist, pharmacist, psychologist, ward clerks, cleaner, healthcare assistance, staff management, midwives and IT Technical Support Staff that can be trusted. (Marshall et al (1979 cited in E-learning, PEP Module, Working with others 2009/2010:3). Trust is ethical values that are accepted in the best interest of patients and giving truthful answers to questions about their health. This is what patients expect but a positive behaviour is what inspires the trust from the patient. It is important to ensuring patient is informed to establish trust then in time the patient can be open to reveal information that will help their health and wellbeing (Hinchliff et al. 2008). DH(2010) reported that peoples trust has been destabilised due to poor performance of practice, he believes that with commitment of teamwork trust can be regained. A proposal was made stating that nurses and midwives should reaffirm their commitments to care. The aim of this proposal is to reinforce the trust and confidence in people which will also help to maintain their health and wellbeing. If the patient is ill or well their health should still be promoted with a balance in care and the approach of individuals with psychosocial dilemmas. The nurses role is imp ortant and along with their performance which reflect in the care given to patient. Nurses can maintaining their health and wellbeing by accepting the right support which will result in improvement in practices and wellbeing of patients. To maintain the quality of health and wellbeing for patients the initial care should begin within patients own environment with their family. Living a healthy life is manageable by people who are confident, strong and receiving support from other whilst others struggle to maintain their health due to difficulties in accessing support or refusing to accept any form of support. The NHS mentioned that a strategy is designed to include the care in communities by local authorities and care partners, to help make social changes for the people with the aim of reducing unhealthy living (DH, 2008). The NHS requires people to gain access to the treatment that is most effective for their health. The NICE guidance purpose is to promote health and wellbeing and evaluate the intervention during care. It is stated that treatment should be given to patient after an assessment by a competent and experience nurse (NICE, 2008) providing the patient offer consent to care and in return nurses respecting the patients right to make the choice they desire. A competent nurse role is having awareness but to provide a plan that reflect and analyse the problem. The nurse should be able to cope well from being organised to achieving efficiency during management of nursing care (Benner 1984). Patient safety should be the top of priority for quality care. The trust is gained by maintaining patients safety and one example is to reduce any infectious disease within their environment and safety include the healthcare who are the people that provides care (DH,2008). The nursing team is expected to respect individuals and their families, not to discriminate during care and avoiding any risk or threat to the right or safety of any patient (NMC 2004). We can assume nurses do care but the obligation that nurses have is through the contract of obligation when they first make the pledge to work as nurses. The nurses role involves the concept of care which is to provide a service to patient that is caring, the first stage of learning is from their parents, friends and experiences in life and the training received will improve their caring skills (Brykczynska1997). To be treated as an individual is treating a person with ethical principles such as respecting the rights, autonomy and dignity of patients also to promote the patients well-being (Thompson et al 2006). To offer patient advice on methods to help prevent ill-health and by promoting positive way of living and to have power of owns health (Wills 2007). The patients right during quality care are their entitlement to shorter waiting time for treatment. A targeting system has to be implemented that will motivates nurses to listen to patents and the public to meet their expectation. Patient has the right to have good communication to ensure they understand the treatment to be received (DH 2009). Reflecting on experience with patient whilst working as a student during placement, some of the principles that had to be delivered are respecting patients privacy when washing or dressing by pulling curtains and closing doors and knocking the door before entering patients environment. The rights of patients choice must be acknowledged and not to disclose patients confidentiality which is respecting human rights and dignity. Also patient should have the right to make choices during meal time of what to eat and when to eat or the choice to refuse medication but it is the nurses role to encourage the patient and possible giving more time and listening to reason for refusing medication DH (2010). Walsh and Kowanko 2002, cited in Dougherty and Lister 2008, enquired with patient about describing their dignity and how they expect to be treated with respect, however patients wanted dignity to include being patience and spending more time to listen and acknowledge patients views and considering the reasons for patients emotions. DH 2010) states that nurses must be accountable for their actions, thinking of patients interest, protecting the dignity of patient regardless of choices but treating with equal concerns and respecting belief. Nurses