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Children and Teens Obesity
Recently, the idea of taking body mass index (BMI) measurements within the school premise for surveillance purposes has gained much attention from school officials, researchers, the media, and legislators. While a considerable number of children across the United States are underweight, a huge number of them are overweight or obese.
According to a survey done by the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, there were about 13.7 million children between 2 and 19 years suffering from obesity in the US (Sliwa, Brener, Lundeen, & Lee, 2019). While some policy makers support the idea of school-based BMI measurement, others do not.
One of the biggest reasons for supporting school-based BMI measurement is because many children are suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease due to overweight and obesity. According to Nihiser et al. (2017), the implementation of school-based BMI measurement will help policy makers to identify the number of children that are underweight, healthy, overweigh, and obese in various schools and apply the necessary measures.
These measures can include ensuring that children that have unhealthy weight have access to specialized diets and exercise while at school. School administrators can also use the generate information to help parents take care of their through proper diets at home.
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Children and Teens Obesity
According to Madsen et al. (2020) some institutions and policy makers feel that schools may not provide the necessary environment to ensure privacy and confidentiality while taking the measurements. Many students are very sensitive about their bodies due to the increase of bullying cases among overweight and obese children.
Policy makers therefore feel that children with unhealthy weights will be subjected to an unhealthy environment. Most parents also feel that they also have the right to be consulted before their child’ body mass index is measured and they also have the right to decline or accept the initiative.
The available data is not conclusive as to whether school-based BMI measurement is effective or not. However, it is recommendable that every school have a supportive and safe environment for children of all body weights.
Children and Teens Obesity
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Nihiser, A. J., Lee, S. M., Wechsler, H., McKenna, M., Odom, E., Reinold, C., … & Grummer‐Strawn, L. (2017). Body mass index measurement in schools. Journal of School Health, 77(10), 651-671.
Sliwa, S. A., Brener, N. D., Lundeen, E. A., & Lee, S. M. (2019). Do schools that screen for body mass index have recommended safeguards in place?. The Journal of School Nursing, 35(4), 299-308.
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Nutrition and physical activity programs
Background
In the United States, the prevalence of obese and overweight children aged 2–5 years has almost grown three times over the past 3 decades. These increased levels are alarming and a call for action because children who deal with overweight challenged when they are less than 5 years are more likely to be obese later in life, which leads to detrimental health complications (Hesketh et al, 2017). This can be accomplished by implementing nutrition and physical activity programs.Current statistics show that over 13.7 million children and teenagers in the United States are struggling with obesity.
Out of these 13.9 percent is among children aged between 2 and 5 years, 18.4 percent aged 11 and 20.6 percent aged between 12 and 19 years. Most of the families that have been affected include low-income families and those from ethnic/racial minority groups though they are disproportionately affected. During the early years of development physical activity and eating a healthy and balanced diet are crucial for optimum health, development as well as growth (Hesketh et al, 2017).
It is evident that unbalanced diets and the lack of physical exercise increases a child’s risk for obesity and other consequent health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Sadly however, the physical exercise and the diet patterns among the preschoolers, particularly those living under or slightly above the poverty line as well as those from racial/ethnic minorities, do not often meet the national standard guidelines.
As such, there is an absolute need to implement effective interventions so as to help in improving the preschoolers’ physical activities and food programs as well as cultivate behaviors that minimize the chances of being obese and the development of related conditions.
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Nutrition and physical activity programs
Making intervention plans for children between the ages 0-5 years is a beneficial strategy as it will help to prevent obesity resulting from poor diets, sedentary life, and physical inactivity. In is crucial that the interventions start before a child enters elementary school. Across the United States, about 11 million children aged 5 and below have enrolled in organized care facilities in an effort to minimize the levels of obesity (Elias, 2018).
Research shows that early care and education programs can be very helpful to families and their children struggling with excess body weight and obesity (Kohl, Fulton, & Caspersen, 2011). Strategies that implement practices and policies relating to sedentary behaviours, physical activity, and nutrition have the potential of influencing the health of toddlers, infants, and preschoolers in a positive way through the programs.
Childcare programs create a valuable opportunity were children and parents can learn about the benefits of physical exercise and balanced diet. Currently, over 70 percent of children whose parents are working late hours are enrolled in childcare programs and spend over 40 hours per week exercising which helps them to burn excess calories.
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Nutrition and physical activity programs
Purpose of the study
There is an alarming number of children in the United States who live in homes where consistent availability of a healthy diets is challenging. Most of them access foods that lead to overweight or obesity while others do not have access to the recommended amount of daily foods and physical exercise. The purpose of this study is to assess child/parental nutrition and physical activity programs within healthcare facilities in the United States. The paper discusses the strategies that can assist healthcare facilities to create and implement successful programs that can address the health and wellness needs of the children and their family members.
Research question
What initiatives are healthcare facilities in the United States implementing to facilitate child/parental nutrition and physical activity programs?
Significance of the study
This paper is important because it will help parents to understand the benefits of proper nutrition and physical exercise which will in turn help children to get healthy stay healthy as well as lead healthier lives. The study also informs healthcare facilities about new exercise and diet programs that are beneficial for parents and their children.
This information is very beneficial because it will help to reduce the increasing number of children who battle over overweight and obesity as well as other condition such as diabetes and blood pressure.
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Methodology
This paper is a qualitative paper that uses secondary materials to summarize recommendations about obesity prevention programs based on reviews from expert guidance from secondary sources such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, and the Institute of Medicine among others.
Nutrition and physical activity programs
Literature Review
According to Smith et al (2017), healthcare providers as well as organizations should seek to implement more holistic goals in their roles as public health leaders. Specifically, healthcare facilities hold a significant responsibility to the employees, patients and the public as they are expected to be role models as they provide public health and also act as infection control agents and health promotion advocates.
Through the integration of such practices into the health organization’s operations, healthcare institutions and provides can achieve their duties as professional and take advantage of their unique positions to create change in health behaviors. The widespread challenges concerning overweight and obesity have detrimental consequences on mortality and morbidity due to hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypercholesterolemia among other diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asserts that across the US, 69.2 percent of adults between the ages of 20 years and above are overweight, 35.9 percent are obese (Rothstein, 2014). More so, 18.0 percent children between the ages of 6 and 11 years and 18.4 percent of teenagers aged 12 to 19 years are obese. The CDC argues that poor diet contributes heavily to obesity and it is very crucial for overweight and obese parents and children to break unhealthy eating habits and to adopt new ones that promote a healthy body.
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Norman, Zeebari, Nyberg, and Elinder (2019) argue that healthcare institutions and providers have the ability and opportunities to play a symbolic and direct role so as to help patients in adopting improved nutrition and better diet by providing healthy food as well as drinks at the institution. Sadly, instead of providing healthy diet options, some healthcare facilities, which include pediatric hospitals, actually allow fast-food restaurants to sell food within their facilities.
For instance, most hospital organizations have restaurants such as McDonald’s, and some facilities have three to four fast-food restaurants. In these restaurants, the chief patrons include workers employed by the healthcare facility and other guests (Rothstein, 2014). It is essential to however provide more tasty and nutritious food to patients and to ensure that the cafeterias are selling healthy food.
A fast-food restaurants symbol in a healthcare facility is vulgar and unmistakable today. With the current alarming levels of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac diseases hospitals cannot afford offer silent support to the public and encourage patients to eat at fast-food outlets that do not provide healthy food choices.
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According to Rothstein (2014), one does not have to get the full fast-food menu to realize some of the “comfort value” prices offered by some fast-food restaurants. After the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital closed McDonald’s, it opened a food service that provided milkshakes for its pediatric patients. Nonetheless, it is true to say that healthy food option are often more expensive as compared to fast-food restaurants.
As a result, to establish and maintain a healthy food restaurant within the facility will require the hospital additional income and also the number of employees who are low-income workers, patients, and visitors may be significantly subsidized. Most hospitals therefore allow fast-food restaurants so that the can gain more profit (Rothstein, 2014).
