Legal Sources of the UK Constitution and Human Rights Law

Legal Sources of the UK Constitution and Human Rights Law 1. The UK constitution is described as an unwritten one. Explain with reference to the legal sources of the UK constitution and appropriate examples, why it is called unwritten, and consider whether the distinction between a written and unwritten constitution is legally significant. The word constitution has many different meanings, however only two of them are applicable to constitutional law. Firstly, constitution could mean a written document which contains the rules and principles according to which a country is run. Secondly, the word constitution could refer to: the body of rules and arrangements concerning the government of the country.[1] The second definition does not impose any requirement of writing. It should be stressed that although some states do not have a written constitution every country in the world, including the UK, has a constitution in the second sense of the word. Over the centuries the attitude towards the British/English constitution ranged from admiration to sever criticism. Thomas Paine went even further, he ruled out a possibility that an English constitution could exist.[2] The British constitution has been sometimes described as ‘political.’ Griffith believes the word ’political’ can be used to refer to a wide range of qualities, e.g. the UK constitution assumes equality of all citizens and many important rules are not legal rules. He also stressed that operation of the constitution is closely linked to Parliament and Parliamentary elections, this leads to a conclusion that the British constitution must be analysed in the political context.[3] The UK constitution draws on a wide range of sources: statutes, common law, the royal prerogative, international treaties and agreements, conventions and academic texts written by legal experts. As an expression of Parliament’s will statutes are the most important source of law, some of them have a particular constitutional significance, e.g. the Magna Carta 1215, the Act of Settlement 1701, the Representation of the People Act 1983 and the Human Rights Act 1998. Another written source of law is case-law. Although judges should merely interpret the law, and not get involved into a law making process, many crucial legal principles have been established in the course of legal proceedings, for example in British Railways Board v Pickin[4] Lord Reid said that the courts have no power to overrule Acts of Parliament on any grounds. International treaties and agreements, such as for instance the Treaty of Rome 1957, have also become a source of English law; similarly, texts written b y legal experts may acquire exceptional legal significance, e.g. Diceys An Introduction to the Study of Law of the Constitution. The unwritten sources of the UK constitution are the royal prerogative and conventions. The royal prerogative stems from the powers which used to be exercised exclusively by the monarch and which are now exercised by the ministers on the Queens behalf. The examples of the royal prerogative are the power to declare war, the control over the appointment of ministers and the right to dissolve Parliament. The legal nature of conventions is somewhat different, they are non-legal norms which should be obeyed by those to whom they apply; although conventions cannot be enforced by the courts they are usually respected. As the above discussion illustrates, a large part of the constitution is written. However, due to lack of a separate document which could be called a constitution this fact is often disregarded and the UK constitution is said to be unwritten. The unwritten character of the UK constitution, or rather the existence of unwritten rules, has serious legal implications. The first point to note is that Parliament can pass and revoke the law as it sees fit. Until recently the British constitution did not guarantee any rights; although an Act, called the Bill of Rights, was enacted as early as 1688 it dealt exclusively with issues related to Parliament and Crown. This meant that, in theory, Parliament could pass any legislation it considered appropriate even if it infringed rights of UK citizens. Prior to the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 the only limitation on the Parliamentary sovereignty in cases involving of human rights violation would have been the rule of law. However, effectiveness of the rule would have been limited if the courts, wanting to avoid interference with Parliamentary decisions, refused to enforce it. This should be juxtaposed with countries which have written constitutions and where rights of ordinary citizens are protected by specially drafted provisions. In addition to being uncodified the UK constitution is flexible and unitary (provided devolution is not taken into account) but it is not entrenched. The result is that while written constitutions are rigid the UK constitution is flexible, an advantage of flexibility is that any necessary changes can be introduced quickly and relatively easily. On the other however, lack of entrenchment leaves a lot of power in the hands of a small group of people. Moreover, unwritten constitutions always involve a degree of vagueness, the situation is made worse by the fact that norms which are not written cannot be enforced by the courts. These problems do not arise if the constitution is written, yet it does not follow that all the relevant law can be found in the constitution. Munro argued: â€Å"It ( ) also suggested, wrongly that in countries such as the United States, all the rules and arrangements concerning government had been reduced to writing in a single document. In practice, this is never the case.†[5] Both written and unwritten constitutions rely on the legal precedent, they are formed and modified by judicial interpretations of the law and political practices. The UK constitution is said to be unwritten however as has been shown above it is not, strictly speaking, true. The constitution relies on a wide range of sources and most of them can be found in writing. It has already been mentioned that the constitution can be described as political, yet following developments such incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights, membership of the European Union and changes which took place post-1997, more and more constitutional rules are being codified. Thus, according to Munro the UK constitution is becoming ’legal.’