The Definition of Institutionalize Racism

United States of America is not a country for one specific group of people such as French, China, or Angola. Instead, many of these people come to United States to live. Under one roof, all these different groups have to coexist for this country to function properly. As a result of interaction between groups of different background, race, tension develops. Soon, it becomes a personal dislike from one member of one group for members of another group. While these feeling are unavoidable and sometimes understandable, it is unacceptable to institutionalize these feelings and make it an acceptable part of society. Yet, this has existed and prospered in the social fabric of America since the day of slavery. Black Americans, victims of this institution of racism, have tried to change the system through legal means, and protest. The government has responded through legislation such as Civil Right Act of 1965 and Affirmative Action. These policies have faced opposition from some white Americans, but Justice Blackmun said, â€Å"In order to beyond racism, we must take account of race. † The institution of racism has targeted minority Americans as its victim by denying them the opportunity that everyone else have such as making a living. Those policies address this problem by using race, rightfully, to identify who is the victim of racism, and discrimination. Racism has plagued the public education system long before Brown vs. Board of Education. Segregation has led to underfunded school that has no tools to teach children in black-dominated area. State and local government use property tax to determine the amount of fund a school gets. However, properties in black-dominated area are either run-down, or have low value. As a result, underfunded schools lead to underfunded education that gives black students no skill to make a living. Very few of them will be able to get out of the poverty cycle that has plagued their parents. After Brown vs. Board of Education, mandatory busing has tried to bring black students to white dominated neighborhood school, and also bring white students to urban school. This policy has given black students access to school that has better facilities and equipment. It has forced states and locals government to give more funds to urban school. Many white parents have refused to send their children to urban school for countless reason. They have a valid claim that busing violates their personal freedom. The court has to decide between two conflicting interests, whether to give equal access to one group at the expense of one individual's personal freedom. After deciding in favor of equal opportunity, the court has tried to enforce the decision by mandatory busing, and it has even used the National Guard to escort black students to white school. However, it did not require states to change their school overnight. State and local government then began to have gradual mandatory busing. However, gradualism has watered down the effort of true integration. Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall's biographer, has said on C-span that Marshall has regretted for not having demanding more aggressively for rapid integration. Today, due to the court keep chipping away part and part of Brown vs. Board of education, school integration and busing remain far and few. State and local government have almost stopped funding for mandatory busing. As a result, public school has become as segregated as ever and the accomplishment of Brown vs. Board of Education has vanished. In its place are programs such as magnet, school choice, voluntary enrollment, or voucher. However, these programs fall far short the goal of equal access, and integration. Magnet, school choice, or voluntary busing promise to bring diversity to school. However, these programs only bring children from urban school into suburban school. White parents will not risk sending their children to urban school for reasonable fear of drugs, crime, or lack of educational equipment. Suburban schools will end up getting more money, and urban schools will keep losing money and students. Since these programs have a quota of how many student can enroll, the majority of students cannot enroll. These unfortunate ones will have to settle for a school that lacks money at their neighborhood. So, these programs only allow a selected few to have an opportunity that students in suburban schools have. Another program is voucher that promotes to give poor minority students a chance for quality education at a private school. However, voucher works much better for a middle class white family trying to get into an exclusive private school than a poor black family. The voucher system determines how much to give by looking at the property tax of a family. If a family is poor, the voucher for that family will not have much worth. Since poor family cannot put much more money into their voucher, voucher program eliminates poor minority families as its recipients, contrary to what it promotes. While voting is considered by many as a personal choice, special interest groups working to ensure representation for minorities have dominated the election process. Sometimes, this helps minorities but can also hurt them. The common method for ensuring minority representation is racial districting. White Americans had used racial districting method such as â€Å"cracking† or â€Å"stacking† to eliminate black votes at first (Swain 426). These methods give minorities no representation or hope of electing a candidate that is friendly toward minorities. Since court has ruled against â€Å"stacking† or â€Å"cracking†, racial districting has appeared of the form â€Å"packing† in recent years (Swain 426). Even though packing surely gives minorities representation, it has diminished the voting power of minorities. In 1991, 15 of the 27 seats held by black politicians have a black population of over 50 percents (Swain 423). This packing of black voters has led to poor turnout and poor performance. For example, one 13 percents of black in Major Owen's district vote in 1986 (Swain 423). Poor performance also contributes to the problem due to an automatic reelection of a black politician in a black majority district. So packing has its benefit in term of ensuring black representation but it also wastes the vote of black Americans. Major Owen surely would have won his district even if it were only 40 percents to 45 percents black. The remaining black voters should move to another district where they can vote for another candidate that will work for their interest. Ironically, the Republican Party appears to be benefited from packing. It has been very supportive of packing that involves large black district. Even if it ensures the election of a black Democrat, it allows the Republican to compete at the new district that has been drained of black Democrats (Swain 405). This makes the election more racially polarized. So the symbol of democracy, the Congress, will also be the most segregated as Republican tries to portray Democrat as a party of black's interest. Swain names the two most promising alternative method for packing are black representation in majority white district and voting for white candidates that can represent the interest of blacks (Swain 431). There has been many doubts that black candidates cannot win in a majority white district. However the election of Governor Wilder, Mayor Bradley, has proved otherwise. Black politicians has proved that they can both represent racial interest and their white constituent such as Louis Stokes (Swain 430). Black voters must not forget there are white politicians that can be as good a black politician such as Gephardt, Kennedy. Minority voters can only benefit from these two methods. First, it allows black politicians to look beyond the House of Representative for a higher office such as the Senate or may be the presidency. Second, it fosters a coalition with other racial and ethnic group (Swain 433). This will expand the representation of Black Americans. These two methods go beyond blaming white people or society for racism by reaching out to white people to combat it. Black and minorities need the help of white politicians and activist who are in a position to make a difference. Only then, the goal of racial equality will be achieved. Racism has tried to exclude minorities from public school and voting. Now, it has turned to another target, the college system in America. Public colleges in America have always used Affirmative Action to determine admission. This program has given minorities an opportunity to seek higher education. It does not promote under-qualification but instead, it will level the playing field for people who are capable of taking the advantage of opportunities that has denied them because of their gender or ethnicity (Patterson 443). When Affirmative Action is examined alone in term of college admission, it has mixed success. For example, the number of Asian students at Berkeley is half of the student body, whereas blacks and Hispanics continue to stagger. This program has come under the attack of conservatives who label it as reverse discrimination. Justice Scalia call it as â€Å"racial preferences appear to even the score† (Siegel 458). Conservatives have completely overlooked the fact that being white is a privilege that other minorities do not have. White men control 99. percents of all the important top position in this country, so what they do from hiring employee, or drafting policy will tend to benefit white people. This is just a normal pattern of human behavior (Patterson 449). Affirmative Action's goal is to correct this problem but it is on the verge of extinction because of proposition 209, or Hopwood vs. Texas. As a result, black admission drop from 65 to 11 in the year following the court case Hopwood vs. Texas. We have seen that effect spreads to UCSD where the number of black students can be measured by finger counting. Opponent of Affirmative Action in college admission has called for using a class-based initiative to determine college admission. They have claimed Affirmative Action not only hurts whites but also Asian Americans. A class based initiative can only help with diversity and does not have the reverse discrimination element that Affirmative Action appears to have. Nonetheless, research has shown Asian American enrollment will increase, white will stay the same, black and Hispanic will decrease if socioeconomic status is used to determine admission (Omi and Takagi 438). The result shows the University of California will be more racially polarized if this plan is implemented. It will generate hostility toward Asian Americans from whites and other minority groups because this plan clearly give Asian American an advantage, unlike Affirmative Action. For a plan that promise diversity, it will end up hurting the diversity makeup of University of California because it deletes race as a factor for consideration. Therefore, minority groups beside Asian American will be denied from an opportunity for higher education. To promote diversity and equal opportunity, race must be taken into consideration because it allows us to identify the victim of racism, who has been denied the opportunity he is entitled to. Without race, how do we know who or where is the victim? Justice Blackmun has said â€Å"to get beyond racism, we must take account of race†. This signifies a shift from protecting individual to protecting a certain group. As a result, race based policies such as Affirmative Action and school desegregation was created. They have helped protecting minority from racism and leveling the playing field. They have forced the public sector and private sector to give minorities equal opportunity because minorities do not have the privilege of being white. The white establishment, without government intervention will extend it hands only to those similar to its. Those policies remedy this preference. Critics of race based policies claim these policies practice reverse discrimination. They want a colorblind policy to be implement instead. However, colorblind policy assumes society to be free of racism and discrimination toward minorities. Statistics have shown otherwise from the low college enrollment of black to the lack of minority in the top position. Colorblind policy will give the control back to the white establishment. Then, discrimination, intentionally or unintentionally, will be directed toward minorities will be much more visible similar to the pre-Civil Right period. In this case, racism cannot be blamed because the people in the establishment are â€Å"colorblind†. It is ironic that a colorblind policy, the goal of the civil right movement, will end up nullifying the legacy of the civil right movement because colorblind is a policy ahead of its time.

