The Validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve

The proper use of the environment has become a controversial topic in economics. In both of James Beseecher's lectures during the module, he outlined a critique of mainstream economics currently governing all our policies, and presented several key thinkers In environmental economics. The huge potential for economic growth through the exploitation of the environment has been undeniable. Vital resources have forever been and continue to be a necessary component of economic growth.But the environment also performs the essential function of supporting life. Needless to say, if humans impair the earth's ability to sustain life the consequences would be dire. And unfortunately, the very same exploitation that provides us with crucial economic Inputs can also be the Instrument by which we impair the earth's ability to support life. Beechen Insisted the world would have to shift Its focus too more sustainable branch of economics. One policy proposed by economists is to allow countries to ec onomically grow out of environmentally damaging activity.Looking at countries with already large economies, we see signs of environmental regulation such as emissions standards, extensive recycling programs, and limited timber harvesting. The economists supporting a policy that Initially allows for environmental degradation assert that If a country can achieve sufficient economic growth In a short period of time then perhaps environmental damage should be tolerated. A well-known hypothesis providing support for a policy that emphasizes economic growth at the expense of environmental protection is the environmental Sunset curve (EKE) hypothesis.It posits that countries in the development process will see their levels of environmental degradation increase until some Income threshold Is met and then afterwards decrease. If true, economic polices should allow extensive, although not necessarily absolute, use of the environment for growth purposes. But carrying out such policies involves inherent dangers. If developing countries decide to overlook environmental protection by counting on rising incomes to abate environmental damage the consequences could be devastating.The most pressing danger is that additional environmental degradation could cause some irreversible and significant harm. This could occur before the predicted Income threshold Is met. The other concern with counting on Incomes to reduce environmental damage Is that the EKE hypothesis could easily be incorrect and relying on its predictions would lead to consistently insufficient protection. This paper evaluates the validity of the EKE hypothesis and argues that it is not a sound basis for policy formation and Justification with so much at stake.The plan of the paper is as follows. Section II examines the basis for the EKE hypothesis and conditions under which It may accurately predict a country's future environmental at the findings of these studies. Section IV identifies the inherent dangers in dete rmining environmental policy based upon the EKE hypothesis. Some concerns are relevant if the hypothesis does not hold and others are present even if it does prove a correct forecaster of environmental quality. Section V provides a conclusion.Section II: The Concept of the Environmental Sunset Curve The EKE hypothesis asserts that countries will naturally move from relatively low environmentally degrading activity to highly degrading activity and then, once a certain income threshold is achieved, will proceed to less degrading activity once again. This assertion allows one to predict the relative level of environmental damage Ewing caused by a country by looking at GAP per capita. However, this prediction is relative to individual countries. In other words, each country has its own EKE, based upon resource endowment, social customs, etc. From which it progresses along relative to its GAP. A graphical model of the hypothesis helps illustrate the inverted â€Å"U† shape of the relationship: It is important to note that the theoretical EKE graph does not explicitly express time as a dimension and for this reason the use of the EKE hypothesis to Justify policy decision – an action that by definition incorporates time – would appear inadequate. Only by comparing two different countries can the inverted â€Å"U† shaped curve be derived as seen above. However each country possesses its own unique EKE and therefore each country's policies should be organized accordingly.In order for the graph to show an EKE, and thereby be valid as policy Justification, we must incorporate a time dimension. We find a time dimension along the x-axis. The EKE hypothesis assumes that changes in income per capita only occur over time. By including this supposition of changes in income inherently signifying time, the graph can now show an EKE for a specific country. The identification of a country's particular EKE provides a basis for using it to influence polic y. Possessing the theoretical model by which the EKE hypothesis is used for economic policy we turn our focus to explaining why the inverted â€Å"U† shape exists.There are two primary explanations for the proposed shape of the EKE. The first examines the history of developed countries and the paths they took to achieve development. The second reflects the changing preference for environmental quality as incomes rise. Historically, all developed countries' economies were originally based upon agriculture, a state that produced little environmental damage. Their economies later switched to a much more environmentally damaging state that focused on industry and manufacturing. Two main factors lead to environmental damage that occurs during industrialization.First, the harmful by-products of production damage the environment. High levels of pollution and water contamination accompany the expansion of industry. The second factor is the increased consumption of natural resources. The extensive over-use of land, deforestation and mining of mountains is a form of environmental damage in and of itself. A common conclusion of this placement pattern is that Olds must pass through the same phases in order to regulations, Olds will be at an economic disadvantage compared to the already developed countries.Many Olds point to this competitive disadvantage when rejecting global environmental standards. The next stage of development saw industrial nations switching to service-based economies, a trend that all global GAP leaders tend towards. During this phase the income threshold of the Ekes for certain polluting substances appear to have been reached. According to the hypothesis, service-based economies are said to be able to avoid many of the most environmentally damaging economic activities. In theory, environmental impacts also fall as a result of improved technology discovered in developed countries.In some cases technology leads to a more efficient use of inputs. Other technological advancements make it possible to restrict the harmful effects that economic activity have on the environment. The second reason that a high-income level can reduce environmental damage is by altering the demand for environmental quality. Known as the â€Å"income effect†, sufficiently high GAP per capita often leads individuals to place environmental quality above additional economic growth. The aggregation of these individual preferences plays an integral role in determining the income threshold.The EKE income threshold aggregates all environmentally damaging agents into a single numerical value. However, taken individually economists can place dollar values on the turning points of damaging agents. For example, in a 1997 paper by Cole, Earner and Bates, the authors found the turning point of CO and NON emissions to be around $9,900 and $14,700, respectively. Using environmental quality preference as an explanation, the income threshold represents the in come level per pita at which the preference for environmental quality outweighs the preference for additional income.This change in preference occurs on a public level, rather than a private one. Microeconomic decisions to support more environmentally friendly goods and services cannot account for the income effect. The issue is instead a matter of public policy. The changes in environmental standards reflect political pressure on governments. According to the EKE hypothesis, changes to evolving economies and the individual preference for environmental quality combine to determine the income threshold. However, whether or not an inverted â€Å"U† shaped curve exists at all is still up for debate.Section Ill: Evidence For and Against the EKE Hypothesis Evidence regarding the EKE hypothesis is circumstantial and inconclusive. Most early studies that supported the hypothesis focused on a single damaging agent, such as a pollutant. Identifying key characteristics associated with agents that have been studied we find that only certain types of agents exhibit an EKE. Evidence supporting the EKE first began in 1994 when Selene and Song derived an EKE for SIS. A later test in 1995 by economists Grossman also found SIS emissions to follow n EKE. They found a turning point between $4,000 and $6,000.Another early documentation of EKE support came from Theodore Pantaloon who found the turning point of deforestation to be $823. After the initial studies, other economists began to investigate the validity of the EKE hypothesis and found refuting evidence. In the 1997 paper by Cole, Earner and Bates, they found no EKE for traffic, nitrates or EKE; rather, energy use per capita rose steadily with increased income. Evidence appears to support the EKE hypothesis only for a limited type of damaging agents. The emission of SIS is found in urban waste areas and is thereby hardhearted by its locality.Deforestation also reflects a situation involving a specific location. Dama ging agents that affect only a particular site tend to show Ekes. However, a damaging agent such as traffic is plain to see and also affects certain areas heavily. In this case the agent is dominated by a scale effect – increased activity leads to increased environmental impact. While traffic-related pollution is generally iterated by population size, damaging agents such as energy production by-products increase with GAP per capita. Section lb. Dangers of the EKE Hypothesis in international developmentThere exist many dangers in allowing an economy to simply grow out of environmentally damaging activity. Some of these dangers arise because the EKE hypothesis does not hold true in all cases. Others exist even if we assume the hypothesis as an accurate predictor of environmental conditions. The following is a list of concerns regarding the EKE hypothesis: l. It remains inconclusive if most damaging agents follow the EKE. II. The threshold income may be irrelevantly high or the temporary period of increasing environmental damage too long. Ill.Any decrease in environmental damage seen in developed countries may reflect the exportation of production abroad and subsequent importation. IV. The â€Å"absorptive capacity' of our earth is unknown. V. Ekes may only exist in certain political atmospheres. A detailed examination of the above concerns illustrates the inherent dangers in accepting the EKE hypothesis and afterwards using it to Justify policy making. As discussed above, only local and regional damaging agents show signs of Ekes. Other â€Å"difficult to detect† agents seem to increase with GAP per capita.This discovery leaves open to question whether more agents than not respond to income increases. If there exist more agents that do not respond then attempting to grow past these impacts would be impossible. Many damaging agents may respond to income levels, but not until GAP per capita approaches out-of-reach levels. If in a developed country, the turning point for a damaging agent is above, say, $50,000 then neglecting to react will create damage for a considerable amount of time. Over the time it takes to achieve the turning point, the environmental damage may become irreversible .Obviously, in a OLD the turning point value needs only to be considerably lower and still have the same adverse effects. Using solely the EKE hypothesis to Justify unsustainable growth is unwise, as the outcome still remains unknown. Another consideration that challenges the EKE evidence is that wealthy countries are massively importing products manufactured in Olds, thereby contributing to environmental degradation; the only difference is that the degradation is not domestic. The first hypothesis to bring up this possibility was the Pollution Haven hypothesis.It states that developed countries export their high polluting industries to Olds whose governments have more lax environmental standards. Many economists follow environmental regulatio ns. However, this does not exclude the possibility of heavy industries existing in Olds and coincidently exporting their products to wealthy countries. In this case, wealthy countries only started along the downward slope on the EKE by domestically reducing environmental damage. When taken globally their increased consumption due to income may without doubt still be increasingly damaging.Another danger is that leaving the quality of our environment subject to economic activity, even for only a short period, may well prove to be disastrous. The ability of the earth to absorb the damaging agents produced by economic activity, called â€Å"absorptive capacity,† is not yet known. A final concern is that even if countries can achieve high levels of income per capita they may not possess a political atmosphere conducive to environmental protection. Assuming that the aggregate turning point in a country is reached, that country is not necessarily going to enact environmental protect ion.The most successful avenues for obtaining environmental quality, it seems, are lobbyists. Without a government that responds to political pressure by these public groups here is no reason to believe that its policies will reflect the demand for a cleaner environment, if such demand exists at all. Indeed, it also remains to be seen if all cultures place similar values on environmental quality. Section V: Conclusion The questions and concerns about the EKE hypothesis examined in this paper raise significant doubt as to the wisdom of adopting environmental policy based upon the EKE hypothesis.Even assuming its validity, the EKE hypothesis generates considerable doubt as to its effectiveness at balancing economic growth with environmental protection. In order to effectively produce a critique of the EKE, the present paper assumes growth is still regarded as the sole goal of economic development. The hypothesis indeed uses rising incomes as a factor of time. Calls however have been g rowing stronger for a shift of focus from economic growth towards well-being, equality and sustainability.

