Multicultural Diversity

Effects of Multicultural Diversity Organizational Processes

Managing a multinational corporation requires one to understand different cultures that comprise the subordinate staff. This is because different cultural backgrounds promote different social communication skills that define personal relationship amongst members of a certain workgroup. Thus, Members in a heterogeneous group consisting of employees sourced from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to generate diverse ideas that can help streamline organizational strategies. This benefits the organization by improving and enhancing communication links within organizations. Information is thus shared freely amongst the subordinate staff of the organization. Predominantly male or female oriented workgroups suffer from intra-gender conflicts as competition for supremacy in the group disrupts communications within the entire organization. This because power and role struggles dominates relationships between employees as they seek favors from their senior managers hoping to be rewarded with promotions or pay rises. This presents barriers to effective communication hindering the flow of the necessary organization processes pivotal to the business as a separate entity.

According to Hofstede, a manager in charge of such an organization should strive to understand how the subordinates relate to each other culturally before grouping them together to perform a certain task. In addition, it is important for a manager to understand how cultural beliefs affect employee’s judgment towards organizational issues to align the organization goals focused on meeting their personal needs. Thus, the paper will focus on how multicultural diversity affects organizational processes in a Multinational Corporation such as Euro Disney Land.

Multicultural diversity is appreciating and accepting the existence of multiple cultures as related to the demographic make-up of a certain group of individuals. It affects relationships within a group depending on the level of acceptance of different cultures comprising the group. In an organization, it describes the demographic make-up at the organizational level aimed at harnessing benefits of different cultures both from major and minority identity groups. Proponents for embracing multicultural diversity in an organization suggest that increasing the number of minority groups improves cohesion within the organization’s management structure. For example, increasing the number of women in an organization to match the number of the male counterparts, improves contact between them. This in turn it reduces the overlap between sex roles and work roles that hinder proper information flow within the organization’s structure. The overall organizational effectiveness is enhanced by increasing the role of traditionally underrepresented groups within an organization. Multicultural diversity influences both positively and negatively the overall organizational effectiveness of a multinational corporation.

Effects of Group Composition

Demographic diversity increases the pool of human resources that can assist an organization to achieve its set organizational goals and objectives. These may include styles, perspectives, insights related to solving complex organizations needs or problems. For centuries, women and people of color have suffered immense discrimination both at social gatherings and at work places (House, Hanges, Ruiz-Quintanilla, Dorfman, & Javidan, 2010). The cultural perspectives and styles of these marginalized groups are valuable assets that managers of organizations can exploit to improve the overall organization effectiveness other than relying solely on the role played by the majority groups.

In essence, multicultural diversity in managerial ranks of an organization serves the needs of an organization better as compared to reliance on dominant cultures only. Proponents for multicultural diversity further argue that cultural values dominant among black people such as forthrightness, assertiveness, verbal inventiveness, and good will can be beneficial in stimulating organizational interactions among the subordinate (Moon, March 1997). This is a positive representation of how odd deficiencies in a race can contribute to the overall integration of organizational values along ethnic lines. It is important to remember how each race contributes positively towards organizational effectiveness to meet the needs of each employee successfully. It is important for a manager to understand how cultural beliefs affect employee’s judgment towards organizational issues to align the organization goals focused on meeting their personal needs.

Employees feel confident and secure in their jobs whenever they see efforts being made to allow cultural integration within the organization. For example, being a manager of an organization located in the Middle East requires one to embrace the Muslim culture such allowing women to wear veils in the office. This may seem odd in western countries but in culturally controlled civilization such as the Middle East, they demand respect for their culture. Therefore, the manager has no option but to be flexible enough to meet employee’s personal satisfaction in their work. Members in a heterogeneous group consisting of employees sourced from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to generate diverse ideas that can help streamline organizational strategies (Cox, 1994). This in turn provides an opportunity for the manager to improve on the quality of decisions made by incorporating ideas sourced from different employees. In a study carried out at Apple.inc on May 3, 2008, mixed-sex groups performed better in organization processes than single-sex groups. This was an indication of how useful multicultural diversity is towards mobilizing human resources to achieve set organizational goals.

Diversity and Workgroup Functioning

Even though increasing the number of traditionally underrepresented groups yield more success to the organization, it does require power relations balance between the dominant and subdominant groups in the company. On gender representation, empirical values favor men more than women skewing the trend towards male dominated leadership. Some cultures prohibit women from desiring to compete equally to men for leadership but should rather concentrate on family matters (Kundu, July – December 2001). This favors men over women increasing the gender disparity in Multinational Corporation to less than 30% of the total number of employees. Allowing employees to express their individual perspectives at the place of work may fetch in both rewards and disaster for the organization. First, benefits because the organization has a large pool of human resources committed to meet the set organizational goals and objectives. On the contrary, they may express their newfound freedom to indulge even in matters not concerning them.

Diversity Perspective

Integration and Learning

In a heterogeneous group, decision-making takes long as everyone’s opinion must be put into account complicating the organizational process that is simple when attempted by a homogeneous group. Thus, the manager should play the role of integrating cultural diversity in a workgroup to ensure all the functions of the organization are in harmony with the subordinate’s views (Cox, 1994). Training programs offer employees a chance to understand the role they play in an organization minimizing conflicts commonly associated with managing a heterogeneous group.

Access and Legitimacy

Unlocking the potential of a business or an organization requires communicating the organizational goals to all the members of the subordinate. Therefore, managing an international corporation requires giving every subordinate access to the information more so that relating to their field of operation (Cox, 1994). To control information shared within an organizational process; employees can be issued with different access codes limiting the information they retrieve.

Diversity Climate Factors

In a group, personal affiliations with people of different cultures affect the overall organizational behavior in a multinational corporation. Therefore, a manager in charge of such an organization should strive to understand how the subordinates relate to each other culturally before grouping them together to perform a certain task. This because employees define their values and principles based on their group affiliations. Most employees feel confident to work when coupled with subordinates they share a cultural background with since personal affiliations boost their self-esteem. Being a member of a certain tribe or race attracts several stereotypes that may irritate the subject of ridicule. For instance, a Black American would feel uncomfortable working with a white colleague because of the dark past between the two races (Kundu, July – December 2001). Muslims are falsely mistaken to be terrorists just because of their choice of religion. Other races seem to view them with suspicion thus weakening trust among subordinates. This eventually affects the overall performance of the group and may stall organizational processes due to differences in personal beliefs and affiliation.

Therefore, to rally such a group requires first understanding their personal relations in order maximize their output by utilizing their individual relationships. Personal affiliations are a key source of motivation that is cost-free to the organization. In this, the manager needs only to group the subordinates according to their personal affiliations to trigger personal motivation amongst the employees as they seek to impress their colleagues.

According to a research carried out by Ijzendoorn, a Dutch researcher in 2005 revealed that some persons affiliated to certain cultural groups suffer discrimination and prejudice for simply being members of the minority group. Authoritarian personalities present in dominant races seem less tolerant towards subordinates who are members of underrepresented minority groups (Guidroz, Kotrba, & Denison, 2009). This causes tension between how the two groups relate towards the chain of authority in an organization. For instance, the three major sources of prejudice namely communication proficiency, physical attractiveness, and legal issues such immigration affect relations among individuals in a multicultural group created to achieve a certain objective.

Irrespective of an employee’s educational status and academic achievements, physical attractiveness rooted in their DNA plays a major role when a manager is choosing the subordinates to work with. In addition, their communication attitude attributed to their upbringing and cultural backgrounds determines how an employee responds to others working in the same unit or group (Rao, 2006). In the current business world, English language is a prerequisite for every employee seeking to work for a multinational corporation. Thus, if someone is not proficient enough in the language they are viewed as not intelligent enough.

Stereotyping

In an organization, the root cause of power struggles is because of stereotyping among the subordinates. For example, hiring a woman as the senior manager in organization causes a status of rebellion among male compatriots. This role-playing struggle affects the flow of information throughout the organization’s management structure. Those against the proposed power-sharing status in the organization present hurdles aimed at discouraging all her managerial efforts and strategies.

Stereotypes that exist within a working organization may affect the establishment of productive relationships across the subordinate staff as people relate to different cultural identities differently. If the divide is too wide between the two groups involved in the power struggle, the manager should intervene to arrest the situation before it evolves into a managerial crisis that may halt vital organizational process (Appelbaum, 2002). Personal relationships among employees working for an international corporation determine the level of trust bonding them together to achieve the set goals and objectives efficiently.

Informal Integration

In an organization, informal groups define themselves along factors such as common language, ethnocentrism, and social similarities among the subordinates. These social networks play a very vital role in enabling efficient communications within an international corporation. Differences in races and cultural backgrounds determine the dominant social networking skills possessed by different employees (Ely & Thomas, June, 2001). Therefore, the senior manager of a Multinational Corporation should be accommodative enough to understand how well to communicate to each group of employees formed along certain social networking skills. People prefer to associate themselves more with those who share a common cultural background, as they feel closer to them due the common features they share culturally.

Multicultural Diversity and Management

The basic attitudes and values shared by individuals of a certain cultural group affect their response to managerial attitudes and ideologies. Moreover, since culture affects how people think and act, it can affect positively or negatively government-business relations (Lott, 2010). In some cultures or societies, a few top managers are charged with the responsibility of making important decisions related to the organizations they lead in complete disregard of the opinions expressed by the subordinate.

In a country such as Japan, employees relate more close to an organization’s management as compared to their American counterparts who do not care about the welfare of the organization they are working as long as they get their pay. This shows that if one has to manage an organization that is based in these two countries, they must be ready to vary their managerial strategies to suit the two situations (Lott, 2010). In communist and socialist economies, cooperation is encouraged among people while in Capitalist economies competition is seen as the only way to achieve success. Therefore, the type of eco-cultural ideologies embraced by a society determines the type of organizational strategies used to implement the company’s missions on a foreign territory.

