The Relevance Of Legal Positivism

The Relevance Of Legal Positivism I have chosen to critically examine The Contemporary Relevance of Legal Positivism by Professor Brian Z Tamanaha who has written on the topic of legal positivism, and this is a legal theory that greatly interests me. Though the title suggests otherwise, in his article Tamanaha argues a particular point that in its current state legal positivism fails to engage with real world matters.  [2]  Tamanaha goes on to suggest that legal positivism has been emasculated  [3]  to the point where it is no longer a relevant legal theory, as modern discussions on legal positivism have drastically shifted away from the original ideas of legal positivism proposed by Bentham and Austin. However, to make such claims effectively requires compelling evidence, and this is something that the article plainly lacks. Moreover, Tamanahas article is full of presumptions, which one can only assume that he has misinterpreted many of the theoretical debates between key characters within legal positivism. As a result, this dissertation will argue that although Tamanaha makes some important points, overall there are too many inaccuracies within the article, which make it weak and unpersuasive. There are three particular arguments that will be pursued in this dissertation. Firstly, it will be argued that Legal Positivism does in fact deal with real world matters. Secondly, that the separation thesis supported by Hart is in fact false and Tamanaha may have misunderstood his work. Thirdly, it will be argued that Tamanahas alternative is not the way to move forward; in fact we should move in a completely different direction and focus more on science rather than descriptive theory. Legal Positivism and Real World Matters To begin with, we need to clarify that Tamanahas article is not without value, as Tamanaha has made some valid arguments, which cannot be disputed. Throughout his article, Tamanaha gives us a good account of what traditional legal positivism stood for and how contemporary legal theorists have transformed this important legal theory. As a result, it is only necessary to give a brief account of the historical background of legal positivism at a later stage in the dissertation. For now, we will turn our attention to the issues within the article, the most problematic claim in the Tamanaha article is one where he states that legal positivists have divided into two different groups whereby both argue about legal theories and turn their backs on real world matters.  [4]  This is something that I strongly disagree with and will be spending a large section of the essay arguing against this point. Apologies are made in advance, as it may seem to the reader that we are going off on a tangent but it will become clear at the end of this section that Tamanaha has made a critical mistake in making this claim. My line of argument will be to look at Brian Lieters writings in Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered and dispute Tamanahas statement through the link between American Legal Realism and Legal Positivism. Leiter argues at the outset the there are two common misconceptions within jurisprudence that he wants to rebuff. Firstly, that Legal Positivism a nd Legal Realism are not incompatible from a conceptual level. Secondly, that Legal Realism has been gravely misunderstood even by the central character of modern legal positivism, Hart.  [5]   It seems in Leiters view that only by comparing Legal Realism to Legal Positivism on a conceptual level can Hart argue that they are opposed to one another. He adds on that Positivism is essentially a theory of law-a theory, in part, about what is distinctive of any societys legal normsRealism is essentially a descriptive theory of adjudication, a theory about what it is judges really do when they decide cases.  [6]  In order for Legal Realism to work it must presuppose a theory of law and this is where according to Leiter Legal Positivism comes in.  [7]  Leiter admits that Legal Realism cannot ascertain to be a theory of law on a conceptual level because quite frankly is it a philosophical mess but he suggests that there are links between Legal Positivism and Legal Realism on an Empirical level. The empirical level will consider whether or not legal rules causally determine judicial decisions. Leiter goes on to add that even though Hart was aware of this possibility he has n ot given a convincing argument to dispute the link at the empirical level.  [8]  One has to wonder why Hart stayed clear of such debates, was there something he was afraid of discovering. Leiter is insistent that anyone writing on Legal Realism should fully understand what it stood for before attempting to define what it is or what it does. He adds on that many of the main characters within Legal Realism like Llewellyn, Frank, Radin, Moore, Yntema, Cohen, Oliphant, Green, and Hutcheson wanted to achieve the goal of understanding judicial decision-making and, in particular, shared certain substantive views about how adjudication really works.  [9]  Leiter presses the argument that Legal Realism is a descriptive theory about how judges actually decide cases based on the facts of the cases instead of looking at legal rules. Although, it does seem clear that judges can predict cases if they fall within distinct patterns. This process allows judges and lawyers to predict the outcome of a case where the facts fall within a situation type which the outcome of that type has already been determined.  [10]  Oliphant clarifies this point when referring to commercial law and dealings between parties and the fact that judges may rely on commercial norms  [11]  (i.e. what would reasonably be expected of both parties in this situation) in order to decide a case. Therefore, it seems that Realists wanted to identify and describe the way in which decisions are made by judges.  [12]  This is very similar to the way in which conceptual analysis works, which demonstrates that there is some sort of link between Legal Realism and Legal Positivism. Legal Realists wanted to push forward the idea of an empirical theory of adjudication as it gave us the best opportunity to fully understand judicial decisions.  [13]  Of course, such a theory would only work if Realists were able to presuppose an existing theory of the concept of law.  [14]   Leiter, like many others before him makes it clear that Legal Positivism is a theory of law or about the nature of law.  [15]  What this tells us is that we must use this theory as a way of understanding and analysing our concept of law. This is a task which involves establishing the criteria of legality  [16]  and determining whether a certain norm is a legal norm. Leiter then covers the two most important theses of the Positivists theory. The social thesis (which concludes it is society which decides what will count as law, social fact) and the separation thesis (which states that what the law is and what it ought to be are separate questions).  [17]  If Leiters work is read carefully, it will become clear where Hart went wrong in his analysis and the fact that Hart offers no conclusive arguments to rebut the connections between Legal Positivism and Legal Realism. So if Hart misunderstood Legal Realism himself it is inevitable that those who read Hart and interpret his work will be making the same mistakes. There are two clear arguments as to why Legal Realism and Legal Positivism are connected. Firstly, both Legal Realists and Legal Positivists accept that law is indeterminate. According to Leiter, Realists argue that trying to determine if a law is justified, based on legal rules has not worked in the past and that is not something that Realists want to do.  [18]  Therefore, Realists only wanted to find out what it is that makes judges decide cases in this way. Similarly, Hart accepted that legal rules are indeterminate because there is a limit, inherent in the nature of language, to the guidance which general language can provide.  [19]  This was because language is, in Harts opinion, open-textured: There will indeed be plain cases constantly recurring in similar contexts to which general expressions are clearly applicable (If anything is a vehicle a motor-car is one) but there will also be cases where it is not clear whether they apply or not. (Does vehicle used here include bicycles, airplanes, roller skates?). The latter are fact-situations, continually thrown up by nature or human invention, which possess only some of the features of the plain cases but others which they lack.  [20]   This then makes it clear that even the most celebrated 21st century legal positivist is aware that there are similar features between Legal Positivism and Legal Realism. The second argument is that both Positivists and Realist agree that legal rules do not determine decisions in some cases.  [21]  Realists for example argue that it will be up to judges to decide how the use a range of tools available to them when interpreting previous decisions. As Llewellyn puts it judges have the discretion to interpret a case strictly or loosely and that in most cases their interpretation will be recognised, legitimate, honorable.  [22]  It is through adjudication that private parties, such as individuals or corporations are able to sort out legal disputes. In addition, adjudication is there to review any disagreements between private parties and public officials. If then judges are involved in the legal process whereby they have to assess evidence and arguments presented to them about leg al issues surely this is something which can be considered a real world matter. Tamanaha has failed to consider these sorts of arguments in his article and as a result has opened himself up to criticism. Contrary to Tamanahas argument, Legal Positivism does deal with real world matters, as adjudication is a real world matter. Legal Realism is about highlighting how law operates in practice, and Realists wanted to locate law in its broader context (not separate). Leiter also points out that Realists challenged the myth of legal certainty- by highlighting indeterminacy of law. More importantly to our task here, it is clear that Legal Realism concerns law and study of law as an inherently practical activity associated with the real world.  [23]  As a result, these findings suggest that Tamanaha was wrong to make such an erroneous claim without looking at the evidence to back up his premise. There are also a number of other faults with Tamanahas article. In an attempt to convince the reader, Tamanaha has selected specific writings about legal positivism, which heavily criticise it in order to suit his side of argument, whilst ignoring arguments that are made in favour of legal positi vism. He quotes Waldron who said that these analytical discussions tend to be flat and repetitive in consequence, revolving in smaller and smaller circles among a diminishing band of acolytes  [24]  . What Waldron believes is that we should go back to traditional legal philosophy in order to improve our understanding of the concept of law. He states that in legal philosophy: there is less of a sense of a canon of great books stretching back to the dawn of time. If there is canonical work it is H.L.A Harts book, The Concept of Law, which analytical jurists read over and over (and the squabble amongst themselves as to what it means and whose position is now closest to what Harts is taken to be). Since Hart Developed his theory by criticizing the nineteenth-century jurisprudence of John Austin, there is also some half-hearted discussion on Austins work. Beyond that however, the canon of legal philosophy is attenuated and non-existent.  [25]   Of course, it is true that there hasnt been any standout publication on legal philosophy after Hart published The Concept of Law, but that does not mean that we should go back to the traditional ideologies on legal philosophy. Hart proved that some of the original ideas behind legal philosophy are unpractical in a modern society thus is it unproductive to keep applying them when trying to ascertain our concept of law. So common sense and reality would make us reject what Waldron suggests. Tamanaha then considers Twining, who has asserted that positivist debates are now repetitious, trivial, and almost entirely pointless.  [26]  Twining comes across as a great admirer of Bentham whose work is highly valued, however, Twining believes that Bentham should not remain as a historical figure in legal philosophy. For Twining Benthams à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦version of legal positivism; a more flexible and subtle conception of sovereignty than Austins; his penetrating attack on natural right; his progressive ideas on punishment; and his theory or adjudication  [27]  remain important topics. In fact, Twining goes one step further to suggest that we should go beyond Benthams work and look at the work of Augustine and Plato to help us understand issues we deal with today.  [28]  Whilst Benthams work was crucial, it is important to remind ourselves that what he produced was suited for the 19th century, thus it seems unlikely that it will be beneficial in dealing with issues in a contemporary society. With regards to going beyond Bentham, it is impossible to conceive how ancient ideologies would help us deal with modern issue and therefore Twinings suggestion is on the verge of being absurd. Tamanaha also refers to Schauers work to argue that large numbers of American law professors believe that analytical jurisprudence in general, and the debates about legal positivism in particular, are the largely irrelevant preoccupation of a small group of socially unaware but philosophical obsessed pedants.  [29]  The simple explanation to this is that almost everyone involved in legal philosophy is a positivist.  [30]  Even Tamanaha accepts that legal positivism is the dominant legal theory of law, as the first paragraph of his article states that: Most legal philosophers agree that legal positivism is the dominant theory of law today.  [31]  As a result, it is extremely difficult to argue on anything more than marginal issues as the main issues have already been agreed upon. Therefore, until we have another philosopher like Dworkin or Hart who is able to come up with new and radical ideas, unfortunately, marginal arguments is all that is left for contemporary legal positivists to debate. Tamanaha has presented some inconsistent arguments in support of his position. Right at the outset, he admits that legal positivism is by far the biggest camp within legal theory  [32]  but at the same time attempts to argue that it is no longer relevant. It is simply irrational to describe a theory as being both dominant and irrelevant at the same time, Tamanaha has either set out his article to be extremely provocative, or he has not really planned his arguments. Nonetheless, Tamanaha then moves on to explaining why legal positivism has reached this point of being irrelevant. One of his arguments is that for much of its existence, the primary foil for legal positivism has been natural law theory. But natural law theory no longer has the primacy it once did.  [33]  Yet, Tamanaha then says that due to an agreement reached by natural law theorists and legal positivists on certain issues legal positivism has lost and important reason for being.  [34]  It is astonishing how a professor who, according to Washington University in St Louis, is a renowned jurisprudence scholar and author  [35]  would make this sort of argument. Natural law theory might have hampered the complete domination of legal positivism but Tamanaha himself admits that natural law theory no longer has the primacy it once did. How can a legal theory lose a reason for being if it is still the dominant theory after all this this time? In fact, Tamanaha is completely wro ng as legal positivism is easily the best theory of law and there does not seem to be a theory out there that can match it.  [36]  Tamanaha seems to be confused as to what legal positivism stands for, namely that it seeks to provide a better understanding of the nature of law  [37]  and if a new idea comes along positivists are willing to adopt it. Churchill once said, I am an optimist- it does not seem to be much use being anything else.  [38]  It has become clear that Tamanahas reasoning as to why legal positivism is in a problematic state is completely flawed as natural law only had a marginal effect on the dominance of legal positivism. The most surprising error in Tamanahas article is his attribution to Harts success in the Concept of Law as on one of the reasons legal positivism has reached this point. Tamanaha writes that Hart established the parameters of the current understanding of legal positivism. Tamanaha goes on to add that legal positivism today remains trapped within Harts paradigm.  [39]  Either Tamanaha has misunderstood Harts writing or he has completely failed to grasp it. Hart made it clear in The Concept of Law that his interpretation of the concept of law is quite open in that it does not forbid the extension of the term.  [40]  Therefore, how can legal positivism be trapped in Harts paradigm if Hart himself has admitted that this is not a conclusive answer of what the concept of law is and that from time to time this term will need to be expanded in order to be applicable in a modern society. Tamanaha could at least afford Hart the courtesy of fully reading and understanding his work befo re making such erroneous presumptions, which do not portray Harts objectives. Yet, Tamanahas misinterpretation of Harts work does not stop there. One of his other arguments is that legal positivism through the separation thesis allows us to be in a better position to challenge evil law. Tamanaha relies on a quote from Hart who said that: So long as human beings can gain sufficient cooperation from some to enable them to dominate others, they will use the forms of law as one of their instruments. Wicked men will enact wicked rules which others will enforce. What surely is most needed in order to make men clear sighted in confronting the official abuse of power, is that they should preserve the sense that the certification of something as legally valid is not conclusive of the question of obedience, and that, however great the aura of majesty or authority which the official system may have, its demands must in the end be submitted to a moral scrutiny.  [41]   According to Tamanaha, only if we separate the question of law and morality we can be in a position to judge whether a law is moral or not, Tamanaha writes that Hart is Reminding everyone of the separation between law and morality, according to this view, should enable citizens and legal officials to recognize, resist, and disavow evil law.  [42]  To drive this point home Tamanaha also relies on Schauers work,  [43]  but in a few pages within the same work Schauer concludes that the separation of law and morality does not necessary allow people to resist bad law.  [44]  To add further misery to Tamanahas argument, Bix writes that there are no conclusive arguments either logical or psychological, for favouring legal positivism or natural law theory (or any other alternative) for the resistance to evil law.  [45]  Again, Bix is another source Tamanaha has quoted in his article but somehow he has either misread his own sources or has chosen to simply construct them in a way which would better suit his argument. In summary, it has become clear that Tamanaha has presented a number of unfounded arguments, which can easily be rebutted. In fact, some of his arguments come across as unprofessional and it is surprising that that someone who is highly regarded in legal philosophy would see any value in presenting such arguments to the reader. Having discovered that Tamanahas claim that legal positivism does not connect with real world matters is misguided, we will now move on to the second part of the dissertation, which will argue that contrary to Tamanahas belief the separation thesis is in fact false. Separation Thesis is False One of the key arguments Tamanaha makes in the article is that the shift away from traditional legal positivism has had a wider affect to the point that one of the fundamental ideas behind it namely, the separation thesis, has been dramatically transformed to a point where it no longer resembles the original ideas.  [46]  Looking at legal philosophy from a historical context, it is clear that Benthams contribution helped shape the way in which law is perceived today. As a result, it would be almost impossible to talk about legal positivism without mention his work. Classical legal positivism as portrayed by Bentham and Austin suggests that the notion of law is simply a command of the sovereign, which obliges subjects to obey the law and gives official authority to carry out punishment. Modern legal positivists adopt a considerably more sophisticated approach to the concept of law, but, like their distinguished predecessors,  [47]  they deny the relationship between law and mo rals.  [48]   Bentham single-handedly sought to transform English common law in order to achieve a greater good in society.  [49]  Through his critical analysis of the common law Bentham made it possible to construct a comprehensive theory of law. Bentham wanted to unmask the true meaning of the common law and make all of the common laws misconceptions clearer.  [50]  In his opinion, the common law was so indeterminate, and in such chaos that it was close to being pervasive. His main argument was that in order to achieve clarity and certainty common law had to be written and recorded in a manner, which could be traced when a similar legal issue arises, thus allowing for them to be deal with in the same manner throughout England.  [51]  Bentham wanted to organise the common law in a way that it could control the behaviour of society as citizens would have a clearer idea of how they would be punished if they disobeyed the law.  [52]  In addition, by systematically setting these rules it meant judges had less power in making the law and it made it easier to understand your legal rights and obligations. John Austin followed in the work of his predecessor as he advocated the idea of commands as notions of law. Austin was concerned about state power and which laws subjects had to obey. It can be argued that both Bentham and Austin wanted to achieve a greater understanding of the principal features of the law. However, it has been suggested that Austins definition of law as commands is limited in its application only to criminal law.  [53]  In addition, other writers have observed that whilst Bentham was concerned about a single complete law Austin wanted to create a science of law.  [54]  Austin also made it clear that what the law is and what it should be are two separate questions and they should always stay separate.  [55]  It is in no doubt that Bentham and Austin laid the foundations for modern legal positivism. However, their ideas have been considerably refined, developed, and even rejected, by contemporary legal positivists. H.L.A. Hart is often credited with providing a more sophisticated account of legal positivism than provided in Bentham and Austins writings. In doing so, Hart advises us that we must apply analytical, linguistic and philosophical techniques to the study of law in order to achieve a greater understand of the concept of law.  [56]  In The Concept of Law, Hart made this point clear from the outset in the preface that his task is about achieving a descriptive sociology [or in other words, hermeneutic description] thus a deeper meaning in the nature of words and law.  [57]  Hart considers legal concepts and the ideals we may have about the law and legal systems in a different point of view. He asks questions which had not been asked before, focusing specifically on the conceptual context of law. Whilst advocating some of the previous ideas about legal positivism, Hart strenuously denies that law should be seen as an imperative theory of law.  [58]  Harts interpretation of posi tivism is completely different to the accounts given by Bentham and Austin. This may be because society has changed dramatically since their time; as a result, contemporary legal positivism focuses less attention on a coercive picture of law. Hart made it clear that the only way to understand the true nature of law is to look at actual social practices that apply within our own communities.  [59]   Law, in Harts analysis, is a system of rules, which our society constructs and transforms as time goes by. Legal rules are divisible into primary rules and secondary rules.  [60]  Primary rules prohibited committing certain acts which would have jeopardised the close coexistence in our community (e.g. theft, murder etc.). However, as a society becomes more complex, there is obviously a need to change these primary rules, hence why Hart advocates secondary rules. Unlike primary rules, secondary rules do not generally impose duties, but usually confer power to adjudicate on breaches of primary rules, and to identify which rules are actually obligation rules.  [61]  For Hart, there are tw

Myths And Reality Of Crime Essay

In this paper, I will be providing a prediction of how strangers will describe a criminal and whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, corporate, white-collar, or state crime. An insight of how society defines crimes and how decides what to define as a crime will also be provided. A statement about a particular crime will be presented and used in order to illustrate how we as a society know that it is an accurate statement. At last, an example of a widely held myth or misconception about crime and society will be provided explaining how society determines that it is a myth and why is so difficult to abandon that myth. It is clear that as a society we have the misconception that a criminal is a person that comes from a very poor area, lack of resources, and does not have an education. As a society we tend to focus on street criminals rather than other types of crimes that we barely hear about because they are not presented or shown on the news as much as street crimes are. I am sure that if I would have to ask or interview one hundred strangers to describe a criminal, many of them would say that a criminal is a person that breaks or does not want to follow the law. A person that steals because that is the only way they can provide for their families, a person that has mental issues that affect his/her stability to be able to have a normal life without breaking the law, can be also described as a criminal. I would say society has described crime as one of the most serious problem that our community faces due to the different behaviors people have adapted that violate values and norms. As society would say crime is a system that is put in place in order to protect the human rights of others; crime is an act of breaking and violating the law, or a behavior that offends or harm a  community or the ones around it. As the Former President Richard Nixon said in several occasions â€Å"crime is our number-one enemy and we must declare war against it† (Zastrow, 2010) but it can never be that way because we never know when we are going to be involved in some type of crime just like president Nixon was, when he faced criminal charges in connection with the Watergate affair. There are many different types of crimes that had helped society create and understand the definition of it but I think, society tends to â€Å"think that crime is a well-defined phenomenon and to have stereotyped v iews about who criminals are† (Zastrow, 2010). Most of the times, we believe that criminals are only those who are not able to have a decent job, those who does not have an education, those with lack of resources that in order to provide for their families the only way to do it is by committing a crime, and many times we tend to stereotype that generally only people of a certain race and color are the ones that commit crimes, when actually, â€Å"criminal offenses and the characteristics of lawbreakers are almost as varied as noncriminal offenses and law abiders† (Zastrow, 2010). As an example of a particular crime we have â€Å"theft† which refers to â€Å"illegally taking someone’s property without the person’s consent† (Zastrow, 2010). As a society we know this is an accurate statement because as many of us were growing up, our parents always taught us to not to take or touch things that do not belong to us otherwise we would go to jail or we will have consequences since we were committing a crime because we were violating someone else’s property and space. But as we all know this type of offense is not only about taking some else’s property, these types of offenses â€Å"range from pickpocketing and burglary to sophisticated multimillion-dollar swindles (Zastrow, 2010). Misconceptions about crime make society believe certain things that are not true most of the times. And knowing that is not true, we tend to hold this myth and misconception because that is what we heard as were growing up and learning about different types of crimes. As an example of a misconception or myth that we usually believe is true is that, â€Å"Most sexual assaults are committed by strangers† (CSOM, 2012), why do we believe this? Because we