and midwives should find the NMC guidance really straightforward, depending on the level of role and responsibilities, however Tschudin and Jasper (2006; 2002) states, that the NMC code of practice will not be straightforward to escape difficult situation during care. A student nurse or a registered nurse with limited or no experience of a new setting and will begin their role as a novice and requires support by the policies of the workplace along with the NMC code rules to guide their performance during their role of practice. The advance beginner will be able to perform acceptable because of the experience gained and put into practice the principles learnt but taking their role very important. A competent nurse who is experienced for two to three years is a more aware nurse that plans and analyses but needs to develop speed within role. The proficient nurse learns from his or her experiences, reflecting in action and is able to make effective decision immediately. The expert nurse has a very knowledgeable background, remembers patients, recognises changes and manages clinical decision within his or her patients care (Brenner 1984:20-32). The changes that have been made of the framework for the Nursing and Midwifery Council are more straightforward to understand during the professional development of nurses duties and their role of responsibilities. The aim of the code is to protect the health and wellbeing of patients. It will be a continuous development in practice (Hinchliff 2008). The change in the guidelines can cause indecision and could cause unnecessary stress for individuals (Lewis 1951, cited in McEwen and Wills 2007). The use of the Roy Adaptation model could be used as a guide by manager to help nurses become more educate about the changes to the guidelines (McEwan and Wills 2007). Changes however, could cause the guidelines to create challenges for nurses role by raising the expectation also expecting continuous development of the way they should work by providing quality care that will help to extend the life span of patients. Nurses should keep up-to-date with the new technology of accessing patients information by taking on additional training. The challenge for nurses is to encourage patients to improve their health and wellbeing by accepting interventions that will improve their quality of life but not under mind patients choices. The improvement of knowledge about the advancement of treatment and broader area of intervention and increasing standards will result in improved outcomes. High quality work for staff and patient is difficult but ensuring skills are up-to-date and not ignored but the quality of the workplace comes with excellent leadership management that is beneficial for patients wellbeing DH (2010). In summary, the code expects profession conduct from all nurses and midwives during their performance in all situations and should reflect good principles of ethical practice. These ethical principles will deliver the right care and should include patient spiritual belief. The belief in providing the right care is reflected in the roles and responsibility of nurses and midwives, this is very important and a huge responsibility to be in a caring profession. The pathway from a novice to expert requires knowledge and continuous development. Whether or not the guidelines of the code appear simple the NMC has revised the code to make it more straight forward for nurses and midwives to understand and implement into practice of care. Caring is about identifying the people who may be patient, client or individuals and treating them with equal concerns, respecting the diversity of people that are able to access the service. These patients are vulnerable and require trust, security and the pro spect of improving their health and wellbeing and need to make the right decisions and choices whether good or bad but gaining informed consent. The dignity of patient should be respected at all times and gaining consent is an approval of trust to provide care but remaining within the professional boundaries. To ensuring this occurs, the respect for privacy is maintained whilst providing care of personal hygiene. Nurses make diagnosis during patient care with the help of a useful nursing model to gain information from patient which must be kept confidential. Keeping information confidential is a way of showing patient their trust is being respected. Nurses are hoping to maintain the trust that builds partnerships with patient and families that will including the professionals collaboratively to develop the patients health and wellbeing. The NICE guidance is to promote health and wellbeing for patients medication and the NHS (2010:9) promised, to promote high quality care for all. The code should not be difficult but it is a challenge that healthcare professional will work towards by raising the standards to give more power to patient in making decision about their care and safety. It is the nurses and midwives obligation of the pledge they have made to continue reinforcing care and the support will come from managers by providing the training to broaden the knowledge of our professional. The changes will require higher expectation and a service that is keeping up with technology. A change that will be challenging for nurses and midwives is to encourage patient to maintain their life span through health promotion. The code has its fulfilling purpose which is the responsibility to provide guidance to nurses and midwives, of the care that should be given within the professional role.