Ethical Issue on the Internet

Ethical issues relating to the use of the Internet and the implications for managers and business practice. by Mihai C. Orzan Abstract When we address the topic of ethical issues on the Internet we are generally referring at two different matters: privacy and intellectual property. Each has been examined extensively in the last five years, since the Internet explosive intrusion in everyday life activities, each has an important number of sub fields that require special attention from managers and other business professionals.The purpose of this paper is to to make a short presentation of most relevant developments pertaining Internet ethical issues in direct connection with the business world. The Privacy debate is centered on the arguments regarding citizens’ right to privacy granted or implied by laws on one hand and companies approach on â€Å"customer data, considered an asset to sell for profits† (Choi, 2000, p. 317) on the other hand. Privacy on the Internet is ex ploding as a topic of public concern these days. A recent Internet survey showed that 4 out of 5 users have major concerns regarding various privacy threats when they’re online.Yet only 6% of them have actually experienced privacy abuses. Those who are not yet on the Net cite privacy as the main reason they have chosen not to become Internet users. If electronic commerce is going to thrive, this fear is going to have to be dealt with by laws and by industry practices and this paper attempts to give a thorough description of the major computer ethics trends of the moment. The other major source of concern for business world as well as the majority of Internet users is copyright control.Serious question come from both approaches on this matter: what information available on the Internet can I freely use and how can one protect the hardly earned information that he posts on a website. In fact, â€Å"The Internet has been characterized as the largest threat to copyright since it s inception. It is awash in information, much of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. † (O’Mahoney, 2001). Copyrighted issue constitutes an important part of this paper and it details most of the present concerns of intellectual property. 1 Privacy Everyone has the right to know what information is collected and how it will be used and to accept or decline the collection or dissemination of this information– particularly financial and medical information. † President George W. Bush. Privacy has become a major concern on the Internet. According to (Ferrell, Leclair & Fraedrich, 1997), â€Å"the extraordinary growth of the Internet has created a number of privacy issues that society has never encountered before and therefore has been slow to address. † Opinions have been expressed and actions were taken in order to resolve these matters in one way or another.In an interview earlier this year United States President George W. Bush (Miller, 2 001) expressed numerous and informed concerns regarding privacy issues, including access, security, and use of personal information. He promised to ensure actions that will meet consumer demands for privacy protection and advocated â€Å"opt- in† policies for mailing lists. He concluded the interview by stating: â€Å"I share many people's concerns that, with the advent of the Internet, personal privacy is increasingly at risk, and I am committed to protecting personal privacy for everyone. Privacy issues on the Internet relate to two major concerns. The first concern is users’ ability to control the rate, type, and sequence of the information they view. Spam, or unsolicited commercial e- mail, is a control concern because it violates privacy and steals resources. A second concern relates to the ability of users to address and understand how organizations collect and use personal information on the Internet. Many 2 Web sites require visitors to identify themselves and provide information about their wants and needs.Some Web sites track visitors’ â€Å"footsteps† through the site by storing a cookie, or identifying string of text, on their computers. The use of cookies can be an ethical issue, especially because many users have no idea that this transfer of information is even occurring. Internet privacy is an important ethical issue because most organizations engaging in e- commerce have not yet developed policies and codes of conduct to encourage responsible behavior. Spamming â€Å"Junk e- mail and spam are both terms for advertising and e- mail sent to you which you did not ask for and which you do not want†, (Elbel, 2001).However, spam is a more generic term that includes broadcast posting to newsgroups as well as individuals. And spamming is very costly for the end users: recent surveys showed that various forms of spam consume up to 15% of Internet bandwidth. According to a recent European Union study â€Å"junk email costs all of us some 9. 4 billion (US) dollars per year, and many major ISPs say that spam adds 20% of the cost of their service†, (Elbel, 2001). As you can see spamming is a very profitable endeavor and have grown over the years to assume a number of different forms.Thus, we can distinguish: v Unsolicited e- mail is any email message received where the recipient did not specifically ask to receive it. It might not be always an abuse. v Bulk e- mail is any group of messages sent via e- mail, with substantially identical content, to a large number of addresses at once. Many ISPs specify a threshold for bulk e- mail to be 25 or more recipients within a 24- hour period. Once again, bulk e- mail itself is not necessarily abuse of the e- mail system. 3 Unsolicited Commercial E- mail (UCE) is a form of e- mail containing commercial information that has been sent to a recipient who did not ask to receive it. Several ISPs specify that sending even one UCE is a violation of privacy. v Make Money Fast (MMF) are e- mail messages that â€Å"guarantee immediate, incredible profits! â€Å", including such schemes as chain letters. v Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) are e- mail messages that â€Å"guarantee incredible profits! â€Å", right after you send them an â€Å"initial investment† and recruit others. v Mailbomb is probably the most harmful type of spamming.It takes the form of email packages delivered repeatedly to the same address until the mailbox is overloaded, or perhaps even the system that hosts the mailbox crashes. Mailbombs generally take one of two forms. A mailbox might be targeted to receive hundreds or thousands of messages, making it difficult or impossible for the victim to use their own mailbox, possibly subjects them to additional charges for storage space, and might cause them to miss messages entirely due to overflow. This is seen as a denial- of- service attack, perhaps also harassment.Another form of mailbombing is to forge subscripti on requests to many mailing lists, all for one recipient. The result is a huge barrage of email arriving in the victim's e- mail box, all of it unwanted, but â€Å"legitimate†. There are several ways to escape spamming, but none will guarantee 100 percent reliability. First, a complaint to the ISPs that originated and forwarded the spam is required. It is also recommended to switch to an ISP that uses one or all of the anti- spam databases available (RBL, RSS, and DUL). About 40% of the Internet is using these services, with good success.Also, it is important that you never, under any circumstance, reply to junk e- mail, even if it is to send a â€Å"remove† request. Most spammers ignore such 4 responses, or worse, add you to their list of validated e- mail addresses that they sell. Also, getting removed doesn't keep you from being added the next time they mine for addresses, nor will it get you off other copies of the list that have been sold or traded to others. Fina lly, we should note that there are voices that argue that spamming is a legitimate form of expression and restricting it would be a First Amendment infringement.Even more, has been suggested that â€Å"junk e- mail (also called â€Å"bulk† e- mail and â€Å"spam†) should be legally protected†, (D’Ambrosio, 2000). Tracking a user on the Internet Data about individuals is collected in a wide variety of ways, including information provided on application forms, credit/debit card transactions, and cookies. Many users expect that such activities are anonymous, but unfortunately they are far from being so. It is possible to record many online activities, including which newsgroups or files a subscriber has accessed and which web sites a subscriber has visited.This information can be collected both by a subscriber's own service provider (available in the request headers of browsers) and by agents of remote sites which a subscriber visits. But the most popular fo rm of collecting data about web surfers is the cookie. These are short pieces of data used by web servers to help identify web users. The cookie is stored on the user's computer, but contrary to popular belief it is not an executable program and cannot do anything harmful to the machine. Cookies are used by Internet shopping sites to keep track of users and their shopping carts.When someone first visits an Internet shopping site, they are sent a cookie containing the name (ID number) of a shopping cart and other useful tags. Another use of cookies is to create customized home 5 pages. A cookie is sent to the user’s browser for each of the items they expect to see on their custom home page. One of the less admirable uses of cookies, and the one that is causing all the controversy, is its use as a device for tracking the browsing and buying habits of individual web users.On a single web site or a group of web sites within a single subdomain, cookies can be used to see what web pages you visit and how often you visit them. However, such concerns can be easily addressed by setting the browser to not accept cookies or use one of the new cookie blocking packages that offer selective cookie access. Note that blocking all cookies prevents some online services from working. Also, preventing the browser from accepting cookies does not confer anonymity; it just makes it more difficult to be tracked on the Web. Related to cookies, but more damaging is the activity known as â€Å"prying†.Many of the commercial online services will automatically download graphics and program upgrades to the user's home computer. News reports have documented the fact that certain online services have admitted to both accidental and intentional prying into the memory of home computers signing on to the service. In some cases, personal files have been copied and collected by the online services. Use of Personal Information You can find out simple directory information about peopl e on a variety of web sites, like Switchboard, Whowhere, Four11, Bigfoot.These contain information retrieved from telephone books. And most of these sites allow someone who doesn’t want to be listed in their databases to have his/her information removed. But beyond the free services there are the fee- based services where one can find out a great deal about 6 individuals on the Internet. There are services like as KnowX, Informus, Infotel, CDB, Infotek, Information America, and Lexis- Nexis that offer subscription based services and give access either through the Internet or through their own telephone networks.The information they provide is primarily from public records like records of court cases, both civil and criminal (not the full text, not yet anyway, but an index of cases), bankruptcies, judgments and liens, property records, such as county tax assessors files, professional license information, if regulated by the state, Dept of Motor Vehicle data from many states, v oter registration data from many states, stock investments, if you own 15% or more of a company’s stock, and many more other sources.Data warehouses built with this kind of sensitive personal information (including â€Å"browsing patterns,† also known as â€Å"transaction- generated information†) are the lifeblood of many enterprises that need to locate their customers with direct mailing (or e- mailing) campaigns. It may also create the potential for â€Å"junk e- mail† and other marketing uses. Additionally, this information may be embarrassing for users who have accessed sensitive or controversial materials online. In theory, individuals (data subjects) are routinely asked if they would permit their information to be used by the information collector.Application forms usually include a clause stating that personal information provided may be used for marketing and other purposes. This is the principle of informed consent, meaning that if the individual does not so request that his/her data not to be used for such purposes, it is assumed that he/she had given permission. The alternative principle, of affirmative consent, where an individual is required to give permission for each and every occasion on which a data user wishes to make use of an individual’s data, becomes extremely expensive and complex and is seldom practiced.The Federal Trade Commission is urging commercial web site operators to make public their information collection practices in privacy policies posted on web sites. 7 Many web sites now post information about their information- collection practices. You can look for a privacy â€Å"seal of approval,† such as TRUSTe, Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, WebTrust, and others on the first page of the web site. Those that participate in such programs agree to post their privacy policies and submit to audits of their privacy practices in order to display the logo.There are several technologies that help online users protect their privacy. v Encryption is a method of scrambling an e- mail message or file so that it is unintelligible to anyone who does not know how to unscramble it. Thus, private information may be encrypted, and then transmitted, stored or distributed without fear that outsiders will have access to its content. Various strong encryption programs, such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and RSA (RSA Data Security) are available online.Because encryption prevents unauthorized access, law enforcement agencies have expressed concerns over the use of this technology, and Congress has considered legislation to create a â€Å"back door† to allow law enforcement officials to decipher encrypted messages. Federal law limits exporting certain types of encryption code or descriptive information to other countries and file them under the same ammo type as nuclear weapons. v Anonymous remailers. Because it is relatively easy to determine the name and email address of anyone who posts messages or sends e- mail, the practice of using anonymous remailing programs has become more common.These programs receive e- mail, strip off all identifying information, and then forward the mail to the appropriate address. v Memory protection software. Software security programs are now available which help prevent unauthorized access to files on the home computer. For 8 example, one program encrypts every directory with a different password so that to access any directory you must log in first. Then, if an online service provider tries to read any private files, it would be denied access. These programs may include an â€Å"audit trail† that records all activity on the computer's drives.Censorship and Blocking Software â€Å"With its recent explosive growth, the Internet now faces a problem inherent in all media that serve diverse audiences: not all materials are appropriate for every audience† (Resni ck & Miller, 1996). Any rules or laws about distribution, however, will be too restrictive from some perspectives, yet not restrictive enough from others. Apparently it might be easier to meet diverse needs by controlling reception rather than distribution. In the TV industry, this realization has led to the V- chip, a system for blocking reception based on labels embedded in the broadcast stream.On the Internet, the solution might be considered even better, with richer labels that reflect diverse viewpoints, and more flexible selection criteria. Not everyone needs to block reception of the same materials. Parents may not wish to expose their children to sexual or violent images, businesses may want to prevent their employees from visiting recreational sites during hours of peak network usage, and governments may want to restrict reception of materials that are legal in other countries but not in their own.The blocking solution with the largest acceptance at this moment is PICS (Pla tform for Internet Content Selection). Its labels are supposed to be able to describe any aspect of a document or a Web site. As was natural to be expected, PICS labels started out as an attempt to block web pages that were not compliant with indecency 9 laws. As one of its initiators said, â€Å"the original impetus for PICS was to allow parents and teachers to screen materials they felt were inappropriate for children using the Net†, (Weinberger, 1997).At this moment, Microsoft, Netscape, SurfWatch, CyberPatrol, and other software vendors have PICS- compatible products, while AOL, AT WorldNet, CompuServe, and Prodigy provide free blocking software that is PICS- compliant. Intellectual Property Intellectual Property concerns the protection of â€Å"all products created or designed by human intellect – book, songs, poems, trademarks, blueprints†¦and software† (Davidson, 2000, p. 9). The copying of software programs, although nominally protected by copyright laws, is certainly widespread. Much of the argument about IP lies in the deontological dichotomy between rights and duties†, (Davidson, 2000, p. 12). Software producers claim that they have the right to protect the fruit of their endeavors, and have the right to be compensated for the resources spend in the development process, while consumers claim that they have the right to use a product for which they have paid and expect that the product will be free of defects. This should lead to competitively priced products with superior quality, providing value for money. 