Information systems in organisations

Information systems in organisations Abstract Successful system roll-out is not a task that can easily be achieved. As many organisations and governments have found to their cost, it is not simply the case that they can throw money at an information system in the hope that it will be successful. The primary case study used is that of the London Ambulance Service Computer Aided Despatch system. After looking at the background of the case the implementation and subsequent failure are discussed. The reasons for failure are explained, which show the project as essentially being doomed from the start. Although system failure is a common occurrence many organisations do not seem to learn from the mistakes of the past, resulting in several other high profile cases. There are some strategies, however, that can be adopted in order to combat against failure, which mainly side on the softer aspects of system design such as management, organisational culture and human relations. What are the major causes of systems roll-out success or failure? What strategies can organisations take to ensure the success? To answer this question fully we must first understand what an information system (IS) is; and more importantly, what constitutes the success and, or failure of an IS. An information system in an organization provides processes and information useful to its members and clients (Avison Fitzgerald, 2003). Flynn (1992) also describes it as An information system provides procedures to record and make available information, concerning part of an organization, to assist organizations-related activities. An IS is made up of a complex set of factors, including human, organisational, technical, political and financial factors (Flowers, 1996). The interaction between these can give rise to either the success or failure of a system roll-out. The success of an IS is measured mainly on whether or not it meets the productivity target of being developed on time and to budget, and the quality target of meeting the clients requirements. A successful system is one that meets its targets of quality and productivity (Flynn, 1992). An IS is deemed unsuccessful if it fails either one, or both of its targets. In some instances the system is never actually delivered to the end user, which obviously is another case of system failure. An unsuccessful system is one that fails to meet either its quality or its productivity targets (Flynn, 1992). Successful system roll-out is not the easiest of tasks, with many governments and companies finding this out to their cost. In some cases these cost have run into hundreds of millions of pounds. The latest Standish Group report CHAOS Summary 2009 shows that more projects than ever are failing, and also that the number of successful projects is on the decrease. Only 32% of projects met their targets and could be classed as successful; with 44% of systems meeting either only some or none of their targets and 24% were never completed (The Standish Group, 2009). There are estimates that the cost of project failure in the U.S. alone is well in excess of $100 billion; emphasising just how costly a problem system roll-out can be if not done correctly. One reason as to why there are so many instances of IS failure is partly due to the fact that a lot of the time they are constructed without a full understanding or anticipation of reality (Xalles Limited, 2005). This is known as the Vacuum Mentality syndrome (Xalles Limited, 2005). These realities include changes in technology, changes made by the user community, reorganisations, changes of needs, change of key players and project sponsors, issues with resources and changes of processes (Xalles Limited, 2005). This idea is backed up by Maddison Darnton (1996) who explain that human issues are usually more important than technical ones in determining success or failure. Highlighting the fact that it is not necessarily technical issues with an IS that are the main problems during the development process, but instead ones regarding human incompetence. One of the most dramatic IS failures reported in recent years is that of the London Ambulance Service Computer Aided Despatch (LASCAD) system. The LAS is the biggest ambulance service in the world, dealing with over 2,500 emergency calls a day. This inevitably put massive strains on the manual paper-based system that was being used, which already had several major problems with it. This led to the standards of performance falling below the ones agreed to as part of the national standards for ambulance response. It was, therefore, imperative that a new, more effective computer aided despatch system was introduced in order to meet the performance levels. The new system worked by a Control Assistant receiving an emergency call and entering the details given by the caller into the CAD system. Using call-box identifier and mapping systems, the exact location of the caller was calculated. Based on the information on the incident the CAD then worked out a level for the emergency, thus informing the Control Assistant on the appropriate specialist vehicles and skills that should be deployed to the emergency. The most appropriate and closest vehicle to the incident was then pinpointed via the use of mobile data terminals and the vehicle tracking system, and despatched to the emergency. The CAD system sent details of the incident to the vehicle via the on-board computer. Throughout dealing with the incident the crew were constantly updating the CAD system as to their arrival at the scene, their depart ure from it, their arrival at the hospital, and finally when they were free to deal with another call (Flowers, 1996). The intention of the CAD system was to eradicate the inefficiencies of the old paper-based system. However, as the LAS soon found out this was far from the case. On Monday 26th October 1992 the entire LASCAD system went live. It became quickly apparent, however, that it could note cope with the volume of calls. A number of calls were somehow getting lost in the system, leading to duplicate calls being made (Flowers, 1996). This meant that people who were in emergency situations had to wait, in some cases, for 30 minutes for