would never relate or think that our families or friends would commit a crime such as sexual assault to one of our loved ones. But the truth is that  Ã¢â‚¬Å"most sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim or the victim’s family, regardless of whether the victim is a child or an adult† (CSOM, 2012). According to the Center for Sex Offender Management, statistics indicate that the majority of women who have been raped know their assailant. The CSOM also states that relatives, friends, baby-sitters, persons in positions of authority over the child, or persons who supervise children are more likely than strangers to commit sexual assault. It is clear that myths like this one, makes us believe that only strangers have the power to hurt us and our families when the truth is that many times we have the enemy living under the same roof. It is sad but true, nowadays as parents and adults we have to very cautions and aware of the people around us because we never know when someone is going to harm our family and loved ones. I believe this is a myth that is very difficult to abandon because as I have stated before we do not believe that our family or friends, the people we trust are going to hurt us. We have always learned to be aware and be careful of strangers because they are dangerous person that only want to harm us and that is what teach our children too. I think we have to educate ourselves a little more in order to be able to abandon this myth and be able to teach our children the importance of speaking up when someone is trying to touch or hurt them even when is someone we know. In conclusion, as we know crime is one of the most serious problems that we face as a nation and the misconception we have as a society makes us believe that only certain type of people are the ones that commit crimes. When reality is that there are different types of crimes such as organized crimes, gambling, drug trafficking, loan sharking, white-collar crime, computer crime, hare crime, and many more. The misconceptions we have about crime create myths which makes it hard for other to believe that there are many other types of crimes and that anyone is capable of committing a crime or violate laws. References: Center for Sex Offender Management. (CSOM). (2012). Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders. Retrieved from: http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html Collica, K., & Furst, G. (2012). Crime and Society. San Diego, CA: Bridgeport Education, Inc. Short Cuts TV (Producer). (2010). Crimes of the Powerful [Video]. In Crime and Deviance: A Sociological Inquiry. Retrieved from http://digital.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx? Zastrow, Charles. (2010). Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare. Empowering People. Tenth Edition.

Business Mgt Essay

Part I. Assume you have taken over responsibility to play the lead Information Technology (IT) management role in Magnum Enterprises. Your boss, Rachel Heigl, is Magnum’s CIO. The IT management group is comprised of six people who you will be supervising. Ms. Heigl is an enlightened manager, and she believes that if you are to carry out your responsibilities effectively, you need to work with her in defining your IT management role. As a first step, she invites you to write a short statement where you describe what you see to be your role as head of the IT management effort at Magnum. Proper IT Management requires researching and discerning information technology as a company resource guiding both operational and crucial company capabilities. Using information technology to maximize satisfaction of the customer alongside productivity and profitability will ensure that our competiveness with other business stays at a maximum. In turn IT can make business processes more effective and efficient to provide said resources to customers. The lead IT shall ensure performance of the company through managing technology while encompassing priorities of the business into the role. Striving to be a partner with great initiative this business will discover its leader will have accomplished and achieved what they desired. My first role of business would be to establish the parameters and to understand the IT knowledge areas. These are made up of development processes; management challenges information technologies, business applications and foundation concepts. Concepts of the foundation are making sure the role of information systems paired with business and technical concepts are a familiarity with the end user. Familiarity of concepts in entry level information systems bind with a competitive strategy can lead to an overwhelming strategic advantage. Educating Magnum’s team upon the significance of information technology with the three roles that the business world performs in order to combine business management, software, and hardware capabilities. At the Management level, decision making would lead to significant improvements for IT utilization. Business operations see information systems as a huge support to review and collect data from financial operations, managing manufacturing processes that are very sophisticated, tracking company inventory, and productivity. The use of metrics paired with identifying trends to assist the company in making informed decisions faster to provide information about our competitors. IT  is used quite often to provide a strategic support advantage for the company. Automated inventory and ordering systems an assist with the savings costs. With this information we would need to review our mission statement that identifies the company’s functions, provides oversight on the overall goal, a sense of direction, and guides decision making. Investigating and development towards understanding how we generate money and ensuring a customer base for our company. Envisioning the business plan, mission, with current IT structure and the ability to communicate with senior leadership will guide me with necessary tools to assist the Chief Information Officer (CIO). To ensure a strategic IT plan is created in which will be shared and implemented with my team. Planning to have Magnum’s team familiar with data resource management capabilities, hardware, networks, telecommunications, and software within the company is the second area of information systems known as information technologies. In today’s society PDA’s (personal digital assistants; IE. Blackberry’s ETC.) Personal computers and network servers are integral computer hardware and are crucial in our business environment. Being extremely knowledgeable is vital to our team troubleshooting and resolving hardware issues instead of having to call anot her company for maintenance. We have the ability to break down our company’s software into two categories, application software and system software. Both types normally off the consumer shelf as commercial software instead of having an employee on the team write the software codes for these programs. I plan to ensure my teams are extremely familiar with all software programs and have a firm foundation when troubleshooting and resolving technical issues. Additionally, if not already formed, I will institute a configuration control board and implement test scenarios to ensure future hardware and software being purchased will not have compatibility issues. Also