However, optimizing profits should not be a justification for establishing fast-food restaurants within a healthcare facility just as it would be unfathomable to install a cigarette machine in the hospitals’ lobby. Over the years Healthcare organizations have been in the forefront and led campaigns to ban smoking on their facilities. It would be recommendable if they also took control of the types of foods and drink sold to the children and parents who visit the hospitals every day with the same leadership valor they showed in cigarette cessation.
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Another leading factor that had contributed to obesity, particularly among children, is the lack of physical exercise. Physical exercise refers to any form of activity that is structured, planned, as well as repetitive. The main aim for exercise is improving as well as maintaining a healthy weight and the components of physical fitness. Exercise can include activities such as body composition, anaerobic and aerobic capacity, strength, muscular endurance, and power, balance, and flexibility all of will in turn help to reduce excessive weight and obesity.
Some of the structured activities that a person can engage in may include conditioning programs to improve muscular strength, running programs to enhance aerobic capacity and lose fat, or stretching programs with an aim of increasing joint flexibility. Exercise activities are divided into resistance exercises that involve the musculoskeletal system and cardiorespiratory exercise that involves the respiratory and cardiovascular system.
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The main purpose for resistance exercises is developing neurological, physiological, and biochemical components in the skeletal muscles while cardiorespiratory exercises take into consideration the dynamics of the whole body particularly in exercises that involve large skeletal muscle mass. According to Floriani and Kennedy (2008), the intensity of resistance and cardiorespiratory exercises are expressed in either relative or absolute terms.
Absolute exercise intensity is expressed in terms of kilocalories or kilojoules and is determined by the total energy expenditure. The decimal system that is internationally agreed upon is 1 calorie=4.18 kilojoules. In essence, a kilojoule refers to a unit of energy that is equivalent to 1000 joules. 1 joule refers to the total amount of energy needed to accelerate a kilogram of mass at the rate of 1m/sec. Kilocalories are a unit of measurement equivalent to 1000 calories.
A calorie refers to the total amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Relative exercise intensity can be defined as activities that are relative to a person’s maximum capacity to undertake a certain exercise.
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Most healthcare organizations and facilities receive hundreds of clients, patients, visitors, and staff members on a daily basis. Instead of installing video games and television on the hospital walls, the facility can have playground areas as well as gymnasiums that these individuals, particularly employees and their children can use (Rothstein, 2014). Where establishing such a facility is not possible, the hospital can provide opportunities for minimal exercises such as walking grounds and climbing stairs.
In most healthcare institutions across the United States, the only way of reaching various destinations is by using a lift. In some facilities located within multipurpose complexes, it is almost impossible for employees and others to find their way across buildings because the pavements are badly constructed, the lighting is insufficient, or there are structural obstructions (Rothstein, 2014).
Given that healthcare institutions act as employers of millions of healthcare workers across different occupations, they have a responsibility to offer maximum quality and efficient wellness programs that offer weight management programs, smoking cessation, food education programs and other services concerting physical wellness. Healthcare organizations ought to make exercise facilities as well as the workout equipment readily available for all its stakeholders.
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Hospitals such as Jersey City Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, support their healthcare practitioners to achieve healthy lifestyle goals. One of these initiatives included noting the healthy foods and calories that the medical center sells at the hospital cafeteria. According to Bopp (2016), employers should partner with other health organizations to offer Healthy Wellness Programs. It is recommended that these programs should be fun, interactive, engaging, and also accessible online through mobile phones.
The employees should choose activities based on their personal goals and as per recommendations and earn rewards for making positive, healthy choices. The employees should also be encouraged to involve their families in the program, as there is a probability that families focused on health will be more successful. Hospitals and all healthcare centers should emulate the above named hospitals to maintain their employees fit and happy.
In accomplishing this, they should employ several useful initiatives, which may include programs on opium use, exercise programs, and tobacco addiction counseling programs aimed at lowering the risk of cancer, obesity, heart and mental diseases (Tu, O’Connor, Baranowski, & Mâsse, 2017).
They should also offer healthy food options to their employees as well as providing discounted rates at gyms and fitness centers to ensure that their employees do exercises regularly. For healthcare organizations that do not have enough space, particularly in older organizations, the management can make arrangements and partner with other wellness facilities to allow cost-free, convenient, or subsidized-cost access to off-site activities.
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Hospitals also have a responsibility of educating their patients on how to access and make use of various online exercise programs and diet programs found on different websites. In the Internet Age, healthcare facilities should integrate patient education with technological advancements that can help the patients as well as employees to benefit substantially from the information offered online (Daniels, & Hassink, 2015). Given that not all websites are genuine, the healthcare facilities should help the stakeholders to assess the credibility of the evidence provided.
Some of the means that the healthcare facility can use include investigating the credibility of the author and publication of the evidence and assessing whether author is expert in the nutrition and exercise field. Sometimes, individuals with great interest in nutrition and exercise can write articles or open YouTube channels though they do not have any educational background in nutrition or exercise.
These websites may seem very attractive as they promise exponential changes but disappoint exercisers in the long run as they are not based on scientific evidence. The healthcare providers can therefore assist patients dealing with diabetes, obesity, blood pressure, and overweight to examine the evidence provided to support the nutrition choices as the best choices demands one to have some background knowledge about exercise and nutrition.
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It is impossible to blush off the impacts that healthcare practitioners as well as health plans have on the choices that parents make for themselves and their love ones including children. In the present information-loaded world, where individuals bombard daily with health nutritional and exercise messages, it is hard to differentiate credible information from the misleading ones. As such, credible, useful, and evidence-based information is lost in the static and 24-hour news cycle of websites. Educating patients and employees on how to use various exercise and nutritional websites such as BodyFit,
Calorie King, FitnessBlender, Fit Men Cook, and Ace Fitness database will help nurses and other practitioners to provide patient education. The workout plans as well as the nutrition information offered by such websites help with training, fat loss, and cardio training among others. The instructional videos provided in workout website covers over 3,000 exercise activities and help an exerciser to avoid injuries.
The how-to-images provided in the website provides the exerciser with thousands of workout pictures that show them how to do a certain activity with precision even before they begin exercising. The website also provided step-by-step instructions that help an exerciser to do the right thing every time.
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A website such as Calorie King for instance can be used to find nutrition facts on foods from different food chains and supermarkets (Borushek, 2013). This can be helpful for tracking macros and calories. This database incorporates nutritional data from credible brands in the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom. The website provides nutritional information and effects regarding breakfast bars and cereals, alcoholic drinks, beverages, breads and cookies, and baked goods.
It also provides information about chocolates and other supplements, cheeses, creams, and yogurts, desserts, and animal protein products. Lastly, there is information about vegetables and fruits, fast foods, fats and sauces, packaged and frozen foods, grain foods, snacks, sugars and syrups (Borushek, 2013). Apart from foods, the website also provides information regarding body mass index (BMI) and how to calculate it.
According to calorie King Website, when the BMI is 25 and above, a person is either overweight or obese and risks conditions such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, some cancer forms, and high blood pressure. This site however cautions against the use of BMI because it does not differentiate between muscle and body fat. For instance, in athletes, the BMI can overestimate the body fat due to the muscular build or underestimate body fats in older people who have lost their muscles.
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Nutrition and physical activity programs
Conclusion and recommendation
Conclusively, health organizations that do not offer well-being programs expose their employees and patients to high risks obesity, diabetes, addiction problems, and mental problems among others. Organizations that provided one to two wellbeing programs experience very low rates of employee turnover as compared to companies that implement a minimum of five programs.
When healthcare facilities provide such programs for employees, patients, and other stakeholders, the offer them a channel to relieve stress as well as receive beneficial information regarding how they can take care of themselves as well as their family members. In the 21st century, healthcare workers are expected to learn about new technologies all the time, be innovative and creative, adhere to new policies and regulations, as well as provide patient-centered services.
As a result, these employees become very tired and unavailable emotionally to the point where they lack of empathy for their patients and medical mistakes increase. To overcome these challenges, medial organizations are encouraged to offer wellness programs such as fitness facilities, counseling, educational programs, workshops, and health food programs to ensure that employees reach their intrinsic goals.