their call to be dealt with. Even when the calls were dealt with, the ambulance allocation system had also failed meaning this had to be done manually, resulting in further delays. Amidst the confusion, it was even reported in some cases that two ambulances turned up to a single emergency, or that one never turned up at all (Flowers, 1996). As the day progressed, the number of calls increased, putting even more pressure on the already faltering system. The newer calls were now overwriting the earlier calls, resulting in even more incidents not being dealt with. The situation became that bad that all the queues were cleared in an attempt to decongest the system. However, this only succeeded in making the problem even worse, as a new flood of calls that were previously lost came through (Flowers, 1996). It was only Tuesday afternoon when the system was eventually shut down as a result of the escalating situation (Finkelstein, 1993). The LAS were instead forced to revert to a former part computerised system. Just over a week later they were back using the fully manual system. It is impossible to consider all of the factors that contributed to the demise of the CAD system. However, there are several major issues which could, ultimately, be seen as the contributing factors towards its failure. Flowers (1996) states that the primary reasons behind the failure were those of the design of the system, the management ethos, the procurement process and the timetable to which the system was developed. The system had been designed without sufficient testing, and on the basis that it would be operating in a perfect world where everything goes according to plan. It relied solely on the requirement that all the information received was perfect. In reality this was far from the case, and so the system was unable to sufficiently despatch resources to the incidents. As highlighted in the official inquiry into the failure: It is probable that the development team did not have full appreciation of the importance of these elements or, at least, of the consequences of failure, or less than perfect performance, of any one part (Finkelstein, 1993). The management ethos at the LAS was one that was inward looking and old-fashioned (Flowers, 1996). As a result of the recent restructuring which had been forced upon the LAS by the National Health Service, there were reported high levels of stress amongst senior management, which had seen a great number of previously loyal staff quitting (Mellor, 1994). In the years leading up to this there was a distinct lack of investment in areas such as the training and development of managers. During the implementation process a report was commissioned by the LAS into staff attitudes. It was clear to see from the results that staff had little faith in the management and were not satisfied with their jobs. This view had already been exposed from the result from a survey conducted in 1989 (Flowers, 1996). The official inquiry also highlighted a culture within the organisation that bred a fear of failure amongst the employees; whereby the success of the system was the one and only consideration (Flowers, 1996). This created an atmosphere in which people were scared to mention any problems or doubts they had with the system. As a result the system had become a sacred cow, in the fact that it became unreasonably immune to criticism from anyone associated with it. Senior managers believed that the system could be developed at a cost of just  £1.5 million. To meet the stringent financial restrictions regarding the purchase of the system, it was recommended by the selection team that the LAS accept the lowest offer, no matter who the tender was; unless they believed they had good and sufficient reason on the contrary (Flowers, 1996). The consequence of being forced to accept a tender in this manner was that the one with the lowest offer was an inexperienced small software company that had gravely underestimated that task at hand; hence the reason for their offer being considerably lower than all others. Having never worked on a project of this kind the companys resources were massively stretched, leading to falling standards in areas such as quality assurance, resulting in several mistakes being made with the development of the software. The inflexible time scale of just 6 months to which the system was set was far less than the industry average of 18 months for a project of this scale. It was believed by a vast majority within the LAS that the time scale was highly unrealistic. Inquiry Team member Paul Williams stated that The timetable was impossible (Mellor, 1994). Staff complained of the inadequacy of the training received for the system. There were major doubts about the quality of the training received and that it was provided long before the system was actually implemented; meaning it was not as effective as it could have been. The situation was made even worse by the fact that the control room staff were trained separately to the ambulance staff, which caused the potential for miscommunication. Other reasons include the fact that it had been decided by management that there was to be a trade off between the performance of the system and usability. The system was developed with little input from system users such as ambulance crews, with no LAS staff being assigned full time to the project (Mellor, 1994). These, therefore, were not ideal conditions in which to launch the new CAD system. Flowers (1996), on the other hand, argues that there is never an ideal time to introduce a major new computer system. However, he does also go on to say that rarely has such a large scale information system ever been introduced under such difficult circumstances (Flowers, 1996). This was not the first time that the LAS had tried to implement a CAD system for ambulances. Beginning in the early 1980s the system was doomed after tests revealed it would not be able to deal with the sheer volume of calls and so was abandoned in 1990 at a cost of  £7.5 million. For a system roll-out to be successful it must contain these four phases: Implementation Planning, Implementation Delivery, Post-Implementation Support, Post-Implementation Analysis (Xalles Limited, 2005). These