Prescription narcotics Essay -- essays research papers

The Need for Restrictions â€Å"Why there should be stricter regulations on the availability of prescription narcotics† Despite efforts to decrease the number of deaths and overdoses related to narcotic medications, such as OxyContin, and minimize the number of people illegally obtaining them, the measures that the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in specific are taking are not enough. The literal definition of a narcotic is a drug that produces numbness or stupor; often taken for pleasure or to reduce pain; extensive use can lead to addiction. Narcotics are normally prescription medications that are given to patients to help ease the constant pain cause by cancer or other long term illnesses. â€Å"When one in 10 high school senior’s reports abusing prescription painkillers, the DEA is obligated to protect our children and the public safety† says Karen P. Tandy administrator of the DEA(1). Tandy is saying that when the abuse of prescription pain medication is taking over that many students the DEA must step in for the sake of future generations. There is a long process that not many average Americans know about that all pharmaceutical products, especially addictive medications have to go through before they reach home medicine cabinets. This process is called â€Å"Diversion†. It is an important chain like process that the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) have been using for years to look at where highly addictive drugs, like OxyContin, go and who they come into contact with. From the pharmaceutical company that literally make the product, to the drug wholesalers that sell the product, and then into the hands of doctors and pharmacies who prescri be and distribute the medications. The purpose of diversion is to take the information and look for certain situations where drugs were lost, stolen, or illegally distributed and give proper punishment to those people. The problem of abusing prescription narcotics became noticeably out of control in the 1990’s. The problem lies in the fact that it is 2005 and the numbers of overdoses and deaths have been and are still rising at astonishing rates. An argument however, that many people have about advancing restrictions on OxyContin and other schedule 2 narcotics is that the needed process that one might have to go through in order to properly obtain the drug would be an ‘invasion of privacy.† Some believe that reportin... ...rs†¦the number of patients in motor vehicle crashes who are ‘methadone impaired,’† says John H. Burton, MD Medical Director for Maine Emergency Medical Services.(3) To think that the problem of abusing any kind of drug would just disappear with one solution is naive and absurdly optimistic. However, to think that all the DEA is doing right now to prevent harmfully addictive and destructive medications is enough is plain ignorant. The DEA has made substantial progress toward making OxyContin and other prescribed narcotics less available for abusers. But first hand accounts and shocking statistics prove that these measures are clearly not enough. It is true and will always be true that free will is a legitimate part of this equation. The abuse of any kind of drug is almost guaranteed to be present at all times no matter how hard the government tries. If a person wants it they will have it. The fact also remains that people with addictions cannot control themselves or their addictions, that’s why it is called an addiction. Therefore making it the partial obligation of the DEA and the government to not only recognize this desperate need for r estrictions but do something more about it.

The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

Robert S. McNamara's memoir ‘In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam' offers an explanation of McNamara's handling of the Vietnam War as Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. McNamara's goal directed as well as logico-mathematical approach to decision-making must be blamed for the failure of the US to stop North Vietnam from winning the war. Bloodshed would have been evaded if merely McNamara had looked at the probable outcome of his decisions on Vietnam. What appears from pages of this book are mechanics of a machine closed in on itself.It digested just the information that suited its version of reality or served its bureaucratic interests. It unnoticed discordant views, reorganized unlikable facts as well as, when proved wrong, simply redoubled its efforts. It was a machine suited to a military colossus whose directors never doubted their premises or their capability to make reality symbolize the exercise of their power. The book is wr itten down in a manner that brings joy particularly to the hearts of the pacifist crowd even while they criticize him, as its confessions appear to justify their opposition to the war.That was Bill Clinton's self-satisfied response. Thus far the book is extremely superficial in its political analysis — signifying how far in over his head McNamara was in that job from the start. Certainly, it's high time that someone inquired our country's inclination of picking big-time industrialists for defense secretary on the theory that it's just a big management work. Sometimes the job needs a lot more than management talent: deliberate understanding and judgment, which McNamara without a doubt never had.In justice to McNamara, his long silence had an admirable cause. Given the national shock that Vietnam brought, he feared that any apologia