10 Copyright, Patents, and TrademarksAccording to prof. Johnson (2000) â€Å"as computing resources become more and more prevalent, computer software becomes easier and easier to access, and as such, easier and easier to copy†, (p. 124). Protection for one’s work, from a legal point of view, requires copyright, patents, and trademarks for sensible and strategic information. The best approach is to hav e a combination of trade secret protection, copyright laws, and trademark laws for the product in question because these are cheap, effective, and fast ways of protecting a software product from being pirated.Copyright Issues Copyrighted works on the net include news stories, software, novels, screenplays, graphics, pictures, Usenet messages and even e- mail. â€Å"In fact, the frightening reality is that almost everything on the Net is protected by copyright law† (O’Mahoney, 2001). Software and manuals, as novels and other literary works, are protected under copyright laws. In simple terms, this guarantees the copyright owner, the author in most cases, the exclusive rights to the reproduction and distribution of his intellectual property.Thus, copyright law guarantees the owner of the intellectual property the same types of rights that patent law guarantees the owner of an invention or other piece of seemingly more tangible physical property. Computer software and dat a are intellectual property, and as such are covered by copyright law. The problems start when people cannot, or will not, make the mental transition from physical to intellectual property. While most people would not steal books from a bookstore or a software package from a dealer's showroom, 11 ven if they knew they would not be caught, many of the same people would not hesitate copying a computer program from a demo or from their friends and colleagues. The only free software is the one places in the public domain, also known as freeware. For the rest of the software products the user must abide by the license agreements which usually come with a program and places restrictions upon reproducing and distributing the software, including such things as loaning the software to a friend or colleague and making duplicates for classroom or network use. Some licenses even go so far as to restrict use to a specific computer.In most cases, however, the user does have the right to make a ba ckup copy of the software for archival purposes. In theory, any use of a software package which falls outside of the limits of the license agreement renders the user, and quite often the user's company or institution, liable to prosecution. A computer program is defined in the copyright law as â€Å"a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result. † Copyright protection begins at the time a work is created in fixed form; no act other than creation of the work is required to obtain a copyright for the work.According to (Yoches and Levine, 1989) â€Å"the scope of copyright protection for a computer program's expression may extend beyond its literal code to the structure, sequence and organization of the program. † Another debated and important aspect of software copyright involves the use of databases, data warehouses, and other forms of data collections. Under traditional concepts of literary copyright, the data contained in a compilation, and the selection of the data, may sometimes not be protected from copying. Only the coordination and arrangement of the database may be protected, and even then there must be some originality to the collection and arrangement for it to be protected†, (Losey, 1995). 12 There are essentially three ways to legally protect computer databases: copyright, trade secret and contract. Raw facts in a database may not be protected by copyright, regardless of the time or expense that went into locating them. However, in many databases the data itself, or the particular expressions of the facts, may have been created by the author. In such cases the data has originality and can be protected.Even if the contents are raw facts, not new materials created by the author, the compilation aspects of the database (selection, coordination and arrangement) may still receive copyright protection. A trade secret is â€Å"knowledge which a person or com pany acquires through its own efforts and which has some value to it† (Losey, 1995). Typically, this knowledge is kept secret from competitors because it is felt that this information provides some type of competitive advantage. Since a computer database is a compilation that derives economic value, it is a type of intellectual property that has frequently received trade secrecy protection.Finally, the owner of a database can require that any purchaser enter into a written contract as a condition of purchase of the database. That written agreement could expressly provide that the purchaser will not disclose the content to anyone but authorized users, nor make any copies or unauthorized use of the information. Typically this takes the form of a License Agreement between the owner/licensor of the database and the user/licensee of the database. Protect your site against theft It might be useful to know that a link is a URL, a fact not unlike a street address, and is therefore not copyrightable.However, a URL list may be copyrightable under a 13 compilation copyright if it contains some originality. The Internet was created on the basis of being able to attach hypertext links to any other location on the Web. Consequently, by putting yourself on the Internet, â€Å"you have given implied permission to others to link to your Web page, and everyone else on the Web is deemed to have given you implied permission to link to their Web pages† (O’Mahoney, 2001). The two primary methods of protection are technical countermeasures and legal protection.Technical countermeasures include strategies such as digital watermarking and spiders that search the Internet for copies of your pages or graphics. These strategies tend to be difficult, expensive, and user- unfriendly. The primary vehicle for legal protection is copyright. This is by far the easiest and most popular form of protection in use today. In implementing a copyright strategy, there are three ite ms that you should consider: v Ownership: before trying to copyright your website, a clear understanding of what exactly it is considered to be copyrighted is required.There are many elements to a website, including text, graphics, scripts, data, and code. If everything was created from scratch for the website, ownership is not an issue. However, if someone else created text, or some clip art was downloaded from another website, or scanned photographs from archives were used, or a web design firm was hired to load all informational content into an attractive package, then ownership of the respective elements is shared with the original creators, unless otherwise stated in contracts and licenses. Copyright notice: it is generally a good idea to put a copyright notice on your website. It used to be that in order to be afforded any copyright protection whatsoever, one needed to put the world on notice by attaching a copyright notice to the work. While this is no longer the case, it is still customary to attach a 14 copyright notice on copyrighted works in order to be eligible for certain types of damages. The copyright notice consists of at least elements that include the copyright symbol and/or the term â€Å"Copyright†, the year of copyright, and the name of the copyright holder. Registration: register your copyright with the Copyright Office. Although the Copyright Act gives protection just for creating your work and reducing it to a tangible form, that protection proved somewhat illusory in some cases when registration was overlooked. Patents and Trademarks â€Å"A recognized brand name or trademark represents the goodwill that has been built into the product or service†, (Eldenbrock & Borwankar, 1996). Consumers tend to associate the recognized brand name or trademark with certain characteristics that are specific to that name or mark.Therefore, companies often spend millions of dollars annually for safeguarding the investment in the related in tellectual property rights. Trademark laws protect the name of the software, not the software itself. Some examples include: â€Å"Lotus 1- 2- 3†, â€Å"Apple â€Å", â€Å"D- BASE†, â€Å"WordPerfect†, and many others. Copyright protection protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. A patent protects the idea itself. There are two major drawbacks to patents. They take a lot of money and a lot of time (usually two or more years).Computer games are rarely patent protected because the shelf life for a game is usually no more than six months. 15 Fair Use â€Å"When the fair use doctrine applies to a specific use of a work, the person making fair use of the work does not need to seek permission from the copyright owner or to compensate the copyright owner for the use of the work†, (Lehman, 1998). The fair use is a form of limitation of the exclusive rights of copyright owners for purposes such as criticism, comments, news reporting, teaching (i ncluding the possibility to make multiple copies of a copyrighted work for classroom use), scholarships, or research.In order to determine whether the use made of a work in any particular case is not a copyright infringement, Smith’s (2001) Copyright Implementation Manual offers the following guidelines: 1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; 2. the nature of the copyrighted work; 3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and 4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. Those creators and authors who wish to dedicate their works to the public domain may, of course, do so notwithstanding the availability of protection under the Copyrigh t Act. 16 Libel and Defamation â€Å"We know that as the Internet grows, there will be more and more lawsuits involving libel and defamation. † said attorney David H. Donaldson, editor of Legal Bytes, â€Å"The only question is if the number of cases will grow steadily or if there will be an explosion of lawsuits all at once. The Internet has been used to harass, slander, threat and these online activities led to arrests, successful sues (because have used netnews to slander and for delivering inappropriate screen saver images) and other forms of legal punishments. The most frequent form of libel on the Internet is flaming, defined as â€Å"the practice of sending extremely critical, derogatory, and often vulgar e- mail messages, or newsgroup postings to other users on the Internet or online services† (O’Brien, 2002, pp. 326).Famous cases of racism or defamation have turned the attention at the gaps in legislation regarding Internet crime. Sexual explicit web p ages are responsible for another stir in social awareness regarding Internet- related legal void. Sometimes even a â€Å"link to another's page could be defamatory and may subject someone to legal liability†, (INET Legal Networks, 2001), if it links to a page where offensive or illegal content is present and if you do not give strong warning to the web surfer about the consequences of his/her â€Å"click†.There are a number of features unique to the Internet that distinguish it from any other medium and have â€Å"led to the current re- examination of existing libel laws to allow for their possible evolution and ultimately their application in the cyberspace†, (Potts & Harris, 1996). These features include its global nature (more than 125 countries are linked via Internet), which raised questions about jurisdiction, repeated publication every time a 17 page is updated/viewed, and the possibility to enforce judgments.Another Internet specific aspect is its highly interactive nature, which decreases the effectiveness of later corrections, but empowers the ability to reply, which might be considered more gratifying, immediate and potent than launching a libel action. Accessibility is another feature of the Internet, which distinguishes it from traditional print or broadcast media. The relatively low cost of connecting to the Internet and even of establishing one's own website means that the opportunity for defamation has increased exponentially. Now, on the Internet everyone can be a publisher and can be sued as a publisher.Internet anonymity means that users do not have to reveal their true identity in order to send email or post messages on bulletin boards. This feature, coupled with the ability to access the Internet in the privacy and seclusion of one's own home or office and the interactive, responsive nature of communications on the Internet, has resulted in users being far less inhibited about the contents of their messages than in any other form of media. Computer Crime One of the biggest threats for the online community comes from various ways in which a computers network in general and the Internet in special might be used to support computer crime.The list of such actions is vast as â€Å"criminals are doing everything from stealing intellectual property and committing fraud to unleashing viruses and committing acts of cyber terrorism† (Sager, Hamm, Gross, Carey & Hoff, 2000) and a few of the most dangerous and common ones have already entered the general IT folklore. The Association of Information Technology Professionals defined computer crime as including â€Å"unauthorized use, access, modification, and destruction of hardware, software, data, or network resources; unauthorized release of information; unauthorized copying of 18 oftware; denying an end user access to his or her own hardware, software, data, or network resources; using or conspiring to use computer or network resources to illegally obtain information or tangible property. † Software piracy Software piracy is the illegal copying of computer software. It is also considered the computer industry's worst problem and, according to the specialists, has become a household crime. â€Å"People who wouldn't think of sneaking merchandise out of a store or burgling a house regularly obtain copies of computer programs that they haven't paid for†, (Hard- Davis, 2001).Software piracy is fought by legal means (licenses, copyright, trademarks and patents, and lawsuits, when all else fails). According to Zwass (1997), â€Å"deterrent controls (legal sanctions) and preventive controls (increasing the cost of piracy by technological means) can be used to combat software piracy. † Information technology is a key driver in the globalization and growth of the world economy. In a recent study of worldwide software market (International Data Corporation, 1999) the total worldwide package software market has been st imated at $135 billion. Worldwide expenditures on software are expected to increase to about $220 billion by the year 2002. The U. S. software industry is reaping the benefits of this hyper growth, having captured 70% of global software sales. According to (Software Publishers Association, 1998), the worldwide revenues of business- based PC applications was $17. 