Diversity Management

According to Hofstede, being the senior major of a multinational corporation requires understanding the different cultural divides that exist in a common work group. This is because an international corporation does business in different countries sourcing their human resource from the native population. This brings in the factor of cultural disparities as people relate differently to foreign authority. In some case, an international corporation doing business in a foreign territory may be seen as an extension of neo-colonialism especially in communist and nationalist societies. This presents barriers to effective communication hindering the flow of the necessary organization processes pivotal to the business as a separate entity (Bhattacharyya, 2010). A variety of opinions generated by cultural differences assist to improve the quality of decisions made as well as the emergence of unique behavioral styles of leadership. For decades, gender disparity affects the communication behaviors exhibited by individuals within a workgroup as they relate uniquely to each other based on their different cultural affiliation. Thus, it is crucial for a manager to create and develop workgroups that reflect gender balance based on cultural motivation to self-motivate the subordinates to remain loyal to their duties and responsibilities.

Predominantly male or female oriented workgroups suffer from intra-gender conflicts as competition for supremacy in the group disrupts communications within the entire organization. In male dominated, money and power are the main causes of conflict as each member of the group wants to be regarded as the most influential due to the great power and respect they command in the entire organization. Chauvinistic male senior managers tend to prey on women for sexual favors in exchange for work-related appointments that promise money and power to women victims (Kochan, Bezrukova, Ely, & Jackson, November, 2002). This stems from the way culture has conditioned men that a woman is barely a sexual object that can be bought at a cost. Due to the harsh economic conditions being experienced worldwide, women tend to give in to these temptations to gain financially even though they have to compromise their morals upheld by their cultures.

Influence on Group process and Group Outcomes

Positive communications links bonding the members of a workgroup together help to reduce conflicts as well as improve cooperation among the group members. Efficient problem-solving strategies coupled with concise communications links improve the overall performance of the workgroup. For a group of subordinates to achieve success in completing a task delegated to them by the senior manager, they must be willing to communicate ideas, collaborate as well as compromise their views and opinions to increase the overall performance of the group (Guidroz, Kotrba, & Denison, 2009). Therefore, the senior manager should give the group the freedom to be creative by allowing them to utilize their cultural affiliations to improve their daily outcome delivery frequency. Thus, effective communication skills sourced from employees sharing different cultural backgrounds reduce the degree of organization conflicts as well as establish positive influence on the overall workgroup outcomes.

Cultural and Gender Diversity and Group Outcomes

Multicultural diversity increases a groups critical thinking base as personal relations amongst the members of the group generate alternative viewpoints to an issue requiring consultations before a decision is made about the overall group process. This redefines the clarity of decisions of individual workgroups in an organization improving the overall organizational outcomes. If cultural diversities within an organization promote negative effects such as racism, tribalism, gender disparity and discrimination, then the ripple effect will cause a negative process outcome affecting other group processes such as communication (Bhattacharyya, 2010). Thus, the manager of such an organization should try to attain equitable balance between the effects of culture and gender diversity in order to focus the energy and resources of the entire workgroup towards achieving set goals and objectives. It is hard but with proper training and experience one can absorb cultural differences prominent in a group and promote unity and accountability within the organization.

Even though gender equity promotes balance and cohesion within a workgroup, empirical figures fail to support this phenomenon in a normal working place as men usually outweigh the number of female colleagues by far. This is because most cultures do not allow women to pursue their careers reducing their chances of entering the corporate level of business management (Ely & Thomas, October 2000). For instance, in countries such as Germany, France, UK, U.S, and Eastern European countries, good governance and leadership is viewed as the central keys pillars that support democracy and fairness within an organization. In an organization, the founders tend to determine the behavior of their subordinate leaders by ensuring they use management selection criterions that favor members of a certain culture as their preferred employees. Furthermore, the societal and cultural norms endorsed by the founders of an organization induce global leadership practices desired by the owners. In turn, the subordinate managers have the responsibility to enforce the norms throughout the organization.

Once the founders of the organization establish the initial organizational culture, subsequent leaders and their subordinates have a responsibility of upholding the practices irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. However, as the leadership of the organization is handed down to different generational leaders, dominant organizational cultures are usually altered to favor the dominant races or genders within the organization. This is usually unfair to the minority-underrepresented groups, as they have to tone down their cultural beliefs to accommodate the overall organizational cultural norms dominant in each workgroup they join (Moon, March 1997). Organizational contingencies force managers of international organization to adopt new leadership attributes aimed at fostering the desired communication behavior within the organization.

A Case Study on How Multicultural Diversity Affects International Corporations

Euro Disney Cultural Problems in France

According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension on power distance index, Euro Disney Park under the management of Ron miller failed to understand the acceptance levels of power and authority among the French population that they expected to be their customers. Since France has a high Power Distance Index of 69 out of 100 on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, it therefore means that the French population is more assertive to infringement on their individual privacy by the government or any powerful institution such as Euro Disney S.C.A (Keegan & Green, 2002). It was a failure by the management of Euro Disney to start requiring French citizens working for them and those visiting the park to speak in English at all meetings inside the park.

Trompenaars’ Research on Organizational Culture

According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension on Uncertainty Avoidance Index, France has a high score of 86/100. This means that the French population was not tolerant to trends of uncertainty and ambiguity that Euro Disney management were trying to introduce to the rigid French culture. Euro Disney management disregard for the French culture was the beginning of the company’s problems in its operations in France. In addition, they required all the employees working for them to maintain a strict Disney’s appearance code for members of staff. This appearance code for members of staff required every one working at Euro Disney to use no make-up, facial hair, tattoos nor any type of jewelry while working for the company.

Trompenaars’ research on organizational culture helps to explain the cultural differences between the United States and France by highlighting how the management of Euro Disney developed a pattern of assumptions that eventually led to its slow growth in Paris France. The Managers at Euro Disney made so many assumptions about how they expected the French population to accept their American culture. What they failed to understand is that the French citizens loved their personal space and individual rights protected by the French law and any attempt to infringe on was met with numerous lawsuits that destabilized the operations of the company (Keegan & Green, 2002). The most appropriate way that the company would have to gain popularity between the French population, would have been to embrace the French language and culture as proposed to them by the French government. This would have attracted even those natives of France who did not speak English fluently as they would be allowed to converse in French whist in the park.

Mistakes That the Company Made In Managing Euro Disneyland

The three major mistakes that the company made in managing Euro Disneyland are as follows. The first major mistake that the company made when they set ground in France was requiring English to be spoken at all meetings inside the park. Many throughout France criticized this ignorant stand on language (Goodman, 1999). One very vocal journalist wrote in a French paper Le Figaro that he wished with all his heart that the rebels would set Euro Disneyland on fire for the lack of respect for the indigenous French culture. Many protesters viewed this restriction on language use in the park as new age colonialism. It was not fair for the managing director of Euro Disneyland to restrict speaking in French in the park since it is the national language of France and his target market is the French population (Ely & Thomas, June, 2001). Some people refused to visit the park not because they were not interested but it was because they considered language restrictions in the park as a form of cultural imperialism that the Americans were trying to introduce to France.

Therefore, the company failed to attract the population it was targeting to capitalize on leading to the company making huge losses within its first year in operation. The second mistake that the company made was imposing dressing code regulations to all its employees. This regulation required all the employees of the company to limit their use of make-up, facial hair, tattoos and jewelry. The company did not take a proper dress code survey before they imposed this regulation (Keegan & Green, 2002). This is because if they did they would have learnt of the rich fashion culture that blooms in France and by imposing this regulation; they were insulting the fashion culture in France as a national heritage. The third major mistake that the company made in its operations in France was that they created small pathways like those in their main branch in California.

Conclusion

In summary, multicultural diversity affects the overall organizational culture that is dominant within workgroups comprising the organizational process. In addition, gender equity a key component of cultural relativity at work reduces conflicts within an organization improving the effectiveness of each organization process. In addition, personal affiliations with people of different cultures affect both positively and negatively the overall organizational behavior in a multinational corporation. Therefore, a manager in charge of such an organization should strive to understand how the subordinates relate to each other culturally before grouping them together to perform a certain task. Lastly, members in a heterogeneous group consisting of employees sourced from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to generate diverse ideas that can help streamline organizational strategies. This in turn provides an opportunity for the manager to improve on the quality of decisions made by incorporating ideas sourced from different employees.

References

Appelbaum, M. P. (2002). Multicultural and diversity education: a reference handbook. Honolulu: ABC-CLIO.

Bhattacharyya. (2010). Cross-Cultural Management: Text And Cases. New York: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Cox, T. (1994). Cultural diversity in organizations: theory, research, & practice. Manhattan: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Ely, J. R., & Thomas, A. D. (June, 2001). Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes. Administrative Science Quarterly , 46 (3), 229-273.

Ely, J. R., & Thomas, A. D. (October 2000). Cultural Diversity At Work: The Moderating Effects Of Work Group Perspectives On Diversity. Simmons School of Management , 44 (2), 1-54.

Guidroz, M. A., Kotrba, M. L., & Denison, R. D. (2009). Workplace Diversity: Is National or Organizational Culture Predominant? Organizational Behavior Journal , 2 (2), 25-45.

House, J. R., Hanges, J. P., Ruiz-Quintanilla, A. S., Dorfman, W. P., & Javidan, M. (2010). Cultural Influences On Leadership And Organizations:Project Globe. Australian Management Journal , 4 (1), 1-93.

Keegan, J. W., & Green, C. M. (2002). Global marketing management. London: Prentice Hall.

Kochan, T., Bezrukova, K., Ely, R., & Jackson, S. (November, 2002). The Effects of Diversity on Business Performance: Report of the Diversity Research Network. Cambridge Business Journal , 4 (2), 1-37.