[6] It is, therefore, submitted that the gap between the unwritten British constitution and the written constitutions in other countries is gradually becoming narrower. The new EU constitution may close this gap entirely. BIBLIOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS Munro, Colin R, Studies in Constitutional Law, Butterworths, second edition, 1999. ARTICLES Griffith, John, The political constitution, (1979) 42 MLR 1. CASES British Railways Board v Pickin [1974] AC 765, [1974] 1 All ER 609. STATUTES, TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS 1215Magna Carta 1688Bill of Rights 1701Act of Settlement 1950 European Convention on Human Rights 1957Treaty of Rome 1983Representation of the People Act 1998Human Rights Act 2. Explain the doctrine of ministerial responsibility to Parliament. Consider whether it should be constitutionally necessary for Ministers to defend their decisions in judicial review claims before a court, as well as answering to Parliament for those decisions. Ministerial responsibility can be either collective or individual, since it is a convention it is unwritten and unenforceable in the courts of law. The operation of the doctrine can be described as follows: â€Å"Ministers are responsible for the general conduct of government, including the exercise of many powers legally vested in the Monarch; and ultimately, through Parliament and parties, to the electorate†[7] The convention of ministerial responsibility has a historical origin, it is a product of tradition and a multitude of historical events. In the nineteenth century ministerial departments used to be very small and the ministers’ workload was limited, in this circumstances it was not unreasonable to expect ministers to be responsible for all their civil servants; this explains how the doctrine of individual ministerial responsibility was born. Collective ministerial responsibility can be traced back to the ministers’ relationship with the Monarch, in the past the sovereign played a role of the Prime Minister and ministers were expected to answer to him. A minister who fails in the performance of his duties has four options: he can explain the situation to Parliament, apologise to Parliament, choose to take action or, in extreme cases, resign. The convention of individual ministerial responsibility has often been found problematic, it is not always clear when, and for what reasons, ministers should resign. It is debatable whether they should resign due to problems in their departments or only if they fail to accomplish tasks for which they are personally responsible. In the past ministers could not be excused from responsibility for their own civil servants, however following the Crichel Down affair (1954) the convention no longer seems to be so severe. It can even be argued that as ministers begun to refuse to resign there has been a shift towards the other extreme. In 1983 James Prior did not hand in his resignation over the Maze Prison escapes. In his view the fallings of the prison system resulted from an inadequate policy.[8] Th e Scott report also had an effect of limiting ministerial responsibility, it concluded that ministers should continue to answer to Parliament but they should no longer be personally responsible for the mistakes of their subordinates. The Nolan Report on the other hand deepened the extent of ministerial responsibility, it stated that ministers should avoid conflicts of interests and bear in mind the impact which their private lives may have on their ministerial positions.[9] The past few years have seen an increasing drive towards accountability, transparency and codification. Thus, in 1992 a decision was taken to publish the previously confidential Questions of procedure for ministers. The Questions, which are now known as Ministerial Code: A Code of Conduct and Guidance on Procedures for Ministers, provided guidance for ministers and played a role of a partly codified convention. In 1995 the Code was amended and the new version instructed ministers not to intentionally misinform Parliament. Appointment of Select Committees also had an impact on ministerial responsibility, the Committees can conduct their own enquiries, question ministers and interview witnesses. At the same time, however, complaints have been made regarding the availability of witnesses and access to documents. The doctrine of collective ministerial responsibility is based on three main principles: the confidence principle, the unanimity principle and the confidentiality principle. The fist principle presumes support of the House of Commons as long as the Government does not receive a vote of no confidence. The second principle imposes an obligation on ministers to vote unanimously while the confidentiality principle demands that any discussions which take place in Cabinet remain confidential. A good example of a breach of the convention of collective responsibility is Clare Short’s disapproval for the war in Iraq. Judicial review can be described as a process of challenging decisions of public bodies, public bodies include the executive but not Parliament. Judicial review proceeding are conducted by the Divisional Court of the Queens Bench. It should not be confused with an appeal procedure, judicial review involves an assessment of the legality of a decision. There are three grounds on which the court can declare a decision ‘unlawful:’ illegality, irrationality and procedural impropriety. Illegality arises when the law has been misunderstood or misinterpreted and therefore applied incorrectly, irrationality applies to cases where the judgement appears unreasonable or unfairness, while procedural impropriety refers to cases involving bias. Following the judgement in R. v. Secretary of State for the Environment, ex parte Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council[10] even discretionary ministerial powers can now be challenged in the process of judicial review. Nevertheless, review of ministerial powers will not be possible in cases involving political decisions, national security or government policy. In R v Director of GCHQ ex parte Hodges[11] one of the judges said: I apprehend for myself that the majority of their lordships were of the view that once it had been established by evidence that a decision had been made on behalf of Government in the interests of national security the whole ambit of that decision was one which the courts can neither enquire nor intervene. It is undisputable that the GCHQ case is a groundbreaking decision, instead of concentrating on the source of the power the courts have been encouraged to focus on its nature. Many forms of scrutiny of the ministerial power are already in place, ministers answer to Parliament, they are subject to judicial review and in cases of serious