a part of information technologies is data resource management. This is essential in sustaining and maintaining our company. We will require a database management system of good quality that is capable of data consolidating into a database in turn can be accessed my several program applications. Within the past fifteen to twenty years networks and telecommunications software have played a vital role. To ensure the expansion and growth for Magnum Enterprises, we will need out network to be consistent, reliable, monetary sufficient. I would prepare the team to  either install or review and change as needed our network management system that assists with traffic management, capacity planning, network monitoring, and security in essence that our system will grow and change with modern day business culture and practices as the company expands. In order to have the most dependable and proven with the cost of it a ring network should be put into place. The next area, development processes, deals with designing, planning, identifying ideas, and implementing information systems to meet potential business opportunities. It is critical that we ensure our business management capabilities alongside our hardware and software are integrated successfully within our company. Basis within t he development process and depending upon the circumstance, there are a couple of processes we want our team to employ as resolving problems com along with our business systems. Those processes are considered or known as the prototyping approach and he systems development life-cycle. The synopsis of prototyping involves quickly developing or constructing test modules of a desired system in which we will engage when we cannot determine or classify the end user requirements. These systems would be used to assist our personnel with the capabilities to design or create an information system that will be intuitive and easy to navigate for consumers. Prototyping involves four steps with the first being investigation and analysis step. This step, requirements grouped and defined. Second, is the analysis and design step in which a model is developed and constructed to meet consumer business requirements. Next, in the design and implementation, this finalizes the model that was tested and begins the initial installation. The last step to this four step process is implementation and maintenance, which would consist of the business system being accepted, used, and maintained. Prototyping advantages are: decrease in the development time, development costs and requires user i nvolvement. This generates higher satisfaction results. I plan to employ this type of approach to small initiatives. The next area is business application for information systems. This will consist of being familiar with commerce and business applications for our employees and which are used within the company to make strategic leadership and management decisions. A few of the most used business applications within a majority of companies are accounting, human resource management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management, financial management,  and supply chain management. An Architectural picture of or IT business applications will ensure that I will have familiarity with all applications that we use. This approach will identify the current interrelationships, interfaces with customer, employees, business applications, and stake holders. We will then need to review the chart and see if there are any potential process improvements that we can make to integrate those systems cross functionally and keep operational costs to a minimum. The systems devel opment lifecycle employs the systems approach to create IT solutions. This lifecycle is often utilized for large applications and it is composed of five processes that I expect my team to know and become familiar when employing the systems development lifecycle: systems investigation, systems analysis, systems design, systems implementation and systems maintenance. The first process, systems investigation, involves project brainstorming, planning and performing a feasibility study. During the brainstorming and planning initiative, a project management implementation plan is created identifying the detailed steps that will be accomplished during the creation and development of the system. The feasibility study is critically important as this outlines all requirements for the system. It also explores four major areas, organizational, economic, technical, and operational feasibility, which determines if it’s worthwhile to invest in potential business ventures. In reviewing the organization’s feasibility, we need to determine if the system is in line with and supports our company’s strategic objectives. The economic feasibility identifies and evaluates the project’s tangible and intangible cost and benefits. Technical feasibility is assessed by confirming if the necessary hardware and software will be available or can be developed and tested before implementation. Operational feasibility is determined by the motivation, desire, willingness, and competence of the stakeholders (management, employees, customers and suppliers) to use and operate the proposed system. Systems Analysis consists of consolidating requirements and includes a detailed breakdown of the business needs and requirements of the organization. This starts with an organizational analysis from one of the business end users. This individual must be keenly aware of the organizational management structure, business requirements, and current IT systems operati ons and its proposed relationship with the newly created system. Some of the outputs generated from the systems analysis  include system flowcharts, data flow diagrams, and connectivity diagrams which aid in the development of the analysis report The next process, systems design, focuses on the design, process diagrams, business rules, and developing specifications for the hardware, software, data resources that will meet the proposed requirements for new business system. The three major outputs produced from the systems design phase are user data, interface, and process design. The fourth process of the systems development lifecycle is system implementation. This encompasses either acquiring the hardware or software or developing it from company resources and then testing the products in a test environment to see how well they operate and integrate with your existing IT architecture. If testing goes well, an implementation plan including training end users and developing system documentation will be accomplished prior to incorporating and execu ting this system within our IT architecture. The final process, systems maintenance consists of consistently monitoring and evaluating the newly implemented system. This also includes correcting errors and discrepancies not identified during the testing phase and continuously making system improvements, advancements and upgrades. The final area of information systems is management challenges. There are numerous challenges that our IT team may be faced with at Magnum Enterprises. One challenge is addressing our security concerns which involve several areas. For instance, our IT team needs be constantly vigilant and on the alert for potential competitors trying to or actually hacking into our systems to steal or damage our data. Additionally, we may also be challenged with setting up restrictions and locking down the network for personnel to only use the network and its software applications for official business. Ensuring that our software is controlled and that employees are not illegally making copies of software for personal use is another area of concern. Preventing virus attacks to our network and installing anti-virus software to diagnose and remove computer viruses is of utmost concern. Failure to maintain a secure network can potentially halt our business from being productive and resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Additional challenges the IT team may be faced with may involve expanding our infrastructure and network to address our growing business. Ensuring our network provides our employees accessibility to the data they need, wherever they require it, regardless of their location will test our innovativeness.  