Kundu, C. S. (July – December 2001). Managing Cross-Cultural Diversity A Challenge For Present And Future Organizations. Delhi Business Review , 2 (2), 1-8.

Lott, E. B. (2010). Multiculturalism and diversity: a social psychological perspective. London: John Wiley and Sons.

Moon, M. M. (March 1997). Understanding The Impact Of Cultural Diversity On Organizations. Harvard Business Journal , 97 (3), 1-37.

Rao, P. C. (2006). Marketing and multicultural diversity. Colorado: Ashgate Publishing.

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Health and Safety

A work environment that has a poor health management system has a tendency to encounter consequences for the individual, association and the group on the loose. In a health care system, impacts of ailment and harm have been secured and they extend from little problems to big outcomes. The impacts incorporate suffering; sickness, harm, pain and demise; mental damage; money related issues; low spirit; lessened productivity; poor profit; group expenses; and poor corporate image. Most associations are confronted with the test of guaranteeing that their representatives lead a strong and anxiety free way of life. Specialists ought not get sick or harmed, and on the off chance that it happens, associations ought to put set up procurement that aid them to come back to wellness.

Survey of policies and strategies

For the health and security enactment to be powerful, there must be successful routes through which the strategies, frameworks, techniques are actualized. First and foremost, the approaches should by ready to follow the structures and courses of action of the social insurance organization. Agreeability can be attained through an arrangement of the accompanying steps:

Care planning

There are a few means through which an association can execute its safety approaches. Care planning guarantees that there is a successful procedure put set up to actualize the security arrangements. An association can meet this necessity through augmenting the well being of workers, helping by improving security, and actualizing the standards of great practice and security.

Difficulties

Effective correspondence of health and safety in the work environment is generally confronted with a wide mixture of problems and difficulties. In any case, there are different components that ought to be considered to guarantee that the whole process is successful. These prerequisites incorporate risk profit investigation, individual hazard and danger to different people, ramifications of asset utilization, and diverse needs of stakeholders, either outer or internal.

Own practice

When it comes to conveying and executing health and security methods, systems have a tendency to fluctuate starting with one association then onto the next. Own practice and methodology can be arranged into individual needs, obligations, changes in practice, professionalism and relations in the middle of workers and the customers or patients. There are different approaches, techniques and frameworks that can be used to guarantee that the association comprehends and imparts health and security in the working environment. These frameworks can be ordered in four different gatherings.

Health and Safety Act 1974

The Health and Safety Act 1974 (additionally alluded to as HSWA, the HSW Act, the 1974 Act or HASAWA) is the essential bit of enactment covering word related health and safety in Great Britain. It is an Act to make further procurement for securing the health, security and welfare of people at work, for ensuring others against dangers to health or wellbeing regarding the activities of people at work, for controlling the keeping and utilize and keeping the unlawful obtaining, ownership and utilization of risky substances, and for controlling certain emanations into the environment; to make further procurement concerning the business medicinal warning administration; to revise the law identifying with building regulations, and the Building (Scotland) Act 1959; and for joined purposes.

Execution of health and safety legislation

Risks

All ideas of health, danger and security ought to be unmistakably enunciated. The dangers can be classified into the accompanying gatherings: zero risks, least risk, property dangers, individual dangers; mischance anticipation, danger restriction, emergency treatment; security versus health, insurance from loss; and practices, substances and equipment premises.

Legislative prerequisites

The association recognizes the laws passed concerning health and security and methods for actualizing them. There are Health and Safety at Work Acts and also codes of practice and related regulations. Others incorporate Food Acts and those particular to health and social care, for example, Mental Health Acts.

Communication

Great communication skills are key for you as a director to pass on data, to give training and feedback, to increase understanding, to rectify mistakes or perilous conduct, and to organize with different divisions, ventures and gatherings. Communication can be written, verbal, visual, or through non-verbal communication, by exhibiting, or essentially by showing others how it’s done. Perceive diverse learning styles and pick your specialized tool in like manner (Duggan, 1998).

Used for strategies, guidelines, SOPs etc. Simple to convey and this can be posted with reader, but needs writing proficiency and is hard to keep up and overhaul.

Verbal: Used for one-on-one, group gatherings, telephone and so forth. This style is common, simple to do, and gives an individual touch. This methodology can prompt perplexity and inconsistencies.

Visual: This style generally uses pictures/design/features in training. This style requires significant investment to plan.

Demonstration: This style ranges for certain learning. This style can overcome challenges, yet is lengthy, obliges a skilled mentor, and can be troublesome in loud situations. Perceive that everybody learns in an unexpected way. In this manner, powerful correspondence frequently obliges a combination of distinctive styles. At last, you should dependably check laborers’ acceptable comprehension of the thought or idea you were attempting to convey.

Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals Regulations) 1996

The Regulations spread different method for conveying health and safety data. These incorporate the utilization of illuminated signs, hand and acoustic signs, e.g. fire alerts, talked correspondence and the stamping of channel work containing unsafe substances. These are notwithstanding conventional signboards, for example, denial and cautioning signs (Reason, 2001). Fire security signs, i.e. signs for flame passageways and fire-fighting equipment are additionally secured. They oblige employers to give particular security signs at whatever point there is a hazard that has not been dodged or controlled by different means, e.g. designing controls and safe frameworks of work. Where a security sign would not assist to decrease that hazard, or where the danger is not critical, there is no compelling reason to give a sign. The regulations, where important, oblige the utilization of street movement signs inside working environments to manage street activity furthermore oblige businesses to keep up the health signs which are given by them, clarify new signs to their workers and let them know what they have to do when they see a security sign. The Regulations apply to all spots and exercises where individuals are utilized, however prohibit signs and names utilized within association with the supply of substances, items and gear or the vehicle of perilous merchandise.

Responsibility

A responsibility or commitment to attractively perform or complete an assignment (allocated by somebody, or made by one guarantee or circumstances) that one must satisfy, and which has an ensuing failure for risk.

Employer

As an employer, it is your obligation to keep up a protected and healthy work environment. A security and health administration framework, or health system, can help you center your deliberations at enhancing your work environment.

Manager

Don’t imagine it any other way, overseeing corporate risk is a key issue for all executives and senior administrators to address. There is much to say in regards to this subject and the accompanying is simply a synopsis of a percentage of the fundamental focuses included.

It may well be worth recalling that the compelling administration of health and dangers increases the value of the business by expanding the prosperity and benefit of representatives consequently serving to avoid ailment and harm. This perpetually has long haul and positive impact on turnover and benefit. What’s more specialist contribution in wellbeing & security underpins a positive wellbeing and health society (Sackett, 1979).

Directors Responsibilities

The rule sets out four center obligations regarding executives in their health and security administration part: strategy and arranging; convey; screen; and surveys. This can also be followed in the case study. Under each of these headings, the rule sets out a discourse of every obligation; an arrangement of inquiries to be utilized by chiefs as an apparatus to figure out if the association’s practices are proper; and a rundown of chief activities. The activities for chiefs are isolated into two classifications – benchmark activities and prescribed practice. The rule additionally sets out obligations of directors. The following is a review of the general obligations regarding directors as set out in the rule.

Approach and planning

To focus the board’s sanction and structure for heading health and security.
To focus abnormal state health and security procedure and arrangement, including giving an announcement of vision, convictions and strategy showing the board’s dedication to, and convictions about the administration of health and well being.
To consider administration responsible for executing procedure.
To point out focuses on that will empower them to track the association’s execution in executing board procedure and arrangement.
To deal with the health and security execution of the CEO, including determining desires and giving criticism.

Convey

To set out a reasonable desire for the association to have a fit-for-reason health and security administration framework.

To practice due persistence to guarantee that the framework is fit-for-reason for existing, being adequately actualized, consistently evaluated and constantly made strides. To be sufficiently educated about the nonexclusive prerequisites for a present day, ‘best practice’ health and security administration framework and about their association and its risks to know whether its framework is fit-for-reason, and being viably actualized. To guarantee sufficient assets are accessible for the improvement, usage and support of the framework (Lewis, 1997).

Screen

To screen the health and security execution of the association.
To layout clear desires on what ought to be accounted to leave and in what timelines.
To audit reports to figure out if intercession is obliged to accomplish, or support hierarchical enhancements.
To make them acquainted with procedures, for example, review, hazard appraisal, occurrence examination, sufficient to empower them to legitimately assess the data before them.
To look for autonomous master exhortation when needed to increase the obliged level of confirmation.

Survey

To guarantee the board leads an occasional (e.g. yearly) formal audit of health and security to focus the viability of the framework and whether any progressions are needed. To guarantee the board considers whether an outside survey is needed for a free presumption.

Role of Health and Safety Commission and HSE

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are the two agencies responsible for health and safety in Great Britain. The merger is a sensible proposal however the move could prompt a tremendous loss of accomplished HSE staff that are unwilling to migrate. The first authoritative system administering work environment health and security is proportionate however bosses can be over-careful in their elucidation of its procurements, expanding the agreeability trouble on themselves. Over-fanatical wellbeing and security “specialists” help this issue and the report requires an arrangement of accreditation of advisors and guides.

Different conclusions and suggestions include

HSE plans to meet a 60:40 proportion of proactive and sensitive work, yet organizations are just prone to have a HSE investigation recently once like clockwork and mischance examinations are, no doubt scaled back. Current levels of fines for health and security offenses are excessively low and don’t give a sufficient hindrance to guarantee obligation holders conform to their commitments. There is increment in the quantity of fatalities in the development business, the seaward oil industry’s disappointment to reach its significant danger sub targets, and wellbeing and dangers to vagrant specialists are key territories of sympathy toward HSE. HSE is attempting to adapt to its word related health transmit. It confesses to basing its word related health plan on a fragmented information source and is neglecting to reach its word related sick health targets. HSE needs to focus on its center transmit and measures to broaden its obligations into different zones puts an intemperate strain on its assets and dangers occupying its centering.

