AUSCHWITZ essays

AUSCHWITZ essays In the beginning the Jews were murdered in mass shootings on the Russian front. This method of extermination was very difficult on the soldiers, and far to public to the civilians. This was then the beginning. In 1941 for the plan to carry out their mass killing of the Jews at Auschwitz. Once this decision had been reached to kill all the Jews of Europe, a more discreet method of extermination had to be devised. Witnesses had later accounted that even the first commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoess said that they needed a more humane and rational method for this mass killing. So late in the summer of 1941 the order was made that Auschwitz would be used for this purpose. There were six extermination factories located in Poland, many people were killed at the first death camps, but the largest camp was Auschwitz between January 1942 and November 1944 it was estimated to have exterminated 1,250,000 Jews. Auschwitz was a complex of camps, combining the different types of labor, internment and extermination. Auschwitz was a concentration center, and the most notorious of all the death camps. The Jews who were taken to Auschwitz came from many countries, Holland, Greece, Germany, Poland, Russia, France, Belgium, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Norway, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy and Yugolslavia. These victims, were unaware of their fate, and endured the indescribable torment of long rail journeys, during which they were crowded into cattle trucks and deprived of air, food and water. These journeys caused many to die just from the conditions, from suffocation and dehydration. As they would arrive at Auschwitz, the majority were tricked into taking showers or sometimes had to be driven with whips like slaves, into chambers, once naked inside these rooms, the doors were bolted and they were poisoned by hydrogen cyanide gas (Zyclon B.) All over Nazi-occupied Europe there were round-ups o ...

The eNotes Blog Jack Kerouac American Literary Baddie to theStars

Jack Kerouac American Literary Baddie to theStars Today were going to talk about an American legend: Jack Kerouac. Jack was a pretty amazing writer, not just in the work he created but also in his methodology for doing so. Like so many of us, he was not a big fan of the revision and re-write process. He was also  invested in the New York Jazz scene, and at the time that was about as cool as having backstage passes to a Justin Bieber concert, amirite? (I dont actually know what the cool kids listen toI still like jazz.) Read on to learn a bit about this literary icon, his books, and what makes him continue to be a big name on the list of American writers. [OVERVIEW] Why is Jack Kerouac Still a Big Deal? Jack Kerouac was one of the founding members of the Beat Generation of American literature. In fact,  Jack Kerouac was the acknowledged leader and spokesman for the Beat Generation. Its  underlying philosophy could loosely be described as  visionary enlightenment, Zen Buddhism, and Amerindian culture. The Beat Generation  as a whole adopted  these ideals and served to influence American culture in the post–World War  II era. Jack Kerouac Did a Great Job with Vernacular Part of Kerouacs aesthetic was his love of jazz and how freely the music seemed to come to the musicians- they didnt worry about whether  it would make sense.  Kerouac eventually developed the writing style (that still exists today, though its not often taught) known as spontaneous prose. Kerouac would observe and take notes  on a subject for months or  years at a time, and then put  all of these thoughts down on paper at once; after years on the road with friend Neal Cassady, Kerouac eventually settled down to write  On the Road in a period of about three weeks. He Was a  Master at Reflecting  His Point in Time The Beat Generation was extremely reflective of the Post–World War II  era. At this time, there was a huge exploration into alternative ways of life  (basically, a mini 60s-  and  70s-style revolution). Kerouacs work reflected  these views- his tone and subjects often conveyed  attitudes of excitement  that were  demonstrated in colloquial ways. He Had  Some Good Views on Freedom Kerouacs views on freedom may have  come from his difficult childhood and the number of doors that slammed in his face (the football team and the Marines, for example). As a result, he  rebelled. Kerouac and his character in  On the Road made their way by doing the exact opposite of what society told them to do- and the results are entertaining and a bit inspirational. In On the Road, Kerouac echoes ideas of American freedom and  the  boundless energy the country was experiencing in the aftermath of World War II.   Sal and Dean jump into the car and driveand driveand drive. There is little in terms of an exact destination because freedom and individuality are depicted as journeys in their own right, without a need for a defined end. He Was a Buddhist The Wests  interest in Eastern religions has been around for, well, a long time. But Eastern religions werent  commonly seen in practice until the later decades of the 20th century. Its arguable that it was the Beat Movement that led to this alternative view of religion. In his  book  The  Dharma Bums,  Kerouac writes about the spiritual experiences of  the character Ray and  his friends. The book  focuses in particular on the characters contact with  Buddhism. He Wasnt into Censorship Free speech has obviously been a thing in the United States since the whole drafting of the Constitution thing went down. We all know that there are some things that simply  arent always appropriate for a wide audience (like if I suddenly started talking about how Kim K. got famous- not appropriate here). Well, back in the 50s, this idea of inappropriateness was even more widespread, and that didnt really jive with Kerouacs wild experiences on the road. Kerouac also saw revisions on ones work as a form of literary lying and all but refused to do it. With all that in mind, it makes sense that the original version of  On the Road  that he attempted to publish was full of sex, drugs, and rock n roll, and no one knows if Kerouac folded on his principles and edited the novel or if his editor went ahead and did it for him. Were thinking the latter, though. P.S. He Was Kind of a Total Babe

FINANCIAL AND MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING Research Paper

FINANCIAL AND MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING - Research Paper Example This can be done using capital budgeting techniques like Net present Value, Internal rate of return, Payback period etc (Murray State University, n.d.). The future cash flows are discounted using the required rate of return to see if the project is profitable i.e. it gives ‘value for money’. Only if the project has a net positive cash flow i.e. there is a gain even after paying for the cost associated with the project, it is worth investing. The strategic planning involves integration of a company’s decisions with respect to future business activities which include capital investments and operational activities. The operational requirements can be evaluated by perusing the budget requirements (Sagner, p.114). With regard to the city project the operational requirement will require an adherence to the federal standards. This will help in raising the amount of total funds allocated towards the city project from the current level of $10 million to $20 million. A stra tegic plan involves using the set budget in the most efficient manner so that all the infrastructural needs of the city are taken care of, providing various economic incentives to the new private companies etc. This can be in the form of tax waiver for the first 10 or 15 years; giving funds at cheap interest rates; relaxing the regulatory norms so that the businesses can focus their attention only on the work related activities without having to bother about clearances from various bodies. However, this does not come for free as this will require setting up adequate departments to facilitate cordial operating conditions for the new businesses and fast-tracking certain activities. All this will require funds and so it is important that a proper plan is drawn as to assess the amount of cost that will go towards such activities. Besides it is important to assess the net impact of these investments from the financial as well as social point of view. Thesis Statement- The budgeted amount has to be spent in a way that it can result in an all around development and growth of the city. The local authority plans to allot this amount for infrastructure development, educational programs, creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) etc. Allocation for infrastructure development The population of the city is not very high. The city is distantly located from the country capital. The infrastructure of the city is not very developed which is perhaps the main reason that the city lacks a business set-up. To make the city attractive to the business community it is important that suitable infrastructure is in place. In the absence of this the business may not be able to function smoothly. A well laid down road and rail services helps in connecting the remotest corners with important business locations in other parts of the country. Only if a business finds the infrastructural facilities in a city to be proper they invest otherwise they may not take the initiative. In some cases bi g business houses form an alliance with the local government to develop the necessary infrastructure. But this may not be feasible for small private companies as they have limited resources. In this case the local

Human Resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Resource - Essay Example Employee motivation is inducement or incentive which may be self-generated or from external forces, that promotes satisfaction and an urge towards improvement in performance. Productivity is defined as â€Å"the efficient as well as the effective use of resources to achieve outcomes† (Berman, Bowman, West & Van Wart 2005: 309). Productivity depends on the quality of human resources and their levels of performance. In contemporary organizations, there is growing emphasis on implementing high performance work practices based on all aspects of organizational operations. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to explain analytically how a firm’s Human Resource strategy could be its source of competitive advantage. HRM strategies implemented according to policies based on relevant theories on workforce motivation for achieving increased productivity outcomes will be examined. The HRM Strategy of Promoting Employee Motivation In studying employee motivation and human resource management strategies to improve motivation, the factors that affect how people behave at work should be taken into consideration. These factors encompass the fundamental characteristics of people which include: individual differences pertaining to competencies based on abilities, intelligence and skills; constructs or the conceptual framework of how people perceive their environment; expectations from own and others’ behaviours, values or what people believe to be important, and self-regulatory plans or goals and how they intended to achieve them (Armstrong 2006). Other important characteristics of people that impact employees’ behaviour at work are: their attitudes, their causes, manifestations and influences on behaviour; attribution theory or how other people are judged; orientation or approaches adopted to work; and roles played by employees to carry out their work (Armstrong 2006). Besides the employees’ personal characteristics, environmental var iables include the type of work that individuals carry out; the culture, climate and organizational style in the organization; the social group within which individuals work; and the reference groups that individuals use for comparative purposes such as comparing conditions of work between various categories of employees. There is an increasing trend for human resources to be considered as the main differentiating factors contributing to a company’s competitive advantage. This underscores the belief that the knowledge and skills of employees is much more difficult to imitate, as compared to other resources. Thus, HRM believes employees to be valued assets, with the potential to ensure competitive advantage based on their commitment, adaptability and high quality skills. A study conducted by Pathak, Budhwar, Singh and Hannas (2005) examined the relationship between the implementation of HR best practices and employees’ positive psychological contract, higher commitment and greater motivation. The evidence indicates that employees experiencing a high number of best practices were more motivated as compared to those who experienced few best practices. Thus, best human resource management practices led to increased employees’ performance resulting in high levels of the company’

Arts Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arts Paper - Essay Example The painting of The Last Supper is originally painted on the backside wall of the dinning hall at the Dominician Convent of Stella Maria delle Grazie in Italy. There arise certain questions regarding the lightening, types of furniture used, and the seating arrangements. The historical fact and the Holy Bible clearly says that the supper was given on an evening. But in contradiction Leonardo has used daylight effect at the window which appears at the back end of the painted scene. In those days the type of tables used for dining were not straight on the other hand here Leonardo has painted a straight table where all the members could be seen. Leonardo seemed to have had a very brilliant notion while painting. He has given the daylight effect only to emphasize on the meaning of the painting and to focus on the members who were seated along with Jesus Christ at the centre. If he had used a round type or other rectangle type of table he would have failed to bring into focus the other disciples. If Leonardo had chosen night time effect he would have been unsuccessful in giving a full shape to the scenic background. The light effect is an additional success of the painting. It is very simple to understand, the light effect is the centre of attention for the painting. Otherwise the implication would have been fallen short of success. We could see and identify all the characters who attended the Last Supper with Christ and moreover the type of food served is also brought into focus, wine and bread. The one painting has a strong historical background. It was the last supper and so ha has painted at the end wall of the building, and the striking feature is that it will appear as if Christ and his disciples are sitting in reality in the same hall and since he had chosen the end of the hall it has the look of continuity as if the hall has an extension. The type of paint used by Leonardo was also a different attempt. He attempted â€Å"tempera†, a sort of paint that