implementation methods are based on a number of principles and assumptions. The approach by management to the project should be disciplined. As the case of the LASCAD has shown; strong and effective management is essential for the success of a system. Managers should be able to competently handle and issues or problems that develop during the implementation of the system. Accurate and concentrated documentation is needed in order to effectively communicate throughout each of the implementation phases. The end user(s) should be kept in mind throughout the development process so that the System Requirement Specification can be met. It is essential that organisations learn from the mistakes of others regarding the roll-out of an information system. However, this can pose quite difficult as many organisations, if they have difficulties, tend to keep these problems in-house, as not to bring any negative press to themselves. In conclusion it is clear to see that the roll-out of a successful IS is not an easy achievement, with organisations not always learning from the mistakes of others. After reading several case studies of high profile IS failures including LASCAD, TAURUS and Heathrow Terminal 5, it shows that the price of failure are extremely high with these companies losing tens of millions of pounds between them, and in the case of the LASCAD people losing their lives. These cases also highlighted that the main contributing factors towards the demise of each project were in fact from poor management, rather than technical difficulties. It is argued that the main factors for success comprise of timing and budget, perceived usefulness and ease of use, fitting the organisations business strategy and objectives, the management culture and human relations, and lastly acceptance of the system by the user(s) (Maddison Darnton, 1996). In order for a system roll-out to be successful all of this must be ta ken into consideration. Bibliography Avison, D. Fitzgerald, G. (2003). Information Systems Develolpment: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools Third Edition. Mcgraw Publishsing Flynn, D. J. (1992). Information Systems Requirements: Determination and Analysis. McGraw-Hill International Flowers, S. (1996). Software Failure: Management Failure: Amazing Stories and Cautionary Tales. John Wiley Sons Ltd. Finkelstein, A (1993). Report of the Inquiry Into The London Ambulance Service. International Workshop on Software Specification and Design Case Study. The Communications Directorate. Finkelstein, A Dowell, J. A Comedy of Errors: the London Ambulance Service case study. School of Informatics, City University. Lin, A (2009). Information Systems in Organisations. Department of Information Studies, The University of Sheffield. Maddison, R. Darnton, G. (1996). Information systems in organizations: improving business processes. Chapman Hall. Mellor, P. (1994). CAD: Computer-Aided Disaster (High Integrity Systems). Vol. 1, 2, pp. 101-156. The Standish Group (2009). New Standish Group report shows more project failing and less successful projects [Online]. http://www.standishgroup.com/newsroom/chaos_2009.php [Accessed 1 January 2010]. University College London (2009). Unit 3: Case Study London Ambulance Service CAD System [Online]. http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/A.Finkelstein/advmsc/3.pdf [Accessed 5 January 2010]. Xalles Limited (2005). Successful Systems Implementation [Online]. http://www.xalles.com/reports/Successful%20Systems%20Implementation.pdf [Accessed 30 December 2009].

Kaufmans Organizational Elements Model Essay -- Kaufman Models Essays

Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model Introduction Every organization, whether it is an educational setting or a business setting, has the same basic principle. Each shapes and molds different ideas and ingredients to produce a good or service to deliver to external clients in the community or society. The success of the organization depends on the client satisfaction and the usefulness of what was delivered (Quality Management Plus, 30). Roger Kaufman’s Organizational Elements Model distinguishes between the different elements that make up an organization’s work. Each organizational element relates to one another. They have a building block effect where each element depends on the one before it in order to exist. The "organizational efforts (inputs and processes) contribute to organizational results (products and outputs) and these contribute to societal consequences and payoffs (outcomes)" (Strategic Planning in Education, 23). What is the Organizational Elements Model? Roger Kaufman’s Organizational Elements Model (OEM) consists of five parts: inputs, processes, products, outputs, and outcomes. Every organization, whether it be an educational or business setting, is made up of these five elements. The OEM is a framework for organizations to relate organizational efforts, organizational results, and societal payoffs or consequences (Cost-Consequence Analysis, 90). The OEM may also be divided into two different levels. The first level shows "What Is" and the second level shows "What Should Be". Input Process Product Output Outcome What Is What Should Be SOURCE: Adopted from Kaufman 1992, 1995; Hinchcliff 1995 The OEM can help organizations identify what i... ... p22-26, Nov-Dec 1997. Kaufman, Roger and Watkins, Ryan. "Cost-Consequence Analysis." Human Resource Development Quarterly, v7 n1 p87-100, Spr 1996. Kaufman, Roger and Keller, John M. "Levels of Evaluation: Beyond Kirkpatrick." Human Resources Development Quarterly, v5 n4 p371-380, Win 1994. Kaufman, Roger. Strategic Planning Plus: An Organizational Guide. Sage Publications, Inc.: Newbury Park, California, 1992. Kaufman, Roger, and Mayer, Hanna, and Rojas, Alicia M. Needs Assessment: A User’s Guide. Educational Technology Publication: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1993. Kaufman, Roger and Zahn, Douglas. Quality Management Plus: The Continuous Improvement of Education. Corwin Press, Inc.: Newbury Park, California, 1993. Kaufman, Roger and Stone, Bruce. Planning for Organizational Success: A Practical Guide. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: New York, 1983.

