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Team Building

Team building

The term team-building can refer generally to the selection and motivation of teams, or more specifically to group self-assessment in the theory and practice of Organizational development (OD).

Generic team-building

"Team building" (or "teambuilding") can refer to the process of establishing and developing specific groups to accomplish certain tasks. Team building has many contexts, for example in a sports club or some sort of organization. Ingredients seen as important to the successful set-up and launch of such team efforts include:
- selection of participants
- establishing visions, goals, missions and/or objectives
- distribution of workload
- timetabling
- balancing skill-sets
- metrics
- harmonising personality types
- training on how to work together The morale of the team, an important variable, may depend on such factors as:
- support
- resources
- communication
- personalities As team performance reflects on management, managers -- and even coaches -- sometimes feel the need to take part in constructing and fostering teams. As with many activities, team-building can run to extremes. For a notorious recent example of team building run amok, see the case of Kamp Staaldraad in 2003.

Need for team-building

Modern society and culture continues to become more fluid and dynamic. Factors contributing to this include the communications revolution, the global market and the ever-increasing specialization and division of labor. The net effect is that individuals are now required to move between working with many different groups of people in their working and also personal lives. Joining a new group and immediately being expected to get along with them is somewhat unnatural - historically humans have evolved to work and live in close-knit, static societies. Hence the sudden need for methods to help people adapt to the new requirements. All kinds of people, from investment bankers to catering staff and session musicians, face the same difficulties. As yet there is no generally agreed solution to the problem - it may not even be possible given the thousands of years of cultural evolution that brought us to our present behavior patterns.

Team-building in Organizational development

Whenever a team in an OD context embarks upon a process of self-assessment in order to gauge its own effectiveness and thereby improve performance, it engages in team building.

Assessing team effectiveness

To assess itself, a team seeks feedback to find out both:
- its current strengths as a team
- its current weaknesses

Improving team performance

To improve its current performance, a team uses the feedback from the team assessment in order to:
- identify any gap between the desired state and the actual state
- design any gap-closure strategy

External links

- [http://www.wilderdom.com/teambuilding/ Team Building Resources News, Methods, Activities, Research, & More] - News, definitions, articles, methods, and research.
- [http://www.freechild.org/gamesguide.htm So You Wanna Be a Playa: Cooperative Games for Social Change] - A free booklet of activities for teambuilding, problemsolving, and more.
- [http://nasa.perbang.dk The NASA Exercise: Lost on the Moon] - On-line version of a widely used team-building exercise for measuring team processes.
- [http://www.globaldharma.org/ Website of Global Dharma Center / Center for Dharmic Leadership, an not-for-profit organisation providing (free) articles, research publications and training modules on Culture Development, Individual/Organisation Transformation and, Serving and Leading from a spiritual context.]
- [http://www.chillisauce.co.uk/corporate-events/ Team Building for Corporate Events]- Various corporate team building activities used for corporate events and company fun day
- [http://www.corporatequest.ca Team Building Retreats that combine Business Strategy Planning]
- [http://www.youunlimited.co.uk Team Building ideas with 'COLOUR'
- [http://evaluator.insights.com/?sD=80 A team is created from the individuals who make it whole

Off-line reference material

- William G. Dyer, Team building: Current Issues and New Alternatives (3rd Edition). Pearson Education POD, 1995. ISBN 0201628821. category:Organizational studies and human resource management

Team

A team comprises any group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Thus teams of sports players can form (and re-form) to practice their craft. Transport logistics executives can select teams of horses, dogs or oxen for the purpose of conveying goods. Theorists in business in the late 20th century popularized the concept of constructing teams. Differing opinions exist on the efficacy of this new management fad. Some see "team" as a four-letter word: overused and under-useful. Others see it as a panacea that finally realizes the Human Relations movement's desire to integrate what that movement perceives as best for workers and as best for managers. Still others believe in the effectiveness of teams, but also see them as dangerous because of the potential for exploiting workers — in that team effectiveness can rely on peer pressure and peer surveillance. Compare the more structured/skilled concept of a crew, and the advantages of formal and informal partnerships. Managers use teams for grouping people based on a common function. Members of a team usually belong to different groups, but receive assignment to activities for the same project, thereby allowing outsiders to view them as a single unit. In this way, setting up a team allegedly facilitates the creation, tracking and assignment of a group of people based on the project in hand. A Virtual team consists of members joined electronically, with nominal in-person contact. Virtual teaming is made possible with technology tools, especially the internet. This allows teams to be formed of players otherwise unavailable. Research can be performed using input from the best minds around the world. Work projects can be completed by spreading the workload among long-distance players. Many businesses build their competitive edge on the capabilities and efficiencies of virtual teams. Teams can sub-divide into sub-teams according to need. A team used only for a defined period of time often becomes known as a project team. Many teams go through a life-cycle of stages, identified by Bruce Tuckman as: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

Organizational Development

Organization development, according to Richard Beckhard, is defined as:
- (1) a planned effort
- (2) organization-wide
- (3) managed from the top
- (4) to increase organization effectiveness and health
- (5) through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes', using behavioural-science knowledge" (Smith, 1998, p261. Training and Development in Australia.) According to Warren Bennis, organization development (OD) is a complex strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges. Warner Burke emphasizes that OD is not just "anything done to better an organization"; it is a particular kind of change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result. OD involves organizational reflection, system improvement, planning, and self-analysis.

Definition

At the core of OD is the concept of an organization, defined as two or more people working together toward one or more shared goals. Development in this context is the notion that an organization may become more effective over time at achieving its goals.

Important figures

The OD field, which emerged in the first half of the 20th century, has been influenced by many figures including:
- William J. Rothwell
- Richard Beckhard
- Robert R. Blake
- William Bridges
- W. Warner Burke
- Don Cole
- David Cooperrider
- Kathie Dannemiller
- Fred Emery
- Roger Harrison
- Elliott Jaques
- Kurt Lewin
- Rensis Likert
- Jane Mouton
- Edgar Schein
- Peter Senge
- Eric Trist
- Marv Weisbord

OD topics

Topics in OD include:
- Action research
- Diversity management
- Employee research
- Group process
- Knowledge management
- Leadership development
- Managing change
- Meetings
- Organizational culture
- Organizational learning
- Organizational performance
- Performance improvement
- Process improvement
- Storytelling
- Strategic planning
- Succession planning
- Systems
- Team building
- T-groups
- Quality
- Organizational Learning

Milestones

- Hawthorne studies
- Human Relations Movement
- Appreciative Inquiry

OD in context

OD is related to:
- Coaching
- Facilitation
- Human resources
- Industrial and organizational psychology
- Training & Development

External links

General

- [http://www.odinstitute.org www.odinstitute.org] — The most frequently cited OD publication in the world
- [http://www.mnodn.org/members/speakers/OD_101.pdf www.mnodn.org] — An intro to OD
- [http://www.orgdct.com/OD%20reading%20List.htm www.orgdct.com] — reading list
- [http://www.consultingtoday.com/downloads/Consulting%20Todayarticle%20-Is%20OD%20Still%20Relevant.pdf Is OD still relevant?] by Chris Worley
- [http://www.globaldharma.org/ Website of Global Dharma Center, an not-for-profit organisation providing (free) articles, research publications and training modules on Culture Development, Individual/Organisation Transformation and, Serving and Leading from a spiritual context.]

Professional associations for OD practitioners

- [http://www.odnetwork.org The Organization Development Network]
- [http://members.aol.com/odinst/ The Organization Development Institute]
- [http://www.astd.org The American Society for Training & Development] Category:Organizational studies and human resource management

Team

Task

"Task" has several meanings:
- In common language, a task is part of a set of actions which accomplish a job; the sense is that 'useful work is getting done'. Task analysis is the analysis or a breakdown of exactly how a task is accomplished, such as what sub-tasks are required. This information can then be used for many purposes, such as improving the design of tools or procedures that aid in performing the task. These tools can be either physical implements or software.
- In computing, a task is a program execution context; see task (computers).
- In project management, see task (project management).

Sport

:Sports redirects here. For other senses of that word, see sports (disambiguation). A sport consists of a physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. A sport has physical activity, side by side competition, and a scoring system. The difference of purpose is what characterises sport, combined with the notion of individual (or team) skill or prowess.

History of sport

Main article: History of sport The development of sport throughout history teaches us a great deal about social changes, and about the nature of sport itself. There are many modern discoveries in France, Africa, and Australia of cave art (see, for example, Lascaux) from prehistory which provide evidence of ritual ceremonial behaviour. Some of these sources date from over 30,000 years ago, as established by carbon dating. Although there is scant direct evidence of sport from these sources, it is reasonable to extrapolate that there was some activity at these times resembling sport. There are artifacts and structures which suggest that Chinese people engaged in activities which meet our definition of sport as early as 4000 BC. Gymnastics appears to have been a popular sport in China's past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a range of sports were well developed and regulated several thousands of years ago, including swimming and fishing. Other sports included javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the traditional Iranian martial art of Zurkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills. Among other sports which originate in Persia are polo and jousting. A wide range of sports were already established at the time of the Ancient Greece. Wrestling, running, boxing, javelin, discus throwing, and chariot racing were prevalent. This suggests that the military culture of Greece was an influence on the development of its sports and vice versa. The Olympic Games were held every four years in Ancient Greece, at a small village in Pelopponisos called Olympia. Sport has been increasingly organised and regulated from the time of the Ancient Olympics up to the present century. Activities necessary for food and survival became regulated activities done for pleasure or competition on an increasing scale, for example hunting, fishing, horticulture. The Industrial Revolution and mass production brought increased leisure which allowed increases in spectator sports, less elitism in sports, and greater accessibility. These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase in sport's popularity. Not only has professionalism helped increase the popularity of sports, but additionally the need to have fun and take a break from a hectic workday or to relieve unwanted stress, as with any profession.

A classification of sports

Main article: List of sports One system for classifying sports is as follows, based more on the sport's aim than on the actual mechanics. The examples given are intended to be illustrative, rather than comprehensive.

Opponent

- Combat (Wrestling, Judo, karate, boxing, fencing, tae kwon do...)
- Court (Tennis, shuttlecock sport, badminton, volleyball, squash, Table tennis...)
- Team (Baseball, cricket and football (soccer) are the most popular globally, with baseball being popular in the Americas and in Japan, cricket in the Commonwealth of Nations and football being popular throughout the world. Other examples include: Rugby, ice hockey, field hockey, softball, basketball, American Football...)

