People With Disability And The Media Media Essay

People With Disability And The Media Media Essay The mass media serves many purposes. It is informative, descriptive, and persuasive but it also helps create stereotypes and reinforce cultural values. Although there is no clear correlation of the effects media has on the attitudes of society towards people with disabilities it is seen to have an influence. People with disabilities and their concerns are either invisible, marginalised, or depicted by negative stereotypes in the media The media seem to distinguish people with disabilities in a number of limited categories. They are portrayed as either heroes for doing something inspirational or achieving something great, as people who should be pitied for their impairment or as people who are sinister or evil and evoke fear. Rarely do they appear and remain in the media in habitual roles. In our society people with disabilities are excluded, oppressed, treated unequally, seen as helpless and are victims of prejudice. Many news articles concerning disability contain stories regarding cures, or overcoming the disability. The Irish Examiner recently featured a story entitled Device lets blind soldier see again (Creedon 2010 p5). The focus in this story is a soldier, a hero, who lost his sight in the Iraqi war trying to regain a normal life and the device he uses enables him to get around without the use of a guide dog. This seems to portraying the need to hide the disability and to somehow fix it, or find a cure for it. Some famous people are also known for trying to overcome their disability and never accepting it. Christopher Reeve, famously known for his role as superman, became a wheelchair user and required breathing equipment following an accident where he thrown from his horse. He never fully accepted his disability and became an advocate for stem cell research to find a cure. President F.D Roosevelt was a wheelchair user but there are claims that only two photos of 35,000 showed him in his w heelchair (Hevey 1992, Delamothe 1992). In another recent story, Autistic boy seeks return of facilities (Kilfeather 2010 p2) a boy is portrayed as being denied his constitutional rights because he is not provided with equipment he requires. On the same page as this article is a story about a young autistic girl who is a hero and is overcoming her obstacles. This story, Grace iPhone app makes a difference (Ó Cionnaith 2010 p2) does hold positive information for people with autism however in the development of a new device to assist communication but they are treating her as astonishingly impressive. Oliver (1990) noted that people with disabilities were described as extraordinary or sub-ordinate humans. People with disabilities were used as a source of melodramatic entertainment in circuses across Europe and America throughout the 20th century as depicted in Mel Brooks The Elephant man in 1980 and Tod Browning Freaks film in 1932. Disability was not understood at the time and was seen as evil, works of the devil and something to be feared. Cultural views has changed drastically since institutionalization and become more accepting of people with disabilities, although it still needs huge improvements. Soap operas are very popular nowadays. They are entertaining but directly relate to ordinary life experiences and are an excellent way of portraying social issues. They do not include people with disabilities very often, and when they do the person with the disability finds a cure or leaves again. EastEnders, a UK based soap, has included a character with bi polar disorder and a character with paralysis recently. These characters are depicted excellently and will hopefully set a precedent for other soaps. Robert Zemeckis 1994 film Forrest Gump is a widely known film starring a character with autism. This film involves positive and negative imagery. Firstly, he is a hero for his achievements in war but then he is also portrayed as having normal intimate feelings for a member of the opposite sex. He is not just shown as a supernatural human but as a sufferer of unrequited love which is a usual feature of many characters in fiction. This film is an exception to most for its representation of disability. The images the media render can be seen as very conflicting. The current television advertisements to promote safe driving evoke a sense of pity and horror in the viewer to the results of a car accident, such as facial disfigurement, paralysis, undesirability and total dependence on others of the victim. Parents and family are then seen as burdened with the victim of the car accident who now has a disability. There is an emphasis on who is going to provide for victim when the care givers die. There is also a stress on rehabilitation following an accident. If one is a victim of an accident and becomes a wheelchair user one must try to correct that by participating in rehabilitation. Even plastic surgery can be seen as a pressure by society to conform to what is seen to be conventional. This ideology is a product of cultural values and norms, reinforced by the media portrayal of flawlessness. On the other hand, The National Disability Authoritys campaign called Challenging Attitudes, first launch in December 2007, was designed to change peoples views on mental health issues by using television, radio advertisements and posters (see appendix 1). They use a number of words to describe a person and include a mental health phrase such as depression, schizophrenic, bi-polar etc. They are trying to persuade people to look at the person as a whole, not in terms of the disability. This is contradictory to the message given by