The company may not have a backup plan to allow it to operate effectively and efficiently in the event of a forced relocation. If that is the case, I will recommend to our management staff that we establish a continuity of operations plan enabling us to relocate with minimum impact to our business operations like a hot site for temporary functionality. In the dynamic world of IT we will always be faced with challenges, however, utilizing IT and being on the leading edge of new IT systems provides our business with many benefits and makes our organization more effective and efficient. For example, IT can be used to improve and promote new business processes such as creating an automated inventory system which will save money in additional labor costs. Another use of IT in making it more efficient and effective is that using certain software programs enables us to identify and target our top customers in terms of profitability to our business. In summary, IT enables our company to successfully plan, integrate, manage, and carry out strategies which lead to profit. Part II. Six months after you take over the lead IT management role at Magnum, the CIO, Ms. Rachel Heigl, is pleased with your work. She has just attended a meeting of Magnum’s executive committee (the committee comprised of the most senior managers of Magnum), where the CEO and Vice President of marketing have indicated that Magnum’s mediocre e-business capabilities must be strengthened. As CIO, Ms. Heigl is given primary responsibility in improving Magnum’s e-business performance. She in turn puts you in charge of a small task force comprised of representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. In order to advance and improve Magnum’s e-business performance operations, it’s vital I establish a cohesive team with representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. Their input and perspective is necessary and essential in developing a way ahead and strategic plan for the future of our e-busin ess department. Developing success with our e-business begins with marketing the company. Marketing is concerned with developing and creating an innovative plan so that the product or service can be promoted and sold. Promoting our products and services are key and critical in attracting new customers as well as maintaining our current customer base. It is important that I develop an understanding of the marketing role and how it can benefit  by using Information Technology systems. Marketing information systems support well established and e-commerce processes that sustain major elements within the marketing function and is described as a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control. The major components of marketing information systems include interactive marketing, sales force automation, customer relationship management, sales management, product management, targeted marketing, and market research. Two of the seven components I will be discussing are interactive marketing and customer relationship management. In our environment today, marketing information systems aid marketing personnel in a variety of tasks associated with branding products and customer service initiatives. For instance, interactive marketing is largely dependent on utilizing the internet, which permits the business and its customers and potential customers to become partners in developing, socializing, acquiring and advancing products and services. With the IT department enabling this type of communication, the company benefits from generating new ideas for other products and services as well as establishing strong customer loyalty. Another area within the marketing information systems is C ustomer Relationship Management (CRM). This incorporates and automates many customer service processes. It consists of utilizing an IT framework to construct, automate, and integrate marketing processes with the company’s business operations. CRM is usually comprised of a software suite that allows a business to provide efficient, effective and reliable service to its customers. Additionally, CRM permits a company to identify and target their most important customers as well as facilitate real-time customization of products and services based on the customer’s wants and desires. Understanding the marketing department’s views and concerns enables the IT department to implement and install an IT infrastructure that will be capable of supporting various information technologies. Some of the benefits that can be obtained from the marketing department are: an opportunity to increase sales and revenue, a chance to touch new market areas, 24/7 accessibility for the customer, and more flexibility and convenie nce for the customers. The production and operations function is supported by  manufacturing information systems. Manufacturing information systems are designed to be used specifically in an operations and production environment. Different types of manufacturing information systems consist of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), process control, machine control and robotics. CIM involves using computers to control the total manufacturing process, from design to distribution, to produce produces products of the highest caliber. Process control involves utilizing computers to oversee and control continuing physical processes. Machine control consists of using a computer based system to direct the actions of a machine. Robotics involves designing, constructing, and building machines that have the intelligence of a computer and human like physical capabilities. It’s key I understand how the operations representative depends on these information systems to operate effectively as well as their expec tations for these systems. Working together as a team will enable the IT and operations department to develop better ideas to increase the manufacturing and production process. Developing an understanding of all the accounting and financial based systems within our business and discussing these systems with the finance representative enables our IT and finance departments to plan effectively when troubleshooting and performing upgrades. These systems include but are not limited to order processing, inventory control, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, cash management, investment management, capital budgeting and financial planning. The success of