Crisis Intervention Changing and Moving

Question: Discuss about the Crisis Intervention Changing and Moving. Answer: Introduction In the modern day society, everything is changing and moving quickly with the fast pace, where people tend to lack patience, it is not surprising that the mental health field has added specialists known as the crisis intervention professionals. They bridge the services of mental health and police (France, 2015). A crisis is said to be situation where things become difficult to cope up as a consequence of past and present events in life leading to distress and functional impairment. A crisis may cause an individual to lose focus on life feeling helpless and hopeless affecting the overall physical and mental wellbeing (Brecher Wilkenfeld, 2014). Therefore, without intervention, attaining the present and the future goals become impossible. The essay discusses the crisis intervention in response to a case study. The essay begins with the explanation of crisis and its impact on the persons functioning. Later, the essay discusses the MYER, JAMES and MOULTON's 7-task hybrid model of crisis intervention and describes how it is implemented for the person in crisis to guide them in right direction. Lastly, the essay discusses the challenges of this crisis intervention model and the strategies to overcome these challenges. Investigation of crisis It was in the month of November, 2016, when a women called a crisis intervention shelter in the afternoon to intervene a women in crisis. When the team reached the scene, it was a women named as Anne for this paper, She was complete emotional wreck due to her husbands suicide recently. On arriving the scene, the crisis intervention worker met a woman of 45 years who then introduced him to Anne and said it was she who called him for help. It was evident from Annes swollen and red eyes that she has been crying since a long time. She appears to be highly exhausted and agitated and preferred to avoid eye contact with the couselor. Her eyes were focused on a piece of paper kept in front of her on the table. Prior to initiating any communication with the client, the crisis intervention worker obtained some information from her neighbourhood. The rationale for not directly communicating with the client was need of assessing the situation effectively that will help the professional to deduce the appropriate approach of intervention (James Gilliland, 2012). Since the lady was in crisis and it was a delicate issue the aim is to proceed in manner that does not hurt her and lead her in right direction to resolve the problem (France, 2015). As per the given information, Anne and her husband John were happily married for years. Recently, John lost his job for embezzlement. After her husbands death Anne had discovered that she is left with huge debt and financially unstable. Impact of crisis on the functioning An individual experiences poor physical and mental health condition during crisis (Caplan, 2013). Extremely traumatising situation particularly due to sudden death in family increases heart palpitation, chills, profuse sweating, with changes in sleep pattern (Murphy et al., 2012). Such people also lose appetite and are highly vulnerable to harm themselves. Due to mental instability and loss of psychological homeostasis a person becomes startled with sudden noise and highly panic during any situation reminding them of trauma. They also tend to have nightmares and their behaviour appears irritating for others (Brecher Wilkenfeld, 2014). After careful observation of Anne, the counselor learned that she was not in the state to deal with her daily circumstances, as she was completely distraught of with her loss. According to Parkes Prigerson, (2013) an individual experiencing bereavement of loved ones suicide tend to feel beyond those of a loss from different type of death. Unlike other types of death, the loss occurring due to suicide leaves the surviving partner with deep guilt. Laura was highly depressed and filled with burden of catching and preventing the signs of death. She is regretting that if only she could sense her husbands feelings earlier that she could have prevented his death. However, she seems to have lost the balance of her life with disturbed cognitive thinking unable to sought the problem created by her husband. According to the American Association of suicidology person in crisis with high level of depression, stress and anxiety believe that they never will be able to return to the state before th e crisis has occurred (Dinakar et al., 2015). It was also true for Anne as it is obvious that the severe financial crisis have led to high mental pressure. During the initial meeting with Anne she was avoiding eye contact with the worker. She was motionless and deflated. It was difficult for the crisis intervention worker to identify what she was thinking, what would be her next move, and if she was planning to harm herself or if she was under the influence of any drug to free herself from depression or is in any state of illusion. Without gaining sufficient details about Annes mental state and impact of crisis on her functioning it is difficult to resolve the crisis. Therefore, in the process of gaining additional information on the client, the 7 task hybrid model (introduced by Myer, James Moulton in 2011) was implemented. Development of crisis intervention model The hybrid model of crisis intervention is used here to deescalate the crisis being discussed here. These will be implemented using seven tasks hybrid model which is a framework for the crisis workers to deal with the people in crisis and mentally ill (James Gilliland, 2012). This model contains seven steps acting as roadmap to solve the problem, attain goal and resolve the crisis (Erber, 2014). The first task is to predispose, engage and initiate contact with Anne. He may begin by asking her We are here to help you...would you like to talk to us? At this stage, the worker allows her to vent out inner frustration and be empathetic to make her built trust in the services. This will thus help the client to be more receptive to the intervention. The second task of the model is to explore the problem situation. At this stage the crisis worker have to ask some close and open ended questions to define the crisis. He can start with questions like can you describe what happened then?, well what did your husband say? and then later paraphrase her statements. The aim of this step is to understand the clients perspectives by demonstrating the core listening skills which are acceptance, empathy, genuineness (Spielfogel McMillen, 2016). This helps to identify the immediate factors that led to crisis. The third task is to provide adequate support to the client. At this stage the crisis worker will deliver physical and psychological support to Anne. He can use statements like I can understand it is difficult to clear all the debts in single day, I can understand your worried about how to survive without money. Next thing is the professional can provide Anne with informational support such as a good job that can relieve some