Human Trafficking between Africa and Europe Security Issues

Introduction Human trafficking has become one of the leading global crime statistics that governments of the world are grappling to contain.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Human Trafficking between Africa and Europe: Security Issues specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to the United Nations Office on Drugs Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP, 1999), human trafficking can be described as â€Å"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat, deceit, coercion, abduction, fraud for the purposes of exploitation or removal of organs.† Human trafficking varies from one country to the other and from one part of the world to the other. The common denominator in all kinds of human trafficking is that it is illegal and exploitative to the victims. Human trafficking is not a new phenomenon because it has been there since time in memorial and largely it w as ignored by society. It did not view it as a problem. Every year, people of different ages and sex are trafficked around the world. It has become a very lucrative business only rivaled by drugs in terms of income. Recent focus by international organizations and other pressure groups to highlight the extent of the problem concerning human rights is what has put the whole problem on the spot. The actual definition of the problem is what has made the whole world wake up to the realization of what has been going on around them because it is so far not news. Human trafficking is simply a form of neo slavery and with it comes the problem of insecurity to all the countries involved. Why it Happens Human Trafficking can be traced as a practice of ancient times when individuals would conquer their fellow human beings, take them into captive, and force them to work for them as slaves under captivity. According to Sawadogo (2012), the spirit to conquer exists in all human beings. It stands o ut as the same spirit that leads human beings to compete over one another as a way of determining the best (p. 97).Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The spirit of conquest can also be attributed to the natural allocation of resources and the evident urge to exploit them and/or have them. In ancient times as it is today, states and kingdoms would go to war with each other. In the end, the loser would be forced to pay allegiance to the winner. In most cases, men from the loosing states would be taken in as captives to work as slaves to the conquering masters. In the present day world, the practice of human trafficking is a reflection of slavery and spirit to dominate one another. It has become more complicated because different incentives drive this practice thus giving it a hydra like face. In ancient times up until the 19th century, slaves were taken mostly to provide la bor in the farms but this has changed with the emergence of other factors that drive human trafficking and making it a lucrative venture. Just like any business, human trafficking is driven by demand and supply factors (Heather Smith, 2012, 51-65). The demand in this case is higher than the supply thus making it very expensive to get a delivery. Laws of different countries have made it very complicated and risky to traffic in human beings thus the traffickers have had to devise means that would enable them deliver on their side, which comes with a very high cost. Ignorance on the part of persons being trafficked has also led to the business to thrive because the traffickers always target ignorant and gullible victims who can be convinced into the business or who can be coerced into the business. Most victims usually come from vulnerable backgrounds, which they try to run away from in the search for any promise of a good life that can easily make them buy into the idea (UNODCCP, 199 9, p. 35). Demand for cheap labor in Europe, America and Arab world has led to the coming up of both legal and illegal agencies that are ready to provide this cheap labor to these markets. The problem with these agencies is that they do not make full disclosures to the people they recruit thus they employ the use of deceit in getting these people into signing contracts that are supposedly legal yet illegal. The rise of organ tourism has also escalated the human trafficking phenomenon by giving it a new head that has never existed before. This happens when people in society with medical complications like organ failure and who are in a position to buy or pay for replacement organs (Onuoha, 2011, p. 150).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Human Trafficking between Africa and Europe: Security Issues specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Vulnerable victims are always found out by the traffickers and transported to destinations where the harvesting procedures can be done successfully without the law enforcement interfering. The need to supply the sex industry with players can also be counted as one of the biggest drivers for human trafficking. The emergence of a vibrant sex industry with clients who are ready to pay premium prices for sexual services has created a supply side to the industry, which has adopted the high-tech strategy. Onuoha (2011) states that the evident need to supply players with services has seen women being abducted in some countries and transported to other countries to offer the service mostly in captivity despite the fact that the sex industry in some countries is legal and regulated (p. 155). The three mentioned sectors are the most notorious fuels for human trafficking on the global arena. How Human Trafficking Happens Human trafficking happens in many different ways some of which have been captured by the United Nations definitions while some ways have not yet been captured yet. This is because the development of the problem is highly dynamic since it keeps on changing every time as a way of evading the law and/or a way of keeping up with modern times dictates (Lal, 2005, p. 28). In most cases, the demand for humans for specific purposes raises the need for trafficking. Where there is no demand, there is no need for supply. Human trafficking happens in many different ways; some ways have been documented while some ways have never been documented. However, this revelation does not take away the fact that it all remains an illegal activity. Through Coercion Human trafficking can happen through coercion when individuals encounter abduction where they are transported against their will to other countries under threats that force them to comply with the traffickers. This situation is usually made possible by the fact that the traffickers are usually criminal groups that have a potential to do harm to the victims and to the family of the victims. Th ere are instances when victims and their families are killed for no cooperation thus forcing the victims to cooperate out of fear. This happens even when the victims know that what they are going to be subjected into will be inhuman.Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Another form of coercion is when victims are captured, held and transported incommunicado (Lal, 2005, p. 28). Under these circumstances, the victims do not have an opportunity to interact with the outside world because they are either closely guarded by their traffickers or they are not enclosed in a place that cannot allow them an outside view. Through Legal Means Although trafficking is illegal, it sometimes happens via legal means where it is done in the eyes of authorities, but without their knowledge. Under this kind of trafficking, victims are transported from one country to the other using falsified documents. In this case, the persons being trafficked usually pay money for them to be moved from one place to the other. Tverdova (2011) explains, â€Å"most victims under this arrangement usually come from strife torn countries where there is war and poverty thus try any means to move away from these countries† (p. 340). The act and tactics used in this case are illegal t hus qualifying their movement as human trafficking. In most instances under this arrangement, the fate of the victims usually lies with the traffickers who act as masters and can at times be brutal. Through Adoption Adoption is one of the legal means that traffickers use to traffic their victims. Under this arrangement, traffickers use adoption agencies, which follow a due process to deliver children to people who need them. The clients in this case may not qualify to adopt the children under the law or may be interested in children with certain features, which the traffickers work hard to find and deliver. The clients pay a lot of money to have the children delivered. However, since this procedure is not supervised, the fate of the delivered children cannot be ascertained (Tverdova, 2011, p. 343). Pedophiles and other vile characters use such underground means to have children delivered to them for sexual purposes. Through Marriage Many women fall into the trap of getting married t o rich foreign tourists who promise them heaven when they take them back to their mother countries. This is a big attraction to many poor women in third world countries who wish to run away from poverty back home thus get excited, get married to the tourist and then they relocate to the tourists home country (Willimas, 1999, p. 23). Most of these women have ended up in high-end brothels as sex slaves without any form of escape route from captivity where are forced to work at times for a certain period as a way of buying their freedom. The Situation between Africa and Europe Human trafficking is a worldwide phenomenon that happens in both rich countries and poor countries. The concentration of people being trafficked can be traced to the poor impoverished states, war torn countries, and in countries where criminal activities are the highest in the world. Different countries are an attraction to traffickers for victims for different purposes. Countries in Africa and Asia attract traff ickers who look for laborers to work in different fields (UNODCCP, 1999, p. 148). Most women trafficked from Asian and African countries end up working as domestic workers in rich people’s homes but being paid nothing or being paid peanuts. Women trafficked from Asia and American countries end up working as sex slaves in brothels in different parts of the world where they are perceived as an attraction. Global statistics indicate that Asia is the biggest contributor to this problem with the largest number of victims coming from Asian countries. South East Asia alone contributes 225000 people being trafficked per year, South Asia 150000, Africa 50000, Eastern Europe 100000. These figures are very conservative. It is estimated that the problem on the ground has a much higher figure than what has been documented so far. These figures when consolidated run into millions of people who are trafficked every year. Due to the wide definition that the activity takes, it has been diffic ult to determine which cases are trafficking and which ones are not until one delves deep to interrogate the persons travelling (UNODCCP, 2009, p. 158). This is virtually impossible because it would require a lot of time and personnel to do that. It would require cooperation from possible victims. In most cases, only suspicious looking cases are subjected to this grilling. However, many more cases usually pass as genuine. The situation of human trafficking between Africa and Europe is rife and tends to escalate with each passing year. War and poverty issues that have ravaged many African countries over the years have led to many people from these African countries try to find their way to Europe as the only way to escape the biting situation of war and poverty. The allure of a good life too and the restrictive nature of getting European visa has made people from middle class join the band wagon, thus becoming statistical figures in the trafficking of human beings. Many African count ries recording high numbers of people being trafficked are usually some of the poorest in the world with very low literacy levels. Most of the people being trafficked are usually ignorant of their rights. In a situation where they know the situation, they usually waive it because they believe the process will give them a good life (Esohe, 2005, p. 15). The proximity to Europe and the fair conditions of life that people expect have made it the most popular destination in the world for human trafficking. Many people who have been