the car accident advertisements where a person with a disability is seen in terms of their disability and it is something to be feared. The Public Attitudes to Disability in Ireland (2008) report found that many people thought that children with disabilities should not attend mainstream schooling. This shows huge discrimination and problems changing cultural attitudes towards people with disabilities when it cannot be accepted in schools. In this study it was found that 60% of the respondents thought that disability was created by barriers in society which is an idea founded in the social model of disability (Oliver, 1983). This is a big increase since the 2002 report which found that only 25% of people saw society as creating barriers for people with disabilities. Public attitudes are shifting in a positive direction. From practice placement it is evident in a local town in North Kerry that some businesses in the town do not allow young children with a range of physical and mental disabilities into their premises. If they do allow them in it is only at a certain times of the day for a given period. Many of the staff working with these young children are harassed by local people saying that those people should be locked away as they were frightening their children and they should not be behaving like that in public. Environments and attitudes like this exclude people with disabilities and prevent positive socialisation. Huge investment needs to be placed into re-educating the people in our society. People with disabilities are not usually seen in primary roles in television programmes. A study by Cumberbatch and Negrine (1992) in the United Kingdom reveal that the most prevailing stories regarding disability in the media included people with a disability achieving something major or finding a cure. They examined an eight week period of television programming over a number of channels. They also found that people with disabilities only appeared .5% of fictional programmes. Contrasting to the UK study, The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting (2009) showed that people with disabilities featured more in fictional programmes then nonfiction. Perhaps this means a shift in images over the period of time. In the report, they concluded that: People with disabilities are more likely to be obviously present in drama, comedy and lifestyle programming and are less evident in news, sports and music programming (The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting, 2009) People with disabilities have only begun to appear in advertisements since the 1980s, most frequently they are seen on charity advertisements appealing for financial support. These advertisements and depictions are mostly controlled by able-bodied people. Mason (1982) argues in her poem that people with disabilities are silenced when it comes to their portrayal in the media so as not to disrupt the image of dependency and need. The Special Olympics advertisement appeals for financial support utilises children in evoking pity in the audience. Many people with disabilities feel that they have no say in these decisions about how they are publicized in the media. They are represented by others who may not understand their needs. More people with disabilities need to be included in the decision making processes. The Irish population seem to be enraptured by the current story of the conjoined twins, Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, they have almost become celebrities because of their disabili ty. They have been featured in national and local newspapers, on radio shows and on the television. The media have played a very important role in portraying their image and appealing for financial assistance. A recently conducted workshop in Dublin by Dr. Philip Nitschke, commonly known as Dr. Death in the media, could potentially be very dangerous. His workshops consist of information as to how a person can commit suicide safety and efficiently. Dr. Nitschke is the first doctor in the world to conduct a physician assisted suicide, first done in Australia in 1996. He claims his workshops are aimed at elderly people and those who are terminally ill, but he cannot guarantee that the information he has given will not be used by others such as people affected with mental health issues or people with disabilities. He gives clear information about methods of suicide and he also tells people where to get items to assist their suicide. Although suicide is not illegal in Ireland, euthanasia is and having access to this information could encourage more suicide especially in the more vulnerable in society and in a culture where disability is looked upon as requiring a cure. There have been some positive changes in Irish legislation and policies in recent years. A Strategy for Equality (1996) has influenced some of these changes. This report was made in conjunction with people with disabilities and it made many recommendations. One of the recurring recommendations in the report is to provide training to professionals and individuals such as presenters, journalists, teachers, students, people with disabilities etc. regarding the use of terminology and imagery. It seems that the principle problem lies in the lack of education regarding people with disabilities. Disability is ignored more often than it is acknowledged. This report also recommends that news regarding people with disabilities should feature in mainstream news and not in special correspondence. As they are underrepresented in the media the topic of disability should be made more visible. There is a clear lack of participation in game shows and talent shows by people