of her problems, alternate solutions to prevent eviction from her apartment, request the official people for delayed payment. The fourth task is to ensure the safety of the client. Anne confessed that she is finding difficult to reasoning critically so the crisis worker ensured that she does not have a weapon in her proximity to harm herself or commit suicide. The fifth task is to examine the alternate solution for her crisis. The interventionist may ask Anne to jot down all the thought in her mind in a piece of paper. This will allow addressing any negative thoughts that she has in mind. The sixth stage is to plan for reestabilising control. Anne may be referred to counselor for long term therapy as she is distracted and distraught or to the local offices of the cabinet for families and children that can help her with resources such as shelter, food and medical facilities. At this stage, Anne will be asked to describe her feelings about the current situation as the action plan is implemented and what steps she would prefer to solve her situation. The crisis worker at this point obtains commitment from the client to fight the crisis and assure that client is okay with solutions provided. The seventh stage is the follow up of the plan and includes booster sessions. It may include evaluating the post crisis status of Anne including assessment of overall functioning, presence of current stressors. Challenges in implementing the crisis intervention model While implementing the 7 hybrid task model the counselors face several challenges. According to Rodda et al., (2015), while providing psychological debriefing to the client which are mandatory, the crisis worker may also be psychologically effected. The crisis intervention process is nonlinear and does not contain organized discourse and method of evaluation. Additional challenges include arranging the seven tasks of the intervention model in discrete manner (Spittal et al., 2015). The researchers therefore develop the hybrid model where victims can be reached through phones or web based counselling. However, it is not always easy to segment the events. Since during the crisis patients like Anne are extremely distracted and distraught other issues may crop up while trying to sort one issue with equal severity (Dinakar et al., 2015). It becomes strenuous for the counselor to prioritize the issues as delay may cause the client to harm herself unable to reason her life. The intervention s had to be developed keeping all the moral and ethical parameters in view (Caplan, 2013). The client may not reveal or disclose all the information in one go delaying the process of planning appropriate interventions (Brecher Wilkenfeld, 2014). For example, the client may hide about her alcohol or drug addiction due to weak report with the counselor, which disturbs the whole intervention plan. Suggestions to overcome challenges The interventionist can overcome the above-mentioned challenges. The interventionist must be able to make the client believe that he is her ally in the very first stage that may probably eliminate the chance of Anne to hide any necessary information from him (Dinakar et al., 2015). The counselor should be tactful while preparing the questionnaire for the Anne. The questions should be short and designed in a manner that will extract all the client related information in second stage of the model itself. It will thus help in designing the intervention effectively without needing to go through the previous stages of the hybrid model. The counselor must have active listening skills to prevent missing out any important data from the client as it is not possible for the client vent out her feelings multiple times when distraught (Murphy et al., 2012). The couselor must demonstrate positivity, empathy, sensitivity in every word he utters and in every action only then it is possible to reinf orce positivity in client. The counselor should also cultivate high mental resilience and self-awareness to maintain his own psychological balance while dealing with grief, and pain of other people. He must not cross his professional boundaries while trying to be emphatic towards the client (Spittal et al., 2015). The client must be able to provide support to Anne at all levels that are psychosocial, physical, emotional and logistic support since crisis is multifactorial (Rodda et al., 2015). Conclusion The paper has discussed how the hybrid model of crisis intervention has helped the client to undergo positive transition. Undergoing traumatic experiences changes the pattern of daily living diminishing the motivation to live. Therefore, the crisis intervention professionals assist the clients to overcome crisis by communicating and observing the client assessing their strengths, weaknesses, shirt term and long-term goals. The paper has clearly demonstrated how can a counselor initiate communication and build rapport with an individual in crisis. With close and open-ended questions, it is convenient to make the client feel comfortable with the counselor. The counselor may not always handle all the challenges diligently or have strategies for all types of complication arising in the process of intervention. In such situation, experience and farsightedness may help deal with the crisis. References Brecher, M., Wilkenfeld, J. (2014).A study of crisis. University of Michigan Press. Caplan, G. (2013).An approach to community mental health(Vol. 3). Routledge. Dinakar, K., Chen, J., Lieberman, H., Picard, R., Filbin, R. (2015, March). Mixed-initiative real-time topic modeling visualization for crisis counseling. InProceedings of the 20th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces(pp. 417-426). ACM. Erber, N. (2014). Outlining a Crisis Management Plan for a Community: Crisis Planning in Michigan.Michigan Journal of Counseling,41(1), 38. France, K. (2015).Crisis intervention: A handbook of immediate person-to-person help. Charles C Thomas Publisher. Hoefer, R., Chigbu, K. (2015). The Motivation and Persuasion Process (MAP): Proposing a practice model for community intervention.Journal of Community Practice,23(1), 51-75. James, R. K., Gilliland, B. E. (2012).Crisis intervention strategies. Nelson Education. Murphy, S., Irving, C. B., Adams, C. E., Driver, R. (2012). Crisis intervention for people with severe mental illnesses.The Cochrane Library. Parkes, C. M., Prigerson, H. G. (2013).Bereavement: Studies of grief in adult life. Routledge. Rodda, S. N., Lubman, D. I., Cheetham, A., Dowling, N. A., Jackson, A. C. (2015). Single session web-based counselling: a thematic analysis of content from the perspective of the client.British Journal of Guidance Counselling,43(1), 117-130. Spielfogel, J. E., McMillen, J. C. (2016). Current use of de-escalation strategies: Similarities and differences in de-escalation across professions.Social Work in Mental Health, 1-17. Spittal, M. J., Fedyszyn, I., Middleton, A., Bassilios, B., Gunn, J., Woodward, A., Pirkis, J. (2015). Frequent callers to crisis helplines: Who are they and why do they call?.Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry,49(1), 54-64.