Mae West and How the Production Code Affected Her Career

â€Å"Virtue has its own reward, but has no sale at the box office†.   Those are the words of the famous movie actress named Mae West.   She was known for her sassy and sexy behavior on and off screen. Mary Jane West was born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York.   Her parents were involved in prize fighting and vaudeville.   Mae worked on the stage and was in vaudeville from the time when she was five years of age.   She was so into the entertainment world that she never really focused on education.  Ã‚   She studied dance as a child and when she was 14 years old, she was billed as â€Å"The Baby Vamp†. The year was 1926 and she was definitely shocking to most people during that time period.  Ã‚   Though the critics reportedly hated the show, the ticket sales were good.   The theater was raided and Ms. West was arrested along with the rest of the cast. While incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, she was allowed to wear her silk underwear instead of the scratchy prison issue.   The warden reportedly took her to dinner every night. She served eight days, with two days off for good behavior.   The media attention only managed to enhance her case. Her next play was racy in content as well.   It was entitled â€Å"The Drag† and was about homosexuality alluding to the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs.   It also was a box office success, but it had to be played in New Jersey because it had been banned from Broadway. Mae caught the attention of Hollywood and was given her first small movie role working with George Raft in â€Å"Night after Night†.   The film debuted in 1932 and even though her performance was a minor part in the movie, she was able to display enough of her quick wit that made her famous. At first she was unhappy with her small role in â€Å"Night After Night†, but was satisfied when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes.   In West’s first scene, a hatcheck girl exclaimed, â€Å"Goodness, what lovely diamonds†. Mae responded with her quick and racy wit by saying, â€Å"Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie†. Upon her arrival in Hollywood, she moved into an apartment not far from the studio on Melrose.  Ã‚  Ã‚   She maintained a residence there at Ravenswood, even though she owned a beach house and a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. The public fell in love with the first woman to make racy comments on film.   She became a box office smash with the film breaking attendance records. Her second film was based on her earlier and popular play that was written by West entitled â€Å"She Done Him Wrong† starring Cary Grant.   The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture. Her third film, entitled â€Å"I’m No Angel† also displayed her quick racy wit and she was paired with Cary Grant once again.   It was a financial success.   This film, along with â€Å"She Done Him Wrong† were projects that saved Paramount from bankruptcy.   They were highly criticized by some because of the content and the guidelines found in the Motion Picture Production Code. The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of guidelines that movies created between the years of 1930 and 1968 were governed by. The name â€Å"Hays Office† is definitely recognized as being synonymous with Hollywood’s self –censorship body even though its namesake ceased to be involved in the daily operations prior to the period of its most remembered conflicts with filmmakers.   Will H. Hays was the first president of MPPDA.   He was installed as the leader because studio heads were looking for a man with a background in the federal government to assure the nation that Hollywood films would not corrupt the country’s citizens. During the period that the Production Code existed, the enforcement was the responsibility of Jason Joy (1930-1932), James Wingate (1932-1934), Joseph Breen who was the chief censor for the longest period of time between the years of 1934 – 1954.  Ã‚   Geoffrey Shurlock then took his place from 1954-1968. Eric Johnston replaced Will Hays as head administrator in 1945 and remained in this office until his death in 1963.   Jack Valenti took his place in 1966. By then the organization had become the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).   Each of these three men served more in the role of ambassador, lobbyist and   as salesmen for the movie industry and not so much as a â€Å"shaper of content†. The Production Code was developed because the owners of major Hollywood studios were attempting to avoid a national government-run censorship operation. They also wanted to assure the concerned civic leaders that Hollywood would deliver only wholesome movies eliminating the need for further editing that could possible be required by the state and local censorship boards.   These type boards sprang up during the decade preceding the Code. The Studio Relations Committee was organized by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) in 1930.   This committee was given the responsibility for the administration of industry self-censorship.  Ã‚   The Studio Relations Committee was reconstituted as the Production Code Administration in 1934.   It was more effective at this time. This organization felt â€Å"if motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind†.  Ã‚   They recognized their responsibility to the public and because of this trust and also because in their views, entertainment and art were the most important influences in the life of a nation. During the rapid transition from silent to talking pictures they realized the necessity of creating some type of guidelines that should be in place.   