with disabilities. The report also found that people in the deaf community felt that more programmes need to be subtitled to create equal access; however this issue has been addressed greatly since this report which is a positive action towards inclusivity. The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting (2009) illustrate that people are more willing to accept and listen to people with disabilities in the media where people with disabilities take part. Overall, however people with disabilities only accounted for 1% of the proportion of people on television even though they account for 10% of the population (Public Attitudes to Disability in Ireland, 2008). They are highly under represented. The programmes involving people with disabilities featured unemployment problems, unusual medical syndromes, being victims of violence and abuse, unequal opportunities, unable to commit to and sustain sexual relationships, etc. This seems to reinforce stereotyping of people with disabilities and portrays a very negative image to the population. There is legislation in Ireland to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. The Employment Equality Acts 1998 2004 and the Equal Status Acts 2000 -2004 provides that it is illegal to discriminate in workplaces and in service provision on a number of grounds. This is recent legislation that could potentially have a positive effect on peoples values and norms. Also the Disability Act 2005 provides that 3% of positions in public sector organisations must held for people with disabilities. Although this is discrimination against able bodied people, it is for a positive reason and should hopefully encourage more acceptances of people with disabilities. If communities are more exposed to people with disabilities, attitudes and cultural norms would change. In conclusion, it is a slow process but the media is beginning to change its images and the culture is becoming more accepting of people with disabilities. Perhaps it would be worth considering initiatives regarding how prejudice against black people or homosexual people were addressed and how effective they were in planning action and reducing prejudice for the disabled community. References Creedon, L., (2010) Device lets blind soldier see again. The Irish Examiner, March 16th, 5 Cumberbatch, G Negrine, R., (1992) Images of disability on television, Routledge Darke, London Delamothe, T., (1992) Thank You. Medicine and the Media, May 2nd, 1186 EastEnder, 2010 (Soap) Directed by Julia Smith. UK: Elstree Studios Forrest Gump, 1994 (Film) Directed by Robert Zemeckis. USA: Paramount Pictures Freaks, 1932 (Film) Directed by Tod Browning. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hevey, D., (1992) The Creatures Time Forgot: Photography and Disability Imagery. Routledge, London. Kilfeather, V., (2010) Autistic boy seeks return of facilities. Irish Examiner, March 16th, 2 Leavy, S. (2010) Does the freedom to die enhance lives? Irish Medical Times, March 28th Mason, M., (1982) From the inside, In from the cold. Summer 12-13 National Disability Authority Broadcasting commission of Ireland., (2009) The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting, Executive Summary. Dublin. National Disability Authority., (1996) Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, A Strategy for Equality 1996. Statistical Consulting, Dublin. National Disability Authority., (2008) Public Attitudes to Disability in Ireland. Insight Statistical Consulting, Dublin. Ó Cionnaith, F., (2010) Grace iPhone app makes a difference. Irish Examiner, March 16th, 2 Oliver, M., (1983) Social work with disabled people. Macmillan, UK. Oliver, M., (1990) The politics of disablement. Macmillan, UK. The Elephant man, 1980 (Film) Directed by Mel Brooks. USA: Paramount Pictures Bibliography Barnes, C. Mercer, G. (2003) Disability. Polity Press, Cambridge. Barnes, C., Mercer, G. Shakespeare, T. (1999) Exploring Disability, A Sociological Introduction. Polity Press, Cambridge. Whalley Hammell, K., (2006) Perspectives on Disability Rehabilitation; contesting assumptions; challenging practice. Elsevier Limited, UK.

Engaging in Cio-Cxo “Conversations That Matter”

Individual Assignment Engaging in CIO-CxO â€Å"Conversations that Matter†: An Interview with Peter Keen. MIS Quarterly Executive 9(1): (2010). Hamza Lahkim Bennani 10-24-2012 MIS 3301 Dr. Chihab Benmoussa Reflection Q1: I have heard you say more than once that CxOs are not interested in â€Å"IT. † Can you explain what you mean by that? Peter Keen, The chairman and advisor of Keen Innovations, answered this question very clearly, where he stated that it is important that CxOs know the importance of information systems in their company and how it can extend and integrate relationships between the companies processes.For the majority of CxOs, knowing the innards of an information system is not as crucial as knowing how the plateform developed is used and how it can increase the performance of a company. He talked about Facebook where he showed how 300 million people use it daily but don’t know how the plateform works, they just use it for communicating with people . CxOs are tuning out, and the more comfortable they are about the value of IT, the less they want or need to tune in on the old technology discourses† said Peter Keen, which means that even when CxOs start using IS in their company and giving it importance, they don’t regret it and think that is enables more business capacities. â€Å"Over the last five years, the whole business has become much moreIT-aware and IT-literate, and sees the need to get more involved in IT so that business benefits are delivered.As a