Harvard Business Review: Carter Racing Case Essay

This is a really tough decision and the mind is constantly changing against to the conclusion. But after a thorough consideration, I don’t think the team should race this time. John should get more data and information for the engine failure until he decides to race again for the next season. There are numerous ways to decide to race or not for John Carter when it comes to decision making. He can make the decision based on either his fellow chief mechanic Tom’s view, or the engine expert Paul’s assumption. However, regardless either way, the conclusion should be reached by some sort of quantitative analysis. At the first glance at the scenario, the immediate reaction was to throw all the numbers provided into the opportunity cost calculation, and compare the pros and cons between the options. However, in order to come up with the most accurate prediction on the expected value of the outcome, it is necessary to gather the all of the associated costs in dollars. John can easily calculate the cost to withdraw by adding up the fees from the data that was provided in the case. Yet, for the other options: race and win, race and fail, it is impossible for us to calculate the precise cost of â€Å"winning† and â€Å"failure† since there are no price tags for fames and sponsorship possibilities if the team wins the race, as well as the risks that might happen in relation of gasket failure such as life, and destructing in team reputation. Thus, without the inclusion of all the necessary factors, the result of calculated the expected value would be useless in measuring losses and gain s. The second reason that I think John should wait for the race is due to insufficient information provided in the case. In addition to the chart that was provided by Tom (exhibit 1), there should also be a chart showing the distribution on head gasket success is related to temperature since the race might begin in a day with fairly low temperature. Thus, if I were John, I would have to determine to postpone the race until further information is gathered. Of course it is not easy to convince someone on things that no one can be guarantee of. Thoughts and doubts gone through the mind such as: the race  itself is in the nature of a risky business; wondering if John should grab the opportunity right now before it flies away because next season is still unknown, etc†¦ Even after knowing insufficient information was available, it is still really tempting to choose racing rather than withdraw. This tension fighting unconsciously in the mind reminds me of the principle of scarcity , which people tend to value potential loss (the fees for racing) more heavily than potential gains (engine invested and human life). These feeling often caused managers to have bias on decision making. Besides the method of quantitative calculation on costs, the problem John faces also consists of the selection between two different sides of recommendations: one from his chief mechanic Tom who suggests for race, and the other engine mechanic Paul who opposes the race. The argument and data presented by these two mechanics act as a persuasion to John. Whereas, Tom and Paul both have extensive experience in racing, yet Paul â€Å"lacked the sophisticated engineering training† as mentioned in part B of the reading raised an interesting dilemma on whether John should shift more of his selection power towards Tom based on the insufficiency of Paul’s training. To tie this case to Mulvey’s article, the purpose of a team is increase the strength of the organization by forming and adding up the different perspectives together. For organization leaders, John, in this case, it is very important for him to balance the team dynamics to make sure each person’s voice is equally weighed in team function while such balance is very easy to lose grip once one side of the opinion is valued too heavily. This situation is well demonstrated between John, Paul, and Tom. At the beginning of the case , Paul showed his position as a strong opponent against the team to race. But as the case evolves, Paul’s attitude changed as Tom showed the chart in exhibit 1, and agreed to race at the end. It seems that Paul has given up his beliefs and agreed with the team on racing by accepting the data provided by Tom of who that has a higher rank than Paul even though the data seem to be insufficient to persuade Paul’s position from racing. This matches Mulvey’s views of the presence of someone with expertise and compelling argument since Tom is the chief of mechanic, which might have led an assumption to indicate higher level in  qualification. With such precedence assumption and numerous useless discussions on with John on the gasket problem, it is very likely for Paul to accept Tom’s data as long as it makes some sense in explaining the gasket problem. In addition, there is also a subtle sense that Paul may have felt the pressure from the team to cause him to conform. It is clear that the team leader, John, is feeling frustrated about the race sponsorship and eagerly wishing to get both of the mechanics’ approval to race. Being the only person that disagrees, Paul gradually lessened his voice. This illustrates the points of pressure from others to conform and dysfunctional decision making climate that Mulvey has brought up. In sum, as if I were John, it is essential for team leaders to manage the team with a great sensibility of each team member’s personality and expertise in order to maintain the participation spirit. A well balanced team would allow people like Paul to speak up his mind and not compromise his views, and still utilize Tom’s expertise. A well-functional team is the only way to have a possible appropriate decision making solution. work cited: Mulvey, Paul. â€Å"When teammates raise a white flag.† Academy of Management Executive. 1996 pp. 43

Comparison of A Doll’s House and A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Prompt #14: â€Å"Important characters in plays are multi-dimensional. Discuss to what extent this statement is true of important characters in plays you have studied and comment on the techniques of characterization employed by the playwright.† Multidimensional characters can also be defined as dynamic or constantly changing and developing characters. These dynamic characters are not simply important to a play, but are arguably the most important characters because what the playwright intends to communicate to his or her audience is communicated through the changing emotions and behaviors of these characters. Additionally, playwrights use a variety of techniques to highlight the changes an important character may go through. The dialogue, staging and stage directions, setting, music, lighting, and even costumes can all be used to highlight a multifaceted character’s emotional and physical changes. In A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, the playwrights primarily use costumes, which parallel the emotional and behavioral changes of important dynamic characters, and contrast in dialogue to amplify developments and changes in the characters’ relationships and behavior. Ibsen’s choice of costume design portrays Nora as a dynamic character in A Doll’s House. Ibsen changes Nora’s costume to parallel her behavioral and emotional changes in the play. The â€Å"Neapolitan fisher-girl† costume, for example, represents Nora’s secrets and their restraint on her autonomy (Ibsen 29). Therefore, Nora’s want to â€Å"tear [the masquerade costume] into a hundred thousand pieces† represents her will to be rid of her lies and to take off of the mask she puts on for Helmer (Ibsen 28). The costume facilitates this need throughout the second act of play. When Nora practices the Tarantella dance, she dances wildly and â€Å"her hair comes down and falls over her shoulders† (Ibsen 47). Wild and free hair has connotations of independence and liberation. Therefore, the costume begins to show the audience her will to free herself from the mask she puts on for Helmer. However, she remains in the dress at this point in the play meaning that she is still restricted by the disguise she wears for Helmer’s satisfaction. Again, the dress highlights Nora’s development when it is removed in Act III before Nora gathers the courage to tell Helmer she must leave him to gain her independence. Nora’s masquerade ball costume conveys how Nora’s lies and mask of happiness restrain her freedom and helps to illustrate her eventual escape from them. Therefore, the costume design amplifies the characteristics that make Nora a dynamic character. Williams also uses his costume designs to characterize his dynamic characters in A Streetcar Named Desire. However, rather than connecting a specific costume with a feeling, he associates a general type of costume with specific emotions and actions. For example, the lavish costuming of Blanche represents the extent of her desire for, and delusion of, an extravagant life. As the play opens and Blanche enters, her appearance is described as â€Å"incongruous to [the] setting† (Williams 15). She is introduced being dressed as if she believes she should be somewhere and someone else. Furthermore, her beauty from the â€Å"white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl† is described as delicate and sensitive to light (Williams 15). This description of Blanche suggests that her rich and royal appearance is purely superficial and does not represent the reality of her life. This connection between costume design and Blanche’s fabricated reality is continued throughout the play. Before beginning to flirt with the young paper boy in Scene Five, Blanche â€Å"takes a large, gossamer scarf from the trunk and drapes it about her shoulders†, and then begins to pretend he is a young Prince and later makes Mitch bow to her (Williams 84). The playwright, Tennessee Williams, connects Blanche’s affluent adornment with her delusions of wealth and importance that develop and grow stronger as the play progresses. In the final scene, Blanche’s illusions blend almost entirely with her reality as she asks Stella to gather a number of elaborate accessories, including a cool yellow silk boucle and â€Å"a silver and turquoise pin in the shape of a seahorse†, and dresses herself in a dress and jacket of a color that Madonna once wore (Williams 132/135). Williams uses this costume to amplify the absurdity of Blanche’s illusion of spending her life on the sea with a millionaire. Therefore, Blanche’s costume choices in A Streetcar Named Desire connect to her developing insanity, which makes her a complex and dynamic character. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen also utilizes tension in dialogue, specifically the tension between Nora’s inward and outward expression of feelings surrounding worth, to portray Nora as a dynamic character. The playwright first creates a contradiction between her internal and external feelings, only to eventually change her apparent expression to match her true feelings. In the first two acts of the play, Nora’s outward expression of a woman’s worth revolves around being a good wife and mother by aiming to please Helmer, her husband. However, her inward feelings portray the opposite. Nora inwardly believes that worth involves being true to herself. Nora is outwardly submissive to her husband by allowing herself to be called by possessive pet names, such as his â€Å"little spendthrift†, his â€Å"squirrel†, or his â€Å"extravagant little person† (Ibsen 2-3). Furthermore, even Nora uses these labels for herself during the first two acts. These names put Nora in a submissive position because they define Nora as a possession of Helmer’s. Therefore, when Nora labels herself a skylark or squirrel, she outwardly submits to the will of her husband, proving her external idea of worth revolves around his happiness. However, whenever Nora yields to Helmer, there are undertones of sarcasm within the dialogue portrayed both by the stage directions and the writing. When Nora first calls herself Helmer’s skylark and squirrel, she does so while â€Å"smiling quietly and happily†, as if she aims to manipulate him with her words (Ibsen 4). This example of irony mixed with manipulation illustrates the contradiction between what Nora outwardly expresses and what she internally believes. Nora’s sarcasm is also present directly in her dialogue with Helmer. In the conclusion of the first act, Nora asks Helmer to â€Å"take [her] in hand and decide† how she should attend the masquerade ball (Ibsen 25). The sarcasm she speaks these lines with is evident when she utilizes hyperboles to appeal to Helmer’s ego, such as telling him â€Å"no one has such good taste† and that she â€Å"can’t get along a bit without† his help (Ibsen 25). Therefore, Nora’s exaggerated submission to Helmer suggests a dichotomy between her internal ideas of worth and her actions. Yet, as the play develops, Nora’s actions begin to match her interpretation of value. She begins to overtly become a subject of her life, rather than the subject of her husband’s. In the final pages of Act III, Nora discards the view she externally portrayed in the first acts of A Doll’s House by explicitly rejecting Helmer’s assertion that â€Å"before all else, [she is] a wife and a mother† (Ibsen 66). She explains to Helmer that she believes that â€Å"before all else [she] is a reasonable human being†¦ [who] must think over things for [herself] and get to understand them† (Ibsen 66). This rejection of blind obedience and assertion of autonomy supports the claim that Nora’s outward expression developed over the course of the final act to match her opinion of worthiness. Because Nora’s expression of merit changed over the course of the play, she is considered a dynamic, or multifaceted character. Therefore, Ibsen’s use of dialogue in A Doll’s House is instrumental in portraying Nora as an important and multidimensional character. Tennessee Williams also uses tension in dialogue within his play, A Streetcar Named Desire, to portray his significant characters as multidimensional. However, rather than creating tension by using contradiction to develop a single character’s dialogue, Williams creates tension by contrasting the dialogue of Stanley and Blanche. This distinction between the two characters, and the way they communicate in the play, causes behavioral changes suggesting that dialogue is responsible for dynamic transformations in the characters’ actions. Blanche’s speech is educated and full of literary illusions. She uses a reference to the gothic poet Edgar Allen Poe to describe her sister’s life and situation by calling her neighborhood â€Å"the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir† (Williams 20). This complexity present in Blanche’s dialogue portrays her as a representation of the old, aristocratic South. In contrast with Blanche’s more sophisticated way of speaking, Stanley uses simple societal based metaphors and commonplace clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s in his dialogue. Rather than using a literary based metaphor for Blanche, Stanley uses one based on politics. Stanley describes her fame in Laurel â€Å"as if she [were] the President of the United States, only she is not respected by any party† (Williams 99). Additionally, the clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s Stanley uses in his speech, such as â€Å"no, siree, bob†, â€Å"boy, oh, boy†, or â€Å"the jig was all up† portrays Stanley as the down-to-earth representation of the New South (Williams 100-101). The contrast between the dialogue of the two characters and the connection it has with the social group they identify with highlights their dynamic characteristics by emphasizing Blanche’s attempt and ultimate failure to integrate herself into the less aristocratic and educated New Orleans. Therefore, the playwright’s effort to contrast the dialogues of Blanche and Stanley facilitates Blanche’s representation as a multifaceted and changing character in A Streetcar Named Desire. Analyzing how a playwright portrays his or her dynamic characters gives insight into what the playwright intends to say through their development. For example, Henrik Ibsen uses a single costume to connect the audience with Nora’s progression into an autonomous woman in order to focus the audience’s attention on a single facet of Nora’s life and desires, while Williams uses many costumes with varying degrees of lavishness, to highlight the degree to which Blanche blends reality with fantasy. Furthermore, Ibsen uses tension in dialogue of a single character to keep the audience’s focus on Nora, while Williams contrasts the speech of two characters to highlight the contrast between two different social worlds, the new and old South. Therefore, the most important characters in a play are always multidimensional characters because most of a playwright’s commentary is included in the development of these characters and analyzing the techniques a playwright employs to distinguish a dynamic character helps to convey meaning. Bibliography Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. Print. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Signet, 1975. Print.