would be expedient and inappropriate. This caginess renowned McNamara from egregious former colleagues for instance Clark Clifford, Averell Harrima n, as well as Cyrus Vance, who within months of leaving office were attacking the Nixon Administration with peace proposals also demands for concessions to the North Vietnamese.The end of McNamara's book in brief touches non-Vietnam matters — particularly the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the Harvard conferences he has lately attended, which brought together Soviet, American, as well as Cuban veterans of that crisis. The malice of such conferences is established by the breast-beating wrapping up of McNamara and some further Americans that it was our entire fault: Khrushchev put missiles in Cuba for the reason that he feared we were planning one more Bay of Pigs.Suffering regarding that brush with nuclear tragedy has led to another of McNamara's recantations his vigorous anti-nuclear activism, proceeding proposals for disarmament and no-first-use of nuclear weapons. He has championed this reason with the same sanctimonious obstinacy with which he once sold us the body counts a nd wunderkind strategizing in Vietnam, and with which he at present proclaims his confessions of our Vietnam errors. He possibly will never get it right. (Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie Collier Hillstrom, 1998). DEVELOPMENT OF THEMEThis book â€Å"In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam† is barely likely to assuage that cynicism. Certainly, it will most likely reinforce it. For what it exposes is a leadership class so in thrall to power, so persuaded of its own intellectual superiority, so cut off from, and even disdainful of, the wider society it has been empowered to serve, that it was eager to sacrifice virtually everything to evade the stigma of failure. The usefulness of McNamara's book is in the description of that trickery and of that failure.Much of the documentation has long been accessible in the Pentagon Papers, which he commissioned soon before leaving office, and which were leaked to the press by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971. However there is something to be erudit e in hearing it from such a highly placed participant. Nevertheless, no one else, at such a level of influence–not Johnson, or McGeorge Bundy, or Walt Rostow, or Henry Kissinger or Richard Nixon–ever openly admitted error or accepted blame. McNamara has at least broken the wall of silence.And even though he remains protective and largely uncritical of his colleagues, including the most imperceptive, the picture that appears is not one to motivate confidence. What this account noticeably discloses is that at no time did officials in either the Kennedy or Johnson administrations ever seriously think about anything less than an enduringly divided Vietnam with an anti-communist government in the south. The North Vietnamese, for their part, never measured anything less than a unified nation under their, i. e. communist, control. No one was in any doubt about this.The problem was that the Americans were persuaded that by inflicting unbearable pain they could force Hanoi to d esist however they were wrong. It was their country, not ours. In the end it was we who withdrew in the face of unbearable pain. Why did three successive administrations think that Vietnam was so imperative? First, there was the domino theory, which decreed that if Saigon fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would shortly follow. Kennedy himself authorized it. When asked in 1963 by a television interviewer whether he doubted the correspondence, he answered, â€Å"No, I believe it. â€Å"Second, there was confronting of communist-led â€Å"wars of national liberation. † As nuclear weapons had made war too risky between America and Russia, the conflict transferred to the Third World, where a host of impecunious, ex-colonial nations looked up for grabs. Did it matter whether these were communist or anti-communist despotisms? Almost certainly not. Although there was nowhere else the competition could occur, and so there it raged. Vietnam turned into a test case. Third, there was the well-known supposition that Beijing was taking its marching orders from Moscow, and calling the shots in Hanoi.The truth that China and Russia were already disputing publicly and that the Vietnamese had historically viewed the Chinese as their greatest enemy made no impact whatever on U. S. policymakers. It did not fit into their worldview. Fourth, the world's greatest military power was not going to confess failure, least of all against what Johnson once mentioned as a â€Å"piddling, piss-ant little country. † It was too mortifying even to contemplate. Beyond all this there was one more reason that neither Kennedy nor Johnson, once the United States so carelessly slid into Vietnam, could easily get out.The Democrats were the party, in accordance with the Republicans, who had â€Å"lost† China to communism. They were definitely not going to offer more fodder for their foes in Vietnam. As Truman had pushed above the thirty-eight parallel in Korea to illu strate that he was tougher on communism than the Republicans, so Kennedy and Johnson felt they dare not lose Saigon to the Reds. This is why the assumption, here thoughtfully echoed by McNamara, that Kennedy would have pulled out of the war had he lived, appears wishful thinking.Kennedy fans, including McNamara, time and again cite the president's much-quoted September 1963 statement regarding Vietnam that