All associations utilizing five or more individuals must have a composed Health and Safety Policy explanation (Sackett, 1979). The approach ought to cover all parts of the association and be significant to all workers. A Health and Safety Policy shows how genuinely an association takes its wellbeing and security obligations. A decent strategy will demonstrate how the association ensures the individuals who could be influenced by its exercises. The arrangement ought to be of a suitable length and significance to the exercises and size of the association. Legitimate obligations and commitments around Health and Safety Policies

Act 1974 The Act says that you must set up your announcement and bring it to the consideration of all workers. The approach ought to be checked on and modified as regularly as essential. Legitimately, the approach just obliges you to address the wellbeing and security matters identifying with workers, however in numerous associations, it is a decent thought to have an arrangement that considers the security of other people who may be influenced by your exercises, i.e. volunteers, builders and the overall population. With or without a composed approach, all superintendents have an obligation of forethought to secure their representatives and others from mischief emerging from work exercises.

Medical Service

Environmental Health is the estimation, assessment and control of components inside our surroundings that have an impact on the health and prosperity of people in general. Word related Health is that part of Environmental Health, which frets about the association between the working environment and the soundness of the specialist. The Common Law’s commitment of Duty of Care is pertinent to everybody to guarantee that the conclusion of one’s activities or communications does not influence others adversely. Individuals have the right to expect and guarantee that there is a satisfactory level of control over those natural elements that influence their state of well being. Parts of a group ought to have the right to drink safe water, to inhale safe air, to consume safe nourishment, to live in sheltered asylum, to have a safe work environment in which to win a wage, and a safe group in which to live. Statutory Authorities have a legitimate and tying obligation to control those components representing an unsuitable danger to the group.

Hospitals are vast, authoritatively intricate, framework driven foundations utilizing expansive quantities of specialists from diverse expert streams. They are likewise conceivably unsafe working environments and open their laborers to an extensive variety of physical, synthetic, organic, ergonomically and mental perils (Smith, 1985). Clinics likewise assume an essential part in group assurance through more extensive Public Health issues including damage and disease avoidance, health reconnaissance and illness notice, and debacle administration. Furthermore, well beyond their center business of intense human services for inpatients, clinics are likewise concerned for the security and insurance of those inpatients regarding nonsocial disease control, clearing arrangements for inner crises, and sustenance planning and taking care of by the clinic kitchen. At last, healing facilities are likewise concerned with environment assurance through their waste administration procedure, and specifically, the accumulation and transfer of tainted waste.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment is the place the seriousness of the Hazard and its potential conclusions are considered in conjunction with different variables including the level of presentation and the quantities of persons uncovered and the danger of that peril being figured it out. There are various diverse formula used to ascertain the general danger from fundamental figuring utilizing high, medium and low classifications to convoluted calculations to figure dangers at Nuclear force stations and other high hazard work areas.

As a feature of dealing with the well being and security of your business you must control the dangers in your work environment. To do this you have to contemplate what may cause damage to individuals and choose whether you are making sensible moves to keep that mischief. In the event that you have less than five workers you don’t need to record anything. A danger appraisal is not about making immense measures of paperwork, but instead about distinguishing sensible measures to control the dangers in your working environment. You are most likely officially making moves to secure your workers, however your danger evaluation will help you choose whether you have secured everything you need to. Contemplate how mischances and sick health could happen and focus on true dangers – those that are no doubt and which will result in the most damage. For a few dangers, different regulations oblige specific control measures. Your appraisal can help you distinguish where you have to take a gander at specific dangers and these specific control measures in more detail. These control measures don’t need to be evaluated independently however can be considered as a major aspect of, or an augmentation of, your general danger appraisal.

Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

You have to follow the risk evaluation prerequisites set out in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the prerequisite in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as changed) (MHOR) to do a danger appraisal on manual taking care of assignments.

The MHOR Regulations

The business’ obligation is to stay away from Manual handling the extent that sensibly practicable if there is a plausibility of damage. If this isn’t possible then they must lessen the danger of harm the extent that sensibly practicable. In the event that a worker is whining of inconvenience, any progressions to work to stay away from or decrease manual taking care of must be checked to check they are having a positive impact. Then again, in the event that they are not meeting expectations acceptably, choices must be considered.

The regulations set out a progression of measures to diminish the dangers of manual handling:

evade unsafe manual taking care of operations so far as sensibly practicable; survey any unsafe manual taking care of operations that can’t be kept away from; or diminish the danger of damage so far as sensibly practicable.

Workers have general health and security obligations to: take after suitable frameworks of work set down for their security make fitting utilization of supplies accommodated their security co-work with their superintendent on health and security matters educate the boss in the event that they distinguish unsafe taking care of exercises fare thee well to guarantee that their exercises don’t put others at danger

Ethical Dilemma

A moral situation is a complex circumstance that frequently includes an obvious mental clash between good objectives, in which to comply with one would bring about transgressing an alternate. Great talks on morals are regularly determined by circumstances that test our capacities to focus the correct thing to do, do successful moral activity, or lay out a powerful system for evading moral deterrents later on. Given that conceivable outcomes for moral clash exist in many fields, this area gives connections to destinations particularly equipped towards furnishing you with materials significant to your field.at first look, this moral quandary is decently clear: It is an ill-use of your manager to lead private concern on organization time. Be that as it may there are shades of light black here. Suppose it is possible that your companion calls to let you know that your kids are sick. Is it accurate to say that it is OK for you to calendar a medical checkup? A decent dependable guideline is for a worker to check with his supervisor or human assets chiefs to clear up what include as a significant offense the organization (Horne, 1997).

Non compliance

Non-compliance is a significant, extravagant, immovable issue in healthcare which can prompt wretchedness and mischief. I have contended that the hypotheses of the reasons for human slip in associations could give an influential explanatory model of resistance. On the off chance that my contention is underpinned by experimental examination, then it would prompt distinctive methodologies to diminishing rebelliousness improvement of hypothesis.

References

Meichenbaum D, Turk DC. Facilitating treatment adherence: a practitioner’s handbook. New York: Plenum Press, 1987.

Sackett DL, Snow JC. The magnitude of compliance and non-compliance. In: Haynes RB, Taylor WD, Sackett DL, eds. Compliance in health care. Baltimore, London: The John Hopkins University Press,1979: 11–22.

Smith M. The cost of non-compliance and the capacity of improved compliance to reduce health care expenditures. In: Improving medication compliance. Proceedings of a Symposium held in Washington DC, November 1984. Reston, Virginia: National Pharmaceutical Council, 1985: 35–44.

Department of Health and Human Services. Prescription drug products: patient pack insert requirements. Fed Register 1980; 45:60754–817.

Lewis A. Non-compliance: a $100bn problem. Remington Report1997;5:14–5.

American Society of Hospital Pharmacists. ASHP guidelines on preventing medication errors in hospitals. Am J Hosp Pharm1993;50:305–14.

Haynes RB. Introduction. In: Haynes RB, Taylor WD, Sackett DL, eds. Compliance in health care. Baltimore, London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1979.

Gordis L. Methodologic issues in the measurement of patient compliance. In: Sackett DL, Haynes RB, eds. Compliance with therapeutic regimens. Baltimore, London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1976:51–66.

Stimson GV. Obeying doctor’s orders: a view from the other side. SocSci Med 1974;8:97–104.

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain / Merck Sharpe and Dohme. From compliance to concordance. Achieving shared goals in medicine taking. 1997

Haynes RB. Strategies for improving compliance: a methodological analysis and review. In: Sackett DL, Haynes RB, eds. Compliance with therapeutic regimens. Baltimore, London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1976: 51–66.

Horne R, Weinman J. Predicting treatment adherence: an overview of theoretical models. In: Myers LB, Midence K, eds. Adherence to treatment in medical conditions. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers,1998: 25–50.

Haynes RB, Montague P, Oliver T, et al. Interventions for helping patients to follow prescriptions for medication (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library. Issue 4. Oxford: Update Publications, 2001.

Reason JT. Human error. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1990.

Reason JT. Understanding adverse events: the human factor. In: Vincent C, ed. Clinical risk management. Enhancing patient safety. London: BMJ Books, 2001: 9–30

Horne R. Representations of medication and treatment: advances in theory and measurement. In: Petrie KJ, Weinman JA, eds. Perceptions of health and illness. Current research and applications. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997: 161.

Barry CA, Stevenson FA, Britten N, et al. Giving voice to the lifeworld. More humane, more effective medical care? A qualitative study of doctor-patient communication in general practice. Soc Sci Med2001;53:487–505.

Department of Health. Pharmacy in the future: implementing the NHS plan. London: Department of Health, 2000.

Duggan C, Feldman R, Hough J, et al. Reducing adverse prescribing discrepancies following hospital discharge. Int J Pharmacy Practice1998; 6:77–82.

Health and Safety Executive. The costs of accidents at work. HS(G)96. London: Health and Safety Executive, 1997.

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Organizational Behavior

Analyzing Organizational Behavior

Understanding individual behavior is challenging. This makes analyzing organizational behavior complicated because large organizations have many people working individually and collectively to achieve organizational goals. Organizations are naturally complex to analyze because they comprise of different individuals and groups. Models provide the best solution to analyzing organizations. They are roadmaps to organizational behavior with regard to identifying critical factors and their relationships. It is why this research paper will utilize Nadler and Tushman’s Model to analyze an organization. This research paper contains an analysis of Walmart using Nadler and Tushman’s congruence model to identify key components, desired outputs, and issues that need addressing in the organization’s strategy.

