Managing strategic change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Managing strategic change - Essay Example In 2003 the system of tax credits for children and for adults was overhauled and extended, such that the meaning of means-testing has been substantially changed. The NHS Plan, published in 2000, finally produced a major cash injection for the service, the results of which did not begin to be felt until the end of 2001. Only after acting to redraw the work-welfare relationship to embody the ideas of opportunity and responsibility via the new instruments of the New Deals and tax credits did New Labour begin to justify vastly increased expenditure on health and education as necessary investments in human capital. It is also crucial to note that Labour Party leaders expressed caution about how much the state could actually do to achieve these ideas at the heart of its policy goals. In a speech on 'modernising central government' in 1998, Tony Blair said: 'Big government is dead. The days of tax and spend are gone. (www.new.bbc.co.uk) When people come together in groups, communities, cities or nations, levels of confusion and anxiety rise. Attempts are made to manage this anxiety by creating structure, rules and legislation. Organizations can be viewed as mini societies in which changes are driven or resisted in accordance with the beliefs that are deeply held by the members of that society. The beliefs may not be articulated explicitly. They may be conveyed symbolically, through such things as stories, myths, rituals and ceremonies. (Klein, 2003) Force field analysis was developed by Kurt Lewin. Force field analysis enables managers to identify the forces that are likely to restrain a particular change. Force field analysis is sometimes used with groups in order to structure an open discussion about what is blocking a change. Having identified the potential sources and levels of resistance, Lewin suggested that managers should act so as to reduce the restraining forces, rather than to intensify the forces driving the change. Lewin, like Newton, argued that to every action there was an equal and opposite reaction. Increasing the forces for change increases the forces resisting it. Overcoming resistance was characterized by Russell-Jones as a movement from defiance, through compliance to alliance. Central to the effectiveness of any approach to man-aging resistance is the quality of the relationships that managers develop with people in the organization. We look at conversational approaches to developing closer relationships wi th people. (Johnson & Scholes, 1999) Practical Force field analysis. Unfreeze current attitudes According to BBC report Mr Nicholson, who has worked in the NHS for 29 years, said some of the changes would be aimed at reducing the NHS deficit, which topped '500 million. But he added it was also about improving services by providing the best care in fewer centres, although he acknowledged this would mean patients travelling further for treatment. Undoubtedly there will be tough decisions to make over the next 12 months to reflect changing services. (www.new.bbc.co.uk) Move to a new level According to BBC report the NHS chief executive further said that there would be up to 60 reviews of hospitals in England. He said the changes could affect every region, and may lead to emergency, maternity and

SPECIFIC MORAL ISSUES (DEATH PENALTY) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

SPECIFIC MORAL ISSUES (DEATH PENALTY) - Essay Example In total, there have been approximately 345 executions within Massachusetts, including 26 convicted of witchcraft. Until 1951, murder in the first degree called for a mandatory punishment of death. In 1951, the law was changed to allow the jury the discretion to recommend against a death sentence after considering mitigating circumstances - in which case the sentence would be life imprisonment -unlessthe murder was committed in connection with a rape or attempted rape, in which case the death sentence was mandatory. In 1968, voters expressed disapproval with this trend in a non-binding referendum, voting 49 to 31 percent in support of continued use of the death penalty. During the 1970's and 80's, a series of judicial rulings eventually eliminated the death penalty altogether under Massachusetts law: In 1972, the US Supreme Court decision of Furman vs. Georgia, threw out Georgia's death penalty as cruel and unusual, citing the arbitrary and capricious manner in which it was administered, and leading to capital statutes throughout the country being overturned. For Massachusetts, this meant that the discretionary death penalty for murder was nullified, but the mandatory death penalty for rape-murder was left intact for the time being (Cf.Commonwealth v. Harrington, 1975). On October 28, 1980, the SJC ruled inDistrict Attorney for the Suffolk Dist. v. Watsonthat a new capital statute signed into law by Governor Edward King the previous November (c. 488, Acts of 1979) was unconstitutionally cruel for all the reasons laid out inO'Nealand their opinion of the proposed 1977 bill. On November 2, 1982, voters approved by referendum (54 to 35 percent) an amendment to Article 26. The amendment, Article 116of the Massachusetts Constitution, states that: No provision of the Constitution... shall be construed as prohibiting the imposition of the punishment of death. This completed the amendment process, which had been initiated in 1980 by legislators acted quickly to draft another new death penalty bill. On December 15, 1982, the House and Senate passed legislation providing for capital punishment for first-degree murder. The bill was signed into law (c. 554, Acts of 1982) a week later by Governor King and went into effect on January 1st. This 1982 statute was invalidated by the SJC on October 18, 1984 in the case ofCommonwealth v. Colon-Cruz. While the death penaltyper sewas no longer forbidden by the Constitution, this particular statute improperly encouraged defendants in murder cases to plead guilty rather than face a jury trial, thus avoiding the possibility of the death sentence, and violating the right against self-incrimination and the right to trial by jury. Massachusetts has remained without a valid death penalty law ever since. Subsequent attempts to reinstate the death penalty have failed: By the time of theColon-Cruzdecision, Michael Dukakis had become governor again. Throughout these two terms, a nearly evenly divided legislature never passed a bill - which the governor would have certainly vetoed. In 1991, William Weld became governor. He, and every governor since, argued for death