result, It has become more influential and more proactive. , and has driven an increasingly an entreprisewide culture. † (Andrew Mullock, CIO, BNP Paribas) As far as CIOs are concerned, Peter Keen thinks that their role in the corporation is as important as the role of any other CxO, sometimes even more important. CIOs know exactly what is going on inside the comany, and through information technology they know how to solve problems in a very efficient a nd effective way.CIOs should be among the decision making commitee inside the company; their influence on strategical decisions could be very important and fruitful. Peter Keen thinks that business-savvy CIOs are the ones who know how to communicate with other people inside the company, from the CxOs to the emloyees in the IS or IT departement. Key skills of today’s CIO include the ability to translate Board requirements into solutions. He needs to talk the language of the Board and the investors. All innovation in our industry will be technology- led or technology facilitated. (McGill, 2011)As I see it, CxOs and CIOs are interdependant in an organization, they should all work in a harmony that will enable the company to perform better in terms of solving inner problems that will eventually enhance profi making and more revenues. It is illustrated in the example Peter Keen gave by saying that and General is not an army without his subordinates. In this case, the general are t he CxOs, and the subordinate are the CIO and the people working in the IT department. To put it in a nutshell, companies should not think that It is involved only when there is something not working weel inside the company and work is not well synchronised.Q2: As you look back at the last 30 years, how do you think that the role of the CIO has changed in terms of its focus on the operations mission vis-a- vis business strategy, and what does that suggest for CIO role changes in the future ? For Peter Keen, the role of the CIO nowadays compared to 30 years ago underwent some changes. Before, a CIO was just a technology shop manager that is considered one of the costs to be controlled; but years later, the role of the CIO has changed to be a crucial part of an organization, that is now responsible for many tasks such as cost containment and operations liability.Insourcing and outsourcing is also one of the tasks a CIO is responsible of, and it is bringing competitive advantage to orga nizations. CIOs have got a lot of attention recently despite the economic turdowns in the recent years. CIOs have some skills and capabilities that can help comapnies concentrate on business operations and help them solve some cross-functional problems that still confuses many entreprises. â€Å"For yesterday’s CIOs, and many of today’s as well, it was enough to have two out of three key capabilities – personal leadership, technology leadership and business acumen. Tomorrow’s CIO will need all three. † (Brumby, 2010)I think that CIOs should be in charge of more strategic tasks. Being a CIO and evolving well inside the company is difficult and requires certain skills that not all CxOs have. As for Peter keen, he assumes that the CIO’s role will have more importance and gets more attention within time in the future. The following diagram illustrates the role of a CIO in an organization and how it works. (IBM, 2008) Q3: At your ICIS 2009 presen tation you talked about â€Å"conversations that matter. † Could you expand on that? Peter Keen in the answer of this question focused most on innovation, and how the CIOs innovation can better help an organization.Besides, Professor Keen talekd about the importance of use of the appropriate language to between CIOs. He also pointed that for a conversation to be effective, the things that should be discussed are things that are worth sharing, questioning and arguing about rather than shop-talk and social chat. For Peter keen, some intersections that are between CxOs, CIOs, IT proffesionals and educators’ dialogs, are the kind of discussions where CxOs are present and that are never cancelled anr successful because there is someone high up in the organization who cares about them as personal and leadership riority. In these intersections, some irreversible business decisions are made, where most fruitful discussions are about how to enter a market overseas and other imp ortant subjects. CIOs are usually present in those conversations for the aim of bringing somme innovation in sloving some issues like costs of operations and not discussing them. Few years ago, moving IT as a profession towards business awareness has well progressed as CxOs came late to see that IT is a great opporunity for them to evoluate the coordination of technology for thei company, saying that they were unimaginative ever before.As I see it, companies have been losing or badly investing in some things that are worthless relatively to what IT has done in the business domain. Q4: Why do conversations that matter in CxO circles address innovation, rather than invention? Dr. Keen thinks that innovation is better than innovation because invention is bout product features the logic of benefits, however innovation is about inventing value. As far as CxOs are consered, Peter Keen stated that they should be among the exclusive people in an organization to be able to talk about innovat ion.For him, no invention nor innovation should be under/overestimated. RFID is an example of the problems happening while going from invention to business value. â€Å"Successful companies actively cultivate new ideas, put those ideas to work quickly and efficiently, and harvest the business value benefits of successful