â€Å"in the final analysis, it is their war. There were, certainly, ways out all along, had anyone wanted to follow them. One opened up in the fall of 1963, when Ngo Dinh Nhu, Diem's influential brother, started secret contacts with Hanoi. Sensing a possibility for a deal akin to the arrangement previously worked out over Laos, French President Charles de Gaulle suggested the amalgamation and neutralization of Vietnam.However the Americans saw this as an intimidation somewhat than an opportunity. Second-level officials in Washington plotted with the Saigon embassy and South Viet namese army officers to conquer Diem and replace him with a government more resolute to fight the war. Kennedy could not make up his mind whether or not to endorse the coup. It came anyway in November, ending in the assassination of Diem and Nhu. Three weeks later Kennedy himself was murdered. McNamara now articulates that would have been a good moment to leave.However at the time he recommended the newly installed Johnson that impartiality was unthinkable for the reason that â€Å"South Vietnam is both a test of U. S. determination and particularly a test of U. S. capacity to deal with wars of national liberation. † This was our war and the Vietnamese were not going to be permitted to get in the way. At present McNamara confesses that â€Å"we erred seriously in not even exploring the neutralization option. † Although at the time there was no way officials would have discovered it, given their view of the stakes at issue.This was a war they were resolute to win, even against their reputed South Vietnamese allies. So far McNamara cannot bring himself to accept the noticeable insinuations of what he is so undoubtedly saying. He wants to convince us, and conceivably himself, that it is all a problem of management. In other words, he is still the bureaucratic organizer who thinks that all troubles can be reduced to flow charts and statistics McNamara informs us that as early as the fall of 1965 he had doubts regarding the value of the bombing in breaking Hanoi's will or reducing the flow of supplies into the south.Sporadically he espoused bombing pauses with the argument that this might influence Hanoi to negotiate. This was a wan expectation, as he was never ready to negotiate what Hanoi sought: a withdrawal of the United States from South Vietnam and communist representation in Saigon. By the fall of 1967 he had lost his value: the Joint Chiefs and the hawks in Congress were infuriated by his antagonism to sending more troops and extending the bom bing, whilst Johnson considered him undependable and feared that he might join Robert Kennedy's camp.He was pushed out the door with a golden handshake as well as the presidency of the World Bank. However it was all done in a spirit of good fellowship and mutual congratulation, together with an overenthusiastic letter of appreciation he wrote to Johnson that he here reproduces. â€Å"I do not know to this day whether I quit or I was fired,† he says of his departure. This was consistent with his not knowing whether he measured the war to be wrong or just badly organized. Certainly he left silently. Almost all of them do. If he felt the war was so â€Å"awfully wrong,† why did he not leave in protest and take his case to the public?20,000 Americans died in Vietnam on his watch, and almost another 40,000 died, along with millions of Vietnamese, after his departure. Did he be in debt something to them? Not it seems that as much as he owed to Johnson, and most probably to N ixon too. It â€Å"would have been a violation of my responsibility to the president and my oath to uphold the Constitution† to have publicly protested the war, he explains. Whereas the Constitution says not anything regarding muzzling public officials after they leave office, it is right that complainers are hardly ever asked to come back and play one more day.Would it have made a difference if McNamara had openly turned against the war? One cannot be certain. It might or might not have ended the war sooner. However it would have justified those who protested against or refused to battle in a war they considered morally wrong, and it might have saved the lives of some of those who went to Vietnam for the reason that they thought that their country wanted to send them there for fine reason. Regardless, the assurance of making a difference is not the issue. We often cannot be certain of the outcome of our actions when we undertake them.We either do something since we think it is right, or we decide not to do it. McNamara privileged what he supposed to be his duty to Johnson above what many others, but in fact not he, would consider his responsibility to his country. He can live with that, although he must not expect our appreciation. We can be glad that McNamara wrote this book without admiring the man or sanctioning his elusions. He had an opportunity to redeem himself for a war he felt to be wrong. However those opportunities came almost 30 ago, and at present it barely matters.What is constructive regarding this elusive book is the terrible picture it represents of men caught in the prison of their own narrow suppositions and of their bureaucratic roles. These were men who knew that their strategies were not working, that their actions were driving ever-deeper divisions within the country that they were losing the admiration of several of those whose opinions they most appreciated. And thus far they persevered. Or else they shuffled out without a soun d, like McNamara, and found other ways of trying to change