misconduct they may be investigated by the Select Committees. As regards the breach of conventions the sanctions are political rather than legal, this means that conventions may be ignored and courts are unable to compel the executive to obey them. Yet, ministers may be subjected to political pressure, Clare Short resigned two months after her Iraq war announcement while Sir Thomas Dugdale resigned over the Crichel Down affair. In the later case the process of Parliamentary scrutiny was as a result of pressure exerted by backbenches. In these circumstances, it does not seem necessary for the ministers to answer to Parliament as well as be subjected to judicial review. BIBLIOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS Munro, Colin R, Studies in Constitutional Law, Butterworths, second edition, 1999. ARTICLES Oonagh Gay, Thomas Powell, Individual ministerial responsibility issues and examples, Research Paper 04/31, (2004). Oonagh Gay, Thomas Powell, Collective responsibility of Ministers an outline of the issues, Research Paper 04/82, (2004). CASES R. v. Secretary of State for the Environment, ex parte Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council [1991] 1 AC 521. R v Director of GCHQ ex parte Hodges (1988) QBD. 3. Explain whether devolution has had any impact on the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament. Devolution is delegation of centrally held power to regional governments. In the 1980s New Labour advocated devolution in order to win votes in Scotland and Wales, however the actual process of transferring power did not gain momentum until the 1990s. Devolution featured in the New Labours election manifesto and it was only when New Labour won the general election that changes begun to take place. Yet, the reasons behind devolution were not only political but also economic. In the 1980s England was going through a period of high unemployment and although the economic situation in England was critical it was even worse in Scotland and Wales. There was also a feeling of discontent caused by an unequal distribution of EU funds and unfair economic policies which favoured England. Dissatisfaction with British rule was even more visible in Ireland where it frequently led to violence. The 1916 rebellion in Dublin, known as the Easter Rising, was followed by the two year civil war. Eventuall y, the persistence of Sinn Fein forced the British Government to negotiate and Ireland was divided into two parts. Britain retained a much smaller northern part which is now known as the Republic of Northern Ireland.[12] Both academics and politicians distinguish three different types of devolution: administrative, legal and financial.[13] As the name implies, administrative devolution involves delegation of power to manage parts of the administrative system. The central government retains control over related matters of greater importance, for instance even if a regional body is put in charge of healthcare and/or education, as it is the case in Scotland, privatisation decisions must be taken by Westminster. Financial devolution involves granting of power to rise taxes, change the taxation rate or make decisions concerning distribution of public funds. Similarly, legislative devolution refers to the transfer of rights to pass legislation. Devolution is often said to be asymmetrical this means that power is not distributed evenly, e.g. although the structure of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly are similar the later cannot legislate on policing and criminal matters.[14] These a rrangements have far-reaching consequences for Westminster, firstly it can be argued that following the break-up of the colonial system Parliament exercises its powers over a smaller geographical area.[15] Devolution, along with the membership of the European Union, create an impression that the remaining Parliamentary influence outside England is largely superficial. Secondly, the fact that devolution is asymmetrical could lead to calls for additional rights in order to redress the balance, the White Paper considering an extension of legislative powers of the National Assembly of Wales is already being considered.[16] According to Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, a classic work by Dicey, sovereignty means that Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.[17] In view of the above discussed developments can it still be argued that Westminster has not suffered any loss of sovereignty? Theoretically, there is no conflict between sovereignty and the process of devolution, in the memorandum to the Procedure Committee, the Leader of the House, Margaret Beckett said: None of the devolution legislation affects the House’s ability to pass legislation on any matter. For all public bills, the Government would expect that a convention would be adopted that Westminster would not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters without the consent of the devolved body.[18] Finally, Munro explains that being sovereign Parliament is free to impose limitations on its own power.[19] Despite what has been said above there is also evidence to the contrary, devolution produced a paradoxical effect known as the West Lothian Question. It means that although Scottish MPs can seat in the British Parliament and decide on issues related exclusively to England English MPs have no influence on similar Scottish issues which have been devolved. This situation has been severally criticised on many occasions and led to calls for an English Parliament.[20] Parliament tackled these problems by further devolution but this time power was devolved to the English regions, e.g. the Regional Agencies Act 1998 established development agencies[21] while in 2000 the newly established Greater London Authority saw its own elected Mayor and the London Assembly. In November 2005 the Government issued a Consultation Paper which proposes extending the responsibilities of the London Assembly and the London Major.