innovations. Discussions of innovation often focus on what a company offers, that is, its products and services. In Managing Information Technology Innovation for Business Value, Esther Baldwin and Martin Curley show how successful IT innovations pay back handsomely as well.Innovation is not just about what a company offers, innovation is also about how a company conducts business and how IT innovation can transform an organization into a significantly more efficient company. † (Baldwin & Curley , 2009) What Peter tried to say here is that investing in an innovative IT solution provides even greater business value. Practicing innovation is necessary to make a firm’s IT investment successful, and that is what some Intel Corporation IT managers have learned through many years of experience. Q5: Can you give us some examples of conversations for innovation?Peter Keen explained and showed what conversations for innovation talk about, mostly about how IT is changing the financial structures of the enterprise in a deleveraged world, and how we are moved to a variable cost business model. He used Amazon as an example to show that IT makes organizations decrease their costs the maximum; for Amazon for instance, thei have over 2 million storesbut did not invest in fixed capital assets. For him, the discussions and conversations between the CIO and the CFO is very important, and that a good collaboration between the two is very advised for the better making of money.Both of them can learn from the other, and so come up with very good ideas and make strategic decisions when needed. He also said that these one of a kind companies like Google , Amazon, Apple and Wal-Mart inspire other companies and help them make better decisions based on one of a kind companies. There is the famous example of Wal-Mart, where CIOs and other CxOs work in harmony and have conversations mostly on implementing new strategies that will help them minimize costs as much as they could. The strategy of Wal-Mart is having no warehouses.When they run out of stock, people in the IT departement can have access and check their suppliers warehouse and see if the product they run out of stock from is available, if so they just order it through this database. This strategy helped Wal-Mart minimize the cost of the warehouses, their electricity bills, less employees to pay, and finally decrease their phone bills fee. Q6: Let us take the example of a currently-hyped technical issue such as cloud computing. How can we transform that into a conversation for innovation?For this question, Peter Keen said that when talking about cloud computing as a conversation for innovation, things that could be discussed are about how can cloud computing change the variabe cost structure of the entreprise, and how it can add flexibility and speed of responde for the IT organization. For Dr. Keen, chaning the customer experience is very important, and IT can help do that. He said that it is useless if CxOs are going to talk about virtualization or open cloud standards. Cloud computing has present an attractive opportunity to both small business and large enterprise.Traditional information systems were predominately operated on physical machines that were in house. The emergence of cloud computing makes it possible to develop information systems on virtual machines that are hosted by cloud service providers. For the companies that IT is not their core business, cloud computing presents an opportunity to save costs on the development of information systems that support their major business operations. (Chou, 2007) Q7: What is it that you think the IT prof essional worker in general knows that brings special value to the organization?What is their distinctive competence in the next decade? For Peter Keen, the competences that distinguish IT professionals are bein good at analyzing business processes and multi-functional at the same time. It is in usually necessary and plays a crucial role in the innovation conversation because CIOs know how to integrate and put all pieces together. He gave the example of people in the organization not kowing how things work in other departements, but stated that people in the IT departement have an idea about the general processes of the organizations they are working for.What also distinguishes IT people is that they really understand data assurance, data integrity and version control, which are distinctive competences thay have. For Keen, it is important not to underestimate the difficulties of implementing the innovation of a new genration technology. The IT coordination skills can equally live in the business, the IT organization, or in a third-party provider. In a world where achieving results can often require the participation of a multitude a loosely related resources, effective coordination skills are paramount. Among these skills we find coordination, analysis and innovation. (Reichental, 2011)Q8: What does all this mean for IS academics as researchers and teachers? Keen briefly stated that executive education needs to be reinvented in order to develop the next generation of IT leaders, for him CIOs and CxOs who innovate have their efforts becoming practice by other IT professionals who are growing in order to become next CIOs or CxOsIn terms of their educational function, IS academics need to consider their role in the wider context of social and political changes. These include the delivery of generic IS/IT skills through all levels and types of education (Gough, 2000). (Hemingway, 2000) References Charles, B. (2002).Successful e-business strategy: The potential of e lectronic marketplaces. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia. David , K. , & Richard , H. (1993). Business information systems. (5th ed. ). New York: McGraw Hill. Hemingway, C. , & Gough, T. (2000). The value of information systems teaching and research in the knowledge society. In Fluency with information technology (Vol. 3). Cranfield: Hussain, K. M. , & Hussain, D. S. (1995). Information systems for business. (2nd ed. ). Padstow, UK: T. J Press. Judith, C. S. (2001). Introduction to information systems. Crawfordsville: R. R. Donnelley. DOI: www. wiley. com/college/simon Kroenke. & Hatch, (1994). Management information systems. (3rd ed. ). Watsonville: McGraw Hill. Leonard, J. , & Joseph, V. (2003). Information systems today. New JErsey: Prentice Hall. Paul, L. (1994). Information-systems development. Great Britain: Clays Ltd, St Ives pls. Richard, N. (2002). Service management: Strategy and leadership in service business. (3rd ed. ). Weinheim: John Wiley & sons, LTD. Stuart, B. (2 002). Knowldege management systems: Theory and practice. (2nd ed. ). London: The Alden Press. Turban, R. P. (2003). Introduction to informatin technology. (2nd ed. ). Danvers: John Wiley & sons, Ltd. DOI: wwww. wiley. com/college/turban

Avoiding Alignment Trap Essay

This case analysis discusses the findings in the article ‘Avoiding the Alignment Trap’, where even though most companies are aware that IT must be aligned with business strategy in terms of aligning IT expenses with revenue growth, over 11% of companies that align IT with business strategy spend more than 13% on average on IT expenses with a resulting of less than 14% average in revenue growth. The objective of this case analysis is to recommend a governance arrangement that will lead most companies that are currently have less effective IT alignment with business alignment to IT-enabled growth where the cost of IT more than compensates with the revenue growth of the company. The recommendation is to adopt a Duopoly governance arrangement where both the CEO and CIO make decisions, form a committee to oversee IT decisions and business strategy decisions made by these leaders, and ensure adequate decision making and monitoring of performance based on IT and business-relate d decisions. The ISO 38500 can be used as a framework to monitor these decisions and evaluate IT decisions based on their effectiveness, alignment with overall strategy and the value they bring to the organization. CURRENT SITUATION According to the article, almost every company is aware that IT and business strategies must be aligned in order to gain competitive advantage in their industry. This means their IT spending must be matched with their growth strategies. To test this notion, the authors of this article surveyed 452 companies and received 504 responses. The survey determined the companies IT spending and 3-year sales compounding to determine annual growth rate. In their survey, they have found the following: 1.74% of these companies do not align IT to their business strategies. Companies allocate enough funds to their IT necessary to keep the systems running. It is not meant to add value to the business. As a result, their growth rate is 2% below on average on a three-year span 2.11% of these companies have highly aligned IT with business strategy, but not highly effective. Their IT spending was 13% higher than average and their revenue growth rate was 14% below average  3.8% of these companies spent 15% lower than average on IT that resulted in an 11% above average revenue growth rate. 4.7% of these companies spent 6% lower than average on IT that resulted in more than 35% above average revenue growth rate. To apply these findings against the different governance models, the 74% of companies that do not align IT to their business strategies have a Federal Model of Governance Arrangements. Federal Models are decisions made by leaders from different functional departments and in this type of Governance Model, they mostly pay more attention on Business Application Needs and less on IT Principles, IT Architecture & Infrastructure Strategies. 11% of companies that are highly aligned and yet incur more spending than revenue growth fall to the Business Monarchy Governance Model. In this type of governance arrangements, decisions are made by senior business leader. In the Charles Schwab example in the article, their governance arrangement is IT Monarchy. Their decisions were made by IS leader and put more emphasis on IT Architecture, Infrastructure strategies and have resulted in worst business application needs. CRITERIA To put an organization in an IT-enabled growth quadrant, an organization should adopt a Duopoly Model of governance arrangement where senior business leaders and IS leaders make decisions jointly. In other words, the CEO and CIO must work closely together to formulate the best IT principles and align it with the firm’s business strategy as a whole. Also, they must implement information technology that is less complex. In the words of Leonardo Da Vinci per the article ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’ By reducing complexity, the company builds simplified, standardized infrastructure rather than extensive customizing of information technology. With these 2 put together, it can result in effective IT governance which will enable growth in revenue in the future. Alternatives and Recommendations With respect to the article, the 85% of the companies that fall to the less effective quadrant in IT governance can start adopting a Duopoly Governance Arrangement where both the CEO and CIO work together and make decisions  jointly. With Duopoly, a committee can be formed to oversee IT decisions, rate