Research and Evaluation in Social Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Research and Evaluation in Social Work - Essay Example Further, being able to inform policy by way of their study would increase the researcher's credibility, and make it more likely for the universities and health centres in which they work to have access to funding, as graduate students would be able to work on research projects, and government and private institutions could contract the researchers for more studies. The researchers appear to have designed an objective study in that; a thorough and up-to-date literature review was presented that identified current gaps in knowledge; a cross-sectional survey allowed for sampling of the diversity of organizations providing services to older people; snowball sampling allowed for access to organisations that may have been otherwise neglected, because of their size or their lack of exposure; a selection criteria provides a set of parameters that characterize the sample for future study comparisons; conclusions were drawn based on the data collected from the survey; and the final thesis was submitted for peer-review to be able to be published in a reputable journal. Overall, it was an empirical study, designed and carried out in a systematic manner, with evidence-based conclusion drawn. The Abstract succinctly and parsimoniously reported the main points of the research, summarizing the goal of the project, identifying the population, noting the research methods used, and mentioning the conclusions and implications. However, the abstract did not state the hypothesis of the study and whether it was supported or not. The rationale of the study was clear in its statement: A wide range of community based services and activities have evolved to combat the 'negative' experiences of social isolation and loneliness in later life. The appropriateness and accessibility of most interventions intended to alleviate social isolation and loneliness among older people, however, have remained unclear (p. 150). Also, the research questions were presented in dot point format, which made most of them clear and to the point. However, one goal, 'Explore the involvement of older people in the planning process,' was ambiguous in that it did not state clearly that the exploration would not make use of older person opinions, only those of the organisations servicing older people. All of the research questions were worthy of being answered, as availability of, and access to, social orientated activities is essential to the mental and physical health of older people. However, given that older people were not included in the sample, as a comparison group, it is questionable whether all of the research questions were comprehensively answered.The literature review was adequate in that it included up-to-date research for the UK, and identified gaps in knowledge. The theories drawn on also raised some interesting points, such as many older people do not perceive themselves to be lonely (c.f., Townsend, 1 957; Tornstam, 1995; Victor et al. 2005), despite continuous evidence that experiences of loneliness increase with age (authors,). The relationship between aging and loneliness has been suggested to be the result of changes in living circumstances, such as the loss of a partner, or moving to a nursing home, and changes to subjective health (c.f., Tijhuis et al. 1999). It appears that more research into social support could be the

Andrew Ryan at VC Brakes Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Andrew Ryan at VC Brakes - Assignment Example The dictatorial tendencies, poor rapport in the various levels of management and mistrust from the workforce constitute the confounding issues the faces the implementations of the total management program. The paper utilizes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as a management tool in order to analyze the case study effectively VC Brakes faced numerous issues emanating from its autocratic culture that dominated the firm’s operations (Cespedes and Yong, 2013, Pg. 2). In addition, VC Brakes had a reputation of poor top- down managerial skills and lack of trust from the production to the professional workforce who felt that the firm was unresponsive to their queries. The introduction of total quality management program by Crossroads Corporation was intended to improve the product quality, management practices and more so, to develop a consistent operational strategy that would be utilized across all sectors in the various subsidiaries found under VC Brakes.Questio n 1The major situation that faced Ryan involved the implementation of total quality management program that would raise the ailing quality productivity at VC Brakes. The autocratic culture evident in VC Brakes is depicted in various situations in the case study of instance, the emphatic condensation of the training sessions. (Cespedes and Yong, 2013, Pg. 6).   The notion would have amassed numerous achievements if it had gone through the initially specified time since it could have provided ample time.