Achievement

- Target (Archery, shooting ...)
- Display (Gymnastics, bodybuilding, equestrianism, diving...)
- Strength (Weight-lifting, triple jump, shot put ...)

Sports that fall into multiple categories

- Biathlon
- Curling
- Paintball

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is defined as "conduct and attitude considered as befitting participants, including a sense of fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, a striving spirit, and grace in losing." It is interesting that the motivation for sport is often an elusive element. For example, beginners in sailing are often told that dinghy racing is a good means to sharpen the learner's sailing skills. However, it often emerges that skills are honed to increase racing performance and achievements in competition, rather than the converse. Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game," and the Modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing . . . is not winning but taking part” are typical expressions of this sentiment. But often the pressures of competition (See the related article, "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." or an obsession with individual achievement - as well as the intrusion of technology - can all work against enjoyment and fair play by participants. People responsible for leisure activities often seek recognition and respectability as sports by joining sports federations such as the IOC, or by forming their own regulatory body. In this way sports evolve from leisure activity to more formal sports: relatively recent newcomers are BMX cycling, snowboarding, wrestling, etc. Some of these activities have been popular but uncodified pursuits in various forms for different lengths of time. Indeed, the formal regulation of sport is a relatively modern and increasing development. Sportsmanship, within any given game, is how each competitor acts before, during, and after the competition. Not only is it important to have good sportsmanship if one wins, but also if one loses. For example, in football it is considered sportsmanlike to kick the ball out of play to allow treatment for an injured player on the other side. Reciprocally, the other team is expected to return the ball from the throw-in. Compare Sportsmanship with Gamesmanship. Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration.

Professionalism and the regulation of sport

The entertainment aspect of sport, together with the spread of mass media and increased leisure time, has led to professionalism in sport. This has resulted in some conflict, where the paycheck can be seen as more important than recreational aspects: or where the sport is changed simply to make it more profitable and popular therefore losing some of the traditions valued by some. The entertainment aspect also means that sportsmen and women are often elevated to celebrity status, or in some cases near-god-like. Today the consensus is that David Beckham (England and Real Madrid Footballer) is the most famous sportsman in the world, with a fanatical following particularly in Asia where statues have been erected of his likeness. The successful execution of a sport requires the consensus agreement of the participants on a set of rules for fair competition. This has led to the control of each sport through a regulatory body to define what methods of competition are acceptable and what are considered cheating.

Sport and politics

There have been many dilemmas for sports where a difficult political context is in place. When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sportspeople adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects. The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda. In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Even until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the GAA if s/he played or supported Football, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of soccer and Rugby union at Gaelic venues under the controversial Rule 42, although Gaelic games are frequently played on soccer and rugby arenas, particularly outside of Ireland. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC, now reconstituted as the PSNI, from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban. Nationalism in general is often evident in the pursuit of sport, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. These trends are seen by some as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sport being carried on for its own sake, for the enjoyment of its participants. See also: List of countries by national sport

Art and sport

Sport has many affinities with art. Ice skating and Tai chi, for example, are sports that come close to artistic spectacles in themselves: to watch these activities comes close to the experience of spectating at a ballet. Similarly, there are other activities that have elements of sport and art in their execution, such as performance art, artistic gymnastics, Bodybuilding, Parkour, Yoga, dressage, etc. The fact that art is so close to sport in some situations is probably related to the nature of sport. The definition of "sport" above put forward the idea of an activity pursued not just for the usual purposes, for example, running not simply to get places, but running for its own sake, running as well as we can. This is similar to a common view of aesthetic value, which is seen as something over and above the strictly functional value coming from an object's normal use. So an aesthetically pleasing car is one which doesn't just get from A to B, but which impresses us with its grace, poise, and charisma. In the same way, a sporting performance such as jumping doesn't just impress us as being an effective way to avoid obstacles or to get across streams. It impresses us because of the ability, skill, and style which is shown. Art and sport were probably more clearly linked at the time of Ancient Greece, when gymnastics and calisthenics invoked admiration and aesthetic appreciation for the physical build, prowess and 'arete' displayed by participants. The modern term 'art' as skill, is related to this ancient Greek term 'arete'. The closeness of art and sport in these times was revealed by the nature of the Olympic Games which, as we have seen, were celebrations of both sporting and artistic achievements, poetry, sculpture and architecture.

The terms 'sport' and 'sports'

In Commonwealth English, sporting activities are commonly denoted by the collective noun "sport". In American English, "sports" is more common for this usage. In all English dialects, "sports" is the term used for more than one specific sport. For example, "football and swimming are my favourite sports" would sound natural to all English speakers, whereas "I enjoy sport" would sound less natural than "I enjoy sports" to many North Americans.

External links

- [http://www.sports.ie Sports.ie - Live Sports news and RSS feeds]
- [http://www.thefamousquotations.com/subjects/sports-and-competition-quotations.htm Sports Quotations]
- [http://www.newworldsports.net New World Sports - Sports Commentary]
- [http://www.pressboxnews.com/ Sports News Aggregator]
- [http://dmoz.org/Sports/ Open Directory Project - Sports]
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Sports/ Yahoo! - Sports]
- [http://news.google.com/news?topic=s Google - Sports News]
- [http://uk.newsbot.msn.com/s/?id=2 MSN - Sports News] (UK)
- [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=755 Yahoo! - Sports News]
- [http://www.sportsfilter.com SportsFilter - Community Weblog]
- [http://www.kungfufollowme.com/ Chinese Kung Fu: Tai Chi And Shaolin Kung Fu]
- [http://www.sports-facts.com/ Sports-Facts.Com!] Category:Games
- Category:Technology ko:스포츠 ms:Sukan ja:スポーツ simple:Sport th:กีฬา

Organization

:Alternative meaning: Organisation (band). An organisation (Commonwealth English) or organization (American English, and Oxford English) is a formal group of people with one or more shared goals. This topic is a broad one. Organisations are studied by researchers from several disciplines: sociology, economics, political science, psychology, engineering, etc. The area is commonly referred to as organisation theory, organisational behaviour or organisation analysis. it however consists of a number of different theories and perspectives, some of which are compatible and others that are competing. Among those that are or have been most influential are:
- Weberian organisation theory (referring to Max Weber's chapter on Bureaucracy in his book 'Economy and Society'
- Marxist organisation analysis
- Scientific Management (mainly following Frederick W Taylor)
- Human Relations Studies (going back to the Hawthorne studies, Maslow and Hertzberg)
- Administrative theories (with work by e.g. Henri Fayol and Chester Barnard)
- Contingency theory
- New institutionalism and new institutional economics
- Network analysis
- Economic Sociology
- Organisation ecology (or demography of organisations)
- Transaction cost economics
- Agency theory (sometimes called principal - agent theory)
- Studies of organisation culture
- Postmodern organisation studies
- Labour Process Theory
- Critical Management Studies
- Unicist Natural Organisation The most prestigious scientific journals focused on the study of organisations include organisation, Organisation Studies, Administrative Science Quarterly and Academy of Management Review. "Organisation" can also be used to define how the different parts of computer hardware are linked in order to execute the many computational activities most efficiently. Organisations that are legal entities: government, international organisation, non-governmental organisation, armed forces, corporation, partnership, charity, not-for-profit corporation, cooperative, university. The study of organisations includes a focus on optimising [organisational structure]. According to management science, most human organisations fall roughly into four types:
- Pyramids or hierarchies
- Committees or juries
- Matrix organisations
- Ecologies Organisation studies also includes research efforts to inform the effective management of organisations, and addresses organisational culture, organisational learning and managing change as major factors affecting organisational effectiveness, beyond the basics of organisational structure.

Pyramids or hierarchies

A hierarchy exemplifies an arrangement with a leader who leads leaders. This arrangement is often associated with bureaucracy. Hierarchies were satirised in The Peter Principle (1969), a book that introduced the term hierarchiology and the saying that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence". An extremely rigid, in terms of responsibilities, type of organisation is exemplified by Führerprinzip.

Committees or juries

These consist of a group of peers who decide as a group, perhaps by voting. The difference between a jury and a committee is that the members of the committee are usually assigned to perform or lead further actions after the group comes to a decision, whereas members of a jury come to a decision. In common law countries legal juries render decisions of guilt, liability and quantify damages; juries are also used in athletic contests, book awards and similar activities. Sometimes a selection committee functions like a jury. In the middle ages juries in continental Europe were used to determine the law according to consensus amongst local notables. Committees are often the most reliable way to make decisions. Condorcet's jury theorem proved that if the average member votes better than a roll of dice, then adding more members increases the number of majorities that can come to a correct vote (however correctness is defined). The problem is that if the average member is worse than a roll of dice, the committee's decisions grow worse, not better! Staffing is crucial. Parliamentary procedure, such as Robert's Rules of Order, helps prevent committees from engaging in lengthy discussions without reaching decisions.

Staff organisation or cross-functional team

A staff helps an expert get all his work done. To this end, a "chief of staff" decides whether an assignment is routine or not. If it's routine, he assigns it to a staff member, who is a sort of junior expert. The chief of staff schedules the routine problems, and checks that they are completed. If a problem is not routine, the chief of staff notices. He passes it to the expert, who solves the problem, and educates the staff -- converting the problem into a routine problem. In a "cross functional team," like an executive committee, the boss has to be a non-expert, because so many kinds of expertise are required.

Matrix organisation

This organisational type assigns each worker to two bosses in two different hierarchies. One hierarchy is "functional" and assures that each type of expert in the organisation is well-trained, and measured by a boss who is super-expert in the same field. The other direction is "executive" and tries to get projects completed using the experts. Projects might be organised by regions, customer types, or some other schema. See matrix management.

Ecologies

This organisation has intense competition. Bad parts of the organisation starve. Good ones get more work. Everybody is paid for what they actually do, and runs a tiny business that has to show a profit, or they are fired. Companies who utilise this organisation type reflect a rather one-sided view of what goes on in ecology. It is also the case that a natural ecosystem has a natural border - ecoregions do not in general compete with one another in any way, but are very autonomous. The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline talks about functioning as this type of organisation in [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1294443,00.html this external article] from The Guardian.

"Chaordic" organisations

The chaordic model of organising human endeavours emerged in the [1990]s, based on a blending of chaos and order (hence "chaordic"), comes out of the work of Dee Hock and the creation of the VISA financial network. Blending democracy, complex system, consensus decision making, co-operation and competition, the chaordic approach attempts to encourage organisations to evolve from the increasingly nonviable hierarchical, command-and-control models. Similarly, see Emergent organisations, and the principle of self-organisation. See also group entity for an anarchist perspective on human organisations.