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Kohl III, H. W., Fulton, J. E., & Caspersen, C. J. (2011). Assessment of physical activity among children and adolescents: a review and synthesis. Preventive medicine, 31(2), S54-S76.
Norman, Å., Zeebari, Z., Nyberg, G., & Elinder, L. S. (2019). Parental support in promoting children’s health behaviours and preventing overweight and obesity–a long-term follow-up of the cluster-randomised healthy school start study II trial. BMC pediatrics, 19(1), 104.
Smith, T. M., Blaser, C., Geno-Rasmussen, C., Shuell, J., Plumlee, C., Gargano, T., & Yaroch, A. L. (2017). Peer Reviewed: Improving Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies and Practices in Early Care and Education in Three States, 2014–2016. Preventing chronic disease, 14.
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Culture in Change Management
Introduction
The only constant reality in life is change. Change is not only observable on a personal level but also an organizational front. Nonetheless, managing change is a challenging task that it takes effort, energy, training, and time (Hickman & Silva, 2018). Change is also characterized by uncertainty and fear, and therefore most people and organizations prefer to maintain the status quo.
With the Internet Age introduced by the 21st century, maintain the status quo is harmful to business as it puts companies at the risk of losing their competitive advantage as witnessed by various companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., which is a textile company in the United States. Given that change destroys the familiar corporate culture and status quo, managers should be very careful when implementing change because people are inherently resistant to change. Understanding and applying the best change theory helps a company to implement change efficiently.
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Unfortunately, managers in most organizations rarely pay attention to the impacts of culture on organizational change, even when confronting major problems. Often, managers disregard the power of culture in maintaining the status quo as they regard culture as too mushy and soft to address (Kezar, 2011). Other managers think that a company’s culture adjusts itself once the new strategy is in place or feel that the costs for changing the company’s culture are considerably high as well as difficult to achieve.
Others yet, believe that they can avoid addressing their company’s culture until the company has implemented the change, which may include new policies and procedures. What such managers fail to understand is that when change is introduced in an organization, stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, suppliers, and investors, expect an intrusion or a disruption (Kezar, 2011). As such, the culture that these stakeholders are used to fights hard to defeat the change and maintain the status quo. Consequently, significant changes mean more intrusion and more disruption, and therefore, the culture works very hard to defeat the implemented changes.
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Purpose of the Study
As a result of the tremendous change that has come with the Internet Age, the business environment is constantly changing, which makes it important for managers to apply the right systematic strategies in limiting stakeholder resistance towards a positive corporate change process. The main purpose of this research paper is to investigate the significance of an organization’s norms, values, as well as principles in change management. This paper with pay special attention to one of the textile companies in the United States, Levi Strauss.
Significance of the Study
Levi Strauss & Co was among the leading textile companies in the United States. However, today the company experiences significant challenges in maintaining a competitive advantage over other companies such as L Brands, Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch, Co, Coach, Inc., American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., and Urban Outfitters companies among others. This paper is important because it provides useful information on how textile companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. can revolutionize the company through change management strategies while paying special attention to its culture.
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Research Questions
Some of the questions that this paper seeks to answer are:
What value does culture change create for the company and the customers?
Why do people resist change?
What role does culture play in change management, and how can a company limit resistance?
How has globalization created a need for change in the textile industry?
What are the advantages and risks of not making the necessary change?
What theories support the role of culture in change management?
Methodology
This paper investigates the role that corporate culture plays in change management. The methodology that is applied in this research study includes a literature review, interview, and descriptive studies. The materials used in this research paper provide detailed information about the importance of considering culture in change management. The literature review offers supporting evidence that links cultural consideration to successful change management within an organization. The descriptive studies offer information about the best practices during organizational change supported by theories.
The criteria that are used for the inclusion of the articles for both literature review and descriptive studies pay attention to the nature of articles, timeframe, keywords, and search area. The timeframe applied for the secondary resources is within the past 30 years. The nature of the resources used includes business news articles, peer-reviewed articles, and journals. The keywords used include organizational change, corporate culture, change resistance, strategic change management, and culture change.
The search areas include business websites such as the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)and the United States Department of Labor and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The inclusion criterion helps in setting research boundaries for the literature review to ensure that the research paper is focused and the discussion is valid.
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Background information on Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co. is a privately owned textile firm that was established by Levi Strauss about 164 years in 1853. For many decades, Levi Strauss & Co. was able to effectively compete as a clothing company known globally for Levi’s brand of denim jeans. This company was the first textile corporation to make the first blue jean across the globe, and since 1853, the Levi Strauss & Co. has heavily relied on innovation to come up with new products.
Throughout the 1960s, this company benefited from various U.S movements such as counter-culture groups and campus rebellion groups, which wore jeans as their uniform. During this period, sales doubled, and in three years, the company revenue almost hit $200 million. By 1979, the Levi Strauss & Co. had become the largest clothing industry across the world and had licensed its brand to be used in other products such as socks as well as shoes.
By this time sales had hit $ 2million. Levi Strauss & Co. had ventured in about sixty nations. During the prosperous years, Levi Strauss & Co. had fifty-three production facilities and thirty-two customer service centers in forty-nine nations. Some of these countries included Japan, Europe, South Africa, Argentina, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
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Nonetheless, from the beginning of 1980, Levi Strauss & Co. started to experience market difficulties, and although the demand for denim jeans stabilized, its profits flattened. Thus, to enhance distribution, Levi Strauss & Co. reached agreements with marketing companies such as Sears and J.C Penney, but the profits still fell by about 25% (Au, & Ho, 2006). In 1982, the company was forced to shut down nine production plants, which led to layoffs of 2,000 employees globally.
In 1885 Levi Strauss & Co. restructured the company and was taken private in a leveraged buyout for $1.45 billion. The company afterward introduced a successful upscale men’s pants line known as Dockers, which saw that sales increase to $4 billion. Since then, the company invested in adverts, campaigns, and stand-alone jeans boutiques to maintain sales. Despite these endeavors, the company still faces stiff competition from other leading companies across the United States.
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Interview
In an effort to provide the best analysis for the importance of culture in change management, a research interview was conducted with Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Mr. Chip Bergh. Chip Bergh has been the chief executive officer of Levi Strauss & Co. since 2011 and is also a member of the company’s board of directors. As such, the Chip Bergh is well acquitted with the company’s history, market trends in the textile industry, the corporate culture that guides Levi Strauss & Co., challenges faced by the company, and what needs to be done to ensure market competition.
Interviewer: As a textile company, who you say that Levi Strauss & Co. has a competitive advantage in the market today?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: Why is that?
Interviewee: The textile industry has undergone a great deal of change, specifically due to the high levels of competition and global sourcing. More so, the textile and clothing industry is now characterized by significant changes such as high volatility, short product lifecycle, high chances of impulse buying, and low predictability. Additionally, retailers across the world source for their textile supplies from companies that can meet their specific needs in time. This has been a huge setback for the company because it has failed to adopt the necessary strategies for its supply chain.
Interviewer: What do you think is the main hindrance in implementing effective change?
Interviewee: Our corporate culture. Levi Strauss & Co. is largely a bureaucratic corporation, which makes the implementation of change very difficult. Our employees, shareholders, and some managers resist change.
Interviewee: What do you think should be done?
Interviewee: The Company needs to change its supply chain and adopt one that enables it to optimize efficiency, minimize acquisition and delivery time, cut on operations costs, and improve product distribution globally.
Literature Review
According to a report given by OECD, many companies are driven to change because of several reasons today (Rothaermel, 2016). These factors include technology, globalization, market conditions, organizational growth, and poor performance. Whichever the cause, stakeholders in a company will always resist the change, which puts the company at risk because failure to adopt the necessary changes may influence the company’s ability to secure a competitive advantage in the market.