Integrated Organizational Structure in Construction

Integrated Organizational Structure in Construction For some, Project Management is still defined as a collection of planning, a variety of control methods and various other decisions. However this paper argues that the essential elements of Project Management in the construction industry is based on organizational issues, which include the way people are managed and organized throughout the project process. The distinction is rather important due to the fact that although the utilization of  [1]  technical assessment tools and techniques are sophisticated, these methods are eradicated with an unorganized structure between various parties thriving to achieve misguided objectives. Technological training techniques and tools should enhance the management process after the appropriate objectives and organizational issues are in place. Aim The aim of the paper is to inform various parties in the construction industry of the importance of an integrated organizational structure. Introduction The characteristics of an effective project team are examined in this paper, followed by recommendations as to how an architect can develop and keep his own management team. Some of the essential elements are a culture of flexibility, shared interests, mutual support and a unity in purpose (Murray and Langford, 2004: 193). The leader, specifically, is being examined and the requirements of being a good project management leader are stipulated and the main influences are also discussed. The continuous sense of urgency is seen as the main drive behind the realisation of the construction and management processes. The general mindset in the management team should be one of a learning spirit and it must consist over the capacity to be able to adapt and change as requirements and goals change over time. Method Management and Organization It is important to understand the term Management and Organization prior to any discussion. Various authors offer a dictionary interpretation of the term, but Cleland King (1983:15) probably offer this in the most useful manner. Cleland and Kings operational definition of management identifies the criteria of organized activities, objectives, relationships among resources, working through others and decisions. Cleland King (1983:17) further states that organization in essence consists of the various elements used to define management. It can be said that these two terms are interlinked concepts that should drive and support each other through the project management process. Walker (2007:4) states that in order to maintain a successful construction process, organizations should be observed as the pattern of interrelationships, authority and responsibility that is established between the professional team, and all the contributors to achieve the main objective: client satisfaction. It is important to note that the management aspect is the dynamic impact that evolves in successful organization. Defining Project Management in Construction In the built environment this definition is well known throughout the theoretical field which is: the planning, coordination and control of a project from conception to completion on behalf of a client requiring the identification of the clients objectives in terms of utility, function, quality, time and cost, and the establishment of relationships between resources, integrating, monitoring and controlling the contributors to the project and their output, and evaluating and selecting alternatives in pursuit of a clients satisfaction with the project outcome. ibid (2007:5) It is evident that the term resources mentioned above, is a general term used to accentuate on equipment, funds, materials but most importantly the relationship between people. Many contemporary definitions are not conclusive on these principles, where the project management process is referenced without the organization of people to achieve the final objectives. It is important to implement theory with practice and to understand that these disciplines should support each other. Walker (2007:5) mentions that since these interrelationships have been devised there has not been a significant change within the practice. Authors often formulate new concepts and theoretical stances within the theoretical field, but this is of no use without it being observable or enforceable. In the context of the previously stated definition, it is necessary to understand the management process as a cognitive approach of various fields and not to be narrow minded in evaluating the product in terms of time, cost and client satisfaction. Although these elements play an important part in the process it is the relationships built within the construction team that would insure future project employment. It is interesting that Munns Bjeirmi (1996:45) argue that there is a distinction between project management, on the one hand, and the project on the other. They state that the success within a project should be seen in the long run, where the performance of the building, over a period of time, should determine the success of a project. They blame project managers for having short term time and cost objectives, rather than focussing on the stakeholders  [2]  needs. Separating these terms takes a narrow approach towards project management in general, knowing that client satisfaction should form the primary objective for any management process, along with the various aspects mentioned above. Projects, Firms and Clients There are two types of management systems within the industry: the way in which a project is managed and the management of a firm within itself. Walker (2007:8) illustrates in fig. 1 the various parties involved within the matrix management structure. However this is an idealistic structure because the various projects would seldom be dealt with by the same architect, general contractor and the variety of sub-contractors due to competitive tendering. But as an architectural practitioner one should understand the importance of the profession in the management structure. Due to the inconsistency within the management structure it is difficult to establish an effective growing relationship between the participants. The problem normally occurs when various firms should form a relationship on a working and individual level but do not want to waste time or money without the certainty of working together in the future. Walker (2007:8) further states that relational contracting initiatives h ave considered these weaknesses and have gone further to warn clients with multiple projects, but according to statistics the larger portion of projects are still managed in the traditional way. Construction management, whether relational or traditional, are thus accomplished by a variety of firms that alter from one project to the other. It is important to understand that these companies are independent firms that should manage their relationships within the firm. A healthy project necessitates a well balances firm prior to the well managed relationship between companies. Each company (firm) has certain objectives to consider maintaining a well managed practice such as: Enhancing productiveness Improving services Keeping existing clients and Attracting future clients Walker (2007:9) states that professional practices claim to be less driven by profit than the contracting and sub-contracting firms. But none the less, conflicts between the needs of individual companies and the needs of projects will still arise. i.e. what does an architectural practice do when the  [3]  resources are limited and they should chose between the urgent completion of an existing project or undertaking a new project, knowing that the other project would be affected? The objectives of the client are closely related to those of the project management objectives and the different firms involved. These are directly associated with the project and will be: Functional satisfaction Aesthetically pleasing Completion within the allocated time Completion within budget and Approved quality The question arises: Who is responsible to insure that these objectives are met? In traditional construction projects architects would be obliged to meet these requirements. But who should solve these conflict situations within the project management period? And if the architects are required to solve these issues, would it be resolved to benefit the project to the extent to meet the clients initial requirements? It is ideal to have an individual responsible to overcome these various conflicts at an early stage, preventing unhealthy relationships between companies. These individuals or project managers should preferably be trained by the clients organization itself, and this in turn establishes a close relationship between the client and the project team, where the project manager should be seen as the middle-man. However this is not always achievable and clients do not have the expertise or time to control their projects or train a project manager. The Variety of Clients Clients differ in various ways. It is important to note that there are a variety of objectives the client aim to satisfy. Contrast, in general, can be drawn between clients, the public and private sector, and multi-national and foreign clients whose objectives differ from home market objectives. The construction industry and the professions involved have to be flexible and skilled at these indifferences to maintain client satisfaction as an outcome. Walker (2007:11) explains how these practices should adapt their objectives according to the clients vision and deal directly with the client to understand how the clients organizations operate. Contribution of Organization Structure Hinings (2003) recalls the organizational structure as the heart of organizational theory. He states that structure is vital, because according to history, it has always formed the centre of the development of organizational theory and continues to be important to new and existing structural forms and contributes as a primary element to the thinking of managers. However, the organizational structure can only exist if various other factors are in place to allow a practice to perform adequately. According to Walker (2007:12), for the successful implementation of construction project management, there are a few factors and elements to be considered: Behaviour Techniques and Technology Decision making Organizational Structure Walker (2007:13) illustrates these factors in Fig 2. It is noticeable how closely these factors are related to each other but although these factors form the heart of the effectiveness of the organization process, one should keep in mind that external practice could affect the process. And if so, the project manager should compromise to keep the process in equilibrium. Walker does not deal with the external factors, but in many scenarios these are unforeseen influences i.e. political or economical changes. Behaviour Loosemore (1994) finds that the variety of skills required within the parties involved to execute a project leads to a subjective vision of the final product. These individual visions of a company, affect the effectiveness of the product and the need for an objective stance is required to envision the final product in a conclusive way. (Fig 3 Dave Taylor) Techniques and Technology These are tools used by individuals to accomplish the product throughout the construction process. Scott (1992) suggests that there are three different dimensions of technologies: Complexity, uncertainty and interdependence. Technological complexity leads to uncertainty, especially structural uncertainty, and therefore affecting interdependency where more skills and an effective co-ordination system are required. Decision Making There are numerous specialists involved throughout the decision making process of a building. This illustrates the dynamics and complexity involved throughout the management process within the built environment. By stating this, it could be said that the decision processes are firmly connected within the organization structure that underpin the way people relate to each other and the effective workmanship between these parties. Organization Structure The organization structure should advice the decision making process and the use of technology and techniques as discussed above. It is a system that integrates these various factors to achieve a balanced relationship between the different companies involved. Walker (2007:15) mentions that this organizational structure is the responsibility of the managing executive and in turn achieving his/her final objective: client satisfaction. The Learning Spirits of the Project Team Architects prefer the initial phase of the development process, where the design and the concept development takes place, engineers on the other hand prefers the hands-on development of the project, during construction, the actual implementation of the plans (Murray Langford, 2004: 201). The most important part of the learning process, however, is the reflection part, where evaluation takes place and all involved can learn from mistakes and wrong doings during the process. The architect, as project manager, can promote the reflection process and thus improve the learning experiences of the professional team. Constructive discussions, between the team members, of project development should be encouraged by the project manager; this often leads to innovative solutions to solve problems, adding to the learning experience. Feed back to all members of the team can only benefit the project as well as prospected future projects. Communication and collaboration that leads to continuous experiments and the improvement and increase of the members problem solving skills, identifies a learning organization. The acquired knowledge obtained through this process is not only documented and stored for future use, but those involved will also benefit in the long run, as the new acquired skills and knowledge can be applied on any other projects, leading to more integrated and well developed management systems. Many of the solutions found during this learning process may still need adjustment; this implies that continuous control and monitoring must take place. Revans (1971:264) advocates action research as an excellent method by which team members can develop their technical and personal skills. Even though the aesthetics of a building and the designers personal design image gives the building its identity, some modern buildings nowadays acts merely as a shell to the functional dynamic implemented by a process engineer. Efficient design in terms of layout and cost is crucial. Close teamwork is essential in these buildings, it is also important to basically understand the discipline of all parties involved, this allows for better communication. Assembling a new team every time a new project starts is inefficient and wastes a lot of money. Old knowledge, accumulated over a long period of time, can save time and money if the relationships between the team members are established and small indifferences or misunderstandings have been dealt with in the past. The reoccurrence of similar design problems are not common and this leads to standardized, tried and tested solutions for problems already been dealt with before. The conflict in interest is also much less, should a team already be established, as no one has something to prove. Often when a new team is working together a power struggle exists between some members of the team, who wants to enforce their power and influence on other members of the team. It is thus beneficial to all involved to create a learning organization out of the project team. Excitement and innovation is more likely to happen if the team members have confidence in each others competence and integrity. The most important link in this process is the team leader who should continuously encourage creative thinking and constructive criticism as well as stimulate effective learning through problem solving experiences throughout the project. Implementing Best Value Thomas Thomas (2005:170) describe the importance of the integrated team and the understanding of the value criteria the whole team will be judged upon final evaluation. By accomplishing an integrated team they should align their objectives insuring they are pulling in the same direction rather than working against each other. (Fig4) In order to deliver a project at the lowest cost (tender price) contractors often carry out the work to maintain maximum profit, thus leading to the evaluation criteria to be stricter. This in turn affects team work, and the relationships of various parties are at stake. It is vital to achieve value and quality of work from the initial stage eliminating certain factors that would affect the building project i.e. rework that contributes to the lack of crucial time. The principles of best value can be described as, the optimum combination of whole life costs and benefits to meet the customers requirements. This approach enables sustainability and quality to be taken into account whole life costs allows factors such as fuel efficiency and replacement cycles to be taken into account, as well as social example benefits to local people, good work force, management, community safety, diversity and fairness. Successful procurement strategies are likely to be based on whole life cost considerations that include subsequent revenue implications and not simply the lowest tender price. (ODPM, 2003). Thomas Thomas (2005:173) further discuss the advantages and disadvantages of an integrated and non-integrated team. If an integrated team is established, would they disintegrate for the purpose of being more productive on a individual level? Fig. 5 (173) illustrates a diagram of these communication strategies; both these illustrations offer their own benefits in terms of time, cost and quality. But the disintegration of a team often leads to: Rework Constant Evaluation Lack of Trust Overlapping Projects No drive for Quality Improvement Organizations becomes selfish focussed on their own goals and objectives Multiple Systems of Communication as Illustrated in Fig. 4 Eagan (1998) writes that one should rethink construction, due to the fact that the clients are usually dissatisfied with the outcome of the final product. To obtain the clients initial objectives it is necessary to work as an integrated team, where various team members work together without eliminating each others efforts. The Integrated Team Due to organizations that contract into their own cultural and technical silos, an integrated team cannot be established. It is required that the various practices and companies need to develop a combined intellect, skills and synergy of the project to deliver the appropriate quality of workmanship to benefit the process and the partner involved in the project. In Egans book, Accelerating Change, Eagan (2002:85) advises a toolkit to achieve an integrated team. These guidelines should be referred to throughout the management process. He defines these conditions as: A singular team, that is focussed on a common set of goals and objectives, delivering benefit for all concerned A team so seamless, that it appears to operate is if it were a company in its own right A team with no apparent boundaries, in which all the members have the same opportunity to contribute and all the skills and capabilities on offer can be utilized to maximum effect. Any team is only as strong as its weakest link, and in the construction industry, a weak link can also have a negative effect on the other supporting systems. With a well organized program, these links decrease offering a more stable system as a whole. This cognitive approach enhances the relationships built during the process and a bond of trust is obtained. The management of these projects are a learning process on a big scale, but organizational skills acquired between the various organizations could be re-implemented on a smaller scale i.e. the individuals within these smaller companies. Thomas Thomas (2005:63) illustrate the basic structure of an integrated team and a traditional chain. It is important to note, from these illustrations, that an integrated team will require understanding and commitment from the various practices and organizations to function as a system. (Fig 11) Trust Trust is elusive and could not be rated or quantified on a hierarchical basis, but it is of cardinal importance between team members to insure a healthy relationship. Because trust is based on a personal, emotional stance, it is difficult to measure these feelings, but Thomas Thomas (2005:66) defines it as, TRUST = POSSITIVE EXPERIENCES à · RISK According to this measurement, as trust increases team members would act more honestly and the upcoming problems could be dealt with as a team and in turn the risks would be managed in an effective manner. Trust is a fragile emotion that could be lost in a short period of time, but this is where communication within the team is of the essence. Where one party feels that they experience dishonesty or discomfort, it is necessary to confront one another before the relationships is ruined. Maintaining the Team The leader of the building projects most important role is building and maintaining an effective project organization. The teamthink approach must be stimulated and a balance between convergent and divergent thinking (and the communication thereof) should be managed by the project leader. Teamthink is where all the individual members spend time on finding the best possible solutions to various problems through the illumination of other solutions. During this process all views and opinions are granted a fair chance, but is then evaluated to determine the best solution (Murray Langford, 2004: 205). The team usually develops in four stages: forming, storming, norming and performing. Forming is when the team is first established and everyone is being introduced to each other. Storming has to do with early disagreement, which is inevitable when different people need to work together for the first time. Norming refers to the stage where the team has established effective ways of working together to achieve the best possible results. Performing is the point where the team starts producing effective and efficient solutions to the proposed problems and has developed into a mature, well functioning group. Most teams, unfortunately does not have the luxury of naturally undergoing this process, but the variations of effectiveness of a team will follow a pattern as suggested by Moore (2002): A well prepared project may have the capacity to deal with or require different project management leaders at the different phases of the project. This, however, is not very often the case, because projects often relay on the communication and relationships between the team members. By starting over, both in terms of new people and new positions, in term of hierarchy, the process is delayed and this may cause conflict in the management process. When managing a project, or even just a meeting, the management happens in two levels: a) the leader must manage the content, in terms of decisions made and the detailing of where, when, how and why and b) the leader is responsible for the social aspects, such as the individuals egos and transforming arguments into solutions. It is thus the leaders role to control all the involved individuals in order to benefit the overall project. Partnering If partners have worked together before it is easier to form successful partnerships. The main objective of partnering is to optimize project performance, this includes completing on time and within budget, with a reasonable profit margin to all involved and obviously the aim is to produce within an acceptable, agreed quality with zero accidents (Murray Langford, 2004: 199). It is important that the partners, as leaders of the project remain loyal and on one side of the table, as conflict between partners, on top level, will cause the entire project to deminish. When the team members have been identified, it is important to gather the team in a neutral venue where the main outcomes and objectives of the project can be discussed. This improves team spirit and open up communication. This workshop setup usually fosters commitment to the success of the project. The architect should remember that there is no such thing as a optimum design and therefore the design process should continue and all suggestions accepted and tried. The main objective of such a workshop is to encourage cooperation between the team members. A summary of best practice methods: High performance teams must be selected and chosen, it is not something that happens by chance. A good team leader leads decisively yet gently with a firm focus on the clients requirements Effective teams are self-motivated, people orientated, supportive and flexible environments are created Roles, responsibilities, procedures and communication channels should be clearly defined The value of contributing small groups should be recognised and the leader should not force his power onto every situation All members of the team should be treated as equal partners The project should be seen as a learning opportunity to all, with feedback and reflection sessions The team must be developed and maintained by the project leader, this must continue throughout the whole project. Conclusion This theoretical paper has tried to illustrate what should be done in order to create a successful project team. It should be noted that all the mentioned methods and techniques have made sense in the past and may only be applicable to some situations. The project leader has the responsibility to read every situation and then react appropriately to every individual event. It should, however, be noted that generally, virtual teams (as a result of the technical explosion) are not as successful as teams that meet face-to-face on a regular basis. Most people prefer personal interaction in an encouraging and constructive environment. Case study: Cape Town International Convention Centre project (CTICC) Background In 1999 the Western Cape Provincial Government, the Cape Metropolitan Council, the City of Cape Town and Business Cape joined forces to develop a truly world-class convention centre on a 6.1-hectare site on Cape Towns northern foreshore. To this end, they formed the Cape Town International Convention Centre Company (Pty) Ltd (CONVENCO). CONVENCO was thus tasked to develop an international standard, multi-purpose conference, convention and exhibition centre ) which, hitherto, was a missing piece of tourism and business infrastructure in the Western Cape. Project description CTICC is a world-class undertaking, providing 25,000 m2 of space featuring high levels of quality, and exceptional interior and exterior design elements. The project comprises the development of a multi-purpose conference, convention and exhibition centre. It is a three-storey building including numerous facilities, such as an integrated deluxe hotel, dedicated column-free exhibition space, and extensive banqueting and conference facilities. Such an ambitious project required meticulous design of auditoriums, ballrooms, meeting suites, breakout blocks and exhibition halls. CTICC aims to provide a landmark feature at the city/waterfront gateway, and has an impressive domed external appearance with numerous glazed concourses and incorporating internal landscaped areas. Project team for the construction phase of the CTKC The two main appointments were the project manager and the design architect. Foreshore Architects was named as the joint venture responsible for developing the total design concept, this is an association of various architectural practices including: Revel Fox and Partners (architects and planners); Van der Merwe Miszewski Architects; Lucien le Grange Architects and Urban Planners; Stauch Vorster Architects; Magqwaka Associates, Architects. Procurement management strategy Before examining the role of the sub-contractor management in the successful completion of CTICC, it is essential to understand the socio-political situation within post-apartheid South Africa. CTICC was built in South Africas Cape metropolis at a time when the country and its construction industry are going through significant restructuring (Dept. of Public Works White Paper, 1999). Top of the list of the South African Governments Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) is provision of infrastructure designed to bring relief to people in the form of jobs and economic business development. Expansion of business, the government contends, would increase potential for investment for small, medium and emerging contractors (particularly those representing affirmative business enterprises [ABEs] and previously disadvantaged individuals [PDls]). PDls are a key aspect of this situation since they were often long-term unemployed and/or unskilled workers from the townships selected as a means to expand economic activity without particular reference to the skills of the individuals. On-the-job training therefore became an inherent component of the development of all ABEs employed on the CTICC. Essentially, the RDP policy framework requires that the development of the construction industry must respond to the broad social and economic imperatives of the country. These include sustainable employment creation, affirmative action, active promotion of small, medium and emerging enterprises (SMEEs). The vision is for a construction industry policy and strategy that promotes stability, fosters economic growth and international competitiveness. Furthermore, that the policy should create sustainable employment, which should simultaneously address historic imbalances in employment opportunity as it generates new capacity for economic development. In this regard government is willing to promote appropriate and innovative public-private sector partnerships, which build on the strengths of respective sectors to promote investment in the delivery of infrastructure. Management of sub-contractors at the CTKC project The procurement of sub-contractors was in line with the targeted procurement policy. Up to well over 200 sub-contractors participated in the project. To ensure equity, targeted contract procurement goals were established. To ensure that the choice, performance, workmanship, health and safety issues, sub-contractor design, manufacturing and installation were all properly managed and co-ordinated, a targeted procurement strategy, support and management system was put in place. Time, cost and quality performance of sub-contractors Performance was achieved through strict work breakdown, which ensured that each sub-contractor only performed their part of the pie but while working as a co