References

- Organisations by Richard Scott: ISBN 0132663546
- Organisations and Institutions by Richard Scott
- Understanding organisations by Charles Handy.
- The Peter Principle, Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, Pan Books 1970 ISBN 0-330-02519-8
- The Nature of the Firm by Ronald Coase.

External links

- [http://www.globaldharma.org Website of Global Dharma Center, a not-for-profit organisation offering (free) training modules, research papers, workshop exercises etc on Culture Development and Individual/Organisation Transformation] Category:Organizational theory

Training

:For alternative meanings see training (disambiguation) Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge and relates to specific useful skills. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at technical colleges or polytechnics. Today it is often referred to as professional development. Sporting training appears more mechanistic: planned suites of regimes develop specific skills or muscles with a view to peaking at a particular time. A specialized field of training often used in sports is autogenic training. Training & Development is the field concerned with workplace learning to improve performance. In military use, training means gaining the physical ability to perform and survive in combat, and learning the many skills needed in a time of war. These include how to use a variety of weapons, outdoor survival skills, and how to survive capture by the enemy, among others. It can include specialties, such as parachuting, flying an airplane, SCUBA diving, operating high-tech weapons, intelligence gathering, navigating at sea, and many others. Once the desired abilities have been learned, on-going training means to drill and keep in shape in case of deployment orders (i.e. the same as exercise, only it's for military units). Category:Education ja:訓練

Team

Management

:Manager redirects to here. For use in sports, see coach (sport). :Enterprise management redirects to here. For use in computer networks, see Network management or Systems management "Management" (from Old French ménagement "the art of conducting, directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand") characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). Early twentieth-century management writer Mary Parker Follett defined management as "the art of getting things done through people." One can also think of management functionally, as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan, and as the actions taken to reach one's intended goal. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective, there are five management functions: Planning, Organizing, Leading, Co-ordinating and Controlling. Management is also called "Business Administration", and schools that teach management are usually called "Business Schools". The term "management" may also be used to describe the slate of managers of an organization, for example of a corporation. A governing body is a term used to describe a group formed to manage an organization, such as a sports league.

Historical development

Some writers trace the development of management thought back to Sumerian traders and ancient Egyptian pyramid builders. Slave-owners through the centuries faced the problems of exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes recalcitrant workforce, but many pre-industrial enterprises, given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the issues of management systematically. But innovations such as the spread of Hindu-Arabic numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the codification of double-entry book-keeping (1494) provided tools for management assessment, planning and control.

19th century

Modern management as a discipline began as an off-shoot of economics in the 19th century. Classical economists such as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill provided a theoretical background to resource allocation, production, and pricing issues. About the same time, innovators like Eli Whitney, James Watt, and Matthew Boulton developed technical production elements such as standardization, quality control procedures, cost accounting, interchangeability of parts, and work planning. By the middle of the 19th century, Robert Owen, Henry Poor, and M. Laughlin and others introduced the human element with theories of worker training, motivation, organizational structure and span of control. Compare the analyses of Karl Marx and of Friedrich Engels. By the late 19th century, marginal economists Alfred Marshall and Leon Walras and others introduced a new layer of complexity to the theoretical underpinings of management. Joseph Wharton offered the first tertiary-level course in management in 1881.

20th century

By about 1900 we find managers trying to place their theories on a thoroughly scientific basis. Examples include Henry Towne's Science of management in the 1890s, Frederick Winslow Taylor's Scientific management (1911), Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's Applied motion study (1917), and Henry L. Gantt's charts (1910s). J. Duncan wrote the first college management text book in 1911. The first comprehensive theories of management appeared around 1920. People like Henri Fayol and Alexander Church described the various branches of management and their inter-relationships. In the early 20th century, people like Ordwat Tead, Walter Scott and J. Mooney applied the principles of psychology to management, while other writers, such as Elton Mayo, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, Max Weber, Rensis Likert, and Chris Argyris approached the phenomenon of management from a sociological perspective. Peter Drucker wrote one of the earliest books on applied management: Concept of the Corporation (published in 1946). It resulted from Alfred Sloan (chairman of General Motors until 1956) commissioning a study of the organisation. Drucker has gone on to write 32 books, many in the same vein. H. Dodge, Ronald Fisher, and Thorton C. Fry introduced statistical techniques into management. In the 1940s, Patrick Blackett combined these statistical theories with microeconomic theory and gave birth to the science of operations research. Operations research, sometimes known as "management science", attempts to take a scientific approach to solving management problems, particularly in the areas of logistics and operations. Some of the more recent developments include the theory of constraints, Management by objectives, reengineering, and various information technology driven theories such as agile software development. As the general recognition of managers as a class solidified during the 20th century and gave perceived practitioners of management a certain amount of prestige, so the way opened for popularised systems of management ideas to peddle their wares. In this context many management fads may have had more to do with pop psychology than with scientific management theory. Towards the end of the 20th century, business management came to consist of six separate branches, namely:
- Human resource management
- Operations management or production management
- Strategic management
- Marketing management
- Financial management
- Information Technology management

21st century

In the 21st century we find it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in this way. More and more processes simultaneously involve several categories. Instead, we tend to think in terms of the various processes, tasks, and objects subject to management. A list of some of the areas of management can be found later in this article. It is also the case that many of the assumptions made by management have been under attack from business ethics, critical management studies, and anti-corporate activism. One consequence is that workplace democracy has become both more common, and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among the workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue, and may be more natural than command hierarchy. All management is to some degree democratic in that there must be majority support of workers for the management in the long term, or they leave to find other work, or go on strike. Hence management is becoming less about command-and-control, and more about facilitation and support of collaborative activity, utilizing principles such as those of human interaction management to deal with the complexities of human interaction.

Nature of the work

In for-profit work, the primary function of management is satisfy a range of stakeholders. This typically involves making a profit (for the shareholders), creating valued products at a reasonable cost (for customers), and providing rewarding employment opportunities (for employees). In nonprofit work it is also important to keep the faith of donors. In most models of management, shareholders vote for the board of directors, and that board then hires senior management. Some organizations are experimenting with other methods of selecting or reviewing managers senior managers (such as employee voting models) but this is very rare. In the public sector of countries constituted as representative democracies, politicians are elected to public office. They hire many managers and administrators, and in some countries like the United States a great many people lose jobs during a regime change. 2500 people serve "at the pleasure of the President" including all the top US government executives. Public, private and voluntary sectors place different demands on managers, but all must retain the faith of those who select them (if they wish to retain their jobs), retain the faith of those people that fund the organization, and retain the faith of those who work for the organization. If they fail to convince employees that they are better off staying than leaving, the organization will be forced into a downward spiral of hiring, training, firing, and recruiting. Management also has a responsibility to innovate and improve the functioning of the organization. In all but the smallest organizations, achieving these objectives involves a division of management labour. People specialize in a limited range of functions so as to more quickly gain competence and expertice. Even in employee managed workplaces such as a Wobbly Shop, where managers are elected, or where latitude of action is sharply restricted by collective bargaining or unions, managers still take on roughly the same functions and job descriptions as in a more traditional command hierarchy. Chief executive officer (CEO) - The CEO is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the business. He or she provides overall strategic direction for the firm, often with the assistance of a team of vice presidents. Strategic management decisions like what products to market, what market segments to target, what functions to outsource, what business model to employ, and what geographical areas to operate in are the responsibility of the CEO. The CEO is accountable to the board of directors. Typically a CEO will delegate many responsibilities to one or more executive vice presidents. In small firms, the owner, president, or chief executive officer typically assume many roles and responsibilities. Vice president, Marketing - An executive vice president of marketing might direct overall marketing strategies, advertising, promotions, sales, product management, pricing, and public relations policies. The direct reports of the EVP oversee advertising and promotion. In a small firm, they may serve as a liaison between the firm and the advertising or promotion agency to which many advertising or promotional functions are contracted out. In larger firms, advertising managers oversee in-house account, creative, and media services departments. Marketing managers - Marketing managers develop the firm's detailed marketing plans and procedures. With the help of subordinates, including product development managers and market research managers, they determine the demand for products and services offered by the firm and its competitors. In addition, they identify potential markets—for example, business firms, wholesalers, retailers, government, or the general public. Marketing managers develop pricing strategy with an eye towards maximizing the firm's share of the market and its profits while ensuring that the customers are satisfied. In collaboration with sales, product development, and other managers, they monitor trends that indicate the need for new products and services and oversee product development. Marketing managers work with advertising and promotion managers to promote the firm's products and services and to attract potential users. Promotions managers - Promotions managers supervise sales promotion specialists. They direct promotion programs that combine advertising with purchase incentives to increase sales. In an effort to establish closer contact with purchasers—dealers, distributors, or consumers—promotion programs may involve direct mail, telemarketing, television or radio advertising, catalogs, exhibits, inserts in newspapers, Internet advertisements or Web sites, instore displays or product endorsements, and special events. Purchase incentives may include discounts, samples, gifts, rebates, coupons, sweepstakes, and contests. Public relations managers - Public relations managers supervise public relations specialists. These managers direct publicity programs to a targeted public. They often specialize in a specific area, such as crisis management or in a specific industry, such as healthcare. They use every available communication medium in their effort to maintain the support of the specific group upon whom their organizations success depends, such as consumers, stockholders, or the general public. For example, public relations managers may clarify or justify the firms point of view on health or environmental issues to community or special interest groups. They also evaluate advertising and promotion programs for compatibility with public relations efforts and serve as the eyes and ears of top management. They observe social, economic, and political trends that might ultimately affect the firm and make recommendations to enhance the firm's image based on those trends. They may also may confer with labor relations managers to produce internal company communications—such as newsletters about employee-management relations—and with financial managers to produce company reports. They assist company executives in drafting speeches, arranging interviews, and maintaining other forms of public contact; oversee company archives; and respond to information requests. In addition, some handle special events such as sponsorship of races, parties introducing new products, or other activities the firm supports in order to gain public attention through the press without advertising directly. Sales managers - Sales managers direct the firm's sales program. They assign sales territories, set goals, and establish training programs for the sales representatives. Managers advise the sales representatives on ways to improve their sales performance. In large, multiproduct firms, they oversee regional and local sales managers and their subordinates. Sales managers maintain contact with dealers and distributors. They analyze sales statistics gathered by their staffs to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and monitor the preferences of customers. Such information is vital to develop products and maximize profits. Account executive - The account executive manages the account services department, assesses the need for advertising, and, in advertising agencies, maintains the accounts of clients. Creative director - The creative services department develops the subject matter and presentation of advertising. The creative director oversees the copy chief, art director, and associated staff. Media director - The media director oversees planning groups that select the communication media—for example, radio, television, newspapers, magazines, Internet, or outdoor signs—to disseminate the advertising.