Bloom Research and Response Paper free essay sample

Larkin and Burton’s abstract preface the Joint Commission’s directive for effective communication among caregivers during handoff to ensure patient safety (Larkin Burton, 2008, p. 360). The case study reviews the lack of handoff practice and its effect on continuum of care provided to â€Å"Ms. C, a 64-year-old woman, presented to the ambulatory surgery center for an open cholecystectomy† (p. 390), and the subsequent workshop utilizing Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education Objectives to educate and change clinical practice among the staff members. From this reader’s vantage Ms. C’s respiratory de-compensation was a result of the nurses’ failure to communicate patients medical history and critical findings during unit-to-unit transfer and shift report, inadequate nurse to patient ratio along with incomplete charting, failure to recognize early signs and symptoms of respiratory compromise, and lack of critical thinking skills. Evidenced by the case study’s assertions, Ms. C required oxygen in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) but was transferred without it. We will write a custom essay sample on Bloom Research and Response Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Second, the PACU nurse did not communicate to the patient’s need for oxygen to the receiving nurse during handoff report. It is unclear if the surgeon wrote vital sign parameters and pulmonary toilet orders, or if there were standard protocols for this post operative unit. Ms. C’s incomplete graphic record indicate she was placed on four liters of oxygen within two hours of her arrival to the unit at 1630; however, fail to adequately trend abnormal vital signs such as low grade temperature and tachycardia (Larkin Burton, 2008, p. 392). The record does not document any nurse-initiated interventions or call to the doctor requesting a chest x-ray or recommending a respiratory therapy consult for breathing treatment and incentive spirometer. On post-op day two Ms. C’s respiratory status declined requiring a non-rebreather mask, rapid response team consult, and a transfer to the intensive care unit for a diagnosis of respiratory distress (p. 392). There were multiply factors that contributed to the above scenario; Larkin and Burton writes that â€Å"after this near-miss, failure to rescue incident† (p. 94) a task force consisting of management, clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and unit educator convened to discuss the event. The task force concluded that the nursing staff members were ineffectual in critically evaluating the patient’s signs and symptoms. The CNS chose a framework that utilized â€Å"Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives†, that provided measurable outcomes to the ed ucational activity and enabled the nursing team to optimize their critical skill levels. A workshop to assist staff to navigate through the case study in a realistic manner was implemented (Larkin Burton, 2008, p. 95). The cognitive domain contains six intellectual skills that measure: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information received. The affective domain contains five emotional factors: receiving, responding, valuing, organizing, also conceptualizing and characterizing by value concept. It is during this phase that individual buy-in occurs or not. Finally, the psychomotor domain contains five motor skills functions of imitation, manipulation, precision, articulation, and naturalization. The individual learn to adapt his or her movements intuitively to a given situation (Larkin Burton, 2008, p. 395). The key component of continued nursing education is to advance and apply evidenced based practice at the bedside. The use of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives as the framework promote the transfer of evidence based information, in a setting that allow the nurse educators to evaluate and measure the learner’s: cognitive, affective and psychomotor processes. It allows the learner (nurse) to assess his or her level of application within each domain. Both the educator and the nurse can reinforce successes and target learning opportunities to areas of inefficiency. References Blais, K. K. , Hayes, J. S. (2011). Professional Nursing Practice Concepts and Perspective (6th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Bouchard, G. J. (2011, November). In Full Bloom: Helping Students Grow Using the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The Journal of Physican Assistance Education, 22(4), 44-46. Larkin, B. G. , Burton, K. J. (2008, September). Evaluating a Case Study Using Blooms Taxonomy of Education. AORN, 88(3), 390-402.

The Three Faces Of Psycho Essays - English-language Films, Psycho

The Three Faces Of Psycho Essays - English-language Films, Psycho The Three Faces Of Psycho THE THREE FACES OF PSYCHO Psycho has no doubt become one of the most beloved horror stories of all times. It is an undisputed classic. It spins a well-known tale of how the person living next door, in the next room, or down the road just might not be all they seem on the outside. Psycho first came into the world as a literary novel in 1958. It would become Robert Blochs signature piece. It told the story of a young woman named Mary Crane who was given the ultimate chance at the American Dream by stealing money from work and marrying the man of her dreams. It also told of her untimely demise at the hands of Norman Bates, quiet and shy hotel proprietor. The novel appealed to the public not only because of the suspense and horror of the story, but because the reader could easily identify with the characters. Mary-simply because everyone wants the American dream and will go to unreal lengths to achieve it at times. Norman-because everyone has had to live up to a parents expectations and fallen short at one time or another. In these characters, we find a sense of loneliness and desperation. Shortly after the release and immediate success of the novel, Psycho, the master of film horror decided to introduce the book to the big screen. Alfred Hitchcock made Psycho into an instant horror classic in 1960. With an adapted version of the novel, a screenplay by Joseph Stefano, some characters names were changed and actors were hired, but the story remained the same. Almost forty years later, following the release of Hitchcocks Psycho, director Gus Van Sant brought the picture back to the screen. The big difference was that he added color and modernized the picture. Van Sants goal was to remain true to the original picture, but took advantage of what the 90s culture had to offer. The base story of Psycho remains basically the same in the novel and film versions. A young woman disappears with money from her office to be used to create a better life for her boyfriend and herself. Along the way to meet her love, she stops at a roadside motel and meets the young owner Norman. After some deep conversation, she goes to her room and is murdered by Norman. It then becomes the quest of her younger sister to find her. Her sister, Lila, along with her boyfriend Sam, and an ill-fated private detective, they work to find the terrible secret of Norman Bates and the fate of Mary/Marion. The differences in the movies and the novel are subtle at times and at others, vast. Each director of the film chose to take different angles at some aspects of the story. Hitchcock was working within the confines of the late 50s and early 60s. One major change that was made in the movie was the physical appearance of the character, Norman. In the novel, Norman Bates is middle-aged man with a plump facerimless glassesscalp beneath thinning sandy hair. (Bloch 10.) In the first screen adaptation, Norman became somewhat attractive. He looked like the boy next door. Anthony Perkins played the part that just by looking at Norman you felt sympathetic for him. He looked like a normal trustworthy person (Hitchcock, 1960.) Hitchcock was also creating a movie in a time where explicit sexuality and nudity were taboo. The now famous shower scene, where Marion is murdered, took seven days and over 700 camera angles to shoot. Hitchcock wanted to make sure that there were no actual slashing shots shown or any nudity (Hitchcock/Psycho Trailer.) That would be left up to the viewer to use their imagination. Hitchcock chose the design of the house, which stands behind the Bates Motel. He believed that it cast a sinister feel on the whole area. In comparison, the 1998 version of the story was subject to more leniency. Director Van Sant chose to add nudity and visible stab wounds to the shower scene (Van Sant 98.) In the novel, Bloch is very descriptive about how Mary undresses and looks at her nude self in the mirror. The shower scene itself is very quick lived. Mary hears the scream