Greek Education v.s Roman Education Essay -- essays research papers f

Similarities and Differences: Ancient Greece vs. Ancient Rome   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many qualities of the Ancient Roman civilization were undoubtedly borrowed from their predecessors of the Greek culture (Bonner 1). Roman education, however, is only a reflection of the Greek education system. Ancient Roman education tactics differ from the education methods used by Ancient Greek instruction. Nevertheless, these two different approaches contain many similarities. Although the Romans made an effort to reproduce the style of education maintained by the Greeks, their attempts failed; however Rome managed to adopt many principles of Greek education in the process. This is made apparent by comparing and contrasting Greek and Roman education methods as well as the explanation of the worldly problems and expectations each culture was facing during this era. It was not until Rome conquered the small Greek society, Tarentum, in 272 B.C. that they could see the importance of being intellectuals (Dobson 92). This contact with Greek culture allowed Romans to employ the Greek values of education that could be observed within this small culture (Dobson 92).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prior to the creation of state maintained schools and academies in Greece, higher education was mainly reserved for the elite persons of a community (Handbook: Greece 253). Training for these citizens consisted of instruction in the areas of music, poetry, numeracy, and religious ritual (Handbook: Greece 253). Unlike the Greeks, Roman education was practically nonexistent before the development of official school systems in the Roman culture (Dobson 91). By law, early Roman education required that the father be the only schoolmaster of his son (Dobson 94). The mother would teach children basic principles until age seven (Avi-Yonah 176). Afterward, the father was in charge of the upbringing of his child (Avi-Yonah 176). Aside from teaching basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, the primary subject of instruction consisted almost entirely of battle tactics and farming procedures (Avi-Yonah 176). Ancient Greece developed the idea of school systems around mid seventh century B.C., one century after writing was introduced (Handbook: Greece 253), however, it was not until the Hellenistic age that these schools were founded or maintained by the city (Devambez 404). Before the Hell... ...p;  The basic techniques of study for these two cultures were fundamentally similar. i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Roman children were often split into age groups for teaching, just as the Greeks had done during Hellenistic times. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Music also played a role in Roman curriculum, although it was not as highly esteemed as in the Greek schools. V.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Continued education was significantly dissimilar in Greece than in Rome. A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most Romans that wished to continue their education were sent to Greek academies for further study, or would hire a specialist. B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Greek academies were prevalent during Roman existence. i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Plato’s Academy was one of the well- known Greek academies that existed sometime around 387 B.C. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Aristotle’s Lyceum was another research establichment that was founded after Plato’s Academy and taught using different principles than most. VI.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although many Romans intended to Hellenize Roman education, the attempts were failed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Ethics and Internal Auditors

