Abstract
This paper looks at how many organizations increasingly use teams to oversee various undertakings and projects within the organization. A team is defined as a group of people who have complementary skills, a higher commitment to common goals, and a higher degree of interdependency and interaction. It explores how a team setup can help motivate and improve the productivity of the employees within the organization. It also examines how teams need good structure and guidelines, however, if the team has to work effectively, and how it is important to ensure that every team works jointly towards maximum profit for the product.

Outline
Effective Decision-Making Strategies to Use When Working With Groups
Guidelines for Consensus Building
How Do Leaders Build Teams?

From the Paper
"Most teams generally utilize five levels of decision-making: command, consult, majority, consensus and unanimity. It is easy to understand that these decision types are very closely related to the time factors teams may have in arriving at a decision. When the command type of decision-making process is used, the team leader identifies the tasks at hand and designates responsibilities to all the team members. This type of decision-making can be accomplished in the shortest possible time, it however has a major drawback. It will be difficult for the team leader to get buy in for the task from the team members of the team members do not agree with the decision made. Unanimity, on the other hand, ensures that all members like and accept the decision, they have to "buy-in" to the decision."

Tags:decision, making, management, conflict, dynamics

Abstract
The paper discusses the importance of teamwork and team-building and provides the history of team development. The paper explains that if any conflict exists among employees, this will become a barrier in reaching the company's desired strategies. The paper examines conflict resolution that can be addressed through team efforts that lead to increased communication, consensus decisions and positive results. The paper discusses the role of a leader in managing conflict in a positive way and in building strong, successful teams.

Outline:
Introduction
History of Team Development
Conflict Resolution
Building Effective Teams
Types of Internal Conflicts
Leadership and Communication
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The interactions of small groups have been of interest to social psychologists for sometime. However, it has only been in recent years that they began to look at teams and how they function within the organizational setting. The term "sociometry" first appeared in the Psychological Abstracts index in 1940 with references to the work of individuals such as psychiatrist Jacob Levi Moreno, and the term "group dynamics" was listed in 1945 with reference to the work of Kurt Lewin and his colleagues. The first use of "small groups" and "group interaction" was in 1950 in conjunction of researchers such as Robert Bale."

Tags:communication, performance, workers, interpersonal, interaction

From the Paper
" European intentions to develop a true common foreign and security policy, as described in the Maastricht Treaty, are shaping up into some major battles over the structure and decisionmaking process of the European Community. The Community is continuing to struggle over defining and implementing the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, which include problems ranging from uncertainty over the timetable for economic and monetary union--the single European currency which is supposed to encourage greater political unity--to fears of establishing the Western European Union as a non-NATO policing/military unit under Community direction.


Central to these new developments in the European Community is the role of the office of the General Secretariat--the administrative and research arm of the European Community's..."

Abstract
This paper examines the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which is administered through a complex set of processes under the management of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It looks at how it was set up as an opportunity to examine an organization critically and identify strengths and opportunities in order to improve the company's overall quality. In particular, it discusses how serving on the Baldrige Award committee can be a rewarding experience in someone?s career. Through the experience, people will be able to strengthen their ability to assess an organization, receive valuable training, and develop analytical and consensus building skills that can be applied to their own organization, as well as many others.

Outline
Introduction: How Did It Start
Criteria for Performance
Administration of the MBNQA
Board of Overseers
Board of Examiners
Judges
Senior Examiner
Examiner
The Selection Criteria
Criteria Expertise
Depth of Experience
Specialized Expertise
Examiner Skills
Final Selection of Members
Conclusion
References

From the Paper
"This is the first of the three distinct groups. There are only a total of nine judges that oversee the entire process of administering the award. They must also help with the selecting examiners, review the scored applications, selecting the organizations to visit, and reviewing the results of the visit (Wadworth, p.109). Once that process is completed, they can select the organization to recommend for the Malcolm Baldrige Award. The judges are involved in the oversight of the entire process, but they do not actually get involved with the process until the many hours of work by the examiners are completed. Then it is left up to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to make the final decision for the award after further background evaluations of the recommended organizations have been completed."

Tags:audit, standards, career, organization, judges

Abstract
Discusses the 1995 DPA that ended the Civil War in Bosnia. Division of Bosnia into the Serb Republic and the Federation (Muslim-Croat). DPA successful in peace keeping but ineffective in consensus building. High ethnic animosity. Issue of war crimes. Factors that act against reunification of Bosnia.

From the Paper
"The principal achievement of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords (DPA) was the cessation of the civil war in Bosnia. The peace has been maintained for nearly six years, but this is only because of the presence of large numbers of U.S. and coalition troops. Some DPA objectives have barely begun to be accomplished. The return of minority refugees to various parts of the country, for instance, has been extremely slow and has met with resistance from potential returnees and those who drove them out in the first place. Ethnic animosity has remained extremely high according to most reports and this is mirrored in the perpetual instability of the central government of the Republic now known as Bosnia-Herzegovina. Despite the successful maintenance of peace the Dayton Accords offer very little in the way of a viable framework for reuniting Bosnia into an ..."

Abstract
Laws are established according to the prevailing norms and customs existing in society. Thus, the law is merely a codified edict of social conformity. However, when building consensus, there is rarely, if ever, unanimous decision-making. Bias is always prevalent. Even though every citizen is equal before the law, not every citizen may be judged equally before the law. This paper illustrates this principle by using the death penalty as an example, and showing that it is racially biased and disproportionately handed down in cases involving racial minorities. It shows this through the use of statistics and by illustrating factors that lead to the discrepancy between the proportion of minorities in the population and the proportion of minorities sentenced to death in the judicial system.