trafficked to Europe have ended up being successful in some instances to the extent of sending money back home. African countries close to Europe have been known as the biggest contributors to human trafficking through their own citizens or as conduits through which traffickers transport their victims. People from far off countries have been known to travel to these countries as they await an opportunity to be transported to Europe. This though happens only i n situations that employ illegal means. Other clandestine means as mentioned in the previous paragraphs are also used in this situation. It seems to grow day by day even with advancement in measures by recipient countries to stop this menace. Countries Involved The countries that count as the most contributors of victims of trafficking to Europe are mostly Northern Africa countries and West African countries with women making up the biggest number in this. Countries like Mali, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, DRC Congo, Benin, Gabon, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco have been identified as the greatest source of human trafficking victims. The target countries in this case are usually Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Greece, Germany, Britain, and many other European countries that might be of interest to the traffickers and the victims. Human trafficking between Africa and Europe is not limited to the named countries and regions. It involves all countries in Africa and most countries i n Europe. Other countries in Africa provide a limited number of victims due to their distance to Europe and the mode of transport that can be employed. Many North African countries acting as a conduit like Morocco for instance is a few kilometers from Spain, thus making it easy for traffickers and victims to try their luck using boats. Most of the victims trafficked end up in the streets of Europe living as illegal immigrants because they lack proper documentation (Elaine, 2002, p. 45). Recipient countries in Europe have developed measures that they use to combat this menace though every time the measures are put in place, the traffickers devise ways of circumventing them. The biggest problem that human trafficking between Africa and Europe is causing is the problem of insecurity. The controlling of this trade by criminal gangs has made human trafficking a source of concern in terms of security because criminal gangs in themselves are a source of insecurity. Why it is a Source of In security Security efforts have been put in place by European countries to stop the menace of human trafficking from Africa to Europe due to the large numbers of people being trafficked and as part of the countries responsibility towards the campaign to stop human trafficking. Human trafficking has had negative side effects to the economies of European countries because it has led to a strain on these countries’ economies especially in the issue of unemployment. African immigrants are a source of cheap labor to almost all fields of the economy because they are always ready to accept a much lower pay than the set market rates thus they become more attractive to employers when compared to the local population. This economic situation has escalated the rate of unemployment in many European countries with most of them recording higher rates than ever before. Most persons brought in through trafficking usually use illegal and undocumented channels that do not leave the authorities with their personal information (Lal, 2005, p. 25). Whenever such people have been involved in a crime, it becomes difficult for the authorities to trace them thus the escalation of insecurity. The victims’ masters have used many of them to peddle drugs and other illicit activities, thus making them a big threat to national security in the European countries to which they have moved. The greatest risk that they have recently posed is that of terrorism. Terrorism as a global problem has been compounded by the use of changing tactics that have made it difficult to control. Therefore, the use of human trafficking as part of the tactics used has heightened the need of concerned countries to control this problem because most of the people trafficked can easily be drawn into any activity that would earn them a living. Security Efforts Being Employed Visa Control European countries have come up with individual and collective efforts to control the problem of human trafficking becaus e it happens to be a common problem shared between the European countries. Africans are the biggest statistic in this issue due to the proximity of the two continents to each other and due to the better quality of life that European nations offer. European countries have as a first step tightened their border controls through immigration so that it is not easy for traffickers to use them by legal means to cause an illegality (Willimas, 1999, p. 45). Through this scheme, many European nations have set common standards that are used to admit persons from certain parts of the world as a way of controlling the people’s movement. For instance, there are different categories of visa that are given to persons seeking to enter certain regions within Europe an example being the Schengen visa. With visa rules in place, it is easy to control the application of the same because one would be required to attend some sort of interview before getting. Personal interviews with immigration off icials help them decide which cases deserve for issuance with visa and which ones are not convincing. However, these visa rules can also be viewed as the reason why many people are trafficked to Europe. The tightening of visa issuance has made it difficult for many deserving cases to get a visa to Europe thus leading them to seek other means that will get them there. Enhanced Border Patrols European countries bordering Africa have enhanced border patrols by monitoring their borders physically and technologically so that illegal persons have no chance to enter non-designated border points. Elaine (2002) states that many human traffickers use porous border points to get into European countries by identifying areas where border security is minimum and using the identified areas to sneak the victims through (p. 43). By increasing border patrols and increasing the number of officers manning them, the European countries have been able to minimize in a big way the number of immigrants bein g trafficked into and through their territories. Countries like Italy and Spain have had to double their efforts due to the high rate of immigrants coming in through undesignated border points. Countries like Spain have adopted the use of community policing by empowering some of the people in the local population to do surveillance on behalf of government and even arrest suspicious immigrants who might be in the process of entering their territory illegally (Lal, 2005, p. 48). The proximity of Spain to Africa has made it one of the easiest targets by traffickers because it is just a few kilometers from Europe. With this advantage, they can take a very short time to access it. Enhanced border patrols is not just on land only but also by sea. Many trafficking victims are usually transported dangerously by sea using boats that land on the coasts of European countries and release their human cargo there without authority. This has force countries like Spain and Italy to enhance their se a border patrols as a way of deterring human traffickers from accessing their coastlines. All these security measures are replicated across Europe as a way of ensuring a collective responsibility to the problem. Creation of Holding Centers One of the most popular ways of controlling human trafficking is by creating holding centers that are used to hold victims before they are repatriated back to their countries. This ensures that victims and their masters are detained at a place that allows authorities to monitor them once arrested before the due process of sending them back to their countries is finalized. European laws can be described as cumbersome especially in the issues to do with immigration and deportation of victims. In most European countries, persons found to be in the country illegally are usually left to live as their cases for deportation continues. This long process can be costly to taxpayers of these countries. Thus, they have devised a way that allows them to hold t hese people as they prepare to send them back to their countries of origin. Holding centers enable European countries to take these victims off the streets thus ridding their streets of people who are not supposed to be there (Lal, 2005, p. 53). Other than holding centers, there are also safe houses for rescued victims who are given an opportunity to either go back to their countries of origin or are simply given a new lease of life and accepted in the European society. Holding centers are like prisons since they are a big discouragement to traffickers and victims who may not want to relive the story once released. On the other hand, holding centers do not give the trafficked victims an opportunity to get into the society they had aspired to join. Signing of Treaties with African Countries African countries being the biggest producers of victims of trafficking to Europe have been roped in to help fight the problem. To African countries, their citizens getting out to go and find a be tter life in Europe has not been a problem to them regardless of the process they use. They therefore paid no mind to people leaving their coasts in whatever conditions because it never hurt them, as opposed to the European nations to which they were heading. Furthermore, moving to these countries guaranteed a source of foreign exchange when they get there and start sending money back home. European countries found it easy to sign agreements with African countries to stop their own people from trying to enter Europe illegally, thus stopping the problem at the source. This came with logistical support to the African nations so that they could do their own border patrols and stop traffickers from using their sea to transport victims to Europe. Countries like Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria are some of the countries benefitting from this arrangement. Heather and Smith (2012), state, â€Å"This arrangement enables them to obtain equipment for patrol in the sea†¦to secu re their territorial waters from invasion and exploitation by enemies† (p. 54). Some African countries have signed treaties that would allow them receive and hold victims on behalf of the European countries as a way of bypassing some immigration rules and laws that would have granted the victims an opportunity to stay as their status is being examined. Holding centers enable the European countries to profile the victims much better and use the same information to create structures that will prevent future trafficking efforts. By Joining International Treaties European countries and African countries have entered treaties at different levels that compel them to recognize human trafficking as an illegal act. Such treaties like the Protocol to prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking by the United Nations Organization. This treaty compels countries to adopt laws and measures that will ensure human trafficking is not tolerated. Some of these treaties are a brainchild of European c ountries as a way of containing the menace of human trafficking to Europe from Africa (UNODCCP, 1999, p. 148). Europe suffers many ills that are a result of human trafficking from Africa thus it has to speared head efforts to solve the problem by coming up with solutions. Solutions to such a problem are best achieved when all parties are involved in finding the solution and in executing the solution too. The European commission has enabled the formation of interregional networks to fight trafficking. These networks collaborate at a regional level to create awareness of the problem among the victim nations. An aspect of human trafficking that usually comes up is the fact that many of the victims are ignorant of their rights and situations thus are easily gullible when they get into the hands of traffickers who take advantage of them to exploit them. Regional networks enable local communities to educate their populations on the problem and create awareness as a means of fighting the p roblem. It enables the community to break the networks of traffickers by informing the authorities on the activities of traffickers (Willimas, 1999, p. 46). This is a sure way of solving the problem from the roots. Fighting the problem in Europe was becoming complicated because of many laws on human rights that would prevent the European nations from taking decisive action. Cracking Down on Criminal Gangs Mostly, criminal gangs that use all means to obtain their victims and deliver them to their intended destinations run human trafficking in Europe. Most of these gangs are intertwined in many criminal activities other than human trafficking and breaking them down is the best possible way of controlling human trafficking. European countries have come up with joint efforts to fight criminal gangs that operate across borders thus forming a global network. The approach taken in this case has been through profiling of criminal gangs and their mode of operations and sharing of the same in formation with other countries (Tverdova, 2011, p.334). Criminal gangs take different operation modes while in different countries. It is therefore necessary for individual countries to bring out information on them to a central place that can piece them together. Creation of databases and information sharing services by security agencies in Africa and Europe has enabled European and African countries to crackdown and breakup trafficking organizations within their jurisdictions. Tverdova (2011) explains, â€Å"Sharing of information through such agencies like the Interpol has enabled different countries in Europe to trace down criminal gangs that are a threat to security and which are involved in human trafficking† (p. 336). It has also enabled security services to trace clinics that are in the business of organ harvesting illegally as one of the fuels for human trafficking. Although it takes some time before these networks are broken down, any form of disruption is important because for a moment it stops the trafficking networks from carrying out their activities at the detriment of victims. The Intergovernmental Approach Another way that has been employed by Europe to stem the problem of human trafficking in Africa has been through an intergovernmental approach towards this problem. Under this forum, head of governments for both European and African states come together and discuss the problem as the highest levels of governments head in their countries and from there they come up with resolutions that would soon be implemented in their respective countries (Sawadogo, 2012, p. 112). Resolutions passed by head of governments are usually precursors to the government policies that might soon come or that are already in place. In the year 2006, an Inter-ministerial conference on migration and Development that took place in Tripoli Libya came up with recommendations that governments should adopt in combating the human trafficking problem. The conference wa s one of the major breakthrough discussions concerning human trafficking and/or how bad it was for the security situation of different countries. Developing a Continuous Research and Development The best way to contain problems of human trafficking is through having an up to date information system that would enable the European countries keep tabs on the changes that happen in the world of trafficking. This goal can be achieved through institutional frameworks in terms of research and development so that all the trends that come up can be identified at the earliest time possible and trends stopped form developing further. This involves an intense intelligence-gathering network that would be on the lookout for possible emerging trends that would be analyzed and solutions for them developed. Research and development in this case would require an institute whose mandate would be to train law enforcement officers on emerging trends of human trafficking from Africa to Europe (Heath and Smith, 2012, p. 56). All matters touching on human trafficking are security matters because their origin and end violate the law. Continuous research and development is a step that will always keep the security apparatus ahead of time because it will be used to compare trends in other parts of the world before they are adopted in this part of the world. Trends tend to spread from one part of the world to the other depending on how smart they are, and putting together measures ahead of them can be a reasonable way of working towards solving a problem. In essence, security apparatus should be proactive when dealing with the issue of human traffic and security. Security for Victims Provision of security for rescued victims is a matter that still falls under the problem of human trafficking. Rescued victims are usually the best source of information because they are able to narrate their experience from which an insight to the situation can be derived. Freeing victims and letting them t ake care of themselves is sometimes a mistake because the traffickers can still track them and hurt them or simply take them back into captivity. Many of the captors usually spend a lot of money on their operations. Thus, like any other investment, they expect a return to their investments. Therefore, it is prudent to develop a victim’s protection program that would guarantee the rescued victims their safety. The security apparatus has the duty to provide security to rescued victims who in this case will be under the care of a specific European country. Onuoha (2011, p. 2011) points out how victims should be treated as victims and not as accomplices to the crime. Thus, when they are being handled, the criminal tag should not be placed on them. Victims as a source of information should be taken through counseling after being rescued from traffickers. This protection and attention should be both in the short term and the long term so that trends can be established also on the s ide of the victims. As a collective arrangement, security for victims should be across borders so that rescued victims can be taken to any safe house across Europe rather than where they have been found. Most traffickers are sophisticated criminal gangs with informers in almost all sectors of society. Therefore, keeping rescued persons in the countries where they had been held captive can easily expose them to negative repercussions. Conclusion Human trafficking is a phenomenon that has been with society for a very long time and that it may not end soon. The continuous need to supply persons to different destinations with or without their will is insatiable as the market keeps on growing day by day. The development of technology with internet coming up in the last two decades has made the world a global village where goods and services can be transacted online. Although this case is a blessing, it also qualifies as a curse that cannot be taken away. Human trafficking has taken advan tage of this technological phenomenon to up its game too and tap the use of internet. Though Europe has been working hard to stop human trafficking from Africa to its territories, the problem might never be stopped due to the ever-changing tactics that trafficker employ to beat the law. Corruption has also contributed to the escalation of this problem because security apparatus are usually compromised to allow the trade to happen. Although policy frameworks have been put in place by respective countries, laws especially the ones that touch on human rights have always been an impediment to decisive action being taken because human rights have now been made the most important by being applicable to perpetrators and victims. Reference List Elaine, P. (2002). Human Traffic, Human Rights: Redefining Victim Protection. London: Anti Slavery International. Esohe, A. (2005). Women Trafficking from West Africa to Europe. Mozaik, 1(1), 14-16. Heather, S., Smith, A. (2012). Human Trafficking a nd International Cheap Talk. The Dutch Government and the Island Territories. Journal of Human Rights, 11(1), 51-65. Lal, R. (2005, May 24). Terrorists and Organized Crime join Forces. International Herald Tribune, pp. 25-55. Onuoha, B. (2011). The State Human Trafficking and Human Rights Issues in Africa. Contemporary Justice Review, 14(2), 149-166. Sawadogo, W. (2012). The Challenge of Transnational Human Trafficking in West Africa. African Studies Quarterly, 13(1/2), 96-115. Tverdova, Y. (2011). Human Trafficking in Russia and Other Post Soviet States. Human Rights Review, 12(3), 329-344. UNODCCP. (1999). Global Program Against Trafficking in Human Beings. London: Routlege. UNODCCP. (2009). Global Program Against Trafficking in Human Beings. London: Routlege. Willimas, P. (1999). Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex: The New Slave Trade. London: Frank Class. This research paper on Human Trafficking between Africa and Europe: Security Issues was written and submitted by user Stephanie Harvey to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

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Madea, world literature volume A book - Essay Example Medea is basically the story of a woman who engages in a desperate struggle to maintain her position and survive in the Greek world that is dominated by unsympathetic men. Taking charge of life was a thing unheard of for a woman in a male dominated world which was the case with Greece at that time. But, Medea is different from the rest of women of her time because she does not find peace in bowing her head down and accepting her defeat. Rather, she moves on to using men to achieve her own ends by employing smart skills of determination and manipulation after her husband gives up on their family. Medea has a burning desire for revenge and she goes all the way through to seek it in contrast to how other women would have behaved in that time. Concluding, though it cannot be denied that Medea’s portrayal by Euripides is quite dangerous because it evokes scorn for women like Medea who act as barbarians to seek revenge, truth is that Medea was definitely a woman of exceptional intellectual

P.O.S (Points of Sales system) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

P.O.S (Points of Sales system) - Essay Example POS System Requirements The system requirements will comprise of hardware and software. These specifications will vary in terms of the terminal either client or the server. POS Software There will be several software required to ensure smooth running of the system both at the client and server terminal. The POS application which makes the entire system functional will be internally developed. This is to ensure its customization to stores requirements and functionality. It will be installed in the serve terminal. The preferred platform will be windows 7 operating system. This is because of its user friendliness and compatibility with all software designed for windows.Access database will be used, due to the size of the business, to track inventory. QuickBooks2010 accounting software will be installed this will cater for the production of accounting reports. On the other hand, client computers will be installed withmagnetic and barcode data recognition software,credit card authorizatio n software, printers software, and windows 7 operating software. Furthermore, all the terminals will be connected to the server through the Local Area Network (LAN) and the Wide Area Network (WAN). This will enhance transmission of information between the terminals. Kaspersky antivirus 2011will be installed to all the terminals to enhance system security i.e. hacking and virus associated by networking. This antivirus is automatically updated through the internet. In addition, Ultra Exit 2M software will be installed in the sever computer to track burglary in the store. The Ultra Exit 2M will be mounted on the exit points to enhance security. POS Hardware Computers The retail store will have twelve client computersof Intel Core 2 duo, with 1 GB RAM, 1.5 GHz processor speed and a HDD of 80 GB. They will be the main primary sales transaction keying points and will be password controlled for individual clerks. The main data input will be digital, magnetic data and manually keyed data. O utput from the terminals will be generally sales receipts and terminal sales report. The server computer will serve as control and backup purposes to the terminal points. It will be anIntel Core i3; with 4 GB RAM, 3GHz processor speed and a HDD of 1TB.The outputs will involve sales reports, accounting reports such as inventory level analysis. Cash Drawer and Printer There will be receipt driven Dot matrixprinters with a tear bar and a locking cash drawer with plastic inserts which separates notes from coins at every client computer. The printers will serve to receive sales receipt data input from respective computers and output a hardcopy of sales receipt. Finally, as a control measure upon printing the receipt the cash drawer will open. Portable Bar code Scanner and Magnetic stripe reader These devices will be at every clerk desk to facilitate fast and accurate data input, and efficient customer service. Magnetic stripe will facilitate input of magnetic data from customer’sc redit cards to the POS system.Products within the store will have a unique bar code strip for easier identification. Therefore, bar code scanner will assist to match products with their bar codes and input their prices to the system. Wireless Payment System This will be meant to make payment by customers more effective, as they will

Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users

Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION What is an Office? Offices are workspaces designed for regular use to achieve personal, group or organizational goals through the accomplishment of tasks. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) go on to state that these tasks can be grouped into cognitive, physical, social or procedural tasks. The office provides a location for contact and could also be a repository for tools, information and other resources required to meet business objectives. It is also a business resource, this a point most people fail to understand thus, the failure to properly design and evaluate work spaces. The work place or office is one of the places the modern man spends the bulk of his waking hours. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) say almost half of ones waking hours are spent in and around the office. This would provide explanation for research efforts into the design and utilization of offices. According to Myerson and Ross (2003) the office grew out of the factory and then followed the trend of bureaucratization of industry. Thus, offices have been viewed differently by users and companies. Some view it as an address, others as a necessary evil but to others it is considered to be an asset. Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) noted that the design of an office was mostly considered as a cost and done to support quiet work and also show peoples status. While the purpose of the â€Å"New office† is to be that of attracting and retaining staff as well as to revolutionalize corporate culture. Work places or offices have been described variously as; conventional, traditional, and closed or open plan offices. Some, group them as large or small, landscaped etc. (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). The general descriptions of workspaces fall under the categories of open plan and cellular offices and this is based on the architectural and functional features of the work spaces (Duffy, Laing and Crisp, 1992). Other descriptions and categorization of offices include the hive; which is suited to individual processes. The den; suited to group processes. The cell; designed for concentrated study while the club supports transactional knowledge (Sailer, Budgen, Lonsdale, Turner and Penn, 2009). There are other descriptions of office types for example, Myerson and Ross (2003) from an architectural point of view, showed that views of property and space as related to the office environment have been evolving and as such, they identify four thematic categories of offices namely: narrative which presents the â€Å"office as a brand experience.† Nodal where the â€Å"office as knowledge connector.† The neighborly theme sees the â€Å"office as a social landscape† and lastly nomadic â€Å"office as distributed work space† these grouping reflect more of necessity and corporate culture not necessarily a collection of generally practically replicable models. In another categorization of offices by Myerson and Ross (2006) is based on the fact that the offices evolved to suit knowledge workers, as such, the categories match each of the four â€Å"realms† of knowledge work namely: the academy â€Å"is likened to the corporate realm which is a more collegiate and collaborative approach to work†, guild â€Å"the professional realm in essence a professional cluster of peers sharing a skill or specialization†, agora â€Å"the public realm where the corporation is open to the city or the market place† and the lodge â€Å" the domestic or private realm more of the live and work setting†. In the general scheme of things offices are still broadly classified into open plan and private or cellular offices all other forms are variations of the two. Cellular Offices Also called closed offices, this type of offices are the traditional or conventional offices which are usually closed and private workspaces (Maher and von Hippel, 2005) i.e. they are designed with floor to ceiling walls, a door and dimensioned for a single user. This type of office is also called a cell-office and can be a shared room office, used by 2-3 persons (Danielsson, 2008). This has been the generally accepted, traditional or popular understanding of the place called an office. Open Plan Offices These are found to be a common workspace shared by a group of employees. The original concept of the open plan office has continued to evolve, but it is the absence of floor-to-ceiling walls that is said to be the primary characteristic of open-plan offices. The arrangements of office furniture, partitions, screens, office equipment, or plants mark out individual and functional work areas (Valesny and Farace, 1987). One of the strengths of the open plan office according to Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) is the openness and flexibility allowing one to move to where things are happening and allowing for â€Å"overhearing and over-seeing† (p. 207) thus enhancing peripheral participation. Other types of the open plan office include the bull pen office, action offices, landscaped offices (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). In the bull pen offices, the work desks are arranged in neat row as far as the eyes can see. In reality, most firms have a mix of office typologies ranging from cellular units designed for a single user to a small room office shared by a few people then the spaces shared with a large group with or without specifically assigned work places and with varying measures of visual and audio privacy. Recent Developments in Open Plan Offices It is safe to argue that, the open plan office has become increasingly popular (de Korte, Kuijt-Evers and Vink, 2007; Ding, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pejtersen, Allermann, Kristensen and Poulsen, 2006 etc.) and several reasons could be advanced to explain the widespread adoption and use of the open plan offices and its variations. There is also a move to wards a reduction in open plan office workspaces especially in the United States of America due to the understanding that smaller workstations are cheaper to maintain (Dykes, 2011) this according to Veitch, Charles, Farley and Newsham (2007) is because there is a failure in understanding the full value of the physical office environment and related issues in open plan offices in particular. Advantages of open plan offices Searches through literature (Danielsson, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pan and Micheal, 2007; Roper and Juneja, 2008; Valesny and Farace, 1987 etc.) present the following as reasons for the adoption of open plan offices. They include; Reduction in office space and cost decline: The price of real estate is predicated on the area rented and utilized. With organizations using rental spaces, it is cheaper to use the rented floor or floors as open plan offices. In most cases, the cost of partitioning is saved if an open plan set up is deployed fully or partly. Flexibility for organizational changes: The open plan office lends itself to easy restructuring of work areas. In most cases, it is easier to fit in one more members of staff (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). More efficient work flow and communication: Some jobs require continuous team work, face to face interaction and a relatively high level of routine procedures. For such work groups, the open plan office or variations thereof are usually recommended and deployed. The enhancement of some level of peripheral participation is one of the strengths of the open plan office. Possible enhancement of social facilitation: The enhancement of collaboration i.e. the fostering of a team spirit, where, work teams or task forces are close to one another and can quickly form a huddle to sort out problems without resorting to information technology provisions like the intercom, emails, phones, video conferencing or even the walk up to another office. Oldham and Brass, (1979) specifically examined interpersonal issues that included; intradepartmental and interdepartmental interaction, friendship opportunities, noting that supervisor and co worker feed back could be improved. Ease of supervision: There is an ease of supervision, in that, a look over the landscape of the office can give an idea as to who is present and what each member of staff is doing. Limitations of open plan offices. Regarding the limitations of open-plan office designs, Maher and von Hippel (2005) rightly point out the fact that in open plan office layouts â€Å"distractions and overstimulation are intrinsically linked to the design.† These issues have consistently been themain down sides of open plan offices and some of them include: Increased workplace noise (Pan and Michael, 2007). Increased disturbances and distractions. Increased feelings of crowding and loss of privacy. There is a reduction in autonomy and task identity and a reduction in supervisor and co worker feedback in certain cases (Oldham and Brass, 1979). One point of agreement in open plan office research is that there is a generally low level of perceived privacy in open plan offices, as interruptions and distractions of the visual and acoustic kind occur frequently in open plan offices. (Pejtersen et al. 2006; Roper and Juneja, 2008) Furthermore, researchers have observed that these negative outcomes resulting from the adoption of the open plan office design tends to result in dissatisfaction with work and the workplace thus, reducing functional efficiency, decreasing performance, especially, for non routine tasks and also, reduced feedback from supervisors due to some complexity with the freedom of communication (de Korte et al. 2007; Pejtersen et al. 2006; Sundstrom et al. 1982; Vischer, 2007 ). This understanding has led some organizations to begin returning to the traditional private offices i.e. with floor to ceiling partitions assigned to an individual (Roper and Juneja 2008). Evolving nature of office work Also worthy of note, is the evolution of work patterns. An increasingly large number of persons work mainly at or from home and visit the office sparingly. This has given rise to the several types of offices one of which is the flex-office, which is dimensioned for less than 70% of the total company staff to be in at the same time. Another design is the combi-office; where a member of staff is not assigned to a specific desk but sharing of common facilities provides the spatial definition of such an individuals work space i.e. the task and personnel at hand may determine the sitting arrangement of persons in the office (Danielsson, 2008). Thesis Overview The thesis is organized in to 5 chapters; Chapter one provides an introduction the concept of an office, its major types and variations. It then focuses on the open plan office and then highlights the strengths and limitations of the open plan office. Chapter two provides a literature review of the concept of privacy perception; it reviews the perceived benefits of privacy and then traces the expectation that privacy perception could be influenced by culture. Significant studies related to dissatisfaction with open plan offices are examined for possible links to culture. The discussion then moves to culture, its definition and then the attempts made in the classification of culture. The Hofstede paradigm is then discussed and some studies employing the paradigm are reviewed. The research motivation and hypotheses are presented. Chapter three discusses the methodology of the study, the survey method, issues noted and the challenge expected. The source and design of the questionnaire was presented and the analysis methods proposed. The statistical analysis tool was briefly introduced. Chapter four shows the procedure of the survey, documents the responses received, analyzed the data collected from the general information part of the questionnaire and then chronicles the statistical analysis of the second part of the questionnaire designed to elicit privacy perception in open plan office environments. Chapter five provides a discussion of the results obtained in chapter five and then presents the limitations of the current study while providing directions for further work. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This part of the thesis discusses the links between privacy perceptions and culture. It also includes definitions and explanations of some related terms. Lastly, it includes a presentation of some ideas relevant to the work and results of related studies. The chapter concludes with the research question, research hypothesis and the motivation for the study. Privacy Perception In order to facilitate a better understanding, the term â€Å"privacy† is defined firstly then the concept called â€Å"perception. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2011), privacy is said to be â€Å"the quality or state of being apart from company or observation†. Wikipedia defines perception as â€Å"the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.† It goes on to say â€Å"what one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one’s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived.† Privacy is a very difficult concept or construct to define not to talk of evaluating, it has commanded interest from the fields of anthropology, architecture, cultural geography, environmental design, ethology, history, law, philosophy, and sociology, as well as branches psychology such as; clinical, counseling, developmental, educational, environmental and social psychology (Newell, 1995; 1998). Newell (1995) in her extensive review of the concept of privacy divided the perspectives of privacy into, people centered, place centered and the person-environment or the person-place interaction with the primary interest on the place, people or equally on the person and place and or with the interaction itself. Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001 p. 664) in another review of literature on privacy noted that perspectives applied to the analysis of the concepts of privacy to be: The units experiencing privacy. They go on to note â€Å"the unit experiencing privacy can be either an individual or a group, or both.† Desired – Achieved privacy. This is explained by the understanding that the concept of privacy is either seen as a subjective state or studied as an achieved state (Newell, 1998). Reactive – Proactive privacy. This is to say the control of communication and also the control of knowledge. Furthermore, they describe the dimensions of privacy to include: physical, psychological, social and informational thus, suggesting privacy dimensions to be made up of four quadrants of the diagram as shown in figure 2.1 below.. Source: Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001) It would be seen that in an open plan office all the dimensions of privacy as enumerated Figure 2.1 above are impinged upon; First, physical accessibility to the person is unrestricted. Secondly, the cognitive intrusions abound due to audio and visual distractions. Thirdly, it is more difficult to control social contacts for example, the choice of participants for interaction, the interaction frequency, length and content of the said interaction. Then finally, the ease with which certain private pieces of information about the person is easily accessible is a problem in open plan offices, after all, most open plan offices do not have a single route of access or a door to the work space. So, it is difficult to mark and protect ones territory and as such protect some form of private information from would be trespassers (Anjum, Paul and Ashcroft, 2004). In the light of these perspectives, one of the definitions of privacy suggested is that â€Å"privacy is a voluntary and temporary condition of separation from the public domain† (Newell, 1998, p. 357). Oldham, Kulick and Stepina (1991) highlighted the fact that individuals reacted negatively to environments characterized by few enclosures, closeness and high density because such environments exposed individuals to too many unwanted or uncontrolled intrusions. It is also agreed that, the perception of the work environment leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the work and the work environment. Fischer, Tarquinio and Vischer (2004, p.132 ) posit that the there are three major categories of mediating influences on workplace satisfaction and these are, â€Å"individual differences like culture, age, professional or status, organizational context and environmental features.† All these issues could be further grouped into two; internal and external factors as relates to the individual. These two descriptions could be mapped to the two ingredients required for a need for privacy to exist i.e. a person or persons and a place. Sanders and McCormick (2002, p. 485) also point out that apart from the physical features of the built environment, â€Å"people are influenced by nonphysical features like social, cultural, technological, economic and political factors characteristic of the environment.† External Factors These are the place factors, usually described as the environmental or design issues which can lead to noise distractions, visual distractions, interruptions, crowding and accessibility issues (Ding, S. 2008). Due to the absence of internal walls, the low height of walls or partitions in open plan offices influences privacy; the more enclosures, the lower the people per given space and the higher the partitions, the higher the privacy perceived (Danielsson 2008; Oldham, G. R et al. 1991; Sundstrom, Herbert and Brown, 1982 etc.). Organizational context is also considered to be an external factor. This involves the type of industry involved by the organization. For example doctors consulting rooms should provide more audio privacy compared to an architectural firms offices or design studios. Internal Factors This grouping is based on the person factors or what goes on within the person, the suggestion that individual differences related to but not restricted to personality traits, gender, individual experience etc. affect ones perception of, and hence the evaluation of the work environment (external or place factors). Some studies have found that variations exist across gender in perception of privacy in the open plan office (Yildirim, Akalin-Baskaya and Celebi, 2007). Also, in a different cross cultural study of privacy, Newell (1998) found that privacy was more a condition of the person thus, the duration of the experience and the change on the person as a result of the experience leads to its suspected therapeutic effect. In general perceptions and attitudes to privacy, she found that gender also played a part especially within cultures. Maher and von Hippel (2005) and others before them showed that individual differences in the ability to handle overstimulation by the application stimulus screening and inhibitory abilities influenced the perceptions of the work environment. These inhibitory skills are cognitive in nature and such inhibitory skills are found to vary between individuals and even especially across cultures. For example, Hall (1966) points out that the Japanese are said to be content with paper walls as acoustic screens while the Dutch and Germans require thick walls and double doors to serve as acoustic screens. Benefits of Privacy in the work Environment Newell (1998, p. 359) relates the need for privacy to help in â€Å"maintaining healthy internal physiological and cognitive functioning subjectively described as ‘wellbeing’†. The study concluded that achieving the perceived privacy had some therapeutic effects. On the area of performance, especially for knowledge workers like engineers, accountants, software designers, decision makers etc., auditory and visual distraction have been found to be a cause of stress and even performance impairment (Roper and Juneja, 2008). Furthermore, Oommen, Knowles and Zhao (2008) point to the likelihood of aggression and increased instances of eye, nose and throat irritations while working in open plan environments. This in turn affects productivity. Culture Culture is said to be the way of life of a group of people. This, among other things covers their beliefs, values, norms and rituals. Specifically, Hofstede (2009 p. 1) points out that â€Å"culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from the others and it manifests itself in the form of symbols, heroes, rituals and values.† Earlier, an American anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his books, talked about language and especially modes of communication as a point of differentiating cultures (Hall E.T 1966; 1976). He even considered language to be the core of culture while, Geert Hofstede considers language as a part of the rituals of a particular culture (Hofstede, 2010). This goes to point out some of the existing disagreements about what culture is and even how it comes about. Culture is thus, studied as a means of understanding or shedding light into the behavior or reactions of individuals or people groups. Edward Hall in his book; the hidden dimension writes that â€Å"people from different cultures inhabit different sensory worlds, so that experience, as it is perceived through one set of culturally patterned sensory screens is quite different from experience perceived through another.† (1966, p. 2). This highlights and explains the link between culture and perception generally and in spatial terms especially. Classifying Cultures There have been several descriptions and models of culture (Matsumoto and Yoo, 2006; Hall, 1966; 1970), for example, Hall (1966) alludes to contact and non-contact groups or cultures in relation to spatial meanings and preferences within people groups . This is related to the social dimension of privacy (Leino-Kilpi et al. 2001), but he especially specifies high and low context cultures according to their ways of communicating. For the high context (HC) culture or communication for that matter, much of the information is implicit while, in the low context (LC) culture, nearly everything is explicit. He also wrote about the concept of time among cultures (Hall, 1976). Where there are polychronic (P-time) and monochronic (M-Time) cultures; the M-time society or culture would prefer to do only one thing at a time when serious i.e. for such persons, time is linear and segmented with each activity scheduled while, the individuals in a P-time culture can juggle several activities, they emphasize the involvement of people and the completion of tasks rather than schedules. Edward T. Hall coined the term â€Å"Proxemics† which he describes as â€Å"interrelated observations and theories of mans use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture† Hall (1966 p. 1). In explaining his observations in proxemic behavior (Hall, 1963 p. 1003) he notes that â€Å"what is close to an American may be distant to an Arab.† Many other researchers and individuals apart from Edward Hall had worked on other frameworks and dimensions of culture. Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006) lists some of these frameworks which are interestingly identified by the names of the researchers that discovered them and this list which is not exhaustive, includes; Hofstedes (1980) with subsequent revisions and dimensions added; Schwartz (2004) who presented seven universal value orientations, Smith, Dugan and Trompenaars (1996) had two universal value orientations; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman and Gupta (2003) came up with nine value orientations related to leadership; Inglehart (1997) had two attitude-belief-value orientations, Bond et al. (2004) is said to have reported two social axioms. All cited in Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006 p. 239). The listing above does not mention each of the dimensions. The dimensions of each framework listed are found in Table 2.1 below. Table 2.1 Six Theoretical Frameworks for Universal Dimensions of Cultural Variability Framework Dimensions Hofstede’s (2001) dimensions of  work-related values Individualism vs. collectivism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity vs. femininity Long- vs. short-term orientation Schwartz’s (2004) dimensions of  values Embeddedness Hierarchy Intellectual autonomy Affective autonomy Egalitarianism Mastery Harmony Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars’s  (1996) dimensions of values Egalitarian commitment vs. conservatism Utilitarian involvement vs. loyal involvement House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, and  Gupta’s (2003) dimensions of  leadership values Performance orientation Assertiveness orientation Future orientation Human orientation Institutional collectivism Family collectivism Gender egalitarianism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Inglehart’s (1997) dimensions of  attitudes, values, and beliefs Traditional vs. secular-rational orientation Survival vs. self-expression values Bond et al.’s (2004) dimensions  of social axioms (beliefs) Dynamic externality Societal cynicism Source: (Matsumoto, D and Yoo, S. H, 2006 p. 240) National versus Organizational culture As a society has a culture, so do organizations and such organizations employ staff who come from a particular culture(s). The organizations then require these individuals to work in offices. Apart from the culture description related to national boundaries, there is a culture that seems to characterize workplaces or organizations and this is called organizational or corporate culture. Barney (1986) notes that like culture itself, organizational culture has many competing definitions and then goes on to suggest that a generally acceptable definition of organizational culture to be â€Å"as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions, and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business.† (p. 657). He goes on to point the pervasive nature of organizational culture in that, it helps to define the relationship of the firm to parties it comes in contact with through its business. This simply shows that culture within the work place especially geared towards profitability or the conferment of advantages could be termed organizational or corporate culture. Generally it will be assumed that the national culture will also play a part. Guidroz, Kotrba, and Denison (2009) from results of a study of multinational companies, claim that their study seems to point to organizational culture superseding national culture in diversity management practices. The issue in question in this thesis is not exactly a management matter but the individual perception of privacy in the open plan office environments and would suggest that both national and organizational cultures playing a part because according to (Brand, 2009) the design of the workspace or workplace communicates the corporate culture of the organization meaning, the adoption of the open plan environment can be tied to the organizations corporate culture. Hofstedes’ Cultural Dimensions This is a hugely popular cross-cultural model (Gerhart and Fang, 2005; Hofstede et al, 2010; Sivakumar, Nakata, 2001) currently in use, with its roots in industrial psychology (Meeuwesen, van den Brink-Muinen and Hofstede, 2009) is called the Hofstedes model of culture named after Geert Hofstede a Dutch emeritus Professor of organizational anthropology and international management in the Netherlands. Hofstedes work highlighted the fact that culture is manifested through symbols, heroes, rituals and values. But, Hofstede argues that values form the core of culture as represented by the Hofstede culture â€Å"Onion† in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.2 shows the onion structure graphically illustrating the manifestation of culture at different levels and even the interactions therein. As seen from Figure 2.2 above symbols, heroes and rituals are by themselves visible to all observers. It is the cultural meanings of the practices that are open to interpretation by the observer while, values are unseen or embedded within the person but they still subtly determine choices and much more (Hofstede et al., 2010). Hofstedes research studied value survey responses of similar respondents from different countries as to their approach, as related to four basic problems prevalent in most societies (Meeuwesen et. al, 2009) these included; Handling social inequalities in the society. The approach to dealing with uncertainty in general. The structure of the relationship between an individual and the group. The emotional role division between the male and females in a society. The initial data for Hofstedes culture study came about through an analysis of International Business Machine Company (IBM) staff surveys at a time, the company was called Hermes. He utilized the responses from routine staff surveys about values and related matters to provide ratings for countries on each of what he then called the four dimensions of culture. This was achieved by examining correlations between mean scores of questionnaire items at the level of countries. Other approaches, like analysis at the individual level did not provide much useful information (Hofstede, 2009). Later, certain studies showed the need for another dimension and this lead to the inclusion of a fifth dimension called, long term orientation. Each dimension of culture score for a country is calculated using a scale of roughly 0 to 100 for each dimension. A dimension of culture is an aspect of culture that can be measured relative to other cultures (Hofstede, 2009 p. 6) and the higher the score of a dimension, the more that dimension is exhibited in the society or nation in question while for lower scores the opposite pole of the dimension is more pronounced. Thus, the scores are therefore bipolar (Jones, 2007) In a 2010 book, Greet Hofstede, his son Gert Jan Hofstede and a research collaborator Micheal Minkov reviewed earlier works, alongside their recent studies and added a sixth dimension called indulgence versus restraint (IVR) to the previously known Hofstedes five dimensions of culture. The sixth dimension was largely as a result of the work of Micheal Minkov (Hofstede et al., 2010). The six dimensions of Hofstedes cultural model now include power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), masculinity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long term orientation (LTO), and the recently added indulgence (IVR). Power distance (PDI). This indicates the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among the persons with and without power i.e. the leadership versus the followership respectively as normal and legitimate in any given society. If the power distance scores are high, it indicates a pyramidal or hierarchical system where the power is resident at the top while, lower scores indicate greater equality suggesting power is shared and spread within the group. Individualism (IDV). This is related to the se Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users Analysis of Privacy Perception Among Open Plan Office Users CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION What is an Office? Offices are workspaces designed for regular use to achieve personal, group or organizational goals through the accomplishment of tasks. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) go on to state that these tasks can be grouped into cognitive, physical, social or procedural tasks. The office provides a location for contact and could also be a repository for tools, information and other resources required to meet business objectives. It is also a business resource, this a point most people fail to understand thus, the failure to properly design and evaluate work spaces. The work place or office is one of the places the modern man spends the bulk of his waking hours. Sanders and McCormick, (2002) say almost half of ones waking hours are spent in and around the office. This would provide explanation for research efforts into the design and utilization of offices. According to Myerson and Ross (2003) the office grew out of the factory and then followed the trend of bureaucratization of industry. Thus, offices have been viewed differently by users and companies. Some view it as an address, others as a necessary evil but to others it is considered to be an asset. Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) noted that the design of an office was mostly considered as a cost and done to support quiet work and also show peoples status. While the purpose of the â€Å"New office† is to be that of attracting and retaining staff as well as to revolutionalize corporate culture. Work places or offices have been described variously as; conventional, traditional, and closed or open plan offices. Some, group them as large or small, landscaped etc. (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). The general descriptions of workspaces fall under the categories of open plan and cellular offices and this is based on the architectural and functional features of the work spaces (Duffy, Laing and Crisp, 1992). Other descriptions and categorization of offices include the hive; which is suited to individual processes. The den; suited to group processes. The cell; designed for concentrated study while the club supports transactional knowledge (Sailer, Budgen, Lonsdale, Turner and Penn, 2009). There are other descriptions of office types for example, Myerson and Ross (2003) from an architectural point of view, showed that views of property and space as related to the office environment have been evolving and as such, they identify four thematic categories of offices namely: narrative which presents the â€Å"office as a brand experience.† Nodal where the â€Å"office as knowledge connector.† The neighborly theme sees the â€Å"office as a social landscape† and lastly nomadic â€Å"office as distributed work space† these grouping reflect more of necessity and corporate culture not necessarily a collection of generally practically replicable models. In another categorization of offices by Myerson and Ross (2006) is based on the fact that the offices evolved to suit knowledge workers, as such, the categories match each of the four â€Å"realms† of knowledge work namely: the academy â€Å"is likened to the corporate realm which is a more collegiate and collaborative approach to work†, guild â€Å"the professional realm in essence a professional cluster of peers sharing a skill or specialization†, agora â€Å"the public realm where the corporation is open to the city or the market place† and the lodge â€Å" the domestic or private realm more of the live and work setting†. In the general scheme of things offices are still broadly classified into open plan and private or cellular offices all other forms are variations of the two. Cellular Offices Also called closed offices, this type of offices are the traditional or conventional offices which are usually closed and private workspaces (Maher and von Hippel, 2005) i.e. they are designed with floor to ceiling walls, a door and dimensioned for a single user. This type of office is also called a cell-office and can be a shared room office, used by 2-3 persons (Danielsson, 2008). This has been the generally accepted, traditional or popular understanding of the place called an office. Open Plan Offices These are found to be a common workspace shared by a group of employees. The original concept of the open plan office has continued to evolve, but it is the absence of floor-to-ceiling walls that is said to be the primary characteristic of open-plan offices. The arrangements of office furniture, partitions, screens, office equipment, or plants mark out individual and functional work areas (Valesny and Farace, 1987). One of the strengths of the open plan office according to Bjerrum and Bà ¸dker (2003) is the openness and flexibility allowing one to move to where things are happening and allowing for â€Å"overhearing and over-seeing† (p. 207) thus enhancing peripheral participation. Other types of the open plan office include the bull pen office, action offices, landscaped offices (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). In the bull pen offices, the work desks are arranged in neat row as far as the eyes can see. In reality, most firms have a mix of office typologies ranging from cellular units designed for a single user to a small room office shared by a few people then the spaces shared with a large group with or without specifically assigned work places and with varying measures of visual and audio privacy. Recent Developments in Open Plan Offices It is safe to argue that, the open plan office has become increasingly popular (de Korte, Kuijt-Evers and Vink, 