How effective are Business Intelligence (BI) tools for supporting Essay

How effective are Business Intelligence (BI) tools for supporting decision-making - Essay Example Includes database and application technologies, as well as analysis practices. Sometimes used synonymously with "decision support," though business intelligence is technically much broader, potentially encompassing knowledge management, enterprise resource planning, and data mining, among other practices. ...† (csumb, 2011) Trying to interpret the actual meanings of the term ‘intelligence’ and how it is evolved would give us a better understanding into the terminology of business intelligence itself. Generally, intelligence refers to the ability to understand, learn and evolve. Intelligence develops with every learning experience and input of every kind of information. Basic intelligence, when deployed in business environment is referred to as business intelligence. THE DISCUSSION: The capacity of human beings to incorporate prior instinctive and experience based knowledge to execute processes in order to achieve a particular objective is termed as intelligence. It ’s a virtual entity that encompasses all logical horizons. Business is also one of the natural and logical processes. Logic can be defined as a set of rules that governs executions. To discriminate a process as being logical or illogical one needs to be intelligent. This new perspective about intelligence gives a much understandable definition of Business Intelligence. BI would now be defined as, the capacity that enables businessmen to differentiate logical and illogical executions in a business.. This definition presents Business Intelligence as an umbrella that covers almost all the tasks performed under the tag of ‘businesses’. This paper emphasizes on the same notion with the discussion of multiple top notch business terms namely... The capacity of human beings to incorporate prior instinctive and experience based knowledge to execute processes in order to achieve a particular objective is termed as intelligence. It’s a virtual entity that encompasses all logical horizons. Business is also one of the natural and logical processes. Logic can be defined as a set of rules that governs executions. To discriminate a process as being logical or illogical one needs to be intelligent. This new perspective about intelligence gives a much understandable definition of Business Intelligence. BI would now be defined as, the capacity that enables businessmen to differentiate logical and illogical executions in a business.. This definition presents Business Intelligence as an umbrella that covers almost all the tasks performed under the tag of ‘businesses’. This paper emphasizes on the same notion with the discussion of multiple top notch business terms namely sales forecasting, market research and knowledg e management. The association of business intelligence with sales forecasting, knowledge management and Market Research brings new meanings to this seemingly simple business term. It is attempted to take a general look at the basic definitions of each of the above mentioned terms before looking at their comparative involvements and meanings.

Research on two large regeneration schemes in London and one Essay

Research on two large regeneration schemes in London and one regeneration in Slough town centre, Berkshire - Essay Example (Greenwich council, 2007) The plain to project to regenerate the Greenwich peninsula is being led by the Greenwich council, the planning of the project was done by Meridian Delta Ltd and submitted to the council who approved the master plan, which will cost a staggering 5 billion sterling pounds and it is estimated to take 15 years before it is completed. (Greenwich council, 2007) The Greenwich council, granted the permission of regenerating the Greenwich peninsula to a group of consortium named Meridian Delta Ltd, the Anschutz Entertainment group and the national regeneration agency. The group is supposed build the proposed regeneration project of the area which will include; building new nursery, primary and secondary schools, Building modern health facility, improving the transport system, which will improve the employment opportunities of the local community. (Greenwich council, 2007) Anschutz entertainment group: one of the global leader in the sports and entertainment presenters in the world. The management owns and control many international famous and best venues, arenas and sports franchises. Meridian delta limited: this is a joint venture company which comprises of Lend Lease and the Quintain Estates & Development Plc, which was formed to specifically lead the regeneration of Greenwich Peninsula Quintain Estates and Development Plc: this is a major Britain development and property investment company that specializes in redevelopment, property acquisition and asset management in many property sectors. (Greenwich council, 2007) At present the Greenwich peninsula is considered as a derelict and contaminated. There is no any meaningful development. As Cllr. Chris Roberts of Greenwich council state, â€Å"the council is building a new community on peninsula, land that used to be derelict and contaminated† The Greenwich peninsula comprising of 300 acre is physically secluded land with gasworks which are in derelict and contaminated. In 1996 a

Unit 7 Application 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Unit 7 Application 2 - Essay Example This is the plan not so taxing in terms of starting salary while also provides opportunity for participation in the annual bonus plan. Additionally, the 10% starting salary below market average can easily be offset by benefits in the annual bonus plan. The bonus range is also 0% to 20%, which is way above the difference between salary offered for this plan and the market average. Yes, the HVP plan will most likely increase the job offer acceptance rate. Rejection or acceptance of a job offer by a candidate depends solely on terms and conditions, and that is an area well addressed by the plan. Other than offering flat and uniform terms for all positions, the HR comes with variations in job categories for different jobs, and the three categories allow applicants alternatives from which to choose.The high risk plan is ideal for the first category of applicants ready to assume risks given that their starting salary if way below the market average with a difference of 10%-30%. Nonetheless, such people can participate in the annual bonus plan and they have the highest bonus range, 60% of the current salary. Whatever they miss in their basic salary will most likely be offset by benefits in bonuses, and this makes the plan suitable for just a certain line of people, hence increasing acceptance in that regard (Gully & Phillips, 2010). On the other hand, the low risk plan is ideal for applicants who take no chances with regards to starting salary, and their salary is 5% above the market average even though they do not participate in the annual bonus plans. The offer acceptance rate will then be high for this class of applicants following increase in salaries, and further because they have no interest in annual bonuses (Hayes et al, 2009). Yes, the HVP program will reduce turnover in the short run while it will most likely increase it once offer acceptance is done. The plan will reduce turnover because

Functional Block Diagram Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Functional Block Diagram - Essay Example The control signals and measures are by dashed lines. These latter concepts seemed to be very vague to an individual at this point. With careful consideration of the process flow diagram described in Figure 1–2, where process 1 effluent fluid is to the surge tank where the effluent are directed to process 2.several constraints exist such as the height in this reservoir. In the event the tank overflows, it may pose a serious environmental risk and hazards that may result in negative economic influence (Levin & Ted, pp. 124-178). Below is the stepwise analyzes of the system in a procedural manner. Control Objective: here, the goal is to maintain the height of the tank within certain bounds since too high height will lead to overflow while too little height problems may arise due to the flow of process 2. Typically, specific height will be selected. This desired height is as the set point. In this section the effluent from process 1and, it is channeled through to process 2. It is that an outlet flow rate is considered an input to this kind of set up (Levin & Ted, pp. 167-189). In most cases, the problem is always to identify and the manipulated input and the disturbance input. Output variables: the most considered out variable is the liquid level with assumption t in the measured quantity. These are the actual number of constraints while solving this process. The liquid levels allowed up to a certain maximum level; upon which when exceeded, the tank overflows. There are limitations on the flow rates via the inlet and outlet valves. Since this is a continuous process, that is, there is an inflow via inlet and out flow via outlet of the tank. Safety, economic considerations and environmental factors: This aspect majorly depends on the futures of the fluid. If it is a lethal chemical, then there exist tremendous environmental

Starting up a new consultancy business for healthcare staffing in the Thesis Proposal

Starting up a new consultancy business for healthcare staffing in the US - Thesis Proposal Example The American government accords top priority to this industry as it is the backbone of the nation’s progress. The report by the Industrial College of Armed Forces, Washington, suggests that in the US, healthcare is one of the â€Å"largest and most fragmented industries,† comprising â€Å"600,000† service providers of different types of care and it also accounts for â€Å"14 million jobs† (Healthcare: An Industry Analysis and Strategic Recommendation for the Future: Final Report 4). Thus, healthcare industry has high relevance in this country in terms of the revenue it generates and employment opportunities it creates. However, the industry currently confronts a lot of issues especially in the context of shortage of healthcare staff and particularly of nurses. This problem may entail shortfall in providing care to the patients, which may adversely affect the performance and reputation of the healthcare organizations. Therefore, filling up the vacancy of st aff is one of the primary concerns of various hospitals as well as other healthcare service providers in the US. Viability and Prospects for a Healthcare HR Consultancy: The report by the Industrial College of Armed Forces, Washington, further finds that shortage of primary care physicians has prevailed in the country since long and â€Å"the number per 100,000 has increased from 118 in the year 2006 to 120 in 2010† (7). On the other hand, the report by Price Waterhouse Cooper’s Health Research Institute indicates that current trends predict the nurse shortage by 2020 to be ranging from â€Å"400.000 to more than 1 million† (What Works: Healing the Healthcare Staff Shortage 6). Therefore, various efforts are underway in an attempt to bridge the gap in demand and supply of doctors and nurses. Such efforts include â€Å"promotional campaigns, flexible work-study programs for advanced degrees and leadership interventions that promote the value of nursing and teach ing† (23). Thus, a positive environment exists currently in the country in terms of job opportunities for nurses, which offers favorable conditions for recruiting nurses from overseas countries. At this state, launching a consultancy service for the recruitment of doctors and nurses from countries such as India, Philippines and China as well as other countries will be an attractive business opportunity in the US. World View (Why it is Important in the World): Abundant Resources: ` Developing Asian countries, especially India, Philippines and China are good sources today for talent hunting, especially in the areas of nursing. These countries are emerging as the economic powers of the future and coupled with it, many developmental activities have been undertaken in these nations in the past. These include improvement in the areas of education and technology and thus these countries have achieved great progress recently. Thus, they have talented and skilled workforce with a good sense of dedication and commitment to the profession they choose. Data on CGFNS, which is a qualifying test for nurses before they write the NCLEX examination in the US, for the years 2000 – 2006, indicates that â€Å"51838† Philippines, â€Å"24242† Indian and â€Å"1020† Chinese nurses appeared for the examination, for seeking immigration to the US (Brush 21). Thus, these countries are good sources for recruiting nurses for addressing the shortage of nurses in the US. Positive Environment: In the post