A survey conducted by the SHRM (2007), change resistance is one of the biggest reasons why most corporations fail to change. During change, a company may experience active resistance, passive resistance, or compliance, which is destructive to a company’s endeavors for change. Effective change management out to cultivate enthusiastic support from the stakeholders and to achieve this. The corporate managers have to understand how their corporate culture is affecting the change.
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People simply resist change because it disrupts their “way of doing things,” which can be defined as culture. Notably, culture in change management is a significant component in every firm that all corporate developers and managers in human resource departments must consider when making plans and executing any viable changes within an organization.
Organizational change management refers to a systematic and organized way through which corporations apply their tools, resources, and knowledge in an effort of facilitating change. According to Kneer (2013), change management can be defined as the strategy of systematic and planned chance that is achieved based on how the structure of the organization influences the culture of an organization and stakeholder behaviors.
The endeavor of change management implies that the change process demands proper planning and systematic management. Proper change management facilitates progressive, efficient, and effective implementation of new methods and systems within a firm. Change management also involves a company’s response to external stimuli when it cannot straightforwardly influence factors such as political, social, competitor’s strategies, legislations, technological advancements, and globalization.
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Pfister (2010) asserts that the culture of an organization refers to a shared understanding of a specific group of individuals in a specified context. The shared understanding originates from a set of principles, values, and norms that the individuals deem significant to them and, as such, align their practices towards those particular standards. According to Bhasing (2010), the principles, norms, rituals, and values of a company define its culture.
Typically, organizational culture refers to the profile of a group of individuals within an organizational context in regard to factors like standards, values, and behaviors. In the business world, culture defines the way things are done within a company and entails the fundamental patterns of assumptions that have been working for the company in the past and are considered valuable.
New stakeholders are inducted to embrace them while working with the organization. While change management purposes to take a corporation through various levels of development as stipulated by the goals put in place by a firm, several factors make a huge difference in determining the failure or success of change management tasks.
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Doppelt (2017) argues that people adopt and maintain certain cultures because of their personality, feelings of certainty, fear of failure, the impact of the change, the prevalence of the change, and the perceived loss of power in case of change. When a corporation is comprised of many stakeholders with a low self -concept, they are likely to resist the change because they feel that they may not be able to adjust to the change accordingly and be successful in the new system.
As such, they fight to keep the status quo and culture of the organization. Secondly, change brings feelings of uncertainty. Changes such as mergers make people lose jobs while the company’s revenue may take a turn to the worse. The uncertainty created results to fear and stress because people feel that they may lose control.
Corporations also fail to change because the stakeholders fear failure as they do not know how performance may be affected by a new system. People also resist change because it may impact their lives negatively and only welcome change that is favorable to them. The prevalence of change may also cause change resistance, mainly if it involves key departments. Lastly, people may fear change if it is associated with losing influence with the company.
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According to Hickman & Silva (2018), a flexible organizational culture limits resistance and helps people to adopt changes implemented in a new system easily. Company managers need to understand the relationship between culture and change management. One of the questions that corporate managers ought to ask themselves when orchestrating significant changes is how the existing culture and mindset are similar to the required set of behaviors expected to realize the change.
When the disparity is high, the company is at risk of not realizing its goals. According to Lewin’s Change Management Model proposed by Kurt Lewin in the 1950s, a company should apply three steps to achieve systematic and effective change (Ala et al., 2013). The first step is the Unfreeze stage, where the company prepares for change by purposefully changing the stakeholder’s mindset and behaviors towards a proposed change. During this step, the change managers should focus on breaking the status quo and eliminating fear and uncertainty.
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The second step is to change implementation. During this phase, the company implements a real transition. The success of this stage depends on how well the management creates the vision for change, communicates the change plan, develops a sense of urgency, builds a coalition, engages employees in decision making, and provides support prior and during the transition.
The last step, according to this theory, is refreezing. The company ensures that people embrace and implement new policies and procedures. During this stage, the management tracks the changes to ensure that the organization is stable again. The behaviors, norms, principles, and values of the company must be aligned with the new system.
Discussion
Currently, industries have adopted outcome-based strategies rather than input-based (World Economic Forum, 2015). The success of a 21st industry is measured through its outcome-based targets and its ability to connect with the significant teams across all functions. It is also measured through is the ability to find the right partners to form collaborative platforms and bridges.
With the current demand for speed, the textile company would also need to form meaningful alliances with the transport industries, including road, railway, shipping, and air transport. A collaborative ecosystem will require innovation, flexibility, and efficiency as its core strategic approach.
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These demands make it necessary for companies in the textile industry such as Levi Strauss & Co. as well as others in different sectors to employ the necessary changes to acquire a competitive advantage in the global market. Levi Strauss & Co. need to collaborate with suppliers that can supply raw materials promptly and at a low price. The company needs to access its culture and destroy the current status quo to adopt new supply chains that will be more beneficial to the company.
Conclusion
Conclusively, companies are prone to change due to poor performance, technological advancements, globalization, workforce demographics, organizational growth, and market conditions, among other factors. Nonetheless, regardless of the factor, people will always resist change as it disrupts and intrudes on their status quo. Based on Lewin’s Change management model, a company must systematically plan change around three steps, which include unfreeze, change, and refreeze.
References
Ala, R. D. (2013). Values as Predictors of Attitudes toward Changes. International Journal of Trade and Finance, 4 (5).
Amah, E. (2012). Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness: A Study of the Nigerian Banking Industry. 212 – 229.
Au, K. F., & Ho, D. C. (2006). Electronic commerce and supply chain management: value-adding service for clothing manufacturers. Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 13(4), 247-255.
Bhasing, N. (2010). Change in perception of organizational culture after the merger: The Influence of Motivation, Acceptance, and Knowledge. University of Twente Press.
Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government, and civil society. Routledge.
Hickman, C. R., & Silva, M. A. (2018). Creating excellence: Managing corporate culture, strategy, and change in the new age. Routledge.
Kezar, A. (2011). Understanding and Facilitating Organizational Change in the 21st Century: Recent Research and Conceptualizations: ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, Volume 28, Number 4 (Vol. 155). John Wiley & Sons.
Kneer, C. (2013). Change Management Enhance the Ability to Survive. München GRIN : Verlag GmbH.
Pfister, J. (2010). Managing Organizational Culture for Effective Internal. Berlin: Physica-.
Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Strategic management: concepts (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education.
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Business Administration Capstone
Coca-Cola is one of the leading beverage companies across the world. The company operates in over 200 nations and manufactures approximately 3, 900 beverage products which include Sprite, Coke, Fanta, Minute Maid, Diet Coke, Maaza, and Limca among others (The Coca-Cola Company). This paper seeks to explain the internal and external forces that influence Coca-Cola’s operations.
The paper largely examines the social cultural and political/legal segments as they are the most influential part of the general environment. This paper also explores the forces of competition that influence the company, its strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses. Although Coca-Cola faces stiff competition from companies such as Pepsi, its effective market strategy, brand identity, and resources will ensure that the company remains competitive.
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Business Administration Capstone
General Environment
Companies are influenced by different external environments segments that exist within a particular industry. These external segments include technological, sociocultural, economic, demographic, global, and political/legal factors which lie outside an organization’s control. Coca-Cola Company is mostly affected by the social cultural and political/legal segment as they rant the highest in influencing the firm’s daily operations (Frue, 2016). The two segments influence Coca-Cola’s decisions of production as well as profitability.
Sociocultural segment
Recently, most people especially in the developed world have changed their attitude towards carbonated and flavored drinks as they prefer more health drinks such as coffee and fruit juices. These attitudes and lifestyle changes have resulted to a significant decline in the preference of Coca Cola products leading to reduced revenues (Pratap, 2016). The media has also played in a crucial role in changing the perception of people regarding flavored drinks as they are said to be loaded with calories.
This change in attitude has forced the company to introduce new low calorie products such as Diet Coke put they only appeal to a few customers who have chronic conditions such as diabetes (Pratap, 2016). Coca Cola is currently exploring developing countries that still find flavored and carbonated drinks appealing.