Professionalism, Ethical Codes and the Internal Auditor: A Moral Argument Mary Ann Reynolds ABSTRACT. This paper examines the case of the internal auditor from a sociological and ethical perspective. Is it appropriate to extend the designation of professional to internal auditors? The discussion includes criteria from the sociology literature on professionalism. Further, professional ethical codes are compared. Internal auditors’ code of ethics is found to have a strong moral approach, contrasting to the more instrumental approach of certified professional accountants.Internal auditors are noted as using their code of ethics to help resolve professional ethical dilemmas. Introduction Society grants professional standing to those groups which contribute to the well being of the broader society. Business experts in such groups as business ethics consultants and internal auditors lay claim to professional standing which if granted enhances both their credibility and marketability . But is this claim justified? Although business ethicists are beginning to debate this issue they presently lack a common body of knowledge or agreed upon expertise.As defined expert knowledge is one of the common criterion for professional definition their claim awaits the development of consensus (Cohen, 1992; Stark, 1993; and Dean, 1997) However a similar group, internal auditor’s have a fifty year history of moving to achieve this recognition. This paper will examine the justification of their claim to professionalism in light of current practice. Mary Ann Reynolds is assistant professor of accounting at Western Washington University. Her current research publications are primarily in the areas of ethics, and environmental accounting.This is of importance to society because internal auditor’s provide a peculiar service in that they contribute to the control of the integrity of financial information in a market economy. Public accountants, represented by the Americ an Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) have long held professional status based on their responsibility to audit publicly issued financial statements. Public accountants provide a range of service but are specifically licensed to perform the external audit of publicly issued financial statements.Internal auditors in contrast have no licensure requirement and practice within the corporation or organization that employs them. There may be great similarity in the work performed by these two branches of accounting. Internal auditors may perhaps be considered a subset of accounting and as such may be included under the professional rubric. However they may also be viewed as a particular class of business expert or consultant, not serving the public good and not necessarily adhering to standards or codes of conduct, in which case the claim to professionalism would not hold.However, as a result of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 corporations are required to maintain effective internal controls to prevent fraud and bribery of foreign officials. Internal auditors have been instrumental in providing this service as well as compliance audits to ensure meeting regulatory requirements. Society appears to expect a professional service even though licensure has not been required nor formally granted. The internal auditor serves an important link in the business and financial reporting process of corporations and not for profit providers but can they be considered professionals?Journal of Business Ethics 24: 115–124, 2000.  © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 116 Mary Ann Reynolds Professionalism: A societal perspective Accountants perform agreed upon services within an orderly social and economic context. The claim to classify accounting, and auditing, as classical professions is based upon their relationship to society as a whole and the question of professionalism must therefore be studied not just in the context of a division of labor but, â€Å"as part of a network of social and economic relations (Dingwell, p. 2). Professions do, in fact, contract with society and a sociological level of analysis is thus useful in examining accounting practice (Fogarty, 1995). The functionalist perspective deriving from Parsons (1951, 1968) classic works in particular provides a useful explanatory model for understanding accounting in its social environment. Functionalists contend that society will organize to maintain itself and then various functions arise to preserve the stability of the social system.Anthropologists utilizing functionalism as a heuristic tool have identified four of the prerequisites to maintain society as: 1) shared cognitive orientations, 2) normative regulation of means, 3) effective control of disruptive forms of behavior and 4) communication (Aberle et al. , 1960). Accounting reports as an inherent part of the resource allocation process and can appropriately be viewed as commun ication as well as one of the control mechanisms (Reynolds, 1989). The functionalist perspective is chosen from among possible approaches such as taxonomic, neo-Weberian, or Marxist (Saks, 1988) as relevant to accountants.As Montagna (Freidson, 1973, p. 146) notes professional accountants are, â€Å"designers of order†. Accounting theory follows the basic assumptions of the functionalist perspective in that they contribute to accurate communication, control and the maintenance of order. Although work on professions following a functionalist foundation is continued by Moore (1970), some specific insight can be gained by returning to issues raised by Parsons and Hughes in earlier work. A range of criteria have been proposed as indicators of professional status in this society. Parsons focused on the function served, i. e. aintenance of order and control, while Hughes discussed licensure and certification as indicators Are internal auditors properly designated as professionals? This continuing discussion is emphasized by Wesberry’s (1989, p. 25) regretting that internal auditor’s cannot yet claim to â€Å"have arrived†, to unequivocally claim professional status. Further debate arises as questions about future directions for internal auditing indicate a wide range of possibilities. Opposite ends of the spectrum are expressed by an interview with Michael Hammer (1998) and a review of Israeli legislation (Friedberg and Mizrahi, 1998).In an interview published in the Internal Auditor, Michael Hammer encourages internal auditors to move to a consultancy position and to convince management that the consultant’s role is in fact the role in which the internal auditor adds value to the company. This contrasts to the prominence internal audits were recently accorded in Israel where the Knesset mandated that every public body or organization must have an internal audit. Thus we see the current debate as whether internal auditors are class ified as workers with a particular expertise, or as professionals?This discussion can be informed by reference to the sociology of professions and examination of the proposed profession’s ethical code. The author examines the unresolved claim of professional status for internal auditors and considers their development and use of a code of ethic as one type of supporting evidence. The specific case of the internal auditor is addressed by reviewing: 1) the internal auditor’s claim to professionalism based on their function in society, 2) criteria for professions, and 3) development of an ethical code.The paper is organized as follows: the examination is located in the societal perspective and then specific professional characteristics are reviewed. The third section discusses codes of ethics and compares elements contained in recognized professional accounting codes. Section IV discusses the internal auditors code in particular, the guidance for conflict resolution and f inally, the moral focus of the internal auditor’s professional ethics code is discussed. Section five is the conclusion. Professionalism, Ethical Codes and the Internal Auditor of societal mandate.Jackson (1970, p. 6) enumerates: craft, skills, intellectual training and the concept of duty with a service ideal and objective disinterestedness as criteria for distinguishing professions. Thus, for an occupation to become a profession it is considered one which is practiced by a few experts using special knowledge in a field which reflects issues of concern to society. Further, normative standards of practice are then set by the professional bodies. Evolving professional status within a society is additionally evidenced by development and adherence to a standard or code.Thus, the consideration of an occupation as professional or nonprofessional is based on an accumulation of critical discriminating characteristics ( Jackson, 1970, p. 23). To those noted above Schumpeter (1951) ad ds the consideration of monopoly power. Monopoly versus non monopoly is an indictor of the degree to which charter to practice has been granted to the profession by society. Characteristics of professions. Within the social model professions are seen as emerging to serve the public good and are granted status by society because of the functions performed.The basic issues presented above led to the development of proposed listings of common characteristics for professions. The listing used by Millerson (1964), and Kultgen, (1988), utilizes both traits and functions as characteristics and is therefore inclusive of the issues raised. The listing includes the thirteen primary characteristics found in Table I. The first five general characteristics are widely accepted as definitional in the professions literature, they are appropriately applied to public accountants and are not argued separately in this paper.Characteristics numbered six through ten deal more particularly with the relati onship of professional service, and the professional, to the society and these will be examined in detail below. Characteristics eleven through thirteen further define the relationship of the professional practitioner to the client that is served and will be briefly discussed here. Characteristic number eleven asserts a fiduciary relationship toward the client. This requirement that the highest standard of loyalty be met TABLE I Primary characteristics of professions 117 General 01.A profession involves skill based on theoretical knowledge. 02. The skill requires extensive and intensive training and education. 03. The professional must demonstrate competence by passing a test. 04. The profession is organized and it is represented by associations of distinctive character. 05. Integrity is maintained by adherence to a code of conduct. Relationship to society 06. Professional service is altruistic. 07. The professional assumes responsibility for the affairs of others. 08. Professional service is indispensable for the public good. 09.Professionals are licensed, so their work is sanctioned by the community. 10. Professionals are independent practitioners, serving individual clients. Relationship to clients 11. They have a fiduciary relationship toward their clients. 12. They do their best to serve their clients impartially without regard to any special relationship. 13. They are compensated by fee or fixed charge. As summarized in Kultgen, 1988, p. 60, headings added. in serving the principal is difficult to apply directly to either public accountants, whose first duty is to the public good, or to internal auditors hose duty of good faith is to their immediate employer. However both groups do acknowledge their duty to act in good faith which may fulfil the intent of this requirement even though the duty is not to a client per se. Characteristic twelve requires impartiality, construed by accountants as objectivity. Public accountants are bound by the requirement to maintain an objective and independent attitude. Internal auditors are also enjoined to maintain an independent attitude, thus meeting this characteristic. The last characteristic is met by public accountants 118 Mary Ann Reynolds be a profession.Courtemanche (1991) provides an historical argument in favor of such professional recognition. Internal auditors working within corporations have asserted their right to hold themselves out as professionals. This has been challenged by CPA professionals in public practice. The issue reached the status of legal debate and court cases in Florida and Texas supported the legal right of accountants working within corporations, rather than in public practice, to use the professional CPA designation if they have passed the CPA examination and met the qualifying criteria (Baker and Hanson, 1997).A logical argument can also be constructed with reference to the professional characteristics previously summarized. Examination of the characteristics will reveal whether the preponderance apply to internal auditors or not. The first five characteristics generally define professions and can be seen to apply to internal auditors as well as to the certified public accountants. However, primary characteristics six through ten are open to debate and will be examined separately for applicability to internal auditors and the question of their professional standing.A discussion of each of these characteristics follows. Is the service performed by internal auditors altruistic? This may be questioned for most professions in any but an idealized definition of the functions that are performed. However, the focus of this characteristic seems to be that services performed are services that cannot be done by the client him/herself and that service performance is not primarily for personal enrichment. Compensation is provided to professionals to enable them to continue to perform the service. If public auditors are eld to enhance the proper flow of accounting information in a capital market as a necessary service (Brown and Bradshaw, 1988), then by extension internal auditors may be held to enhance the accurate flow of information from inside the corporation to the external capital market. By extension this may be construed as serving the public interest. However, because they are directly employed by the corporation they may be said to provide the service as a by product with personal gain, through the receipt charging an audit fee.It is not applicable to internal auditors who receive salary. In addition to these thirteen primary characteristics Kultgen (1988) also notes these seven ancillary characteristics: 1) loyalty to colleagues, 2) regular professional development, 3) prestige based on guaranteed service, 4) use of individual judgment, 5) work is not manual, 6) profits are not capital dependent and 7) status is widely recognized. These seven ancillary characteristics reflect more on the professional practitioner as an i ndividual and less on function within society.Examining both sets of characteristics from a societal perspective, it is readily seen how the public accounting profession meets the criteria within this model and can therefore be held to maintain order and contribute to the stability of the society. Further, in granting the Certified Public Accountants, as professionals, exclusive license to practice society acknowledges their important role and grants a monopoly position. Professions contract with society and acknowledge their role and responsibility by establishing codes of conduct.The development of a formalized code has been seen as a necessary indicator of professionalism (Newton, 1982, and Loeb, 1984). Thus, society acknowledges the professions’ contribution to the public good and the professions acknowledge their responsibility to society. Professional accountants, as represented by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), have held themselves to b e a profession and have accepted the obligations coincident with that designation.Certified public accountants (CPAs) conform to both the major thirteen characteristics and the seven ancillary characteristics and are commonly held to be professionals. However, Zeff (1987, p. 67) argues that their professionalism is, â€Å"diluted by rule dominated practices. † For the purposes of this paper the assumption will be made that public accounting, as practiced by CPA’s, is indeed a profession. Can this professional designation be extended to include internal auditors, as a branch of accounting, under the professional rubric?The research question specifically addressed in this paper is whether or not internal auditing, as a special case of accounting, can also be held to Professionalism, Ethical Codes and the Internal Auditor of salaries, as the primary goal. Thus, only partially supporting the claim to professional designation. Is responsibility assumed for the affairs of ot hers? This normally connotes an area of expertise held by the professional, essential to the recipient, about which advice is given.The recipient is not able to evaluate the information for him/herself. This is clearly the case with regard to the classic professions of law, medicine, and architecture (Kultgen, 1988). The public auditor is specifically employed to exercise professional judgement and offer an opinion as an expert. Therefore this can be considered applicable to the public auditor. However, the case cannot be extended to the internal auditor in this instance, as the client, i. e. the corporation, has its own accountants employed to generate the required accounting information and the internal auditor primarily serves an internal control function, even though accounting expertise may be needed and additional accounting advice may be sought. This control function serves the corporation directly and only indirectly serves society Is the professional service indispensable t o the public good? Public audits have been mandated by legally authorized bodies, thus recognizing that they are considered essential to the public good by allocating resources to them.With the public demand for the control of fraud evidenced by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 internal auditors became more active as a means of internal control, and fraud detection that was part of the proposed solution to protect the public interest (Lambert and Hubbard, 1989). Internal auditors, in their professional capacity, may be asked to design internal control systems and to assist in the construction of corporate codes of ethics (Peacock and Palfrey, 1991), thus, serving as an integral part of the overall control system and by extension may be considered indispensable to the public good.Is internal auditors’ licensing sanctioned by the community? Referring to the previous argument some level of public sanction is implied. However, licensure implies authority to license, 119 which must be granted by an authoritative body. In the case of Certified Public Accountants (CPA), state boards of accountancy are empowered by the respective legislatures to license public accountants practicing in the state. Internal auditors are not licensed by a legislative authority. Rather, they are certified by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) upon successful completion of an experience requirement and a qualifying exam.No authoritative body claims jurisdiction over their activities. Within the corporation, however, internal auditors have responsibilities defined by the corporation and authority granted by means of a charter. This internal authority granting charter should be signed by the executive management and by the audit committee representing the shareholders (Ratliff et al. , 1988). In the context of an internal, company specific activity, this can be construed as granting professional right to practice by appropriate authority.This is not however, an authorit y granted by society nor does it extend beyond the charter granting corporation. This is, at best, a limited type of licensure as no monopoly is granted and certification is not required. Is the internal auditor an independent practitioner serving individual clients? The issue of the charter for internal audit departments is particularly relevant to this discussion. Internal auditors operate within the corporation by right of a charter establishing their rights and responsibilities and granting them authority to function ( Johnson, 1986).The charter establishes the internal audit department as an independent function which enables the internal auditor to operate as an individual professional serving a client. Although the client in this case is the corporation, the required independence of attitude and function can be seen to qualify the internal auditor as an independent