Inception of Activity Based Costing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Inception of Activity Based Costing - Essay Example Activity-based costing enables reasonably accurate allocation of overheads. The activities in an organization are spread across the organizational processes and value chain. The traditional methods of costing faced severe criticism due to inaccuracies. While it is easy to apportion direct costs to individual products in a company with a wide product mix, it is difficult to apportion indirect costs to the products. Therefore traditional methods sought estimates to assign overhead costs. In the earlier paradigm, Labor costs constituted a substantial part of the total cost of manufacture. Therefore direct labour costs were used to assign the overhead costs to various jobs relating to the manufacture of products. But today there has been a paradigm shift with technology pervading the value chain replacing a large chunk of Labor by automated processes. The proportion of materials cost in many industries has augmented with the dwindling of labour costs. Similarly increasing automation and shrinking life span of machines have led to the increase in capital costs. T here has also been a concomitant increase in overhead costs pertaining to information technology and depreciation of expensive plant and machinery, maintenance and utilities in most industries. In the new paradigm, the companies found direct labour as the basis for apportionment of overheads inaccurate to capture the costs for the products. The companies, therefore, used machine hours instead of direct Labor for apportioning the overhead costs. With the growing complexity of manufacturing processes, neither direct Labor nor machine hour would suffice as bases for allocation of overhead costs to processes of products. Therefore the new circumstances demanded multiple bases for allocation of overhead costs. These factors paved the way for the evolution of activity-based costing, which uses multiple bases for overhead allocation.  Ã‚  

Logistics business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Logistics business - Essay Example In my business, I opted in the import of vehicles business. The business is planned according to the requirements of the federal government. The first step that I looked is the partnership between local traders who are essential to the business survival. They are the main consumer of the imported goods hence the important to partner with them. Import business is essential to any nation around the world since no country can survive on its own. In my business, we use clearance services and shipping services that make importing the vehicles easy and flawless. Complete customs clearance is offered to my client’s special requirements. On the on other hand, after buying the vehicle the entire process is handled by team of professionals within the company. The services have enables the company to beat other competitors in terms of market competence. In details concerning the services offered, it is a requirement that the vehicle must be admissible to the US and customers always check to comply. After that the notice is submitted to the customs department before the transaction is affected (http://worldtraderef.com) . There are also charges that are required from the customers, for example 5% GST among other charges. The business also require different documents from the clients such as bill of sale, certificate of title or producer’s certificate of source, and recall clearance letter. In any business, customer care service is a key factor to help the business in maintains good relationship with customers and other stakeholders. Handling the whole process of car import to the customer is an important strategy to help the business gain more clients hence more income profit for the business. It also encourages customer loyalty to the business. Staying in touch with the customer is an important strategy that helps the business understands the needs of the customer and where to improve for the benefit of

Spanglish & Linguistics Essay Example for Free

Spanglish Linguistics Essay Spanglish is a well-known term that describes the linguistic behaviors on Spanish speakers, who’s Spanish is uniquely influenced from the English language. Spanglish can also be defined as a â€Å"mixed-code vernacular that includes a range of linguistic phenomena, most notably code-switching†. Despite the fact that Puerto Rican linguist, Salvador Tio, coined the term ‘Spanglish’ in the late 1940’s, this language contact phenomena has actually been used over the past 150 years, since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. Some would consider Spanish a 3rd language and some would dismiss it as unorganized slang. In modern society, Spanglish is classified as a popular term, not a technical one. Although many variations of Spanglish do exist and is widely denounced for being a form of