2 billion, but global revenue losses due to piracy in the business application software market were calculated at $11. 4 billion.This is very similar to the report of (International Research and Planning, 2001)’s Business Software Alliance (BSA), a watchdog group representing the world’s leading software manufacturers, which announced the results of 19 its sixth annual benchmark survey on global software piracy. The independent study highlights the serious impact of copyright infringement with piracy losses nearing $11. 8 billion worldwide in 2000. Figure 1 shows an interesting correlation between the national piracy rates compiled by the SPA with the per capita GNP for 65 countries in the year 1997.Higher software piracy rates are heavily skewed towards countries with low per capita GNP. The effect of GNP is much more pronounced for the countries with GNPs less than $6,000, as shown in Figure 2. Each $1,000 increase in per capita GNP is associated with a nearly 6% decrease in the piracy rate. These results indicate a significant income effect on the global piracy rates, particularly in the poorer segments of the world. The different ways of illegally copying computer software can be broken down into five basic ways of pirating. Counterfeiting is duplicating and selling unauthorized copies of software in such a manner as to try to pass off the illegal copy as if it were a legitimate copy produced by or authorized by the publisher. v Softlifting is the purchasing of a single licensed copy of software and loading it on several machines, contrary to the terms of the license agreement. This i ncludes sharing software with friends and co- workers. v Hard- disk loading is selling computers pre- loaded with illegal software. v Bulletin-board piracy is putting software on a bulletin- board service for nyone to copy or copying software from a bullet in- board service that is not shareware or freeware. v Software rental is the renting of software for temporary use. An interesting study regarding software piracy in academic environment was conducted at the Faculty of Business at the City University of Hong Kong (Moores & 20 Dhillon, 2000). A total of 243 usable responses were received, of which 122 were female and 121 were male. As shown in Figure 3, 81% of the respondents report they buy pirated software on a regular basis, with a significant minority (29%) buying every month, and 3% even reporting they buy several times a week.The most popular pirated software bought was spreadsheets, followed by programming languages, databases, word processors, and statistical packages. Oth er software mentioned included e- mail, graphics, and game software. Only 7% claim to have never bought pirated software. Illegal Information The Internet was designed as an inherently insecure communications vehicle. This allowed an impressive number of security gaps that led to numerous hacking techniques. Probably the most famous one at this moment is the denial of service attack, that led to the shutdown of many famous Internet sites, including Yahoo! , eBay, Amazon, and CNN.Other hacking tactics include spoofing (faking an web page to trick users into giving away critical information), Trojan horses (programs that are planted on user’s machine without his knowledge), logic bombs (instructions in computer programs that triggers malicious acts), and password crackers. According to Givens (2001), â€Å"Identity thieves are able to shop online anonymously using the identities of others. Web- based information brokers sell sensitive personal data, including Social Security n umbers, relatively cheaply. † In December 1999 300,000 credit card numbers were stolen from the online music retailer CD Universe database.That’s way it is considered a federal crime to possess 15 ore more access devices like cellular activation codes, account passwords, and credit card numbers. 21 Beside the theft that these kinds of devices enable, such actions lead to loss of trust from customers to such services that have been the target of hacking. It is also illegal in many states to have pornographic related material on your machine, and in some cases mere possession of child pornography is punishable by many years in jail. As mentioned before, possession or export of certain types of cryptographic techniques is a very serious federal crime.AMA Code of Ethics of Marketing on the Internet â€Å"All professionals find a code of ethics is useful to guide them through the sometimes thorny issues that confront them† (Klampert, 1998). Codes of ethics are an orga nized, written set of rules that describe expected behaviors. There are many such codes in Information Systems (ACM, IEEE, British Computer Society), but none of them has overall recognition. Most institutions that provide Internet access have formulated policies and procedures regarding the fair use of their facilities.The most frequent policies are grouped under the following categories: a Code for Ethical Computer Use (usually a written policy an institution has developed to describe ethical use of their computer system), an E- mail Privacy Policy, and an Internet Access Policy. One of the most representative such codes for the Internet community is the one that has been imposed by the American Marketing Association for its members. Below there are a few of the most interesting requirements, as they can be found in the latest edition of (AMA, 2001) Code of Ethics for Marketing on the Internet: 2 Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations with no use of Internet marketing th at would be illegal, if conducted by mail, telephone, fax or other media. Organizational commitment to ethical Internet practices communicated to employees, customers and relevant stakeholders. Information collected from customers should be confidential and used only for expressed purposes. All data, especially confidential customer data, should be safeguarded against unauthorized access. The expressed wishes of others should be respected with regard to the receipt of unsolicited e-mail messages.Information obtained from the Internet sources should be properly authorized and documented. Marketers should treat access to accounts, passwords, and other information as confidential, and only examine or disclose content when authorized by a responsible party. The integrity of others' information systems should be respected with regard to placement of information, advertising or messages. Conclusions This R paper gives a general overview of the most debated ethical issues related to the us e of Internet and their implications for managers and business practice.However, there are several other less critical aspects that should be considered by a very thorough revision and some very interesting papers on these subjects are listed in Appendix C. These aspects include unauthorized use of computer resources at work, accessing individuals’ private e- mail and telephone conversations and computer records by the companies they work for and other forms of computer monitoring, challenges to 23 work conditions and individuality that are brought about by computer systems, mistaken computer matching of individuals, and many, many more.To protect themselves and the people they work with, information professionals need to be as professional as they can be and, sometimes, must decline a project if clients insist that they do something they have moral objections about. Ethical considerations are inherent for any IT professional. Moral behavior, including acting with integrity, increasing personal competence, setting high standards of personal performance, accepting responsibility for your actions, avoiding computer crime, and increasing the security of computer systems developed are just a few of many such considerations.Overall, I believe that there is a critical need for heightened debate on professional ethics in Information Systems. 24 Appendix A Figure 1. Per capita GNP and piracy rates. Figure 2. Piracy rates and per capita GNP less than $6000 25 Figure 3. Frequency of pirated software. 26 Appendix B Cited Works 1. Choi, S. – Y. & Whinston, A. B. (2000). The Internet Economy: Technology and Practice. Austin, TX: SmartEcon Publishing. 2. D’Ambrosio, J. (2000,. January). Should â€Å"Junk† E- mail Be Legally Protected? [online]. Available: http://www. fmew. com/archive/junk/. October 26, 2001). 3. Davidson, Robert (2000, April). Professional Ethics in Information Systems: A Personal Perspective. Communications of the AIS, Vol. 3, Article 8. 4. Elbel, F. (2001, October 23). Junk E- mail and Spam. [online]. Available: http://www. ecofuture. org/jmemail. html. (October 26, 2001). 5. Elderbrock, David and Borwankar, Nitin. (1996). Building Successful Internet Businesses: The Essential Sourcebook for Creating Businesses on the Net. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide. 6. Ferrell, O. C. , Leclair, D. T. , & Fraedrich, J. P. (1997, October).Integrity Management : A Guide to Managing Legal and Ethical Issues in the Workplace. O’Collins Corp. 7. Givens, Beth. (2001, March). A Review of Current Privacy Issues. [online]. Available: http://www. privacyrights. org/ar/Privacy- IssuesList. htm. (October 26, 2001). 8. Hard- Davis, G. (2001, March). Internet Piracy Exposed. Alameda, CA:Sybex. 27 9. INET Legal Networks (2001). Defamation – Law for Internet [online]. Available: http://www. lawforinternet. com/subject_defamation. php3? searchkys=defamation =topdefamation. html. (October 26, 2001). 10.Internationa l Data Corporation (1999, February 10). Distribution of Worldwide Software Revenues Vary Dramatically [online]. Available: www. idcresearch. com/Press/default. htm. (October 26, 2001). 11. International Research and Planning. (2001, May). Sixth Annual BSA Global Software Piracy Study. [online]. Available: http://www. bsa. org/resources/200105- 21. 55. pdf. (October 26, 2001). 12. Johnson, Mark B. (2000, January). Software Piracy: Stopping It Before It Stops You. Proceedings of the sixteenth ACM SIGUCCS Conference on User Services. pp. 124- 131. 13. Klampert, Elizabeth (1998, July 13).Business Ethics for Information Professionals. Proceedings of the AALL 1998 Conference on Independent Law Librarian Program, Anaheim, CA. 14. Lehman, B. A. , (1998). The Conference on Fair Use: final report to the commissioner on the conclusion of the Conference on Fair Use. Washington, DC: Office of Public Affairs U. S. Patent and Trademark Office. 15. Losey, Ralph C. (1995). Practical and Legal Protec tion of Computer Databases [online]. Available: http://www. eff. org/Intellectual_property/database_protection. paper. (October 25, 2001). 16. Miller, M. J. (2001, February 6).Bush’s Privacy Plan. PC Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 3. 28 17. Moores, T & Dhillon, G. (2000, December). Software Piracy: A View from Hong Kong. Communication of the ACM, Vol. 28, No. 10, p. 88- 93. 18. O’Brien, J. A. (2002). Management Information Systems: Managing Information Technology in the E- Business Enterprise. New York, NY: McGraw- Hill. 19. O’Mahoney, B. (2001). Copyright Website [online]. Available: http://www. benedict. com/digital/digital. asp. (October 26, 2001). 20. Potts, David & Harris, S. (1996, May 16). Defamation on the Internet [online]. Available: http://owl. nglish. purdue. edu/handouts/research/r_apa. html. (October 26, 2001). 21. Resnick, P. & Miller, J. (1996). PICS: Internet Access Controls Without Censorship. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 39, No. 10, pp. 87- 93. 22. Sager, Ira, Hamm, Steve, Gross, Neil, Carey, John and Hoff, Robert. (2000, February 21). Business Week. 23. Smith, Steve. (2001, May). Copyright Implementation Manual [online]. Available: http://www. groton. k12. ct. us/mts/cimhp01. htm. (December 1, 2001). 24. Software Publishers Association (1998). SPA's Report on Global Software Piracy [online]. Available: www. pa. org/piracy/98report. htm. (October 26, 2001). 25. Weinberger, J. (1997, March). Rating the Net. Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 19. 26. Yoches, E. Robert & Levine, Arthur J. (1989, May). Basic principles of copyright protection for computer software. Communications of the ACM Vol. 32 No. 5. pp. 544. 27. Zwass, Vladimir. (1997, Spring). Editorial Introduction. Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 3- 6. 29 Appendix C Bibliography 1. American Marketing Association (2001). Full Text of the AMA Code of Ethics [online].Available: http://www. ama. org/about/ama/fulleth. a sp. (October 26, 2001). 2. Berman, J. & Weitzner, D. (1995). User Control: Renewing the Democratic Heart of the First Amendment in the Age of Interactive Media. Yale Law Journal, Vol. 104, pp. 1619. 3. BRINT Institute. (2001). Intelectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks and Patents. [online]. Available: http://www. brint. com/IntellP. htm. (October 26, 2001). 4. British Computer Society. (2000). British Computer Society Code of Practice [online]. Available: http://www. bcs. org. uk/aboutbcs/cop. htm. (November 30, 2001). 5. CETUS. (1995).Fair Use: A Statement of Principle [online]. Available: http://www. cetus. org/fair4. html. (December 1, 2001). 6. Cheng, H. K. , Sims, R. R. , and Teegen, H. (1999, Spring). To Purchase or to Private Software: An Empirical Study. Journal of Management Information Systems Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 49- 60. 7. Gopal, R. D. , & Sanders, G. L. (1997, Spring). Preventive and Deterrent Controls for Software Piracy. Journal of Management Information Systems Vol. 13 No. 4. pp. 29- 47. 30 8. Hinman, Lawrence M. (2001, September 15). Ethic Updates [online]. Available: http://ethics. acusd. edu/index. tml. (October 25, 2001). 9. Jamison, B. , Gold, J. & Jamison, W. (1997). Electronic Selling: 23 Steps to ESelling Profits. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 10. Lending, D. & Slaughter, S. A. (2001, April). Research in progress: the effects of ethical climate on attitudes and behaviors toward software piracy. Proceedings of the 2001 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research. p. 198- 200. 11. Limayem, Moez, Khalifa, Mohamed , Chin, Wynne W. (1999, January). Factors Motivating Software Piracy. Proceeding of the 20th international conference on Information Systems, p. 124- 13. 12.Scott, Thomas J. , Kallman, Ernest A. , Lelewer, Debra. (1994 November). Ethical Issues Involving the Internet. Proceedings of the conference on Ethics in the computer age. pp. 31- 32. 13. Thong, J. Y. L. , & Yap, C. – S. (1998, Summer). Testing and Ethical Decisi onMaking Theory: The Case of Softlifting. Journal of Management Information Systems Vo. 15, No. 1. pp. 213- 237. 14. U. S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability Information Bulletin. (1998, March 12). Internet Cookies. [online]. Available: http://ciac. llnl. gov/ciac/bulletins/i- 034. shtml. (October 26, 2001). 31