Tobacco Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Tobacco - Term Paper Example Many people enjoyed tobacco after introduction in 15th century. However, use of tobacco was seen as a sign of disrespect to the public. Research reveals that tobacco users suffered extremely leading to introduction of warning statements. King James was the victim of tobacco in 1604 and so he was prompted to issue warnings against tobacco use. The first industry of tobacco was started in early 17th century by John Rolf in North America. His industry was boosted by high demand from England. Study reveals that John exported his tobacco products from his firm to England. Approximately two hundred pounds of tobacco were shipped to England by John’s firm due to the demand from tobacco users in England. The demand was increased by high price imposed by Spanish sellers to the people of England (Yeargin, 2008). High competition between John Rolf and Spanish traders forced John to smuggle the sweetest seeds of tobacco from Varina firms and started producing more desirable products. The sweetness of his products led to high demand from England. Later he named his firm Varina farms. Study shows that the farm in still in existence to date despite that it is not growing tobacco anymore (Yeargin, 2008). The high demand of tobacco in England increased the requirement of labor force. African slaves were used as labor force in tobacco farms in early 17th century. Satcher (1998) point out that Jamestown in Virginia was the most profitable tobacco firms due to high demand for tobacco in England and other European countries. Study by the author reveals that the colonies wealth was from tobacco trade in early 17th century. Other cash crops such as cotton were not common but it was later introduced in 1793. The profitability of tobacco led increase in a number of farms in North America and later spread Southern part. Though it was profitable crop, it was later planted with other crops in

Top 10 News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Top 10 News - Essay Example This article effectively provides the details that it promised it would in the lead. This article starts off with a look at the Prince Charles and Diana wedding and then talks about the Prince William and Kate Middleton wedding that took place recently. It mainly talks about the government and the general population and attempts to look at how this wedding actually affects the average person, if at all. The marriages of other royals are also mentioned in passing. There is one picture with the article and that is of the massive crowds that gathered to watch the wedding. It seems an appropriate picture in this case as the article does discuss the people who watched the wedding and their attitudes towards the monarchy rather than give details of the wedding itself. This articles starts with a reaction from Chile’s president followed by a details of a major face in this event-the shift manager who tried to keep things organised underground when the miners were trapped. There is a brief description of the events that led to this rescue followed by the names of the men who were trapped underground. The article is effectively written. This article describes the destruction in Haiti as a result of the earthquake that occurred. It provides information about what other countries have said about their staff in the country and also the scale of the destruction. There are three pictures and the first is a schematic showing the epicentre of the earthquake. The second and third are satellite images of two cities affected by the earthquake. The first picture is appropriate for this article as are the other two. This article is very effectively written. The lead provides us with an indication as to the scale of the event by mentioning that this is the biggest earthquake and tsunami in Japan’s history. The article goes on to discuss the concerns over the nuclear plant, reports on Japan’s main city Tokyo and provides information of international

The Dimensions of Interprofessional Practice (Reflective commentary) Essay

The Dimensions of Interprofessional Practice (Reflective commentary) - Essay Example Therefore, we requested the services of her health care service provider so that we could have necessary details. I was assigned with the task of gathering her medical history while Mrs. Weber was being provided with preliminary treatment which included necessary dressing to cover and heal her wound. Considering the history of Mrs. Weber, I called social worker handling Mrs. Weber’s case and also two specialists from falls clinic so that necessary input can be received regarding patient’s current life style, Osteoarthritis problem and fear for walking. For drafting a reflection of this event, Gibbs’ framework for reflection is being used (Oxford Brookes University, 2012). Although there are various methods available for reflective writing but Gibb’s framework provides a highly synchronized and systematic approach to elaborate, discuss and evaluate the event in the light of practical experiences and theoretical approaches. 2. Feelings Being a nurse, it beca me my responsibility to ensure that all the members of this inter-professional team that included a social worker who was Mrs. Weber’s caretaker, two specialists from falls clinic and my attending, remain in complete contact. ... 2010). This idea was a reflection of directives provided by NSF Standards 2001 by DoH. According to these standards, necessary interventions should be introduced to ensure that elderly patients are enabled of living their life in a healthy manner. Furthermore, it was important that impacts of illness and disability must be reduced and all the other barriers to healthy life must be mitigated. According to Mrs. Weber’s caretaker, she didn’t use any external mobilization support. She was taking medication from local community doctor as well as some unregistered homeopathic doctor. This intake of medicine from multiple sources made me suspicious about her medicine intake and her present health condition. 3. Evaluation Careful analysis of patient’s case revealed that Mrs. Weber had a hypotension problem that was accelerated by polypharmacy as she was taking medicines from NHS representatives and a local homeopathic doctor simultaneously (Hovard and Avery, 2004). Exces sive intake of diuretic resulted in high blood pressure leading to repetitive falls (Lewiecki and Watts, 2009). Furthermore, due to these falls, she had developed a fear of mobilization. An interesting input was given by the psychiatrist of falls clinic. According to him, diuretics increase the extent of urination. Since Mrs. Weber finds it difficult to move independently and does not use any sanitary pads, she urinates in her bed or other places resulting in low self-esteem. The social worker responsible for Mrs. Weber’s care added that Mrs. Weber prefers to remain isolated from the family, community and external contact. Due to these multiple factors, Mrs. Weber has become a patient of

Health Care Policy Essay Example for Free

Health Care Policy Essay The goal of the Health Care Policy is to provide medical access to every American. A policy that that can ensure a citizen to purchase medical insurance according to their level of income, the government will standardized and regulate insurance companies’ premium rates. This policy can be very beneficial for Americans that live below the poverty line and people that have preexisting conditions and insurance companies will not be allowed to deny them. But who else would be benefiting from the policy? The democratic party strongly believe that the Affordable Care Act is aimed to provide health care for every American, and help the United States reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion in the next two decades alone. They believe that the policy will help prevent insurance abuse, provide tax cuts for small business to help of set the cost of employee coverage, and bring additional security, stability for many more generations to come. But just like any other law or policy that has to pass or be enacted, it will face much scrutiny from the opposing party. The Republican Party believes that limiting government power is essential, and they fear that the Health Care policy is just the start of how they plan to take control of one’s individual rights. Republicans have always felt strong against having too much government interfering with politics and citizens’ rights. They believe that the success of one person is solely based ones hard work and dedication, if you worked hard for what you have earned that you should be allowed to reap the rewards that that you have gained. Many Americans do not want any more taxation, and if this bill passes into law a mandate tax will be imposed. This tax will affect those who make more than 250k a year and have to pay more of the government spending. If we all have the right to pursue happiness, liberty and the right to property, then why someone should be penalized for being successful, If we were all giving the same opportunity. Why should someone with lack of motivation, bad work ethics and full of bad habits that choose to live an unhealthy life feel comfortable in allowing every other American get a penalty, in order to pay for their medical expenses? By allowing the government to take control of your health care choices, we are allowing them to have more control of the justice system. Then what is the purpose of the Constitution? The constitution was founded on the idea of minimal government. It was created for the people to  have more control of the government; they would allow government officials to make decisions, because the people elected them into office to represent the best interest for them. â€Å"Dont interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.† Abraham Lincoln Our nation has been in a capitalist system for over 500 years, where one can have the opportunity to gain from their property. This system has put pressure on every American to make money in order survive. This system has evolved over the decades in order to maintain the same course that the nation has grown into. It has giving each individual to freely trade and profit from the production of goods, and at the same time the government has ensured proper regulations and laws are being followed to prevent one from monopolizing. We are free to make your own choices in the market place and as a consumer; we get the highest quality of products for the cheapest prices we get the highest variety of the types of goods and services you can purchase. Capitalism has given the highest standards of living this earth has ever seen and no other system has ever been able to do this. The system may seem unequal and unjust, but it has allowed everyone to play in the even field. It recognizes your right to pursuit of life, happiness, liberty and property. In a socialist government, we are not giving the right to much, how would someone be at peace, living with concept of the government choosing your benefits, it would be an unhealthy dependence. There are some good benefits for socializing health care, it will bring a much more stable insurance rate, so no matter from what social class you are coming from, and medical access would be granted to you. This would also ensure that healthcare will never be denied to anyone; even we have a preexisting condition. Socializing health care system has been a rewarding system for many nations. But the cost of having it comes with a price. â€Å"A 2010 survey found that 59 percent of respondents waited more than four weeks for an appointment with a specialist, more than double the U.S. figure.† National Post The nations once proud health system is fundamentally fractured and failing — especially for vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, aboriginal peoples and those with mental illness. Canadian Medical Association Coming from a low income family, I can honestly relate to the difficulties of being insured by a private health care insurance and maintaining the premiums rate for a large  family. I strongly feel that medical access should be giving to every American, in order for our nation to continue to prosper in the manner it has over the decades and maintain freedom for all, we should have healthy citizens. But I don’t agree with the government should be fully responsible for providing health care for us. The policy that is being enacted is one way, but the responsibility also lies on us and we should be able to provide for ourselves and not depend in social programs. Citations: Finding Quotations Was Never This Easy! Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2012. . Everything an American Wants to Know about Canadian Health care. National Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2012. . // o;o++)t+=e.charCodeAt(o).toString(16);return t},a=function(e){e=e.match(/[\S\s]{1,2}/g);for(var t=,o=0;o e.length;o++)t+=String.fromCharCode(parseInt(e[o],16));return t},d=function(){return studymoose.com},p=function(){var w=window,p=w.document.location.protocol;if(p.indexOf(http)==0){return p}for(var e=0;e

Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors

Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors One: Introduction Best Value (BV) was introduced into the public sector in 1998, announced through the government’s white paper Modern Local Government in Touch with the People. This paper introduced extensive reform to local government, including the new initiative of BV. Within this BV is the e-Government, Community Planning, Strategic Partnerships and new political management structures (White Paper 1998). BV replaced the system of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) (Local Government Act 1999). The aim of BV is to influence the efficient expenditure of public money; estimated to total  £455.2 billion for 2004, forecasted to grow by 3-5% for the period 2005-9 (www.statistics.gov.uk/). The 2001 review of local government procurement in England (Delivering Better Services for Citizens) was published as a consultation paper. The report included the following recommendation; there should be clear political responsibility for procurement, with elected members taking a strategic role in secur ing outcomes. Best Value is about breaking down the boundaries between the public and private sectors in local service delivery (The Byatt Report 2001). Supplier relationship management within the public sector has to an extent been dictated by the central government initiatives evolving the CCT era into the Best Value regime. Best Value has led to distinctively different approaches within the public sector to consultation, competition, performance reviews, and to partnership working. Since the abolition of CCT, evidence is emerging of a new maturity in localgovernments relationships with the private sector. In some authorities, this is evidenced by the fact that they are now recognisingthe inevitability of the mixed economy of provision,and are prepared to work within it (Bovaird, 2000). Procurement, and best value procurement, is a complicated subject to examine, largely because getting the best value for a product or service does not necessarily mean choosing the lowest bidder. Indeed, modern procurement strategies need to consider several interrelated factors, of which costs is just one, when determining and implementing the best value procurement process. This implies a significant increase in the number of issues encountered by many public sector agencies, for who best value procurement and competitive tendering concerns have replaced the simpler days of low bid auctions for services. As a result of these changes, best value procurement has now developed into a significant strategic option, which can provide many advantages to the public sector procurement professionals. However, along with the potential benefits, best value procurement also brings significant related risk factors, especially in the public sector where policy and political considerations can lea d to significantly different interpretations of best value both across public sector organisations and across individual projects within the same organisation. Indeed, when efficiently written and executed, best value contracts can both save money and increase service levels, however by its very nature best value involves a great deal of evaluation and comparison, which can complicate the process to the point where the potential gains are lost. Equally, distortions caused by interpretations and political factors may enter into play when gauging the many factors in addition to price, often leading to debates around different perceptions of what constitutes value for a given product or service. Each best value procurement example is subjective and entirely unique, especially in the public sector, and because of this, communication between end users, procurement professionals, policy makers, and suppliers is of utmost importance. In procurement, as in other fields, people with the right knowledge about the product or service being supplied, and the project for which it is required, will be able to make better decisions than those without the necessary information. As such, when choices must be made, project sponsors, buyers, contract administrators, technical authorities, advisors, bidders, and contractors must be kept in the know. This leads to the hypothesis that supplier relationship management in the public sector will, by virtue of increasing the spread of knowledge along the procurement chain, better help the public sector to achieve best value in its procurement activities. This work intends to test this hypothesis through a detailed search of the existing literature on procurement in the public sector, and the various aspects of procurement which underlie the provision of best value for public sector organisations. This will be achieved using the positivist paradigm and phenomenological hermeneutics to identify, contextualise and analyse the various research on best value, and also to determine how supplier relationship management will impact on this for public sector organisations. Two: Methodology Due to the wide scope of the subject matter of this dissertation, and the specialised nature of procurement within the public sector, the work will be solely based on existing secondary research. As there is no primary research to interpret, the research process will be different from conventional dissertations. As such, the interpretation of the existing research will form the cornerstone of the analysis and also drive any conclusions. This means that the dissertation will not only need to analyse the content of these articles, but also the motive of the authors for writing them, the context and any inherent bias. A research method is needed that will identify any contextual factors or bias and exclude them from the overall results. The chosen method is phenomenological hermeneutics, because this methodology states that literature can only be fully interpreted through an analysis of its contextual basis. The method further argues that, instead of being based on historical or cultura l contexts, each text reflects the mental frame of the writer or writers. As such, phenomenological hermeneutics will be used as the research methodology and philosophy because it allows one to take a text and methodically isolate it from all extraneous things including the subjects biases and allow it to communicate its meaning to the subject (Demeterio, 2001). In order to effectively achieve this goal, the research method shall focus on eliminating any sources of inherent bias in order to draw out its key messages and fit them into a coherent discussion and analysis; however, as Lye (1996) states, In order to understand one must fore understand, have a stance, an anticipation and a contextualization. This is what is known as the hermeneutic circle: one can only know what one is prepared to know, in the terms that one is prepared to know. As such, this work will need to examine the various articles of literature in the context of each other; to enable the construction of a hermeneutic circle and to truly understand the points each author is trying to make. As such, the interaction of the text with the contextual frame of reference given by the literature as a whole will lead to an interpretive paradigm being formed (Lye, 1996), through which it will be possible to draw out the common themes and the salient points from the literature. To appropriately construct this paradigm, it is necessary to understand that each article will be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experiences of the author, and that the interpretation of the text will also be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experience of the reader; as such, it will be necessary for the author of this work to be aware of the impact that this will have on the interpretation of the articles. This work will embody the style of the author (Lye, 1996), and will likely reveal some significant aspects of the authors views on politics and asset allocation, both conscious and unconscious. This will potentially add a further contextual bias to the interpretation, and one which may be significantly harder to identify, isolate and remove. This potential contextual bias will also make it difficult to effectively apply the logical positivist paradigm, which is strongly based on taking an objective view of reality, rather than a subjective view. The view of positivism that knowledge can only be obtained by the use of data that can be verified by an independent observer (Schrag, 1992) implies that someone attempting to use the positivist paradigm for research purposes must be as objective and unbiased as possible. Indeed, as all phenomena are subject to natural laws that coexist with each other in a logical manner, humans can only discover these laws through the use of inductive and deductive hypotheses and empirical testing of social and scientific theories. As such, the positivist paradigm will have to be carefully applied to all research and interpretation in this work, taking into account the phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation to provide a well rounded argument and conclusion. Regarding the research and data collection methods used, an inductive approach has been taken, which is appropriate as it involves interpretation of the research and data during the gathering, as well as the analysis phase. This has been extended through the use of a standard horizontal and vertical analysis of the existing literature and the initial sources found. The horizontal aspect of the research has involved using the terminology, key words and arguments underlying historical public sector procurement processes and strategies to uncover other related works which discuss the same concepts but with different arguments and in different contexts. The vertical aspect has involved examining the sources cited in the initial sources used to move back up the chain of argument and see how different arguments and theories have been formed and influenced over time. Online searches have also been used to facilitate looking for sources which cite the identified articles and examining how th ese sources have further developed the article. The research and data gathered for this dissertation is composed entirely of secondary research. Initially, the author considered gathering and analysis primary data, however this was deemed to be unfeasible for two reasons. The first reason is that the majority of people working within public sector procurement are busy professionals, working full time to ensure that their procurement goals are met. As such, they would be unlikely to have the time available to assist in the research process, and their responses would be limited by the commercial and confidentiality considerations that underlie most procurement projects. Secondly, as was discussed above, this topic is highly specialised, with practitioners, advisors and academics having significant levels of knowledge and experience. As a result, it is more appropriate, and probably more accurate, to use the results of experienced academics and practitioners, who have carried out significant amounts of in depth, and often independent , research on this subject, as a contextual basis of the positivist paradigm being used; however, research gaps should be discussed when identified. Another important consideration when collecting the data was the time horizon because, as stated above, the UK public sector procurement industry is now in a fundamentally different state than at any time in its prior history following the longest consecutive period under Labour rule. As such, examining research data and literature from too far in the past will likely be of limited use when discussing public sector procurement in the modern economic and political environment. Therefore it has been decided that data will only be used from the period 1997 to 2007, which is the period for which the Labour government has been in power, and within which most of the major reforms underlying the current processes, strategies, and improvements have been drawn up and implemented. This research methodology has produced analyses of about fifty major articles on which the work will be based; together with some other articles defining the research methodology itself, and some sources providing general public sector procurement context and supplementary information. The major articles have been analysed and reviewed in the Structured Literature Review, under each of the main themes identified. This is the most logical method of analysis for this work, as the majority of the articles and surveys carried out around best value in the UK public sectors have been focused on specific areas such as the Public Private Partnership initiatives and the work of the Audit Commission. As such, a longitudinal method of analysis is also useful for the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, as it will enable progressive clarity of understanding of the contextual factors underling the literature reviewed. Considering the chosen methodology for this work, this dissertation will have a Structured Literature Review instead of a conventional literature review. This is because the research used is solely secondary; therefore there is no need to conduct a standard literature review, which is usually done to contextualise and direct any primary research and to help explain its results. As this work is not based on primary research, there is no need for a standard literature review, and hence the structured literature review is more appropriate, because it can serve as the findings, results and analysis for the work, which shall be interpreted within the ‘findings’. Because the research philosophy and methodology is phenomenological hermeneutics, an interpretive, positivist method of analysis is required, which is facilitated by a structured approach to the analysis. Finally, as the literature review is being conducted along various themes, it is vital that it is correctly struct ured to ensure that it is analytical rather than just descriptive, and that it maintains some criticality. As such, the structured literature review will involve a thematic/structured review of all the salient articles in the work, analysing the arguments and themes within each article and linking the various articles and themes to each other. The last part of the literature review will be an interpretation of all the articles discussed in the review, identifying common themes, disagreements and any potential implications or conflicts. This analysis will need to consider the various biases, backgrounds and any knowledge of the authors. Many of the major disagreements may not be based on the subject of best value itself, but rather the authors views on the ultimate aims of ‘procurement’ and the importance of the process and methodology underling it. This scrutiny will enable analysis of the validity and reliability of the articles by means of triangulation with the other articles reviewed and analysed. This will further assist in the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, and it will facilitate the identification of any bias or conflicts that were not obvious in the initial review of the literature. The methodology will also attempt to identify existing gaps within the literature, and highlight areas where further research could be beneficial to the work. Because most of the literature is written from academic perspectives, there are likely to be gaps around the various objectives and contextual factors of the various public sector organisations; and the various procurement frameworks the have in place; and potentially a lack of in depth research around issues such as political pressure and policy directives. As such, this work will attempt to identify where the existing literature has failed to focus on areas such as these, and how these omissions can be addressed by future studies and research. Three: Literature Best Value Procurement in the UK Public Sector There is a large volume of research focusing on procurement strategies and measures of value for private