Walmart is the largest retail store in the world operating over 11,000 retail units and employing over 2.2 million associates (Walmart, 2014). Its large nature makes it complex to manage. This is because the management has to understand the behavioral patterns of millions of people and multiple groups, including relationships that exist among them. Walmart is among the leading global companies generating high revenues consistently over the years as evident from their second and first ranking in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012 and 2014 respectively (Walmart, 2014). The organization has achieved remarkable success in the last decade largely due to successful implementation of organizational strategy. Walmart’s success generally results from the management understanding the complex organizational behavior patterns and implementing strategies to control critical components of the organization according to Nadler and Tushman’s model. Below is a detailed analysis of Walmart’s strategy based on key components of environment, strategy, tasks, formal system, and key individuals (Walmart).

Nadler and Tushman’s Congruence Model

Analyzing Walmart using Nadler and Tushman’s Congruence Model requires categorizing organizational strategy into inputs, transformation process, and outputs. The model describes interdependence as the most critical property of organizational functioning and the same case applies to Walmart. The founder, Sam Walton, laid the foundation of Walmart based on the congruence of critical inputs, transformation processes, and major outputs when he opened the first Walmart store in 1962 (Walmart, 2014). He managed to balance the three critical components enabling his store to perform within its potential. The effectiveness of the Congruence Model of organizational behavior was evident five years after Walton opened the first Walmart store, because the business had expanded to twenty-four stores. This eventually led to official incorporation of the current Walmart Stores, Inc in 1969. Understanding Walmart’s success based on Nadler and Tushman’s Model requires further breakdown of the inputs, transformation process, and outputs as provided below.

One of the key inputs Walmart deals with on a daily basis is the environment. The retail industry is unforgiving with regard to demands by the environment and possible constraints on organizational functioning. Walmart and other retail organizations must contend with an ever-changing environment where the market demand for goods and services is high. They also face the challenge of balancing quantity and quality, which directly affects organizational functioning. Nadler and Tushman’s Congruency Model identifies environment as the first key input and consider it key to organizational functioning. Based on the Congruency Model, the key components of environment in the case of Walmart include their customers, suppliers, investors, government, and regulatory bodies, competitors, community, and global responsibilities among other groups (David Nadler and Michael Tushman).

The market is the most important key component of Walmart’s environment because their primary goal is to provide goods and services to clients in their retail stores. The entire company revolves around the customer as evident from Sam Walton’s mission to save people money so they can live better (Walmart, 2014). Suppliers are another key component of Walmart’s environment for they enable the organization to serve their customers. Walmart has thousands of suppliers globally who they enlist through application based on fulfillment of requirement standards. Walmart needs many suppliers because of the global demand for their products in local and global retail stores. Inevitably, they also put constraints on Walmart’s organizational action (Walmart).

Competition is another category of key environment components Walmart deals with. The organization may be large but it still faces stiff competition from other retail companies, such as Argos. Competition is normal especially in the highly competitive retail industry and it directly affects Walmart’s organizational action and marketing strategies. Increased competition over the years is also responsible for decisions and norms implemented by Walmart to gain competitive advantage over rivals. Investors are an equally important key environmental component considering they provide the necessary resources for Walmart. Resources are a key input in Nadler and Tushman’s Congruency Model thus making investors integral to Walmart’s organizational action. Satisfying investors is equally as important as satisfying customers. They affect Walmart directly through financial input, thus satisfy the critical feature for analysis in the Congruency Model (David Nadler and Michael Tushman).

Government and regulatory bodies are important environment components that put constraints on Walmart’s organizational action. This comes from the nature of the retail industry where safety and quality of products sold in retail stores is critical. Walmart is also a global company operating in 27 countries. This means the company has to deal with different government policies and regulations, which complicates managing organization behavior. It also operates in a modern world where organizations must fulfill their global responsibilities with regard to environmental protection and preservation. Such issues place a greater demand on Walmart and put constraints on their actions.

Generally, the inputs discussed in this paper exist outside Walmart but affect it directly. They are critical features for analyzing the organization and determining the demands and constraints environment has on Walmart. They also influence the strategy Walmart adopts and implements to overcome its constraints. Strategy is an input but it is different from others for it acts as a transition to the transformative process. The Nadler and Tushman’s Model considers strategy the most important component in organizations for it determines organizational output. Analysis of Walmart shows it has adopted key strategies to deal with key environmental components it faces as follows (David Nadler and Michael Tushman).

The first strategy in the Nadler and Tushman’s Model is defining the core mission of the organization. Walmart’s core mission is to save people money and improve their lives as is defined in their mission statement “We save people money so they can live better” (Walmart, 2014). It is the same mission Sam Walton had when opening the first Walmart store in 1962 and is still their mission up to the present day. This strategy ensures the organization reaches and positively influences a greater market than their competition. Walmart aims to achieve it through innovative thinking and leading through service to ensure they achieve their outputs (Walmart).

Walmart employs the vision of strategic globalization to enable their customers save money and enhance their lives worldwide. Competing at a global level is also a smart business strategy in terms of overcoming the constraints of competition and enhancing business growth. The company aims to become the largest global retailer by focusing on strategies and actions that increase future business success. Supporting strategies it adopts in a bid to achieve their mission include additional global expansion to access a wider market and promoting ownership of ethical culture among stakeholders through diversification programs. Walmart employs its strategies based on three core values of respect for individuals, striving for excellence and serving one’s customers (Walmart).

Generally, Walmart’s strategies focus on continuous learning and improvement as evident in their core statement “High Expectations Are Key To Everything” (H.E.A.T.K.T.E.) (Walmart, 2014). Nadler and Tushma’s Congruency Model defines strategies as determinants of tasks and the same applies to Walmart. Tasks are part of the transformation process. Walmart gears theirs towards helping customers, employees and stakeholders make right decisions in a bid to improve the reputation of the organization and ultimately gain a competitive edge in the global market (Walmart).

One of the tasks at Walmart is implementing a servant leadership policy that requires managers to be part of the team. The organization also gives its employees access to leadership at every management level, which ensures effective communication within the organization. Walmart employs employee-customer policies. They include the sundown rule of answering customer and employee queries within 24 hours and the 10-feet rule that requires employees to greet customers within ten feet of them (Walmart, 2014). Walmart is keen on interdependence and creating synergy among employees as evident in their servant leadership policy. Continuousness and reward are also crucial factors in the task component of the Congruency Model as reflected in Walmart, where employees are associates in profit sharing. Tasks at Walmart are collective and individual- based to ensure successful implementation of organizational strategies mostly through informal organization, such as their unwritten rule culture.

Any transformation process requires a formal system and individuals to perform tasks (Nadler and Tushman, 41). Walmart is no exception as it has a formal leadership structure with key individuals holding key positions. The Board of Directors is the top Leadership body at Walmart with Rob Walton playing the chairperson role (Walmart, 2014). The company has a hierarchical leadership structure starting with the president (Mike Duke) all the way to store managers at the bottom. Rob Walton adopts a servitude style of leadership that involves making decisions based on input and feedback of customers as opposed to employees or stakeholders. This leadership style creates a work environment oriented towards servitude as leaders lead by example. Such leadership transformed Walmart from a large retailer to a global business force (Davide Ravasi and Majken Schultz).

The transformation process at Walmart aims at achieving their desired output of saving their customers money and enable them live better lives. This output has mutual benefits for customers and Walmart in terms of getting value for their money, while simultaneously building Walmart’s reputation as a global force. The output at the organizational level is global expansion by reaching a wider market to guarantee sustainability. Walmart aims to achieve this goal despite the constraints of environment and other input factors, such as resources and unpredictability of the global economy. The desired output at group level is receiving quality service at cheaper cost for customers, discovering and enhancing work skills for employees, and sharing profits through return on investment for investors and stakeholders globally (Walmart).

Walmarts achieves its desired outputs judging by current and past statistics. It is the top ranked retail company globally. This is evidence of the organization achieving its desired output of global dominance over competitors. Walmart is also achieving desired outcomes at group level considering it made approximately $473 billion in sales in 2014 (Walmart, 2014). This means that management, stakeholders, employees and other groups within the organization achieved their goal of successfully implementing organizational strategies. Walmart also achieves individual level outputs with regard to employee satisfaction through promotions and bonuses. Organizational growth also means that investors gain leverage and returns while higher sales make resource utilization more efficient. Overall, Walmart has achieved and surpassed its desired outcomes (Walmart).

Nadler and Tushman’s Congruency Model describes strategy as the response to organizational inputs and constraints. The analysis of Walmart shows its strategy is in line with their environmental inputs. This is because the transformation process aligns with Walmart’s strategy of positively influencing a greater market than their competition by providing easy access to affordable goods and services. The transformation process also aligns well with the globalization strategy and striving for excellence in serving customers. For instance, the key tasks at Walmart focus on synergy, and implementing and promoting an ethical culture in the organization. Embracing culture and diversity is one of the major forces behind growth of the informal organization at Walmart. Team synergy grows because managers and employees at Walmart interact and strive for excellence in continuous improvement and learning. The interaction between key tasks and informal organization thus helps in producing desired output (Davide Ravasi and Majken Schultz).

The formal organization, chaired by Rob Walton, is largely responsible for the interaction between transformation processes. Rob transformed Walmart from a regional retailer to a global organization through his servitude leadership style. He combines this style with a visionary leadership style, initially adopted by his late father Sam Walton. The interaction between Rob’s servitude and visionary style aligns Walmart’s strategy with its transformative process perfectly and vice versa. Rob uses his visionary style to manage resources effectively by cutting labor and supply costs. He then uses the informal organization of shared responsibilities to implement organizational strategy efficiently by involving employees in decision-making. The interactions between the transformation processes at Walmart thus originate from its formal leadership. This is because it enforces the key tasks of service to customers, respect for individuals and striving for excellence that nurtured the existing informal organization responsible for producing outputs (Davide Ravasi and Majken Schultz).