Areas of management

- Administrative management
- Association management
- Change management
- Communication management
- Constraint management
- Cost management
- Crisis management
- Customer relationship management
- Earned value management
- Enterprise management
- Facility management
- Human interaction management
- Integration management
- Knowledge management
- Land management
- Logistics management
- Marketing management
- Operations management
- Pain management
- Perception management
- Procurement management
- Program management
- Project management
- Process management
- Product management
- Quality management
- Resource management
- Risk management
- Skills management
- Spend management
- Stress management
- Supply chain management
- Systems management
- Talent management
- Time management

Coach (sport)

: Football manager redirects to here. For the computer game, see Football Manager In sports, a coach or manager is an individual involved in the direction and instruction of the on-field operations of an athletic team or of individual athletes. Coaching entails the application of sport tactics and strategies during the game or contest itself, and usually entails substitution of players and other such actions as needed. Most coaches are former participants in the sports in which they are involved, and those who are not have usually had extensive training in the sport in question. training]] The term "coach" is sometimes equivalent in U.S. usage to the term "manager" in other English-speaking countries in reference to the director of a sporting team, particularly with regard to soccer. Additionally, the director of the operation of a team in baseball, a sport far more popular in the U.S. than in any other English-speaking country, is also properly referred to as a "manager", particularly in the context of a team comprised of adults as opposed to youths. A coach, particularly in a major operation, is traditionally aided in his efforts by one or more assistants known as the coaching staff. The coach's leadership is often cited, rightly or wrongly, as one of the prime or even the prime ingredient in successful efforts by the athletes under his or her direction, as indicated by the "Coach of the Year" award traditionally presented by all major U.S. sports. Often in major team sports the principal coach, usually referred to as the head coach, has little to do with the development of details such as techniques of play or placement of players on the playing surface, leaving this to assistants while concentrating on larger issues.

Responsibilities

head coach managers ever]] In some professional sports operations the head coach also serves as general manager, the team executive responsible for acquiring the rights to players and negotiating their contracts, generally in recent years with their agents, and for trading or dismissing players, but these roles have been increasingly likely to be seen as separate functions fulfilled by separate persons in more recent years, although many coach/general managers still exist. Many coaches, usually those of school-sponsored sports teams, also bear the responsibility of teaching the skills, rules and tactics involved in a particuliar sport to its players. This can be accomplished individually, by team, by division (ex. Defensive Coaching, Offensive Coaching, etc.) or by position (ex. receiver coach, quarterback coach, etc.) where applicable. Under this system in which duties are divided, there is necessarily a head coach who oversees all other coaches as a supervisor. Successful coaches often become as well or even better-known than the athletes they coach, and in recent years have come to command high salaries and have agents of their own to negotiate their contracts with the teams. Often the head coach of a well-known team has his or her own radio and television programs and becomes the primary "face" associated with the team.

Coaching methods

Coaching techniques and philosophies are often taught by prominent coaches to youth and high school coaches at events referred to as "coaching clinics". Coaching philosophies are passed along from one generation of coaches to another through these events, and of course the tendency of assistant coaches serving under a successful head coach being the most likely to be given an opportunity to become head coaches in their own right. All major collegiate sports have associations for their coaches to engage in professional development activities, but professional coaches tend to have less formal associations, and have never developed into a group resembling a union in the way that athletic players in many leagues have. Most coaching contracts allow the termination of the coach with little notice and without specific cause, usually in the case of high-profile coaches with the payment of a financial settlement. U.S. collegiate coaching contracts require termination without the payment of a settlement if the coach is found to be in serious violation of named rules, usually with regard to the recruiting or retention of players in violation of amateur status. Coaching is a very fickle profession, and a reversal of the team's fortune often finds last year's "Coach of the Year" to be seeking employment in the next.

Other uses

The term "coach" has been expanded greatly in U.S. English usage, especially in recent years, to include such non-sports-related concepts as "personal coaches", "sales coaches", "life coaches", "investment coaches" and the like; see the article on coaching for more information.

External links

- [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9212/coaching.htm Coaching Certification.]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-1/coaches.htm National Standards for Athletic Coaches.] Category:Sports occupations !

Global market

Globalization describes the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade and cultural exchange. It describes the increase of trade and investing due to the falling of barriers and the interdependence of countries. In specifically economic contexts, the term refers almost exclusively to the effects of trade, particularly trade liberalization or "free trade" (however, see "meanings" below). free trade showing some of the characteristics of globalization. Here, the corporation McDonalds is marketing their "McArabia" meal, consisting of grilled kofta.]] From 1910 to 1950, a series of political and economic upheavals dramatically reduced the volume and importance of international trade. But these trends reversed starting with WWI and continuing through WWII, when the Bretton Woods institutions were created (i.e. the IMF and the World Bank). After World War II, international trade dramatically expanded, fostered by international economic institutions and rebuilding programs. From the 1970s, the effects of this trade became increasingly visible in terms of benefits and disruptive effects. It is useful to distinguish economic, political, and cultural aspects of globalization, although all three aspects are closely intertwined. The other key aspect of globalization is changes in technology, particularly in transport and communications, which it is claimed are creating a global village.

Meanings

"Globalization" can mean:
- Globalism, if the concept is reduced to its economic aspects, can be said to contrast with economic nationalism and protectionism. It is related to laissez-faire capitalism and neoliberalism.
- Neocolonialism - the process of persuading rulers of (generally) lesser developed countries (LDCs) to alter political and economic policies in exchange for receiving loans from other states or, more commonly, through loans by state cartels such as the World Bank.
- It shares a number of characteristics with internationalization and is often used interchangeably, although some prefer to use globalization to emphasize the erosion of the nation-state or national boundaries.
- Making connections between places on a global scale. Today, more and more places around the world are connected to each other in ways that were previously unimaginable. In Geography, this process is known as complex connectivity, where more and more places are being connected in more and more ways. Arjun Appadurai identified five types of global connectivity:
- Ethnoscapes: movements of people, including tourists, immigrants, refugees, and business travellers.
- Financescapes: global flows of money, often driven by interconnected currency markets, stock exchanges, and commodity markets.
- Ideoscapes: the global spread of ideas and political ideologies. For example, Green Peace has become a worldwide environmental movement.
- Mediascapes: the global distribution of media images that appear on our computer screens, in newspapers, television, and radio.
- Technoscapes: the movement of technologies around the globe. For example, the Green Revolution in rice cultivation introduced western farming practices into many developing countries. Although Appadurai's taxonomy is highly contestable, it does serve to show that globalization is much more than economics on a global scale.
- In its cultural form, globalization has been a label used to identify attempts to erode the national cultures of Europe, and subsume them into a global culture whose members will be much easier to manipulate through mass media and controlled governments. In this context, massive legal or illegal immigration has been allowed, mainly in European countries.
- The formation of a global village — closer contact between different parts of the world, with increasing possibilities of personal exchange, mutual understanding and friendship between "world citizens", and creation of a global civilization.
- Economic globalization — there are four aspects to economic globalization, referring to four different flows across boundaries, namely flows of goods/services, i.e. 'free trade' (or at least freer trade), flows of people (migration), of capital, and of technology. A consequence of economic globalization is increasing relations among members of an industry in different parts of the world (globalization of an industry), with a corresponding erosion of National Sovereignty in the economic sphere. The IMF defines globalization as “the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology” (IMF, World Economic Outlook, May, 1997). The World Bank defines globalization as the "Freedom and ability of individuals and firms to initiate voluntary economic transactions with residents of other countries".
- In the field of Management, globalization is a Marketing or Strategy term that refers to the emergence of international markets for consumer goods characterized by similar customer needs and tastes enabling, for example, selling the same cars or soaps or foods with similar ad campaigns to people in different cultures. This usage is contrasted with internationalization which describes the activities of multinational companies dealing across borders in either financial instruments, commodities, or products that are extensively tailored to local markets.
- In the field of software, globalization is a technical term that combines the development processes of internationalization and localization.
- The negative effects of for-profit multinational corporations — the use of substantial and sophisticated legal and financial means to circumvent the bounds of local laws and standards, in order to leverage the labor and services of unequally-developed regions against each other.
- The spread of capitalism from developed to developing nations.
- "The concept of Globalisation refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole" - Roland Robertson

History

Since the word has both technical and political meanings, different groups will have differing histories of "globalization". In general use within the field of economics and political economy, however, it is a history of increasing trade between nations based on stable institutions that allow firms in different nations to exchange goods with minimal friction. The term "liberalization" came to mean the combination of laissez-faire economic theory with the removal of barriers to the movement of goods. This led to specialization of nations in exports, and the pressure to end protective tariffs and other barriers to trade. The period of the gold standard and liberalization of the 19th century is often called "The First Era of Globalization". Based on the Pax Britannica and the exchange of goods in currencies pegged to specie, this era grew along with industrialization. The theoretical basis was David Ricardo's work on Comparative advantage and Say's Law of General equilibrium. In essence, it was argued that nations would trade effectively, and that any temporary disruptions in supply or demand would correct themselves automatically. The institution of the gold standard came in steps in major industrialized nations between approximately 1850 and 1880, though exactly when various nations were truly on the gold standard is contentiously debated. The "First Era of Globalization" is said to have broken down in stages beginning with the first World War, and then collapsing with the crisis of the gold standard in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Countries that engaged in that era of globalization, including the European core, some of the European periphery and various European offshoots in the Americas and Oceania, prospered. Inequality between those states fell, as goods, capital and labour flowed remarkably freely between nations. Globalization in the era since World War II has been driven by Trade Negotiation Rounds, originally under the auspices of GATT, which led to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on "free trade". The Uruguay round led to a treaty to create the World Trade Organization or WTO, to mediate trade disputes. Other bilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade.