these systems is integrally connected with its information technology and services. For example, the order processing system â€Å"captures and processes customer orders and produces data needed for sales analysis and inventory control and the accounts payable system keeps track of data concerning purchases from and payments to suppliers. Communicating with the finance representative is essential in setting up or modifying these systems to meet the needs of our business. Any interrupti on or degradation in service can lead to severe damage to the business and financial services that Magnum Enterprises relies on to function and operate. As with any business, competitors are always looking for an advantage to get them ahead in their particular discipline or industry. Unfortunately, being extremely aggressive and ambitious can sometimes cloud your decision making capabilities to the point that you may  be committing breaking privacy laws and monitoring and copyright violations. As the IT lead manager for Magnum Enterprises, I’m charged with ensuring our network infrastructure and IT systems are operating proficiently. However, when it comes to addressing privacy issues from an IT perspective, opinions and viewpoints from a legal expert are necessary. In regards to privacy, several websites accumulate usernames and passwords and personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers without authorization from users. Applying internet monitoring technology within the workplace raises concerns about where the boundaries lie between personal use and public resource use. Copyright concerns and violations has become an issue with the development of the Internet and upgrades to technology. Discussing these concerns with a legal expert and implementing and adhering to strict guidelines will help prevent our company from committing these violations. In addition to the goals of strengthening the capabilities of the e-business, attention must be paid to some key technical challenges. Overseeing secure information throughout our business is extremely difficult to implement and maintain successfully. Key technical issues that may be encountered when re-engineering our e-business include privacy and confidentiality, authenticity, data integrity, access control, availability and infrastructure. Privacy and confidentiality involves businesses protecting and securing personal information while being stored or t ransmitted through email. This can be accomplished by utilizing encryption devices or firewalls. Authentication is used to confirm an individual’s identity and during e-business transactions, the purchaser and buyer wants assurance that proper identity is established. A secure way to assist with confirming identity to both individuals is to utilize a virtual private network. Data integrity means the data is correct and has not been altered while being stored or transmitted. The use of firewalls assists in preventing unauthorized users and safeguarding data. Another way to ensure data integrity is through the use of antivirus software which also aids in keeping your data free from viruses. Access control exists when you’re authorizing certain individual’s permission to restricted systems or data. Several measures that can help with access control include firewalls, access privileges, passwords, digital certificates and virtual private networks. Availability is an issue when customers and employers need information  without any disruptions. Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, data backups and the use of anti-virus software assist with ensuring data is always available. Our e-business infrastructure constantly needs to be monitored to ensure its meeting the needs of our business. An infrastructure that is unable to consistently support the network traffic load can potentially cost our company thousands of dollars in lost sales. If the network is continually slow, increasing the speed of the network backbone will assist in providing faster and reliable support for our customers. In addition to increasing the speed of the network backbone, implementing cross-functional enterprise systems will assist in improving critical business processes throughout Magnum enterprises. A final technical challenge is ensuring all of our systems are compatible and can operate on several different hardware platforms. By having this capabi lity, our operating costs from a technical refresh perspective will decrease. While strengthening capabilities and addressing technical issues, there are management challenges within the e-business that must be addressed. As discussed earlier, our team must be vigilant in addressing security challenges such as hacking into our systems, software theft, and protecting our software applications. In addition to security issues, there are ethical concerns that must be addressed. Privacy has always been a serious and contentious issue amongst employers and employees. For instance, computer monitoring is considered by many personnel to be an infringement on the employee’s privacy and shouldn’t be allowed. However, employers argue that since the computer is a company owned resource, they should be allowed to monitor the work of their employer. In reality, many employers are concerned as to whether or not the employee is actually working and producing or just goofing off and surfing the internet. Utilizing IT equipment at work has been mentioned to cause a variety of health issues which management must address. For example, if your job consists of being in front of a computer all day, some of the health problems you may experience damage to the neck and arm muscles, eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, job stress, poor posture and poor circulation. Resolutions to some of these health concerns can be through the science of ergonomics. The objective of ergonomics is to devise and create safe health work conditions with the goal of decreasing health issues and increasing employee morale and work productivity. If  Magnum Enterprises has customers internationally, they also may be faced with political, geo-economic and cultural challenges. From a political concern, there are countries that have restrictions regulating or denying the transfer of data across their borders which can potentially result in customers or businesses from having to pay import or export fees. Geo-economic concerns involve issues such as identifying and locating personnel with IT skills to work at remote sites and communicating with personnel across all 24 time zones. Cultural challenges â€Å"include differences in languages, cultural interests, religions, customs, social attitudes, and political philosophies†. For example, if Magnum Enterprises was conducting a business transaction via a Video Teleconference it would be disrespectful to look them in the eye when introducing yourself. Before meeting an international customer, it would prudent to review their customs and courtesies to ensure a smooth business relationship. Improving Magnum’s e-business performance faces several challenges. Consulting with key department personnel from operations, marketing, finance and legal as well as addressing technical and management obstacles will assist me in charting a plan to put our e-business on the right track towards success.

Important Countries in Ancient History