slang, Spanglish has proven, to hold its own flexible syntax, grammar interface, and switching rules. Spanglish can be found in the speech of the Hispanic population of the United States, especially in communities located near the border, such as Southern Texas, and communities with significant Latin influence, like Miami and New York City. Every Hispanic group has its own variant of Spanglish (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Boricuan, Mexican,  e. t. c) and can differ depending where the region is located. San Diego, for example, borders Mexico where many Spanish and Spanglish-speaking citizens currently reside. Historically, the United States and Mexico were both seeking land near the border during the mid 1800’s, but both countries spoke opposing languages (English and Spanish). â€Å"They were TWO RADICALLY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS, ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND CULTURE. † (5. JESUS VELASCO-MARQUEZ). AMERICAN AND MEXICAN POLITICIANS WERE FORCED TO USE CODE SWITCHING TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER AND EACH SIDE. ATTEMPTED TO ACQUIRE THE OPPOSING COUNTRY’S LANGUAGE. EVENTUALLY, THE TREATY OF GUADALUPE, SIGNED IN 1848, ENDED THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR AND BEGAN AN ERA OF PEACE BETWEEN BOTH COUNTRIES. THE PEACE TREATY ALSO ESTABLISHED THE BORDER BETWEEN BOTH COUNTRIES, ATTRACTING COLONIES TO VILLAGES ALONG THE BORDER FOR TRADE AND STOCK ROUTES. THE CULTURE OF THESE VILLAGES, WHOSE RESIDENTS HAIL FROM BOTH AMERICA AND MEXICO, CREATED ‘SPANGLISH’ AS A RESULT. DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL IN 1881-1914, AMERICANS NOW HAD ACCESS TO TRAVEL DEEPER INTO SOUTH AMERICAN, WHICH MADE SPANGLISH AND CODE SWITCHING A  VITAL FORM OF COMMUNICATION. ASIDE FROM THE MEXICAN BORDER, SPANGLISH HAS ALSO FOUND ITS WAY ONTO THE TONGUES OF CUBAN-AMERICANS AND CUBANS, WHO’VE MIGRATED FROM CUBA during the 1953-1959 Cuban Revolution. During the early to mid-1900s, New York City was also experiencing a similar wave OF MIGRATION, AS MANY PUERTO RICANS WERE SETTLING IN NEW YORK FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REASONS. †¢Spanglish can be divided into three subdivisions: 1. Adapting lexical items (â€Å"loan words†) from one language into the other on a phonological or morphological (roots/affixes) level. (e. g, ‘saying updatear’ [to update]  instead of the Spanish alternative â€Å"actualizar†). Borrowed verbs tend to carry the borrowing language’s inflections (e. g. parquear [to park]). 2. Calques: Words or phrases in one language whose semantic components are directly translated from another language. (e. g. â€Å"to call back† becomes â€Å"llamar para atras† which is the literal word-for-word translation. Although the translation was entirely in Spanish, the grammar influence was due to English. 3. Code-switching: The phenomenon that occurs when adapting loan words from one language into the other in the same utterance or conversation. Two main types of code switching can be identified. Internsentential code-switching occurs when the switch is made at a clause boundary (e. g. I’m extremely tired, me voy a domir), Intrasentential code-switching occurs when the switch is made within a clause (e. g. Mi abuela le gusta cooking). Intersentional code switching tends to be more popular than Intrasentential code switching, as speakers tend to â€Å"alternate among multiple CONSTITUENTS WITHOUT ERROR (TORRES 330)†. THE FLEXIBLE, YET RULE GOVERNED, LINGUISTIC PHENOMENA OF SPANGLISH INCLUDE SIMILAR (YET MORE COMPLEX) COMPONENTS OF SPANISH-ENGLISH CODE SWITCHING. ANGLICISMS/LOAN WORDS ARE BORROWED WORDS (OR PHRASES) FROM THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND INCORPORATED INTO SPANISH (OR ANY LANGUAGE). AN EXAMPLE OF THIS BEHAVIOR IN SPANGLISH WOULD BE THE TERM â€Å"TROCA† (WHICH TRANSLATES TO â€Å"TRUCK† IN ENGLISH AND â€Å"CAMIONETA† IN SPANISH) OR THE WORD â€Å"PARQUEADERO† (WHICH TRANSLATES TO â€Å"PARKING LOT† IN ENGLISH AND â€Å"ESTACIONAMIENTO† IN SPANISH). NEITHER ONE OF THESE WORDS CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS CODE SWITCHING NOR CAN BE PROPERLY DEFINED AS ENGLISH OR SPANISH. IN FACT, SOME LINGUISTS BELIEVE THAT IN ORDER TO  USE PROPER CODE SWITCHING, THE SPEAKER MUST ATTAIN A HIGH COMPETENCY IN EITHER LANGUAGE, AND THEREFORE SHOULD NOT EVEN BE COMPARABLE TO SPANGLISH. THESE LOAN WORDS TEND TO FOLLOW A SET OF LINGUISTIC PATTERN IN SPANGLISH, SUCH AS ADDING THE SPANISH INFINITIVE ENDING OF â€Å"-AR† TO ENGLISH WORDS, LIKE: MAPEAR (TO MOP), TEXTEAR (TO TEXT), CHANGEAR (TO CHANGE), LINKEAR (TO LINK), AND RELESEAR (TO RELEASE). ‘FREE MORPHEME CONSTRAINT’ AND ‘EQUIVALENT CONSTRAINT’ ARE TWO LINGUISTIC CONSTRAINTS IN SPANGLISH. FREE MORPHEME CONSTRAINTS STATE THAT SWITCHING BETWEEN BOUND MORPHEMES IS  PROHIBITED (E. G. ESTAMOS TALK-ANDO OR YO ESTOY EAT-IENDO). EQUIVALENT CONSTRAINTS STATE THAT NO SWITCH CAN BE MADE IF THE RESULT IS