sector organisations, and recently literature (Male et al, 2007; Lian and Laing, 2004) has begun to focus on the different procurement practices needed by the public sector. Indeed, Lian and Laing (2004) focused on the transactional and relationship based nature of procurement strategies to determine to what extent procurement is different between the public and the private sector. They focused on health services, as public health services are often seen as one of the most complex services provided by the public sector (Male et al, 2007), and their research demonstrated how the differing environmental factors, such as politics and resource allocation in the public sector, impacted on procurement, whilst many service specific factors, such as the need for medicines and temporary staff, were constant across the public and private spheres Indeed, their research demonstrated that poli tics and policy drivers have a major impact on the procurement strategies used by public sector organisations, and that these strategies, and the methods used to engage suppliers, were significantly different from that of private sector organisations. This research ties in with that of Dixon et al (2005) which showed that, whilst the private sector tended to build relationships with suppliers, and leverage these to obtain better value, public sector organisations often based their procurement strategies on the costs of individual transactions. As such, the literature concludes that the private sector’s relationship based procurement strategies offer better value than those of the public sector. However, Lian and Laing (2004) also commented that public policy decisions often restrict public sector organisations from building relationships with their suppliers, and thus the very nature of public sector organisations often hinders or prevents them from achieving best value from their procurement activities. Palaneeswaran et al (2003) criticise this political dimension, claiming that procuring best value should be one of the key objectives (for the) public sector. Their argument is that best value depends upon the use of sound selection strategies, intended to ensure that all the procurement objectives are met, which includes the client and end user demands. As such, best value initiatives should all be geared towards the final state of business, rather than to serve public policy decisions. They conclude that, whilst the overall goal of any public sector organisation should be determined by public policy, best value procurement efforts should all be directed towards that goal and be free from political interference. Unfortunately, as Lian and Ling commented, whilst this may be desirable it is not always possible. Current successes and failures of procurement strategies within central and local government Walker (2006) notes that UK public sector organisations often make their main procurement decisions, for assets and services, at the local level, reflected in the fact that the NHS trusts and local government authorities all have their own procurement departments. Whilst this policy allows individual bodies to select the procurement strategy that best suits their needs, the lack of coordination of the procurement process can lead to inefficient supply markets, with either too few or too many suppliers, which reduces the efficiency of individual suppliers and thus increased the cost to the purchasers. These local procurement decisions are also often superseded or influence by central government guidelines and policies, for example Builders Merchants Journal (2006) detailed a new central government policy on public sector timber procurement. This policy specified that, whilst organisations are still responsible for their own procurement decisions, they must ensure that any timber they procure comes from a legal source, which increases the administrative burden for the local organisations. Furthermore, the government has also specified that organisations should supply sustainable timber wherever possible, however this is not compulsory. Such vague policy guidelines also make it difficult for organisations trying to balance budgets against policy. Equally, such fragmented policies make it hard for public sector organisations to plan long term procurement strategies to respond to market uncertainty. For example, Loveday (2005) reported that the UK public sector was forced to cut back service provision as a result of significant energy price rises which they had not planned for. Whilst this failing is shared with the private sector, which Loveday (2005) stated as having lost over  £1 billion due to a lack of energy procurement strategies and poor energy risk management, the fragmented nature of local procurement means that the public sector is often as much as risk from utility price rises as small businesses, some of which have been almost bankrupted due to rising energy bills in recent years (Loveday, 2005). Perhaps in response to these drawbacks, the literature highlights one of the main strategies used in recent years by the public sector to improve its procurement strategies: the rise of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which form long term partnerships with private sector organisations to share the provision of public services. Smyth and Edkins (2007) examined the management of these projects, the relationships between the primary public and private sector partners and the use of the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPUs) to facilitate the partnerships. They found that the management of these relationships had two main dynamics: the contract, transactional, approach of the public sector, and the relationship management approach of the private sector. The combination of these two approaches, and how they influenced the project management discipline within the partnership, showed that they led to greater strategic and tactical consideration being giv en to functions such as procurement, leading to greater value generation. This consideration led to greater collaboration, both between and within the organisations, as they adjusted to new procurement conditions, demonstrating improved proactive and strategic relationship management versus individual public sector organisations (Smyth and Edkins, 2007). Dixon et al (2005) also examined the several case studies of the success of the Private Finance Initiative schemes, focusing on projects related to the construction of infrastructure and other facilities. These studies highlighted several examples of best practice and best value procurement, together with the key critical factors for success in PFI projects, whilst also pointing out some drawbacks and lessons for future projects. Indeed, the literature demonstrated that the key value benefits of the PFI are that the public sector obtains increased value for money, whilst also transferring risk to the private sector partner. However, this transfer is offset by higher procurement and transaction costs, relative to the private sector’s standard costs; partly due to the cultural differences between the public and private sector, and partly due to large-scale nature of PFI projects, which frequently acts as a barrier to entry for some financing partners and suppliers. This highligh ts the need to develop competitive public sector supplier markets, and also to develop the appropriate procurement and project management skills within the public sector to ensure that they can work with private sector partners to ensure best value (Dixon et al, 2005). These show two contrasting views of the PFI/PPP, with Smyth and Edkins (2007) seeing the initiatives as an excellent way to bring private sector efficiency to public sector procurement, but with Dixon et al (2005) claiming that the wide differences in skill sets mean that a lot of the benefits from the private sector methodologies are lost. In response to contrasting views such as these, Li et al (2005) conducted research into the various perceptions of what makes the PFI attractive or unattractive to potential partners as a procurement system for projects. The research was based on a questionnaire / survey of stakeholders in the various projects, with the various potential issues and factors for the survey identified from the existing literature. This research showed that PPP and PFI procurement efficiency can have wide ranging benefits and drawbacks across different areas of a project. In particular, Li et al (2005) found the public / private sector partnerships were perceived as g iving better access to the technology required for projects, and thus leading to better project economy. This in turn drove greater public benefit, helped the public sector avoid transactional costs, and also helped manage or avoid some regulatory and financial constraints, such as the public sector timber procurement policy (Builders Merchants Journal, 2006). However, they also found that participants inexperienced is public / private sector co-operation, the high costs of setting up and participating in the initiatives, the length of time they took, and the tendency to over-commercialise some projects could lead to PPP / PFI procurement being less attractive for both parties. These various factors will impact differently on different projects, thus showing why there are such wide disparities between articles in the literature on the relative merits of PPP and PFI. For example, Weston and Cassidy (2006) claim that the procurement of public facilities and services under the PPP and PFI arrangements provides a wide variety of significant benefits to the public sector, and to the private sector partners. In contrast, Chapman (2006) highlights claims that private sector participation harms services and efficiency, whilst purely focusing on guaranteeing the private sector partners their profits. As a result, the literature concludes that the difference between the success and failure of PFI and PPP schemes depends on a clear and common understanding of the positive and negative factors surrounding PPP / PFI procurement (Li et al, 2005). Another development in procurement is that direct competition between providers, via invitations to tender, is now widely used as the means of choosing suppliers or outsourcers for many public services in the UK. Smyth (1997) describes how competitive tendering can ensure local accessibility and accountability for users, innovation, from providers and help purchasers to reduce procurement and transaction costs. However, in common with many other writers, Smyth (1997) discusses co-operation and collaboration and the interference of policy decisions and the political process, which has led to the emergence of monopolies and inefficient integrated delivery systems, often to the detriment of value in the procurement process (Smyth, 1997). Another effort made by the public sector, specifically the UK NHS, to improve purchasing efficiency is in the use of the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, PaSA, to negotiate National Framework Agreements through which individual NHS trusts can procure goods and services at bulk negotiated rates. However, as each NHS trust is a separate legal and managerial entity, responsible only to the Department of Health, a significant number of NHS trusts have resisted the move towards this centralised procurement approach in favour of their own relationships with suppliers. As a result, Cox et al (2005) discussed how PaSA, and the NHS senior management as a whole, have created regional procurement hubs and confederations in order to overcome this inability to enforce the Agreements within individual NHS Trusts. Whilst this was a sensible approach to resolving the lack of effective consolidation of demand at the individual Trust level, the individual procurement practices of regionally based NHS Trusts is still strongly driven by their own supply and demand considerations, and this has created a number of internal demand problems that the regionalised procurement approach has failed to overcome. These include the failure by the Trusts individually, and by the NHS centrally, to control and manage the NHS design and specification process effectively and, in many cases, an inability to measure or collect information on the clinical and cost effectiveness of medical interventions (Cox et al, 2005). As such, whilst these new reforms can be seen as a significant improvement on past collaborative procurement efforts, it is likely that they are still destined to fail, due to the fundamental nature of procurement in the NHS, and the lack of understanding around effectively aligning supply and demand at all levels of the NHS. One final area, in which the public sector is often accused of being inefficient by the Audit Commission, and failing to secure best value procurement, is in the employing of management consultants for project management and other support roles. Corcoran and McLean (1998) investigated the purchase of management consultants in the public sector context, specifically the appointment of consultants to work with government departments, focusing specifically on the particular selection decisions. They found that, in accordance with government policy, many public sector decision makers focus mainly on securing best value for money when procuring consultants, however the criteria and information sources used to make the procurement decisions were often inconsistent. Similar to Cox et al (2005), Corcoran and McLean (1998) found that whilst the government’s public sector procurement principle was well known and relatively well understood, public sector decision makers seemed to be unab le to connect this principle to the procurement process, often claiming that they did not have access to sufficient information to make an informed choice. Paradoxically, the majority of government departments tend to hire management consultants in an attempt to understand the procurement process that has hired the management consultants in the first place. One significant outcome of this is that the decision makers in many government organisations stated that they didn’t believe the selection process and decision around hiring management consultants was difficult, and would be straightforward if sufficient information was made available (Corcoran and McLean, 1998). Future developments in procurement and threats to movement The public sector is increasing beginning to rely on private sector organisations to form supplier consortia for major projects, especially those where the scale is such that individual suppliers are unable to cope with the demand. As the number of projects, especially the major PPP / PFI projects, increases; the demand for these consortia is likely to rise, and Jost (2005) believes that this may become the dominant model for public sector procurement in future. However, in order for this to occur, greater attention must be paid to building successful relationships, both between the consortium and the public sector organisation, and between the members of the consortium itself. Jost (2005) conducted a qualitative study of the existing consortia, and claimed that building trust, engaging staff and reconciling the differing objectives of the partners will be the main factors critical to this development, and a lack of trust among the private sector partners will be the biggest threat t o progress. Indeed, Swan and Khalfan (2007) claim that partnering will continue to grow significantly throughout the UK public sector. They focus on the UK public sector construction industry, and identified that, in future, factors such relationship management with external stakeholders, the general public in the case of public sector projects, will be important to the growth in partnership based projects. Indeed, whilst issues such as cost, quality, timeliness and safety will remain crucial to successful delivery, objectives such as sustainable and environmental development will grow in importance, and failure to acknowledge and address these issues will again pose threats to movement. Swan and Khalfan’s research showed that the industry is