Evaluating the outputs at organizational, group and individual levels reveals there might be issues that Walmart needs to address. The main concern regards individual outputs considering employees contribute the largest yet organization and group outputs are higher. This is normally the case in most organizations where the organizations and stakeholders benefit the most while employees receive meager or no share of profits in some cases. Walmart promises outputs for individuals, such as job satisfaction, favorable working conditions, and profit shares yet there are many complaints from disgruntled employees. The legitimacy of many individual complaints is difficult to verify but Walmart should address multiple complaints of understaffing and poor working conditions in some stores. The fact that Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates globally is a possible source of issues regarding employee satisfaction and rewarding mechanism. Walmart has a solid organizational framework. This is why it should address emerging issues on individual outputs to ensure collective growth and development at organizational, group and individual level.
There is overwhelming information on how Walmart works but there is little data on how it deals with competitors. It would be important for this analysis to learn the relationships between Walmart and other competitors in the market but unfortunately, no available resources provide credible information for this analysis. It requires one to get the information from Walmart, which is logistically improbable. However, critical information for this analysis was available from various electronic resources and was utilized in the research.

Overall, analyzing Walmart using Nadler and Tushman’s Congruence Model shows its former and current leaders adopted effective strategy to configure existing resources to overcome the constraints of key environment components. A combination of effective leadership and informal organization culture based on servitude and continuous improvement turned a regional company into the biggest global retail company. Walmart’s success results from Sam and Rob Walton, understanding key components of the environment and aligning them with visionary strategy. The interaction of their leadership styles, specific tasks, and a revolutionary informal organization that ultimately led Walmart to achieve it outputs at organizational, group and individual level, thus giving rise to the empire it is now.

References

David,Nadler and Michael, Tushman. Frameworks for Organizational Behavior. A model for diagnosing organizational behavior: Applying congruence perspective. Managing Organizations: Readings and Cases, pp. 3-48.

Davide, Ravasi and Majken, Schultz. Responding to Organizational Identity Threats: Exploring the Role of Organizational Culture, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 49 (3), pp. 433-458.

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E-Business

E-Business is a term used to define a business or mode of operations that have their existence on the internet or which conducts it operational tasks electronically. E-business is the ability to provide products/services on a secure domain with low costs, which allow hundreds of people to be looking at them and it also helps to make up to date changes on a regular basis. In its simplest form E-business can be taken as providing service and ease with satisfaction with the use of technology.

Ethics is a part of the study of psychology, which shows what is right and wrong, what acceptable behavior is abiding by the law, business ethics too involve such measures that needs to be taken care of in relation to communicating or dealing with other people whom being a stockholder, stakeholder or a shareholder may have influence over your business (Gauer.2000). E-business do have ethical rules associated with it, as in this case the targeted number of people is much larger and their privacy and content should be given preference while dealing.

The ethical/legal issues involve in an E-business can be of different types and genres. The internet was once taken as the source only to search for some important information, but with a gradual update of time it is getting more commercialized, now it’s seen most of the trading is done through the internet even banking has been made online, this is done not only to provide ease but it is also considered as the cheapest and fastest service to cater the needs. But E-business does not come alone without having any constraints, these issues might be considered as normal, but they do have serious impacts on the sources (Gehling and stankard, 2005).

Ethical and legal Issues

The issues involve can be:

Web spoofing

It refers to the technique used over the internet where attackers form a fake website, made on the same criteria and setup as the original one and demands from customers to give their credit card numbers and other personal information that then can be used in any of the disruptive activity which they will not be aware of.

Cyber squatting

This technique involves when a domain name of a well known business or organization is purchased, registered or used illegally for the purpose of infringement of its trademarks. This is done to wring payments from the original owners of the trademark. This is a source of manipulation done by the hackers to demand high payments for getting back the domain; otherwise their trademarks will be distorted.

Privacy invasion

This issue is mainly related to consumers, when their personal information is leaked out and used for unauthorized purpose. This involves getting personal information of consumers using different web technologies. The information provided can be used by anyone other than in authority. The malicious programs that run silently on web pages can reveal the personal data of consumers.

Email spamming

It is also referred to as unsolicited commercial email. This is done by spammers as they send fake emails representing an authorized name and get access to the personal data of the customers as if by mean of asking this for promotional purposes or other related activities.

These ethical/legal issues of E-business can be associated with hacking as becoming a serious issue with ever growing responsiveness for the online operations of the business.

Hacking is a major cyber crime, it refers to when a person or a chunk of people get access to the data with unauthorized measures and uses it for the purposes of infringement of information and dispossession of online operations a business.

The recent incident of hacking has been reported which discusses the ethical/legal issues of this activity and its effects on consumers, the further part of this paper will elaborate as how this intrusion could have been prevented and what measure could have been taken.

Recent Incidents

Sony Pictures and PlayStation 3.0 Hacking

Sony PlayStation accounts – about 1 million were hacked by hacker George Hotz. Sony took legal action against him and in retaliation, the group Lulzsec headed by founder Sabu hacked into Sony Pictures accounts. Data including user names, their passwords, addresses and email ids were stolen. Sabu ultimately pleaded guilty, turned an FBI informant and helped arrest 5 more member hackers (Caldwell, 2011).

Discuss the ethical & legal issues involved in a recent hacking case

The ethical/legal issues that we have discussed earlier can be identified with respect to this incident because this incident is related to the intrusion in accounts of consumers where they have stored their personal information and other data that can be used for unauthorized purposes.

Web spoofing can be related to this incident that the hackers from attacking the accounts of consumers have authority over their passwords and user names, what they can do is, by making a fake website they can add up all those accounts to it without knowing the customer about it and then these accounts can be used for infringement purposes. These acts will not only affect the reputation of Sony but also the trust built and the relationship between customers and the company may be distorted.

This act of web spoofing can lead to cyber squatting by the attackers as by making a fake site they are using the domain name of Sony or they have purchased or made illegal use of the name for unauthorized purposes, they can either use the domain as infringement of information as per to the operations of Sony, or they can push up several measures that will destroy the reputation of Sony in the market and in the eyes of its present and potential customers, the attackers may demand for huge amounts of money if Sony wants to prevent destruction of its reputation and operations in the market.

The other issue is about privacy invasion which has been done in this case by violating the rules and leaking the personal information of the customers by hacking their accounts and getting access to their user names and passwords. The intrusion in the case can be malicious because the personal data of the customer can be used for any purpose once it has given access, this may lead to devastating results because personal information can be comprised of names, credit card numbers, phone numbers, email address, which are quite sensitive to handle. They can be used by hackers in illegal tasks, and this will lead to furious results for the poor customer who is all unaware of the fact.

The last issue discussed is of email spamming, after getting personal information or access to the site or domain, the attackers can generate fake emails to the clients asking them for money contribution as act of promotions or other personal data that is not available on the site and make use of it for illegal tasks, making money through this act is common among the spammers and it is found to be the easiest of the technique, because customer is unaware of the fact and being a loyal consent gives information for what they are asked for.

Describe what happened and the consequences. What did the company involved do as a result of the intrusion?

Sony has been a victim of this cybercrime for twice, they have to look for prevention techniques to avoid threats that have been intruded their network. The responsibility of this spoofing has been taken by the group named LulzSec, they have stated that “they have stolen information such as names passwords user names email addresses and other private data of the clients by just breaking into the Play Station network, and to be worst for Sony and to their best they found the data that was not at all encrypted, Sony has saved about 1,000,000 passwords that were in the form of plain text which makes it easier for anyone with some polished skills of hacking to be taken away very easily”.

LulzSec has stated that the theft of data also included 75,000 music codes, and 35 million music coupons, they also have provided with a sample of data which they claim they have taken from the company’s networks and show it as their accomplishment of the mission.

As a result of this intrusion Sony has been victimized and more vulnerable to threats and losses it can generate. As a result of web-base being hacked Sony will now have to incur interconnected cost, the play station hacking instance, has caused Sony a loss of more than $170 million. Apart from the monetary cost rose from hacking theses instances will also add up as a cost for organization for putting in considerable time of the employees which otherwise can be used in their several operational tasks, which will result in a loss of more money being generated.

Computer hacking is what is called the intrusion or interruption of information, Sony Play station is a digitized client database that has names, passwords, email addresses of the clients. The loss of such information can result in a partial loss of competitive edge in the market and it will also affect the client base as they will feel hesitant to trust the source again.

The organization that has been most prudent to the threat of hacking just as in case of Sony needs to develop an organizational structure that is comprised of extensive information technology teams, (Nissanoff, 2006) which will work for the development and improvement of computer networks and safety to secure the network to stop and dissuade hackers from distorting the information available on the server. To make this effective these measures should be made part of the initial business plan so they get implemented timely.

The database being hacked can also lose consumer confidence, once their data has been manipulated, just as in the case of Sony, it’s been twice that they have been a victim of hacking, now the consumers will feel hesitant to provide sensitive information such as credit card numbers and other personal data with a nuisance of their data being stolen and misused. It is very hard to restore the trust and satisfaction of customers once they have been maltreated by a cyber-attack.

What should they have done?

According to Stephen Gates, it is not easy for hackers to manipulate into a server with quite an ease there is some backdoor holes which is helping them to knock the networks so easily, he suggested that companies like Sony should put some protection barricades to identify these persistent threats and stop them from destructive actions.

Sony must introduce tapping technology like intrusion prevention systems (Logan, 2005) which will enable the server to examine the protocols that are being parted of its network. It will also make it too easy and clear to identify protocol anamolies, which will help it to identify the threats and closing them down without facing any fierce consequences.