practitioner. Examination of the applicability of the six ancillary characteristics to internal auditors contrib utes to the resolution of the question of professionalism. The six ancillary characteristics are specifically included in the code of ethics developed by the Institute of Internal Auditors.Thus, a preponderance of the characteristics, or 120 Mary Ann Reynolds punishments are structured to reward ethical behavior. Thus, the outcomes of professional behavior, whether moral or prudent, will enhance the public good. However, the Institute of Internal Auditors has chosen to emphasize high moral character. Article VIII of the IIA Code of Ethics specifically states that internal auditors should be ever mindful of their obligation to maintain a high standard of morality. It is useful to examine ethical codes and seek identification of common themes or components.A comparison by Kultgen (1988) of the American Association of University Professors; American Bar Association; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; American Medical Association; American Psychological Association; Eng ineers Council for Professional Development; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; and Sigma Delta Chi (Society of Professional Journalists) found a number of common elements. The common elements noted include; loyalty to the client, employer, or institution; avoidance of conflict of interest or bribery. Competence, objectivity and honesty about qualifications were also universal.Additional themes such as respect for the territorial rights of colleagues and professional self-monitoring were also widely evidenced. The lack of regulatory oversight allowing self-monitoring, or a profession’s control over its membership and practice, is granted by society (Armstrong and Vincent, 1988). This ability to continue to be self regulated is one which the accounting profession in particular has vigorously defended. Another type of examination is provided by Harris and Reynolds (1992) with a specific comparison of the codes from various branches of the accounting profession.T his detailed comparison of the codes also focuses on dilemmas inherent within the various codes as well as, among various levels of society. An examination of the code of the internal auditors in comparison to the code of the AICPA reveals useful insights. Elements listed in the eight articles of the internal audit code include: honesty, objectivity, diligence, morality, dignity, organizational loyalty, independent mental attitude, competence, conformity to standards, confidentiality, full disclosure, continuing education, nonacceptance of criteria, cited are applicable to internal auditors in their own right.It is therefore, logical to extend the classification of accountants as professionals to internal auditors as professionals. To further legitimate this claim the Institute of Internal Auditors was formed in New York City in 1941, standards were established and a Code of Ethics adopted thus implicitly reflecting their acceptance of their responsibility to society. Examination of the code of ethics adopted may also shed light on their claim to professional status. The following section examines their code and compares it in part to the code adopted by public accounting professionals through the AICPA.Ethical codes: A comparison A profession’s mission and responsibility can be enunciated through the code of ethics to which it subscribes. Like other professions, internal auditors have developed and formally adopted a professional code. In the development of an ethical code there are two basic ethical viewpoints: 1) moral, 2) prudent, which may be adopted. Kultgen (1988) in his work on professions, distinguishes between these two approaches as follows: â€Å"Moral persons recognize the intrinsic value of each member of the moral community; merely prudent persons recognize only their own value and treat others as instrumentality’s. . . . Professional practices can be, â€Å"examined from the moral point of view, asking how they contribute to, or detract from the aggregate happiness and fair distribution of goods in the moral community (1988, p. 32). † Accountants are often viewed as utilitarian in approach and may thus be expected to choose the prudent approach. Examination of the AICPA code reveals that although the principles section in the introduction addresses moral components, the enforceable rules section of the code is predominantly a guide to practice. This is in contrast to the internal auditor’s code which is a guide to individual moral behavior.In a well organized society the rewards and Professionalism, Ethical Codes and the Internal Auditor gifts, and no commission of acts discreditable. This list encompasses both character attributes: honesty, dignity, morality, loyalty, nonacceptance of gifts and no commission of acts discreditable; and professional performance of duty attributes: objectivity, independent mental attitude, competence, conformity to standards, and full disclosure. Thus, the code gives clear indication of the personal qualifications perceived to be essential to perform the requisite public service in an ethical manner.With the emphasis placed on loyalty, dignity and morality the assumption can be made that this institute adopts a moral, rather than a prudent, view of ethical behavior. The emphasis in the internal auditor ethical code reflects an individual level of ethical behavior and decision making. The factor of voluntary compliance further indicates an individual level of ethics. Note that internal auditor’s membership is voluntary and members personally choose to subscribe to the higher duty. There is no societal enforcement if this duty is not met, the only enforcement is forfeiture of membership and certification (Loeb, 1984).The contrast with the AICPA code of conduct shows the AICPA code to have a more institutional focus. Rather than the specification of individual moral characteristics, forms of practice are discussed. The ethical code can be seen as directed to the firm of accountants rather than to the individual per se. The new AICPA code, as adopted in 1988, states positive principles about appropriate professional conduct and is goal driven (Meigs et al. , 1989). In contrast to the Institute of Internal Auditors code, the AICPA code may be viewed as adopting a prudent, or instrumental, ethical view.The AICPA code preamble and article II both express the professions’ responsibilities to the public interest. Here again, membership is voluntary and members commit themselves to honor the public trust and maintain professional excellence. Elements of the code in support of this include: objectivity, independence, scope and nature of services, compliance with standards, confidentiality, contingent fees, advertising and other solicitation, incompatible occupations and form of practice and name. Mention is also made of integrity. Integrity, however, is seen in the 121 context of professional judgment.The professi onal, by this standard of integrity, must be independent, not knowingly misrepresent the facts; and not subject his/her judgment to the judgment of others (AICPA, 1988). Again, the emphasis is on the professional performance of duties in the public arena and serving the public good. Further, Rule 501 enjoins members not to commit acts discreditable to the profession. Enforcement of the AICPA code takes several forms. Members can be censured by one of the designated review boards and membership in the AICPA revoked, the ability to practice before the SEC revoked, or the state license revoked.Licensure is granted by the state boards and revocation of the license goes through a state board procedure also. This constitutes a legal enforcement and the accountant would no longer be licensed to practice. Some of these contrasts between the AICPA and the IIA codes arise from structural differences. Namely, public auditors’ codes include structure of practice considerations such as ad vertising and contingent fees, and permissible firm names; that are not relevant to the internal auditor.Beyond structure, the basic difference evidenced is the AICPA emphasis on a practical, prudent, institutional approach, whereas the IIA emphasizes a moral and individual approach. This difference may in part reflect the varying degree of societal regulation within which the two groups operate. The societal regulation in turn may reflect the level of societal recognition and as internal auditing evolves and gains public recognition, regulation and possible licensing may follow. Examination of additional accounting professional codes provides further points of comparison.The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) code is the only code to call explicitly for the maintenance of personal dignity. Some commonalties emerge however, as both the Government Financial Officers Association (GFOA) and the IIA included: exercise of due care, or diligence, and loyalty to employer (Harris and Reyn olds, 1992). Both the governmental financial accountants and the internal auditors function in an environment where they are working as professionals, but within an entity 122 Mary Ann Reynolds on the externally issued financial statements (Lambert and Hubbard, 1989).That the internal audit profession is seen as a significant player in the societal move to deter fraud serves to legitimate their claim to professionalism. At the same time this may exacerbate conflicting loyalty problems. Clearly, the choice will fall on the internal auditor as an individual and it may be to this end that strong individual character has been emphasized in the IIA code. This conclusion follows from Kultgen’s statement that, â€Å"a valid professional ethic, therefore, is critical for the moral development of the individual practitioner (1988, p. 12). Resolution of ethical conflicts requires that the internal auditor recognize sources of harm or conflict and have some guidance on appropriate resp onse. Stanford (1991) recommends four sources of guidance. These are: 1. the IIA Code of Ethics; 2. the IIA’s Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing; 3. the IIA’s position paper on whistle blowing; 4. consultation with peers. Ratliff (Ratliff et al. , 1988) also suggests that guidance will be found in both the Standards and the Code of Ethics and Wallace (1986) emphasizes that the standards and code go hand in hand to provide guidance.A recent study by Seigel, O’Shaughnessy and Rigsby (1995) confirms that practicing internal auditors report using the code of ethics to guide their judgment on ethical issues in the performance of their professional responsibilities. Seigel et al. further conclude that the majority of internal auditors consider the primary purpose of the ethical code is to provide guidance. Internal auditors are indeed being given a special task. In the organizational structure of the corporation if the internal auditors repor t to the audit committee, as recommended, management may perceive them as adversarial.If fraud or inefficiencies are discovered both professional ethics and personal moral judgment will be needed to resolve conflict. Conflict also arises within the code itself. There is a basic conflict juxtaposing disclosure and confidentiality and rather than independently in society. Thus the adjuration to loyalty to the employer is appropriate. Professional conflict resolution: Guidelines The codes of ethics are adopted to provide guidance to the practicing professional. Kultgen (1988, p. 13) notes, â€Å". . . professionals, precisely as professionals, are confronted with serious conflicts of duty, and conflicts between duty and self-interest. One purpose for codes of ethics is to provide guidance for the resolution of conflict. The internal auditor faces possible conflict in the practice of his/her profession within an organization. Although independence, in theory, is established by the corp orate charter and is required by the code, it may be difficult to achieve in practice. Internal auditors faced with choices that may not appear beneficial to upper management or the organization may find it difficult to maintain an objective disinterestedness. Loyalty, an explicit component of the ethical code, may also present conflicts.The internal auditor may face a conflict between loyalty to the profession and professional standards as they are articulated in the standards and the code of ethics, and his/her employer. The interest of the firm in presenting information may not always be consonant with the interest of society to receive full disclosure of information as management seeks to protect strategic and proprietary information. Although internal auditors may be part of the management team they may also serve a control function on managerial activities, another source of potential conflict.Thus, even within the firm they may have conflicting loyalties (Lambert and Hubbard, 1989). Their obligation to the organization constrains them to safeguard the assets of corporation, minimize waste and inefficiency and watch for deliberate wrongdoing and conflicts of interest (Verschoor, 1987). As a result of the Report of the National Commission of Fraudulent Financial reporting (Treadway Commission, 1987) there is an increasing responsibility for the internal auditor to be active in identifying fraud leading to material misstatementProfessionalism, Ethical Codes and the Internal Auditor also loyalty and objectivity (see Harris and Reynolds, 1992, for a full discussion). Dilemmas arising from these juxtapositions are inherent in the statement of the code consequently the individual practitioner must ultimately turn to his/her own moral response for guidance and resolution. A further role suggested for the internal auditor is monitoring corporate codes of conduct. While this may well be an appropriate extension of internal auditors role it is in the nature of a c onsulting service not a professional accounting service.Indeed, as noted in the introduction, business ethics consultants are developing to advise organizations on ethical codes, problems and approaches to resolution (Dean, 1997). Internal auditors are well positioned to participate in this discussion, though it does not help to resolve the question of professionalism examined in this paper. 123 individual professional within a firm. The IIA code focuses on the morality and dignity of the individual and pushes code adherents toward the achievement of a professional ideal.Thus by noting the internal auditor’s development and use of a code of ethics, reviewing their relationship to the accounting profession and examining their function in society, their claim to professional designation can be supported. The preponderance of the evidence supports their status as professionals. References Aberle, D. F. , A. K. Cohen, A. K. Davis, M. J. Levy Jr. and F. X. Sutton: 1960, ‘The Functional Prerequisites of a Society’, Ethics 60 (University of Chicago Press). Armstrong, M. B. and J. I. Vincent: 1988, ‘Public Accounting: A Profession at a Crossroads’, Accounting Horizons (March), 94–98.Brown, G. R. and W. A. Bradshaw: 1988, ‘The External Auditor’s Pivotal Role’, CA Journal ( Jan/Feb), 46–52. Baker, J. D. and R. K. Hanson: 1997, ‘The â€Å"Holding Out†, Issue’, Internal Auditor (Feb), 62–67. Cohen, D. : 1992, ‘Resisting the Right Stuff: Barriers to Business Ethics Consultation’, Proceedings of the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, pp. 155–159. Dean, P. J. : 1997. ‘Examining the Profession and the Practice of Business Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics (Nov), 1637–1649. Dingwall, R. : 1983. The Sociology of the Professions, Dingwall and Lewis (eds. (Oxford Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford). Hammer, M. : 1998. ‘Just Do Itâ₠¬â„¢, Interview with M. Hammer in Internal Auditor ( June), 38–41. Harris, J. E. and M. A. Reynolds: 1992, ‘Formal Codes: The Delineation of Ethical Dilemmas’, Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 1–17. Fogarty, T. J. : 1995, ‘Accountant Ethics: A Brief Examination of Neglected Sociological Dimensions’, Journal of Business Ethics 14, 103–115. Friedberg, A. and N. Mizrahi: 1998. ‘Making History’, Internal Auditor (April), 71–75. Freidson, E. : 1971, The Professions and Their Prospects, Freidson (ed. ) (Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA).Jackson, J. A. : 1970, Professions and Professionalization (Cambridge University Press). Conclusion Accounting is acknowledged as a profession serving society’s needs. Examining both primary and ancillary professional characteristics shows the appropriateness of including internal auditors within this professional designation. Further, their code of ethics is similar to ot her professional codes and provides guidance to them in their professional practice. One purpose of profession’s codes of ethics is to legitimate the profession and publicize standards of conduct (Sawyer, 1991).Another is to provide guidance for ethical conflict resolution. The IIA Code of Ethics serves both of these purposes for its professional constituency. The code implicitly recognizes the responsibility extended to the profession by society. The code enjoins internal auditors to maintain both a high level of moral character and a high level of professional competence. As the role of internal auditors differs from the that of public auditors, so also their code differs. The AICPA is an institute that serves the public interest by monitoring the external exchange of financial information.Their code reflects the institutional perspective. The internal auditor practices as an 124 Mary Ann Reynolds and Techniques (The Institute of Internal Auditors, Altamont Springs). Reynol ds, M. A. : 1989. The Audit Function in Society: An Empirical Investigation, Doctoral Dissertation (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah). Saks, M. : 1988, ‘Removing the Blinkers? A Critique of Recent Contributions to the Sociology of Professions’, Sociological Review 31(1), 1–21. Sawyer, L. B. : 1991, ‘Internal Auditing: Practice and Professionalism’, Internal Auditor ( June), 38–42. Schumpeter, J. A. 1951, Imperialism and Social Classes (Oxford). Seigel, P. H. , J. O’Shaughnessy and J. T. Rigsby: 1995, ‘A Reexamination of the Internal Auditors’ Code of Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 14, 949–957. Stanford, S. E. : 1991, ‘Ethics’, Internal Auditor ( June), 102–104. Stark, A. : 1993, ‘What’s the Matter with Business Ethics? ’, Harvard Business Review (May-June), 38–48. Wallace, W. : 1986, Auditing (Macmillan, New York). Wesberry Jr. , J. P: 1989, ‘Th e Pursuit of Professionalism’, Internal Auditor (April), 22–29. Verschoor, C. C. : 1987, ‘The Ethical Dilemma’, Internal Auditor (Feb), 29–31.Zeff, S. A. : 1989, ‘Does the CPA Belong to a Profession? ’, Accounting Horizons ( June), 65–68. Johnson, H. V. : 1986, ‘Creating the Charter’, Internal Auditor (Dec), 42–45. Kultgen, J. : 1988, Ethics and Professionalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia). Lambert, J. C. and T. D. Hubbard: 1989, ‘Internal Auditor’s Changing Responsibility for Fraud Detection’, Internal Auditor ( June), 13–16. Loeb, S. E. : 1984, ‘Codes of Ethics and Self Regulation for Non Public Accountants: A public Policy Perspective’, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 1–8. Meigs, W. B. , O. R. Whittington, K.Pany and R. F. Meigs: 1989, Principles of Auditing (Irwin, Homewood, IL). Millerson, G: 1964, ‘Dilemmas of Professionali sm’, New Society ( June 4), 15–16. Montagna, P. D. : 1971. ‘The Public Accounting Profession, Organization, Ideology and Social Power’, in Freidson (ed. ), Professions and Their Prospects (Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA). Moore, W. : 1970, The Professions: Roles and Rules (Russell Sage Foundation, New York). Newton, L. H: 1982, ‘The Origins of Professionalism: Sociological Construction and Ethical Implications’, Business and Professional Ethics Journal (Fall), 41–57.Parsons, T. : 1951, The Social System (The Free Press, Glencoe, IL). Parsons, T. : 1968, ‘Professions’, in D. Sill (ed. ), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, XII (Macmillan and The Free Press, New York). Peacock, E. and S. H. Pelfrey: 1991, ‘Internal Auditors and the Code of Conduct’, Internal Auditor (Feb), 45–49. Ratliff, R. L. , W. A. Wallace, J. K. Loebbecke and W. G. McFarland: 1988, Internal Auditing Principles Wes tern Washington University, Department of Accounting, College of Business and Economics, WA 98225-9071, Bellingham, U. S. A. E-mail: MaryAnn. [email  protected] edu.