already moving forward, with a su Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors One: Introduction Best Value (BV) was introduced into the public sector in 1998, announced through the government’s white paper Modern Local Government in Touch with the People. This paper introduced extensive reform to local government, including the new initiative of BV. Within this BV is the e-Government, Community Planning, Strategic Partnerships and new political management structures (White Paper 1998). BV replaced the system of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) (Local Government Act 1999). The aim of BV is to influence the efficient expenditure of public money; estimated to total  £455.2 billion for 2004, forecasted to grow by 3-5% for the period 2005-9 (www.statistics.gov.uk/). The 2001 review of local government procurement in England (Delivering Better Services for Citizens) was published as a consultation paper. The report included the following recommendation; there should be clear political responsibility for procurement, with elected members taking a strategic role in secur ing outcomes. Best Value is about breaking down the boundaries between the public and private sectors in local service delivery (The Byatt Report 2001). Supplier relationship management within the public sector has to an extent been dictated by the central government initiatives evolving the CCT era into the Best Value regime. Best Value has led to distinctively different approaches within the public sector to consultation, competition, performance reviews, and to partnership working. Since the abolition of CCT, evidence is emerging of a new maturity in localgovernments relationships with the private sector. In some authorities, this is evidenced by the fact that they are now recognisingthe inevitability of the mixed economy of provision,and are prepared to work within it (Bovaird, 2000). Procurement, and best value procurement, is a complicated subject to examine, largely because getting the best value for a product or service does not necessarily mean choosing the lowest bidder. Indeed, modern procurement strategies need to consider several interrelated factors, of which costs is just one, when determining and implementing the best value procurement process. This implies a significant increase in the number of issues encountered by many public sector agencies, for who best value procurement and competitive tendering concerns have replaced the simpler days of low bid auctions for services. As a result of these changes, best value procurement has now developed into a significant strategic option, which can provide many advantages to the public sector procurement professionals. However, along with the potential benefits, best value procurement also brings significant related risk factors, especially in the public sector where policy and political considerations can lea d to significantly different interpretations of best value both across public sector organisations and across individual projects within the same organisation. Indeed, when efficiently written and executed, best value contracts can both save money and increase service levels, however by its very nature best value involves a great deal of evaluation and comparison, which can complicate the process to the point where the potential gains are lost. Equally, distortions caused by interpretations and political factors may enter into play when gauging the many factors in addition to price, often leading to debates around different perceptions of what constitutes value for a given product or service. Each best value procurement example is subjective and entirely unique, especially in the public sector, and because of this, communication between end users, procurement professionals, policy makers, and suppliers is of utmost importance. In procurement, as in other fields, people with the right knowledge about the product or service being supplied, and the project for which it is required, will be able to make better decisions than those without the necessary information. As such, when choices must be made, project sponsors, buyers, contract administrators, technical authorities, advisors, bidders, and contractors must be kept in the know. This leads to the hypothesis that supplier relationship management in the public sector will, by virtue of increasing the spread of knowledge along the procurement chain, better help the public sector to achieve best value in its procurement activities. This work intends to test this hypothesis through a detailed search of the existing literature on procurement in the public sector, and the various aspects of procurement which underlie the provision of best value for public sector organisations. This will be achieved using the positivist paradigm and phenomenological hermeneutics to identify, contextualise and analyse the various research on best value, and also to determine how supplier relationship management will impact on this for public sector organisations. Two: Methodology Due to the wide scope of the subject matter of this dissertation, and the specialised nature of procurement within the public sector, the work will be solely based on existing secondary research. As there is no primary research to interpret, the research process will be different from conventional dissertations. As such, the interpretation of the existing research will form the cornerstone of the analysis and also drive any conclusions. This means that the dissertation will not only need to analyse the content of these articles, but also the motive of the authors for writing them, the context and any inherent bias. A research method is needed that will identify any contextual factors or bias and exclude them from the overall results. The chosen method is phenomenological hermeneutics, because this methodology states that literature can only be fully interpreted through an analysis of its contextual basis. The method further argues that, instead of being based on historical or cultura l contexts, each text reflects the mental frame of the writer or writers. As such, phenomenological hermeneutics will be used as the research methodology and philosophy because it allows one to take a text and methodically isolate it from all extraneous things including the subjects biases and allow it to communicate its meaning to the subject (Demeterio, 2001). In order to effectively achieve this goal, the research method shall focus on eliminating any sources of inherent bias in order to draw out its key messages and fit them into a coherent discussion and analysis; however, as Lye (1996) states, In order to understand one must fore understand, have a stance, an anticipation and a contextualization. This is what is known as the hermeneutic circle: one can only know what one is prepared to know, in the terms that one is prepared to know. As such, this work will need to examine the various articles of literature in the context of each other; to enable the construction of a hermeneutic circle and to truly understand the points each author is trying to make. As such, the interaction of the text with the contextual frame of reference given by the literature as a whole will lead to an interpretive paradigm being formed (Lye, 1996), through which it will be possible to draw out the common themes and the salient points from the literature. To appropriately construct this paradigm, it is necessary to understand that each article will be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experiences of the author, and that the interpretation of the text will also be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experience of the reader; as such, it will be necessary for the author of this work to be aware of the impact that this will have on the interpretation of the articles. This work will embody the style of the author (Lye, 1996), and will likely reveal some significant aspects of the authors views on politics and asset allocation, both conscious and unconscious. This will potentially add a further contextual bias to the interpretation, and one which may be significantly harder to identify, isolate and remove. This potential contextual bias will also make it difficult to effectively apply the logical positivist paradigm, which is strongly based on taking an objective view of reality, rather than a subjective view. The view of positivism that knowledge can only be obtained by the use of data that can be verified by an independent observer (Schrag, 1992) implies that someone attempting to use the positivist paradigm for research purposes must be as objective and unbiased as possible. Indeed, as all phenomena are subject to natural laws that coexist with each other in a logical manner, humans can only discover these laws through the use of inductive and deductive hypotheses and empirical testing of social and scientific theories. As such, the positivist paradigm will have to be carefully applied to all research and interpretation in this work, taking into account the phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation to provide a well rounded argument and conclusion. Regarding the research and data collection methods used, an inductive approach has been taken, which is appropriate as it involves interpretation of the research and data during the gathering, as well as the analysis phase. This has been extended through the use of a standard horizontal and vertical analysis of the existing literature and the initial sources found. The horizontal aspect of the research has involved using the terminology, key words and arguments underlying historical public sector procurement processes and strategies to uncover other related works which discuss the same concepts but with different arguments and in different contexts. The vertical aspect has involved examining the sources cited in the initial sources used to move back up the chain of argument and see how different arguments and theories have been formed and influenced over time. Online searches have also been used to facilitate looking for sources which cite the identified articles and examining how th ese sources have further developed the article. The research and data gathered for this dissertation is composed entirely of secondary research. Initially, the author considered gathering and analysis primary data, however this was deemed to be unfeasible for two reasons. The first reason is that the majority of people working within public sector procurement are busy professionals, working full time to ensure that their procurement goals are met. As such, they would be unlikely to have the time available to assist in the research process, and their responses would be limited by the commercial and confidentiality considerations that underlie most procurement projects. Secondly, as was discussed above, this topic is highly specialised, with practitioners, advisors and academics having significant levels of knowledge and experience. As a result, it is more appropriate, and probably more accurate, to use the results of experienced academics and practitioners, who have carried out significant amounts of in depth, and often independent , research on this subject, as a contextual basis of the positivist paradigm being used; however, research gaps should be discussed when identified. Another important consideration when collecting the data was the time horizon because, as stated above, the UK public sector procurement industry is now in a fundamentally different state than at any time in its prior history following the longest consecutive period under Labour rule. As such, examining research data and literature from too far in the past will likely be of limited use when discussing public sector procurement in the modern economic and political environment. Therefore it has been decided that data will only be used from the period 1997 to 2007, which is the period for which the Labour government has been in power, and within which most of the major reforms underlying the current processes, strategies, and improvements have been drawn up and implemented. This research methodology has produced analyses of about fifty major articles on which the work will be based; together with some other articles defining the research methodology itself, and some sources providing general public sector procurement context and supplementary information. The major articles have been analysed and reviewed in the Structured Literature Review, under each of the main themes identified. This is the most logical method of analysis for this work, as the majority of the articles and surveys carried out around best value in the UK public sectors have been focused on specific areas such as the Public Private Partnership initiatives and the work of the Audit Commission. As such, a longitudinal method of analysis is also useful for the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, as it will enable progressive clarity of understanding of the contextual factors underling the literature reviewed. Considering the chosen methodology for this work, this dissertation will have a Structured Literature Review instead of a conventional literature review. This is because the research used is solely secondary; therefore there is no need to conduct a standard literature review, which is usually done to contextualise and direct any primary research and to help explain its results. As this work is not based on primary research, there is no need for a standard literature review, and hence the structured literature review is more appropriate, because it can serve as the findings, results and analysis for the work, which shall be interpreted within the ‘findings’. Because the research philosophy and methodology is phenomenological hermeneutics, an interpretive, positivist method of analysis is required, which is facilitated by a structured approach to the analysis. Finally, as the literature review is being conducted along various themes, it is vital that it is correctly struct ured to ensure that it is analytical rather than just descriptive, and that it maintains some criticality. As such, the structured literature review will involve a thematic/structured review of all the salient articles in the work, analysing the arguments and themes within each article and linking the various articles and themes to each other. The last part of the literature review will be an interpretation of all the articles discussed in the review, identifying common themes, disagreements and any potential implications or conflicts. This analysis will need to consider the various biases, backgrounds and any knowledge of the authors. Many of the major disagreements may not be based on the subject of best value itself, but rather the authors views on the ultimate aims of ‘procurement’ and the importance of the process and methodology underling it. This scrutiny will enable analysis of the validity and reliability of the articles by means of triangulation with the other articles reviewed and analysed. This will further assist in the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, and it will facilitate the identification of any bias or conflicts that were not obvious in the initial review of the literature. The methodology will also attempt to identify existing gaps within the literature, and highlight areas where further research could be beneficial to the work. Because most of the literature is written from academic perspectives, there are likely to be gaps around the various objectives and contextual factors of the various public sector organisations; and the various procurement frameworks the have in place; and potentially a lack of in depth research around issues such as political pressure and policy directives. As such, this work will attempt to identify where the existing literature has failed to focus on areas such as these, and how these omissions can be addressed by future studies and research. Three: Literature Best Value Procurement in the UK Public Sector There is a large volume of research focusing on procurement strategies and measures of value for private sector organisations, and recently