Even though motion pictures were considered primarily as entertainment, they also felt that film could be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress. As a result of these codes, May began to use double talk so that a person could take a word or phrase anyway they wished.   She also developed her works this way as a method to get her work past the censors; and it worked. She really felt she had a vested interest because it was her written work that was being scrutinized.   West had already written and performed these plays on stage and now they were being exposed to a whole new audience in film. Mae West was the largest box office draw in the United States at the time.   The frank sexuality and seamy settings of her films caught the attention of the moralists. On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced.  Ã‚   Mae’s scripts began to be heavily edited.   Her answer was to increase the number of double entendres in her films.   Her expectation was that the censors would delete the obvious lines and overlook the subtle ones. Her next film was â€Å"Belle of the Nineties† which was made in 1934 and it was another hit.  Ã‚   The movie was originally titled â€Å"It Ain’t No Sin†, but the title was changed due to the censor’s objection.   By 1936, after filming â€Å"Klondike Annie† and â€Å"Go West Young Man† she was, at that time, the highest paid woman in the United States. After the 1937 film, â€Å"Everyday’s a Holiday†, she didn’t make another film until she starred with W. C. Fields in another Mae West written movie entitled â€Å"My Little Chickadee† in 1940. It was a well-known fact that Ms. West had ill feelings toward Fields because his ways were too crude even for her.   She didn’t get along with Fields at all.   She would not tolerate his drinking and since they were both accustomed to working with supporting players and not co-stars conflict ensued. â€Å"My Little Chickadee† was a box office success and was more successful than all other W. C. Fields’ movies.   It is said that the only way Fields and West could be in the same scene together was to film them separately; and then splice the film together. Universal was so delighted with the success of the film and offered West two more movies to star with Fields.   She refused citing the difficulty of working with Fields. Her film â€Å"The Heat’s On† which was filmed in 1943, was her last film for a bit.   Mae decided to take a break from the movie industry because the censors were getting stricter.   It was harder to create her movies, even with the double talk to get past the stricter codes. It was general practice in films of the 1930’s and 1940’s to skirt the issue of sex and hide violence behind foreground or within shadows.   In addition, they never really treated serious subjects that were dealt with in the best-regarded novels of that era. In so many instances, the Production Code Administration had their way against the wishes of filmmakers.   They scuttled, weakened or diluted several scenes proposed by writers and directors of Hollywood film projects from 1934 to 1968. When the Code went into effect all movies from the major studios were required to show an approved MPPDA logo. There were three general principles: 1.No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it.   Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin. 2.Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented, and 3.Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation. In addition there was another section that was entitled Crimes Against the Law.   There were several crimes listed that should never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire for imitation. Some of the crimes included Murder, Theft, Arson, and the use of firearms were to be restricted to the essentials. Also, methods of smuggling could not be presented and illegal drug traffic was never to be presented. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or should be shown in proper context, otherwise it could not be shown. Ms. West was known for her racy lines and sexy innuendo so there were a few portions mentioned throughout this code that Mae had to alter her movies for compliance.  Ã‚   There was a complete section of the code dedicated to sex. According to the code, the sanctity of the institution of marriage and home had to be upheld.   Pictures could not infer that low forms of sexual relationships are accepted or a common thing.  Ã‚   For example, the issue of adultery sometimes could be considered necessary to the plot, however it could not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented in a positive light. The code even had guidelines of â€Å"Scenes of Passion†.  Ã‚   They could not be introduced if they weren’t essential to the plot.   In addition, excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures could not be shown. In general passion had to be treated so that these scenes could not stimulate the lower and baser element.   Mae West oozed sensuality.   This category no doubt was stifling to many of Mae’s intentions on film. Even before she had matured, the slinky, then dark haired Mae was performing a lascivious â€Å"shimmy† dance in 1913 and was photographed for a song sheet for the song â€Å"Everybody Shimmies Now†. Her famous walk was said to have originated in her early years as a stage actress.   West had special eight-inch platforms attached to her shoes to increase her height and enhance her stage presence. Mae’s leave from film back to plays proved to be successful.   When censors began to let up, she returned to film work in 1970 in Myra Breckinridge.  Ã‚   She appeared in the role as Leticia Van Allen, which was a small role.   The film failed miserably at the box-office but still was a racy film due to the sex change theme. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue.   She was also an early advocate of gay and transgender rights.   