the IT leadership by the CIOs & continuous monitoring managers within the organization in their decision making & oversight. However, some organizations do not adopt a duopoly governance arrangement due to its size. Therefore, the next governance arrangement that can be adopted by the organizations is the Business Monarchy where decisions are made by senior business leader. With this model, the business leader can ask for the financial manager’s help to identify the kinds of information and system the organization needs, perform cost-benefit analysis, evaluate options based on priority setting and needs assessment and determine what’s important and upgrade as benefit. Most of all, there must be adequate communication throughout the organization of the decision. The article suggests that to achieve an effective IT governance, companies must keep their IT environment simple. Although achieving a simple IT environment and standardizing it within the organization requires investment of time and money, in the future this can lead to lower costs. Even though complexity can still creep in, it is suggested that the company have an early-warning indicator that will keep track of IT spending with product development. If this ratio starts to increase, it is a sign that it’s time for another simplification. Down the road, companies can reach th e IT-enabled quadrant where costs are less and revenue growth is more. RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN To avoid the alignment trap, the best governance arrangement that can help an organization change its status from being trapped in aligning IT with business strategy to IT-enabled growth is to adapt a Duopoly governance arrangement where senior business leaders and IS leaders make decisions jointly-meaning the CEO and the CIO work closely together. Both these decision makers can form a committee to oversee IT decisions and ensure managers are monitored in their decision-making and oversight. They must also adapt a simple IT application; eliminate add-ons and replacing legacy systems. For guidance in decision making by the committee, the organizations can adopt ISO 38500 where the following 6 principles focuses on 3 main tasks. These 6 principles are: 1.Responsibility – everyone involved in the  committee should understand responsibilities and have the authority to meet those responsibilities 2.Strategy – aligning IT Strategy & Organizational Strategy and analysing the current and future situations of the organization and consider both the needs of organization and those that can be done within its own IS department 3.Acquisitions – can be made after both careful and rational analysis. The acquisition decision must be transparent and justified 4.Performance – information systems are implemented such that service levels and quality levels meet the organization’s needs both now and in the future 5.Conformance – compliance with regulations & legislations 6.Human Behaviour – ensures respect for current and evolving needs of all individuals involved The 3 main tasks are: 1.Evaluate current and future needs on a continual basis – focuses on continual improvement & incorporates the principles above both now and in the future 2.Preparation and Implementation of investment plans – the committee needs to make sure that responsibilities for plans and policies are clearly being assigned 3.Monitor performance and conformance to policies against the plans – crucial in monitoring expected service levels being met. If this is not done properly, then there won’t be appropriate information for decision making. Reaching the IT-enabled quadrant is not easy and it involves a big investment in simplifying the IT used within the organization. This is why most organizations focuses temporarily on effectiveness of IT implementations within the organization more than alignment of IT with organizational strategy. This means giving up specific applications customized on a particular division in order to achieve its desired performance and centralizing and simplifying a good part of the IT function.

Christianity and The Lutheran Religion - 847 Words

The Lutheran religion was originally branched from Christianity, and is a massive Protestant denomination currently. Nearly 66 million people worldwide practice this religion (Lutheranism). Lutheran has a membership which exceeds any other Protestant denomination. Germany is the primary Lutheran country, as it was from the start (Martin Luther 1483-1546, BBC). This religion dates back to 1517, the founder of this religion was Martin Luther (McHugh, John). Martin Luther was born on November 10th, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany (Michael J. O’Neal/Sydney Jones, 225). According to a legend, Martin Luther was riding a horse when a storm struck and he was hit by lightening. He said: â€Å"Help, Sainte Anne! I’ll become a monk.