Senior Seminar Project

PAPER 1

Identifying the challenge in private security

The private security is a traditional occupation whose primary objective is to provide security to firms, individuals, institutions either through the use of technology or carrying out manual checkups. Today, private security is typically used in very many places, by people and organizations. Apart from protection of property, various firms use the private security services to conduct investigations and to protect the workers among other roles

Challenge

One main issue in facing the private security sector is the conflict that exists between the private security and the government law enforcers. Abosang et al.,( 2015) states that there exists a recurrent conflict between the private security and the department that enforces the public law. Even if there is a need for the two sectors to cooperate, there is a great rivalry between the two groups and no group entirely trusts the other. According to (Aranas, 2012), the challenges the difficulties that exist can be traced to a few factors

One major factor is the undefined roles and responsibilities more so the private security. The public law enforcing sector is unfamiliar with the many sets of functions within the private security sector or with the specialists and technicians that perform these roles. It results in role conflict. In many cases, the public law enforcers have petite experience, and they lack specialized skills. Due to their limited knowledge, they make a lot of assumptions during their operations. This unfamiliarity results to mistrust and lack of respect between the two groups. The public law enforcers see the private security officers as ineffective in crime prevention, and crime mitigation functions.

Another possible reason could be the competition that exists between the two entities. As stated in by (Rojec, 2012) the key the collaboration between the two groups is a major hitch, owing to mistrust, lack of information sharing, and misinformation. The law enforcers feel that the officers in the private entity lack the necessary training and are a major challenge in the security forces. On the other hand, the private security guards feel that the police officers have limited knowledge on dealing with the private security and therefore fail to appreciate the role played by individual officers to combat crime.

As a solution to this problem, both entities are responsible for sharing their knowledge and teaching each other on their knowledge. As noted in the 2004 National Policy Summit, both entities perform similar law enforcement conference and hence it is easy for them to train together. If the push and pull that exists between the two security groups will not be resolved, there will be anarchy and people will be vulnerable to attack. Both private security and public law enforcers work for the good of the people and therefore the people will be affected by the existing conflicts. One approach is to have both groups share information and even attend similar training programs.

It is also important that they have face to face meetings from time to time. The growth in the private security has provided a ready workforce that can be outsourced to beef up security force when the situation demands. However, the government is rarely concerned about the nation’s capacity to produce such highly trained and qualified security force. On the other hand, such private security workers are never monitored and are left to follow orders from their employers. It is necessary to have armed people under government oversight to help control and monitor the use of firearms. Drucker, (2012).

References

Abosag, Ibrahim, Dorothy Aiwan Yen, and Caroline Tynan. "The dark side of business relationships: An overview." The Dark Side of CRM: Customers, Relationships and Management (2015).

Aranas, P. F. (2012). Smokescreen: The US, NATO and the Illegitimate Use of Force. Algora Publishing.

Drucker, P. (2012). Managing in the next society. Routledge.

Rojek, J., Alpert, G., & Smith, H. (2012). The utilization of research by the police. Police practice and research, 13(4), 329-341.

PAPER 2

Internal and external stakeholders

Internal Stakeholders are the individuals or group that participates in the firm’s management. The internal stakeholders can influence or be influenced by the failure or the success of the firm due to the vested interest that they have to the firm. The internal stakeholders are also known as the primary stakeholders. The entire internal stakeholders are dedicated to providing services to the firm. They are highly affected by the performance, decisions, profitability and all other activities of the firm. If the internal stakeholders are absent, the organization cannot run well and will not manage to survive in the long run. That’s the reason they have a greater impact on the firm (Drori et al, 2013). More to this, they are the ones who know all the internal matters about the entity. Internal auditors include the following;

Employees; these are the group of people who work for the firm to be remunerated. We also have the owners who include the individuals or groups of people who owns the organization. They can either be partners or shareholders. There is the board of directors who includes groups of individuals governing the incorporated entity. They are elected by the company’s members during an annual general meeting. There also the managers who manage the entire department and the investors who include the individual who has invested their money in the organization.

External stakeholders

External stakeholders are the parties who are interested in the firm, but they are not part of the management though they are indirectly affected by the ongoing of the company. They include the outside parties which form part of the business environment. They in most cases use the financial information from the company so that they can know about its profitability, performance, and liquidity. External stakeholders are not involved in the day to day activities of the firm, but their actions have direct influence to the firm. They include;

The suppliers who provide inputs to the firm, customers who consume the products from the firm, the creditors who include individuals, banks or other financial institutions providing funds to the firm. There are also the clients who include the parties that the firms provide services to. We also have the intermediaries who are the marketing channels creating links between the customers and the company. There are the competitors who are the rivals competing with the organization for market and resources as well. Also, there is the government and the society.