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Business Administration Capstone
Political/legal Segment
Some of the political and legal factors that affect Coca-Cola include regulation and government laws that regulate foods and beverage production. For instance, across the United States, Coca-Cola is expected to follow the guidelines implemented by the Foods and Drugs regulatory body (Pratap, 2016). What’s more, the laws and government regulations vary by country.
As such, the company has been under pressure to expose some of its key ingredients as some regulatory bodies Coca Cola does not apply the regulations on some of its drinks. Additionally, the company has been facing legal challenges as it was recently accused of contamination water and poor water management (Pratap, 2016). The fines accrued to these lawsuits have cost the company huge amounts of money.
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Five Forces of Competition
The food and beverage industry has been seeing a significant growth and has become very competitive. The Porter’s five forces of competition include rivalry among existing companies, threat of new entrants, supplier’s bargaining power, threat of substitution, relative power of stakeholders (Hitt et al, 2013).
These forces influence profitability and therefore gaining a good understanding of the forces can helping in guiding the business strategy and increasing Coca-Cola’s competitive advantage (Nyakangi, 2020). Two of the most significant forces of competition that are most likely to affect Coca-Cola include threat of substitutes and competitive rivalry between the existing companies.
Business Administration Capstone
Threat of Substitution
Coca-Cola faces a threat of substitution from other healthy beverages. Some of the include coffee, fruit juices, teas, chocolates, mineral water, and milk. Currently, companies that deal in these beverages such as Nestle, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kraft Heinz Company, Danone, Asahi Group, and Starbucks among others endlessly put pressure on the company. Although Coca-Cola and Pepsi dominate over 40% of the beverage industry, the current health awareness movements across the world are likely to result to serious threats (Nyakangi, 2020).
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Coca-Cola has been able to address this force by introducing some healthy beverages. Two of them include Coca-Cola Zero and Diet Coke which earned the company more than 40% of its total revenue in the past few years (Jurevicius, 2020). Other drinks that have been seen to be healthy include Minute Maid, Georgia Coffee, Minute Maid Pulpy, Smartwater, and Fuze Tea among a few others which earn the company about US$1 billion. These beverages are able to compete effectively as healthy drinks in the developed countries.
Business Administration Capstone
Rivalry Amongst Existing Competitors
Secondly, Coca-Cola faces high competition from Pepsi which is it main rival in the beverage industry (Pratap, 2017). Pepsi and Coca-Cola have similar market strategies, products, and are almost equal in terms of size. As such, the price competition is very intense given that the product differentiation is low (Pretap, 2017). Another aggressive competitor is Marquee. Its products use the same ingredients as Coca Cola and the taste is almost similar which brings about competition from the company.
To squash the competition, Coca Cola has entered contracts with Pepsi to control the bottling technologies as well as set product prices (Pretap, 2017). This ensured that the two companies remain at the top as they control most of the bottling companies. The contracts also ensure that both companies earn good profits from their products.
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Future Improvements
The company needs to venture into more healthy beverages and food segment. Currently, most nations are fighting against chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. As such, people are encouraged to consume healthy foods and beverages. Coca-Cola needs to explore this segment so as to ensure productivity and profitability. Although Coca-Cola dominates the soft beverage industry it has to contain further competition from other beverage companies. Given that one of the causes of this competition is the health awareness across the world, Coca-Cola needs to explore the possibility of investing more healthy beverages.
The company can achieve this by forming a joint venture with other established companies that deal in fruit juices and hot beverages (Nyakangi, 2020). The parent companies can establish a new child companies that produces high quality fruit juices or hot beverages across the world. The company can use its market influence and its bottling contracts to promote the new beverages. By so doing, the company will ensure it gains profit a huge number of consumers who are health cautious. The company should also consider producing healthy snacks so as to encourage customers to remain loyal to the company.
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Business Administration Capstone
Secondly, to overcome the rivalry between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the company needs to increase its advertising initiatives in countries such as Latin America, Australia, Cuba, and North Korea. Coca Cola can also support major events and non-profit organizations across Africa, Brazil, Syria, Iran, India, and Afghanistan to increase its market (Baah, & Bohaker, 2015).
These initiatives will increase the advertising power of Coca-Cola as well as improve brand loyalty which will gain the company a competitive advantage over Pepsi. The company also needs to improve its adverts on some of its drinks that are not quite well known. These beverages include minute maid, glaeau vitaminwater, glaceau smart water, gold peak tea, del valle, and powerade among others.
Greatest External Threat
Coca-Cola applies SWOT analysis in monitoring its opportunities and threats. Recently, Coca-Cola has earned a bad reputation and has been termed as an “evil” company with the accusations of dehydrating communities due to overuse of water sources, use of pesticides in water, affecting local agriculture, and mistreating its employees in countries such as Russia, Guatemala, Colombia, and Turkey (Ling, 2017).
These sentiments are a huge threat to the company given that consumers today are only loyal to companies that show social corporate responsibility. This threat is even serious given that companies such as Pepsi have well established water sources that are environmentally friendly. Coca Cola needs to find new sources of water such as digging their boreholes and having several purification plants across nations.
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Greatest Opportunity
Coca-Cola has numerous opportunities that it can explore. The most promising is that the company can explore markets in developing nations given that developed countries are buying more healthy drinks recently (Baah, & Bohaker, 2015). Developing nations still explore soft and carbonated drinks and therefore increasing their market in countries such India that have very hot summers will increase profits.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Some of the greatest strengths that Coca-Cola Company can capitalize on include a vast global presence, its brand equity, best market strategies, and its huge market share. Coca-Cola brands and branches can be found across 200 countries across the globe and its only competition in these countries is Pepsi (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014). Regardless of this competition, Coca-Cola has an upper hand due to its fantastic drinks which include Diet Coke, Sprite, Maaza, Fanta, and Limca.
The company is well known across nations for its unique brand identity. The company can use these strengths to win the loyalty of many more customers across nations. Some of the weaknesses that the company has include stiff competition from Pepsi, low product diversification, lack of health beverages, and poor water management. To overcome the weaknesses, Coca-Cola can invest in the healthy food and beverage segments which will enable it to compete effectively with Pepsi.
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Strategies
The company should pursue new markets in developing countries. In developed nations, the company needs to produce more health drinks that do not increase obesity and people are more sensitive (Business Strategy Hub, 2019). This will enable the company to maintain profits while at the same time marketing its new health beverages in the developed nations.
Resources, Capabilities, and Core competencies.
In terms of core competencies, Coca-Cola is a very competent company that has effective and strategic marketing plans. Coca-Cola is reputed for associating with sports and physical activities. Since the company was founded in 1928, it has been a major supporter for Olympic Games (The Coca-Cola Company, 2019).
The company sponsors international sports such as FIFA world cup, netball, and rugby. This is influential because the sponsorship programs ensure that the company is well marketed and continues to dominate the world in beverage consumption and production as masses use these sports as a source of entertainment.
The company’s capability lies in the fact that the quality and quantity of its products are guaranteed and so are sales. In 2019, the company’s operating revenues were about US$37.27 billion (Bedford, 2020). The company is sure that most of their products will be sold regardless of its challenges. Nonetheless, given that it’s operating revenues were US$ 48.02 and US$46.85 in 2012 and 2013 respectively, there is need to improve the supply chain and strategize its market plans better to reduce this decrease in revenue (Bedford, 2020).
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Lastly, the company’s resources include technological resources, raw materials, and monetary resources. The company partners with bottling companies to come up with unique bottles and bottling procedures. The company in conjunction with Pepsi controls almost all bottling companies enabling the two companies to own the technology.
Business Administration Capstone
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References
Baah, S., & Bohaker, L. 2015. The Coca-Cola Company. Culture, 16, 17.
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Reducing nursing alarm fatigue
Introduction
In the healthcare setting, clinical alarm fatigue management failure is often as a result of nursing mistakes relating to complexity of the system. Telemetry technicians as well as nurses are occasionally affected by clinical alarm fatigue which hinders their capability to respond to the clinical alerts in the monitors (Sowan et al, 2015). Often, these practitioners are inundated with a significant number of visual and audio alerts which makes them ignore or fail to see the pertinent clinical alarm.