3 key employee retention strategies to keep turnover low

3 key employee retention strategies to keep turnover low As an HR professional, you are keenly aware of the importance of employee retention- both for achieving target department milestones, as well as for the long-term success of your company. Beyond the sunk costs and organizational chaos that take place when there’s a constantly revolving door of employees entering and exiting a business, companies often cite employee retention as a key metric for effective daily operation and overall success.In fact, it goes further than that: companies that build reputations for consistently impressive employee retention rates bolster their brand identities- and you better believe that word travels fast, so you can count on active and passive future candidates discovering that people enjoy working at your organization for the long haul.Your company’s bottom line- and opportunities for achieving industry growth, attracting talent-rich candidates, and realizing long-term success- is dependent on effective employee retention, so you better have a strategy. If your HR team needs to take its retention plan to the next level, consider utilizing the following strategies for keeping turnover low in your organization.Know your industryThe truth is, not all industries are created equal- and neither is how employees are typically treated. What employees expect in one field may be completely different than another, and you better believe that all of the employees in your organization- including everyone from new hires to seasoned veterans- will have some level of expectation regarding how they should be treated by their employer and will respond accordingly based on their perception (regardless of whether or not it’s completely aligned with reality).This mindset isn’t relegated to just your most talented star employees or any specific department- it’s at the core of human psychology. How you’re treated or, more accurately, how you perceive that you’re treated, impacts your resultant behavior. This holds true at home, in the world, and on the job.hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973c5', {});So, make sure you’re keenly aware of what the standards are for your industry, and make sure your company is on target in all key areas- including salaries, benefits packages, and additional perks. Even things like your office layout and organization are going to impact employee perception. So, if you want to keep turnover low and employee satisfaction high, make sure you’re meeting their expectations regularly, which includes both current and future industry standards (so be sure to stay on top of industry shifts and trends).Lead the wayNow that you know how important it is to meet industry expectations for employees in your company, create a plan to exceed them. That’s right- in today’s ultra-competitive job market, where hungry and lean new startups are emerging every day and are eager to source new talent for their teams- todayâ⠂¬â„¢s talented job candidates have options, and the laws of attraction apply in the professional world as much as anywhere else. Progressive companies know that investing time, energy, and resources towards developing truly innovative, first-in-class employee incentives will not only attract new talent, it will help keep your existing teams from thinking about whether or not the grass is greener somewhere else. Doing so will also have the added benefit of helping to bolster your company’s brand identity- and trust us, word will spread. Pique candidate interest, and then keep hold of their attention and loyalty as employees, by offering them industry-leading incentives to keep them satisfied and doing their best work over the long haul. Don’t just keep up with other companies- innovate.Listen to your employeesThis one might seem obvious, but you may be surprised to learn that the communications pipeline between employees and leadership in many organizations tends to wo rk slowly- and oftentimes seems as if it barely works at all. Big mistake- and one that your company should actively seek to avoid. Make sure the employees on your team have the tools to voice their opinions regarding the direction of the company and their place in it- think everything from offsite gatherings to regular feedback meetings and annual employee satisfaction appraisals- and make sure that it’s not just smoke but is treated like the valuable data that it is.If employees are telling you that something is working, then keep doing it; if something is broken, then fix it. Don’t forget, active and attentive listening is a key component of any healthy relationship, including the one between employer and employee, and great companies treat their employees as more than cogs in their machines.If you’re looking to reduce employee turnover in your company, consider using the strategies presented here to keep your teams happy and eager to come to work- and do the ir absolute best- every single day of the week. If you put in the work up-front, you’ll create a warm, thriving atmosphere that’s sure to retain talented workers who will bring the results your company wants.