She was reported as telling policemen who were raiding a gay bar, â€Å"Don’t you know you’re hitting a woman in a man’s body†. This was definitely a daring statement since she spoke it in a time period when homosexuality was not accepted. Her last film was in 1978 called Sextette which was a film that was based on the successful play West wrote back in 1926.   This film could have been a silent movie but instead fifty years later was developed.   Even in the late seventies, the times where not liberal enough to accept the original title, â€Å"Sex† as they called it Sextette instead. Allowances had to be made for a few things, such as her wig and slightly bizarre makeup and her slow movement from time to time but she obviously had taken care of herself and is able to show herself off in a series of beautiful gowns. The film is set up so she can consistently deliver the one-liners that made her famous. There was something different about Mae West, beginning with her appearance.   It set her apart from the other actresses of the day.   Mae has been described as a rather large billowing superblonde that talked through her nostrils.   In addition it has been said that she was a Gay Nineties gal that was plunked down in the Flapper Age. According to Simon Louvish, the author of her biography entitled â€Å"Mae West: It Ain’t No Sin†, it wasn’t the Production Code that affected her career but rather â€Å" her inability to relate to anyone in any intimately persuasive way – that so quickly destroyed her screen career†. The character that she created was completely of her on devise.   Somehow this Brooklyn born woman who was sketchily educated at best made herself into a playwright as she would scribble her one-liners and develop primitive narratives around them. The Code may have been able to tone down some of the personality of Mae West but she was a woman who would not be silenced.   Her somewhat mannish ways in her blunt innuendo that continually spoke of the unmentionable sexual needs of a female. Ms. West’s remarks were quick and veiled suggestion.   They were not dirty and often playfully remarked dripping with sensual undertones. Historians, however, suggest that her movie career declined so quickly because of the Production Code and their rather strict guidelines. Mae West is unique in the history of   â€Å"sex stars† in the movies because she was somehow able to play both the role of a sex goddess and simultaneously parody that same role.   In addition, she was one of the first women to consistently write the movies she starred in. In addition to her screen and stage career, Ms. West also could be heard on the radio.   On December 12, 1937, she appeared on two separate sketches on Edger Bergen’s radio show that shocked both the listening and NBC executives.   She appeared as herself, and was flirting heavily with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen’s dummy, speaking with her usual brand of sexy wit and risque sexual references. She appeared even more risque in a sketch earlier in the show that was written by Arch Oboler.   This sketch starred West and Don Ameche as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.   The conversation between the two was considered so risque and bordered on being blasphemous.   She was banned from being featured, or even mentioned on the NBC network.   Mae West didn’t appear on radio for another 31 years. She also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show.   She would sing and was surrounded by handsome body builders while she performed on stage.   Many celebrities attended West’s shows including Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Louis Armstrong, Liberace, and Jayne Mansfield.   Jayne met and later married one of West’s muscle men, Mickey Hargitay.   Mr. Hargitay was fired for that action. Billy Wilder offered West the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.   She refused and pronounced herself offended at being asked to play a â€Å"has-been† similar to the responses he received from Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo and Pola Negri.   Ultimately, Gloria Swanson was cast in the role, which became immortal on celluloid. In 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song â€Å"Baby, It’s Cold Outside† playfully with Rock Hudson. In 1959, her autobiography was published by Prentice-Hall entitled, â€Å"Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It†. West made some rare appearances on television where viewers reported astonishment at her youthful appearance and energy.   In order to appeal to younger generations, she recorded two rock and roll albums which were received with financial success mainly due to her single â€Å"Treat Him Right† on the â€Å"Way Out West† album. Near the end of her life, she was known for maintaining her surprisingly youthful appearance.   West continued to surround herself with virile men for the rest of her life, employing companions, bodyguards and chauffeurs. In the late summer of 1980, she suffered a stroke at her apartment and fell out of her bed.   She rallied after being rushed to the hospital but suffered another stroke in November.   She was sent home but her prognosis wasn’t good.   She died in her apartment on North Rossmore Avenue in Hollywood at the age of 87. Mae West will forever be remembered as the sexy vamp notorious for sexy   her one-liners. REFERENCES Bynum, Matt. (2006) The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code). http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html Received on December 12, 2006 Jackson, Denny. (1998). Mae West – The Actress Who Was Way Ahead of Her Time! http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/2440/west.html Received on December 12, 2006 Schickel, Richard. International Herald Tribune. (2006) Mae West. New York City.               