UNGRAMMATICAL, AND MUST BE GRAMMATICAL TO BOTH LANGUAGES (E. G. I SAW LO INSTEAD OF I SAW HIM). IN NEW YORK CITY, PUERTO RICANS HAVE BEEN OBSERVED TO SWITCH FORM CLASS WORDS, SUCH AS NOUNS AND PRONOUNS, AND RARELY SWITCH AUXILIARIES AND ADJECTIVES. MANY SOCIOLINGUISTS, SUCH AS ILLANA STAVANS), ARGUE AGAINST ‘FREE MORPHEME CONSTRAINTS’ BY USING LEXICAL WORDS LIKE â€Å"JANGEAR† EVEN THOUGH â€Å"-EAR† IS A BOUND MORPHEME IN SPANISH USED TO CREATE VERBS. STAVANS ARGUMENT DECLARES THAT EVEN THOUGH ‘FREE BOUND MORPHEME’ RULES STATE THAT SWITCHING BETWEEN BOUND MORPHEMES IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPTIONS CAN BE MADE IF THE LEXICAL WORD IS PHONETICALLY INTEGRATED INTO THE BOUND MORPHEME’S LANGUAGE. CALQUES, OR LOAN TRANSLATIONS, GO FURTHER THAN JUST BORROWING WORDS OR PHRASES. THE SPEAKER CREATES A LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE SENTENCE WITHOUT CHANGING THE GRAMMAR FORMAT; UNGRAMMATICAL TRANSLATION. ‘FALSE COGNATES’ FOLLOW A SIMILAR FORMAT AS THEY BORROW WORDS FROM ENGLISH TO SPANISH BUT PROVIDE A ROOT WORD THAT TRANSLATES INTO A DIFFERENT MEANING (E. G.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"CARPETO† IS INDEED A SPANISH WORD, BUT THE SPEAKER WOULD BE INCORRECT IF THEY WERE USING IT TO DESCRIBE A â€Å"CAR PET†, AS â€Å"CARPETO† ACTUALLY MEANS â€Å"FOLDER† IN SPANISH. BECAUSE ROOT WORDS TEND TO BRANCH ACROSS MULTIPLE LANGUAGES, ‘FALSE COGNATES’ ARE THE MOST COMMONLY USED DEVICES IN SPANGLISH. Based on public literature, specifically Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language (2003) by Illan Stavans, each Spanglish speaker has their own regional dialect depending on their heritage, social lass, and age. Some of these include, â€Å"Cubonics† (Cuban-Americans), â€Å"Nuyorrican† (Puerto Rican spoken in New York  City) and â€Å"Dominicanish† (Dominican-Americans). Stavans explains that there’s no such thing as one Spanish, and each group has its own speech pattern. His view on â€Å"Chicano Spanish†, (which he considers Mexican-American Spanglish), contrasts opposing views from another sociolinguist, Carmen Fought. Fought studies Chicano Spanish, and believes that is â€Å"neither Spanglish nor a version of nonstandard Spanish but, rather, is a unique dialect used by speakers who are typically not bilingual. † Fought even challenges Chicano Spanish stating the speakers are likely to not even know  Spanish at all, and because of their high vowel pronunciation on the letter â€Å"I† (words like â€Å"going† are spoken as â€Å"go-WEEN† or â€Å"talking† becomes â€Å"talk-EEN†) other people might believe what they’re hearing is â€Å"the accent of a native Spanish speaker†, which is false. Cubonics however, uses many loan words like ‘pulover’, which is literally almost spelled the same as the English word it borrows from (‘pullover’), but the Cubonics definition is referring to a â€Å"shirt† whereas â€Å"camiseta† would be the proper Spanish translation. Social motivation for code switching

Peformance of pizza hut as a company

Peformance of pizza hut as a company Pizza Hut was develop in 1958; there are 5000 restaurants in UK and 20000staff. The number of the staff in the specific organisation is 38 persons, the turnover is very low, 20%, and it is very active in the global market and is one huge organisation. Pizza Hut history starts in Wichita. Kansas in 1958 by two brothers (Frank and Dan Carney) who had the idea of developing a pizza restaurant, a new concept in America and very quickly the dream came true. They borrowed $600 from one of their mothers and they rented a small building on a busy road in Wichita, they also bought some second hand equipment and they became very rich with a big and successful organisation. Pizza Hut franchises were launched in 1958. Although the Pizza Hut chain was able to develop both in the United States and overseas. Today, franchisees and joint venture partnerships account for nearly half of the Pizza Huts total restaurants. (www.everything2.com). Then Pizza Hut started to be international, the first international restaurant was in Canada in 1968. Pizza Hut started branching out quickly in the entire world, in Mexico, Australia, Europe, Africa and the Far East. Also Pizza Hut was cooperate with PepsiCo, actually was acquired by PepsiCo. Pizza Hut was share its position with the products of PepsiCo. PepsiCo in cooperation with Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell were make the largest restaurant group, the Trion global restaurant, in the world, in October 1997. Background information Theory Pizza Hut is with no doubt one global successfully organisation, which belongs to public sort of organisations. However, for a successful organisation, the culture is a necessity that will eventually lead to a good environment in the organization. Culture is the values and norms of an organisation, which determine its corporate behaviour and the behaviour of people within the organisation. (Thompson, 2001, p 