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Suckwell Vacuum Cleaners, Ltd - Case Study Example Chipped paints happen during the assembly stage. Furthermore, the company experienced missing instructions during the final packaging and shipment. Also, missing serial numbers, broken switches and damaged insulation on main cable are identified as occurring problems in the finish product. Figure 1 summarizes the importance and difficulty to solve with regards to the identified problems. Inadequate suctions and damaged to insulation cable are the most difficult to solve and of high importance because the problems require downgrading of product and replacement of cable as a rectification. Units with suction problems are sold at half the price of a new unit but without Suckwell identity markings. Other problems such as missing instructions and broken switches are considered important but easy to solve because these can be corrected during the assembly stages as well as final inspection of finish products. Perforated bags and scratches on the plastic are also considered as important because they provide aesthetics to the product. On the other hand, missing serial number and paint chipped are categorized as problems of lesser importance because serial numbers are considered as additional information of the product for purposes of traceability while chipped paints can be prevented along the assembly line. The frequency and costs incurred with the problems identif... Sorting the problems identified in Figure 1, the Pareto analysis showed that scratches on the plastic body are the most recurring problem and incurs the highest cost of non-conformance. Thus, this paper will focus on solving the problem with regards to scratches. Figure 3 illustrates the Pareto analysis conducted on the problems identified. A Pareto Analysis requires the utilisation of a chart which is designed by Vilfredo Pareto which also follows the 80:20 rule. The analysis rates the problems according to importance, frequency and impact of the problem to the company. According to Pareto's rule, if a company prevents the cause of only 20% of the cause-effect pairs, they can reduce the number of defect incidents by 80% (Kemp, 2006). In other words, the company separates the vital few from the trivial many where the vital few are considered as the most important problems that need to be addressed (Reliability Analysis Center, 2004). Figure . Frequency and Costs of Non-conformances Problems Identified Frequency Cost of Non-conformance Cost to Rectify Complaints Annual Costs 1. Scratches on plastic body (SC) 340 1,360.00 70,720.00 2. Paint chipped (PC) 150 150.00 7,800.00 3. Perforated bag (PB) 130 130.00 650.00 7,410.00 4. Missing instructions (MI) 20 10.00 520.00 5. Broken switch (BS) 130 71.50 26,000.00 29,718.00 6. No serial number (NS) 12 3.60 187.20 Total Cost 782 1725.10 26,650.00 166,355.20 Figure . Pareto Analysis Cause and Effect Diagram As previously mentioned, the most important as well as part of the vital few problem is the scratches on the plastic body of the vacuum cleaners. Figure 4 is an Ishikawa diagram or a