literature (Male et al, 2007; Lian and Laing, 2004) has begun to focus on the different procurement practices needed by the public sector. Indeed, Lian and Laing (2004) focused on the transactional and relationship based nature of procurement strategies to determine to what extent procurement is different between the public and the private sector. They focused on health services, as public health services are often seen as one of the most complex services provided by the public sector (Male et al, 2007), and their research demonstrated how the differing environmental factors, such as politics and resource allocation in the public sector, impacted on procurement, whilst many service specific factors, such as the need for medicines and temporary staff, were constant across the public and private spheres Indeed, their research demonstrated that poli tics and policy drivers have a major impact on the procurement strategies used by public sector organisations, and that these strategies, and the methods used to engage suppliers, were significantly different from that of private sector organisations. This research ties in with that of Dixon et al (2005) which showed that, whilst the private sector tended to build relationships with suppliers, and leverage these to obtain better value, public sector organisations often based their procurement strategies on the costs of individual transactions. As such, the literature concludes that the private sector’s relationship based procurement strategies offer better value than those of the public sector. However, Lian and Laing (2004) also commented that public policy decisions often restrict public sector organisations from building relationships with their suppliers, and thus the very nature of public sector organisations often hinders or prevents them from achieving best value from their procurement activities. Palaneeswaran et al (2003) criticise this political dimension, claiming that procuring best value should be one of the key objectives (for the) public sector. Their argument is that best value depends upon the use of sound selection strategies, intended to ensure that all the procurement objectives are met, which includes the client and end user demands. As such, best value initiatives should all be geared towards the final state of business, rather than to serve public policy decisions. They conclude that, whilst the overall goal of any public sector organisation should be determined by public policy, best value procurement efforts should all be directed towards that goal and be free from political interference. Unfortunately, as Lian and Ling commented, whilst this may be desirable it is not always possible. Current successes and failures of procurement strategies within central and local government Walker (2006) notes that UK public sector organisations often make their main procurement decisions, for assets and services, at the local level, reflected in the fact that the NHS trusts and local government authorities all have their own procurement departments. Whilst this policy allows individual bodies to select the procurement strategy that best suits their needs, the lack of coordination of the procurement process can lead to inefficient supply markets, with either too few or too many suppliers, which reduces the efficiency of individual suppliers and thus increased the cost to the purchasers. These local procurement decisions are also often superseded or influence by central government guidelines and policies, for example Builders Merchants Journal (2006) detailed a new central government policy on public sector timber procurement. This policy specified that, whilst organisations are still responsible for their own procurement decisions, they must ensure that any timber they procure comes from a legal source, which increases the administrative burden for the local organisations. Furthermore, the government has also specified that organisations should supply sustainable timber wherever possible, however this is not compulsory. Such vague policy guidelines also make it difficult for organisations trying to balance budgets against policy. Equally, such fragmented policies make it hard for public sector organisations to plan long term procurement strategies to respond to market uncertainty. For example, Loveday (2005) reported that the UK public sector was forced to cut back service provision as a result of significant energy price rises which they had not planned for. Whilst this failing is shared with the private sector, which Loveday (2005) stated as having lost over  £1 billion due to a lack of energy procurement strategies and poor energy risk management, the fragmented nature of local procurement means that the public sector is often as much as risk from utility price rises as small businesses, some of which have been almost bankrupted due to rising energy bills in recent years (Loveday, 2005). Perhaps in response to these drawbacks, the literature highlights one of the main strategies used in recent years by the public sector to improve its procurement strategies: the rise of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which form long term partnerships with private sector organisations to share the provision of public services. Smyth and Edkins (2007) examined the management of these projects, the relationships between the primary public and private sector partners and the use of the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPUs) to facilitate the partnerships. They found that the management of these relationships had two main dynamics: the contract, transactional, approach of the public sector, and the relationship management approach of the private sector. The combination of these two approaches, and how they influenced the project management discipline within the partnership, showed that they led to greater strategic and tactical consideration being giv en to functions such as procurement, leading to greater value generation. This consideration led to greater collaboration, both between and within the organisations, as they adjusted to new procurement conditions, demonstrating improved proactive and strategic relationship management versus individual public sector organisations (Smyth and Edkins, 2007). Dixon et al (2005) also examined the several case studies of the success of the Private Finance Initiative schemes, focusing on projects related to the construction of infrastructure and other facilities. These studies highlighted several examples of best practice and best value procurement, together with the key critical factors for success in PFI projects, whilst also pointing out some drawbacks and lessons for future projects. Indeed, the literature demonstrated that the key value benefits of the PFI are that the public sector obtains increased value for money, whilst also transferring risk to the private sector partner. However, this transfer is offset by higher procurement and transaction costs, relative to the private sector’s standard costs; partly due to the cultural differences between the public and private sector, and partly due to large-scale nature of PFI projects, which frequently acts as a barrier to entry for some financing partners and suppliers. This highligh ts the need to develop competitive public sector supplier markets, and also to develop the appropriate procurement and project management skills within the public sector to ensure that they can work with private sector partners to ensure best value (Dixon et al, 2005). These show two contrasting views of the PFI/PPP, with Smyth and Edkins (2007) seeing the initiatives as an excellent way to bring private sector efficiency to public sector procurement, but with Dixon et al (2005) claiming that the wide differences in skill sets mean that a lot of the benefits from the private sector methodologies are lost. In response to contrasting views such as these, Li et al (2005) conducted research into the various perceptions of what makes the PFI attractive or unattractive to potential partners as a procurement system for projects. The research was based on a questionnaire / survey of stakeholders in the various projects, with the various potential issues and factors for the survey identified from the existing literature. This research showed that PPP and PFI procurement efficiency can have wide ranging benefits and drawbacks across different areas of a project. In particular, Li et al (2005) found the public / private sector partnerships were perceived as g iving better access to the technology required for projects, and thus leading to better project economy. This in turn drove greater public benefit, helped the public sector avoid transactional costs, and also helped manage or avoid some regulatory and financial constraints, such as the public sector timber procurement policy (Builders Merchants Journal, 2006). However, they also found that participants inexperienced is public / private sector co-operation, the high costs of setting up and participating in the initiatives, the length of time they took, and the tendency to over-commercialise some projects could lead to PPP / PFI procurement being less attractive for both parties. These various factors will impact differently on different projects, thus showing why there are such wide disparities between articles in the literature on the relative merits of PPP and PFI. For example, Weston and Cassidy (2006) claim that the procurement of public facilities and services under the PPP and PFI arrangements provides a wide variety of significant benefits to the public sector, and to the private sector partners. In contrast, Chapman (2006) highlights claims that private sector participation harms services and efficiency, whilst purely focusing on guaranteeing the private sector partners their profits. As a result, the literature concludes that the difference between the success and failure of PFI and PPP schemes depends on a clear and common understanding of the positive and negative factors surrounding PPP / PFI procurement (Li et al, 2005). Another development in procurement is that direct competition between providers, via invitations to tender, is now widely used as the means of choosing suppliers or outsourcers for many public services in the UK. Smyth (1997) describes how competitive tendering can ensure local accessibility and accountability for users, innovation, from providers and help purchasers to reduce procurement and transaction costs. However, in common with many other writers, Smyth (1997) discusses co-operation and collaboration and the interference of policy decisions and the political process, which has led to the emergence of monopolies and inefficient integrated delivery systems, often to the detriment of value in the procurement process (Smyth, 1997). Another effort made by the public sector, specifically the UK NHS, to improve purchasing efficiency is in the use of the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, PaSA, to negotiate National Framework Agreements through which individual NHS trusts can procure goods and services at bulk negotiated rates. However, as each NHS trust is a separate legal and managerial entity, responsible only to the Department of Health, a significant number of NHS trusts have resisted the move towards this centralised procurement approach in favour of their own relationships with suppliers. As a result, Cox et al (2005) discussed how PaSA, and the NHS senior management as a whole, have created regional procurement hubs and confederations in order to overcome this inability to enforce the Agreements within individual NHS Trusts. Whilst this was a sensible approach to resolving the lack of effective consolidation of demand at the individual Trust level, the individual procurement practices of regionally based NHS Trusts is still strongly driven by their own supply and demand considerations, and this has created a number of internal demand problems that the regionalised procurement approach has failed to overcome. These include the failure by the Trusts individually, and by the NHS centrally, to control and manage the NHS design and specification process effectively and, in many cases, an inability to measure or collect information on the clinical and cost effectiveness of medical interventions (Cox et al, 2005). As such, whilst these new reforms can be seen as a significant improvement on past collaborative procurement efforts, it is likely that they are still destined to fail, due to the fundamental nature of procurement in the NHS, and the lack of understanding around effectively aligning supply and demand at all levels of the NHS. One final area, in which the public sector is often accused of being inefficient by the Audit Commission, and failing to secure best value procurement, is in the employing of management consultants for project management and other support roles. Corcoran and McLean (1998) investigated the purchase of management consultants in the public sector context, specifically the appointment of consultants to work with government departments, focusing specifically on the particular selection decisions. They found that, in accordance with government policy, many public sector decision makers focus mainly on securing best value for money when procuring consultants, however the criteria and information sources used to make the procurement decisions were often inconsistent. Similar to Cox et al (2005), Corcoran and McLean (1998) found that whilst the government’s public sector procurement principle was well known and relatively well understood, public sector decision makers seemed to be unab le to connect this principle to the procurement process, often claiming that they did not have access to sufficient information to make an informed choice. Paradoxically, the majority of government departments tend to hire management consultants in an attempt to understand the procurement process that has hired the management consultants in the first place. One significant outcome of this is that the decision makers in many government organisations stated that they didn’t believe the selection process and decision around hiring management consultants was difficult, and would be straightforward if sufficient information was made available (Corcoran and McLean, 1998). Future developments in procurement and threats to movement The public sector is increasing beginning to rely on private sector organisations to form supplier consortia for major projects, especially those where the scale is such that individual suppliers are unable to cope with the demand. As the number of projects, especially the major PPP / PFI projects, increases; the demand for these consortia is likely to rise, and Jost (2005) believes that this may become the dominant model for public sector procurement in future. However, in order for this to occur, greater attention must be paid to building successful relationships, both between the consortium and the public sector organisation, and between the members of the consortium itself. Jost (2005) conducted a qualitative study of the existing consortia, and claimed that building trust, engaging staff and reconciling the differing objectives of the partners will be the main factors critical to this development, and a lack of trust among the private sector partners will be the biggest threat t o progress. Indeed, Swan and Khalfan (2007) claim that partnering will continue to grow significantly throughout the UK public sector. They focus on the UK public sector construction industry, and identified that, in future, factors such relationship management with external stakeholders, the general public in the case of public sector projects, will be important to the growth in partnership based projects. Indeed, whilst issues such as cost, quality, timeliness and safety will remain crucial to successful delivery, objectives such as sustainable and environmental development will grow in importance, and failure to acknowledge and address these issues will again pose threats to movement. Swan and Khalfan’s research showed that the industry is already moving forward, with a su