From the Paper
"Since its inception, the death penalty has encountered constant opposition, and has been embroiled in court cases challenging its constitutionality. Opponents of the death penalty challenge it under the eighth amendment of the constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. One of these most notable cases is that of Furman v. Georgia (1972). In this case, Justice Marshall, who wrote the majority opinion, explored the roots and different facets of the death penalty, and ultimately "arrived at the conclusion that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment..." (Furman v. Georgia, 1972). One key point of evidence was his contention that the death penalty is discriminative, and in presenting supporting evidence, he believed "that the following facts would serve even the most hesitant of citizens to condemn death as a sanction..." (Furman v. Georgia, 1972). He states that out of 3,859 people who have been executed since 1930, 1,751 were white, and 2,066 were black. 3,334 of the executions were for murder, of which 1,664 were white, and 1,630 were black."

Tags:bias, death, law, legal, marshall, opposition, penalty

Abstract
This paper proposes a study to determine the acceptability of a landfill project to the citizens of Naga City, a semi-urbanized community located at the heart of the Bicol Region, south of the Philippines main island of Luzon. Specifically, it seeks to determine the perception of citizens regarding the project and describes the communication strategies used by the local government to inform and make the people understand the need for the landfill.

Outline
Chapter 1
Introduction
Statement of the Problem
Importance of the Study
Theoretical Framework
Definition of Terms
Chapter 2
Review of Related Literature
Land Fill as the Most Acceptable Method
The Process of Upgrading
Progressive and Staged Upgrading
First Class Cities and Municipalities
Choosing To Build a Land Fill
Engineered Sanitary Land Fill
Socio-Economic Environment
The Need for Consensus on Integrated Solid Waste Management
Chapter 3
Methodology
The Research Design
Respondents and Sampling Scheme of the Study
Perceptions of the Citizens from Two Barangays
Government's Communication Strategies
Chapter 4
Results and Discussions
Barangay Balatas
Barangay San Felipe
Comparison of the Two Barangays
Local Government's Communication Strategies
Chapter 5
Conclusions and Recommendations

From the Paper
"Local governments have employed techniques from open dumping, to incineration to manage solid wastes, but these were challenged by some quarters. Because of this, local governments employ landfills. However, real estate developers have used up all available lowlands. If monitored and maintained on a regional basis and within the framework of the local governments contiguous with one another, land fills or even bay reclamation may yet prove to be the most acceptable method of waste disposal within the bounds of their financial capabilities provided that safeguards are included to prevent and control pollution (Lesaca, 1975 in Viado, 1990)."

Tags:dumpsite, environmental, facility, materials, recovery, study, urbanization

Abstract
This paper discusses the article "Turning Points in International Organization," by Daniel Druckman. The writer explains the three types of turning points that Druckman identifies as instrumental to international organization--procedural, substantive, and external--and describes how Druckman gives examples to back the claims that he makes. The writer also describes Druckman's conclusions about security negotiations and environmental and trade negotiations, with external turning points being more influential on the former and substantive turning points affecting the latter. The paper concludes that because trade, and especially environmental issues affect the world as a whole, Druckman's scholarship regarding turning points will positively affect the future of international negotiations if extreme globalization due to communications technology is taken into account.

From the Paper
"While this application of turning points is an interesting contributor to the continuing discussion of international relations negotiations, Druckman suggests it has significant implications for one's understanding of international negotiation. While security issues were most associated with external turning points, suggesting an adversarial type of negotiation environment, environmental and trade negotiations were associated with internal, or substantive and procedural, turning points. This suggests a collaborative environment. Thus, Druckman suggests that these turning points allow others to view the differing attitudes with which governments view different types of negotiations (Druckman 522-523)."

Tags:consensus-building typology, World War Two, Churchill NAFTA collaborative imperialism

Abstract
The paper reviews "A Practical Guide For Policy Analysis," where Eugene Bardach discusses a holistic approach to understanding and analyzing public policy. The paper presents an outline of Bardach's argument and his eight steps to policy analysis. The paper is of the opinion that Bardach's book presents an accessible and useful tool for understanding the policy analysis and design process.

Outline:
Bardach's Eightfold Path
Assessment and Conclusion

From the Paper
"In A Practical Guide For Policy Analysis, Eugene Bardach discusses a holistic approach to understanding and analyzing public policy that is designed to challenge the profession of public administration so that policy is made through compromise and consensus-building with the public interest at the center. Bardach claims that it is necessary to maintain an "eightfold path" to policy analysis and design that is defined by the following steps: (1) Define problem, (2) Assemble evidence, (3) Construct alternatives, (4) Select criteria, (5) Project outcomes, (6) Confront tradeoffs, (7) Decide, (8) Tell story. After outlining the process he believes necessary, Bardach turns his attention to the proactive implementation, discussing data collection means and methods and best practices for administration."

Tags:public, administration, compromise, consensus-building

Abstract
This paper explores the role of karaoke in Japan as not only a form of entertainment, but a means for carrying out business. The paper contrasts Japanese perceptions of karaoke as a means to develop camaraderie to that of American perceptions, which view karoake as a form of entertainment and a way to establish one's self as a local talent.

From the Paper
"The differences in perception of Karaoke are due in part to the different socialization rituals that exist in Japan and among Americans. In Japan for example, typically individuals conduct a method of meetings referred to as "ringisei" where each member attempts to "achieve consensus rather than score points" (Shimatachi, 102). Consensus building is in fact a staple of solid relational building in the Asian culture. Part of the Karaoke process in Japan includes taking into account the musical preferences of guests, as a proper host would do, and sharing appropriate compliments or jokes after a performance to thank the host for entertaining appropriately (Shimatachi, 102)."

Tags:nightclubs, electric, geisha, comfort, rapport, meeting, ringisei, consensus, building