The stakeholders exercise different types of powers within their reach which influences the ongoing of the firm. An example of these may include the government or the local government who reward tax incentives to the firm which makes commitments to the firm to hire local workers. The stakeholder’s strength mostly comes from the economic power as a result of boycotts due to the promises of increased purchase. They also form coalitions with other stakeholders to help shape the sentiment of the public against that of the organization. Customers reward the organizations by accepting to buy goods and services from the organizations. The stakeholder management supports the strategic objectives of the organization by influencing and interpreting the external stakeholders’ interest. The leaders mostly benefit with interactions with the external stakeholders who help them have a better understanding of their concerns and expectations hence getting means on how to weigh them in about the priorities of the organization (Weiss, 2014).

Being a stakeholder means that you got an actual input on the investment which enhances the development of a law enforcement agency that is successful. The issue that is seen with most of the internal stakeholders is the use of excessive force to the community that conveys the lack of ethical and moral judgment and integrity on their agencies and themselves. So for any community policing to be a reality and for it to be viewed successfully it must be evaluated by the stakeholders who have invested in the agency and the executives who enforce the law. An internal atmosphere encompassed with problem solving that are adequate must be created which must begin to form their homes and then carried on to the office. The officers must acquire problem-solving and group dynamic skills which are more reliable and those including team building, anger and conflict management techniques in mediation and more to this the communication skills (Aydin, 2015).

To motivate the individuals into buying the solution, I will initiate problem-solving strategies that are more collaborative and those that will help the agencies involved in law enforcement and the community people who are affected at large. There will also be the creation of an atmosphere supporting teamwork, to help the internal stakeholders reduce victimization between all the officers and the people from the community. All the teams that are involved in running the organization must ease their emotional shares while outlining the duties of the firms and must have a belief that they have an evocative amount of control in all the roles that they play. There should also be effective communication with the department members, partners, community leaders and everyone affected by the criminal acts which use excessive force used by the officers who enforces the law. There should be laid strategies which ease the amount of tension between the community affected and the officers.

References

Drori, I., & Honig, B. (2013). A process model of internal and external legitimacy. Organization Studies, 34(3), 345-376.

Aydin, G. (2015). Alexander Brem & Éric Viardot (eds.), Adoption of Innovation: Balancing Internal and External Stakeholders in the Marketing of Innovation. Turkish Economic Review, 2(3), 196-202.

Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

PAPER 3

Technology Influences

This paper looks at the influences of technology, how it has contributed to improving the standard of living, how it has helped in development, the barriers encountered and also the vices of technology. This paper will serve to propose ways in which technology or information systems can be used to come up with solutions for any occurring problems.

Following the emergence of new technologies and information systems, there has been many developments as well as problems resulting from this; the internet has had the greatest impact in developing technology. People can buy or sell both goods and services in online platforms, they can even explain how they intend to deliver what they are selling. On the plus side, this has helped promote businesses and make trade easier. A person can buy a book online from where he is, pay for it and receive it. (Donley, 2012)

These online businesses are not as safe as they may seem, some people have advertised products online, posted pictures of these products and given the price of them. In the end, a person may go to buy a book only to find that the contents in the book are not the contents of the book he wanted.

With the development of technology, there have been cases of identity theft; this is a situation where someone pretends to be someone else. Some people do this in order to drain people their money. For instance some people can use a social media account with the name and details of a certain person, they may contact this person’s friends with the intention of taking money from them. (Raza, 2008)

Phones nowadays have made it easy to track people wherever they are. This makes it easy for family members to know where the person is and also for the law enforcers to track criminals or monitor their movement (Davis, 2015). This can have deafening implications on people, terrorists can tell the location of a top official they are searching for by using GPRS tracking. This makes it easy for criminals to attack people or to monitor their calls.

The growth of technology has also aided significantly to the rising issues of piracy. Musicians are the most affected by piracy, they produce their music and while they are trying to sell their albums, people are already downloading the music and burning them on disks which they sell at cheap prices. The issue of piracy has hindered most artists from reaching the heights they deserve.

Technology has also contributed to the rise of crimes such as hacking, fraud, and it has promoted scams. The Government has also been victims of hackers, on April 4, the FBI said that a hacking group had had access to US Government files for years (Davis, 2015). This is prove that with technology, even the most powerful people are still vulnerable and may get caught up in these crimes. (Bicchierai, 2016)

Technology has also disrupted the social life. Unlike in the olden days whereby people used to meet in places, talk and keep showing up in that same spot only to get a glimpse of each other, technology has ensured that people can meet only once and become close friends or even lovers, simply by exchanging their numbers and then they begin texting or calling each other.