Nature and existence of globalization

There is much academic discussion about whether globalization is a real phenomenon or only an analytical artifact (a myth). Although the term is widespread, many authors argue that the characteristics attributed to globalization have already been seen at other moments in history. Also, many note that such features, including the increase in international trade and the greater role of multinational corporations, are not as deeply established as they may appear. For example, the United States global interventionist policy is also a stumbling point for those who claim that globalization has entered a stage of inevitability. Thus, many authors prefer the term internationalization rather than globalization. In internationalization, the role of the state and the importance of nations are greater, while globalization in its complete form eliminates nation states. So, they argue that the frontiers of countries, in a broad sense, are far from being dissolved, and therefore this radical globalization process is not happening, and probably will not happen (see Linda Weiss), considering that in world history, internationalization never turned into globalization (the European Union and NAFTA are yet to prove their case). However, the world increasingly shares problems and challenges that do not obey nation-state borders, most notably pollution of the natural environment, and the movement previously known as anti-globalization has transformed into a movement of movements for globalization from below, seeking, through experimentation, forms of social organisation that transcend the nation-state and representative democracy. Whereas the original arguments that globalization is taking place can be refuted with stories of internationalisation, as above, the emergence of a global movement is indisputable and therefore we can speak of a real process towards a global human society of societies. Other authors have argued that we are in transition to a planetary phase of civilization; the exact form and character of the global society is contested and will be determined by the choices we make in the critical decades ahead. For example, the [http://www.gsg.org/ Global Scenario Group] has outlined alternative visions of the global future, with "market forces" or economic globalization being just one option, contrasted with "policy reform," "fortress world," "breakdown," "eco-communalism" and a "new sustainability paradigm."

Characteristics

Globalization has become identified with a number of trends, most of which may have developed since World War II. These include greater international movement of commodities, money, information, and people; and the development of technology, organizations, legal systems, and infrastructures to allow this movement. The actual existence of some of these trends is debated.
- Economically
- Increase in international trade at a faster rate than the growth in the world economy
- Increase in international flow of capital including foreign direct investment
- Erosion of national sovereignty and national borders through international agreements leading to organizations like the WTO and OPEC
- Development of global financial systems
- Increase in the share of the world economy controlled by multinational corporations
- Increased role of international organizations such as WTO, WIPO, IMF that deal with international transactions
- Increase of economic practices like outsourcing, by multinational corporations
- Culturally
- Greater international cultural exchange,
- Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity, for example through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies. However, the imported culture can easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation. The most prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures also takes place.
- Greater international travel and tourism
- Greater immigration, including illegal immigration
- Spread of local foods such as pizza and Indian food to other countries (often adapted to local taste)
- Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater transborder data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites and telephones
- Increases in the number of standards applied globally; e.g. copyright laws and patents
- The push by many advocates for an international criminal court and international justice movements (see the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice respectively).
- Some argue that even terrorism has undergone globalization, with attacks in foreign countries that have no direct relation with the own country. Barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered since World War II through international agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the WTO, for which GATT is the foundation, have included:
- Promotion of free trade
- Of goods:
- Reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zones with small or no tariffs
- Reduced transportation costs, especially from development of containerization for ocean shipping.
- Of capital: reduction or elimination of capital controls
- Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses
- Intellectual Property Restrictions
- Harmonization of intellectual property laws across nations (generally speaking, with more restrictions)
- Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China would be recognized in the US)

Anti-globalization

US Main article: "Anti-globalization". Various aspects of globalization are seen as harmful by public-interest activists as well as strong state nationalists. This movement has no unified name. "Anti-globalization" is the media's preferred term; it can lead to some confusion, as activists typically oppose certain aspects or forms of globalization, not globalization per se. Activists themselves, for example Noam Chomsky, have said that this name is meaningless as the aim of the movement is to globalize justice. Indeed, the global justice movement is a common name. Many activists also unite under the slogan "another world is possible", which has given rise to names such as altermondialisme in French. There is a wide variety of kinds of "anti-globalization". In general, critics claim that the results of globalization have not been what was predicted when the attempt to increase free trade began, and that many institutions involved in the system of globalization have not taken the interests of poorer nations and the working class into account. Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade benefits those with more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the poor. Many "anti-globalization" activists see globalization as the promotion of a corporatist agenda, which is intent on constricting the freedoms of individuals in the name of profit. They also claim that increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities increasingly shape the political policy of nation-states. Some "anti-globalization" groups argue that globalization is necessarily imperialistic, is one of the driving reasons behind the Iraq war and that it has forced savings to flow into the United States rather than developing nations. Some argue that globalization imposes credit-based economics, resulting in unsustainable growth of debt and debt crises. The main opposition is to unfettered globalization (neoliberal; laissez-faire capitalism), guided by governments and what are claimed to be quasi-governments (such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) that are supposedly not held responsible to the populations that they govern and instead respond mostly to the interests of corporations. Many conferences between trade and finance ministers of the core globalizing nations have been met with large, and occasionally violent, protests from opponents of "corporate globalism". Some "anti-globalization" activists object to the fact that the current "globalization" globalizes money and corporations, but not people and unions. This can be seen in the strict immigration controls in nearly all countries, and the lack of labour rights in many countries in the developing world. Another more conservative camp opposed to globalization are state-centric nationalists who fear globalization is displacing the role of nations in global politics and point to NGOs as impeding upon the power of individual nations. Some advocates of this warrant for anti-globalization are Pat Buchanan and Jean-Marie Le Pen. The movement is very broad, including church groups, national liberation factions, left-wing parties, environmentalists, peasant unionists, anti-racism groups, libertarian socialists, and others. Most are reformist (arguing for a more humane form of capitalism) and a strong minority is revolutionary (arguing for a more humane system than capitalism). Many have decried the lack of unity and direction in the movement, but some such as Noam Chomsky have claimed that this lack of centralization may in fact be a strength. Protests by the global justice movement have forced high-level international meetings away from the major cities where they used to be held, into remote locations where protest is impractical.

Pro-globalization (globalism)

Supporters of democratic globalization can be labelled pro-globalists. They consider that the first phase of globalization, which was market-oriented, should be completed by a phase of building global political institutions representing the will of World citizens. The difference with other globalists is that they do not define in advance any ideology to orient this will, which should be left to the free choice of those citizens via a democratic process. Supporters of free trade point out that economic theories of comparative advantage suggest that free trade leads to a more efficient allocation of resources, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. In general, they claim that this leads to lower prices, more employment and higher output. Libertarians and other proponents of laissez-faire capitalism say higher degrees of political and economic freedom in the form of democracy and capitalism in the developed world produce higher levels of material wealth. They see globalization as the beneficial spread of democracy and capitalism. Critics argue that the anti-globalization movement uses anecdotal evidence to support their view and that worldwide statistics instead strongly support globalization:
- the percentage of people in developing countries living below US$1 (adjusted for inflation and purchasing power) per day has halved in only twenty years [http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/jsp/index.jsp], although some critics argue that more detailed variables measuring poverty should instead be studied [http://www.transnational.org/features/chossu_worldbank.html].
- Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world [http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=2429]. Income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing [http://www.columbia.edu/~xs23/papers/worldistribution/NYT_november_27.htm].
- Democracy has increased dramatically from almost no nation with universal suffrage in 1900 to 62.5% of all nations in 2000 [http://www.freedomhouse.org/reports/century.html].
- The proportion of the world's population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are under 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s.
- Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: Female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000.
- There are similar trends for electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as the proportion of the population with access to clean water [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VC6-4F02KWN-8&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F01%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=full&_orig=browse&_cdi=5946&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_artOutline=Y&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=273c9d354f2f52b3b14606a5a3b2d69f#bfn25]. However, some of these improvements may not be due to globalization, or may be possible without the current form of globalization or its negative consequences, to which the global justice movement objects. Many pro-capitalists are also critical of the World Bank and the IMF, arguing that they are corrupt bureaucracies controlled and financed by states, not corporations. Many loans have been given to dictators who never carried out promised reforms, instead leaving the common people to pay the debts later. They thus see too little capitalism, not too much. They also note that some of the resistance to globalization comes from special interest groups with conflicting interests, like Western world unions. Others, such as Senator Douglas Roche, O.C., simply view globalization as inevitable and advocate creating institutions such as a directly-elected United Nations Parliamentary Assembly to exercise oversight over unelected international bodies.

External links

[http://216.194.69.38/users/roche/writings/documents/nuclear/UNParReform.pdf Douglas Roche's proposal for UN Parliamentary Reform, in PDF] Category:Postmodernism Category:International trade Category:Culture Category:Society Category:Business Category:Politics Category:Neologisms Category:Types of words Category:Word coinage Category:Linguistics Category:Cultural assimilation ja:グローバリゼーション

Specialization

Specialization is an important way to generate propositional knowledge, by applying general knowledge, such as the theory of gravity, to specific instances, such as "when I release this apple, it will fall to the floor". Specialization is the opposite of generalization. Concept B is a specialization of concept A if and only if:
- every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A; and
- there are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B. For instance, 'Bird' is a specialization of 'Animal' because every bird is an animal, and there are animals which are not birds (dogs, for instance). In logic, specialization occurs when you take a statement such as: : "All cars are red" And use it to derive statements such as: : "My car is red" : "Fred's car is red"

Division of labor

Division of labour is generally speaking the specialisation of co-operative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase efficiency of output. Historically the growth of a more and more complex division of labour is closely associated with the growth of trade. The division of labour reaches the level of a scientifically based management practice with the time and motion studies associated with Taylorism. In the history of the human species, the first division of labour was between men and women, but it became ever more sophisticated since the invention of agriculture and the dawn of civilization. Some other social animals also exhibit a division of labour. What appeared to some as the idyllic "wholeness" of pre-civilized life in humans was thought to be due first and foremost to people not being differentiated into specialized roles and functions. That interpretation is countered by the primitive, survivalist habitus of prehistoric man who spent much of his time foraging. Anarcho-primitivism and Primitive Communism are two controversial theories which explore the politics of these primitivist economic states.

Plato and Durkheim

In Plato's "Republic" we are instructed that the origin of the state lies in that "natural" inequality of humanity that is embodied in the division of labour. Émile Durkheim wrota about a fractionated, unequal world by divining it along the lines of "human solidarity," its essential moral value is division of labour. In 1893 he published "The Division of Labor in Society", his fundamental statement of the nature of human society and its social development. According to Franz Borkenau it was a great increase in division of labour occurring in the 1600s after the Industrial Revolution that introduced the abstract category of work, which may be said to underlie, in turn, the whole modern, Cartesian notion that our bodily existence is merely an object of our (abstract) consciousness.