1124). According with Pizza Huts information website (www.pizzahut.com) the staff is very friendly to the customers and that is the reason why, the customers are always coming again and again. For example, if the employees are working into a friendly environment then automatically they are friendlier to customers and as customers love to come to the restaurants because of the friendly environment. The working environment between the employees is very friendly and they all work like one team. Teamwork is a huge and important thing. A working team is obviously important for an organisation, a working team player is a person who can manage the roll of the self to fit the needs of a team. (Belbin, 2000, p 111) The structure of Pizza Hut starts from the restaurant manager, who decides for everything, he takes all the decisions. Then there is the area manager who replaces restaurant managers, after that there is the regional manager, the human resources, the director of operations and finally the chief executive officers. For an organisation, is important to be organised prioritised lists and well-planned schedules disperse the illusion of chaos(Lindenfield, 2003, p 73). In an organisation like Pizza Hut, there should be a functional strategy, strategies like marketing or finance. The strategies for the various functions carried out by an organisation, including marketing, production, financial management, information management, research and development, and human resource management.(Thompson, 2001, p 1125) from the information provided the company do satisfy all the needs of disabled people in the organisation, they use equipment which is friendly and not harmful at all to the environment. Also Pizza Hut food is also healthy and they produce pizzas with fresh ingredients. Additionally, Pizza Hut has recently started recycling. From now and then, the food packages are recycled and are just the first step of the recycling process. Furthermore, Pizza Hut is a flexible organisation which had being advertised by radio and of course television, through all media and through their main website, thus they have new marketing opportunities for captivating m ore customers, and as they considered is a very flexible organisation because they always change things. Management style Management in an organisation is everything because they all end up to this and because the managers can achieve and had the profit they want to if they work corrected. Manager is a person who has all the responsibilities, takes all decisions but also shared some responsibilities such as financial control, planning with directors. Management, is the process by which an organisation establishes its objectives, formulates actions (strategies) designed to meet these objectives in the desired time- scale, implements the actions, and assesses progress and results (Thompson, , 2001, p 1128). The manager must be democratic and his main activities are planning/coordinating, staffing, training/developing, decision making/problem solving, handling paperwork, exchanging routine information, monitoring/controlling performance, monitoring/reinforcing, disciplining/punishing, interacting with the outsiders, managing conflict, socializing/politicking (Wright, 1996, page 18). But beside the manager, leadership plays an important role as well. In a journal is written that there are no universal leadership characteristics. What works for one will not work for another. For all those who aspire to leadership, the challenge is simple-deceptively so. To be a more effective leader, you must be yourself-more- with skills(Goffee, Jones, 2006, p 47) according by Pizza Hut leaders are the main planners of the organisation. Leaders adopting an international perspective have some advantages, however defined, and that the educator is lacking an essential breadth if practice remains bound by the values and approaches which have emerged over time in any one location(Lumby, 2006, p 7). Leader is a generic term used to describe a manager who is responsible for changes in the corporate strategy. (Thompson, 2001, p 1128). In addition to this, leaders are very friendly and they dont behave selfishly, but instead of that, they work like one and they had harmonic relationship with each other. Whats more, they are really good friends. But the personality of a leader should have the charisma to sell ideas and automatically be ready for action. Understanding of leadership in which the focus on, leader is rejected, but asserts that the so-called leadership that relies on leaders is essentially flawed.(Gallagher, 2002, p 24) Any leader should have some personal features by make him a successful leader, like being always on time, being committed and being ready for action. Staying power is one of the most important yet least recognised attributes of successful leaders.