According to a qualitative research done by Dressler et al (2014), fatigue alarms rate from about 187 alarms per day in a single bed, 88.8% of which are false positives. This high rate has been a nuisance and a distraction in the healthcare setting as they can lead to increased number of mistakes in patient care. They are also a cause of panic and stress to patients who may be trying to rest as well as recover from illnesses and surgeries. Therefore reducing nursing alarm fatigue is much needed in the healthcare setting.
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Problem statement
The rate at which false alarm fatigue go off has remained to be a huge problem for telemetry technicians and nurses in charge of monitoring alarm signals in the telemetry room. These nurses and technicians are faced by a barrage of alarms and alerts during their shifts which makes them ignore the alerts at times. As a result, these practitioners may ignore a true positive alarm that needs immediate action leading to detrimental safety complications on the patient (Sowan et al, 2016).
Purpose of this study
The main aim for this study is to investigate whether healthcare organizations can minimize the amount of fatigue alerts in the telemetry rooms by applying the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) method. Failure to respond to true actionable alarms has led to serious patient injuries and even deaths in the healthcare setting (Christensen, Dodds, Sauer, & Watts, 2018).
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Significance of the study
This research is important because it informs the healthcare practitioners on how to minimize the severity of non-actionable alerts that nurses and other clinicians face during their shifts. Reducing the number of false positive alarms will create an environment that can improve the practitioner’s awareness of the alarms thus decreasing alarm fatigue (Cho, Kim, Lee, & Cho, 2016)
Research Questions (PICO)
How does an organization’s infrastructure, culture, technology, and practices influence a strong alarm management plan?
How can the elimination of false alarms such as premature ventricular contraction (PVC) and low amplitude GCG complexes lower the number of non-actionable alerts in the telemetry room?
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This qualitative research investigates how the healthcare system can minimize the number of alerts that cause fatigue among nurses as well as telemetry technicians to enhance patient safety. This paper uses peer reviewed papers from credible sources retrieved from databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE/EBSCO, Proquest, and HEALTH SOURCE/NURSING/ACADEMIC EBSCO.
The key terms that were used in this research includes clinical alarms, alarm fatigue, and physiologic monitor alarms. The timeline for this research was publications that dated from 2012 to 2019. The inclusion criteria for this research study included qualitative and quantitative studies that discussed how to reduce false positives in the telemetry room. A total of 46 research articles were reviewed though only 10 were used as the rest were duplicates or did not include detailed information.
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Reducing nursing alarm fatigue
Results
Srinivasa et al. (2017) and De Vaux et al. (2017) carried out quality improvement projects using the PDSA methodology in an effort of minimizing the severity of false alarms that nurses and technicians are exposed to in a single shift by revisiting the alarm alert typology. While De Vaux et al. (2017) used direct observations based on the alarm codes to develop concepts, Srinivasa et al. (2017) captured data using electronic software tools to capture data.
The two research studies investigated the PVC alarms and asserted that these alarms go off when physiologic monitor peaks irregularities in cardiac rhythms. During the beginning of physiological monitoring, most healthcare practitioners treated PVCs using various interventions or medications. However, recent research shows that cardiac irregularities are basically benign and are not treated.
Nonetheless, even after this discovery the PVCs alarms were not removed from the physiologic monitoring system. These two researchers concluded that PVC alarms should be removed from the physiologic monitoring system to reduce alarm fatigue among the practitioners.
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In their research, Walsh-Irwin and Jurgens (2015) also investigated how the healthcare system can reduce false alarms by adopting better cultures and patient care systems. These researchers carried a research that involved monitoring physiologic alarms before interventions and after the application of certain physiologic monitor leads following improved skin preparation.
Walsh-Irwin and Jurgens (2015) analyzed the collected data before and after the skin care intervention in an effort of determining whether the number of alarms reduced or accelerated. The statistical data that was collected in this research showed that proper skin preparation results to a reduced number of false positive alarms. The healthcare system should therefore adopt cultures that ensure proper skin preparation in patients to reduce the number of false alarms in the telemetry room.
Paine et al. (2016) also carried out a quasi-experimental research to investigate how healthcare organizations can reduce the number of false positive alarms among patients. This research examined topics such as the relationship between nurse response time and alarms exposure, non-actionable and actionable alarm propositions, and important interventions that help in the reduction of false alarms frequency.
This research established that the actionable alarms raged between <1% and 36% across many healthcare organizations in the United States. This research also found that there is a considerable correlation between alert exposures and the time that nurses take to respond to the alarm.
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In another experiment, Pelter, Fidler, and Hu (2016) investigated the probable impacts of a low-amplitude QRA complexes on asystole alarms that are false positives. Low-amplitude QRS complexes occur when limb complexes lead to less than 5-10 millimeters in the precordial leads. This qualitative study involved 82 patients who were observed in a period of 31 days.
The research suggested that there was no significant statistical data to having a false positive asystole alarm when a 12-lead ECG measured QRS complexes that were low amplitude. This experiment demonstrated that the low amplitude QRS complex alarm can be eliminate from the physiologic monitor.
Discussion
The themes that are evident in the above research studies provide insight to the healthcare’s struggles to apply PSDA methods that can manage alarm alerts. The studies establish that most alarms are not actionable and are a source of disruption and fatigue among nurse and therefore there should be active efforts to minimize the number of false positive alarms because they result to alarm desensitization and important alerts can be ignored as a result (Model for Improvement, 2018).
The research studies also establish that modifying alarms to ensure that only actionable physiological changes are recorded is a good of reducing alarm fatigue. Pelter, Fidler, and Hu (2016) clearly show that interventions are also a safe way of reducing the number of non-actionable alarms.
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Conclusion
In essence, alarm fatigue is a huge problem that puts patients in grave danger and a practitioner can ignore an actionable alarm thinking that it is a false positive. As such, adopting a PSDA methodology to reduce the number of false alarms will enhance the opportunities for practitioners to respond to the actionable alarms as well as reduce alarm fatigue. The healthcare organizations should create an environment that provides meaningful information to telemetry room monitors.
Reducing nursing alarm fatigue
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References
Cho, O. M., Kim, H., Lee, Y. W., & Cho, I. (2016). Clinical alarms in intensive care units: Perceived obstacles of alarm management and alarm fatigue in nurses. Healthcare informatics research, 22(1), 46-53.
De Vaux, L., Cooper, D., Knudson, K., Gasperini, M., Rodgerson, K., & Funk, M. (2017). Reduction of nonactionable alarms in medical intensive care. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 51(s2), 58-61.
Dressler, R., Dryer, M. M., Coletti, C., Mahoney, D., & Doorey, A. J. (2014). Altering overuse of cardiac telemetry in non–intensive care unit settings by hardwiring the use of American Heart Association guidelines. JAMA internal medicine, 174(11), 1852-1854.
Paine, C. W., Goel, V. V., Ely, E., Stave, C. D., Stemler, S., Zander, M., & Bonafide, C. P. (2016). Systematic review of physiologic monitor alarm characteristics and pragmatic interventions to reduce alarm frequency. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 11(2), 136-144.
Pelter, M. M., Fidler, R., & Hu, X. (2016). Research: Association of low-amplitude QRSs with false-positive asystole alarms. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 50(5), 329- 335. Srinivasa, E., Mankoo, J., & Kerr, C. (2017). An evidence‐based approach to reducing cardiac telemetry alarm fatigue. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 14(4), 265-273.
Walsh-Irwin, C., & Jurgens, C. Y. (2015). Proper skin preparation and electrode placement decreases alarms on a telemetry unit. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 34(3), 134- 139.
Sowan, A. K., Tarriela, A. F., Gomez, T. M., Reed, C. C., & Rapp, K. M. (2015). Nurses’ perceptions and practices toward clinical alarms in a transplant cardiac intensive care unit: Exploring key issues leading to alarm fatigue. JMIR human factors, 2(1), e3.
Walsh-Irwin, C., & Jurgens, C. Y. (2015). Proper skin preparation and electrode placement decreases alarms on a telemetry unit. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 34(3), 134- 139.