Alone on the sea Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Alone on the sea - Essay Example As more and more data are collected, retrieved and stored on these social media sites and internet, the concerns for its privacy and repurposing has been increased immensely. This superfluous information and data needs intelligent and sophisticated data base management systems, making this sensitive information prone to the advertising agencies etc. Advertising agencies lure these social media networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter, Skype, Whatsapp etc to sell this personal sensitive data for marketing and advertising prospects. Highly customized, targeted and dedicated advertising campaigns have been designed by the advertisers managed by their back end running systems to reach their target markets. Highly targeted and specified advertising campaigns endanger the personals of individuals threatening the prospects of privacy violation. The goal of these advertising campaigns is unified that is to make their way to their target prospects that causes privacy violations. An advertising system has been established linking the middle users and the advertisers supported by the social media and internet so that they can display their ads and market their offerings. Moreover many of the internet tracking companies is also inclined towards gaining access to the private data of individuals through Facebook apps. The p oor infrastructure and least sophisticated systems of social media sites also cause privacy violations. As with the increased susceptibility of private data of internet users most of the renowned and gigantic social media sites have strengthened their privacy controls facilitating the users to gain trust in their platforms and services. For instance, Facebook, Instagram, Skype etc frequently make changes in their privacy control systems and proposing tight restrictive options in privacy setting for their users. Moreover they give options

A business process method for virtualized enterprises Research Paper

A business process method for virtualized enterprises - Research Paper Example Though the future is commonly tagged as unpredictable, business management gives room to forecasting especially when it is based on principles and empirical theories. Expecting business process improvement to remain competitive or to be even improved is therefore nothing much to ask from businesses in today’s fast changing business environment. Several definitions have been given to the term ‘business process’. According to the Business Process Incubator (2011), business process is â€Å"a co-ordinated set of actions that produce a business result, either within a single organization or across several.† Search CIO (2011) also has it that â€Å"A business process is an activity or set of activities that will accomplish a specific organizational goal.† To implement these set of activities that lead to the realization of organizational goals however, there are a number of methods and supporting frameworks to follow. In this paper, we discuss a business process method and supporting framework, including concepts for business-to-business interaction and human resources: to obtain business process environment with rapid, flexible, straightforward, efficient, and precise operations. Undoubtedly, a similar framework will be widely implemented in the near future, and methods such as this one will be widely used. This future implementation will be directed towards achieving a more advanced system and form of business and organizational structure. As the world progresses and advances by the day, business process methods and frameworks that are instituted must meet the growing needs of businesses and society as a whole. Future implementation would therefore be a huge step for the humanity, similar to transition from postal mail to email, utilization of computer-aided design, and use of professional and general purpose social networks. Just as in a swift of human imagination these innovations came to take over the norm that previously exist ed, it is expected that future implementations would solve more complex problems of humanity and businesses. Virtual profiles system and electronic contract negotiation and formation To allow for a more comprehensive discussion of this session, the session shall begin with the definition and explanation of some the salient terms to be used. Virtual profiles system is more related to virtual systems management that is used in most corporations, organizations and businesses. Virtual systems management basically has to do with the allocation and distribution of resources. Expanding the explanation further, Tech Target (2007) explain that â€Å"virtual systems management (VSM), is the process of remotely managing the allocation and use of resources in conventional networks as well as in virtual area networks (VANs), virtual private networks (VPNs), virtual network computing (VNC) and virtual servers.† Virtual prolife systems therefore work best with all kinds of organizations and businesses as far as they have technological facilities for implementation. Electronic contract has greater linkage with virtual profile systems in the sense that electronic contracts helps in the achievement of the management and allocation of resources; especially data on the institution in question. To this effect, Morciniec et al (2002) explain that â€Å"an electronic contract is its reification in software that can be instantiated as a set of obligations that are fulfilled between parties, refused or waived as future events occur.† This explanation was given in relation to the meaning of an ordinary contract, which was explained by the writers to be â€Å"a statement of intent that regulates behavior among organizations and individuals†

Examine an episode of the Colbert Report through the lens of Geoffrey Essay

Examine an episode of the Colbert Report through the lens of Geoffrey Baym's article on discursive integration - Essay Example Baym examines The Daily Show as an example of this hybrid format stating how The Daily Show new format has spark a new genre, of hybrid of many, and has become an important part of the media. As a show that is packed with lots of comedy satire but still disseminates real news, The Colbert Report is a hybrid. It opens with a serious news opening, then shows him running and jump carrying a flag. Then, the camera pans to the audience, who are clapping and cheering. Similar to TDS starts of serious shows, the show then moves to some more like a late-night show with audience cheering. Typical Colbert shows include mock reportage on political events, using a strong degree of sarcasm and irony to mock traditional news programs that claim to be â€Å"fair and balanced,† but really are not. This use of satire can be favorably compared to Baym’s idea of â€Å"The Daily Show’s† John Stewart, as another show which acts to criticize the very object of culture which it is serving up to the people. Both shows use the trappings and production values of real news programs in a subversive, surreal manner. The first segment of The Colbert Report, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, focuses on news updates on current events. Both shows share many similarities in this segment. They both incorporate a great deal of comedy satire into the news while taking aspects from both late-night shows and comedy shows (Baym, 263). Another great example of the similarities between these shows is that the hosts provide subjective nature on the subject. As Baym points out in his essay, Stewart â€Å"instead engages in subjective interrogation† going against all normal journalist standards (265). In the episode of The Colbert Report used by the current investigation, Stephen displays his subjective nature while talking to Arturo Rodriguez on immigration, or