[22] These developments have already limited, and will continue to limit, the power s traditionally held by the legislature and the executive. Although, in theory, Parliament could choose to withdraw the devolved powers at any time a total withdrawal is unlikely to be possible in practice. Westminster would have to consider both political and social implications of such actions and it is likely that the response of the public would range from widespread discontent to outright violence. Riots would be likely to break out in Northern Ireland where, as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, violent resistance to English rule has taken place in the past. In 1972 Edward Heath re-established direct rule over Northern Ireland, he was criticised by both unionists and nationalists. The sense of national identity in Northern Ireland remains very strong while in Scotland objections to a withdrawal of devolved powers would probably be raised on nationalist, and particularly economic, grounds. Consequently, it is difficult to deny that devolution undermined sovereignty of Westminster Parliament; arguments to the contrary have limited , and purely theoretical, validity. BIBLIOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS Munro, Colin R, (1999), Studies in Constitutional Law, Butterworths, second edition. ARTICLES CONSULTATION PAPERS A Consultation Paper, The Greater London Authority: The Government’s proposals for additional powers and responsibilities for the Mayor and Assembly, (2005). Leeke Matthew, Chris Sear and Oonagh Gay, An Introduction to Devolution in the UK, Research Paper 03/84, (2003). Wood, Edward, The Procedural Consequences of Devolution, Research Paper 99/85, (1999). WHITE PAPERS STATUTES 1998Regional Agencies Act 2005Government White Paper: Better Governance For Wales INTERNET SOURCES Campaign for an English Parliament, http://thecep.org.uk/devolution.shtml [Accessed on 4 August 2006]. 4. Explain how the Human Rights Act 1998 has changed the approach to the protection of human rights in the law of England and Wales. Has the change been for the better or for the worse? Enactment of the Human Rights Act was one of the many objectives which featured in the New Labour’s 1997 election manifesto, the proposal to implement the Act was also part of a much broader programme of constitutional reforms. The statute, which entered into force in 2000, implements the European Convention on Human Rights. According to Lord Lester of Herne Hill the Human Rights Act 1998: â€Å"declares basic rights and freedoms inherent in our common humanity, and the ethical values of a modern democratic society governed under the rule of law a society in which individual and minority rights must be protected against the tyranny of majorities and the abuse of public powers, especially where excessive means are used to pursue legitimate ends. The Act provides an ethical framework to guide law- makers, judges, and individual men and women.†[23] However, as will be shown below the changes brought on by the Act have not always been considered positive. Prior to its entry into force the Act received a lot of negative media coverage, concerns were raised about widespread abuses of the immigration procedures as well as the welfare system. There were also fears that the Act would force judges to disregard Acts of Parliament and by doing so undermine the doctrine of Parliamentary supremacy. Yet, as the subsequent events have shown most of these concerns proved misplaced. The unease about statutory interpretation was mainly due to section 3 which provides that, whenever possible, legislation must be enforced consistently with the Convention. Section 4 adds that in cases where such interpretation is not possible the court may issue a declaration of incompatibility. The declaration does not overrule any provisions but merely states that the law does not comply with the European Convention of Human Rights. The Act lead to an increased protection for the rights of individuals, e.g. in Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones v Hello![24] the Court of Appeal recognised the right to privacy. Another notable example of human rights protection is the decision in Mendoza v Ghaidan,[25] in this case the protected Rent Act tenant passed away. The court was asked to consider whether, for the purposes of the law of succession, the surviving homosexual partner should have the same rights as he would have had if the couple was heterosexual. The case is significant for several reasons: firstly, the court held that discrimination was unlawful, secondly, it shows that the Human Rights Act applies both to public and private bodies and thirdly, the court interpreted the Rent Act 1977 broadly enough to give effect to the Convention rights. In the opinion of Lord Lester of Herne Hill Mendoza[26] was correctly decided, he even prised the decision for upholding constitutional rights which include equal tre atment.[27] Despite what has been said above the Act is also known to have its opponents. The decision in R (Q and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department[28] proved particularly contentious and it has been a subject of a sever ministerial criticism. The court held that firstly, the Home Secretary must support asylum-seekers and secondly, the Home Office acted in breach of Article 6. Article 6, which grants a right to a free trial, was violated when the applicants were refused to have their circumstances assessed on individual basis, moreover they were not allowed to appeal. In response to this decision the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said: If public policy can be always overridden by individual challenge through the courts, then democracy itself is under threat.†[29] In Alconbury Limited v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions[30] Lord Hoffmann was equally disapproving of the way the case-law has been developing, he that although the Human Rights Act was meant to reinforce the rule of law it reinforced the rule of lawyers instead. September 11 gave rise to many contentious legal issues, human rights, terrorism, extradition and prohibition of torture are now hotly debated. Some of the problems stem from the fact that newly granted civil liberties are counter-balanced by measures introduced on the grounds of national security; hence the Terrorism Act, which came into force on 13 April 2006, prohibits ’glorification’ of terrorism. The ’glorification’ of terrorism is now a criminal offence and applies to speech as well as membership of political and non-political groups. There is a possibility that the provisions of the Act will conflict with the rights guaranteed by the Human Rights Act 1998, future challenges are likely to be based on Article 10 which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. It is yet to be seen what will be the effect of the Act and how it will be interpreted. Another issue which has become particularly contentious is extradition. The Human Rights Act 1998 does n ot contain any provisions prohibiting extradition however it does impose some conditions, the person who is being extradited should not be subjected to torture or inhuman treatment. Finally, can it be said that following the implementation of the Human Rights Act the protection of human rights has improved or, on the contrary, worsened? It seems that there is no ’right’ answer to this question. As has been shown above, ministers can be very critical of the way the Act is interpreted while the judiciary appears very enthusiastic. Nonetheless, human rights are now an integral, and written, part of the British constitution. The Act introduced a new approach to statutory interpretation and added to the range of reasons on which government action can be found unlawful. In other words it increased the accountability of the executive and at the same time encouraged respect for the rule of law. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the Act facilitated many positive changes. BIBLIOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS Munro, Colin R, Studies in Constitutional Law, Butterworths, second edition, 1999. ARTICLES Glover, Richard, Retrospectivity and the Human Rights Act 1998, [2003] 4 JCLI. CASES Alconbury Limited v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions [2001] 2 WLR 1389. Mendoza v Ghaidan [2003] 2 WLR 478. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones v Hello! (2001) 2 All ER 289. R (Q and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, 20 February 2003, Times Law Reports STATUTES 1998 Human Rights Act 2006Terrorism Act INTERNET SOURCES Lester, Anthony, The Human Rights Act five years on. 2003 (online). Available from: http://www.hrla.org.uk/docs/lord lester.pdf#search=human rights act 1998 law [Accessed on 6 August 2006]. Footnotes [1] Munro, Colin R., Studies in Constitutional Law, Butterworths) 1999, p. 1. [2] Munro 2. [3] Griffith, John, The political constitution, (1979) 42 MLR 1. [4] [1974] AC 765, [1974] 1 All ER 609. [5] Munro 3. [6] Munro 13. [7] Munro, Colin R., Studies in Constitutional Law, Butterworths) 1999, p. 57, per G. Marshall and GC Moodie. [8] Oonagh Gay, Thomas Powell, Individual ministerial responsibility issues and examples, Research Paper 04/31, (2004). [9] Oonagh Gay, Thomas Powell, Collective responsibility of Ministers an outline of the issues, Research Paper 04/82, (2004). [10] [1991] 1 AC 521. [11] (1988) QBD. [12] Munro 32. [13] Munro 29 44. [14]Matthew Leeke, Chris Sear and Oonagh Gay, Parliament and Constitution Centre, An Introduction to Devolution in the UK, Research Paper 03/84, (2003), p 7. [15] Munro 127 -166. [16] Government

Critique of What I’ve Learned from Men

In Barbara Ehrenreich's article â€Å"What I've Learned from Men† she discusses that women can learn a lot from men. How the lack of toughness in a woman's personality can negatively affect their progression and position in life. The author also discusses how some of the â€Å"ladylike† qualities can prove to be hindering to progress. Barbara's article is persuasive because the writing style was appealing, the evidence was logical, and the article was well structured and easy to follow.The article's extreme sarcastic and humorous tone helps transmits the wanted concept, unlike most feminist articles which consists of redundant repetition of needed freedoms, mistakes and needs. A great example of this humorous approach is how the writer avoided falling into the â€Å"ladylike† category by saying, â€Å"We're still too ladylike. Let me try this again- We're still too damn ladylike† (Ehrenreich, 2005, p. 308), using a swear word (damn) to break the existing f emale stereotype.The sarcasms was emphasized in the introduction, where countless differences between the genders have been listed, such a light hearted start give a sense of acceptance of what is to come. On a more serious note, the article discusses, with evidence, important issues. How women think it is their responsibility to â€Å"niceness† attitude in a conversation, and how this alleged responsibility negatively affected the author first hand.Another issue is sexual harassment; the writer speaks from personal experience as she explains the story of the professor that sexually harassed her over the course of a 20 minute conversation; where she did not react as she was maintaining â€Å"nice† environment (Ehrenreich, 2005, p. 308). Such a story appeals to logic, one may wonder, â€Å"How can highly educated prestigious professor react in such an unethical manner? † Examples like this indicate that change must take place to avoid these predicaments.This shor t example also appeals to the emotional side of thinks, as one can sympathize with her position. Finally, the essay was well structured and easy to follow, which made the transmission of the writer's ideas simple. The writer hooks the reader and establishes her agenda in the first couple of paragraphs (through both humorous and direct language). The author then lists her evidence, and also stats her recommendations of â€Å"cutting back on the small acts of deference that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ehrenreich, 2005, p.  308).Lastly, the writer was able to formulate a successful conclusion; she put her recommendation to action by reliving the scenario that took place with the â€Å"prestigious† professor, stating what she would have done differently, how she would take control from the very start by moving her chair away from the professor, reacting negatively to his hollowness and ending it with a confident exit.It is an essential to think about why women are usually sexually harassed . Maybe the answer is for women to toughen up, and step forward to take praise as the writer Barbara suggested. Imagine a male dominated world where sexual harassment is extremely common. Would you like to raise a daughter in such a world? Critique of What I’ve Learned from Men In Barbara Ehrenreich's article â€Å"What I've Learned from Men† she discusses that women can learn a lot from men. How the lack of toughness in a woman's personality can negatively affect their progression and position in life. The author also discusses how some of the â€Å"ladylike† qualities can prove to be hindering to progress. Barbara's article is persuasive because the writing style was appealing, the evidence was logical, and the article was well structured and easy to follow.The article's extreme sarcastic and humorous tone helps transmits the wanted concept, unlike most feminist articles which consists of redundant repetition of needed freedoms, mistakes and needs. A great example of this humorous approach is how the writer avoided falling into the â€Å"ladylike† category by saying, â€Å"We're still too ladylike. Let me try this again- We're still too damn ladylike† (Ehrenreich, 2005, p. 308), using a swear word (damn) to break the existing f emale stereotype.The sarcasms was emphasized in the