The security analyst of AppRiver Fred Touchette also stated that companies like Sony should be warned by this incident and should take proactive inspection measures, as most of these companies are not concerned about what is being taken out of their network. All they want is to keep track of information that is being injected into the server which is not appropriate enough. If they will give a consideration to this fact then the harm created by these persistent attacks can be minimized. Sony being hacked for twice needs to put more emphasis over the cyber security issue. The group of hackers has claimed that they have used a simple SQL injection attack to reach into their database and access all the private information which was stored unencrypted in plain text. Learning from the previous experience Sony should have moved a bit faster and should have taken measures to harden their servers company wide. Carrying personal information about people is not a small thing. It’s basically the level of trust they show to you. Companies with established names such as Sony should not have taken this measure to be a light issue, despite of knowing what vulnerable consequences they might end up facing.

The PlayStation or PSP network of Sony after being intrigued was put down for not more than 3 weeks until Sony struggled to secure the system.

What could have been done to prevent the intrusion?

There has been an extensive threat of hacking to the online business. To prevent such threats several measures have been designed that will help any business to prevent it from being captured.

Securing Ports

“Ports” are the means of access given to the user to have a right of entry to use the data but not being part of the server. Using ports, data can be easily utilized and transferred in both ways. The access of ports and utilization of these is considered as a very sensitive issue and its access has been given to professional people as to protect the vulnerability of the matter if attacked. But these ports are sometimes used as an open and close access to support programs such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Here comes the issue (Kemmerer, 2003) when hackers find it convenient making an attempt to use your sensitive files, it is very essential to confirm that all the unsecured ports are closed to save content.

Updated security patches

Be sure that the security patches provided to protect the latest data and their protection measures are updated regularly. There is a very popular program by the name of content management systems is being used by many hackers, who are trying hardest of efforts to hack the sensitive information on the net/servers. So release and update the security patches regularly to keep track of your plug-ins/core files.

Comments Attacks

Comments being the most extensive feature considered to get an instant mark and helps creating a good relationship between the server and the customer. But in this case, the server should be very careful, it needs to validate the form of input it is getting before its acceptance in the server, it will help to strip out the unwanted content and prevent any hideous measure to take place.

Unsolicited installation of scripts

It is better to avoid installing third party scripts on the main server of your webpage, unless knowing the fact that what are they and what function it acquires. Even if there has no need arisen to understand the program itself, what you can do is just simply read through the code and look for references and examine third party URL’s. If they are not safe it can be easily prevented.

Using correct CHMOD Permissions

CHMOD allows specific value grant to files and folders on the server, that can determine different levels of access. The permissible range in this specific program varies from 000 (no access) to 777(full access), it’s your decision to allocate permission levels to every content. Make sure that the third party software or might be intruders has to be allowed higher permissions to access if they want to be functional at a proper level. There comes a sensitive decision which has to be taken by you being the authentic party to make a balance between security features.

Prevention of harvesting your lists

Hackers often use techniques to harvest email addresses as in the case of Sony to use for malicious activities. If the domain is saving email addresses for particular reasons of requirement, then be sure they are secured in secure formats, as in most cases the preferred form of storing this type of sensitive data in MySQL database.

Hacking can be prevented through mutual collaboration of both the server and the customer, in order to be successful in the prevention of hacking activities, companies like Sony can provide guidance and manuals as how to take measures and prevent their information from being stolen as per their part.

Use of Generic user names

The clients of a website/server should be educated by the concerned parties as what type of username they should be using. Making common/ generic words as your username makes it very convenient for the hacker to be successful in completing his mission.

Strong Passwords

It is considered as the best technique which can be implemented on behalf of the customer for the protection of matters. It is considered very easy for the hacker to plow huge amounts of data in a very quick time, so generally it is advised to have longer passwords to increase the security of the content, and it is also advised to have a password which contains a combination of characters including alphabets as well as numbers. In such cases, hackers use a method called dictionary attack in which they try different user names and combination of passwords repeatedly that they think are most appropriate for the selection until they get lucky. So it is generally advised to have random strings of combination in your password, then by using a generic form of text.

Cookies

It is very essential to clear the history before you leave the computer, because the information you left behind might get to a source by an unreliable ISP and can be used for illegal unauthorized purposes. Do it often no matter, the server provides you with the claim that there is “no tracking of privacy”. Just be sure to clean the cache to maintain your safety quotient (Iec and abowd, 2005).

Conclusion

The internet today has been taken as the most convenient and easy to approach source in conducting every kind of business. The WebPages and networks/servers contain an enormous amount of data stored after it that can be viewed with a single click. The most challenging scrutiny for the service providers is about the protection of this data, which sometimes creates a big hassle, if lost it can result in fierce outcomes for a business. The measures designed to provide prevention are the most authentic sources, they can make you relax regarding protection, but as they always say there is always room for improvement. With growing networks of hackers, prevention techniques should also be improved.

References

Gaur, N. 2000 „Assessing the Security of your Web Application‟ in Linux Journal, Vol 2000, Issue 72es, Article No. 3. Specialized System Consultants Inc. Seattle

Gehling, B. & Stankard, D. 2005 eCommerce Security in Information Security Curriculum Development Conference, September 23-24 2005 pp32-38, Kenneshaw GA.

Iac hello, G. & Abowd, GD, 2005 „Privacy and proportionality: adapting legal evaluation techniques to inform design in ubiquitous computing‟ in Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, Portland, Oregon, USA, pp91-100

Kemmerer, RA. 2003„Cybersecurity‟ in Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Software Engineering Portland Oregon, pp705-715, IEEE Computer Society

Logan, PY. & Clarkson, A. 2005 „Teaching students to Hack‟ in Proceedings of SIGCSE ’05, February 23- 27, St Louis, Missouri, USA.

Nissanoff, Daniel (2006). Future Shop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell and Get the Things We Really Want (Hardcover ed.) The Penguin Press. pp. 246 pages.

Caldwell, Tracey (22 July 2011). “Ethical hackers: putting on the white hat”. Network Security 2011 (7): 10–13.

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International Humanitarian Law

Is international humanitarian law an appropriate legal framework through which to fight against terrorism?

How International Humanitarian Law deals with terrorism

According to Jean Pictet, international humanitarian law constitutes a critical part of international public laws which largely focuses on the maintenance of humane ideals and protection of individuals in times of war. It is a “body of principles and norms intended to limit human suffering in times of armed conflict and to prevent atrocities” (Conte, 377). The international humanitarian law comprises of international treaty and customary law. Its main objectives involve protecting persons who are no longer taking part in the hostilities (such the sick, wounded as well as civilians) and restricting the parties the methods of warfare between parties to a conflict (Conte, 377). On the other hand, terrorism is defined as violence or threat to violence against the lives, property and wellbeing of innocent civilians (Gasser, 553).

The International humanitarian law neither provides an explicit definition of terrorism nor does it attempt to address the issue of terrorism directly. This may be due to the fact that terrorism, as a social phenomenon, has many aspects which vary from case to case (Gasser, 552). However, the law prohibits numerous acts committed in armed conflict, which would otherwise be considered as acts of terrorism if they were committed in times of peace (Conte, 378). Therefore, the international humanitarian law deals with terrorism in its capacity to deal with armed conflict.

While dealing with the issue of terrorism, the law seeks to draw a distinction between legitimate violence and acts of terrorism. According to the international humanitarian law, the right to use force or commit acts of violence in armed conflict is restricted to the armed forces, which preserve the right to choose the means of warfare (Gasser, 554). Additionally, such violence should only be directed to the armed forces of the other party and not the civilian population. In light of these provisions, the use of illegal means of warfare such as terrorism against ordinary civilians amounts to a crime which is punishable at the domestic and the international level.

When does terrorism amount to armed conflict?

The human international law, through the four Geneva conventions and two protocols identifies four categories of armed conflict; international armed conflict or occupation, wars of national liberation or self determination, non international armed conflict under common article 3, and non international armed conflict under additional protocol 2 (Conte, 378). Some people hold the view that terrorism does not amount to armed conflict because terrorism involves sudden peaks in violence with specific targets while armed conflict develops over a long period of time. In this view, terrorist actions cannot be qualified as armed conflict. However, terrorism acts can be perpetrated during war, and organized terrorists actions can initiate armed conflict.

Terrorism may amount to armed conflict as states retaliate against each other through terrorist attacks. The relationship between terrorism and armed conflict is also constantly evident in numerous warring situations. Terrorism may occur in the context of an ongoing protracted conflict, or lead to military intervention and war. Additionally, terrorism acts may result due to a reaction as a result of intervention in international armed conflict, which further intensifies an international armed conflict. In all these cases, terrorism serves to precipitate armed conflict or intensify an already existing armed conflict.

Are the rules of international or non international armed conflict applicable?

The rules of international and non international armed conflict apply to cases of terrorism in so far as such acts of terrorism occur in the context of armed conflict (Gasser, 555). Since the rules emphasize on the protection of civilian rights, it ensures that any actions that are directed towards the destruction of civilian property and lives, are not perpetrated. Since terrorism is an action that is directed towards the prohibited acts, it is deemed illegal according to the international humanitarian law, making the laws governing international and non international armed conflict relevant in cases of terrorism.

Other provisions of humanitarian law are also relevant in determining the role of international humanitarian law on terrorism. Such provisions include rules governing the protection of cultural property against hostile acts as well as legal protection often awarded to property containing dangerous forces. In the case provided, the state intends to fight against terrorism following a series of attacks on its military as well as its civilian population. However, the applicability of the law of armed conflict in the protection of the members of the armed forces is not self evident because what may appear to be a terrorist act in a civilian case may not appear to be so in the case of armed forces exchanges (Gasser, 557). However, given that the IHL law prohibits the use of weapons to cause unnecessary suffering to members of the opposing party indicates that terrorism acts against members of the military may be considered a crime (Gasser, 557)

Relevant legal rules to evaluate the question of collateral damages

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, collateral damage refers to “an injury inflicted on something other than the intended target;” with specific reference to civilian casualties of a military operation (Catherwood & Horvitz, 87). In this case, military’s airplane attacks lead to death of civilians and the destruction of property owned by innocent civilians. Legally, collateral damage should involve unavoidable and unplanned damage to civilian personnel and property incurred while attacking a military objective. Therefore, the military is prohibited from engaging in actions for which they are entirely certain that they will result in massive collateral damages.