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Roots of the post Second World War environmental movements - Essay Example The Second World War was described as a ‘watershed’ that developed into environmental activism that spawned quickly during the 1960s.The Second World War was a time of difficulty for many people around the world,it was also realized that the world was a small space that needed to be protected from the constant destruction by man towards the environment. After the war, the 50s was a fast-paced moving world littered with images of the perfect life, the perfect housewife in advertisements. These images were to accommodate a growing push towards a more materialistic life as more and more inventions were being made and used. Among a lot of the products available during the 1950s were items that were actually hazardous to the environment like the hairspray from the musical ‘Hairspray’ for example that encouraged the use of hairspray in modern hairstyles as well as the release of dangerous chemicals such as CFC (Chlorofluorocarbon) and vinyl chloride which was a known carcinogen. It was also during the 1950s and the 1960s as more and more industrial accidents occurred that affected the environment that caused a revived concern about how we treated our ecology. The modern livelihood of man was farfetched from the roots that they have begun as hunters and gatherers who are more ecologically aware and attentive to the adverse effects of man and their exploitation and manipulation of their environment (Sahlins 1971) but as industrialization began to boom even more quickly the way man lived prior to the Second World War was a far cry from contemporary man. ... garments and transient objects. Aside from the growth of industrialization man continued to try and change their environment to bend to their own will. For example, if during Victorian times a garden was simply a garden and ways to control pesticides from invading gardens were by utilizing simple home remedies such as using vinegar. With the growth of industrialization and as many more people became wealthy enough to own a garden albeit with lesser time due to work quicker pesticides were used as a solution to pest problems in home gardens and in industrial farms. In 1960, a naturalist by the name of Rachel Carson began to publish a series of writings that were concerned with the adverse effects of the use of chemicals in the control of natural environments (Nash 1990:192-194). For example, she argued that the use of DDT which was only to get rid of weeds and pesticides affected the surroundings of the weeds themselves therefore also pointlessly poisoning the earth for no apparent reason in gardens except to make them look good and for industrial farms the ability of evolution would only create and cause even more stronger pesticides who will be resistant to the effects of the DDT and therefore needing even stronger more dangerous chemicals. Although cries such as Carson on the effects of chemicals were heard but not fully heeded it was also a backlash against government policies which tended to support industrial growth rather than protect the environment for the 'benefit' of the people. The politics of pollution during the 50s and 60s was a climate that favoured a 'little bit' of pollution and some money to be made over the unalterable effects on the earth's nature. For example, in the 1950s to the early 1960s the United

Environment assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Descartes First Meditation paper and Moore's Certainty paper - Essay Example Descartes work was centered on the issues that challenge one’s ability to be certain about something. His path to establish certainty begins a state of doubt. It is this doubt that prompts him to choose to demolish all the knowledge he had in the past (Descartes 87). He will then start afresh through testing the validity of things before being certain of their existence. He searches to establish a foundation of philosophy that cannot be shaken. This is because much of the knowledge he obtained in the past was through senses that at times are deceptive. In this he highlights, it is somehow difficult to distinguish when one is asleep and when awake. He majors on meditation, which is regarded as a philosophical classic. However, he provocatively pursues the issues to do with these important matters. Provocatively, Moore challenges the argument concerning ones inability to know whether he is dreaming. In the logical inversion of Descartes argument, Moore argues that, if one knows not that he is dreaming, one knows not that he standing. Additionally, people is unsure of his standing and realize that he is not hallucinating, (Moore 30). This is logical since one can only dream when asleep. Additionally, one can be dreaming or think he is standing and in actual sense, he is standing. This is the only case where dreaming and thinking to standing and standing at the same time is consistent. Moore’s concern on external world’s existence is evident. Given the reality, it is impractical to prove its existence. According to him, so many oppositions can, be used to prove the existence of the external world. In his illustration to demonstrate the fact about the existence of the world, he uses his hands. For instance, when he holds up his hands, it is certain that he is holding up his hands. The conclusion from the above illustration shows it is true that he has hands. If it has truth in it, more illustrations are also true. About external world issue, similar proofs can be used to tell the existence of it (Kim and Sosa 30). While Descartes says that dreams have taken place, he not sure he is dreaming. This is to mean that he does not know that the dreaming has taken place. In evaluating Descartes ides, â€Å"doubt† and â€Å"thinking† brings inconsistency the ideas. Descartes is unsure of his existence, although he thinks he does. The reason validating his doubt is that he may be dreaming or is being deceived by a demon that he exists. The reason for him to think he exists is th at he is only thinking without any objective proof of his existence. The proof about his existence is only subjective. He is unable to convince others of his existence, (Moore 34). Descartes argument has weaknesses and strengthens. He says that all things he knew as truth in his childhood have been falsehoods. This is a weak argument because; lack of proof cannot guarantee one to assume it is false. He later justifies his attempt to ruin that entire truth he had known over years and started afresh. He wanted something that had a strong foundation that did not rest on mere assumptions and feelings (Descartes 87). This is quite right to be passionate to do away with former opinions unless tested to be true. Additionally, he says not all the ideas and information he has is false. He makes an excuse that, for the opinions that he is not certain with, he will not touch on them. This gives a loophole for doubt and uncertainty. To assess which opinions are not certain would be a tedious jo b; therefore, he will not go through

Process Analysis about How to Write an A Paper Essay

Process Analysis about How to Write an A Paper - Essay Example In the book The Little Seagull Handbook the author talks about 7 easy initial steps to start working on the paper. Which are brainstorming, free writing, looping, clustering, questioning, keeping a journal and lastly starting up with some research (Bullock, Richard and Francine Weinberg, 7). Brainstorming, clustering and looping are all ways of jotting down the points that come to your mind about the topic so that before you start writing you have a bunch of points from which you can select and write. Questioning about the topic includes asking yourself what is your purpose of writing? Who the audience is? What the audience wants? Keeping these questions in mind you should research about the given topic. Once a student is done with the research the second most important thing that follows is the tone and the style of writing. Since college papers are a part of academic writing informal and elevated style of writing should completely be avoided. Your style should lie between a formal and informal style of writing using simple words. The tone of your writing should depend on the paper you are writing it could be persuasive in an argumentative essay or informative in a research paper that totally depends on the kind of paper one is writing. Fallacies are another thing that should be avoided while writing a paper. There are mainly three kinds of fallacies logical, ethical and emotional. Ineffective arguments that use logical, emotional or ethical fallacies detract the reader for writer’s credibility. It not only makes the paper ineffective but the reader will fail to trust the writing if he uses any fallacies and thereby the paper fails to fulfill its purpose. Examples of these fallacies are guilt by association, hasty generalizations, false analogy and many more. Redundancy- words that repeat the same idea is also adds to the negative for a paper. Examples of redundancies are, end result, circle around, final completion, exactly the same and many more. In t he book ‘Politics and English Language’ the author talks about usage of meaningless words in chapter 12 Language and Literacy. He talks about how some words lack in meaning and make the piece of writing an ineffective piece. He talks about words like democracy, socialism, freedom and patriotic. He says words like these have no agreed definition and therefore must be avoided (Orwell, George and Bruce Rogers, 795). Starting a paper seems the most difficult yet is the most essential part of a paper. It is often said first impression is the last impression; the introductory paragraph is like the first impression of your paper therefore it must be strong enough to grasp the attention of the reader. Your introductory paragraph includes your thesis statement which is like a road map for your essay it should be clear and to the point listing out the main points of your paper. The introduction of a paper should be interesting so that the reader continues to read the rest of it. People often start their papers with a quote from a famous person or generalized idea then lead in to the specific topics. To write an A grade paper, revision is the trick. You must write and rewrite your paper to improve the quality of the paper. Anne Lamott pays strong attention to the importance of first drafts in her piece ‘

Organizational Behavior Concepts Of Wal-Mart Essay

Organizational Behavior Concepts Of Wal-Mart - Essay Example This essay states that Wal-Mart transformed the retail industry. It is sheer size, growth and profitability of Wal-Mart that it is in a position to define corporate trends. It is now in a position that it can dictate and perfect the nature of discount stores. Wal-Mart has the image of a friendly, all-American company employing happy workers and smiling greeters who are eager to help and grateful to work at Wal-Mart. As a globalizing force, Wal-Mart exerts influence on the regional, local and national economy. It has restructured the American workforce and consumer behavior. Its basic strategies revolutionized the global retail industry and led Wal-Mart to unprecedented heights. Human resource management is a stronghold of Wal-Mart as right from the inception they did not believe in allowing or forming a union. They felt it was detrimental to the interest of the company and the union only fed itself from both the management and the labors. They believed in exhorting their own people, motivating them through incentives and awards such as company stocks by which they could also make up for the low wages. However, while they claim that the associates are in effect their partners, the high staff turnover and the numerous litigation cases against the company is sufficient evidence of how power is concentrated at the top. Organization culture should serve to strengthen the company and not impact it negatively. In conclusion, Wal-Mart may have a strong culture, but it is most often imposed.