HRM Effectiveness In Improving Performance

HRM Effectiveness In Improving Performance This article examines the strategic role of HR and its main practices, describes the outcomes of the respective category of HR practices, explains the critical reasons for measuring HRs efforts, and proposes a framework for assessing HR. Ultimately, organizations would be able to utilize the information to determine how particular HR practices correlate with better business results; determine potential areas for investments, expansions, and reductions; justify budget allocations; and be more accountable for each dollar spent within the organization. The framework proposed does not merely explain the cost for each of the major HR activity, but demonstrates the value of the activity and hence, the opportunity to determine if it is a worthwhile investment and strategy for creating a competitive advantage. What value does the human resources (HR) function contribute to the bottom line of the organization? Over the years, there has been tremendous emphasis placed on HR practitioners becoming strategic business partners and being a value-added source within organizations. Traditionally, HR professionals could talk generally and conceptually about employee morale, turnover, and employee commitment being outcomes of HR efforts. Furthermore, the HR function is often viewed as an expense-generator and an administrative function and not as a value-added partner. Ulrich (1997b) reiterated that to fulfill the business partner role of HR, concepts need to be replaced with evidence, ideas with results, and perceptions with assessments. This article examines the strategic role of HR and its main practices, describes the outcomes of the respective category of HR practices, explains the critical reasons for measuring HRs efforts, and proposes a framework for assessing HR. Ultimately, organizations would be able to utilize the information to determine how particular HR practices correlate with better business results; determine potential areas for investments, expansions, and reductions; justify budget allocations; and be more accountable for each dollar spent within the organization. The framework proposed does not merely explain the cost for each of the major HR activity, but demonstrates the value of the activity and hence, the opportunity to determine if it is a worthwhile investment and strategy for creating a competitive advantage. The framework has proven its effectiveness at many companies showing how HR creates value, utilized the information collected to increase investments in specific HR strategies and eliminating ineffective investments, and used as a critical resource in the strategic business planning and budget allocation. The companies include Fortune 500 and smaller companies from retail, transportation, and financial industries. Understanding the Strategic Role of HR In todays business environment, organizations need to be constantly evaluating their internal and external environment for challenges and opportunities to remain competitive and to sustain growth. Political, economic, social, and even psychological changes within our societies create significant impact on organizations. Given any significant change or event, how ready are we as an organization to react in order to remain competitive? Many factors are driving changes in organizations today including the use of technology, globalization, changes in workforce demographics, eliminating the bureaucracies in organizational structures, and balancing work-family issues. Understanding the potential of an organizations resources and optimizing the output of such resources given the changes, provides the impetus for HR being the key source of creating the competitive advantage for the organization. Insert figure 1 about here To create value and deliver results, HR professionals must begin not by focusing on the work activities or work of HR but by defining the deliverables of that work. HRs roles in building a competitive organization include management of strategic human resources, management of transformation and change, management of firm infrastructure and management of employee contribution (Ulrich, 1997a). Although these roles are valid and have proven to be value-added in recent years, there is now the critical need to move beyond the strategic business partner role to players in the business (Ulrich Beatty, 2001). Players, according to Ulrich Beatty, contribute to the profitability of the organization, they deliver results and they do things to make a difference. The roles of players are to a) coach b) design, c) construct, d) change the organization, e) creating followers, and f) playing by the rules. Another perspective on the role of HRM suggests that in leading-edge companies, HR profession als play four key roles: a) strategic business partners, b) innovators, c) collaborators, and d) facilitators (Schueler Jackson, 2000). As a strategic business partner, HR professionals should understand the nature of the business from a strategic, operational, financial, and other aspects necessary to be part of an effective team managing an organization. Functioning as an innovator, HR professionals are challenged to continuously search for strategies that will create value for the organization and not merely function in a reactionary mode. Furthermore, HR professionals will also serve as collaborators with senior leaders and all employees to implement business strategies forming the strategic link throughout the organization. As facilitators, HR professionals function as the change agent providing rationale, support, and readiness for planned changes designed to support the business strategies. The fundamental role of HRM is essentially to maximize profitability, quality of work life and profits through effective management of people (Cascio, 2003). Given this premise, it can be easily inferred that HRs role is to help create value to the organization. Figure 1 illustrates some of the external challenges and changes facing organizations, their impact on the organization, and how HR is impacted. The Importance of Measuring HRs Activities Even though HR professionals are convinced that their efforts add value to the organizations bottom-line, there is frequently little evidence to demonstrate such belief. A recent survey of 54 companies in the Midwest, USA conducted by the author revealed that 51 of the 54 companies conducted little or no assessment of their HR departments efforts and therefore could not have provided any quantitative measures of HRs value to the organization. In addition, a study conducted by Becker, Huselid, and Ulrich (2001) indicated that less than 10% of the 968 firms that participated in their study had a formal estimation procedure to measure HRM. Measurement in most HR departments is usually restricted to processes measuring costs and not showing value added (HRPS, 1993). There is now the imperative need to justify each dollar invested, compare strategies to determine maximum worth, and to decide on where to invest especially as companies scramble to survive after the September 11 tragedy. Pepitone (1997) reiterated that HR leaders should know how to prove the value-added of their services because management is increasingly requiring departments to give evidence of their worth. In addition, Sorensen (1995) stated that the best way for HR to gain credibility so that it can make meaningful changes is for practitioners