Assessing What Students Learn

Assessing What Students Learn Free Online Research Papers ASSESING WHAT STUDENTS LEARN AND HOW IT CAN BE MEASURED IN AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNE COURSE CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND Assessing student learning outcomes in the advertising campaigns course: What do students learn and how can we measure it? The call for assessment is not new, nor is it a passing academic fad (Boyer, 1990; Maki, 2004, Rowntree, 1987). Accrediting bodies demand to know what our students are learning, while institutions of higher learning face growing political pressure to account for student learning. Evidence of this pressure comes in the form of the Spellings Report, an attempt to provide a comprehensive national strategy for postsecondary education in the United States (Chronicle Review, 2006). What do we think students in advertising programs should learn in our classes? How should we measure what they learn? How can we translate what we discover to improve student-learning opportunities? These are questions that accrediting bodies for journalism and mass communications, Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) and business, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) ask programs to answer in the accreditation process. Those questions are also asked at institutional levels by regional accrediting bodies and by national associations such as American Association for Higher Education and American Association for Colleges and Universities. In 2004 ACEJMC began requiring programs that ask to be accredited to provide not only a plan for assessment, but evidence demonstrating that results are used to improve curriculum and learning (ACEJMC Web site). Likewise, AACSB requires that â€Å"the school uses well documented systematic processes to develop, monitor, evaluate and revise the substance and delivery of the curricula of degree programs and to assess the impact of the curricula on learning† (AACSB International Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation, 2006, p. 15). Maki (2002) and Hersh (2005) make strong arguments that the commitment to assessment should come from within the institution, not from politicians, businessmen or consultants outside the academy. They contend that by taking ownership for accountability through assessment, faculty may be able to avoid the one-size-fits-all No Child Left Behind-style testing regime. More importantly, they add, academicians need to work toward good assessment practices not because they are being forced to do so by institutions and accrediting bodies as an act of accountability, but because it reflects a commitment to learning about learning (personal correspondence Maki, 2006). Assessing student-learning shifts the focus from what instructors teach to what students learn. While this concept has been the topic of conversation in the academy for a while, exactly how to do this and how to measure what students learn haven’t been fully explored with respect to advertising. Jeremy Cohen, former editor of Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, issued a challenge to the academy: â€Å"If assessment is to play a meaningful role . . . it is time to create depth and breadth of understanding of assessment theory and implementation through increased availability of professional quality development† (Cohen, 2004, p. 6). Assessment is particularly challenging for advertising programs because they encompass different disciplines – communication studies, journalism and business – that have different sets of assessment/accreditation criteria. An appropriate place to start with assessment in journalism and mass communications is the capstone course, such as the advertising campaigns class (Rosenberry Vicker, 2006). However, literature regarding assessment of student learning in said courses is sparse. In fact, most studies that have dealt with issues in the advertising campaigns course focused on what skills the industry values (Ganahl, 2003; Benigni Cameron, 1999), students’ attitudes toward grades (Umphrey Fullerton, 2004), and the importance of teamwork (Ahles Bosworth, 2004). However, no studies that we were aware of measure direct and indirect indicators of learning as well as other outcomes of the campaigns course that may benefit students as they develop into advertising professionals. This study will investigate learning outcomes identified by professors and look at student comments about those course objectives. The findings of this study can help advertising educators develop assessment tools for stude nt learning related to competence in understanding and applying the skills and tools of the profession that are beyond the grades students receive. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this paper is to investigate how educators might define measurable outcomes for advertising campaigns courses to help faculty develop a sustainable plan to evaluate student learning. This paper argues that the appropriate place to start assessing learning for advertising students is the capstone advertising course. It offers a model for teaching and learning that employs several components of an assessment framework offered by Shulman (2007). CHAPTER TWO Literature Review Grading and Assessment Some faculty might argue that they are already â€Å"doing† assessment because they are grading student work. To some extent this is true. However, faculty needs to be careful to make some important distinctions (Cohen, 2004). Grading student work such as papers and exams produces summative evaluations, which means that the work that is generated is measured against specific outcomes designed for the course rather than evaluating information about the learning process. Secondly, according to Cohen, students, not instructors, are accountable for their learning. The power of assessment lies in the feedback that instructors receive to improve learning opportunities. Rather than a summative emphasis, he contends, the focus should be on formative work because grades are not considered to be a valid indicator of the process of learning that occurs in a course. How, then, can faculty systematically evaluate and improve student learning? Do faculty grade what students actually learn or only the assignments they submit? This question is especially perplexing, given the complex, collaborative enterprise that is part of the campaigns course, and will be explored in more depth later in this paper. Professors are often not entirely comfortable with grading (Barnes, 1985), but many use it as their main evaluation tool. Pollio and Beck (2000) found that â€Å"students wished professors were less grade-oriented, while professors wished students were more learning-oriented† (p. 45) In fact, students often â€Å"confuse grades with learning and do not view grades as a snapshot† (Giese, 2005, p. 255). Grades can be important in the advertising/public relations job search after graduation, although employers often look at other factors when making hiring decisions, including experience, level of confidence, and the quality of the applicant ’s portfolio. While professors appear to believe that grades in advertising and public relations courses generally reflect the quality of a student’s course work, they also think that grades are not necessarily an adequate predictor of a student’s potential as employee (Ganahl, 2003). Still, grades can be an important motivating factor, especially for younger, less experienced students (Umphrey Fullerton, 2004). In their study of advertising majors’ attitudes toward grades, Umphrey and Fullerton theorize that older and more experienced students may be less motivated by grades than younger students because they â€Å"notice less of a relationship between the time they spend studying and resultant grades† (p. 45). At the same time, they found that students who held creative positions on campaigns teams were not motivated by grades. Given that the course has a strong creative focus and almost all students enroll in it during their senior year, what other factors might motivate students to succeed in the course, if not the grade? A review of existing literature uncovers some factors that have been considered in the past. While grades are an important assessment tool for summative evaluations such as papers and exams, Cohen states that they are not considered to be a valid indicator of the process of learning that occurs in a course (Cohen, 2004). Shulman (2007) suggests that instead of measuring the learning that occurs in our classrooms by computing a grade based on how well students meet specific course objectives, learning should be measured via multiple measures such as course-embedded assessment. Why Begin Assessment with the Capstone Course? The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) National Leadership Council (2007) provides support that the culminating experience â€Å"can be structured to show how well students can integrate their knowledge and apply it to complex problems, and students’ level of performance on them can be aggregated and made public.† Rosenberry and Vicker (2006) suggest that it is appropriate to begin assessment with the capstone course in mass communications programs because the culminating experience requires that students integrate and apply knowledge from their majors. The products they generate offer opportunities to reflect on the adequacy of students’ preparation in the program. The culminating experience gives students a chance to synthesize what they have learned during their academic careers and bring coherence and closure to their experience in the major. They suggest further that the capstone experience not only provides a sense of closure, but also one of exploration. Capstone courses push students to extend beyond their present knowledge. Rosenberry and Vicker offer three major themes that emerged from their research on capstone courses: (1) capstones reflect an integration and synthesis of knowledge, (2) they require students to apply knowledge to real-world situations, and (3) they help stu dents make a transition from the classroom to their careers. Other topics they identified include: â€Å"extension of knowledge, opportunities for in-depth study, reinforcement or extension of basic communication competencies, and development of higher-order or critical thinking skills† (Rosenberry Vicker, 2006, p. 270). Interestingly, they identify outcomes that are traditionally thought of as intellectual skills and abilities. Interpersonal skills do not emerge on their list. What should be taught in a campaigns course? A review of literature suggests students learn practical, professional and interpersonal skills (Benigni Cameron, 1999; Ahles Bosworth, 2004). The capstone course in most advertising and public relations programs has a â€Å"real-world† focus, meaning that students work on a campaign that will solve a real life client’s communication problem strategically and creatively. Benigni and Cameron argued the importance of real-world application: â€Å"perhaps the most important function of capstone courses in journalism and mass communications is to prepare students for the real world† (1999, p. 50). They suggest that these â€Å"real world† skills should include communication and planning skills, as well as an ability to base strategic decisions on sound research and theory. The goal of the capstone course is to synthesize skills learned from prerequisite courses in a collaborative learning environment, in which stu dents work in a team environment to create a campaign, they state. In their study, Benigni and Cameron investigated the role that interpersonal dynamics play in a student campaign both internally (within team structure) and externally (with client). They found that two-thirds of campaigns classes used a team approach as class format, with 94% of all presenters being graded on individual as well as team performance. Seventy-three percent of campaigns courses used peer evaluations, while 60% indicated that peer evaluations of other students were reflected in the final grade for those students. They conclude teamwork, therefore, is an important component of the campaigns course. Benigni and Cameron furthermore found that some programs teach about teamwork, team building, and problem solving, and consensus building, but teamwork is not covered in much detail in undergraduate advertising and public relations programs (Ahles Bosworth, 2004). Ahles and Bosworth suggest that effective teams generally earn higher grades and produce a better quality campaign for the client. They found that after students complete the campaigns course, they often have a â€Å"shared vision† of effective teams, characterized by strong work habits and human relations skills, but not necessarily professional skills. Human relations skills included reliability, dedication to the project, and teamwork attitude. Ahles and Bosworth conclude that students may rank human relations skills so high because they think those skills will help them achieve a better grade. Thus, the desire to have these skills is ultimately selfish. In the same study students ranked professional skills, such as advertising and public relations tactical skills, computer skills, and problem-solving skills, lowest. Principles of Assessment Understanding why assessment is needed and how assessment occurs in a cyclical process prepares us to explore what it is that faculty should assess. Lee S. Shulman, president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, argues that assessment should be viewed essentially as a form of narrative (Shulman, 2007). He states that the story told by assessment is a function of the measurements taken, and those dimensions determine the possible directions the narrative might take. In other words, faculty needs to make clear their rationale for telling a particular narrative rather than alternative stories. What is it that advertising educators want to tell in their assessment story? What are the key indicators that those outcomes are being met that should be measured? Shulman (2007) offers â€Å"Seven Pillars of Assessment for Accountability† that can be used as a framework for developing an assessment plan. Four of them guided our work. 1. Become explicit about the story you need to tell and the rationale for choosing it. The story is driven by accrediting bodies to some extent. ACEJMC stipulates competencies that all graduates in accredited programs should know (see Appendix A for list). Another part of the story could be shaped by national standards for the discipline. The National Academic Committee of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), which is comprised of advertising practitioners and faculty, identified a coherent set of goals for advertising education (personal correspondence, Fullerton, 2007, see Appendix B for list). These competency lists give faculty some tools to use to set the outcomes they want their students to achieve – to create the story they want to tell about their programs. Another option for setting outcomes involves researching academic journals to see what other scholars have identified as important curricular areas for advertising. One direction the narrative could take could reveal how the goals of advertising education might link with goals of the institution’s general or liberal education, as some educators call for examining how learning and research are integrated across disciplinary boundaries (e.g., Gilbert, Schilt Ekland-Olson, 2005; AACU National Leadership Council, 2007). Ganahl, for example, surveyed alumni and faculty about the advertising/PR curriculum, finding those faculties were more supportive than professionals of a strong liberal arts education (2003). It is quite obvious at this point that to try to assess every possible aspect of the course at once is overwhelming, if not impossible. Faculty need not tell an epic story with their assessment. Rather they might conceptualize it as incremental steps over a period of time. This way assessment becomes an on-going activity and evolving story, rather than a snapshot taken just to have something to show an accrediting team. 2. Do not think that there is a â€Å"bottom line.† Once an instrument has been selected to assess a learning outcome (or competency), it is important to recognize what it measures and what it does not. Assessment results should be examined in the context of the particular narrative that is being told. This means that assessment that is focused to find the answer to a specific question cannot be generalized to conclude that assessment is complete or successful with one instrument. Rather, assessment is an on-going process of discovery. 3. Design multiple measures. An array of instruments will help provide a variety of assessment evidence from which to make informed pedagogical decisions. ACEJMC guidelines stipulate that these should include direct and indirect methods. Direct methods require students to demonstrate their learning or produce work that lets others judge whether or not outcomes have been achieved. Examples of direct assessment include a paper or test or evaluation of the campaign by a professional expert. Indirect measures involve asking students their perceptions about what they learned. Asking students, alumni and employers about their satisfaction with a program and measuring their job placement rate are examples of indirect assessment. Direct and indirect measures can be complementary and each tells a different part of the assessment story (Maki, 2004; Walvoord Anderson, 1998). 4. Embed assessment into ongoing instruction. The key here, according to Shulman, is to assess early and often. He suggests that assessment that is employed late in a course or program yields helpful pedagogical information when it’s too late to be of much use to students in that course. He says that assessment should be â€Å"a regular physical exam rather than a public autopsy† (p.6). This calls for what Shulman refers to as bilateral transparency. Progress toward learning outcomes should be accessible to both faculty and students. Shulman’s Seven Pillars of Assessment for Accountability invite a challenge for advertising educators. These pillars can be used to guide assessment that is multiple method, embedded, intentional, and iterative. To summarize, there is a need for strategic, intentional learning that improves as a result of evaluation of curriculum. Based on the assessment literature and specifically Shulman’s recommendations, we developed an assessment model called IDEA (Identification, Development, Evaluation and Application). This model illustrates the Teaching and Learning Cycle that is essential to the development of the overall plan for assessment, while providing a manageable â€Å"roadmap† for faculty to measure and improve student learning. The model suggests that faculty begin the assessment process by identifying and aligning a set of interconnected goals, including institutional, college, departmental, major, and course goals. Then, a qualitative and/or quantitative ins trument should be developed to measure specific learning outcomes that will assess the extent to which these goals were achieved. Next, evidence of student-learning should be collected, analyzed, and evaluated based on the specific goals that were identified at the beginning. The most important step is to apply the findings to improve student-learning. Finally, in order to complete the cycle, it is important to identify and align the various goals again and continue the assessment process. IDEA Model of Teaching and Learning: Taking Shulman’s advice to create bilateral transparency, this study focuses the assessment lens on a perspective that is often neglected: the students’. What is it that they report having learned? How does that match what faculty think they are grading and the course objectives they set? This exploratory study will show how assessment of the campaigns course has been attempted by one advertising program by implementing the IDEA model. In this case, the research questions for this study helped us to assess student learning at the course level. We wanted to investigate whether we teach what we are grading and grade what students are learning: RQ1: In what ways do student comments relate to what they learned in the capstone course match the instructor’s learning objectives for the course? RQ2: How do students rate the extent to which they achieved learning outcomes that include professional guidelines (AAF Principles), accrediting competencies (ACEJMC) and personal expectations? RQ3: What types of learning outcomes do students identify as most important? CHAPTER THREE Methodology Based on our experience working with faculty in our college to help them understand what assessment is and how it can help improve their teaching, two questions arise in almost every discussion: How is assessment different from grading? And, what is the difference between a teaching-objectives approach and a student-centered learning approach? As a result, an assessment method was developed that might offer an example of how faculty members could move from a teaching-objectives approach to a student learning focus, and in the process learn what assessment offers beyond meeting the course objectives. The capstone course, Advertising and Public Relations Campaigns, was the target course for this study as recommended by Rosenberry and Vicker (2006). It is an example of a course where cumulative learning and various other types of learning might be assessed. The purpose of this exploratory sequential mixed methods design was to explore student reflections on learning in the campaigns course with the intent of developing and testing a survey instrument that measures a variety of learning outcomes. The first phase of the study was a qualitative exploration of how students who have completed the advertising campaigns course at a large Midwestern university reflect on what they have learned in the course and how the course objectives match what they say they learned. These initial course objectives had been developed by the course instructors based on the ACEJMC assessment levels of learning (awareness, understanding, and application). After completing the campaigns course, students were asked to reflect on their development throughout the semester, using the course objectives as a guide. A total of 40 written student reflections from three sections were collected and categorized as pertaining to learning outcomes identified in the course ob jectives listed in the syllabus or additional learning outcomes that emerged from student responses. Students mentioned some of the course objectives and also listed things not on the list of objectives in the syllabus. The reason for collecting qualitative data initially is that an instrument needed to be developed that included more than the course objectives developed by the instructors. In the second, quantitative phase of the study, students’ statements and/or quotes from