introduction, where countless differences between the genders have been listed, such a light hearted start give a sense of acceptance of what is to come. On a more serious note, the article discusses, with evidence, important issues. How women think it is their responsibility to â€Å"niceness† attitude in a conversation, and how this alleged responsibility negatively affected the author first hand.Another issue is sexual harassment; the writer speaks from personal experience as she explains the story of the professor that sexually harassed her over the course of a 20 minute conversation; where she did not react as she was maintaining â€Å"nice† environment (Ehrenreich, 2005, p. 308). Such a story appeals to logic, one may wonder, â€Å"How can highly educated prestigious professor react in such an unethical manner? † Examples like this indicate that change must take place to avoid these predicaments.This shor t example also appeals to the emotional side of thinks, as one can sympathize with her position. Finally, the essay was well structured and easy to follow, which made the transmission of the writer's ideas simple. The writer hooks the reader and establishes her agenda in the first couple of paragraphs (through both humorous and direct language). The author then lists her evidence, and also stats her recommendations of â€Å"cutting back on the small acts of deference that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ehrenreich, 2005, p.  308).Lastly, the writer was able to formulate a successful conclusion; she put her recommendation to action by reliving the scenario that took place with the â€Å"prestigious† professor, stating what she would have done differently, how she would take control from the very start by moving her chair away from the professor, reacting negatively to his hollowness and ending it with a confident exit. It is an essential to think about why women are usually sexually harasse d.Maybe the answer is for women to toughen up, and step forward to take praise as the writer Barbara suggested. Imagine a male dominated world where sexual harassment is extremely common. Would you like to raise a daughter in such a world? Ehrenreich, B. (2005). What I've learned from men. In A. Abusalim, N. Bilikozen, T. Ismail, & S. Sayed (Eds. ), Where I stand: The center and the periphery (1st ed. ) (pp. 307-311). United Arab Emirates: Oriental Press.

Od Interventions

Definition of od interventions: An OD intervention can be defined as â€Å"the set of structured activities in which selected organization units engage with a task or a sequence of tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organizational improvement † â€Å"A set of sequenced and planned actions or events intended to help the organisation increase its effectiveness†. In an od intervention the entire process of diagnosis, alternative generation and making action choices are jointly conducted and od will also examine the process of such diagnosis, action planning and implementation.Criteria for Effective Interventions: In OD three major criteria define the effectiveness of an intervention: 1. The Extent to Which it (the Intervention) fits the needs of the organization. 2. The degree to which it is based on causal knowledge of intended outcomes 3. The extent to which the OD intervention transfers change-management competence to organization members. Characteristics of od intervention: First An od intervention will focus on the organizational processes apart from the substantive content of an activity.Secondly an od intervention would generally focus on a work team as the unit of analysis and change towards effective behaviour Thirdly od would normally view change as an on-going process and would rely on a collaborative management of work culture Types of od interventions : These interventions can be clubbed into twelve groups and they are diagnostic, team-building, inter-group activities, survey feedback methods, education and training programmes, techno-structural activities, process consultation, the management grid, meditation and negotiation activities, coaching and counseling and planning and goal setting activities. ) Survey Feedback: It recounts to an approach survey through well planned assessment or Interviews. It covers the feedback to the customer organisation. It has a demand and significance in a genuine situation. The attitude survey can have a purpose to measure the process; for instance, communication, decision making and leadership at different levels. The data produced under this system is perceptual and attitudinal.. A review of the product is prepared in a group discussion.Generally feedback of results is specific to the group which prepares the data. As a result strategies are planned to resolve the organisational problems. Consequently, the process of survey feed back includes: collection of data, feedback, development of action plan and follow-up. Therefore, to ensure authentic results, the survey should be applicable and dependable. 2) Management Grid : The method urbanized by Robert Blake and Jane S. Mouton is a step to move toward. This Grid represents a rational support of managing people.Growth of management skills from beginning to end grid program involves wide range of included and instrumented activities are the ways having investigational and planned conditions. The member s are secondary to be pleased about the advances to integrate people and their invention. 3) Team Building: Team building is an attempt to assist the work group to identify, diagnose and solve its own problems. Actually groups develop their own norms of behaviour which pressurize the persons and group behaviour. Organisation is a system to interconnect with groups.OD considers that work groups are the teams which are spinning around to introduce changes in the organization. Team building actions are taken to develop a range of groups in an organization like permanent work teams, task forces, committees etc. Team building actions focus on finding, task achievement, team relationships and organisational process. The component groups in team building activity are: the external advisors, the group leader and the members of the group. In team building movement, associates meet and talk about troubles connecting to their coursework It obtain sincere and courageous argument.In the team bui lding movements, the associate adds the sequence relating to their personal observation of issues, problems and task relationship. 