to measure the cost and effectiveness of what they do. And they must put that into language that senior executives understand: financial results. HR managers need to measure the cost and effectiveness of their activities far more closely than they have in the past. Many organizations have been forced and are conti nuing to determine ways of being more cost-effective. Many of the other functions including finance, accounting, and marketing are able to show a return on investment for their respective efforts, so given the increased emphasis on HR practices, it is imperative for HR to be able to show its effectiveness in creating value for the organization. The new HR is a transformed role comparing itself to any other function, not only through espoused value creation strategies, but through outcomes, qualitative and quantitative measurements, and direct relationships to profitability. The simple option of showing HRs value or becoming extinct as a department presents itself to HR professionals and given the strong belief of HR as a source of added value in organizations, there is no choice than for HR professionals to be able to quantitatively and qualitatively explain its strategic role in the organization. There has been substantial evidence over the years to show the relationship between HR and organizational performance as summarized by (Yeung Berman, 1997). Some of the studies include MacDuffie and Krafcic (1992), US Department of Labor (1993), Pfeffer (1994), Arthur (1994), Huselid (1995), and Ostroff (1995). Even though these studies exist, there still lacks a framework that is grounded in theory, yet practical enough for practitioners to use that shows the major HR activities, outcomes of the respective activities, and how they can be measured. The framework describes clusters within the HR function and encompasses: a) strategic planning, b) selection, c) training and development, d) organization development and change, e) performance management, f) rewards system, and g) organizational behavior theory. HRs Activities Outcomes Even though there are several classifications or groupings of HR activities, the author uses seven groups of activities seen as being most strategic and influential in realizing the strategic business objectives of the organization. Todays economy dictates that organizations continually assess the external and internal environment and make relevant changes in order to remain competitive. The author examines each of the clusters and provides a description of each, its importance in achieving the business strategy, and how it can be measured to determine its effectiveness. Insert figure 2.0 about here Strategic Planning The role of the HR function has changed tremendously over the past 10 years where HR functions have previously been viewed as not being an integral core of the business and merely viewed as an administrative function to todays economy where HR practitioners are more frequently considered business partners. Being a business partner, the ideal situation would be the inclusion of the HR leader in the strategic business planning (SBP). In the most fundamental sense, SBP involves choosing how an organization will compete (Rothwell, 1994). The questions of what product to produce, where should the product be sold, how many to make available, how the products and services differ from the competition are included as part of the business planning process. Business strategy can also be defined as the process by which the basic mission and objectives of the organization are set and the process by which the organization uses its resources to achieve the objectives(Tichy, Fombrum, Devanna, 1982) . Why is it important for HR to be involved in the strategic planning process? In developing strategies in todays complex and dynamic business environment, there is the critical need for business leaders to continually assess their talent pool to determine if the appropriate expertise needed to accomplish the business strategies are available within the organization. If not, where and how can the organization acquire the necessary skills? Another critical area is to identify what skills are needed to be developed internally for current employees to perform at the level necessary for the organization to be competitive. Does the organization need to change any of its current policies and practices in order to derive the intended behaviors of employees? How should performance be measured and what types of rewards should be given for the intended behaviors? These are all fundamental areas of effectively managing an organization and imperative to be addressed at the strategic planning stage . Typically, the HR function has the most experience and knowledge in addressing these critical issues. Strategic planning seeks to identify those organizational decisions and actions, which yield the greatest advantage under various assumptions about the organization and its environment. The integration of human resource function into the organizational strategy provides the basis to enable the human resource function to support and implement the strategic plan to achieve a competitive advantage (Wofford, 2002). This strategy provides for the maximization of human capital, reduction of wasted and inefficient labor and other financial investment, and eventually maximizing profitability. By addressing these issues at the strategic planning stage with HR included, there is the higher likelihood of more efficiently reaching the business outcomes and avoiding chaos, massive layoffs, crises resulting from not having skilled employees to carry out particular tasks and not having the right fit among employees, corporate strategies, and business environments. C.K Prahalad (Prahalad, 1990) in describing the roots of competitive advantage, stated that the real sources of competitive advantage are to be found in managements ability to consolidate corporate wide technologies and production skills into competencies that empower individual businesses to adapt quickly to changing opportunities. Moreover, Tichy et al., (Tichy et al., 1982) reiterated that there are three core elements for organizations to function effectively and include mission and strategy, organization structure, and human resource management. Clearly, the HR function plays a pivotal role in determining the busi ness strategy through the assessment of the organizations capabilities to successfully compete through a particular strategy, determining the appropriate rewards system, determining appropriate organization structures, and developing strategies to increase employees performance. Given the definition of strategic planning as how an organization will compete, the question arises as to how would an organization be able to assess the effectiveness of its strategic plan. Indicators of a successfully crafted strategic plan include creating advantages that are sustainable over a long period of time. Has the planning resulted in a) the attainment of the organizations goals and objectives, b) financial profitability, b) positioning to create advantages for the short-term and long-term, and d) created a sense of social responsibility? In essence, this process determines the decisions and actions an organization will undertake to create and sustain competitive advantages. Acquisition of Employees In the era of increasing globalization and the struggle to create sustainable competitive advantages, organizations are continuously evaluating their strategies to ensure that they have the expertise needed to help achieve the mission of the organization. The economic challenges due to the consequences of the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the United States also continue to affect organizations financial position and subsequently on recruitment and selection strategies. Gatewood Feild (2001) define selection as a process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment. Fitz-enz (2002) described ways of measuring the cost per hire, source cost per hire, and interviewing