2007; Ding, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pejtersen, Allermann, Kristensen and Poulsen, 2006 etc.) and several reasons could be advanced to explain the widespread adoption and use of the open plan offices and its variations. There is also a move to wards a reduction in open plan office workspaces especially in the United States of America due to the understanding that smaller workstations are cheaper to maintain (Dykes, 2011) this according to Veitch, Charles, Farley and Newsham (2007) is because there is a failure in understanding the full value of the physical office environment and related issues in open plan offices in particular. Advantages of open plan offices Searches through literature (Danielsson, 2008; Oldham and Brass, 1979; Pan and Micheal, 2007; Roper and Juneja, 2008; Valesny and Farace, 1987 etc.) present the following as reasons for the adoption of open plan offices. They include; Reduction in office space and cost decline: The price of real estate is predicated on the area rented and utilized. With organizations using rental spaces, it is cheaper to use the rented floor or floors as open plan offices. In most cases, the cost of partitioning is saved if an open plan set up is deployed fully or partly. Flexibility for organizational changes: The open plan office lends itself to easy restructuring of work areas. In most cases, it is easier to fit in one more members of staff (Sanders and McCormick, 2002). More efficient work flow and communication: Some jobs require continuous team work, face to face interaction and a relatively high level of routine procedures. For such work groups, the open plan office or variations thereof are usually recommended and deployed. The enhancement of some level of peripheral participation is one of the strengths of the open plan office. Possible enhancement of social facilitation: The enhancement of collaboration i.e. the fostering of a team spirit, where, work teams or task forces are close to one another and can quickly form a huddle to sort out problems without resorting to information technology provisions like the intercom, emails, phones, video conferencing or even the walk up to another office. Oldham and Brass, (1979) specifically examined interpersonal issues that included; intradepartmental and interdepartmental interaction, friendship opportunities, noting that supervisor and co worker feed back could be improved. Ease of supervision: There is an ease of supervision, in that, a look over the landscape of the office can give an idea as to who is present and what each member of staff is doing. Limitations of open plan offices. Regarding the limitations of open-plan office designs, Maher and von Hippel (2005) rightly point out the fact that in open plan office layouts â€Å"distractions and overstimulation are intrinsically linked to the design.† These issues have consistently been themain down sides of open plan offices and some of them include: Increased workplace noise (Pan and Michael, 2007). Increased disturbances and distractions. Increased feelings of crowding and loss of privacy. There is a reduction in autonomy and task identity and a reduction in supervisor and co worker feedback in certain cases (Oldham and Brass, 1979). One point of agreement in open plan office research is that there is a generally low level of perceived privacy in open plan offices, as interruptions and distractions of the visual and acoustic kind occur frequently in open plan offices. (Pejtersen et al. 2006; Roper and Juneja, 2008) Furthermore, researchers have observed that these negative outcomes resulting from the adoption of the open plan office design tends to result in dissatisfaction with work and the workplace thus, reducing functional efficiency, decreasing performance, especially, for non routine tasks and also, reduced feedback from supervisors due to some complexity with the freedom of communication (de Korte et al. 2007; Pejtersen et al. 2006; Sundstrom et al. 1982; Vischer, 2007 ). This understanding has led some organizations to begin returning to the traditional private offices i.e. with floor to ceiling partitions assigned to an individual (Roper and Juneja 2008). Evolving nature of office work Also worthy of note, is the evolution of work patterns. An increasingly large number of persons work mainly at or from home and visit the office sparingly. This has given rise to the several types of offices one of which is the flex-office, which is dimensioned for less than 70% of the total company staff to be in at the same time. Another design is the combi-office; where a member of staff is not assigned to a specific desk but sharing of common facilities provides the spatial definition of such an individuals work space i.e. the task and personnel at hand may determine the sitting arrangement of persons in the office (Danielsson, 2008). Thesis Overview The thesis is organized in to 5 chapters; Chapter one provides an introduction the concept of an office, its major types and variations. It then focuses on the open plan office and then highlights the strengths and limitations of the open plan office. Chapter two provides a literature review of the concept of privacy perception; it reviews the perceived benefits of privacy and then traces the expectation that privacy perception could be influenced by culture. Significant studies related to dissatisfaction with open plan offices are examined for possible links to culture. The discussion then moves to culture, its definition and then the attempts made in the classification of culture. The Hofstede paradigm is then discussed and some studies employing the paradigm are reviewed. The research motivation and hypotheses are presented. Chapter three discusses the methodology of the study, the survey method, issues noted and the challenge expected. The source and design of the questionnaire was presented and the analysis methods proposed. The statistical analysis tool was briefly introduced. Chapter four shows the procedure of the survey, documents the responses received, analyzed the data collected from the general information part of the questionnaire and then chronicles the statistical analysis of the second part of the questionnaire designed to elicit privacy perception in open plan office environments. Chapter five provides a discussion of the results obtained in chapter five and then presents the limitations of the current study while providing directions for further work. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This part of the thesis discusses the links between privacy perceptions and culture. It also includes definitions and explanations of some related terms. Lastly, it includes a presentation of some ideas relevant to the work and results of related studies. The chapter concludes with the research question, research hypothesis and the motivation for the study. Privacy Perception In order to facilitate a better understanding, the term â€Å"privacy† is defined firstly then the concept called â€Å"perception. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2011), privacy is said to be â€Å"the quality or state of being apart from company or observation†. Wikipedia defines perception as â€Å"the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.† It goes on to say â€Å"what one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one’s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived.† Privacy is a very difficult concept or construct to define not to talk of evaluating, it has commanded interest from the fields of anthropology, architecture, cultural geography, environmental design, ethology, history, law, philosophy, and sociology, as well as branches psychology such as; clinical, counseling, developmental, educational, environmental and social psychology (Newell, 1995; 1998). Newell (1995) in her extensive review of the concept of privacy divided the perspectives of privacy into, people centered, place centered and the person-environment or the person-place interaction with the primary interest on the place, people or equally on the person and place and or with the interaction itself. Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001 p. 664) in another review of literature on privacy noted that perspectives applied to the analysis of the concepts of privacy to be: The units experiencing privacy. They go on to note â€Å"the unit experiencing privacy can be either an individual or a group, or both.† Desired – Achieved privacy. This is explained by the understanding that the concept of privacy is either seen as a subjective state or studied as an achieved state (Newell, 1998). Reactive – Proactive privacy. This is to say the control of communication and also the control of knowledge. Furthermore, they describe the dimensions of privacy to include: physical, psychological, social and informational thus, suggesting privacy dimensions to be made up of four quadrants of the diagram as shown in figure 2.1 below.. Source: Leino-Kilpi et al. (2001) It would be seen that in an open plan office all the dimensions of privacy as enumerated Figure 2.1 above are impinged upon; First, physical accessibility to the person is unrestricted. Secondly, the cognitive intrusions abound due to audio and visual distractions. Thirdly, it is more difficult to control social contacts for example, the choice of participants for interaction, the interaction frequency, length and content of the said interaction. Then finally, the ease with which certain private pieces of information about the person is easily accessible is a problem in open plan offices, after all, most open plan offices do not have a single route of access or a door to the work space. So, it is difficult to mark and protect ones territory and as such protect some form of private information from would be trespassers (Anjum, Paul and Ashcroft, 2004). In the light of these perspectives, one of the definitions of privacy suggested is that â€Å"privacy is a voluntary and temporary condition of separation from the public domain† (Newell, 1998, p. 357). Oldham, Kulick and Stepina (1991) highlighted the fact that individuals reacted negatively to environments characterized by few enclosures, closeness and high density because such environments exposed individuals to too many unwanted or uncontrolled intrusions. It is also agreed that, the perception of the work environment leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the work and the work environment. Fischer, Tarquinio and Vischer (2004, p.132 ) posit that the there are three major categories of mediating influences on workplace satisfaction and these are, â€Å"individual differences like culture, age, professional or status, organizational context and environmental features.† All these issues could be further grouped into two; internal and external factors as relates to the individual. These two descriptions could be mapped to the two ingredients required for a need for privacy to exist i.e. a person or persons and a place. Sanders and McCormick (2002, p. 485) also point out that apart from the physical features of the built environment, â€Å"people are influenced by nonphysical features like social, cultural, technological, economic and political factors characteristic of the environment.