† He was saved and made an Augustinian monk (Michael J. O’Neal/Sydney Jones, 226). Two years later, Luther was ordained and began teaching at the University of Wittenberg. In 1512 he earned a doctorate in theology (Lutheranism). Over the next few years, Martin Luther began to believe that the Catholic Church was being dishonest. This lead Martin Luther to post his ‘95 theses’ against the practice of selling indulgence (Lutheranism). He hoped for a reformation of the church, however once it became obvious to him that a reformation would not occur; he began to share his own views. He continued to inform people on his perspective, regardless of being excommunicated from the church. Luther had transformed his view on the religion; believing that Christians are savedShow MoreRelatedProtestant Reformation1706 Words   |  7 Pagessignificant number of priests in the 16th century tried to transform Christianity back to its previous Biblical basis and simplicity. Initially, priests channeled much of their efforts in reforming the church, but they discovered that it was very challenging, and the only viable solution was to split completely from the Catholic Church. There were four movements as a result of the reformation events. They include the Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed Tradition (Calvin), and the Anabaptists. Key figures inRead MoreSweden : A Scandinavian Country922 Words   |  4 Pagesparliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. Their current monarch is Carl XVI Gustaf. The main religion is Lutheranism, a form or Protestant Christianity. Other practiced religions includes: Paganism, Catholicism, Judaism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. There is a lso numerous individuals in Sweden who are atheist. Sweden became a kingdom around the twelfth century where Christianity was their main religion. By the middle ages, Sweden controlled Finland and Norland. By this time King Gustav Vasa was inRead MoreMy Interview to a Lutheran Essay561 Words   |  3 Pagessomeone I knew. So I decided to interview my roommate. Ive known him since sixth grade, and he is a Lutheran. I was raised a Catholic and I had a lot of friends who were Lutheran. When I was a kid I really didnt think any differently about it, but now for this paper I get to interview a friend and see what his religion is all about and what he thinks. I asked him first about what his religion was about, like a little summary about it. It all started with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses that heRead MoreThe Beliefs that Effect Christianity Essay1228 Words   |  5 PagesChristianity is a diverse religion with a multitude of beliefs that comprise the core of the religion. There are an abundant number of sects within Christianity however there are a few core principles which are generally true for all of them, for example the belief of the Holy Trinity or better known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is what would be considered a primary belief. A primary belief is an idea that is a generally universal idea that is accepted by all the differentRead MoreSite Visit Report : St. Paul Lutheran Church1361 Words   |  6 Pages33326 St. Paul Lutheran Church (954) 384-9096 Lutheran Hours of worship: Jean Gillis Sundays 8 A.M. 11 A.M. Site Visit Report: St. Paul Lutheran Church The Lutheran religion is a branch of Protestant Christianity, and it was a result of their founder, Dr. Martin Luther, stepping away from the Roman Catholic religion in his mission to reform it. Luther’s intention was never to create a new religion; he solely wantedRead MoreComparing Christian Vs. Baptism1013 Words   |  5 PagesComparing Lutheran vs Baptism Lutherans and Baptists are both Christians who are also Protestants. They share many beliefs and have more similarities than differences. Both happen to be reformists within the fold of Christianity. However, there are many different branches of Baptists with differences between them too. In Lutheran, baptism is seen as a work of God and so even infants are baptized. On the other hand, baptism is only for believers among Baptists, and this is the reason why infants areRead MoreChristianity And Church History During The 20th Century1063 Words   |  5 Pagesstory is told from the perspective of the common people or individual. In this paper, the history of Christianity will told from below. It will be told from the prospective of an individual who was born and lived in South Africa in the middle 20th century, during apartheid. First, this paper will briefly discuss the beginning of Christianity in South Africa. Second, it will discuss Christianity and church history during the 20 th century, which is the main time period referenced in the paper. ThirdRead MoreLutheranism And Calvinism857 Words   |  4 PagesThese are the reasons I believe Lutheranism is better than Calvinism and why you should leave the Catholic Church and come and join Lutheranism. Firstly, Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther. Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a German monk, reformer, and theologian. Calvinism is the religious doctrines of John Calvin. Calvin stressed that people are saved through Gods grace, not through their own merits. The most famous of CalvinsRead MoreMartin Luther the Evangelical Educator Essay examples1443 Words   |  6 Pagescatholic faith had existed for centuries (since 325 C.E. Constantinople, Council of Nicaea) without opposition to it legitimacy, but at the turn of 1500s new ideas on Christian belief erupted all over Europe causing a split between the Church. Christianity prior to the reformation was a part of the worshippers’ everyday life. Their home, work, and social lives were oriented around the Church, yet many 16th century Christians before the Reformation did not fully understand why. Most 16th centuryRead MoreHomosexuality in Religion1795 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"Homosexuality in Christianity† Comparable to racism and sexism, homophobia is another type of discrimination that will, unfortunately, most likely always exist throughout this generation. Religion and The idea of homosexuality tends to be offensive to many religiously people, especially Christians. One of the â€Å"Golden Rules† stated in the Bible is to treat others how you would like to be treated, yet homosexuals are mistreated by many Christians all the time. The issue of homosexuality in Christianity has many