(Black, 2003, p 25) Pizza hut manage to achieve that through their website and especially with advertisements in the media and every year they give financial information and they have 70 franchised delivery units, 118 companies owned, and they have weekly sales, food costs and utility costs. The manager of the restaurant is responsible for the employment of staff and what qualifications do they look for. They ask for skills in IT, they ask for the necessary things that a cashier must be aware of and also they look for customers skills. Moreover, they need good communication skills and they want employees with interpersonal abilities. In some cases they do train staff and if they have previous employment they ask for interpersonal abilities. Pizza Hut offered any rewarded or benefits to staff for motivating them. Another constraint upon organisations is wide acceptance of the idea that people want more from the employment relationship than just money: that they want rewards and satisfactions that are often psychological in nature(Elgood, 1988, p 10). External Influences on the organisation and Management of Change External influences are the main influences that an organisation may change, for instance external influences are influences such as competitors or the global market which is closely related to organisations (Elgood, 1988). The competitors of Pizza Hut, there are many such as McDonalds, Subway, but the most important one is Frankie Benny. The company tries to compete that by constantly introduce new products every 3-4 months. Each company has positive and negative aspects so the positive aspects of this organisation was anything new they produced, and the negative was taken away and delivery, also after Christmas time there are not many customers because customers spent their money. Another negative aspect that influences Pizza Hut is the building work around, that make people avoid eating at the organisation. In addition to this, seasonal changes are also a reason that can cause negative influence to Pizza Hut, for instance there are not any clientele in summer time because obvious ly most of them are going for holiday. But success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm (Churchill, 2003, p 20). External Analysis of the Organisations Environment Technological Development: The business already used technology more than before, such as new equipment. Economic Trends: Pizza Hut in UK support a charity, the Starlight Childrens Foundation. That charity is brightening the lives of some very ill children, trying to entertainment them and makes their wishes come true. Environmental Issues: Pizza Hut has recently started to use recycle packages. Legislation: Pizza Hut fill all the laws that government applied, they have all the necessities that a business should have. Ethical Issues: In an organisation such as Pizza Hut, should use food products that are not harmful or causing any environmental problems. Sheet indicating image, marketing The new way of marketing at Pizza Hut is very interesting, they do use the psychology. Many different voices was respond to the question Whos called the Hut?. That is a smart way of advertising Pizza Hut because firstly is a nice, funny view and secondly people are trying to imitate voices. People were imitate and that happened when it sank in. Conclusion Management is a generic term and subject to many interpretations. Our concern is with management within a structured organisational setting and involving the exercise of formal authority over the work of other people. The nature of management is variable. It relates to all activities of the organisation and is undertaken at all levels. Management is essentially an integrating activity which permeates all other aspects of the organisation.(Mullins, 2002, p 195) Culture is based in the behaviour of people in the organisation. For example, the way that staff is behave shows the environment, leading to create the culture. Culture means the values and norms of an organisation, which determine its corporate behaviour and the behaviour of people within the organisation (Thompson, 2001, p 1124). The term organisation means a consciously co-ordinated social unit created by groups in society to achieve specific purposes, common aims and objectives by means of planned and coordinated activities(Mullins, 2002, p 907). Organisation in a business and they have the same goals. Belonging to an organisation means that people were working peacefully and not egoistically. Leader is close related with manager, for example, a leader is responsible for changes in an organisation. But also leadership is influenced the behaviour of other people because of any change. In that case, leader should be democratic and friendly to the staff. According with all the managerial aspects I have analyse above the Pizza Hut as a company considered to be able to achieve all the criteria that the market is asking for development and recognition. Finally Pizza Hut is a well managed company with all prospects for improvement and monopoly.