Primate Social Behaviour - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1742 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/09/22 Category Advertising Essay Type Argumentative essay Tags: Development Essay Social Essay Did you like this example? Primate intelligence and social behaviour Introduction Most primates spend their lives in large social groups and the social brain hypothesis posits that selection has favoured larger brains and more complex cognitive capacities as a means to cope with the challenge of social life (Silk 2007) Research in the field and laboratory shows that sophisticated social cognition underlies social behavior in primate groups. Social behaviour is behaviour and interactions that takes place between organisms of the same species. There are many different levels of social behaviour. The â€Å"simplest† or lowest forms of social behaviour are those which specific biological processes account directly for the behaviour. These are biological behaviours, of which there are three levels (the taxis, biotaxis and biosocial) the biosocial level is the level at which the reciprocal simulative function of other organisms is the source of the groups behaviour. The higher levels of social beha viour are those of plastic adaptive adjustments arising through widened learning capacities and the entrance of thinking. These higher levels are psychological behaviours of which there are two levels. The psychotaxis is the level at which behavioural plasticity becomes increasingly important in directing the course of behavioural development, as in the effects of maternal behaviour on the subsequent behaviour or the gorilla. The second psychological level is the psychosocial level where the development of bonds becomes an important factor in determining an organism’s further behaviour (Greenberg, 1988) These two psychological behaviours, the psychotaxis and phsycosocial levels are the levels of social behaviour that are easiest to observe in a zoo setting. I have further broken these levels up into further categories, these are; Social observation: individuals watching one another Mother and infants: this is the basic social group for many primates. Mother infant bondi ng is essential to teach the infant how to interact properly as an adult. Dominance: Primates and animals that live in groups tend to form â€Å"dominance hierarchies† the rank is learned through play, agnostic interactions and affiliative interactions. Grooming: this is an important affiliative mechanism and is used to strengthen links Communication: this ncludes scents, body postures, gestures, vocalisations Play: attempts to define play behaviour has been historically tricky (Pellengrini 2005) Cooperative feeding: individuals feeing together The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that â€Å"more ‘advanced’ primates make the most use of social behaviour† so first we must look at how we decide what makes a primate more advanced or more intelligent than another and also look at the emergence of intelligence. The social intelligence hypothesis was developed to explain the evolution of primate intelligence and suggests that life in complex social environments was the primary selective pressure for primate cognitive evolution and for enlarged brains (Maclean 2008). It has been suggested that â€Å"intelligence† and brain volume are linked but it remains largely untested. A study by Reader and Laland showed there to be a positive correlation between social learning, innovation and tool use and species’ relative and absolute â€Å"executive† brain volumes. Reader and Laland 2002) Also, relative neocortex size is positively correlated with social group size in primates. Researchers simply do not know how best to measure cognitive ability across species, but a measure of brain size is a good first approximation until more further research can suggest better characteristics, so brain size is how we will divide the zoo primates into levels of intelligence. The primate with the largest brain size is the Western Lowland Gorilla, followed by the Chimpanzee and then the Back Handed Spider Monkey (Kiwanuka, 2010) M ethodology On the 8th of May 2010 three different primates were observed at Sydney’s Taronga zoo. The three primates that were chosen for this study was: The Western Lowland Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Black Handed Spider Monkey. These three primates were chosen because there was at lease six individuals in each enclosure this is important because there needs to be several individuals interacting with each other for it to be possible to effectively observe their social behaviour with each other. Primate groups are important because they show social learning which can lead to the development of temporal stable condition or even proto-culture (Voelkl 2008). There were seven behaviours that we decided would be observable and quantifiable on the day and they were; social observation, dominance, grooming, communication, play, cooperative feeding, mother infant, and presenting. These behaviours were put into a table and it was decided that a tally system would be the easiest meth od of quantifying. One tally was put down for each time the behaviour occurred. So if there was a mother holding her infant for the whole time they were being observed; only one tally was put down for that behaviour. Figure 1 shows what our data sheet looked like on the day. Within a group of three people we all observed the entire enclosure at the same time and marked down a tally each time we saw a behaviour that was on our list. But to avoid marking the same behaviour several times we would discuss sightings of behaviour with each other before marking it down. Each species was observed for 45 minutes at a time by our whole group. It would have been more ideal and accurate to