What Is Electrical Engineering Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What Is Electrical Engineering - Research Paper Example Electrical engineers are continuously putting their efforts to improve communication between people by designing easy to use communication technologies, such as, cell phones and notebooks. Electrical engineering not only facilitates long distance communication but also serves the world in many other areas related to technology. Therefore, we can say that electrical engineering is one of the major fields of engineering which is playing a considerable role in technological progress all over the world. What Do Electrical Engineers Do? In the present world, electrical engineers are putting their efforts in solving electricity shortage problems by identifying and designing new electricity generating systems. â€Å"Electrical engineering mainly deals with the generation and distribution of power and maintenance of large power systems† (Dhulipala). Some of the major fields related to renewable energy systems in which electrical engineers have really shown their potential, knowledge, and skills include generation of hydropower energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy.Electrical engineers design new electronics, which they also test for quality and reliability. â€Å"The engineer is often responsible for overseeing the installation of the product to ensure it is installed properly and safely† (Partington). ... Electrical engineers mainly deal with the production of electricity by designing circuits. â€Å"An electrical engineer has many potential job functions but most work on designing products that are powered by or produce electricity† (Partington). â€Å"One of the tasks of an electrical engineer would be to develop electrical system products for household uses or for business uses† (Shipway). Electrical engineers design different electricity-based products, which serve people as well as countries. Electric products, such as, televisions, radios, computer systems, mobile phones, laptops, audio and video systems all involve the input of electrical engineers. Let us now get an overview of some of the major technological developments, which could have been impossible without input of the efforts electrical engineers. Electric Cars Electric car is one of the major developments related to the field of electrical engineering. An electric car is a vehicle that makes use of batte ries and electric motors instead of gasoline engines. The batteries are rechargeable and control the main parts of the cars. Some of the most considerable features of electric cars include more reliability, convenience, less noise, up to 500 hundred percent more efficiency as compared to internal combustion engines, regenerative breaking system, and no emission production. There is no emission of fuels from electric cars because they do not use gas for any purpose. Compared to the internal combustion engines, electric cars provide up to three times more stored energy to the wheels. It is due to these benefits that today electric cars are becoming more and more popular in

Discussion Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion - Personal Statement Example Looking back at all of the course requirements that I was able to accomplish, I think that I have satisfactorily met the outcomes of the course, except for international law, which I feel to study in the future. I actually feel challenged that I was not able to meet my personal expectations regarding learning the different concepts of international law, which is the reason why I plan to pursue majoring on international law someday. In addition, looking back at the discussions and the collaboration that I had with my fellow students, I think that the most important thing that I learned is the value of teamwork, which I see as an essential trait when one is going to be a part of law associates or law firms. Of course, in this course, I was able to learn the basic concepts of the legal profession, and I plan to build on it as I major on international law soon. This is because I hope to contribute to solve some of the world’s legal conflicts.

The Effects of Humor and Incongruence on Word Recall Essay Example for Free

The Effects of Humor and Incongruence on Word Recall Essay Fifteen undergraduates from the University of California, Los Angeles participated in this experiment. There were 8 men and 7 women, age ranging from 19 to 30 years old. All 15 participants were enrolled in a research method class and they participated in the experiment as a part of a course requirement. Design A 2 x 2 (Type of sentence x image) within-subjects factorial design was used. The two independent variables were the type of sentence and the type of image with the respective to the italicized word in the sentence. The two levels of the type of sentence were humorous and nonhumorous sentences. The two levels of the type of image were matching or nonmatching images respective to the italicized words in their sentences. Matching images depict the italicized word in their corresponding sentences. Nonmatching images did not depict the italicized words. The dependent variable was the number of italicized words correctly recalled. Materials Sentences. Two sets of 20 sentences obtained from Schidmt (1994) were used. At the humorous sentence level, the 20 sentences had the mean rate for humor ranging from 3. 08 to 4. 0. At the nonhumorous sentence level, 20 other sentences had the mean rate for humor ranging from 1. 25 to 2. 86. The intensity of humor was determined by participants using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 5. 0 was the highest humor rating. Using these two sets of sentences, four lists were created, each with 20 different sentences. Random assignment was used to determine the placement of the sentences on the lists so that the serial positions of the sentences across the four lists are different from one list to the other. The words that will be used for recall were always italicized across the four lists. Pictures. 20 Microsoft Word Clip Art images were used for the matching conditions. The images were obtained using the key words of the italicized words. For the nonmatching condition, 10 neutral key words (i. e. , sun, flower) were used to obtain the 10 images from Clip Art. The nonmatching images were randomly assigned to the sentences. Each of the four lists has the same type and number of nonmatching images. Within every list, an image only appeared once. All images were 261 pixel by 159 pixel. All images were presented centered and below its respective sentence. PowerPoint slides. Computers with Microsoft PowerPoint program were randomly assigned to show one of the four types of sentences to participants. Four different lists each with 20 sentences and 20 images were obtained. Each list has 5 humorous sentences with matching images, 5 humorous sentences with nonmatching images, 5 nonhumorous sentences with matching images, and 5 nonhumorous sentences with nonmatching images. I counterbalanced the lists to control for order effect so that the serial positions of the 20 sentences are random within each of the four lists. To control for specific item effect, I use a balance Latin square to ensure that each of the 20 italicized words from the two sets of sentences appear in each of the four experimental condition. PowerPoint slides were used to present all the instructions, lists of words and pictures, and the first five math problems. Response sheet. A 8 1/2 in. by 11 in. paper were used to write the italicized words that the participants recalled. Distractor test. 10 arithmetic math problems were used as a distractor test. The first five math problems were presented in a PowerPoint slide and the next five math problems were presented in a 8 1/2 in. by 11 in. piece of paper. The reason why the distractor task was divided into both a PowerPoint and regular written exercise was to reduce as much of the demand characteristics of the experiments as possible. Participants write the answer to all 10 math problems on the paper. Procedures Participants were randomly assigned to a computer with one of the four types of lists. The experimenter told the participants to follow the instructions on the packet of paper given to them on how to access the presentation lists and the instructions presented by the computer. The experimenters made sure that all participants got to their respective lists before telling them to begin. Participants all started together. The instructions on the computer directed the participants to look the following 20 slides and try to remember as much information as they can about the slide. Each slide was shown for 7 seconds, one after another, and a blank screen was shown for 2 seconds between each slide. After all 20 slides were shown, a new slide informed the participants that they now have five minutes to solve both the five math problems presented in the slide and five math problems on the sheet next to the computer. The experimenter announced that time was up and told the participants to stop what they were doing and were to look back at the computer for further instructions. The final slide appeared on the screen and instructed the participants to write down as many italicized words as they can remember on the recall sheet. The recall test was an unexpected recall test because the participants did not expect that they need to remember the italicized words of the sentences rather than images or the content of the sentences. In the process of counting the number of italicized word correctly recalled, I used a lenient scoring criteria. If the main meaning of the correct italicized word was written if not the exact word, it would still be counted as a correctly recalled word. For example if the correct word was cheap but cheaply was written, it would be counted as one correctly recalled word.