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Minority Women in Poverty
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the United States labor market experienced a decade of continuous job growth. The overall rate of unemployment fell to its lowest levels in the last 5 decades. Nonetheless, minority groups, and particularly minority women in poverty, still face more challenges when trying to secure a job, not to mention a well-paying one. As compared to their white counterparts, women of color have systematically faced higher rates of unemployment, less job opportunities, poor benefits, low salaries, and higher job instability (McLemore et al, 2018).
Minority women include Latino-Americans, African Americans, Indian-American, and Asian women. These women mostly stand at the intersection of a number of barriers and experience the combined impacts of ethnic, racial, gender, and other types of discrimination in their effort to navigate the institutional structures and labor systems where entrenched racial differences remain the norm.
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Often, minority women are disadvantaged by negative attitudes and stereotypes held by employers and senior managers which impacts the decisions on whether they are hired or not. Negative attitudes also affect how women of color are treated at work. Deep rooted stereotypes and cultural attitudes regarding women of color often devalue the productivity of these women and deprioritize their need for job motivation and satisfaction (McLemore et al, 2018).
Some of the commonly held stereotypes about women of color depict African American women as aggressive, loud, and uncontrollable. Latin-American women are perceived to be hypersexualized and pose a threat of maternity leaves. Asian women are seen to be ever agreeable, submissive, and incapable of leadership, invisible, cute, and small. Native American women are also seen as invisible and are overlooked for various leadership opportunities.
According to a research done by Washington and Roberts (2019), women of color are confident, ambitious, determined, and have a great desire to excel in their place of work. However, they lack managers and employers who understand their struggles and can assist them to overcome the challenges that prevent them from achieving their best. Due to lack of supportive work environments, women of color are laid off or quit their jobs leading high unemployment rates among them.
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Minority Women in Poverty
Most companies fail to understand that having organizational policies that prohibit biasness and discrimination is one thing while have an employer who is truly supportive is another. Managers can help the high unemployment rates among women of color in various ways (Flores, 2018). First, they should make the first move in social situation by engaging then in conversations and in the decision making process.
Secondly, they should give credit where it is deserved. Employees should be rewarded and promoted according to their skills and work experience and not based on their sex or color. More so, employees who do well in various projects should be recognized regardless of their sex or color. Thirdly, managers should not shy away from giving candid feedback during projects (Flores, 2018).
Fourthly, managers should check for bias during hiring. Lastly, managers should use exit interviews so as to get feedback from people who wish to quit. Most women of color quit because the working environment was not conducive which and their reasons can help managers improve the workplace.
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Childcare is a basic need for all children. However, most of the minority women who are the caregivers live in low-income, are undervalued in their places of work, and are invisible for promotions. Presently, most women of color with young children have to make difficult choices between using a considerable amount of their low income on childcare, find cheaper but generally lower-quality care options, or leave their work to become full-time caregivers (Schochet, 2019).
In most cases, women of color cannot afford to pay hired help to look after their small children. Nonetheless, leaving the children on their own or under the care of younger siblings is not also an option. Most minority families have found themselves in trouble with children care services because they were reported of leaving their children seemingly unattended at home. Most parents have lost custody of their children on charges related to neglect yet these women have to work to take care of their families.
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Minority Women in Poverty
As a result, child care problems have become a significant barrier to work among minority women. According to a survey conducted in 2018 by the Center for American Progress, women of color reported higher rates of experiencing the negative effects of child care as compared to men of any race and white women (Schochet, 2019). More often women of color have been forced to make employment decision based on the most favorable child care options as compared to their financial situations, personal interests, and career goals.
Presently, there is a growing awareness regarding the correlation between parental employment, child care, and economic growth (Schochet, 2019). While companies rely on the reliability of employees, most minority women with young children rely on the available child care options. When challenges with child care occur, these women must struggle to find other options as soon as possible or miss work. This means that apart from poor salaries and benefits, minority women also have to suffer from pay cuts, working lessor hours, or staying unemployed altogether.
Minority Women in Poverty
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References
Flores, C. (2018). Spotlight on Women of Color in STEM. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 11(2), 291-296.
McLemore, M. R., Altman, M. R., Cooper, N., Williams, S., Rand, L., & Franck, L. (2018). Health care experiences of pregnant, birthing and postnatal women of color at risk for preterm birth. Social Science & Medicine, 201, 127-135.
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The Five Factor Theory
In The Five Factor Theory, Costa and McCrae recognized Eysenck’s significance in identifying extraversion and neuroticism as second-order personality characteristics, as well as in establishing the Maudsley Personality Inventory, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire as instruments for assessing these variables (McCrae & Sutin, 2018).They did, however, disagree with Eysenck on psychoticism. Initially, they proposed a separate component known as openness.
When they addressed this with Eysenck, he thought openness was the polar opposite of psychoticism, while McCrae and Costa thought the elements were considerably different. Costa and McCrae have expanded on the third element of openness, adding two new second-order factors: agreeableness and conscientiousness.Costa and McCrae collaborated to create the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) to assess neuroticism, extraversion, and openness, and then the Revised NEO-PI, which additionally assesses agreeableness and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1988).
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The Five Factor Theory
However, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae’s version is the most well-known today and the one that most psychologists think of when considering the five component model. The abbreviation OCEAN is frequently used to recall Costa and McCrae’s five components, sometimes known as the Big Five personality traits: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1988).
The trait of openness to experience encompasses an appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unique ideas, curiosity, and a wide range of experiences. The degree of openness indicates a person’s intellectual curiosity, inventiveness, and appreciation for novelty and diversity. It is often referred to as a person’s level of creativity or independence. It denotes a preference for a range of activities over a tight schedule. Those with a high openness to new experiences favor novelty, whereas those with a low openness to new experiences prefer regularity (Boundless, n.d.).
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Conscientiousness is defined as a proclivity for self-discipline, dutifulness, competence, attentiveness, and achievement-seeking. It differs from the moral implications of conscience in that it focuses on the amount of conscious intention and thought a person puts into his or her actions (Boundless, n.d.). Individuals with a high level of conscientiousness prefer planned rather than spontaneous conduct and are frequently structured, industrious, and trustworthy.
Individuals with low conscientiousness have a more relaxed attitude, are more impulsive, and may be chaotic. Numerous studies have discovered a link between conscientiousness and academic achievement (Boundless, n.d.).
Extraversion is characterized by strong energy, pleasant emotions, talkativeness, assertiveness, friendliness, and a proclivity to seek stimulation in the presence of others (Boundless, n.d.). Low extraverts prefer alone and/or smaller groups, appreciate silence, prefer activities alone, and avoid large social situations. Because of their inquisitive and thrill-seeking character, persons who score high on both extraversion and openness are more inclined to participate in adventure and hazardous sports (Boundless, n.d.).
Agreeableness assesses a person’s proclivity to be sympathetic and helpful toward others rather than distrustful and hostile. It is also a measure of a person’s trustworthiness and helpfulness, as well as whether or not that person is typically good-tempered. People with low levels of agreeableness are often regarded as unpleasant and uncooperative (Boundless, n.d.).
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High neuroticism is defined by a proclivity to feel negative emotions such as wrath, anxiety, despair, or vulnerability (Boundless, n.d.). Neuroticism also refers to a person’s emotional stability and impulsive control. People with high neuroticism tend to be emotionally unstable and are described as furious, impetuous, and hostile.
They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult (Boundless, n.d.). Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional regulation can diminish a neurotic’s ability to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress.
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Critics of the trait method say that the patterns of variability across diverse contexts are key to determining personality, and that averaging across such scenarios to find an overarching characteristic obscures important distinction between individuals (McCrae & Sutin, 2018). Critics of the Five-Factor Model, in particular, contend that it has limits as an explanatory or predictive theory and does not explain all aspects of human nature.