cost. Indeed, these are critical metrics in deciding the cost in acquiring employees. Nevertheless, to fully understand the value and effectiveness of the selection process, one has to analyze the impact of the employees contribution to the organization not only from a cost factor, but the performance in the short-term and long-term. Has the employee been able to contribute to the successful implementation of the business strategy? In examining the efforts that are part of the acquisition, one has to examine the effectiveness of the planning process, advertising and recruitment sources, effectiveness of the interviewers in selecting the right candidate, change in the pool of qualified candidates, and performance of the incumbent on the job. HR Planning involves the process that specifies the activities that a firm must use in order to develop its human resources to improve its overall practices (Gatewood Feild, 2001). The process entails determining how many employees the organizations needs to be performing at its optimum and where the employees should be working in the organization given the external and internal challenges and opportunities. With the economy still struggling to improve after 9/11 terrorists attacks, organizations have been forced to layoff even thousands of employees in some cases in order to survive. The real challenge for HR in the upcoming months and even years would be to predict the demand for their products and services and then to determine the need for labor. Nevertheless, one still has to be able to reasonably predict labor demands and determine if employees have to be laid off or how many employees have to be recruited within a specific period. In addition, HR Planning should involve the s kills and competencies currently available within the organization and what other intellectual capital would be needed in the future to adequately meet the needs of the stakeholders. Another aspect of the acquisition process involves the advertising and recruitment sources. Given the high costs of advertising in newspapers, internet websites, journals, employment agencies, and direct and indirect costs associated with advertising, there is a definite need for HR professionals and other senior leaders to be aware of the effectiveness of the respective sources being used to advertise and recruit their candidates. In assessing the effectiveness of recruitment and advertisement sources an organization uses to recruit its employees, it is imperative to relate the actual performance of the incumbent to the advertising and recruitment. Some of the factors that should be included in this evaluation are historical employee turnover data, absenteeism, actual performance on the job, and ability to advance in ones career. There may also be a high level of correlation with specific school, number of years of work experience, education major, GPA, and other such factors with o nes performance. Given the collection and analysis of this data, HR is much more likely to invest their advertising and recruitment budget to where real value is created for the organization. Fitz-enz (2002) described the need to ensure that the recruitment function to be efficient and further stated that it is better to measure recruiters as a team than as individuals whenever applicable. In determining their efficiency as a team, Fitz-enz stated that the measurements should focus on the productivity of their interviewing techniques, the average length of interviews for the respective job groups, number of interviews needed to make a quality hire. Another means of determining the effectiveness of the recruitment function is a measure to show the change in the number of qualified candidates that is available for selection. This could be a significant cost reduction strategy given that advertising costs can re reduced if there are qualified candidates available for future openings and other jobs currently available. Training and Development The American Society for Training Development estimates that US organizations are spending more than $60 billion annually on employee training and development. Given this significant investment, it is reasonable for one to ask about the benefits of such investments, especially since more companies are seeing a need for lifelong learning and are integrating technology in their strategies. Swanson (1995) defined employee training and development as the process of systematically developing expertise in individuals for the purpose of improving performance. The argument as to whether T D helps to create a competitive advantage has shown that conceptually, it can be a source of competitive advantage. Nevertheless, there still is a critical need to develop frameworks and strengthen the argument for being aware of the actual benefits provided by this intervention. Developing a framework for assessing the financial benefits of T D, Swanson (2001) listed three questions that provide the vari ations on the assessment of HRD, of which T D is a major category. What is the forecasted financial benefit resulting from the HRD intervention? What is the actual financial benefit resulting from the HRD intervention? What is the approximate financial benefit resulting from the HRD intervention? (Approximate financial benefit is used whenever there is some level of uncertainty of the exact value created by the intervention). The framework describes three perspectives to assess the benefits including positive benefits, relative benefits, and return on investment. The positive benefits are those indicators that show the benefits exceeding the costs. The key issue in this perspective is to determine that the benefits at least equal the costs. It may also mean the inability of the measurement to show a financial benefit, but demonstrates the benefit of for example, strengthening the culture and maintaining the tradition of the organization. Return on investment (ROI) is a ratio that expresses the relationship of every dollar of performance value to every dollar expended to achieve that value. In understanding the impact of the training, it is imperative to determine what difference, if any, the investment made in supporting the business strategy of the organization. The assessment of the training should focus on the difference of the performance of the employee, the department, the process, and the overall performance of the organization. Furthermore, were there adequate opportunities for the employee to practice what they learned in the classroom, were they rewarded for improvements made as a result of attending the training, and can a relationship be demonstrated with the training and the organizations performance? Fitz-enz (2002) suggested that in addressing the results of the training process, the following questions be answered: How well did the employee learn? How effectively did the employee apply the learning from a business standpoint? What difference did it make to the business perspectives? In sum, measuring the impact of a training initiative regardless of the scope, size of investment, and number of employees involved, there is the imperative need to determine the purpose of doing the training and if the goals have been met at various intervals after the intervention had been completed. To determine the benefit, ROI, or whatever terminologies we choose to describe the outcome, one has to consider the direct costs of developing and implementing the intervention, in addition to the indirect and opportunity costs. This total cost would then have to be compared with the intended benefits and actual benefits immediately after the training and at different intervals after the intervention based on its nature. It is therefore imperative to address the following questions given the critical need to understand the impact of the intervention: Has the employees attitude changed since the training? Did the employee acquire knowledge and expertise in an area that would enable him/her to perform more effectively on the job? Has the employees performance changed after the