4) Sensitivity Training: It is known as training being carried out by creating an experimental laboratory circumstances where workers will be brought together to do something together in a formless environment. Sensitivity training helps in understanding people well again, to develop appreciation for others, to develop specific behavioral skills and to gain effective approach into the group development. It also aims at falling interpersonal confrontation.The main aim of sensitivity training is to split all the methods through the bond of silence and ease the expression of associates to emphasize on the process of debate to a certain extent than to fulfill the instructions. It is a method which proposes to have brain washing of persons. This training is accepted by formless groups without any agenda, leader and predetermined goals. The group is given inde pendence to expand their plans, contacts and on going process for interaction. Sensitivity training gives a technique to enable special knowledge and development. ) Four System Management : Rensis Likert’s four System Management has given four stage to represent the organizational values to include the essential collection of job bearing and people way. According to Likert management philosophy can be classified into four systems they are: i) Exploitative-Autocratic System ii) Benevolent Autocratic System iii) Consultative Democratic System and iv) Participative Democratic System. This theory explains that three basic concepts of system has four management which will help making the organization effective they are: ) To use the principle of supportive relationship in the organisation b) To use the group decision making and group methods of supervision in the organisation, and c) To emphasize more on the high performance goals. 6) Management by Objectives (MBO): It is another important tool of O. D and involves the process of educating the concerned persons about M. B. O, agreement upon clear cut quantifiable objectives, evaluation of objectives and feedback for deviation and coercive action. . M. B. O is wide-ranging overall managerial philosophies that focuses upon joint goal setting and synthesize the individual’s goal to organisational goals.The entire organization will have the feeling of unity as all levels of management of an organization are involved in goal setting. The programmes relating to M. B. O can be effective if they are properly implemented and needs the support of the top management. 7) Process Consultation: It can be described as the set of activities on the part of the consultant that helps the client to perceive, understand and act upon the process events that take place in the client’s environment. Process consultation concentrates on the analysis of process of activities like communication, leadership etc.It also aim s to attempts to develop initial contacts, define relationships, selecting the method of work, collection of data and diagnosis. Process consultation is a method of intervening in an on going system and is designed to change attitudes, values, interpersonal skills, group norms, and cohesiveness and other process variables. 8) Contingency Approach : This approach was given by P. Lawsence and J. Lorseh. It is based on the principle that an organisation is a multifaceted social system. Its behavior must be included into a united effort to enable it to cope with the environment.Theoretically individuals in different departments have different orientations related to the tasks they perform. Genuinely, the organisational units in their regular operations they are differentiated along with their direction. It appears that with the task discrimination coordination is not possible. According to contingency approach separation and combination are possible for total organisation’s effec tiveness with the help of integrative devices. To sum up, high organisational presentation is well-suited with the existence of both separation as well as combination which are required as per the stress of heir immediate environment. The contingency approach can be useful as an OD intervention in industrial organizations in the form of inter group argument meetings of concerned departmental persons. 9) Role Analysis : In the presentation of their individual roles persons manifest certain behaviour which may upset team efficiency. At times it is established that the persons are unambiguous about their own expected behaviour from the view point of other members of the team. In these circumstances the role analysis procedure is used to clarify the role expectations and obligations of the members of a team.The ensuing role requirements and the expected behavioral mechanism of each other help the member enjoy an equally acceptable behaviour in the team work. In this technique, the indiv idual role players analyze the focal role of the individuals. 10) Inter-group Activity : Meager interpersonal relations are not unusual features in organisational performance . Under these circumstances, inter-group motion spotlights to improve the relationships between the groups. It helps in the interaction and communication between the work groups which eventually avoids dysfunctional inimical competitiveness among them.Inter-group team building entails the procedure of discrimination and combination. 11) Organisation Mirroring: It monitors the activities of group of members and gets the feedback from the members of several other groups about how is it being professed. Organisational mirroring is used when there is complexity with other department in the organisation. A meeting is called and response is sought from other department. During the meeting the correct picture emerges which will determine many mistakes committed between two groups. 2) Third Party Peace Making Intervent ion: This intervention is the foundation of the thoughts to understand the conflicts and their resolutions at the interpersonal level. It helps to confront the method of resolving the conflicts takes place between two parties who are aware of the existence of the conflicts and want to confront the issues. The advisor as a third party must be accomplished in the art of identifies the conflicts and use confrontation as technique. This process focuses on four basic elements of conflicts they are : i) The conflict issues, (ii) The contributory circumstances, (iii) The conflict related behaviour, and (iv) The results of the conflict. 13) Job Design/Redesign : It is task -technology connected approach and aims at making changes in the work procedure of the groups of employees. Job design occupies a well planned reorganization of a job. On the whole it focuses to develop worker’s motivation, commitment, performance, job satisfaction etc. , through job enrichment, job engineering, jo b rotation, job enlargement and socio-technical system. 