be able to observe all three primate species at around the same time of day and all around feeding time but time constraints on the day made this method unable to be carried out. Social BehaviourGorrillaChimpSpider monkey Dominance5 2 Grooming 13 Communication41 Play71 Co-operative feeding2 Presenting S oicial observation652 Mother infant 21 Figure 1: data sheet for marking down social behaviours for each primate species. Results The Gorilla apeared to show the highest amount of social behaviour(n=9) (figure 2) showing a range of different behaviours with most of their social behaviour being play and social observation. The chimpanzee and spider monkeys showed a lesser amount of social behaviour (n=9, n=6) but also a high proportion of this was social observation behaviours. Figure 2: This graph compares the difference in amount of social behaviour between Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Spider Monkey Chi? test GorillaChimpanzeeSpider MonkeyTotal Passive Behaiour13 (13. 6)6 (4. 7)3 (3. 7)22 Active Behaviour13 (12. 4)3 (4. 3)4 (3. 3)20 Total 269 742 GorillaChimpanzeeMonkeyTotal Observed269742 Expected269741 The above data gives an x? value of zero and a P value of 1 this is not significant. A Chi Squared test cannot give us accurate results from the data collected because there are more than three expected values that are less than 5 so the results are not significant or accurate. Discussion The results gathered proved to be inconclusive because the statistical Chi square test showed no significant results because there were not enough observations to make the analysis reliable. The primates needed to be observed over a longer period of time in order to gain enough data to have reliable results. This study would need to be carried out in a period of months instead of one day. This would make it easier to acquire data from the same time of day for each species. So each day there would be data collected for both feeing time and non feeding time for each of the species. This was definitely a limitation of our experiment because we only had one day to make our observations and the three species were observed at different times of day. The Gorillas were observed during and after their feeding time, giving us more social behaviours to observe. But the Spider Monkey s and Chimpanzees were observed after feeding time and late in the afternoon so they weren’t as active as the Gorillas. It was also a warm sunny day so when observing the Spider Monkeys and Chimps they spent most of their time sunning themselves and not interacting with each other. But the difference between these two was that the Chimpanzees would lie around in groups with all the members close to each other whereas the Spider monkeys were all spread out into their separate spaces in the enclosure. This is supported by Spehar (2009) who explains that spider monkeys live in a flexible fission-fusion social system where group members are not always in constant contact with each other. Studies have shown that Chimpanzees and Spider monkey have similar social structures; they form parties of variable sizes which are smaller when food is scarce. This is very different to the social structure of Gorillas that live in long term groups with a stable membership this suggests th at the principles underlying social evolution in the Spider Monkeys and Chimpanzees are different from the Gorillas so we could expect to experience different amounts or different types of social behaviour between these species (Wrangham, 1980) There is a general trend that can be concluded from our results if we look at the amount of social behaviour that was observed, and that is that the Gorilla showed the greatest amount of social behaviour, followed by the Chimpanzee then the Spider Monkey which both showed similar amounts of social behaviour. This supports our hypothesis but a strong conclusion cannot be made because they were observed at different times of day and we cannot make a significant statistical analysis because of the lack of data, so we cannot accept nor prove our hypothesis that â€Å"more ‘advanced’ primate’s make the most use of social behaviour† This experiment would be valuable if we had more time, better knowledge and more insight i nto how to observe social behaviour. Having more time to observe the primates would improve our observations because we would be able to recognize the different behaviours more clearly giving us stronger results and a larger set of data to work with. References Greenburg G. and Tobach E (1988) Evolution of social behavior and integrative levels. Schneirla conference series volume 3 Kiwanuka B. (2010) Gorilla Intelligence and That of the Other Great Apes, accessed: 13/5/2010. https://www. buzzle. com/articles/gorilla-intelligence-other-great-apes. html Manclean E. L. , Merritt D. J. , Brannon E. M. (2008) Social complexity predicts transitive reasoning in prosimian primates. Animal Behaviour 76 479-486 Pellengrini AD and Smith PK (2005) the nature of play: great apes and humans. The Guilford Press New York Silk J. B. (2007) Components of Fitness in Primate Groups. Science. 317 (5843), 1347-1351 Spehar S. N. ,Link A. and Di Fiore A. (2009) Male and female range use in a group o f white-bellied spider monkeys (Ateles belzebuth) in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador Voelkl B. and Noe R. (2008) The influence of social structure on the propagation of social information in artificial primate groups: a graph-based simulation approach. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 252 (1) 77-86 Wrangham R. W. and Smuts B. B (1980) Sex differences in the behavioural ecology of chimpanzees in the Gombe National park, Tanzania. Journals of reproduction and fertility Ltd. 28, 13-31 Don’t waste time! 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