The Mauritius Institute Of Education On Teachers Education Essay

The Mauritius Institute Of Education On Teachers Education Essay Education has always been among the top priorities of every government into power. In Mauritius, education was declared free after the country gained independence from the British in 1968. Since then, every child of the country had the opportunity to go to school and learn. After the decision of free schooling, the government found the need to train sufficient teachers to work in the schools in regions where there were growing demands. Such training course is still being delivered by the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE), which equip the future teachers with the necessary skills to deliver a quality service. From the beginning of the 21st century much emphasis is put on the quality of teaching and management in schools as it has been proven that schools with strong ethical managing members outperformed other schools in the academic results. It has always been said that Discipline is the key to success; those schools realised it through hard and structured work and achieved the best results. Discipline is not meant for pupils only and applies for teachers and even top management of the schools. Certain schools even set codes of conduct for their teachers to abide too; which provide a clear line of conduct expected from the teachers. These codes of conduct are simply ethics of care, justice, critique, profession and community put into phrases which demonstrate the expected behaviour of top management and teachers of the schools. Review of Literature The significance of school management and leadership There is great concern in educational leadership in the early part of the 21st century. Since people believe that the quality of leadership makes a significant difference to school and student outcomes. In many parts of the world, there is recognition that schools require effective leaders and managers if they are to provide the best possible education for their learners. As the global economy gathers pace, more governments are realising that their main assets are their people and that remaining, or becoming, competitive depends increasingly on the development of a highly skilled workforce. This requires trained and committed teachers but they, in turn, need the leadership of highly effective principals and the support of other senior and middle managers (Bush, in press). The process of deciding on the aims of the organization is at the heart of educational management. In most schools, aims are decided by the principal, often working in association with the senior management team and perhaps also with the school governing body. However, school aims are strongly influenced by pressures from the external environment, and particularly from the expectations of government, often expressed through legislation or formal policy statements. Schools may be left with the residual task of interpreting external imperatives rather than determining aims on the basis of their own assessment of learner needs. The key issue here is the extent to which school managers are able to modify government policy and develop alternative approaches based on school-level values and vision. (Bush 2003:1-2). Distinction between school management and leadership The concept of management overlaps with that of leadership, a notion of great contemporary interest in most countries in the developed world. However, despite these developments management remains the dominant term in the debate about aspects of school organisation. Cuban (1988) provides one of the clearest distinctions between leadership and management. He links leadership with change while management is seen as a maintenance activity. He also stresses the importance of both dimensions of organisational activity: By leadership, I mean influencing others actions in achieving desirable ends. Leaders are people who shape the goals, motivations, and actions of others. Frequently they initiate change to reach existing and new goals Leadership takes much ingenuity, energy and skill. Managing is maintaining efficiently and effectively current organisational arrangements. While managing well often exhibits leadership skills, the overall function is toward maintenance rather than change. I prize both managing and leading and attach no special value to either since different settings and times call for varied responses. Day et al.s (2001) study of twelve effective schools leads to the discussion of several dilemmas in school leadership. One of these relates to management, which is linked to systems and paper, and leadership, which is perceived to be about the development of people. Bush (1998; 2003) links leadership to values or purpose while management relates to implementation or technical issues. Leadership and management need to be given equal prominence if schools are to operate effectively and achieve their objectives. Leading and managing are distinct, but both are important The challenge of modern organizations requires the objective perspective of the manager as well as the flashes of vision and commitment wise leadership provides (Bolman Deal, 1997). Leithwood et al. (1999) make the important point that, in practice, principals in their day-to-day work are rarely aware of whether they are leading or managing; they are simply carrying out their work on behalf of the school and its learners. However, the nature of that work should reflect the school context and, in particular, its needs at any one time. Underperforming schools may require a greater emphasis on basic management, making the organization functional, rather than a visionary approach. This may involve ensuring regular and timely attendance by learners and educators, maintaining order and discipline in classrooms, and proving adequate resources to enable learning to take place. Once schools are functional, leaders can progress to developing vision, and outlining clear aims and policies, with the confidence that systems are in place to secure their implementation. Models of educational leadership and management Theories of educational management for over 20 years (Bush, 1986; 1995; 2003) have been presented and classified into six major models: formal, collegial, political, subjective, ambiguity, and cultural (see Table 1). More recently, the author of these theories has reviewed concepts of educational leadership, notably in work undertaken for the English National College for School Leadership (Bush Glover, 2002). The literature on leadership has generated a number of alternative, and competing, models. Some writers have sought to cluster these various conceptions into a number of broad themes or types. The best known of these typologies is that by Leithwood, Jantzi and Steinbach (1999), who identified six models from their scrutiny of 121 articles in four international journals. Bush and Glover (2002) extended this typology to eight models. These are among the nine leadership models shown in Table 1, alongside the management models mentioned earlier. Table : Typology of management and leadership models (Bush, 2003) Management model Leadership model Formal Collegial Political Subjective Ambiguity Cultural Managerial Participative Transformational Interpersonal Transactional Post-modern Contingency Moral Instructional Ethics Ethics refer to accepted norms and standards set by people considering them as good practices that one must follow in terms of behaviour and action. Ethics are frequently interchanged with other words such as values, morality, norms, principles and beliefs. According to Fraenkel (1973: 49), values represent everything that people regard as important in life. They represent ideas on what is good, beautiful, effective and appropriate, . and therefore worth having, worth doing, or worth striving to attain. Ethics and Values Ethical framework for education The literature provides  ¬Ã‚ ve major paradigms used to analyse ethics and ethical dilemmas. Ethic of Justice The first type of ethic is the ethic of justice. This ethic often provides a basis for legal principles and ideals. Here, one may ask questions related to the rule of law and the more abstract concepts of fairness, equity and justice. Starratt (1994) characterizes this ethic as originating in two schools of thought, one focusing on the individual as central and the other stressing society as its key component. The former generally involves the concept of social contract where the individual gives up certain rights for the good of society; it includes the work of earlier philosophers including Hobbes and Kant and more contemporary scholars such as Lawrence Kohlberg and John Rawls. The latter conceptualizes justice as emerging from communal understandings (Starratt, 1994, p. 50). Also writing within this paradigm is Kenneth Strike, a scholar who focuses on justice and its in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uence on educational decision making by stressing concepts such as maximum bene ¬Ã‚ ts and its rela tionship to respect for individual needs (Strike et al., 1998). Ethic of care Second is an ethic of care. Out of the ethic of justice, the ethic of care shifts the emphasis on rights and laws to compassion and empathy. When the ethic of care is valued, school leaders emphasize relationships and connections in the decision-making process, rather than techniques and rules associated with a hierarchical approach. Noddings (2003) work is central to this ethic as are the writings of contemporary scholars including Gilligan (1982) who challenged Kohlbergs (1981) model of ethical decision making as relates to women and Sernak (1998) who contends that school leaders must balance power with caring. Ethic of Critique Critique is the third ethic. Firmly rooted in critical theory, the ethic of critique seeks to challenge the status quo and give voice to the marginalized sectors of society. Under the ethic of critique, theorists such as Apple (2000, 2001, 2003), Capper (1993), Foster (1986) and Giroux (1991, 2000, 2003), among others, ask us to not only rethink laws and justice, but also consider other concepts such as privilege, power, culture and language. Here, one might question who makes the laws, who bene ¬Ã‚ ts from them, and how they apply to a variety of different people. Grogan (2003) and Marshall et al. (1989) join the ranks of these contemporary scholars who urge educators to consider issues of social justice in their ethical decision making. Ethic of the profession The ethic of the profession (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2001) calls for school leaders to consider professional and personal ethical principles and codes, as well as standards of the profession and individual professional codes to create a dynamic model that places the best interests of the student as central. This paradigm considers the other frameworks as well as issues such as what the profession expects, what happens when personal and professional ethics clash, and how community in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uences educators ethical decision making. This paradigm of the profession moves beyond a multi-paradigmatic approach and strives to consider moral aspects unique to the profession and the questions that arise as educational leaders become more aware of their own personal and professional codes of ethics (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2001, p. 18). As Walker (1998, p. 300) points out: The well-considered shibboleth that the best interests of children will be taken to override con ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡icting inter ests may be considered both a safe and essential grounds for educational decision making. Ethic of the Community Furman (2003) proposes a  ¬Ã‚ fth ethic for educational leaders that of community. Furman (2004) explicates this ethical posture in an article appearing in this issue of the Journal of Educational Administration. For Furman, community becomes the context within which the other ethical postures are applied as school leaders make decisions in an ever-changing environment. She de ¬Ã‚ nes the ethic of community as the moral responsibility of educators to engage in communal processes. Here, the communal, rather than the individual, is the major focus of schools moral agency. This ethic is very different from Sergiovanni (1994) who views community as an entity and Shapiro and Stefkovich (2001) who see community in relation to the individual. Each of these  ¬Ã‚ ve paradigms is important to educational leaders who are asked to make ethical decisions. By considering the paradigms as complementary parts of a whole, the school leader has access to a more advanced set of tools for decision making. Ethics in School Management and Leadership For a better understanding of the impact of ethics in school management and leadership, a framework would be much appropriate. In their book, Ethical Leadership and Decision Making in Education, Shapiro and Stefkovich (2001) propose a framework for responding to ethical dilemmas. Ethical paradigms based on models of justice, caring, and critique are merged into a fourth paradigm, that of the profession. At the centre of this conceptualization is the best interests of the student. Educators have often used this concept to justify important moral and ethical decisions; therefore it seems apt that this concept would lie at the heart of a professional paradigm. Application of Ethics in School Management and Leadership The point that school administrative decision making requires more than the mechanical application of existing rules, regulations and various levels of school and school-related policy has been well established (Hoy and Miskel, 2005). The essential aspects of school leadership are more than simply possessing and carrying out certain technical skills to ensure effective and ef ¬Ã‚ cient management of organizational operations (Sergiovanni, 2009). The emphasis and preoccupation with bureaucratic scientism and management perspectives has given way to the importance of value, moral, and ethical bases for educational leadership decision making. There is an increasing recognition that putatively value free administrative decisions and actions are actually value-laden, even value-saturated enterprises(s) (Hodgkinson, 1978, p.122) that undergird our understanding of what Green ¬Ã‚ eld (1985, 1999), and others (Green, 1990) have articulated in more precise terms as the careful location of purpose and worth in things, or in other words moral education and moral leadership. This recognition of value-driven, moral leadership action, according to Hodgkinson (1978), is an administrative logic of a new order. The Ethic of the Profession and the Model for Promoting Students Best Interests (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2001, 2005; Stefkovich, 2006), recognizes moral aspects unique to the profession that are primarily client-based and highlights the inevitable internal struggle experienced by school leaders due to a wide variety of considerations and factors that seek to inform and in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uence their moral practice as school leaders. This existential struggle can be characterized as a phenomenon of intrapersonal moral discord experienced as part of the process of deciding ethically when faced with dif ¬Ã‚ cult moral choices centered on personal versus organizational and/or professional value discrepancy, described as a clashing of codes within the framework. The professional ethic recognizes moral aspects unique to the profession of educational leadership and grounds the moral dimension of the profession on the monothetic injunction to serve the best interests of the student (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2001, p.23) whereby promoting the success of all students (ISLLC, 1996, p. 8) by focusing on the needs of children (Walker, 1998).