Fear and Loathing on The Campaign Trail Essay -- essays research paper

Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72 was a book about a writer for the Rolling Stone and his coverage of the presidential elections in 1972. These elections were between the incumbent Republican, President Richard Nixon and the Senator from South Dakota, George McGovern. The election of 1972 saw McGovern come out of the democratic National Convention over Senators Muskie and Humphrey but only to lose to the incumbent president Richard Nixon. Hunter S. Thompson writes about the Election of 1972 from December 1971, before any primaries, to December 1972 after Nixon has won the election. It is a truthful first person account of what happened during the presidential race that year with much personal, side talk about Thompson’s life, experiences, and his coverage four years ago about the 1968 election. Thompson writes this book in a unique style that he has made called Gonzo Journalism. This style of writing is a deeply personal style of writing and is very opinionated. He does not give the facts on the election straight but instead gives his opinions on the people involved. It is a very subjective point of view and shows Thompson’s very liberal perspective. He is a strong supporter and is an enthusiast of the democratic candidate McGovern and shows time and time again how much he despises Nixon. Along with a very opinionated, subjective narrative, Thompson talks a lot about drug use. His point of view is from t hat from the drug underculture. Thompson is a very big drug us...

Hop Frog Essay -- essays papers

Hop Frog Slavery was definitely one of the major causes that led to the Civil War, the most dramatic event in the American history. Numerous masterpieces were written to criticize slavery. Among them, we count Poe’s Hop-Frog, also known as Eight Chained Ourang-Outans. Written in 1849, Hop-Frog delivers the message to the Southern States about inevitable tragedy that awaits the Americans as a result of slavery & the slave trade. Each element of the Poe’s story, including character, settings & the plot is somehow related to the historical background of the United States before 1865. In the first place, Poe connects his story to the notion of serfdom by careful selection of characters & the description of relation between them. In fact, from the first reading there is not much of abnormal to remark in the characters’ relation: a simple relation between a king & his â€Å"multi-functional† jester. But after an attentive analysis of the story, it becomes obvious that the characters are allegorical. They, in fact, represent the relation between a master & a slave, a possession. This kind of relation characterizes slavery, where one human being â€Å"possesses† another one & does with him whatever is desired. Poe gives us some hints to come to this given conclusion:† Our king, as a matter of cause, retained his own fool†. The author uses the word â€Å"retained† to describe king’s possession of the jester, which is the key element in bondage, rather than any form of employment. As we find out later, this kind of custody leaves Hop-Frog with practically no freedom, whether it is freedom to chose or freedom to act:† Come here Hop-Frog, †¦ swallow this bumper†¦It happened to be poor dwarf’s birthday, and the command to drink†¦ forced tears to his eye... ...n the North & the South, which finally brought United States to the Civil War. Finally, as we reach the end of the story, we witness Hop-Frog’s fierce revenge. In fact, there is something particular in the way how Hop-Frog takes revenge on king & his seven ministers: he burnt them. It is closely related to the image that the Southern States had after the loss in the Civil War. Everything from plantations to natural resources were put to fire by the Northern armies, as they were making their way to the Confederate’s capital, Richmond. Hop-frog’s escape symbolizes the massive migration of slaves from the South after the end of the war. Although the serfdom was officially abolished in 1863 in the North & by the end of the war in the South, it took many more years before an Afro-American could be treated the same way as every citizen in the United States of America.