Adam Smith

In the first sentence of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith foresaw the essence of industrialism by determining that division of labour represents a qualitative increase in productivity. His original example was the making of pins. Unlike Plato, Smith did not regard the division of labour as a consequence of human inequality but famously argued that the difference between a street porter and a philosopher was as much a consequence of the division of labour as its cause. Therefore, while for Plato the level of specialisation determined by the division of labour was externally determined, for Smith it was the dynamic engine of economic progress. However, in a further chapter of the same book Smith criticises the division of labour saying it leads to a 'mental mutilation' in workers; they become ignorant and insular as their working lives are confined to a single repetitive task. This contradiction has led to some debate over Smith's opinion of the division of labour. The specialization and concentration of the workers on their single subtasks often leads to greater skill and greater productivity on their particular subtasks than would be achieved by the same number of workers each carrying out the original broad task. Worker skill is the chief source of productivity gain in Smith's thinking. In modern economic theory, that role has been taken over by overall technological progress and the concept of human capital.

Karl Marx

Increasing specialization may also lead to workers with poorer overall skills and a lack of enthusiasm for their work. This viewpoint was extended and refined by Karl Marx. He described the process as alienation; workers become more and more specialized and work repetitious which eventually leads to complete alienation. Marx wrote that "as a result of division of labour," the worker is "reduced to the condition of a machine." He believed that the fullness of production is essential to human liberation and accepted the idea of a strict division of labour only as a temporary necessary evil. Marx's most important theoretical contribution was his sharp distinction between the social division and the technical or economic division of labour. That is, some forms of labor cooperation are due purely to technical necessity, but others are purely a result of a social control function related to a class and status hierarchy. If these two divisions are conflated, it might appear as though the existing division of labour is technically inevitable and immutable, rather than (in good part) socially constructed and influenced by power relationships. It may be, for example, that it is technically necessary that both pleasant and unpleasant jobs must be done by a group of people. But from that fact alone, it does not follow that any particular person must do any particular (pleasant or unpleasant) job. If particular people get to do the unpleasant jobs and others the pleasant jobs, this cannot be explained by technical necessity; it is a socially made decision, which could be made using a variety of different criteria. The tasks could be rotated, or a person could be assigned to a task permanently, and so on. Marx also suggests that the capitalist division of labour will evolve over time such that the maximum amount of labour is productive labour, where productive labour is defined as labour which creates surplus value. However, time use surveys suggest that commercially performed labour always depends on, and goes together with, the performance of a very large amount of voluntary labour. To the extent that state subsidies are cut and privatisation increases, more work often devolves on people who must do that work without pay. In Marx's communist utopia, the division of labour is transcended, meaning that balanced human development occurs where people fully express their nature in the variety of creative work that they do.

Von Mises, and globalisation

On the other hand, Marx's theories, including the negative claims regarding the division of labour have been criticized by the Austrian economists, such as Ludwig von Mises. The main argument here is that the gains accruing from the division of labour by far outweigh the costs; that it is fully possible to achieve balanced human development within capitalism, and that alienation is more a romantic fiction. After all, work is not all there is; there is also leisure time. The issue reaches its broadest scope in the controversies about globalisation, which is often interpreted as a euphemism for the expansion of world trade based on comparative advantage. This would mean that countries specialise in the work they can do best. Critics however allege that international specialisation cannot be explained very well in terms of "the work nations do best", rather this specialisation is guided more by commercial criteria, which favour some countries over others. The OECD recently advised (28 June 2005) that: "Efficient policies to encourage employment and combat unemployment are essential if countries are to reap the full benefits of globalisation and avoid a backlash against open trade... Job losses in some sectors, along with new job opportunities in other sectors, are an inevitable accompaniment of the process of globalisation... The challenge is to ensure that the adjustment process involved in matching available workers with new job openings works as smoothly as possible."

Modern debates

In the modern world, those specialists most preoccupied in their work with theorising about the division of labour are those involved in management and organisation. In view of the global extremities of the division of labour, the question is often raised about what division of labour would be most ideal, beautiful, efficient and just. Labour hierarchy is to a great extent inevitable, simply because no one can do all tasks at once; but of course the way these hierarchies are structured can be influenced by a variety of different factors. The question to ask is what the hierarchy is a hierarchy of. An important Western concept in this regard is the concept of meritocracy, which could alternately be read as an explanation or as a justification of why a division of labour is the way it is. But it is often agreed that the most equitable principle in allocating people within hierarchies is that of true (or proven) competency or ability.

US 2002 estimates for the division of labour

Statistics may help to reveal some of the dimensions of the division of labour. This example concerns the USA. First, we can derive the basic employment categories in the USA in 2002 in approximate figures from BLS data, as follows (working our way down from the total population):
- American total resident population 288 million
- population (16+) 224 million
- economically active population 218 million
- total civilian non-institutional population (16+) 215 million
- population 16-65 years old 188 million
- civilian labour force 145 million
- employed civilian labour force 137 million
- Unpaid family workers 0.03 million
- employers 10 million (4.9 million distinct firms, 7 million establishments)
- self-employed (farm) 1 million
- self-employed (non-farm) 9 million
- wage & salary earners 136 million
- employees 127 million
- government employees 20 million
- private sector workforce 105 million
- Parttime workers non-farm 27 million
- Parttime workers farm 0.5 million
- private sector waged employees 95 million
- unionised wage earners 18 million We can then look at the proportions of what the total American population actually did in 2002, in approximate figures and broad categories:
- Children (under 16, not working for pay) 64 million
- Retired (over 65, not in the labour force) 28 million
- Fulltime housewives, house-husbands and idle not working for pay 22 million
- Industrial production workers 26.2 million
- Managers and executives 15.8 million
- Clerical and administrative workers 15.3 million
- Sales workers 15 million
- Reserve army of unemployed 13 million
- Engineers, architects, technicians, programmers and scientists 10.5 million
- Employers of workers, all kinds 9.8 million
- Supervisors of workers, all kinds 9.1 million
- Teachers, professional childcare workers and paid childcare assistants 8 million
- Transport workers 5 million
- Unskilled labourers, handlers and helpers 4.8 million
- Aides, ushers, guides, orderlies, and attendants 4.8 million
- Personal care, health and medical workers 4.3 million
- Cleaners, janitors, private cooks, maids & housekeepers 3.7 million
- Accountants, auditors, underwriters, and financial officers 2.6 million
- Adults in institutional care n.e.c. 2.5 million
- Specialists & consultants in human resources, PR and labour relations 2.1 million
- Prison & jail inmates 2 million
- Artists, entertainers & designers, photographers, professional athletes, recreational services 1.6 million
- Nursing home residents 1.6 million
- Fulltime criminals and lumpenised, not in corrective institutions 1.5 million
- Lawyers, judges and legal assistants 1.3 million
- Therapists, counselors, social workers and welfare service aides 1.2 million
- Police, detective, and law enforcement officers 1.2 million
- Medical doctors, dentists, vetinarians, optometrists, and podiatrists 1.1 million
- Military personnel, domestic 1.1 million
- Groundskeepers, gardeners, animal caretakers (non-farm) 1.1 million
- Security guards 1 million
- Farmers 1 million
- Prostitutes 1 million
- Working children (under 16) 1 million
- Inspectors (construction, production and compliance) 0.9 million
- Editors, writers, reporters, proofreaders, librarians, archivists, and curators 0.6 million
- Adult hospital patients 0.5 million
- Religious clergy, and employees of religious institutions 0.4 million
- Corrective institution & prison officers 0.3 million
- Firefighting, fire prevention and pest control workers 0.3 million
- Water, sewage and electricity workers 0.2 million
- Hospice inpatients 0.1 million
- Adult psychiatric patients 0.2 million Finally, we can look at the occupational structure of the employed labour force (including salaried and self-employed) in the USA in 2002, in broad categories, as follows:
- Managers and executives 15,800,000
- Supervisors 9,100,000
- Teaching staff, all kinds 6,600,000
- Machine operating and assembly workers 6,400,000
- Food & beverage preparing and service workers 6,100,000
- Administrative support clerks n.e.c. 5,800,000
- Construction trade workers 5,300,000
- Aides, ushers, guides, orderlies, and attendants 4,800,000
- Mechanics and repairs workers 4,500,000
- Technicians 4,300,000
- Cleaners, janitors, private cooks, maids & housekeepers 3,700,000
- Retail sales workers 3,400,000
- Truck drivers 3,200,000
- Secretaries, stenographers, and typists 3,000,000
- Scientists 3,000,000
- Sales representatives in finance and business services 2,900,000
- Cashiers 2,900,000
- Accountants, auditors, underwriters, and other financial officers 2,600,000
- Engineers, architects, and surveyors 2,600,000
- Freight & stock handlers, baggers & packers, machine feeders 2,400,000
- Labourers & helpers 2,400,000
- Registered nurses 2,300,000
- Financial records processing clerks 2,200,000
- Management analysts, specialists & consultants in human resources, PR and labour relations 2,100,000
- Materials recording, scheduling, and distributing clerks 1,900,000
- Sales representatives in mining, manufacturing, and wholesale 1,500,000
- Childcare workers and childcare assistants 1,400,000
- Lawyers, judges and legal assistants 1,300,000
- Barbers, hairdressers, cosmeticians, pharmacists, dietitians 1,300,000
- Therapists, counselors, social workers and welfare service aides 1,200,000
- Artists, entertainers & designers 1,200,000
- Police, detective, and law enforcement officers 1,200,000
- Military personnel 1,100,000
- Medical doctors, dentists, vetinarians, optometrists, and podiatrists 1,100,000
- Receptionists 1,000,000
- Security guards 1,000,000
- Working children under 16 1,000,000
- Prostitutes 1,000,000
- Farmers 968,000
- Non-financial records processing clerks, 995,000
- Inspectors (construction, production and compliance) 955,000
- Groundskeepers and gardeners (non-farm) 940,000
- Earthmoving equipment, crane, industrial truck, forklift, lorry and tractor operators 898,000
- Metal workers 826,000
- Farm workers 726,000
- Computer programmers 605,000
- Bus drivers 605,000
- Bank tellers 477,000
- Postal delivery workers, messengers & couriers 468,000
- Editors, writers, reporters and proofreaders 417,000
- Religious clergy, and employees of religious institutions 393,000
- Personal services n.e.c. 348,000
- Taxi drivers and chauffeurs 340,000
- Street and door-to-door sales workers 334,000
- Corrective institution & prison officers 328,000
- Doctor's and dental assistants 318,000
- Firefighting and fire prevention workers 262,000
- Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers 237,000
- Librarians, archivists, and curators 231,000
- Butchers and meat cutters 229,000
- Dressmakers, tailors and shoe repairers 189,000
- Professional photographers 178,000
- Animal caretakers (non-farm) 170,000
- Interviewers 169,000
- Airplane pilots, airplane staff, air traffic controllers 152,000
- Bakers and baking workers 148,000
- Recreational services workers 129,000
- Telephone operators 119,000
- Oil & mining extraction workers 115,000
- Railway workers 111,000
- Cabinet makers, furniture & wood finishers, and other woodworkers 104,000
- Newspaper vendors 103,000
- Ship captains, sailors, mates & deckhands, fishermen 98,000
- Professional athletes 95,000
- Social welfare eligibility clerks 86,000
- Sales demonstrators, promoters, and models 77,000
- Water and sewage treatment plant operators 77,000
- Forestry & logging workers 77,000
- Optical goods workers 72,000
- Other precision production workers n.e.c 72,000
- Pest control workers 63,000
- Food batchmakers 54,000
- Other plant & system operators 45,000
- Electric power plant operators 35,000
- Bookbinding workers 35,000
- Nursery workers 33,000
- Hand molders & shapers 21,000
- Patternmakers, layout workers, & cutters 12,000
- Bridge, lock, & lighthouse tenders 3,000
- Hunters & trappers 2,000 These 2002 figures are just intended to provide a modest indication or illustration; of course, the way the division of labour is viewed depends greatly on the identification, classification and aggregation principles applied. A portion of migrant labour typically fails to be captured in the data. It should be emphasized that the ways in which the division of labour may be viewed are potentially infinite. This give rise to a never-ending stream of management literature. Normally, statisticians focus on the main occupational activity or employment status of members of the population; but of course individuals may also divide their time between different activities which are still not adequately captured in survey data. Consequently, it is always important in making generalisations about the division of labour to be very clear about the assumptions being made about how people differ and what they have in common.