† External Factors These are the place factors, usually described as the environmental or design issues which can lead to noise distractions, visual distractions, interruptions, crowding and accessibility issues (Ding, S. 2008). Due to the absence of internal walls, the low height of walls or partitions in open plan offices influences privacy; the more enclosures, the lower the people per given space and the higher the partitions, the higher the privacy perceived (Danielsson 2008; Oldham, G. R et al. 1991; Sundstrom, Herbert and Brown, 1982 etc.). Organizational context is also considered to be an external factor. This involves the type of industry involved by the organization. For example doctors consulting rooms should provide more audio privacy compared to an architectural firms offices or design studios. Internal Factors This grouping is based on the person factors or what goes on within the person, the suggestion that individual differences related to but not restricted to personality traits, gender, individual experience etc. affect ones perception of, and hence the evaluation of the work environment (external or place factors). Some studies have found that variations exist across gender in perception of privacy in the open plan office (Yildirim, Akalin-Baskaya and Celebi, 2007). Also, in a different cross cultural study of privacy, Newell (1998) found that privacy was more a condition of the person thus, the duration of the experience and the change on the person as a result of the experience leads to its suspected therapeutic effect. In general perceptions and attitudes to privacy, she found that gender also played a part especially within cultures. Maher and von Hippel (2005) and others before them showed that individual differences in the ability to handle overstimulation by the application stimulus screening and inhibitory abilities influenced the perceptions of the work environment. These inhibitory skills are cognitive in nature and such inhibitory skills are found to vary between individuals and even especially across cultures. For example, Hall (1966) points out that the Japanese are said to be content with paper walls as acoustic screens while the Dutch and Germans require thick walls and double doors to serve as acoustic screens. Benefits of Privacy in the work Environment Newell (1998, p. 359) relates the need for privacy to help in â€Å"maintaining healthy internal physiological and cognitive functioning subjectively described as ‘wellbeing’†. The study concluded that achieving the perceived privacy had some therapeutic effects. On the area of performance, especially for knowledge workers like engineers, accountants, software designers, decision makers etc., auditory and visual distraction have been found to be a cause of stress and even performance impairment (Roper and Juneja, 2008). Furthermore, Oommen, Knowles and Zhao (2008) point to the likelihood of aggression and increased instances of eye, nose and throat irritations while working in open plan environments. This in turn affects productivity. Culture Culture is said to be the way of life of a group of people. This, among other things covers their beliefs, values, norms and rituals. Specifically, Hofstede (2009 p. 1) points out that â€Å"culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from the others and it manifests itself in the form of symbols, heroes, rituals and values.† Earlier, an American anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his books, talked about language and especially modes of communication as a point of differentiating cultures (Hall E.T 1966; 1976). He even considered language to be the core of culture while, Geert Hofstede considers language as a part of the rituals of a particular culture (Hofstede, 2010). This goes to point out some of the existing disagreements about what culture is and even how it comes about. Culture is thus, studied as a means of understanding or shedding light into the behavior or reactions of individuals or people groups. Edward Hall in his book; the hidden dimension writes that â€Å"people from different cultures inhabit different sensory worlds, so that experience, as it is perceived through one set of culturally patterned sensory screens is quite different from experience perceived through another.† (1966, p. 2). This highlights and explains the link between culture and perception generally and in spatial terms especially. Classifying Cultures There have been several descriptions and models of culture (Matsumoto and Yoo, 2006; Hall, 1966; 1970), for example, Hall (1966) alludes to contact and non-contact groups or cultures in relation to spatial meanings and preferences within people groups . This is related to the social dimension of privacy (Leino-Kilpi et al. 2001), but he especially specifies high and low context cultures according to their ways of communicating. For the high context (HC) culture or communication for that matter, much of the information is implicit while, in the low context (LC) culture, nearly everything is explicit. He also wrote about the concept of time among cultures (Hall, 1976). Where there are polychronic (P-time) and monochronic (M-Time) cultures; the M-time society or culture would prefer to do only one thing at a time when serious i.e. for such persons, time is linear and segmented with each activity scheduled while, the individuals in a P-time culture can juggle several activities, they emphasize the involvement of people and the completion of tasks rather than schedules. Edward T. Hall coined the term â€Å"Proxemics† which he describes as â€Å"interrelated observations and theories of mans use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture† Hall (1966 p. 1). In explaining his observations in proxemic behavior (Hall, 1963 p. 1003) he notes that â€Å"what is close to an American may be distant to an Arab.† Many other researchers and individuals apart from Edward Hall had worked on other frameworks and dimensions of culture. Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006) lists some of these frameworks which are interestingly identified by the names of the researchers that discovered them and this list which is not exhaustive, includes; Hofstedes (1980) with subsequent revisions and dimensions added; Schwartz (2004) who presented seven universal value orientations, Smith, Dugan and Trompenaars (1996) had two universal value orientations; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman and Gupta (2003) came up with nine value orientations related to leadership; Inglehart (1997) had two attitude-belief-value orientations, Bond et al. (2004) is said to have reported two social axioms. All cited in Matsumoto and Yoo, (2006 p. 239). The listing above does not mention each of the dimensions. The dimensions of each framework listed are found in Table 2.1 below. Table 2.1 Six Theoretical Frameworks for Universal Dimensions of Cultural Variability Framework Dimensions Hofstede’s (2001) dimensions of  work-related values Individualism vs. collectivism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity vs. femininity Long- vs. short-term orientation Schwartz’s (2004) dimensions of  values Embeddedness Hierarchy Intellectual autonomy Affective autonomy Egalitarianism Mastery Harmony Smith, Dugan, and Trompenaars’s  (1996) dimensions of values Egalitarian commitment vs. conservatism Utilitarian involvement vs. loyal involvement House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, and  Gupta’s (2003) dimensions of  leadership values Performance orientation Assertiveness orientation Future orientation Human orientation Institutional collectivism Family collectivism Gender egalitarianism Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Inglehart’s (1997) dimensions of  attitudes, values, and beliefs Traditional vs. secular-rational orientation Survival vs. self-expression values Bond et al.’s (2004) dimensions  of social axioms (beliefs) Dynamic externality Societal cynicism Source: (Matsumoto, D and Yoo, S. H, 2006 p. 240) National versus Organizational culture As a society has a culture, so do organizations and such organizations employ staff who come from a particular culture(s). The organizations then require these individuals to work in offices. Apart from the culture description related to national boundaries, there is a culture that seems to characterize workplaces or organizations and this is called organizational or corporate culture. Barney (1986) notes that like culture itself, organizational culture has many competing definitions and then goes on to suggest that a generally acceptable definition of organizational culture to be â€Å"as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions, and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business.† (p. 657). He goes on to point the pervasive nature of organizational culture in that, it helps to define the relationship of the firm to parties it comes in contact with through its business. This simply shows that culture within the work place especially geared towards profitability or the conferment of advantages could be termed organizational or corporate culture. Generally it will be assumed that the national culture will also play a part. Guidroz, Kotrba, and Denison (2009) from results of a study of multinational companies, claim that their study seems to point to organizational culture superseding national culture in diversity management practices. The issue in question in this thesis is not exactly a management matter but the individual perception of privacy in the open plan office environments and would suggest that both national and organizational cultures playing a part because according to (Brand, 2009) the design of the workspace or workplace communicates the corporate culture of the organization meaning, the adoption of the open plan environment can be tied to the organizations corporate culture. Hofstedes’ Cultural Dimensions This is a hugely popular cross-cultural model (Gerhart and Fang, 2005; Hofstede et al, 2010; Sivakumar, Nakata, 2001) currently in use, with its roots in industrial psychology (Meeuwesen, van den Brink-Muinen and Hofstede, 2009) is called the Hofstedes model of culture named after Geert Hofstede a Dutch emeritus Professor of organizational anthropology and international management in the Netherlands. Hofstedes work highlighted the fact that culture is manifested through symbols, heroes, rituals and values. But, Hofstede argues that values form the core of culture as represented by the Hofstede culture â€Å"Onion† in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.2 shows the onion structure graphically illustrating the manifestation of culture at different levels and even the interactions therein. As seen from Figure 2.2 above symbols, heroes and rituals are by themselves visible to all observers. It is the cultural meanings of the practices that are open to interpretation by the observer while, values are unseen or embedded within the person but they still subtly determine choices and much more (Hofstede et al., 2010). Hofstedes research studied value survey responses of similar respondents from different countries as to their approach, as related to four basic problems prevalent in most societies (Meeuwesen et. al, 2009) these included; Handling social inequalities in the society. The approach to dealing with uncertainty in general. The structure of the relationship between an individual and the group. The emotional role division between the male and females in a society. The initial data for Hofstedes culture study came about through an analysis of International Business Machine Company (IBM) staff surveys at a time, the company was called Hermes. He utilized the responses from routine staff surveys about values and related matters to provide ratings for countries on each of what he then called the four dimensions of culture. This was achieved by examining correlations between mean scores of questionnaire items at the level of countries. Other approaches, like analysis at the individual level did not provide much useful information (Hofstede, 2009). Later, certain studies showed the need for another dimension and this lead to the inclusion of a fifth dimension called, long term orientation. Each dimension of culture score for a country is calculated using a scale of roughly 0 to 100 for each dimension. A dimension of culture is an aspect of culture that can be measured relative to other cultures (Hofstede, 2009 p. 6) and the higher the score of a dimension, the more that dimension is exhibited in the society or nation in question while for lower scores the opposite pole of the dimension is more pronounced. Thus, the scores are therefore bipolar (Jones, 2007) In a 2010 book, Greet Hofstede, his son Gert Jan Hofstede and a research collaborator Micheal Minkov reviewed earlier works, alongside their recent studies and added a sixth dimension called indulgence versus restraint (IVR) to the previously known Hofstedes five dimensions of culture. The sixth dimension was largely as a result of the work of Micheal Minkov (Hofstede et al., 2010). The six dimensions of Hofstedes cultural model now include power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), masculinity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long term orientation (LTO), and the recently added indulgence (IVR). Power distance (PDI). This indicates the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among the persons with and without power i.e. the leadership versus the followership respectively as normal and legitimate in any given society. If the power distance scores are high, it indicates a pyramidal or hierarchical system where the power is resident at the top while, lower scores indicate greater equality suggesting power is shared and spread within the group. Individualism (IDV). This is related to the se