The social networking has also damaged olden day socialization and replaced it with online socializing. People meet on social media platforms, maybe twitter, Skype or Facebook. They get to know each other and ultimately become close friends. The problem with social networking is that one does not actually know how much the other person is keeping as a secret and also the much that this person is lying about. People do not disclose their bad sides, on the social media most people are innocent and interesting while in person they maybe drug lords or social killers or terrorists or maybe top Government officials or secret agents working for the Government. (Bicchierai, 2016)

New information systems have drastically changed the old ways of handling things, the use of chalk and boards is reducing as classes are now using computers for their learning. This is a positive outcome but to the people who earned their living by manufacturing these, this is definitely a loss to them.

Information systems and technologies have ensured that people’s lives are no longer a secret. Some people would want their personal life to remain private but technologies have made this hard to achieve. People deserve to live a quiet life whereby people will not judge them because of what is written about them or because of what they do for a living. (Davis, 2015)

The internet has greatly hindered change in people, some people have done horrible things in the past but even when they have completely changed their ways, one would search on the internet and find the past which these people may be trying to leave behind. This is problematic because it keeps reminding these people of how bad they were and even if they move past it there will always be a person looking at that past and still judging that person.

Technology should be used to bring solutions to issues that are proving hard to deal with. In China there is a restaurant served by robots. This is a positive use of technology; robots will take orders without questioning them and will deliver exactly what they are asked.

Donley, (2012) maintains that technology can be used in education and for education purposes. This has been relevant through E-learning, whereby students can study by use of electronic means. A teacher in the U.K. can teach a student in the U.S.A; this is a much-advocated solution to the use of technology.

Social networking may have its vices but it can also be useful in getting the best out of people. For instance, introverts may tend to open up through the social media, in event that a group is discussing something through the internet, you may find that even the most silent people are contributing, asking questions and giving suggestions to the group. This is not only an effective way to use technology but also a helpful way.

Scientists have devised ways to make work easier, making machines that can do most of the works that humans can. This helps to increase the level of creativity within the people. Facial recognition technologies are an example of the modern technologies that are helping nations grow and helping reduce crime rates while at the same time ensuring criminal do not roam around the streets without looking over their shoulders. (Raza, 2008)

In conclusion, the field of information technology is one that keeps developing by the day. This is the field that will ensure new technologies are developed for a better use and curb the problems that they might bring. Most things have their advantages and disadvantages; it is right to argue that technology can be used for a good course and to bring progress if it is in the right hands.

References

Raza, S. A. & Standing, C. (2008) Systemic problems in information technology adoption and use: A system thinking perspective, Joondalup, Western Austraria: Edith cowan University.

Davis, J. H. (2015, July 9). Hacking of Government computers exposed 21.5 million people. The New York Time, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Franceschi-Bicchierai, L. (2016, April 4). FBI says a mysterious hacking group has had access to US Govt files for years. Motherboard,Retrieved from http://www.motherboard.vice.com

Donley, M. (2012) Technology’s influence on education, The Tech issue, Retrieved from http://source.southuniversity.edu

PAPER 4

Data Collection

Creating a distinct topic is a fundamental concept of doing research. Ideally, the definition of a topic is a multi-step process. A viable research topic needs to be something that an individual is highly interested in it. A research topic is significant and scientifically original (Seamons & Spafford). Research can be focused in various areas such as psychology, marketing, finance, economics, and accounting. This paper will focus on the psychological topic titled, “how color affects an individual’s mood.”

Collected data indicating a problem

Colors appear to be unimportant and simple but have the ability to affect our contemporary lives. Studies have shown that colors can produce particular chemicals that stimulate feelings, for instance, hunger. Ideally, blue color makes an individual calm since it generates the calming chemicals whereas red color induces hunger since it is considered an appetite stimulant (Offermann, 2012). There needs further research to determine any impact of color on the color blind individuals.

Relevance of the data sources to the problem

The concept of color psychology is critical to marketing. Additionally, color psychology is essential in the way individuals operate at trade shows, dress, and in design. Colors have diverse meanings in the majority of cultures (Offermann, 2012). The use of color themes is prevalent in most restaurants. Statistics reveals that people tend to lose their temper and get violent in a yellow room. Research should be done to demonstrate the impact of colors to the color blind.

In conclusion, arriving at an appropriate research topic is a multi-step process. A good research should be appealing to the researcher. There are diverse fields for research although this paper focuses on psychology and specifically color psychology. It has been established that color can affect an individual’s mood. It is, however, unknown if the color has any impact on the color blind individuals.

References

Offermann, A. (2012). Color Psychology – analyze the rainbow!. Mobile Beat Magazine - Online, In Person and In Print - For Mobile DJs, KJs and VJs. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from http://www.mobilebeat.com/color-psychology-analyze-the-rainbow/

Seamons, K. & Spafford, G. How to choose a research topic. Retrieved from http://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/StudentInfo/How2.pdf