The international law does not prohibit collateral damage per se, since it is quite difficult to enact laws that prohibit accidents. However, international law relating to armed conflict restricts indiscriminate attacks that can potentially inflict harm to innocent civilians and their property. Indeed, the international humanitarian law dictates that an attack should be cancelled or suspended if it is expected to cause loss of civilian life or property that “would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage” (Catherwood & Horvitz, 87). Article 51 further prohibits attacks using weapons whose impacts cannot be properly controlled.

The international humanitarian law further requires that in an international conflict, constant care should be taken to ensure that the civilian population is protected as well as their property. In this case, the military’s plane attack clearly fails to protect the civilians, who in turn lose their lives as well as their property. Consequently, on the face value, such military action may be considered as legally unjustifiable since the consequences were easily predictable. However, in order for such military action to be considered justifiable, the executors must demonstrate that the loss incurred by the civilian populations is insignificant compared to the loss that the state would have incurred if they had failed to retaliate.

Criteria for evaluating whether collateral damages are unlawful

Evaluating and assessment of collateral damages poses a number of challenges owing to the fact that both direct and indirect impacts of such actions must be weighed in order to determine their legality. The most common means of evaluation involves weighing the military necessity and the principle of proportionality against the collateral damages. The combination of the two principles gives rise to the conclusion whether such actions are legally justifiable or not. If the military action is deemed necessary in order to prevent the occurrence of a national crisis, and if the cost incurred during such actions is substantially low compared to the cost of inaction, then such military action is considered legally justifiable.

The direct and indirect impacts of such military actions should not lead to massive violation of human rights. The direct impacts refer to loss of lives and property during military actions. The indirect effects include long term medical trauma, illnesses and impact on the affected families. Military actions should be designed to protect the lives of civilians and not destroy them. Consequently, military actions that lead to destruction of civilians’ lives and property are obviously questionable in a court of law. However, if in this case, the loss of lives was unavoidable, probably because the plane contained terrorist who were set to perpetrate terrorism acts that would lead to massive losses of lives in the country including those of the civilians in the aircraft, then such military attacks would be justifiable.

The principle of discrimination forbids indiscriminate attacks that are not directed at a specific military action. Based on this principle, a military action must be necessitated by the need to accomplish at a specific military objective. Additionally, the principle dictates that parties to a conflict direct their operations against combatant and military objectives rather than property, persona and places. Therefore, military actions that are not motivated by a specified objective may be viewed as illegal.

Can military operations be launched against a military objective if children are surrounding it?

International law has created provisions which ensure the protection of the most vulnerable members of the population, including women and children, and prohibits actions that are aimed inflicting suffering to such members of the population. Additionally, other international laws relating to respect for human rights in armed conflict offer important guarantees for the protection of children in such incidences. Moreover, international law clearly stipulates that states and military forces actively spare children as well as women from the ravages of war. This is done by ensuring that children are protected against persecution, torture, punitive measures, degrading treatment and violence in the event of war.

Given the emphasis that is placed on the protection of children in armed conflicts, military forces may refrain from launching military operations against a military objective that involves children. The law clearly states that children should be subjected to special respect and protection during war, and should not be involved in direct hostilities during war. Consequently, the military should not direct their actions against children in their efforts to attack the other party. In fact, children who are orphaned or separate from their families in the event of war should, with the consent of the protecting power, be evacuated to a neutral region until such a time that the war subsides. Additionally, parties to the conflict are expected to ensure that children below the age of fifteen are excluded from taking part in direct hostilities and should not be recruited in the armed forces. These regulations remain valid for both international and non international armed conflict.

Rules governing the delivery of humanitarian aid in a non international armed conflict

According to article 18 of additional protocol 2 of the international humanitarian law, individuals subjected to armed conflict have a right to humanitarian assistance, and the parties to such conflict are under obligation to accept such humanitarian relief, which is critical for the survival of the population (Stoffels, 519). The civilians’ right to humanitarian assistance thrives from the principle of inviolability. States are obligated to ensure wellbeing and demonstrate respect for life and humanity for all individuals residing within their territories (Stoffels, 517). In this light, states must refrain from violating individual rights and must embrace measures necessary to ensure that such rights are not abused. This implies that states have a duty to ensure that civilians affected by armed conflicts are adequately supplied with resources critical, for their survival during such warring periods. If the state is not in a position to do so, then it should allow third parties to provide humanitarian aid to the affected population.

The humanitarian organization also have the right to provide humanitarian assistance, which entails the right to provide victims with relief supplies needed for their survival, as well as the right that such offer of aid not to be unreasonable denied by the concerned authorities (Stoffels, 521). States and other parties to the conflict are obligated to permit entry, passage, and access of humanitarian aid in their territories. In this light, states must authorize entry and passage of humanitarian aid for the affected populations, parties to the conflict must not obstruct such humanitarian efforts and the affected parties must actively ensure that humanitarian assistance is offered effectively, and that the humanitarian actors and their supplies are safe and secure (Stoffels, 521)

Humanitarian assistance is deemed acceptable if it adheres to the basic principles of humanitarianism, impartiality and neutrality. If the humanitarian assistance does not comply with these principles, and favors one party to the conflict over the other, the parties involved are at discretion to decline or sign authorization for such assistance. In such cases, humanitarian assistance is not protected as such under International humanitarian law (Stoffels, 539).

Authorization for the delivery of humanitarian aid

Historically, a state’s involvement in internal armed conflict is viewed as an issue that the international community should not interfere with, given that each country is considered to be a sovereign state (Dungel 1). Additionally, the responsibility to ensure proper nourishment and wellbeing of the civilians rests on the hands of the state. Therefore relief societies should only play an auxiliary role in assisting state authorities in the execution of this task (Dungel 1). According to this argument therefore, State A would require authorization from State B in order to distribute relief food to the rebel held area. Indeed, the international humanitarian law, in article 18 stipulates that, humanitarian organizations “have a right of initiative in offering relief actions” and that if civilians are suffering undue hardships owing to a lack of supplies essential for survival”, relief action should be undertaken but under the consent of the relevant authority (Dungel 1). Clearly, under these provisions, the authorization by the affected state is critical in enabling humanitarian actors to effectively deliver relief.

In this case, such authorization potentially threatens the principle of neutrality given that the region in question is that which is held by the rebels. Since the IHL stipulates that such authorization be provided by “high contracting power concerned” which is the government, it may be reluctant to authorize humanitarian aid provision in such areas (Dungel 1). Therefore, since the rebel group has de facto control over the territory in question, it is rational that the party be considered as a high contracting power. Therefore, authorization by state extends to the point where such aid is transported over the territory in which it controls, while the authorization for delivery of aid to the rebel held area lies in the hands of the rebel group.

Principals governing humanitarian aid

Humanitarian principles, in their broadest sense are based on international humanitarian law, and are designed to guide the work of humanitarian actors. The four key principles are; humanity, neutrality and impartiality.

Humanitarianism is founded on the basic principle of humanity, which according to the Red Cross is the desire “to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found…to protect life and health and to ensure respect to the human being” (Volberg, 51). Under this principle, organizations, governments, military force s, among other institutions may feel obligated to provide aid to civilians affected by an emergency, and have a moral responsibility towards other members of humanity. Their main aim is to alleviate human suffering and contribute towards protection of life, health, wellbeing, and respect for human life. In this case, the military decision to provide humanitarian aid while at the same time providing military assistance may be driven by humanity considerations, in which the military is motivated to do so with the aim of alleviating human suffering for civilians.

According to the principle of neutrality, humanitarian actors should remain neutral in the conflict, and should not take sides with either of the conflicting parties. This ensures that organizations provide aid to all victims without any exceptions. Based on the principle of neutrality, the humanitarian actors should first and foremost focus on the material needs of the civilians while remaining distant to the political or social issues that have precipitated the armed conflict. However, in this case, State A’s military is already offering military assistance to one the parties to the non international armed conflict, which significantly compromises the neutrality of State A.

In conclusion, the principle of impartiality dictates that humanitarian actions are carried out based on the need, giving priority to the most urgent humanitarian needs. The principle of impartiality rejects discrimination and subjective distinctions in the provision of humanitarian aid. In this case, State A provides military assistance and later decides on distributing humanitarian aid , which raises the questions whether their actions are solely guided by the needs of the civilians, and whether the state has given priority to the most urgent cases of distress.

References

Catherwood, Christopher & Horvitz, Alan Leslie, encyclopedia of wars and genocide, New York: InfoBase Publishing Group.

Conte, Alex. Human rights in the prevention and punishment of terrorism, New York: Springer. 2010. Print.

Dungel, Joakim, a right to humanitarian assistance in internal armed conflicts respecting sovereignty, neutrality and legitimacy: practical proposal to practical problems.

Gasser, Hans-Peter, Acts of terror, “terrorism” and international humanitarian law, International Review of the Red Cross, volume 84 No 847. 2002.

Stoffels, Ruth Abril. Legal regulations of humanitarian assistance in armed conflict: achievement and gaps, International Review of the Red Cross, volume 86 no 855. 2004.

Volberg, Thorsten. The politicization of humanitarian aid and its effects on the principles of humanity, impartiality and neutrality, GRIN Verlag. 2007 Print.