the qualitative data were used to develop an instrument to measure a more accurate list of learning outcomes among students in the campaigns course. In addition, profession related learning goals offered by The American Advertising Federation (AAF) and professional values and competencies listed by the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) were added to complete the list. In short, the revised instrument included learning expectations from an accrediting body, a professional group, as well as students themselves. For the quantitative phase of the study a new group of students from three different sections of the next semester’s campaigns course was asked to complete the revised list of learning outcomes by evaluating whether their team achieved the original course objectives and to what extent they, as individuals, achieved the revised list of learning objectives. Students were then asked to list the top three things they learned from the campaigns course. This ranking was added to provide a measure of the importance of the learning objectives. The revised assessment forms were completed by 51 students from three different sections and three different instructors of the campaigns course at the same institution. CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS A qualitative inventory of the responses to the initial form indicated that student comments were made about their learning on all three levels - awareness, understanding and application - and in about equal proportions. However, there were some learning objectives in each of the categories that were not mentioned in the open-ended comments. In addition, there were comments about what was learned that had not been identified by instructors. These additional comments were related to group learning as well as individual learning that had taken place. This finding was deemed by the researchers to be an example of how the professor’s view of what should be learned in a course may not match the students’ view of what they learned in the course. The traditional approach in higher education has been that the professor outlines the learning objectives, teaches to those expectations, and indicates in the grading how well the student has met those objectives. This first step in our investigation offered a reminder that what we teach may not be what students learn, but also made us cognizant that what students learn may be beyond the teaching objectives we set. The student comments related to individual and group learning were incorporated in the next version of the course evaluation form. The consistency of the student responses on the team and individual sections of the revised evaluation form offer evidence of content validity and reliability related to student-oriented learning outcomes. Almost every student indicated â€Å"yes† related to each of the team achievements on the list. Only one person answered â€Å"no† on four of the learning objective statements. There was greater diversity in the individual versus the team evaluations, but most of the students gave themselves a 4 or 5 on the learning outcome statements. On only four of the individual learning objectives did fewer than half of the students give themselves a high â€Å"5†. The following four statements had the lowest means and the highest standard deviations of this group of questions: â€Å"ability to speak in public† (M = 3.53, SD = 1.689), â€Å"developed leadership skills† (M = 4.18, SD = 1.090), â€Å"played mediator between group members† (M = 3.84, SD = 1.405), and â€Å"learned how to write clearly and concisely† (M = 3.96, SD = 1.371). It is possible that those who did not express high agreement with these statements may not have been presenters for the campaign presentation to the client, did not take a leadership role on the team, or did not think that this course was the place they learned to write clearly and concisely. It is also possible that students did not realize that they reinforced their writing skills in the course, even though those skills were not specifically taught in campaigns. We will need to investigate these learning outcome differences to determine if the statement wording needs revision or if the course does not provide everyone with the opportunity to advance in these areas. Qualitative analysis of student comments about the three top things learned in the campaigns course produced three skills categories identified by the students: professional, personal development and interpersonal. Those three categories were developed from 157 items identified by the 51 students in the three sections of the course. Of those, 43% (67) were professional skills related, 34% (53) were about interpersonal relationships and 23% (37) were personal development items. The differences between the three groups of students in number of items in each category were minimal (Professional 23, 23, 21; Interpersonal 20, 19, 14; Personal development 15, 14, 8). Personal development and interpersonal skills comments were categorized based on whether the comment was given in a group or team context or was offered as a statement about self-development. Student comments about professional skills included such things as: presentation skills, evaluation and application of research, strategy development, understanding of entire process, technology needed to produce what was needed, importance of attention to details, how to build a cohesive campaign, near perfection needed for client, and understanding of what it takes to develop a plans book. Interpersonal skills included such items as: team work, client communication, need to share ideas, put differences aside for the welfare of the group, learn to rely on others and let them rely on you, need to compromise in order to succeed, and group communication is important. Statements about personal development items included such things as: learn to accept criticism, keep an open mind, master multi-tasking, think outside the box, learn to take responsibility, don’t take it personally, learn to compromise, learn to handle frustration, time management, patience is key, my ability may be more than I thought, and this experience confirmed that I do love the ad business. The richness of the student comments provided evidence that they can delineate different types of learning emanating from the campaigns experience. One item, time management, was difficult to categorize because it wasn’t always part of a statement related to self, or the group. It was included in the personal development category for this study because it was often used in a personal trait context. However, this is an item that needs to be investigated in more depth. It may be that time management skills could be considered as important for all three categories. What We Learned From Conducting This Exploratory Study Research question 1 asked, â€Å"In what ways do student comments related to what they learned in the capstone course match the instructor’s learning objectives for the course?† We discovered that student comments indicate the instructor’s learning objectives do match their views of what they learned in many cases, but students also report that there are additional types of learning that go beyond what is traditionally measured with grades that are tied to requirements or expectations listed in the syllabus. Research question 2 asked, â€Å"How do students rate the extent to which they achieved learning outcomes that include professional guidelines, accrediting competencies, and personal expectations?† Our findings indicate that students say they generally have met the professional and accrediting expectations in the capstone course as well as the personal expectations. However, we also were able to identify four skill areas where some students indicated the course did not help them meet the learning expectations. This provides information that could help develop changes in the course materials or assignments that might improve learning in those areas. Research question 3 asked, â€Å"What types of learning outcomes do student identify as most important?† Students in the campaigns course were able to help identify three types of learning that came from their class experience. The first type related to professional skills, which are often part of the grading rubric for courses offered in a professional program. Discovery of the other two types of learning – personal development and interpersonal skills – expands our knowledge of what students learn in a course beyond what was listed as learning objectives in the syllabus. It is our hope that the findings of this study might help faculty members understand the importance of developing assessment techniques that measure learning experiences outside and beyond the class assignments that are part of the grading rubric. Perhaps faculty will see that student input and feedback related to learning objectives can help make course instruction more student-centered. Our plan is to refine this method in the campaigns course and then apply it to other courses in the advertising program, as well as the capstone courses for the other majors offered in our college. CHAPTER FIVE Discussion The purpose of this paper was to investigate how educators might define measurable outcomes for a capstone course and to help faculty and administrators develop tools to build a sustainable plan to evaluate student learning. Based on current conventional practices in assessment, accrediting bodies demand that faculty complete the transition from teacher-centered education to learning-outcome accountability. The accrediting process requires that institutions not only create plans and assess student learning, but that they use the information from their activities to demonstrate how learning opportunities are improved as a result. One place to start assessing learning in the advertising major is the culminating experience students get in the capstone campaigns course. This paper offers the IDEA model for assessment of teaching and learning, which starts by identifying and aligning institutional, departmental and course goals. The goal in this example was to assess if we teach what we are grading and if we grade what we are teach what we are grading and if we grade what we are teaching. We then developed an instrument to measure evidence of student learning pertaining to this goal, collected and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data, and demonstrated how we used it to improve student learning. The last step of the IDEA model is to go back and start the cycle again by identifying and aligning goals. This study followed Shulman’s (2007) recommendation that assessment should be bilaterally transparent. Missing from existing literature is a notion that students had input or feedback into creating the learning objectives. This investigation focused the assessment efforts narrowly, exploring how students reflect on whether the course objectives matched their learning, and asking how they rate learning outcomes that include professional and personal expectations. Findings indicated what was expected to a certain extent. Students reported that they believed they learned what the faculty had established for course objectives. Most interesting however, was the notion that the students themselves believed they learned more than the instructors expected. Three themes emerged in the qualitative portion of the study, which categorized students’ responses: professional skills, interpersonal skills and personal development. To the literature about campaigns courses, this study adds the notion that the personal component is an important learning outcome of the campaigns course as identified by students. Overall, this study demonstrates that it is not necessary to assess every element in a program to be informed about certain parts of it. Incremental assessment conducted over time with multiple measures helps give a fuller picture of the learning experience. While this study is an example of an indirect measure of assessment, faculty needs to add to the assessment story with other evaluations of the course, such as critiques by professional panels and reviews by the clients, which directly measure student learning. Completing the assessment cycle, it is important to implement changes based on evidence generated in the process. Faculty has choices to accomplish improvements. To implement what was learned in this particular case, faculty could revise the learning outcomes and reflect that in the grading. One way to apply the findings of this study to the campaigns course would be to incorporate a â€Å"personal development† component into the grading rubric and share it with the students at the beginning of the semester. Grading rubrics are an effective way to articulate expectations to students (Lattuca, 2005). It involves establishing and defining standards that must be met. In this study, the first step is to define â€Å"personal development,† which can be accomplished in a variety of ways. For example, the instructor could provide one by referring to the literature. However, a much more student-centered approach would be to involve students and to ask them to define and reflect on what â€Å"personal development† means in the campaigns course. This could be achieved by implementing an assessment plan similar to the one we presented here. The definition could then become part of the grading rubric and measured by indicating to what extent â€Å"personal development† was achieved by each student. It would be the instructor’s discretion to determine the percentage of the grade that â€Å"personal development† should account for. The grading rubric should be re-evaluated each semester as part of the continuous assessment process. On the other hand, if the instructor does not believe that â€Å"personal development† should be graded, she could simply ask students to reflect on this particular learning outcome and again measure it based on an operational definition as another way to assess what students learn in the course. This study demonstrates that grading is not the same as assessment. We learned that students report learning personal development skills that are not taken into account when grades are given. We now know that an important part of the course includes that dimension. We, as faculty, can choose to integrate it in the grade with rubrics that reflect this component or keep it as a separate ungraded component of the course. The instructors teaching the campaigns course at our institution have incorporated the â€Å"personal development† component in different ways. One has included it in the grading rubric, while another chose to discuss it with students at various points throughout the semester. In both cases, students will be asked at the end of this semester to reflect on this important component, which will again become part of the assessment cycle. Limitations The primary limitation of this study is the relatively small sample size. The findings are meant to be an illustration of how one institution has assessed a specific component of the advertising campaigns course. Future Directions As indicated in the IDEA model of teaching and learning, the most important piece of assessment is to view it as an ongoing process. We need to assess student learning systematically over time so that we can continuously improve it. The next step for us is to assess what advertising alumni say they have learned in the capstone course. This will add another chapter to our assessment story because students who have just completed the course but haven’t had any professional experience may not know what they have learned until they are somewhat established in the professional world. References AACU National Leadership Council for Liberal Education America’s Promise. (2007). College Learning for the New Global Century. Washington, DC: Association of American College and Universities. Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC).Retrieved March 17, 2007 from http://www2.ku.edu/~acejmc/PROGRAM/STANDARDS.SHTML#std9 (assessment standard) 2ku.edu/~acejmc/PROGRAM/STANDARDS.SHTML#std2 (competency list) Ahles, C. B. Bosworth, C. C. (2004). The perception and reality of students and workplace teams. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 59 (1), 42-59. Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. (AACSB). Eligibility procedures and accreditation standards for business accreditation. Retrieved March 21, 2007 from (aacsb.edu/accreditation/business/STANDARDS.pdf. Barnes, S. (1985). A study of classroom pupil evaluation: The missing link in teacher education, Journal of Teacher Education, 36, 46-49. Benigni, V. L., Cameron, G. T. (1999). Teaching PR campaigns: The current state of the art. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, (59) 3, 50-60. Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Chronicle Review (2006, Sept. 1) The Spellings Report, Warts and All. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53 (2). Cohen, J. (2004). Assessment . . . yours, mine, ours. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 59 (1), 3-6. Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. (2007). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ganahl, D. (2003). Evaluating a professional advertising/PR curriculum: Aligning the liberal arts curriculum with professional expectations. Journal of Advertising Education, 7(2), 24-32. Gilbert, L. A., Schilt, P.E., Ekland-Olson, S. (2005). Engaging students: Integrated learning and research across disciplinary boundaries. Liberal Education (Summer/Fall 2005), 44-49. Giese, M. (2005). An educator’s journal: Evaluating and evaluated. Journalism Mass Communication Educator, 60 (3), 252-256. Hersh, R. H. (2005). What does college teach? It’s time to put an end to â€Å"faith-based† acceptance of higher education’s quality. The Atlantic Monthly, November 2005 , 140-143. Lattuca, L. R. (2005). Making learning visible: Student and peer evaluation. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 60 (3), 247-251. Maki, P. L. (2002). Moving from paperwork to pedagogy: Channeling intellectual curiosity into a commitment to assessment. AAHE Bulletin, May 2002. Retrieved Feb. 14, 2007 from http://wwww.aacsb.edu/resource_centers/assessment/Maki- Reprint.asp. Maki, P. L. (2004). Assessing for learning: Building a sustainable commitment across the institution. Sterling, VA: American Association for Higher Education. Pollio, H. R., Humphries, W. L., Milton, O. (1989). Components of contemporarycollege grade meanings. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 14, 77-91. Rosenberry, J. Vicker, L.A. (2006). Capstone courses in mass communication programs. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 61 (3), 267-283. Rowntree, D. (1987). Assessing students: How shall we know them? (2nd ed.) London: Kogan Page. Shulman, L. S. (2007). Counting and recounting: Assessment and the quest for accountability. Change, 39 (1), (carnegiefoundation.org/change/) Umphrey, D., Fullerton, J. (2004). Attitudes toward grades among advertising majors. Journal of Advertising Education (8)1, 39-47. Walvoord, B. E., Anderson, V. J. (1998). Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Appendix A ACEJMC PRINCIPLES OF ACCREDITATION: Professional values and competencies (adopted Sept. 16, 2000) Individual professions in journalism and mass communication may require certain specialized values and competencies. Irrespective of their particular specialization, all graduates should be aware of certain core values and competencies and be able to: Understand and apply First Amendment principles and the law appropriate to professional practice; Demonstrate an understanding of the history and role of professionals and institutions in shaping communications; Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of groups in a global society in relationship to communications; Understand concepts and apply theories in the use and presentation of images and information; Work ethically in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness and diversity; Think critically, creatively and independently; Conduct research and evaluate information by methods appropriate to the communications professions in which they work; Write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communications professions, audiences and purposes they serve; Critically evaluate their own work and that of others for accuracy and fairness, clarity, appropriate style and grammatical correctness; Apply basic numerical and statistical concepts; Apply tools and technologies appropriate for the communications professions in which they work Appendix B A Statement of Principles for Advertising Education Programs, National Academic Committee American Advertising Federation (July 2006) 1. Advertising students should know the following: A. The institutions of advertising, their history, and how they relate to each other. B. How advertising is coordinated with marketing and other aspects of a company or organization’s activities. C. Management of the advertising function and personnel in agencies and client organizations. D. A wide range of alternatives for delivering advertising messages and how to use those delivery vehicles. E. The conceptual basis for crafting advertising messages. F. How advertising is regulated. G. Ethical principles for advertising practices. H. Research methodologies appropriate to guiding advertising strategy and evaluating its results. I. An appreciation for the diversity of markets and audiences for whom advertisers create campaigns and messages. J. Critical thinking, written, oral and visual communication, and presentation skills. K. The ability to work with others to solve problems creatively. 2. Instruction in advertising courses should include both theory and practical application, such as the National Student Advertising Competition (Relevant to ACEJMC Standard 2). 3. Advertising faculty members should have professional experience relevant to the courses they teach (Relevant to ACEJMC Standard 4). 4. Advertising students should be strongly encouraged to gain work experience before graduation through campus media and internships (Relevant to ACEJMC Standard 2) 5. Advertising students should be proficient in using equipment and technology they will use in their careers (Relevant to ACEJMC Standard 2). 6. Advertising programs should be assessed using multiple measures, which could include: Participation in regional and national competitions, such as the National Student Competition, ADDYs, and competitive internship programs Capstone papers Journals and reflection pieces Focus groups Benchmark measurements (pre-tests/ post-tests of courses and senior year Portfolios of student work Research Papers on Assessing What Students LearnStandardized TestingThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseThree Concepts of PsychodynamicInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaThe Project Managment Office SystemIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenHip-Hop is Art