The global division of labour

There exist as yet few comprehensive studies of the global division of labour (an intellectual challenge for researchers), although the ILO and national statistical offices can provide plenty data on request for those game to try. In one study, Deon Filmer estimated that 2,474 million people participated in the global non-domestic labour force in the mid-1990s. Of these around a fifth, 379 million people, worked in industry, 800 million in services, and 1,074 million in agriculture. The majority of workers in industry and services were wage & salary earners - 58 percent of the industrial workforce and 65 percent of the services workforce. But a big portion were self-employed or involved in family labour. Filmer suggests the total of employees worldwide in the 1990s was about 880 million, compared with around a billion working on own account on the land (mainly peasants), and some 480 million working on own account in industry and services.

Some useful sociological references

Stephanie Coontz & Peta Henderson, Women's Work, Men's Property: The Origins of Gender and Class. Ali Rattansi, Marx and the Division of Labour. Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labour in Society. Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital; The Degradation of Labor in the 20th Century André Gorz, The Division of Labour: The Labour Proces and Class Struggle in Modern Capitalism. Bertell Ollman, Sexual and social revolution. Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles, Robert T. Boyd and Ernst Fehr, Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life. F. Froebel, F., J. Heinrichs and O. Krey, The New International Division of Labour. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. James Heartfield, "The Economy of Time" http://www.heartfield.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/economy.pdf Richard Florida, The rise of the creative class. Richard Florida, The flight of the creative class. US Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/ Deon Filmer, Estimating the World at Work, a background report for World Bank's World Development Report 1995 (Washington DC, 1995).

External links

- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/adamsmith-summary.html Summary of Smith's example of pin-making] Category:Labor Category:Sociology

Process

Process (lat. processus - movement) is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of operations or events, possibly taking up time, space, expertise or other resource, which produces some outcome. A process may be identified by the changes it creates in the properties of one or more objects under its influence. Compare: project. See also: process management, process theory, and :Category:Nature.

Examples

A process may be categorized as singular, recurrent, or periodic. A singular process would be one which occurs only once. Few processes in nature can be considered singular. Most processes found in nature are recurrent, or repeat more than once. Recurring processes which repeat at a constant rate are considered periodic. The more periodic a process is the more useful it is as the basis of a clock. Below are a few specific examples of processes.
- The Bessemer process is a way of producing steel.
- The process of mining extracts ore.
- Evolution is a natural process which explains the adaptation of species over long peroids of time. (generally assumed to be an example of a recurrent process)
- The creation of the universe by God would be an example of a divine process. (generally assumed to be a singular process)
- Process music
- Civic governance and conflict resolution
- Error correction in the information processing of a stream of data.
- Protein biosynthesis

Art

See process music and Sol Lewitt.

Business

Businesses organize interactions by means of business processes.

Computing

Computing has many concepts of process.

Program execution

In computing, a computer process is a running instance of a program, including all variables and other states. A multitasking operating system switches between processes to give the appearance of simultaneous execution, though in fact, in general, only one process can be executing per CPU core. Some new processors, such as Intel's Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading capability, can actually execute two proceses at a time, because some parts of the core are doubled. More companies announced development of multicore processors.

Software development

A software development process is a sequence of steps that practitioners and managers take to create software. The steps usually include requirements analysis, programming, testing, and other steps. Different processes mix the steps together in different ways, and assign responsibility to people in different ways. The CMM is a meta-process that defines rigid goals up front, and emphasizes scientific management. Some dislike its emphasis on paperwork. Agile processes take the opposite approach, making things flexible. In SSADM a process is a part of a data flow diagram, and represents an action performed on the data.

Information system development

In the context of Information System Development a process is performed to produce a product. Such processes are also called techniques. Products represent what shall be constructed, e.g. class diagrams, state charts, and so on. Processes (techniques) are the procedures which describe in what order the construction of the products shall be performed, e.g. “at first, identify classes and objects” to construct a class diagram, “identify states”, and so on. In [Rolland1993] the term process is defined as “a related set of activities conducted to the specific purpose of product definition”. Both together, the set of products and their corresponding processes/techniques form a Method [Saeki] [Rolland1998]. Processes of the same nature are classified together into a Process Model.

References

[Rolland1993]	C. Rolland. Modeling the Requirements Engineering Process, 3rd European-Japanese Seminar on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases, Budapest, Hungary, June 1993.
[Rolland1998]	C. Rolland. A Comprehensive View of Process Engineering. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference CAiSE'98, B. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1413, Pernici, C. Thanos (Eds), Springer. Pisa, Italy, June 1998
[Saeki]	M. Saeki. CAME: The First Step to Automated Method Engineering

Engineering

Chemical engineering

A chemical process is a series of unit operations used to produce a material in large quantities. In the chemical industry, chemical engineers will use the following to define or illustrate a process:
- Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
- Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)
- Simplified Process Description
- Detailed Process Description

Philosophy

In philosophy and systems theory, basic processes, or logical homologies as they were termed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, are unifying principles which operate in many different systemic contexts. For example, feedback is a principle that figures prominently in the science of cybernetics. Natural and industrial processes utilize basic processes such as feedback. There is a philosophical system known as process philosophy, created by Alfred North Whitehead; related to this is process theology.

References

- Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory, George Braziller, New York, 1968, pages 84,85 ISBN 0807604534

External links

- [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PROCESS.html Article defining process in Principia Cybernetica Web]

Processes in Science

Any method (or event) that results in a transformation in a physical or biological object, a substance or an organism, is a process in science. Some example of such processes are: activation, combustion, crystallization, centrifugation, diffraction, dispersion, distillation, electrolysis, electrophoresis, emulsification, evaporation, hydrolysis, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, oxidation, phosphorescence, pyrolysis, reduction, reflection, refraction, scattering, sedimentation, sublimation are examples of common processes in physical sciences. Similarly, birth, cell division, fermentation, fertilization, germination, growth, geotropism, heliotropism, hybridization, metamorphosis, photosynthesis, transpiration are a few examples of biological processess.

Self-assessment

The EFQM definition is as follows, Self-Assessment is a comprehensive, systematic and regular review of an organisation's activities and results referenced against the EFQM Excellence Model. The Self-Assessment process allows the organisation to discern clearly its strengths and areas in which improvements can be made and culminates in planned improvement actions which are then monitored for progress.

External Links

- [http://www.globaldharma.org/ Website of Global Dharma Center / Center for Dharmic Leadership, an not-for-profit organisation providing (free) articles, research publications and training modules on Culture Development, Individual/Organisation Transformation and, Serving and Leading from a spiritual context.] category:Organizational studies and human resource management

Feedback

:For other uses, including audio feedback, see Feedback (disambiguation) In cybernetics and control theory, feedback is a process whereby some proportion or in general, function, of the output signal of a system is passed (fed back) to the input. Often this is done intentionally, in order to control the dynamic behaviour of the system. Feedback is observed or used in various areas dealing with complex systems, such as engineering, architecture, economics, and biology.

Feedback loop

In diagrams that depict information flow in a system, arrowed lines are usually drawn, directed from input through the system and to output. The feedback is shown by another arrowed line, directed from output outside the system to an input, resulting in a loop on the diagram, called feedback loop. This notion is important; for example, the feedback loop is a convenient place for a control device. The following is an example of a feedback loop used in web-based workflows. Feedback Loops are established by ISPs for permission e-mail marketers to manage subscribers who click the "This is Spam" button in their web mail clients. The Feedback Loop sends a message back to the marketer letting them know to unsubscribe the subscriber.

Types of feedback

Main articles: Negative feedback, Positive feedback Feedback may be negative, which tends to reduce output, (but in amplifiers, stabilises and linearises operation), or positive, which tends to increase output. Systems which include feedback are prone to hunting, which is oscillation of output resulting from improperly tuned inputs of first positive then negative feedback. Audio feedback typifies this form of oscillation.

Feedback in electronic engineering

The processing and control of feedback is engineered into many electronic devices and may also be embedded in other technologies. The most common general-purpose controller is a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. Each term of the PID controller copes with time. The proportional term handles the present state of the system, the integral term handles its past, and the derivative or slope term tries to predict and handle the future. If the signal is inverted on its way round the control loop, the system is said to have negative feedback; otherwise, the feedback is said to be positive. Negative feedback is often deliberately introduced to increase the stability and accuracy of a system, as in the feedback amplifier invented by Harold Stephen Black. This scheme can fail if the input changes faster than the system can respond to it. When this happens, the negative feedback signal begins to act as positive feedback, causing the output to oscillate or hunt. Positive feedback is usually an unwanted consequence of system behaviour. With mechanical devices, hunting can be severe enough to destroy the device. Harry Nyquist was an electrical engineer who contributed the Nyquist plot for determining the stability of feedback systems.