training? How has the change in the employees performance affected the business strategy and performance of the organization? These are all areas to be integrated in assessing the impact of training and development in todays economy. With answers to these questions, it is relatively simple to determine if the training investment was worthwhile and to articulate how training and development supports the business strategy and contributes to the bottom-line of the organization. Organization Change and Development Given the continuing changes in the global economy, demands of customers, preferences and values of employees, it is a necessary component of the HR strategy to ensure that the organization is adapting to the external and internal variables it current faces and would likely face in the future in order to meet its stakeholders expectations. The pace of global, economic, and technological development makes change an inevitable feature of organizational life (Cummings Worley, 2002). A growing importance and competency expected from the HR professional, therefore, is his or her ability to plan and implement the necessary changes for the purpose of improving performance. Swanson (1995) defined organization development (OD) as the process of developing and implementing planned changes in organizations for the purpose of improving performance. The opportunity for HR through its organization development interventions is to create organizational effectiveness at the individual, department, f unction, process, and organizational levels. Many OD practitioners may argue that OD is not a measurable effort, at least quantitatively. The challenge arises again as to what value do the change efforts really have on the bottom-line of the organization. Should OD be excluded from quantitative measurement? Given a downturn in the economy and the need to reduce labor cost, are OD practitioners able to justify their worth to the organization? In answering these questions, it is necessary to examine the outputs of OD. In many instances, the outputs should be an improvement in performance at the individual, process, and organizational levels. Fitz-enz (2002) suggested that OD can be measured through productivity, quality, service, responsiveness, development, and survival. How efficiently are products and services delivered to the customer? These factors are indeed critical in assessing the effectiveness of ODs efforts and therefore, should be part of the process of making changes in organizations. Some of the key measurements can be derived from the following questions: What is the quality of the output and does it meet the customers expectations? Does the service offered by the organization provide a competitive advantage as compared to its competitors? How effectively does the system respond to changes in the external environment? Does the organization allow for maximum sharing of information, leveraging each employee and work unit, and resolving any internal or external challenges? Are the values and ethics of each employee and work unit representative of the overall culture of the organization and supportive of the business strategy? The responses to these questions based on the respective organization provide the basic measurements in assessing the readiness and effectiveness of the organization to function effectively in its current and anticipated internal and external environments. Should the responses indicate less than optimal performance at the individual, process, and organization levels, the opportunity exists for HR to conduct an analysis and develop, and implement planned changes to improve performance at all levels. As pointed out by (Becker et al., 2001), HR professionals too often want to measure their success by their activity rather than the actual business results. By having concrete answers to these questions, there will be appropriate responses in answering the role of OD in achieving the business strategy of the organization. Performance Management Performance management systems make clear to employees what is expected of them and assure line managers and strategic planners that employee behaviors will be in line with the companys goals (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, Wright, 2003). Many organizations still rely on the performance appraisal viewed as an annual ritual and primarily the responsibility of the HR function. In todays economy and the utmost of managing performance to create a competitive advantage Noe, et al (2003) grouped performance management into three categories of defining performance, measuring performance, and the feedback aspect of performance. Performance management systems are geared to ensure that each employee within the organization, based on previously conducted job analyses, is performing the tasks intended at the expected level to support the strategic business objectives of the organization. The thinking of HR practitioners and other business leaders that an annual performance appraisal is performance management must become obsolete. Effective performance management entails a process where each employee is fully aware of his or her role in the organization, what type of output is expected, and how the output will be measured. How would one determine the effectiveness of the performance management system in creating competitive advantages for the organization? In answering this key question, the following areas should be addressed: Ensuring that job descriptions are developed through timely and effective job analyses. Job descriptions are updated on a regular basis to reflect to changing business environment. Feedback is shared continuously among all stakeholders. Every employee is fully aware of his or her role in the organization, which can easily be accomplished in the performance planning phase of the process. There are measurable outcomes assigned to every task reflecting the role of the position and incumbent in achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. There must be congruency and consistency in performance measures across the entire organization and performance standards should always be measured consistently. The process and the system must be viewed as credible, fair, valid, and reliable. A survey with numerical ratings can be used by employees and supervisors to assess if ones role and responsibilities are fully aligned with the goals of the organization, satisfaction with the actual process and satisfaction with the supervisors management of the performance management process. An aggregate of the responses produces an assessment of the performance management system and its effectiveness in improving individual and organizational performance. One of the critical strategies in performance management is to understand the fundamental role of each employee in achieving the mission of the organization. By mapping a process through the identification of the purpose and role of each incumbent, one is easily able to identify where the deficiencies may exist and to develop corrective actions, identify the strengths of each individual and to maximize each employees potential and hence their contribution to the financial contribution to the bottom-line of the organization. Rewards System The starting point for any reward system design process needs to be the strategic agenda of the organization (Lawler, 1990). By understanding where the organization is positioning itself for various intervals in the future, an organization could design the reward system to provide incentives specifically designed to foster behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes among the workforce that directly correlate with the strategic agenda of the organization. As indicated by Lawler (1990), numerous studies including (Vroom, 1964, Lawler, 1971, and Kerr, 1975) have shown that effective rewards systems can significantly increase the motivation of individuals to increase their performance. As inferred from these studies, the fundamental intent of rewards in organizations is to provide incenti