4) Quality Circles: Quality Circles are semi-autonomous work groups with six persons who volunteer to talk about and solve feature related problems during working hours. It has impact on working conditions, employee’s commitment and self development of employees. 15) Counselling : Counselling is the method to extend the help by a manager to his assistant to enhance his prospective. It plans at hypothesizing and empathize with the workers. It assists to bring about self consciousness in the worker about his capability. Single or group of interventions may be used to resolve the issues.Od intervention used in BHEL-BLOCK5 PAGE33-34(M) In order to develop & improve the effectiveness of the human resources in the Organisation, a committee called ‘Human Resources Committee’ was first constituted by BHEL in Bhopal in 1976. The committee is the central body and plays the central role in implementation of all OD effo rts. With the help of external and internal resource persons, a number of programmes/workshops have been Organised for the development of the members of this committee improving their problem solving capabilities and decision making.The range of OD interventions are described below. Job Redesign and Work commitment as an OD intervention In one of the BHEL units (Hardwar) Job redesign was taken up and as an OD intervention in 1975. This experiment was pursued for around 4 years and very encouraging results were obtained. i) A more satisfying job, due to increased variety and relief from boredom and monotony ii) Personal growth for all, by learning additional skills of other trends and acquiring leadership Qualities iii) Reduction in health/safety hazards iv) An atmosphere with less tension and jealousy ) An improved team spirit and morale resulting in improved communication and human relationship vi) Increased self esteem and pride among the workers. Workshops were conducted and it w as found to be very useful and threw up more questions for wider debate and discussions. By using survey method, a list of programmes or subjects or themes is sent to various. H. O. Ds who respond by ticking the appropriate ones for their executives. As a result of various diagnostic exercises some critical needs of training and development are identified.The workshops on various themes also give valuable idea of the areas requiring more thrust by way of training and development and specific training and development needs are thus identified. Based on role analysis a draft system with the following objectives has been circulated by the Corporate Personnel for the comments of Personnel/Training (HRD)/Divisional Heads. . Helping the executives to become more effective in their present and future jobs. . Enabling the executives to perform at optimum level by determining and meeting their growth needs. . Helping the executives to visualise their roles more clearly. Preventing the obsole scence of their technical and managerial skills. . Optimising the utilization of training resources by providing appropriate inputs. . Facilitating the design of need based programmes and identify the training and development needs. . Preparing data bank of capabilities required for various positions. . Facilitating job rotation, career and succession planning. Once implemented, it will provide a valuable data base for planning, training and development activities and identifying appropriate candidates for programmes. Performance Appraisal and Potenfial AppraisalIn BHEL it has remained so far that the role of superior was limited to evaluator or judge and the role of the appraisee was passive. Now the superiors role is being conceived as helper and counseller and the appraisee is encouraged to become more involved and committed in achieving the objectives. Performance feedback and Counselling The need and importance of performance feedback and counseling has been realized. Attempts are being made to cover maximum number of executives in various programme/workshops on performance feedback and counselling to enable them to practice it as an important tool for Human Resource Development.The supervisors also will be covered in such efforts. Career Planning and Development Time-cum-merit based promotion was practiced which is able to satisfy the individuals and organizational needs to a great extent. The employees are encouraged and helped to plan a career path. They are liberally sponsored to higher educational programmes in IIMS/IITs. Posted bySatish Raj Pathakat9:19 PM Labels:OD intervention Od intervention at NTPC

Technology Is Helping Or Hurting Young Children And Students

â€Å"Historically, many educators and policymakers alike have valued the potential of digital technology to revolutionize the education system† (Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella 82). As technological standards continue to increase, society continues to argue whether it is helping or hurting young children and students. The use of technology and monitoring the use in early childhood education students can vary depending on school setting and home life. Technology can have great benefits, but it can also have detrimental effects, if used in the wrong way. The benefits of technology at home and in the classroom for students, even those on the Autism Spectrum Disorder, are the key topics in this paper. In order to create the best environment†¦show more content†¦As children begin their journey into a school setting, they will need good background on subjects to ensure they are not behind; this will come from their home life. As toddlers grow up, their exposure to new knowledge also grows. With the help of educational TV, we are able to begin that exposure early. However, we do not want to overexpose them to TV, but some is acceptable and helpful. Pediatricians recommend parents to â€Å"limit the amount of total entertainment screen time to 1 to 2 hours per day† (American Academy of Pediatrics 959). By limiting the amount of screen time and only allowing for educational means of screen time, we are encouraging education and learning at a young age. As children grow older, they interact with new technologies, but with a strong positive educational influence in their younger years, we are encouraging it to continue. The use of educational technology at a young age is dependent on the compliance of parents and with that compliance; we are giving our children a better educational experience and equipping them with better educational technologies to use in their futures. Parents must monitor technology use and limit it, depending on their child’s age. By blocking harmful sites or applications on