Feedback in mechanical engineering

In ancient times, the float valve was used to regulate the speed of Greek and Roman water clocks; similar float valves are used to regulate fuel in a carburettor and also used to regulate tank water level in the flush toilet. The windmill was enhanced in 1745 by blacksmith Edmund Lee who added a fantail to keep the face of the windmill pointing into the wind. In 1787 Thomas Mead regulated the speed of rotation of a windmill by using a centrifugal pendulum to adjust the distance between the bedstone and the runner stone (i.e. to adjust the load). The use of the centrifugal governor by James Watt in 1788 to regulate the speed of his steam engine was one factor leading to the Industrial Revolution. Steam engines also use float valves and pressure release valves as mechanical regulation devices. A mathematical analysis of Watt's governor was done by James Clerk Maxwell in 1868. The Great Eastern was one of the largest steamships of its time and employed a steam powered rudder with feedback mechanism designed in 1866 by J.McFarlane Gray. Joseph Farcot coined the word servo in 1873 to describe steam powered steering systems. Hydraulic servos were later used to position guns. Elmer Ambrose Sperry of the Sperry Corporation designed the first autopilot in 1912. Nicolas Minorsky published a theoretical analysis of automatic ship steering in 1922 and described the PID controller. Internal combustion engines of the late 20th century employed mechanical feedback mechanisms such as vacuum advance but mechanical feedback was replaced by electronic engine management systems once small, robust and powerful single-chip microcontrollers became affordable.

Feedback in economics and finance

A system prone to hunting (oscillating) is the stock market, which has both positive and negative feedback mechanisms. This is due to cognitive and emotional factors belonging to the field of behavioral finance. For example,
- When stocks are rising (a bull market), the belief that further rises are probable gives investors an incentive to buy (positive feedback); but the increased price of the shares, and the knowledge that there must be a peak after which the market will fall, ends up deterring buyers (negative feedback).
- Once the market begins to fall regularly (a bear market), some investors may expect further losing days and refrain from buying (positive feedback), but others may buy because stocks become more and more of a bargain (negative feedback). George Soros used the word reflexism to describe feedback in the financial markets and developed an investment theory based on this principle. The conventional economic equilibrium model of supply and demand supports only ideal linear negative feedback and was heavily criticized by Paul Ormerod in his book "The Death of Economics" which in turn was criticized by traditional economists. This book was part of a change of perspective as economists started to recognise that Chaos Theory applied to nonlinear feedback systems including financial markets.

Feedback in nature

In biological systems such as organisms, ecosystems, or the biosphere, most parameters must stay under control within a narrow range around a certain optimal level under certain environmental conditions. The deviation of the optimal value of the controlled parameter can result from the changes in internal and external environments. A change of some of the environmental conditions may also require change of that range to change for the system to function. The value of the parameter to maintain is recorded by a reception system and conveyed to a regulation module via an information channel. Biological systems contain many types of regulatory circuits, among which positive and negative feedbacks. Positive and negative don't imply consequences of the feedback have positive or negative final effect. The negative feedback loop tends to slow down a process, while the positive feedback loop tends to accelerate it. Feedback and regulation are self related. The negative feedback helps to maintain stability in a system in spite of external changes. It is related to homeostasis. Positive feedback amplifies possibilities of divergences (evolution, change of goals); it is the condition to change, evolution, growth; it gives the system the ability to access new points of equilibrium. For example, in an organism, most positive feedbacks provide for fast autoexcitation of elements of endocrine and nervous systems (in particular, in stress responses conditions) and play a key role in regulation of morphogenesis, growth, and development of organs, all processes which are in essence a rapid escape from the initial state. Homeostasis is especially visible in the nervous and endocrine systems when considered at organism level. Feedback is also central to the operations of genes and gene regulatory networks. repressor (see Lac repressor) and activator proteins are used to create genetic operons, which were identified by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod in 1961 as feedback loops. Any self-regulating natural process involves feedback and is prone to hunting. A well known example in ecology, is the oscillation of the population of snowshoe hares due to predation from lynxes. In zymology, feedback serves as regulation of activity of an enzyme by its direct product(s) or downstream metabolite(s) in the metabolic pathway. There is an ice-albedo positive feedback loop whereby melting snow exposes more dark ground (of lower albedo), which in turn absorbs heat and causes more snow to melt. This is part of the evidence of the danger of global warming. Compare with: feed-forward

Feedback in organizations

As an organization seeks to improve its performance, feedback helps it to make required adjustments. Examples of feedback in organizations:
- Financial audit
- performance appraisal
- shareholder meetings
- customer surveys
- 360-degree feedback

Feedback in gaming

In games, feedback is an important and heavily exploited mechanism for controlling resources. Both positive and negative feedback loops can be used to alter the pacing, challenge, and sense of accomplishment in a game. For example, Unreal Tournaments practice mode offers an auto-adjust setting that causes the bots to attempt to match the player's skill level, keeping a more consistent level of challenge for different players; this is negative feedback. On the other hand, in Starcraft, a player who has a small advantage in resources will be able to build more units, enabling them to seize more resource-rich territory and so gain a much larger advantage in resources; this is positive feedback.
Sources

- Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play. MIT Press. 2004. ISBN 0262240459. Chapter 18: Games as Cybernetic Systems.
See also

- Cybernetics
- Control theory
- Interaction
- Feedforward
- Low-key feedback
- Stability criterion
- Electrical engineering Category:Control theory Category:Cybernetics Category:Electrical engineering ja:フィードバック

Forming-storming-norming-performing

The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of team development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable - in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results. This model has become the basis for subsequent models of team dynamics and frequently used management theory to describe the behavior of existing teams.

Forming

In the first phase, the forming of the team takes place. The team meets and learns about the opportunity, agrees on goals and on the resources necessary to tackle the task. Team members tend to still behave quite independently. They may be motivated, but are relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team. Supervisors of the team during this phase tend to be directive.

Storming

Every group will then enter the storming stage in which different ideas compete for consideration. During this phase, the team addresses issues such as what problems they are supposed to solve, how they will function and what leadership model they will accept. Team members open out to each other and confront each other’s perspectives. They are still relatively unacquainted with the project. In some cases, the storming stage can be resolved quickly. In others, the team never leaves this stage. The storming stage is necessary to the growth of the team. It can seem contentious, unpleasant and even painful to members of the team who are very averse to conflict. If improperly managed, this phase can become destructive to the team and will lower motivation. Supervisors of the team during this phase may be more accessible but tend to still be directive in their guidance of the decision-making process.

Norming

At some point, the team will enter the norming stage. During this phase, team members adjust their behaviors to each other as they develop work habits that make the teamwork seem more natural and fluid. Team members often work through this stage by agreeing on rules, values, shared methods, working tools and even taboos. During this phase, team members begin to trust each other. Motivation increases as the team gets more acquainted with the project. Teams in this phase may lose their creative edge if the norming behaviors become too strong and begin to stifle healthy dissent and the team begins to exhibit group-think. Supervisors of the team during this phase tend to be more participative than in the earlier stages. The team members themselves can be expected to take more responsibility for making decisions.

Performing

Some teams will reach the performing stage. These high-performing teams are able to function as a unit as they find ways to get the job done smoothly and effectively without the need for external supervision. Team members have become interdependent. By this time they are motivated and knowledgeable. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channelled through means acceptable to the team. Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participative. The team itself will make most of the necessary decisions. Even the most high-performing teams will revert to earlier stages in certain circumstances. Many long-standing teams will go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances. For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team.

Adjourning and Transforming

Tuckman later added a fifth phase, adjourning, that involves completing the task and breaking up the team. Others call it the phase for mourning. A team that manages to remain together may transcend to a transforming phase of achievement. Transformational management can produce major changes in performance through team synergy and is considered to be more far-reaching than transactional management.

Reference

- Tuckman, Bruce. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological bulletin, 63, 384-399. The article was reprinted in Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal ‑ Number 3, Spring 2001 and is available as a Word document: http://dennislearningcenter.osu.edu/references/GROUP%20DEV%20ARTICLE.doc. Category:Social groups Category:Group processes

Team

Teamwork

Teamwork is the concept of people working together as a team. The concept has spread from the world of sports where it is well known and accepted, to business, so much so that it is in danger of being considered by some as an empty buzzword, or a form of corporate-speak. In the 21st century, as people are becoming more sophisticated and society is becoming more technically advanced, working as a team makes it easier to accomplish goals. Some things cannot be accomplished by people working individually. Larger, ambitious goals usually require that people work together with other people. Anyone who has ever been to a job interview will invariably be asked what the concept of teamwork means to them. The reason for this is because companies today want people who are team players, people who are able to get along with their colleagues and work together in a cohesive group. Because teamwork is the desired goal of many organizations today, they will often go to the effort of coordinating team building events in an attempt to get people to work as a team rather than as individuals.

Skills Needed For Teamwork

There are seven essential skills that one must learn in order to be able to successfully adopt the concept of teamwork. These skills are:- 1. Listening - it is important to listen to other people's ideas. When people are allowed to freely express their ideas, these initial ideas will produce other ideas. 2. Questioning - it is important to ask questions, interact, and discuss the objectives of the team. 3. Persuading - individuals are encouraged to exchange, defend, and then to ultimately rethink their ideas. 4. Respecting - it is important to treat others with respect and to support their ideas. 5. Helping - it is crucial to help one's coworkers, which is the general theme of teamwork. 6. Sharing - it is important to share with the team to create an environment of teamwork. 7. Participating - all members of the team are encouraged to participate in the team.

Team Development

The forming-storming-norming-performing model takes the team through four stages of team development and maps quite well on to many project management life cycle models, such as initiation - definition - planning - realisation.

Benton, Tennessee

Benton is a town located in Polk County, Tennessee. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,138. It is the county seat of Polk County.

Geography

Polk County Benton is located at 35°10'23" North, 84°39'0" West (35.173185, -84.650000). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 5.9 km² (2.3 mi²). 5.9 km² (2.3 mi²) of it is land and none of the area is covered with water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 1,138 people, 468 households, and 301 families residing in the town. The population density is 193.6/km² (502.1/mi²). There are 513 housing units at an average density of 87.3/km² (226.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 98.86% White, 0.09% African American, 0.18% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 0.09% from other races, and 0.70% from two or more races. 0.53% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 468 households out of which 26.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.6% are married couples living together, 12.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 35.5% are non-families. 31.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 14.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.34 and the average family size is 2.95. In the town the population is spread out with 22.7% under the age of 18, 11.1% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 37 years. For every 100 females there are 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 92.6 males. The median income for a household in the town is $22,667, and the median income for a family is $31,146. Males have a median income of $24,667 versus $23,295 for females. The per capita income for the town is $12,580. 20.4% of the population and 15.1% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 34.5% of those under the age of 18 and 20.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

External links

Category:Polk County, Tennessee Category:Towns in Tennessee

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História

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Team building

Generic team-building

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Team

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