Domestic violence Essay

I declare that this assessment is my own work, based on my own personal research/study . I also declare that this assessment, nor parts of it, has not been previously submitted for any other unit/module or course, and that I have not copied in part or whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of another student and/or persons. I have read the ACAP Student Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct Policy and understand its implications. Competency Assignments Task 2 – Case Study CHCDFV301A Recognise & respond appropriately to domestic & family violence CHCDFV402C Manage own professional development in responding to domestic & family violence NOTE: Read the case study below. Answer the questions listed below in your own words using the case study as the basis for your answers. Do not work or share answers with other students in this course when completing this assignment task. Assignment task 2: Due – Sunday 2nd February 2014 Case study – (approx 1200-1500 words) Case study You are a student support counsellor in a university. Judy, a first-year student of Aboriginal descent, comes to see you as she is struggling with her studies and says that she would like to talk to you about whether university is right for her. As you talk with Judy she tells you that one of the reasons she is struggling to study and finish her assignments on time is that she has had to take on extra work in the evenings and weekends to support her brother, who has moved in with her since he lost his job a couple of months ago. Judy tells you that she is happy to support her brother financially until he gets back on his feet but that it is difficult as she now needs to work the extra hours, as well as looking after the house and cleaning up after her brother and his friends, who spend most nights drinking and smoking in the house. Judy expresses concern for her brother who she says is very stressed since he lost his job and easily irritable. She wants to talk to him about getting another job and doing his share around the house, but she is anxious about doing so because he can get very angry. You notice that Judy has a cut on her head and some bruising on her arms but when you ask her about it she dismisses it, saying that sometimes her brother ‘talks with his fists’ and that she’s fine. 1.Explain your responsibilities as the counsellor in this situation. We must support, believe her, be nonjudgmental, have empathy and be congruent with Judy. We must not make judgements. Judy needs to know that this is not her fault and that there is programs and ways to help not just her but her brother, and this can be done without the police and him being put in jail, as this is the preferred way of her culture. Judy must be told about where we stand on confidentiality and let her know that in certain circumstance the counsellor has a legal duty to report. We must know our limitations on how we can help and refer Judy to the right place. 2. What legal issues  could be present in this situation? It is a criminal offence in Australia to be violent. However we have a duty of care and confidentiality that also needs to be considered. It is important to talk to clients who are experiencing domestic violence before reporting (if possible) so they feel supported rather than judged, this reassure them that they are not responsible for the violence but the abuser is. If the person is in immediate danger you must report it. Your organisation may have protocols and policies that address domestic and family violence that you must follow. All counsellors should be aware of domestic and family violence policies, this should be easily accessible at work. 3. What interrelated issues are present in this situation? Judy feels that she has a duty to support her brother as this is expected of her. Judy’s brother being unemployed, cultural expectations, having loss of self-esteem, having her brother be financially dependent on her and her brother having a drug and alcohol dependency are all interrelated issues. 4. What criteria would you use to assess risk in this situation? The primary rule of assessment must be to believe her, and start intervention, states Walker (1984, as cited in James, 2008). I would also need to assess, the severity of the situation, the client’s current emotional state, immediate psychosocial and safety needs, level of client’s current coping skills and resources. I would need to listen, be supportive, reinforce her right to her personal power and if Judy is safe in her environment, I would also inform her of what options and support there is for her. 5. What strategies would you use to help Judy? I would reassure Judy that it is not her fault, I would not make judgements about her situation or judge her on decisions that she makes. I would need to listen to what Judy has to say, be supportive and reinforce her right to take control and make decisions for herself. Letting her know that she can feel free to talk about her abuse. I would let her know that she is not alone and that there are others that have been in the same situation as she is in. I would help her to make a safety plan that she can put into action if needed. I would give Judy phone numbers that she can ring when she needs  to. Helping Judy feel safe and letting her know that she is not alone, will reassure her. 6. What cultural issues may you need to consider when working with Judy? I would have to consider Judy’s aboriginal background and the fact they we were brought up differently. We have different beliefs and cultures. I would need to be sensitive to Judy’s needs and cultural differences. 7. How might your own values and beliefs impact on your ability to work with Judy? How might you overcome these? I would need to make sure that I was emotionally and qualified to help in this situation. I need to make sure that I put my own values aside and not make judgements of Judy. I have to recognise my own limitations and to know when this is impacting on the counselling sessions. Being aware of my own perspective of the situation helps me to recognise my own biases and values. I could overcome them by talking to my supervisor, this will benefit me and the client. If I could not overcome my own values and beliefs I must refer the client, as the client would not benefit having me as a counsellor. I have to take into account of the law and any changes to legislation. 8. What aspects of this situation might a counsellor be required to keep records of and/or report on? I would need to keep records of her name, address, what happened, when it happened and what steps were taken. I would need to keep records of anything that may be used in a legal situation. If any police/medical reports were made. I would need to keep records of all domestic violence situations that I have been told about. 9. What referral options might you consider for Judy? Some of the options for Judy is the domestic hotline, aboriginal liaison officer, mental health, Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service, drug and alcohol centre. I would find out if they have women’s patrols and sobering-up shelters in her area, as this would take into account her aboriginal background and remove her brother from the home without putting him in jail, I could also find out if there is a program that would help â€Å"heal† the offender. I would also advise Judy of Centrelink and the housing commission, as she and her brother may not be aware of the help that they could receive from them. I would give Judy a list of organisations who she could ring if she needed to. I would also speak to my supervisor.