Some psychologists disagree with the concept because they believe it ignores other aspects of personality such as religiosity, manipulativeness, honesty, seductiveness, thriftiness, conservativeness, femininity, egotism, sense of humor, and risk-taking (McCrae & Sutin, 2018). Another common critique is that the Five-Factor Model is not founded on any underlying theory; rather, it is an empirical observation that various descriptors cluster together when factor analysis is performed. This indicates that, while these five characteristics exist, the underlying reasons are unclear.
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The Five Factor Theory
Trait theorists have consistently demonstrated that characteristics are extremely resistant to change once they reach maturity (Costa & McCrae, 1988). This is especially true for Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness, as well as for men and women, as well as for Blacks and Whites (Costa & McCrae, 1988). While Costa and McCrae recognize that people can alter drastically, consistency is definitely more essential as a general rule.
They also argue that this would be a time to be optimistic. Individuals should not be afraid of changing as they mature. If, on the other hand, a person of a younger age is lonely, sad, or suffers from another psychological ailment, they should be aware that time alone is unlikely to alter them, and that psychotherapy may be a more desired and successful course of action (Costa & McCrae, 1988).
The Five Factor Theory
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Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1988). From catalog to classification: Murray’s needs and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 258–265.
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Five Personality Traits
Personality characteristics represent individuals’ distinctive patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Consistency and stability are implied by personality characteristics (Cherry, 2021). Characteristic psychology is based on the concept that people differ from one another based on where they stand on a set of basic trait dimensions that endure across time and contexts. The Five-Factor Model is the five personality traits theory most often utilized trait system.
This approach comprises five basic qualities that may be recalled with the abbreviation OCEAN: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Cherry, 2021). Each of the Big Five features may be subdivided into aspects to provide a more fine-grained examination of someone’s personality. Personality trait theories have long attempted to quantify the number of personality qualities that exist.
Earlier theories, such as Gordon Allport’s list of 4,000 personality traits, Raymond Cattell’s 16 personality components, and Hans Eysenck’s three-factor theory, proposed a wide range of potential qualities (Cherry, 2021). Many researchers, however, believed that Cattell’s hypothesis was too complex, and Eysenck’s was too narrow in scope. As a consequence, the five-factor theory was developed to define the basic qualities that serve as the foundation of personality (Cherry, 2021).
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Five Personality Traits
Openness to Experience describes a dimension of cognitive style that distinguishes imaginative, creative people from down-to-earth, conventional people (Ackerman, 2021). Open people are intellectually curious, appreciative of art, and sensitive to beauty. They tend to be, compared to closed people, more aware of their feelings. Intellectuals typically score high on Openness to Experience; consequently, this factor has also been called Culture or Intellect.
Openness is often presented as healthier or more mature by psychologists, who are often themselves open to experience. However, open and closed styles of thinking are useful in different environments (Smith, 2018). The intellectual style of the open person may serve a professor well, but research has shown that closed thinking is related to superior job performance in police work, sales, and a number of service occupations. Its facets include imagination, artistic interests, emotionality,adventurousness, intellect and liberalism.
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The Five Personality Traits
Conscientiousness concerns the way in which we control, regulate, and direct our impulses. Impulses are not inherently bad; occasionally time constraints require a snap decision and acting on our first impulse can be an effective response (Ackerman, 2021). Impulsive individuals can be seen by others as colourful and fun to be with. Acting on impulse can lead to trouble in a number of ways. Some impulses are antisocial. Uncontrolled antisocial acts not only harm other members of society, but also can result in retribution toward the perpetrator of such impulsive acts.
Another problem with impulsive acts is that they often produce immediate rewards but undesirable, long-term consequences (Smith, 2018). Examples include excessive socializing that leads to being fired from one’s job, hurling an insult that causes the breakup of an important relationship, or using pleasure-inducing drugs that eventually destroy one’s health.
Conscientious individuals avoid trouble and achieve high levels of success through purposeful planning and persistence (Ackerman, 2021). They are also positively regarded by others as intelligent and reliable. On the negative side, they can be compulsive perfectionists and workaholics. Furthermore, extremely conscientious individuals might be regarded as stuffy and boring. Its facets include self-efficacy, orderliness, dutifulness, achievement-Striving and cautiousness.
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Extraversion is marked by pronounced engagement with the external world. Extraverts enjoy being with people, are full of energy, and often experience positive emotions (Ackerman, 2021). They tend to be enthusiastic and action-oriented. In groups they like to talk, assert themselves, and draw attention to themselves. Its facets include friendliness, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity level, excitement-seeking and cheerfulness.
Agreeableness reflects individual differences in concern with cooperation and social harmony. Agreeable individuals value getting along with others. They are therefore considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise their interests with others’ (Ackerman, 2021). Agreeable people also have an optimistic view of human nature. They believe people are basically honest, decent, and trustworthy.
Disagreeable individuals place self-interest above getting along with others (Smith, 2018). They are generally unconcerned with others’ well-being, and therefore are unlikely to extend themselves for other people. Sometimes their skepticism about others’ motives causes them to be suspicious, unfriendly, and uncooperative. On the other hand, agreeableness is not useful in situations that require tough or absolute objective decisions. Disagreeable people can make excellent scientists, critics, or soldiers. Its facets include trust, morality, altruism, cooperation, modesty and sympathy.
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Neuroticism is a trait characterized by sadness, moodiness, and emotional instability. Individuals who are high in this trait tend to experience mood swings, anxiety, irritability, and sadness (Ackerman, 2021). Those who score high on Neuroticism may experience primarily one specific negative feeling such as anxiety, anger, or depression, but are likely to experience several of these emotions.
People high in neuroticism are emotionally reactive. They respond emotionally to events that would not affect most people, and their reactions tend to be more intense than normal (Ackerman, 2021). They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they are often in a bad mood.
These problems in emotional regulation can diminish a neurotic’s ability to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress (Smith, 2018).At the other end of the scale, individuals who score low in neuroticism are less easily upset and are less emotionally reactive. They tend to be calm, emotionally stable, and free from persistent negative feelings. Its facets include anxiety, anger, depression, self-Consciousness, immoderation and vulnerability (Ackerman, 2021).
Five Personality Traits
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Big five personality theory
Personality Traits
The big five personality theory has been used in the study of personalities and research since the late 20th century. The model by Costa and McCrae has five factors: Conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, and agreeableness.
Conscientiousness is the characteristic of being orderly and desire to perform well. Individuals who score high in the factor are; self-conscious organized, responsible, reliable, set ambitious goals and achieve them. Conversely, those who score low are less motivated, irresponsible, disorganized and less reliable (Aston, Lee & de Vries, 2014).
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Openness to experience is described as the ability to adapt to new methods of dealing with a life issue. According to Abel & Steve, (2018) people who score high in this factor are insightful, intelligent, curious, and imaginative and appreciate new experiences. Conversely, people who score low are closed minded, suspicious and uncomfortable to try new activities.
Big five personality theory
Extraversion is a trait that describes individuals who can interact with others and adapt to other’s viewpoints (Aston & Lee, 2014). Individuals who score high in the factor are assertive, attention seekers, energetic, talkative and socially confident. Those who score low in the aspect are usually: reserved, quiet, shy, and are intimidated being in large groups.
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Neuroticism is the tendency of developing proportionate worry, anxiety loneliness, and frustrations about the future. Those who score high are described to be: persistently anxious, worriers, fearful and pessimistic. Conversely, those who score low are optimistic, dynamic, and less anxious about problematic situations (Aston & Lee, 2014).
Big five personality theory
Agreeableness describes the value of being pleasant and warm to others. Those who score high are friendly, compassionate, cooperative and altruistic. Those who score low are selfish, uncooperative, suspicious and unfriendly.
The study was done on big five personality traits to assess gender differences across 55 countries. The findings indicated that women scored higher compared to men in agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness (Terracciano, McCrae & Costa, 2014). A Similar current study done in 2015, women scored higher in extraversion and neuroticism, while men scored higher in openness to experience.
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Aston MC & Lee K de Vries RE (May 2014). The HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Emotionality Factors review of research and theory. Personality and Psychology Review. 18(2): 139-52