the world and of trying to redeem themselves.McNamara was not unaware to what was happening. In his memo to Johnson of May 1967 quarrelling against a planned major intensification in the war, he wrote: There may be a boundary beyond which several Americans and much of the world will not allow the United States to go. The picture of the world's utmost superpower killing or critically injuring thousands noncombatants a week, whilst trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on a subject whose merits are fiercely disputed, is not a pretty one.He was sensitive at least to the bad public relations of the killing, and he acknowledged that the supposed merits of the war were â€Å"hotly disputed. † Nevertheless within the hothouse where Johnson and his advisers met to orchestrate the war, it was merely methods, never eventual aims that were questioned. There was fighting in the streets and good manners in the war room. McNamara's book presents a sense of how divorced the two realms were from one another. The planners were locked into the academic concepts of â€Å"credibility† and the mechanics of graduated intensification.Although he had doubts regarding the effectiveness of the methods, he never questioned the assumptions. In his defense McNamara makes the amazing complaint that, because of the McCarthy hysteria of the early 1950s, â€Å"our government lacked experts for us to consult to recompense for our unawareness† of Southeast Asia. True, numerous Asian experts had been driven from the government for envisaging that Chiang Kai-shek was doomed. However they had not moved to Mars. There were telephones then. They were keen to talk to anyone who would listen.Hence were other considerate and outspoken critics of the war: scholars for instance John Fairbanks and Hans Morgenthau, columnists for example Walter Lippmann, former diplomats for instance George Kennan. In 1966 Sena tor Fulbright, smarting at having been snookered by Johnson over the Gulf of Tonkin, sponsored weeks of hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offering a forum for a broad range of experts to inspect the premises and outcomes of American policy. Nowhere in his book does McNamara make reference to these hearings, and hardly at all to outside critics.The delirious arguments over Vietnam all the way through the country appear never to have infiltrated the glass bubble of the war room. EVALUATION OF THEME McNamara stayed silent regarding Vietnam, repudiating all interviews until 1994, when he wrote his memoirs. The book–In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam–ignited a firestorm of argument upon its release and turned into a national bestseller. Even though McNamara confessed in the book that he had been wrong on the subject of Vietnam, that the United States should never have become involved there, his belated confession did little to endear him to the American people.The book elevated the ire of veterans' groups, who blamed McNamara of trying to profit from a war that, in their minds, he had started and that had caused so much anguish. Too much blood was on his hands, they said, for him to try to make money off the war. McNamara's assertion, in his memoir In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, of having been â€Å"terribly wrong† regarding rising the war revive an old query often on the minds of young people at present: Would the U. S. have lost the war in Vietnam had Kennedy lived? The easiest answer is: We cannot know; history happens merely one way.The more intricate answer is: most likely not. We must not forget the significance of the Cold War and containment. Just as Kissinger's predictions that the United States would split itself apart over Vietnam did not come to pass, the cause behind American involvement in the war turned out to have been intensely flawed. The position of the United States in the world was not so shaky and that of the Soviet Union and other revolutionary movements not so prevailing that an earlier communist victory in Vietnam would have altered the effect of the Cold War.We are familiar with this now, and many people came to doubt the significance of U. S. involvement in Vietnam as the war went on. Thus far given the depth of leaders' commitment to the principles of suppression, it is hard to think that the United States would not have contributed the way it did in Vietnam, at least until 1968. (Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie Collier Hillstrom, 1998). Without a doubt the enthusiasm with which people long for a hero to have lived and saved them from the tragedy of Vietnam makes known how poignant a wound the war left.When McNamara spoke at Harvard University in the spring of 1995, observers noted how Vietnam appeared to have taken place merely yesterday for the people in the audience over forty. Their feelings were raw. For many, McNamara was a figure out of the pa st. Ernest May, one of the country's leading diplomatic historians, gave the most dispassionate elucidation of why he thought McNamara was wrong to have asserted that Kennedy would not have become as intensely involved as Johnson.McNamara appeared to have forgotten the influential spell of the Cold War. It was as if, May noticed, a Crusader wrote his memoirs without mentioning Christianity. However McNamara maintained his usually cool reserve all through the entire controversy. Reference: Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie Collier Hillstrom (1998). The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs, and Films; Greenwood Press